FORT MYER, Va. (AP) -- Astronaut, senator and former fighter pilot John Glenn, a veteran of two wars and 149 combat missions, was awarded the Defense Department's highest civilian honor Friday.
"We express our gratitude to a true American hero who, from the streets of a small Ohio town to the high heavens above, has indeed lived a life of courage, integrity, judgment and dedication," said Defense Secretary William Cohen, who gave the 77-year-old Glenn the Medal for Distinguished Public Service.Cohen honored Annie Glenn, the senator's wife of 56 years, with the Department of Defense Medal for Outstanding Public Service, calling her "a hero in her own right" and praising her for overcoming a stammer to become a "a strong voice for children, speech and communications, and the disabled."
The military ceremony featured a full color guard, 50 state flags and an honor guard, allowing Glenn and Cohen to inspect troops from every branch of the service.
Glenn himself wore his country's uniform for 23 years, enlisting during World War II and retiring as a lieutenant colonel known to his Korean War flying buddies as "the MiG-mad Marine."
During the last nine days of that conflict he downed three MiGs in what Cohen described as "thunderous dogfights."