John Glenn by Michael Burgan & Robert S. Brown

Author:Michael Burgan & Robert S. Brown
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: SOC035000
Publisher: Aladdin
Published: 2000-03-11T05:00:00+00:00

Airborne at Last

John’s senior year passed quickly, and in the fall of 1939 he entered Muskingum College. To save money, John lived at home. Annie was already at the school, studying music. Their relationship continued to grow, and they talked about marriage. At school, John decided to study chemistry. He also went out for the football team. But as his first year went on, John paid more attention to events on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.

Germany was now ruled by Adolf Hitler, the brutal leader of the Nazi Party. Hitler and his Nazi followers had taken away the legal rights of Germany’s Jewish citizens. Now Hitler wanted to rule most of Europe. On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland. The invasion drew Great Britain and France into a war against Germany. The Second World War had begun.

By mid-1940, Germany controlled France and most of Western Europe. At the end of the summer, the Germans launched bombing raids on Great Britain. When John returned to school that fall, he read about the heroic flights of Great Britain’s pilots in the Royal Air Force, or RAF.

“Did you see today’s paper?” John asked his friend Carl Anker.

“You mean the baseball scores from last night?”

“Carl—I mean the war. The Battle of Britain! The British planes shot down sixty German bombers. Can’t you imagine being in one of those RAF Spitfires, tangling with a Nazi plane?”

“Be careful what you wish for, John. America could still get sucked into this war, you know. You could find yourself behind the controls of a fighter yet.”

“I don’t know, Carl,” John said. “A lot of people around here want us to stay out. Look at Lindbergh—he says America shouldn’t get involved.”

John had read that his old hero, Charles “Lucky Lindy” Lindbergh, believed Americans had no business fighting in Europe. But as the war went on, John wondered how long the United States could stay neutral. Most people seemed to back the British. If the country did go to war, John knew he would do his part, just as his father had in 1918.

One day early in 1941, John and Carl headed for a class in the science building. They saw a group of students crowding around a bulletin board.

“What’s up?” John asked the boy in front of him.

“It’s some pilot training course.”

John’s face lit up. “Here? In New Concord?”

“Nah,” the boy replied. “But not too far away.”

“Does it cost much?”

“Get this,” the boy said. “It’s free—if you qualify. The federal government’s paying for it.”

John couldn’t believe it. He politely nudged his way through the crowd so he could read the notice.

“What’s it say?” Carl called to him from the rear.

“It’s all true,” John shouted back. “The government will pay for classes and flight lessons. If you pass the course, you get your pilot’s license.”

“Are you gonna do it?” Carl asked.

John smiled. “Are you kidding?”

That night at dinner, John squirmed in his chair, waiting to tell his parents the news. For years, the Glenns had always done the same thing at dinner.

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