Their personal lives seemed at odds with each other as well. Williams, meanwhile, saw little of his alcoholic father, Samuel, or his mother, May, who devoted most of her time to raising money for the Salvation Army. It was the start of a rare friendship, although, on the face of it, it seemed as though the two men were never destined to be close.īorn in Cambridge, Ohio, Glenn was the only child of a steadfast Presbyterian couple and raised his own two children, John David and Carolyn Ann, the same way. Although they had never met, Glenn was familiar with his reputation. When he was called up to fly in the Korean War, he asked for the Boston Red Sox legend - and skilled pilot - Ted Williams to be his wingman. Long before his space travels, John Glenn was already an experienced fighter pilot, having served in World War II. “There’s something to be said about a titan who reveres another titan.” Ted Williams poses atop an airplane at a Marine air base in Korea in 1953.

They truly admired each other,” writes Lazarus.

In “The Wingmen: The Unlikely, Unusual, Unbreakable Friendship between John Glenn and Ted Williams” (Kensington), author Adam Lazarus charts the remarkable bond between two American icons who built a deep friendship despite coming from wildly different backgrounds and outlooks. Now aged 80 and wheelchair-bound from a broken hip and leg and the effects of three strokes, Williams was nevertheless there - just so he could see Glenn make history yet again.Īs Discovery broke free from Launchpad 39B and, as it soared into the Florida sky, Williams rose up, shouting: “That’s my friend!” Looking on at NASA’s Saturn V Center was a glut of celebrities, including world heavyweight boxing champion Evander Holyfield, Tom Hanks, Leonardo DiCaprio, and the lead singer of Aerosmith, Steven Tyler.īut there was one VIP everyone wanted to talk to - Boston Red Sox baseball legend Ted Williams. Now the astronaut, war hero, and Democratic senator from Ohio was about to become the oldest person ever to go into space. On board was 77-year-old John Glenn, who had become the first man to orbit the Earth in the 1962 Friendship 7 mission.

29, 1998, the space shuttle Discovery took off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center for its 25 th trip into space. Russell Crowe recalls chance encounter with Sinéad O’Connor in moving tribute: ‘Oh, it’s you Russell’Īt 2:19 p.m.

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