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John Glenn: The Fighter Pilot Behind The Astronaut

The space pioneer John Glenn has died at the age of 95. He'll be best remembered as an astronaut and a politician but it was his early career as a fighter pilot that set him on the path to become the first American to orbit the earth.

In December 1941, when Japan attacked the US Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, a young John Glenn was quick to abandon his college education and enlist in the US Army Air Corps.

His services weren't however initially needed and so in 1942 he offered himself instead to the United States Navy before transferring to the US Marine Corps.

There he learnt how to fly, first piloting twin-engined Douglas Dakota's before moving to the new Vought F4U Corsairs; a single seat, piston-engined fighter aircraft capable of flying at over 400mph and armed with Browning machine guns.

As the war in the South Pacific escalated he found himself protecting transport routes around the remote Marshall and Gilbert Islands. Flying a total of 59 combat missions notable successes included attacks on Japanese anti-aircraft batteries.

Promoted to the rank of Captain shortly before the end of the war he was shipped to China, conducting sorties to protect coastal cities from the growing reach of Mao's Communist Forces.

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A brief sojourn as a flight instructor at the Amphibious Warfare School in Texas was interrupted by the outbreak of the Korean War. Assigned to the Marines' 311 Squadron, known as the Tomcats, he flew Grumman F9F Panthers.

Equipped with four cannons and capable of flying in excess of 575mph the jet-engined Panther's fly some 78,000 sorties during the war and accounted for the US Navy's first air-to-air kill in the conflict.

Glenn flew 63 of those missions, earning in the process the nickname 'magnet ass' due to his alleged ability to attract and be hit by enemy flak. Legend has it that on two occasions he returned to base with his aircraft peppered with over 250 holes.

Moving on exchange to the US Air Force's 51st Fighter Wing he was handed an F-86 Sabre. With a kill ratio of 10:1 against enemy MiG-15's it was a formidable weapon. John Glenn himself claiming three kills out of 27 missions flown.

For his service in 149 combat missions in two wars, he received the Distinguished Flying Cross on six occasions and the Air Medal with eighteen award stars. It was a record that in part secured Glenn a role in the newly-created NASA's astronaut programme - despite being close to the cut-off age and not having the required university science degree.