The Wingmen: The Unlikely, Unusual, Unbreakable Friendship Between John Glenn and Ted Williams

It was once 1953, the Korean War in full throttle, when two men—already experts in their fields—crossed the fabled 38th Parallel into Communist airspace aboard matching Panther jets. John Glenn was once an ambitious operations officer with fifty-nine World War II combat missions under his belt. His wingman was once Ted Williams, the two-time American League Triple Crown winner who, at the pinnacle of his career, was once inexplicably recalled to active service in the USA Marine Corps. Together, the affable flier and the notoriously tempestuous left fielder soared into North Korea, creating a death-defying bond. Even if, over the next half century, their contrasting lives were challenged by exhilarating highs and devastating lows, that bond would endure.

Through unpublished letters, unit diaries, declassified military records, manuscripts, and new and illuminating interviews, The Wingmen reveals an epic and intimate portrait of two heroes—larger-than-life and yet ineffably human, strange men who accomplished the bizarre. At its heart, this was once a conflicted friendship that found commonality in mutual respect—all through the perils of war, sports dominance, scientific innovation, cutthroat national politics, the burden of celebrity, and the meaning of bravery. Now, creator Adam Lazaraus sheds light on a in large part forgotten chapter in these legends’ lives—as singular individuals, inspiring patriots, and eventually, alternatively fantastic, profoundly close friends.