"What was that feeling? Why it was the gentle slither of the mantle of soldierly glory sliding off one's shoulders!- and the cooling effect of the oceans of tears drying up!The single-combat warriors war had been removed. They would continue to be honored and men would continue to be awed by their courage; but the day when an astronaut could parade up broadway while traffic policemen wept in the intersections was no more. Never again would an astronaut be perceived as a protector of the people, risking his life to do battle in the heavens. Not even the first american to walk on the moon would ever know the outpouring of a people's most primal emotions that Shepard, Cooper and above all, Glenn had known. The era of America's first single-combat warriors had come, and it had gone, perhaps never to be relived." -Tom Wolfe, The Right Stuff