COLUMBUS, OHIO ? To former Sen. John Glenn, Ted Williams was a great wingman during the Korean War and a pretty good ballplayer, too.

“There was no one more dedicated to this country and more proud to serve his country than Ted Williams,” Glenn said Friday while on vacation in the Chesapeake Bay, hours after hearing of Williams’ death.

Williams, who recently has suffered a series of strokes and congestive heart failure, died Friday in Florida of cardiac arrest. He was 83.

Williams flew with Glenn on about half of his combat missions, protecting his plane from enemy fire.

The former astronaut recalled Williams showed dedication and pursued perfection both as a baseball player and as a fighter pilot.

Soon after he started flying combat missions, Williams’ plane was hit by anti-aircraft fire, Glenn said. The landing gear wouldn’t go down, and he had to crash-land his burning plane.

“Well, obviously that shakes anybody up,” Glenn said. “But he went right back to flying again. He wasn’t going to chicken out on something like that.”

Williams, baseball’s last .400 hitter, left the Boston Red Sox at the end of the 1942 season to enlist as a pilot in World War II. He did not return to the majors until four years later.

He continued to serve as a Marine Reservist and was called to serve what Glenn called “very active” combat duty in Korea in 1952.

“He never complained about that,” Glenn said. “But if he had stayed in baseball, he would have broken even more records than he did.”