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Edwin Jacob Garn (born October 12, 1932) served as
a United States Senate|U.S. Senator representing
Utah from 1974 to 1993.  Garn became the first
member of the United States Congress to fly in
space when he flew aboard the Space Shuttle
Discovery as a payload specialist during NASA
mission STS-51-D (April 12-April 19, 1985). He is
a member of the United States Republican Party.

Born in Richfield, Utah, Garn earned a Bachelor of
Science degree in business and finance from the
University of Utah in 1955.

==Experience==
Senator Garn is a former insurance executive. He
served in the United States Navy as a pilot. He
also served in the Utah Air National Guard as a
pilot and retired as a full Colonel in April 1979.
He has flown more than 10,000 hours in military
and private civilian aircraft.

Prior to his election to the Senate, Garn served
on the Salt Lake City, Utah|Salt Lake City
commission for four years and was elected List of
mayors of Salt Lake City|Mayor in 1971. He was
active in the Utah League of Cities and Towns and
served as President in 1972. In 1974, he was First
Vice President of the National League of Cities
and served as Honorary President in 1975.

Garn was first elected to the Senate in 1974,
succeeding retiring Republican Wallace F.
Bennett|Wallace Bennett. Garn was reelected to a
second term in November 1980, receiving 74% of the
vote, the largest victory in a statewide race in
Utah history.

Senator Garn was chairman of the Senate Banking,
Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee and served on
three subcommittees: Housing and Urban Affairs,
Financial Institutions, and International Finance
and Monetary Policy. He also was a member of the
Senate Appropriations Committee and served as
Chairman of the HUD-Independent Agencies
Subcommittee. He served on four other
Appropriations subcommittees: Energy and Water
Resources, Defense, Military Construction, and
Interior. Senator Garn served as a member of the
Republican leadership from 1979 to 1984 as
Secretary of the Republican Conference.

==Space Flight==
STS-51D was launched from and returned to land at
the Kennedy Space Center, Florida. Its primary
objective was to deploy two communications
satellites, and to perform electrophoresis and
echocardiograph operations in space in addition to
a number of other experiments. At the conclusion
of the mission, Senator Garn had traveled over 2.5
million miles in 108 Earth orbits, logging over
167 hours in space.  His not-atypical bout of
spacesickness during the journey earned him the
nickname "Barfin' Jake" among his Senate
colleagues.

==1988 Controversy==

As reported in the University of Utah Chronicle,
Senator Garn was ill received by the audience of
students at a scheduled debate at the University
of Utah. Third party candidate Mary Zins of the
Socialist Workers Party (United States), made an
impromptu and uninvited appearance; as forum
moderator Ted Wilson, former Mayor of Salt Lake
City, tried to prevent Ms. Zins from taking the
podium, the crowd began to chant "Let her speak!"
and shouted profanities at the flustered senator.
During the rest of the debate, Senator Garn was
constantly heckled and badgered concerning his
support of the Contras in Nicaragua and the
Mujahadeen in Afghanistan.

==References==
*Source:
http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/garn-j.html

== External links ==
*http://www.imno.org/articles.asp?qid=126&sid=18
IMNO Interviews Jake Garn
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City|Mayors of Salt Lake City|before=J. Bracken
Lee|after=Conrad B. Harrison|years=1972 –
1975
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NASA