Jake Garn coming to Handcart Days

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BOUNTIFUL — Former U.S. Senator and astronaut Jake Garn is going to lead the 2009 Bountiful Handcart Days parade.

He is grand marshal of what is billed as Utah’s second largest Pioneer Day parade. It starts at 6 p.m. on July 23, will run along Bountiful’s Main Street starting at the roundabout at 1500 South Main and heading north to 400 North and Bountiful City Park.

Garn served in the U.S. Senate for 18 years, but is best known for orbiting the earth 109 times as a payload specialist on the crew of the space shuttle Discovery for a week in 1985. He traveled more than 2.5 million miles, logging more than 167 hours in space.

The former senator served in the U.S. Navy as a pilot and also in the Utah Air National Guard as a pilot, and retired as a full colonel 30 years ago. He has flown more than 10,000 hours in military and private civilian aircraft, information from NASA indicates.

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