Sometimes history gives us little moments that are almost impossible to believe, but they are true. This is one of those.

John Glenn, the American astronaut and politician who died this week at the age of 95, was randomly assigned to fly with Ted Williams during the Korean War. Williams was his wingman.

Vet gave me this: John Glenn & Ted Williams who left @RedSox 2x to serve in WWII & Korea. He was at the height of his career during WWII. pic.twitter.com/KWH8vkB2lw — Francisco Urena 🇺🇸 (@Urena) November 12, 2016

“John Glenn? Oh … could he fly an airplane,” Williams once said in an interview with the Chicago Tribune. “Absolutely fearless. The best I ever saw. It was an honor to fly with him.”

Williams had served in WWII, but during the war in Korea he was called up as a reservist. That’s when he got assigned to Glenn.

“What they did at that time, they teamed up a reservist with a regular to fly together most of the time just because the regular Marine pilots normally had more instrument flying experience and things like that,” Glenn said after Williams’ death. “So Ted and I were scheduled together. Ted flew as my wingman on about half the missions he flew in Korea.”

From Boston.com:

In one especially difficult moment, Williams recalled how Glenn offered advice that helped Williams fly back to base safely. After getting hit by enemy anti-aircraft fire, Williams’s F9F Panther jet was ablaze. Glenn flew next to his wing and pointed up. Flying higher into thinner air, the fire was extinguished, allowing Williams to fly back to base.

Williams even once wrote a column about Glenn, when he became the first man to orbit the earth. In The Boston Globe, Williams wrote: ““This was a man destined for something great; it was an intuitive feeling I had.”