Glinka was born on 12 December 1917 in the village of Aleksandrov Dar, located within present-day Kryvyi Rih.

In February 1939 he graduated from the Kachin Military Aviation School and was assigned to a fighter regiment based in Baku.

He also saw action on the Transcaucasian and Ukrainian fronts, seeing further aerial combat both defensive and offensive operations of Kuban, Donbass, Lvov-Sandomierz, Sandomierz–Silesian, Lower Silesian, Berlin, and Prague.

He was wounded again on 16 September 1943 on a mission to bomb an enemy airfield after a fragment from an explosive tore through his leg.

[2] On 21 April 1943 he was awarded his first gold star, having been nominated for the title on the first day of the month for shooting down 15 enemy aircraft and flying 146 sorties.