In honor of those who serve…and, for me, in memory of my aviation friends I lost during my Air Force career:
Steve “Sunny” Sundstrom, F-16 pilot
Doug Bradt, F-111E pilot
Greg “Maniac” Martineac, F-16 pilot
Amy Svoboda, A-10 pilot
Craig Button, A-10 pilot
And their poem…
High Flight by John Gillespie Magee, Jr
Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of — wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence.
Hov’ring there, I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air. . . .
Up, up the long, delirious burning blue I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or ever eagle flew — And, while with silent, lifting mind I’ve trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.
