The United States
Air Force has over 150 careers opportunities. The Air Force recognizes
the value of each individual and is committed to provide the education
and training needed to master the required job skills. The Air Force
is looking for diverse, unique individuals that want to reach their
full potential in life.
High
Flight
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 windswept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or even eagle flew -
And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod
The high untresspassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand and touched the face of God.
Pilot Officer Gillespie Magee
No 412 squadron, RCAF
Killed 11 December 1941
The poem High Flight
was written by World War II. Pilot Officer John Gillespie Magee
Jr, a young fighter pilot.Born to missionary parents in Shanghai
he was an American Citizen. He enlisted the Royal Canadian Air Force
in September 1940. He served overseas with an RCAF Spitfire Squadron
until his death on active service in December, 1941.
His poem, composed in
September 1941, was scribbled on the back of a letter which he mailed
to his mother in Washington. Pilot Officer Magee was killed a few
months later when his Spitfire plane collided with a bomber-pilot
trainer on approach to the airport over Lincolnshire, England. He
was 19 years old.