John Gillespie Magee, Jr., is the pilot and poet who composed aviation's most famous and greatest poem, “High Flight”. His story, one of bravery and self-sacrifice, is rarely told, even if his poem is well known. It reads:

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 nor 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.

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KEY DOCUMENTS FEATURED IN VIDEO:

Letter from Sqn Commander to Magee's Parents
http://fly.historicwings.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Letter-from-Sqn-Cmdr-to-Father-of-Magee-2358941_20-768x937.jpg

Original Copy of the Poem Sent to Magee's Parents
http://fly.historicwings.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/LOC-Original-Poem-on-the-Back-of-the-Letter-768x967.jpg


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Thomas Van Hare has published over 450 articles on aviation history since 1997 at Historic Wings - http://www.historicwings.com/. He is an author, including along with Matt Lawrence, of the bestselling book, "Betrayal: Clinton, Castro & the Cuban Five", about the shootdown of Brothers to the Rescue in 1996. He serves as the Director of the Defense Technology Innovation Program LLC, a public-private partnership with the Pentagon that scouts, identifies, and brings breakthrough technologies for potential military use. He is a former three-time White House appointee working in foreign policy, national security, and defense, a former CEO of an airline and flew as a command pilot and mission director on search and rescue missions, saving over 3,000 lives.

Betrayal: Clinton, Castro & the Cuban Five has been published in English and Spanish and is available at: https://www.amazon.com/BETRAYAL-Clinton-Castro-Cuban-Five-ebook/dp/B004774MUQ/ref=as_sl_pc_tf_til?tag=historicwingscom&linkCode=w00&linkId=70031825f8ff27a6bc2086be97c673f4&creativeASIN=B004774MUQ

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Story Research and Photo Credits: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) + U.S. Navy National Museum of Naval Aviation + US Air Force + US Navy + MilitaryPatches.com + Graham Watts + Gerry Metzler + Farish Hamka + National Museum of the United States Air Force + Ciar + NBC + US Navy National Museum of Naval Aviation + John Glenn Archives, The Ohio State University + Johnsville Centrifuge & Science Museum


Music Credits: First Light - Atch https://soundcloud.com/atch-music
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