High Flight & Airmans Grace


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, 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, the long, delirious, burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or even 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

P/O John Gillespie Magee Jr

This poem was penned
by P/O John Gillespie Magee
Jr, in September 1941. P/O
Magee was killed during active
service with the RCAF on December
11, 1941, when he was 19. He
was an American citizen born in
Shanghai of missionary parents
and educated in Britain's famed
Rugby School. He entered the US
in 1939 and at 18 years won a
scholarship to Yale University.
But he decided to aid the cause
of freedom, he enlisted in the
RCAF in September 1940. He
served with an RCAF Spitfire Sqn
until his death.

Reprinted from the
Handbook for Airforce NCMs.


The Airmans Grace

Lord God of thunderhead and sky
Who places in man the will to fly
To soar beyond man's dwelling place.
You shared with him the eagle's view,
The right to flight as eagles do,
The right to call the clouds his home,
and grateful, through your heavens roam.
May we, assembled here tonight, and all
Who love the thrill of flight
Recall with twofold gratitude
Your gift of wings, your gift of food.
Amen.

This grace is
traditionally
said before all
airforce meals
and gatherings.