John Gillespie Magee Jr

Pilot Officer Gillespie Magee
No 412 squadron, RCAF
Killed 1941Dec11

During the desperate days of the Battle of Britain, hundreds of Americans crossed the border into Canada to enlist with the Royal Canadian Air Force. Knowingly breaking the law, but with the tacit approval of the then still officially neutral United States Government, they volunteered to fight the Nazis.

John Gillespie Magee Jr was one such American. Born in Shanghai, China, in 1922 to an English mother and a Scotch-Irish-American father, Magee was 18 years old when he entered flight training. Within the year, he was sent to England and posted to the newly formed 412th Fighter Squadron, RCAF, which was activated at Digby, England, on 30 June 1941. He was qualified on and flew the Supermarine Spitfire.

Flying fighter sweeps over France and air defense over England against the German Luftwaffe, he rose to the rank of Pilot Officer.

On 3 September 1941, Magee flew a high altitude (30,000 feet) test flight in a newer model of the Spitfire V. As he orbited and climbed upward, he was struck with the inspiration of a poem - "To touch the face of God."

Once back on the ground, he wrote a letter to his parents. In it he commented,

I am enclosing a verse I wrote the other day. It started at 30,000 feet, and was finished soon after I landed.

On the back of the letter, he jotted down his poem, High Flight.

Just three months later, on 11 December 1941 (and only three days after the US entered the war), Pilot Officer John Gillespie Magee Jr was killed. The Spitfire V he was flying, VZ-H, collided with an Oxford Trainer from Cranwell Airfield flown by one Ernest Aubrey. The mid-air happened over the village of Roxholm which lies between RAF Cranwell and RAF Digby, in the county of Lincolnshire at about 400 feet AGL at 11:30. John was descending in the clouds. At the enquiry a farmer testified that he saw the Spitfire pilot struggle to push back the canopy. The pilot, he said, finally stood up to jump from the plane. John, however, was too close to the ground for his parachute to open. He died instantly. He was 19 years old.

Part of the official letter to his parents read,

Your son's funeral took place at Scopwick Cemetery, near Digby Aerodrome, at 2:30 PM on Saturday, 13th December, 1941, the service being conducted by Flight Lieutenant S. K. Belton, the Canadian padre of this Station. He was accorded full Service Honors, the coffin being carried by pilots of his own Squadron.

Ronald Reagan, addressing NASA employees following the tragic loss of the Challenger 7 crew on STS-51L, used the poem in a well-remembered line:

We shall never forget them nor the last time we saw them as they prepared for their mission, waved good-bye, and slipped the surly bonds of Earth to touch the face of God.

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poem High Flight

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth ¹
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings; ²
Sunward I've climbed ³, and joined the tumbling mirth ⁴
Of sun-split clouds ⁵ - and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of ⁶ - wheeled and soared and swung ⁷
High in the sunlit silence ⁸. Hov'ring there ⁹
I've chased the shouting wind along ¹⁰, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air. ¹¹
Up, up the long delirious, burning blue, ¹²
I've topped the windswept heights ¹³ with easy grace
Where never lark, or even eagle flew - ¹⁴
And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod
The high untresspassed sanctity of space, ¹⁵
Put out my hand and touched the face of God. ¹⁶
- John Gillespie Magee Jr

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Supplemental

1. Pilots must ensure that all surly bonds have been slipped entirely before aircraft taxi or flight is attempted.
   
2. During periods of sky-dancing, crew and passengers must keep seatbelts/shoulder-harnesses secured.
   
3. Sunward climbs must not be attempted above the aircraft service-ceiling.
   
4. Passenger aircraft are prohibited from joining the tumbling mirth.
   
5. Pilots flying through sun-split clouds under visual conditions must comply with applicable minimum clearances.
   
6. These hundred things must not be performed in front of FAA inspectors.
   
7. Wheeling, soaring, and swinging should not be attempted except in aircraft rated for such activities and within utility-class weight limits.
   
8. Be advised that sunlit silence will occur only when a stall is imminent or engine malfunction has occurred.
   
9. "Hov'ring there" will constitute a highly reliable signal that a stall has occurred.
   
10. Forecasts of shouting winds are available from the local weather station. Encounters with unexpected shouting winds should be reported.
    
11. Pilots flinging eager craft through footless halls of air are reminded that they alone are responsible for maintaining separation from other eager craft.
    
12. Should any crewmember or passenger experience delirium while in the burning blue, an Irregularity Report is required upon flight termination.
    
13. Windswept heights will be topped by a minimum of 1,000 feet to maintain minimum visual separation.
    
14. Aircraft engine ingestion of, or impact with, larks or eagles must be reported to the FAA and the appropriate maintenance facility.
    
15. Aircraft operating in the high untrespassed sanctity of space must maintain radio communications regardless of meteorological conditions and visibility.
    
16. Pilots and passengers are reminded that opening doors or windows in order to touch the face of God will result in loss of cabin pressure.

Kiss The Flag

It was a big holiday and I had volunteered
to help the local school kids when the time was near
for the afternoon speeches on the city park lawn –
I was setting up chairs for the folks to sit on.

There was a platform up front and some bleachers in the back,
with folding chairs in the middle and a little snack shack
set up by the bleachers with hot dogs and pop,
and a sign that said, "Little League Dogs" on the top.

Across the back of the platform, about twenty feet wide,
Were thirteen U.S. Flags, lined up side by side –
Twenty feet straight across full of red, white and blue,
A solid rainbow of colors with the stars shooting through.

I just grinned at those flags in the bright summer sun
and felt the pride in my heart for the things we had done
in the name of our country and the things we hold dear,
and then I noticed a man climb the steps and walk near
to the flags – he reached out and took hold of the stripes,
and felt the cloth in his hand, and kissed the red, and the white.

He walked the twenty feet in silence and never saw that I was there.
I watched him touch a couple more, and he seemed to say a prayer.
Then he walked on down the other side and disappeared from view
and never said a word to me, but all too clear, I knew –

Kiss the flag for a fallen hero, touch the flag and remember a Vet.
Feel the spirit of those souls who gave their all to pay our debt.
Freedom isn’t free you know, folks say that all the time,
but it’s good to stop and think about the facts behind that rhyme.

Someone has to pay the price, ‘cause it really isn’t free.
The rights to say the things you think, and to be what you can be
were purchased with the sacrifices made for you and me.
Now you and I must pay the price to keep this nation free.

We pay it with respect for those brave troops who go to war,
and with vigilance, against the fears that spread within our shores –
the fear to rock the comfort boat, and of those who rationalize
that we don’t need to stand and fight – we all can compromise.

There is no way to compromise the payments on that debt.
Kiss the flag for a fallen hero, touch the flag to thank a vet.
Then stand and join together, keeping always in your heart
the spirit of those souls gone by, so you can do your part.

- Duke Naughton

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