High Flight

[KAV]

Nice one Infinistates.

High Flight gives me the chills.
Its written by John Gillespie Magee and his fate makes it even stronger:

...after graduating from #53 OTU, Magee was assigned to the newly formed No 412 (Fighter) Squadron, RCAF,[1] which was activated at RAF Digby, England, on 30 June 1941. The motto of this squadron was and is Promptus ad vindictam (Latin: "Swift to avenge"). Magee was qualified on and flew the Supermarine Spitfire.
Magee was killed at the age of 19, whilst flying Spitfire VZ-H, serial number AD-291. The aircraft was involved in a mid-air collision with an Airspeed Oxford trainer from RAF Cranwell, flown by Leading Aircraftman Ernest Aubrey. The two aircraft collided in cloud cover at about 400 feet AGL, at 11:30, over the village of Roxholm which lies between RAF Cranwell and RAF Digby, in Lincolnshire.[2] Magee was descending at the time. At the inquiry afterwards a farmer testified that he saw the Spitfire pilot struggling to push back the canopy.[2] The pilot stood up to jump from the plane but was too close to the ground for his parachute to open, and died on impact.[2][3] Magee is buried at Holy Cross, Scopwick Cemetery in Lincolnshire, England.[2][3] On his grave are inscribed the first and last lines from his poem High Flight:
"Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth -
Put out my hand and touched the Face of God."
Part of the official letter to his parents read: "Your son's funeral took place at Scopwick Cemetery, near Digby Aerodrome, at 2:30 P.M. on Saturday, 13 December 1941, the service being conducted by Flight Lieutenant S. K. Belton, the Canadian padre of this Station. He was accorded full Service Honours, the coffin being carried by pilots of his own Squadron."
His biography was written by Hermann Hagedorn in the 1942 book: 'Sunward I've Climbed, The Story of John Magee, Poet and Soldier, 1922–1941.'