Aurora, dancing with the stars. Astronauts in the audience.

Aurora, dancing with the stars. Astronauts in the audience.: Aurora, dancing with the stars. Astronauts in the audience.
Wow! Very beautiful and our protection from the sun.

HIGH FLIGHT

                        

                                          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 wind-swept heights with easy grace

                                           Where never lark, or 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.



                                            — John Gillespie Magee, Jr.

This picture was taken in May, 1961 at Barksdale AFB in Bossier City, La.
Dr. Wernher von Braun is on the left, I am in the middle and my friend, A.W. is on the right.
A. W. and I were in High School R.O.T.C. at Byrd H.S. in Shreveport, La.

He was an inspiration to all of us and one of the reasons that after college, I came to work on the Apollo Program.