1:34:03
We are gathered here today
because he was taken from us.
1:34:07
Much too soon.
1:34:10
Words are cold comfort when
a young life is cut so short.
1:34:19
But I thought I might read
from a poem I found,
1:34:24
written by a young Canadian flight lieutenant
named John McGee during the war
1:34:30
and found in his locker
after he was shot down.
1:34:34
"Oh, I have slipped the
surly bonds of Earth,
1:34:40
and danced the skies
on laughter-silvered wings.
1:34:45
Sunward I've climbed,
1:34:47
and joined the tumbling mirth
of sun-split clouds --
1:34:52
and done a hundred things
you have not dreamed of --
1:34:56
wheeled and soared and swung
high in the sunlit silence.
1:35:02
Hov'ring there,
I've chased the shouting wind along,
1:35:08
and flung my eager craft
through footless halls of air.
1:35:12
Up, up the long,
delirious burning blue,
1:35:17
I've topped the windswept
heights with easy grace
1:35:21
Where never lark,
or even eagle flew.
1:35:26
And, while with silent, lifting mind
1:35:30
I've trod the high untresspassed
sanctity of space,
1:35:35
Put out my hand,
1:35:40
and touched the face of God."