John Minor was born on September 1, 1948, in Fort Worth, Texas. He entered the U.S. Military Academy at West Point on July 1, 1966, and was commissioned a 2d Lt in the U.S. Air Force on June 3, 1970. Lt Minor next completed Undergraduate Pilot Training and was awarded his pilot wings at Randolph AFB, Texas, in October 1971, followed by A-37 Dragonfly transition training from October 1971 to January 1972. His first assignment was as an A-37 pilot with the 8th Special Operations Squadron at Bien Hoa AB, South Vietnam, from February 1972 until he was killed in an aircraft accident while returning from a combat mission on March 17, 1972. John Minor was buried at the United States Military Academy Post Cemetery in West Point, New York.

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 windswept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or even eagle flew -
And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod
The high untresspassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand and touched the face of God.