Tim Rader was born on December 24, 1922, in Howard, Kansas. He enlisted in the Aviation Cadet Program of the U.S. Army Air Forces on April 8, 1942, and was commissioned a 2d Lt and awarded his pilot wings on April 22, 1943. After completing fighter upgrade training and reconnaissance training, Lt Rader deployed to France as an F-6 Mustang pilot with the 111th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron in France in September 1944. He was credited with the destruction of 6.5 enemy fighters in aerial combat between February and April 1945, and he rotated back to the United States after the war ended. Capt Rader remained in the Air Force after the war, and was serving as an F-80 Shooting Star pilot with the 49th Fighter Bomber Group in Japan when he was killed in an aircraft accident on April 3, 1950. Tim Rader was buried at the Grace Lawn Cemetery in Howard, Kansas.

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.