Fletcher Adams was born on August 2, 1921, in Ida, Louisiana. He enlisted in the Louisiana National Guard on December 23, 1940, and then the U.S. Army Reserve in December 1941. Adams went on active duty to begin the Aviation Cadet Program in the U.S. Army Air Forces in March 1942, and he was awarded his pilot wings and commissioned a 2d Lt in the Army Air Forces at Luke Field, Arizona, on March 10, 1943. After completing P-39 Airacobra training, Lt Adams was assigned to the 362nd Fighter Squadron of the 357th Fighter Group, and went with the Group to England in November 1943. After transitioning to the P-51 Mustang, he was credited with the destruction of 9 enemy aircraft in aerial combat between February and May 1944, and was shot down over Germany on May 30, 1944. Capt Adams was captured and taken as a Prisoner of War by the Germans on May 30, but was executed the same day. His remains were originally recovered and buried at the Ardennes American Cemetery in Neupré, Belgium, in 1945, and he was repatriated in 1949 and then buried at Bethsaida Cemetery in Ida, Louisiana. His widow, Mary Aline Yancy Adams (1921-2018) is buried beside him.

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.