Robert Adams was born on April 16, 1920, in Pomeroy, Washington. He enlisted in the Aviation Cadet Program of the U.S. Army Air Forces on January 19, 1942, and was awarded his pilot wings and commissioned a 2d Lt at Luke Field, Arizona, on August 27, 1942. Lt Adams next completed P-39 Airacobra training with the 326th Fighter Squadron of the 328th Fighter Group at Hamilton Field, California, from August to November 1942, followed by service as a P-39 pilot with the 35th Fighter Squadron of the 8th Fighter Group in New Guinea from December 1942 to February 1943. He joined the 80th Fighter Squadron of the 8th Fighter Group in Australia in February 1943, flying the P-38 Lightning and moving with the group to New Guinea in March 1943. Lt Adams was credited with the destruction of 5 enemy aircraft in aerial combat, plus 1 probable and 1 damaged, between May and August 1943. He was declared Missing in Action after failing to return from a mission on September 2, 1943, and he was officially declared dead on December 19, 1945. Lt Adams has a cenotaph at the Pomeroy City Cemetery in Pomeroy, Washington, but his aircraft and remains have never been found.

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.