Dixie Amoss was born on July 7, 1922, in Baltimore, Maryland. He enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force in January 1942, and deployed to England in 1943, where he served with an operational training unit flying Supermarine Spitfires. He entered the U.S. Army Air Forces as a Staff Sergeant, and then became a Flight Officer on July 6, 1944. He joined the 38th Fighter Squadron of the 55th Fighter Group in England in August 1944, and was credited with the destruction of 5.5 enemy aircraft in aerial combat between February 1945 and March 21, 1945, when he was shot down and taken as a Prisoner of War. He was also credited with 1.5 enemy aircraft destroyed on the ground while strafing enemy airfields, and one of his air victories was against an Me-262 jet fighter. Lt Amoss was held at Stalag Luft 1 until his POW camp was liberated at the end of the war. He left active duty in November 1945. Dixie Amoss Flew West on July 22, 2011, and his remains were cremated.

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.