Tommy Molland was born on May 7, 1919, in Chaffee, North Dakota. He enlisted in the Aviation Cadet Program of the U.S. Army Air Forces on February 26, 1942, and was commissioned a 2d Lt and awarded his pilot wings at Moore Field, Texas, on November 10, 1942. Lt Molland attended Replacement Pilot Training with the 329th Fighter Squadron and then deployed to Europe in April 1943, joining the 308th Fighter Squadron of the 31st Fighter Group in Sicily in July 1943. Major Molland was credited with the destruction of 10.5 enemy aircraft in aerial combat, plus 1 probable, between January and August 1944, while flying Supermarine Spitfires and P-51 Mustangs. He served as Commander of the 308th Fighter Squadron from July to December 1944, and then returned to the United States where he served as an instructor pilot at Luke Field, Arizona. At the beginning of the Korean War, Lt Col Molland deployed to South Korea in July 1950, and served as an Air Liaison Officer with the U.S. Army's 1st Cavalry Division, and then served as Commander of the 39th Fighter Squadron in South Korea from March to April 1951. His final assignment was with the 8th Fighter-Bomber Squadron of the 49th Fighter-Bomber Group in South Korea from April 1951 until he was killed after returning from a mission on May 16, 1951. Lt Col Molland was buried at Arlington National Cemetery on December 20, 1951.

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.