Bill Fisher was born on September 23, 1917, in Portland, Oregon. He enlisted in the Oregon National Guard on August 27, 1936, and served until August 12, 1939. After the start of World War II, Fisher enlisted in the U.S. Army Reserve on April 13, 1942, and entered the Aviation Cadet Program of the U.S. Army Air Forces on July 3, 1942. He was commissioned a 2d Lt and awarded his pilot wings on May 20, 1943. Lt Fisher then completed P-47 Thunderbolt training before joining the 377th Fighter Squadron of the 362nd Fighter Group in Europe in July 1943. Between July 5 and August 9, 1944, Capt Fisher was credited with destroying 7 enemy aircraft in aerial combat. He remained in the Army Air Forces after the war, and was killed in a flying accident in an AT-6F Texan near Norristown, Pennsylvania, on March 28, 1947, while serving with the 64th Army Air Force Base Unit at Andrews Field, Maryland.

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.