Bob Sharp was born on October 25, 1915, in Carthage, Mississippi. After earning a bachelor's degree in chemistry from Millsaps College in Jackson, Mississippi, in 1939, he worked as a chemist for Filtrol Corp in Jackson until entering the Aviation Cadet Program of the U.S. Army Air Forces on January 19, 1942. Sharp was commissioned a 2d Lt and awarded his pilot wings at Craig Field, Alabama, on November 10, 1942, and after completing P-47 Thunderbolt training he was assigned to the 328th Fighter Squadron of the 352nd Fighter Group and deployed to England in July 1943. Capt Sharp was credited with sharing in the destruction of 1 enemy aircraft in aerial combat plus 2.5 on the ground while strafing enemy airfields before he was killed in action over the English Channel on June 9, 1944. Bob Sharp was officially listed as missing in action until he was declared dead on June 10, 1945. He is listed on the Tablets of the Missing at the Cambridge American Cemetery in Cambridge, England.

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.