John Stearns was born on September 22, 1921, in Barry, Illinois. He enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Forces on September 30, 1942, and entered the Aviation Cadet Program in April 1943. Stearns was commissioned a 2d Lt and awarded his pilot wings at Williams Field, Arizona, on February 8, 1944, and after completing P-51 Mustang training he was assigned to the 486th Fighter Squadron of the 352nd Fighter Group in England in July 1944. Lt Stearns was credited with the destruction of 1.5 enemy aircraft in aerial combat before the war ended, and he remained with the occupation forces in Germany after the war. After returning to the U.S. he served with the 31st Fighter Wing at Turner AFB, Georgia, until leaving active duty on March 16, 1948. John Stearns died on May 21, 1998.

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.