Earl Lazear was born on July 5, 1921, in Ohio. He enlisted in the Aviation Cadet Program of the U.S. Army Air Forces on November 7, 1941, and was commissioned a 2d Lt and awarded his pilot wings on July 3, 1942. Lt Lazear then served as an instructor pilot with the 496th Flying Training Group before joining the 486th Fighter Squadron of the 352nd Fighter Group in England in June 1944. He was credited with the destruction of 5 enemy aircraft in aerial combat plus 1 probable before the war ended. Earl Lazear left active duty at the end of the war and died on December 4, 1989. He is buried at the Little Lake Cemetery in Santa Fe Springs, California.

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.