Alex Sears was born on September 22, 1922, in Abilene, Texas. He enlisted in the Aviation Cadet Program of the U.S. Army Air Forces on February 3, 1943, and was commissioned a 2d Lt and awarded his pilot wings at Eagle Pass, Texas, on December 5, 1943. After completing fighter training, he was assigned to the 487th Fighter Squadron of the 352nd Fighter Group in England in April 1944. Capt Sears was credited with the destruction of 5 enemy aircraft in aerial combat plus 1 on the ground while strafing enemy airfields before the war ended. After the war, he served as an instructor pilot and he was killed while flying a T-6 Texan with the 3545th Pilot Training Wing at Goodfellow AFB, Texas, on October 22, 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.