Ernest Ambort was born on November 7, 1922, in Little Rock, Arkansas. He enlisted in the Aviation Cadet Program of the U.S. Army Air Forces on September 17, 1942, and was commissioned a 2d Lt and awarded his pilot wings at Williams Field, Arizona, on January 7, 1944. After completing P-38 Lightning training, he was assigned to the 9th Fighter Squadron of the 49th Fighter Group in the Dutch East Indies in August 1944, and was credited with destroying 5 enemy aircraft in aerial combat plus 1 damaged before returning to the U.S. in September 1945. Lt Ambort left active duty on February 3, 1946, and served with the 154th Fighter Squadron of the Arkansas Air National Guard until being reactivated during the Korean War. He flew with the 6147th Tactical Control Group in Korea from 1951 to 1952, and left active duty at the end of the war. Ernest Ambort died on November 17, 1981, and was buried at the Little Rock National Cemetery in Little Rock, Arkansas.

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.