Clint Burdick was born on July 26, 1924, in Brooklyn, New York. He enlisted in the Aviation Cadet Program of the U.S. Army Air Forces on October 21, 1942, and was commissioned a 2d Lt and awarded his pilot wings at Foster Field, Texas, on March 12, 1944. After completing P-47 Thunderbolt training, Lt Burdick joined the 361st Fighter Squadron of the 356th Fighter Group in England in September 1944, where he soon transitioned into the P-51 Mustang. Between December 1944 and February 1945 he was credited with the destruction of 5.5 enemy aircraft in aerial combat plus 3 damaged and 1 on the ground while strafing an enemy airfield. He then returned to the U.S. and was discharged in 1946. Clint then attended Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Aeronautical Engineering in 1950 and a Masters degree in Aeronautical Engineering in 1952. He worked in the aviation and electronics industry until retiring in 1989. His father, Howard Burdick, was credited with the destruction of 7 enemy aircraft in aerial combat during World War I, making them the only father and son aces in U.S. Military History. Clint Burdick died on February 17, 2013.

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.