Archive for December 18th, 2005

18 Dec 2005 Flight
 |  Category: David, Flying  | 55 Comments

David Lee Fielding

May 30, 1967 – December 18, 2005

David in his dress uniform
(Photo: November 2001)

Lieutenant Colonel David Fielding
Squadron Commander
Mount Pocono Composite Squadron 207, Civil Air Patrol

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 untrespassed sanctity of space
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

–RCAF Flight Lt. John Gillespie Magee Jr.


David on a happy day

David, looking cheerful

Another World

How glorious, these blazing heights
Above the weather’s fickle sway–

Where I, with metal wings outspread,
Surpassed the reckless dragonfly:
As morning fringed the clouds in red,
I chased the dawn across the sky.
I traced the southward gusts that blow
The birds of summer on their way,
A conflagration, there below,
Of autumn colours on display.

With such delight as quite exceeds
The clumsy scratchings of my pen,
In mad pursuit of daring deeds,
I burst above the clouds, and then,
With boyish mischief on my mind,
I dove and spun and banked and whirled;
And there, in smoky letters, signed
My name upon another world.

for David