MAJ CHARLES KENNEDY LOVELACE

 

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. John Gillespie Magee, Jr Pilot Officer, Royal Air Force Killed in flight 11 Dec 1941, aged 19 From his crewmate's cousin.

 

Mission Notes The B-57 Canberra bombers of the 8th and 13th Bomb Squadrons were deployed to South Vietnam beginning in late 1964 and undertook a variety of missions including both strike and "pathfinder" missions for other aircraft. On the night of 21/22 June 1965, Captains Charles K. Lovelace, pilot, and William E. Cordero, navigator, launched from Tan Son Nhut Air Base in B-57B tail number 53-3910 for a night flare mission (i.e., a pathfinder mission for other strike aircraft) over North Vietnam's southernmost province in the vicinity of the Lao/NVN border. The B-57B went down and both crewmen were lost. Later in the war their remains were recovered and laid to rest in Section 46 of Arlington National Cemetery, adjacent to the Memorial Amphitheater.

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