John Young
R.I.P. MSgt Russ Rowley! Thank for service and thank you for welcoming and enriching my son Seth's life!
Russ, always the true airman, you embodied the American Airman's mission to Fly, Fight, and Win!
Now you have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward you'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,
you've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
Your eager craft through footless halls of air ....
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
you've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or even eagle flew—
And, while with silent lifting mind you've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
You've now put out your hand, and touched the face of God.