When a Soviet SA-2 SAM missile downed Major Anderson’s reconnaissance plane on October 27, 1962, he became the only official, military causality of the Cuban Missile Crisis. As a result of the ultimate sacrifice made by Major Anderson, he was the first Air Force officer to receive the newly commissioned medal, the “Air Force Cross”, established in 1960. This second highest military medal was awarded posthumously to his family in 1962. Major Anderson attended Greenville High School, and received his degree from Clemson College (as it was then known). Clemson University (todays name) has an ROTC program named in honor of Major Anderson, and the members come to Greenville once a year to wash the F-86 Sabre Jet located at the Memorial site.
The nickname of this cache, “High Flight”, is from a poem, of the same name, composed by John G. Magee Jr., an American, in late 1941, while serving with the Royal Canadian Air Force. Pilot Officer Magee was killed on December 11, 1941, when his Spitfire airplane collided with another plane over England. He crashed to his death three months after writing the poem, and just four days after the United States was attacked at Pearl Harbor. He was 19 years of age at the time. The poem has always been popular with those in aviation, but became more popular after it was associated and used in conjunction with the Challenger tragedy. We would like to share this poem with those that may not be familiar it, or those that may wish to read it again.
“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, up the long, delirious burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept 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.
John Gillespie Magee, Jr.
We hope you will enjoy your visit to this virtual cache site, and in closing, wish to acknowledge that tens of thousands have made the supreme sacrifice, and these men are but two, of that elite group.
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