Country Gal/City Woman: 'High Flight'

"Put out my hand and touched the Face of God."   

Those words that have become the sub-title of this "remembrance" make up the last sentence of the  poem "High Flight" written by John Gillespie Magee, who was killed at the age of 19 while serving with the Royal Canadian Air Force during World War II. Only a few days before his death, he wrote this poem which he mailed to his mom before his last flight.

As one who has flown as the lone passenger in the smallest of Cessna's or with as many passengers as a 747 can hold flying from the Ontario Airport to Des Moines, Iowa, there have been many occasions when I have placed my fingers to the misty window and have felt as close to God as I have ever felt in the pew of a church. At the oh-so-young age of 19, John wrote words that have stirred hearts of every age for lo, these many years.

And for me, they also stirred memories of a young classmate, Emil E. Kluever, Jr. aka "Jack," a country lad of considerable intelligence and looks, spontaneous and energetic enough to be a Yell Leader but quiet enough to be a model student in Study Hall, the High School Teacher's dream come true! Truth be said, I did not know Jack as well as I would have liked in school so he would probably would have told you a different story...but again, this is MY blog, right?

(Over those years of Junior High and High School, I did my usual amount of "inspection," of course; as our friendship developed over the years that followed graduation and sharing a mutual cousin by marriage, you can take it to the bank what I am about to tell you.)

Dale Anderson and I, as Class Officers, (Dick Pagel, Vice President, deceased, always there in spirit) were responsible for entertainment for the 2005 Class Reunion; Dale had cleared it with Jack, living in Las Vegas, to be the featured speaker at the Saturday morning breakfast meeting, sharing some of his experiences as an officer with the U.S.Army. Little did the most of us know just what those "experiences" would be!

A little background information on Jack during the World War II time period in his own words:

"Before graduating, several of us... Dick Pagel, Charlie Smith, myself and others...went to Omaha to enlist in the U.S. Army Air Corps, a branch of the Army/Military. Several were accepted, but I was not...couldn't pass the eye test. After eating many carrots and learning the eye chart, I passed. I was really determined. I had been successful in having my Birth Certificate date changed so that I was 18." 

Jack had previously written in our AHS's 2003 Memoirs titled, "The Way We Are..." that "as long as I could remember, I always wanted to be a pilot like my older brother, Arnold, who received his wings in 1937. (After Basic Training in late 1944, Jack was accepted into the Aviation Cadet Program.) So, when I graduated from Flight Training in Enid, Oklahoma, my brother flew in and pinned on my wings on 27 June 1945."

"Mary Ellen Ehlers (a classmate and now deceased) and I were married in July 1945 and lived in Atlantic until 1949 when we left so that I could attend Auburn University majoring in Electrical Engineering. I was called up to serve in the Korean Police Action in 1951." So continued a career that spanned thirty years and brought fame and distinction to the County Seat of Cass County, Iowa!

Here is where I sat up and took notice during the 2005 AHS Reunion:

"In 1963 NASA requested my Test Pilot services to participate in a Research Program for the Lunar Lander. It was a "fly by wire" free flight vehicle that simulated the last 1500 feet of the landing approach to the moon's surface. (Are you sitting up and taking notice, too?) The Lunar Lander Research Vehicle was powered by one jet engine mounted vertically in a double set of gimbals and 24 rocket motors for attitude control and to provide two lunar G's maneuverability. Our test requirement was to develop a flight envelope, size attitude rockets for minimum fuel burn and to come up with the instruments required for control systems to make successful landings and take-offs on the moon's surface. The program was completed without an incident or accident as a first "fly by wire control system." The LLRV's were used to train the astronauts at NASA Houston. (A far cry from AHS's Wood Shop Class!)

"When Neil Armstrong made the first landing on the moon and chose to do it under manual control versus the automated "hands off" landing, his first words after he landed on the moon were, "Well, I have done this before!" referring to the effectiveness of the simulation of the actual landing on the moon. You heard it here first...not the words so often quoted: "That's one small step for (a) man; one giant leap for mankind." (Personally, I will take Jack's word and not some press release!  The man was involved, for goodness sake!)

Jack, as an Engineer and Research Test Pilot, trained and flew with Gus Grissom, Chuck Yeager, Tom Stafford, Fred Hayes. Jack's official statement that all fixed-wing pilots needed to have helicopter experience in order to fly successfully the Lunar Lander was challenged by pilot Joe Walker who, after much hoopla, conceded that point and went to Florida for training. Thereafter, the astronaut training included learning to fly a helicopter. (This little bit of news was greeted by the townspeople of Atlantic with a lot of "hoopla," and Jack's role in the Space program was assured for posterity...'cause it is on the Internet!)

Jack's last command was at Tooele Army Depot southeast of Great Salt Lake in Utah. It was the Army's largest depot specializing in maintenance overhaul and ammo supply storage and had over 5,000 civilian employees and over 100 military officers and enlisted men. He retired as a Colonel from the U.S. Army in April 1976 having served 30 years.

Jack and his lovely wife of 13 years, Jan, and I met up again over dinner at TGIF in Las Vegas not long ago. As we reminisced over our steaks, sweet potato fries, cole slaw, baked beans, baked potato but no dessert, it seemed like only yesterday that Jack and I were scrambling through the halls towards our next class, not knowing in what direction Life would take us, or through. The metropolis that is now Las Vegas was, in 1943, a dry spot in the desert; Jack's storied military career can be found on the Internet by simply typing in his name on your search engine; and here I sit, 66 years later recalling events that have changed forever how we look at the shimmering harvest moon that hangs over the ripening corn fields near Atlantic, Iowa. 

On April 23, 2011, Jack passed away following a short illness and is mourned and loved by those whose lives he touched...

Jack had often said, "God was my Co-Pilot on every flight I flew." It is fitting we end my version of his story with these words by John Gillespie Magee:

"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 trembling mirth of sun-split clouds
And done 100 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 wind-swept hills with easy grace,
Where never lark, or even eagle flew.

And, while with silent, lifting mind, I trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,

Put out my hand and touched the Face of God."

Read previous Country Gal/City Woman posts:

Country Gal/City Woman: "Roll the Presses!"

Country Gal/City Woman: My Father the Hero