IN MEMORIAM

COLUMBIA

Lord, guard and guide those who fly

Through the great spaces in the sky.

Be with them always in the air,

In darkening storms or sunlight fair;

Oh, hear us when we lift our prayer,

For those in peril in the air!


Eternal Father, King of birth,

Who didst create the heaven and earth,

And bid the planets and the sun

Their own appointed orbits run;

O hear us when we seek thy grace

For those who soar through outer space.


And now Columbia's course is run,

Her work for home and country done,

Of all the souls that in her sailed

Let not one life in thee have failed;

But hear from heaven the sailor's cry,

And grant eternal life on high!

The above verses are an amalgam of variations on the Navy Hymn I picked that seem to fit the occasion of the Columbia tragedy this first day of February, 2003, where seven of our best sailed home to God. 

May the brave men and women of the Columbia's last voyage rest in the company of angels, in peace with their Maker, and as a shining example to those of us whose feet are forever bound to Earth.


 

Tribute by Pamela Gayle Smith

"Sixteen Minutes From Home"