Music to Fly By

摘要

The official air force song was conceived in 1939, after Liberty magazine publicized a $1,000 prize for "a spirited, enduring musical composition" to give the Air Force predecessor, the Army Air Corps, a song of its own. Entries poured in from across the nation, penned by widows, bureaucrats, mechanics, waitresses, prison inmates, soldiers, and retirees, but the results were disappointing. "We had received over 700 manuscripts and only a few were worth even taking to musical experts that we had decided to consult," lamented Mildred Yount, chair of the song selection committee and wife of Army Air Corps General Barton Yount.