This early awareness of the relationship between death and life, reinforced by his combat experiences in early adulthood, contributed to his later poetic theme of living the Energized Life.
Dickey's high-school interests centered on athletics, particularly football and track. After graduating from North Fulton High in 1941, he attended Darlington School in Rome, Georgia, from 1941 to 1942. In the fall of 1942 he entered Clemson A & M (now Clemson University) where he played tailback on the freshman football squad, but at the end of his first semester he enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps. From 1943 to 1945 he participated in approximately 100 combat missions as a member of the 418th Night Fighter Squadron in the South Pacific.
After the war Dickey enrolled at Vanderbilt University, a change in schools that marked his shift in interest from athletics to academics. At Vanderbilt, Dickey soon came to the attention of English professor Monroe Spears, who recognized his student's literary talent and guided him to major in English and philosophy and minor in astronomy.
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