Posted Friday, February 5, 2021 Feb 5, 2021 | By John Grimaldi | 7 Comments7
Before there was a U.S. Space Force, there was a U.S. Air Force and before that there was the Army Air Corps and a genuine American hero by the name of Chuck Yeager. He passed away on December 7, Pearl Harbor Day, with not enough fanfare. Oh, there were news reports about his death at the age of 97, but not enough of a sendoff for someone who did what he did with his life. Perhaps it was because the COVID crisis was taking up so much of the media’s time; or maybe it was because it’s not in fashion these days to celebrate the accomplishments of daring, gallant, stout-hearted men like Brigadier General Yeager.
Vice President remembers West Virginia aviation legend Chuck Yeager as an inspiration By
January 15, 2021 - 12:52 pm
Yeager in front of the Bell X-1, which, as with all of the aircraft assigned to him, he named Glamorous Glennis after his wife.
Americans, including Vice President Mike Pence, today remembered a West Virginia legend whose many legendary accomplishments can only be summed up with one phrase, “The Right Stuff.”
“The life of General Chuck Yeager will ever inspire,” Pence said during a memorial service in Charleston.
His place in history was secured in 1947 when he became the first pilot to blow past the speed of sound. Yeager’s daring and understated swagger personified “The Right Stuff” associated with the test pilots who followed in his footsteps to become the first astronauts in the American space program. That phrase was the title of the Tom Wolfe historic novel and 1983 biopic that traced Yeager’s inspiration.
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There was no warning when Chuck Yeager indulged in a moment of sentimentality after we landed one day in 2000 at San Antonio’s Stinson Municipal Airport.
As we taxied back in a P-51 Mustang, he spoke of his late wife, Glennis, saying he didn’t think he’d ever find anyone like her again.
In the couple of years I’d known the retired brigadier general a living American legend Yeager had never said anything so personal.
Getting personal wasn’t his way. Charles Elwood Yeager, who died on Dec. 7 at 97, had a crusty exterior.
Before He Was a Test Pilot, Chuck Yeager Was a WWII Legend
Heroic WWII fighter ace, jet pioneer and retired U.S. Air Force Maj. Gen. Chuck Yeager speaks about his experiences during his visit to Camp Buehring, Kuwait on April 12, 2012. (Raymond Drumsta/U.S. Army)
13 Dec 2020
The term legend suffers from overuse, but how else to describe Chuck Yeager?
The retired Air Force brigadier general, who died Monday at age 97, had a permanent eye twinkle and crinkly grin, coupled with a raspy voice right out of the West Virginia hollows, that only lent to his fighter jock aura.
When he chose to, Yeager also had a direct and self-effacing way of speaking about his exploits that made the hero-worshippers he attracted eager for more.