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.
Ceremony set in Charleston for the late Chuck Yeager herald-dispatch.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from herald-dispatch.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
A hero in the desert: Remembering Chuck Yeager’s Victor Valley days [Daily Press, Victorville, Calif.]
Dec. 14 For one man, the recent death of retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Charles “Chuck” Yeager evoked memories of a time when the legendary pilot worked, lived and played in the Victor Valley.
The decorated hero whose accomplishments include shooting down 13 German planes during World War II, breaking the sound barrier in 1947 and instructing aerospace pilots commanded at George Air Force Base in Victorville.
“Back in the day, people who knew of Col. Yeager treated him like royalty,” said Tom Umphries.
The 74-year-old Umphries was a friend and neighbor when the Yeager family lived near Del Rey Elementary School in Victorville in the late 1950s and early 1960s.