General Chuck Yeager turns 95

 

Retired Brigadier General and West Virginia native Chuck Yeager turned 95 on Tuesday. The general tweeted the milestone.

Seems it meant as much to the band as it did to the general.

Yeager was born in Myra, West Virginia before his family moved to Hamlin where he grew up. He graduated from Hamlin High School.  Yeager referred to his upbringing as normal.  He played sports and was in the band–like everybody else.

Yeager left home for World War II and  ended up in the Army Air Corps originally as a mechanic.

“I don’t know why I chose the Army over the Navy or the Marines,” Yeager once noted in an interview with MetroNews. “I guess the Army recruiter did a better job.”

He started out working on planes and was proficient in the job because of his experience working with his father on pumps in the West Virginia oil and natural gas fields. Eventually though, he wanted to fly and when he got his chance, he made the most of it.

He would go on to be an Ace fighter pilot in Word War II. He then became a career military man with the U.S. Air Force which formed after the war. He worked as a test pilot and would become a household name when he became the first man to break the sound barrier in 1947 piloting the Bell X-1 nicknamed “Glamorous Glennis.” The plane was named after his late wife.

Today, Yeager makes his home in California not far from Edwards Air Force Base. He has developed quite a following on Twitter with no-nonsense replies to most questions.

 

If you’re wondering about his exploits, the General’s standard answer is to read his autobiography, “Yeager.”





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