Yeager

I was at Albrook Field in the Canal Zone 1952-55, when our
fledgling Air Force decided to host a Central and South
American ' good will ' tour centered around the AF's Thunderbird
Team of F-86s -- and one Chuck Yeager -- who was the AF's renowned
test pilot. The Caribbean Air Command was to be on-site escort
for the tour. All of our staff that could be spared were assigned
duties as well as escorting each of the tour's dignitaries.

Since I had flown the P-51 and the P-80, I was assigned to Chuck
Yeager. We got along just fine--except that you didn't carry Chuck
Yeager's bag or anything else. You just accompanied him and enjoyed
his company. He was one neat guy that you could never get ahead of.
He was always up, out and gone before your feet hit the floor.
The more I tried to help him, the less I could do. And if you were
in a group of people with him, he had the nack of making each and
everyone feel .. only they were getting his attention. Chuck flew
the single [F-86 ] .. at each show in every capitol. What a fantastic
flyer !

I did not see him again for nearly ten years. I was on a cross-country
in a T-Bird out of Vandenberg AFB .. late at night, and stopped
at Albuquerque to refuel and to see that old Base Commander from
Albrook who was the Sandia Base Commander.

We were sitting on the tail-gate of his old pickup visiting when
the Airdrome Officer came running out with ," Colonel, we've got
a flameout in a T-33 forty miles east. But the pilot said he wanted
no emergency support ..that he would call on final .. but said that
he was turning everything off to save his battery."

The AO quickly asked him if he could have his plane number and
name. He gave the aircraft number. And as he signed off, he said ,
" Pilot and soul occupant is Chuck Yeager."

The AO asked Colonel Martin if he shouldn't get a firetruck and
Air police out there The Colonel said, " No "-- have them stand
by. Several minutes later..landing lights flashed briefly about
1/2 mile out on final approach ..then went out. That AO was anxious
but Colonel Martin told him : " Relax".

It wasn't long until we heard the tires squeek as they touched
the runway in the dark.. A moment later that T-Bird turned off
at the center taxi-way .. rolled up to 20 feet of our pickup
tailgate where we were sitting .. tapped the brakes slightly
to bow the nose ..and raised the canopy. Now, mind you, he
had just dead-sticked that Lockheed TBird some 40 odd miles,
then coasted it right up to our pickup.

This is not all.

I'm certain most everyone has heard of his keen wit, his cleverness,
his power to reason and a memory we all wish we had. Now, after
having successfully pulled off a dead stick landing ..over mountains
at midnight in a pitch-black situation, the first thing he said
was, " Martin and Oliver. What a welcoming party ! Don't think I've
seen either of you since South America on that Good Will Tour ! "

Now we all know of the thousands of people he met on that good will
tour -- and so many more people in the ten years since, and yet he
remembered not only our last names but our first names as well. What
a fantastic person..What a priviledge to have known this fine and
wonderful man -- and to have been able to do something for him,
when he has done so much for so many.

[From the "Fighter Pilot" list]