We lost Chuck Yeager last December. He lead an incredible life and has to be considered one of America's greatest airmen. Thanks to Arlo for suggesting a memorial skin in honor of his passing, and thanks to Vraciu for his assistance in nailing down the red and yellow hues of the 357th's nose art. <S>
Chuck Yeager enlisted as a private in the U.S. Army Air Force in September 1941, and initially became an aircraft mechanic. The entry of the U.S. into World War II however, prompted the USAAF to alter its recruiting standards, and Yeager, possessing exceptional eyesight, was accepted for pilot training. Receiving his pilot wings in March 1943, he was assigned to the 357th Fighter Group, flying Bell P-39 Airacobras (being grounded for seven days for clipping a farmer's tree during a training flight), and shipped overseas with the group on November 23, 1943.
Stationed at RAF Leiston, Yeager flew P-51 Mustangs in combat with the 363d Fighter Squadron. He named his aircraft Glamorous Glen after his girlfriend, Glennis Dickhouse, who became his wife in February 1945. He had gained one victory before he was shot down over France in his first aircraft (a P-51B) on March 5, 1944, on his eighth mission. He escaped to Spain on March 30, 1944 with the help of the French Resistance and returned to England on May 15, 1944.
Despite a regulation prohibiting "evaders" from flying over enemy territory again, Yeager was reinstated to flying combat. He had joined another evader, fellow P-51 pilot 1st Lt Fred Glover, in speaking directly to the Supreme Allied Commander, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, on June 12, 1944. "I raised so much hell that General Eisenhower finally let me go back to my squadron" Yeager said. "He cleared me for combat after D Day, because all the free Frenchmen — Maquis and people like that — had surfaced". Eisenhower, after gaining permission from the War Department to decide the requests, concurred with Yeager and Glover. In the meantime, Yeager shot down his second enemy aircraft, a German Junkers Ju 88 bomber, over the English Channel.
P-51D-20-NA, Glamorous Glen III, is the aircraft in which Yeager achieved most of his aerial victories. Yeager demonstrated outstanding flying skills and combat leadership. On October 12, 1944, he became the first pilot in his group to make "ace in a day," downing five enemy aircraft in a single mission. Two of these kills were scored without firing a single shot: when he flew into firing position against a Messerschmitt Bf 109, the pilot of the aircraft panicked, breaking to starboard and colliding with his wingman. Yeager said both pilots bailed out. He finished the war with 11.5 official victories, including one of the first air-to-air victories over a jet fighter, a German Messerschmitt Me 262 that he shot down as it was on final approach for landing.
Yeager remained in the U.S. Air Force after the war, becoming a test pilot. Yeager became the first person to break the sound barrier on October 14, 1947, in level flight while piloting the X-1 Glamorous Glennis at Mach 1.05 at an altitude of 45,000 ft over the Rogers Dry Lake of the Mojave Desert.
Yeager went on to break many other speed and altitude records. He was also one of the first American pilots to fly a Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15, after its pilot, No Kum-sok, defected to South Korea.
Yeager was foremost a fighter pilot and held several squadron and wing commands. From 1954 to 1957, he commanded the F-86H Sabre-equipped 417th Fighter-Bomber Squadron at Hahn AB, West Germany, and Toul-Rosieres Air Base, France; and from 1957 to 1960 the F-100D Super Sabre-equipped 1st Fighter Day Squadron at George Air Force Base, California, and Morón Air Base, Spain. In 1966, Yeager took command of the 405th Tactical Fighter Wing at Clark Air Base, the Philippines, whose squadrons were deployed on rotational temporary duty in South Vietnam and elsewhere in Southeast Asia. There he flew 127 missions. In February 1968, Yeager was assigned command of the 4th Tactical Fighter Wing at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, and led the McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom wing in South Korea during the Pueblo crisis. He was promoted to brigadier general in July 1969 and was assigned as vice-commander of the Seventeenth Air Force.
In 1973, Yeager was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame, and in 1975, retired from the Air Force. He resided in Northern California until his death on December 7, 2020, at age 97.
EDIT: I'm now looking at these pics on a different computer, and it seems to me the red is too brown... anyone concur?
