Chuck Yeager

http://rolexblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/rolex-super-coolness-chuck-yeager.html (photographer)

Chuck Yeager is my hero because he is arguably the most famous pilot of all time, and I aspire to be a Navy pilot someday.  Chuck Yeager was a more than double ace (13 kills in WWII, five in one day).  He was the first man to break the sound barrier and survive. He has flown more than 10,000 hours, and was one of few to rise from the enlisted ranks to a General in the U.S. Air Force.

Chuck Yeager had just made his first kill in WWII, when he was shot down in his P-51 mustang over France. He managed to escape the Axis powers and returned to neutral Spain. Air Force policy prohibited him from flying combat missions again, but he personally appealed to General Eisenhower, who let him fly again.

In the late 1950s during the space race, General Yeager became a trainer for the first astronauts, but he turned down the opportunity to go into space himself. About half of the Gemini, Mercury and Apollo mission teams were trained by General Yeager. He retired from the Air Force in 1975, but continued as a military consultant pilot until 1997.

Today, retired General Yeager lives in New Castle, California. He still flies at local civilian airports like Auburn Municipal Airport. I go there as often as I can with my step dad, who is a commercial pilot and flight instructor, in the hopes of seeing him in the cafe or on the tarmac, or hearing him on the radio. Last year I went to see him speak at the Aeronautics and Space Museum at the former McClellan Air Force Base. His stories were inspirational. 

He had all of The Right Stuff it takes to make an outstanding pilot -- courage under fire, know-how, and a can-do attitude. Chuck Yeager is my hero and I want to be like him when I am a Navy pilot some day.