
In Search of Chuck Yeager’s Evading Germans 1944 (2013) - rfreytag
http://victoriayeager.com/in-search-of-chuck-yeagers-evading-germans-1944/
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retroafroman
Chuck Yeager is surprisingly active on Twitter, answers lots of questions. His
replies can be pretty funny, too.
[https://twitter.com/GenChuckYeager](https://twitter.com/GenChuckYeager)

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tanderson92
One of my favorite Yeager exchanges was when Irony Twitter tried to have some
fun with him:

> @virgiltexas: Thoughts on the moon?

> Yeager: It's there.

[https://twitter.com/genchuckyeager/status/773065112764624896](https://twitter.com/genchuckyeager/status/773065112764624896)

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sndean
This reminds me a lot of my Granddad's stories about working with / hanging
out with Chuck Yeager, Jimmy Doolittle, and the Apollo 11 guys. I really need
to record all of his stories before they're lost..

Yeager and Armstrong were particularly quiet/private, so there's maybe less
stories about them. But there's at least one instance of Neil Armstrong
angrily pinning my Granddad up against a wall because he invited some people
over for autographs.

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justin66
> Yeager and Armstrong were particularly quiet/private, so there's maybe less
> stories about them. But there's at least one instance of Neil Armstrong
> angrily pinning him up against a wall because he invited some people over
> for autographs.

Two things to keep in mind: that's pretty much antithetical to everything
anyone who knew him ever said about Armstrong's character or temperament, and
Yeager was happy to spread falsehoods about Armstrong (and others).

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protomyth
What did Yeager say bad about Armstrong? In his autobiography, Yeager called
Armstrong and amazing pilot and credited him with saving one of the missions
(cannot remember which one) with piloting skills.

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justin66
I'm not familiar with what you're referring to, but it's been a while since I
read Yeager's first autobiography. I do remember one bit clearly, though.

In the book he tells a story about reconnoitering a dry lake near Edwards in a
twin-seat plane with Neil Armstrong. In his story, Armstrong wants to do a
touch-and-go landing to test lake's suitability for landing, and Yeager tries
to talk him out of it because of concerns about mud. They land and they get
stuck. This is all part of a larger, kind of spiteful and jealous narrative of
the NACA guys not being as skillful behind the stick as the Air Force pilots
even though they may have been better engineers, etc. etc.

Armstrong's version of the story (recounted only briefly in _First Man_ \-
incredible book btw) makes it sound more like Neil Armstrong was the victim of
a practical joke wherein Yeager encouraged him to land even though he knew
full well they'd get stuck. It's actually a funnier story, but it doesn't play
in with the whole narrative of the NACA pilots being obtuse geeks and so on.

That's pretty much all Armstrong was quoted as saying about Yeager that I'm
aware of. Yeager's not universally loved by his fellow test pilots, however.
[http://www.kalimera.org/nf104/stories/stories_16.html](http://www.kalimera.org/nf104/stories/stories_16.html)

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protomyth
Nobody is universally liked, and I can see trying the practical joke route
since its a pretty big part of the culture (recently watched a Navy video
having to do with dropping greased pigs on another ship). The tension between
services (Navy and Army Air Force / Air Force) is well documented along with
tension with the civilian pilots. There is a bit of family problem going on
with Yeager and his kids which is generating some bad press.

Cannot find my copy of the book, but the mission Armstrong did the piloting
was Gemini 8.

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justin66
Ah, that's an interesting mission, and it's nice to know that Yeager supported
his flying on that. There was some armchair quarterbacking of how Armstrong
handled that, as you may know, by some of the lesser known astronauts.

It was pretty much the most dangerous situation an American astronaut ever
encountered in orbit that required specialized piloting skills and very quick
reactions to survive. A couple of other pilots thought he used too much fuel
solving the problem, which resulted in him having to abort and reenter right
away. The NASA leadership thought he did well enough that he was qualified to
command an Apollo mission likely to land on the moon...

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protomyth
If I remember the passage correctly (It has been over a decade), he used it as
an example of how important it was to have actual skilled, trained pilots in
the space program (basically taking pilots mattered). It was in the chapters
about the X-15, I think.

I would assume command of the first Moon landing would be taken as an
endorsement of his solution and probably acknowledgement that on such a
difficult mission he might need to solve a similar problem.

Of course, I have read interviews where he called Armstrong a better engineer
than pilot, but I get the feeling that Air Force does not complement Navy
unless making a point about the professions as a whole.

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rpeden
Every time Chuck Yeager's name comes up, I feel a little bit of amazement and
happiness when I realize that the first person to fly faster than the speed of
sound, in 1947, is still alive nearly 70 years later.

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protomyth
Its amazing how quickly technology has advanced. This has given us a time
period where we live at the same time as our legends. Its been amazing to sit
through lectures and appearances by people who marked the milestones in so
many areas. Computer Science and EE are particularly fortunate with a lot of
Aerospace getting access to folks from the jet age.

Its ending though, and I do pity the next generation for not having the same
experience.

