Chuck Yeager, an American hero and the first pilot to break the sound barrier, passed away on Monday at age 97. His storied life included two stints at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery.
Both of Yeager’s stops in Alabama’s capital city were to advance his education, and each lasted for less than a year.
When arriving at Maxwell AFB, the pilot was already something of a national figure; he broke the sound barrier in 1947 and first moved to Alabama in 1952.
Yeager enlisted in the Army Air Corps in 1941 when he was 18 years old and spent 33 years in service to his country; first in the U.S. Army Air Forces and then in the U.S. Air Force once it was established as its own branch of the U.S. Armed Forces in 1947 — the same year Yeager broke the sound barrier.
Due to his early age of initial enlistment, the entirety of Yeager’s secondary schooling was in the form of professional military education at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama.
His first time there was a course lasting a few months at the Air Command and Staff College — then called the Air Command and Staff School — in 1952.
Yeager was sent to Air Command after being promoted to major. The institution still serves Air Force officers of that rank today, preparing them now as it did then to take on higher levels of responsibility and learn the necessities of command.
Following nearly a decade of leading squadrons in Europe and helping advance elite, advanced units in California, Yeager returned to Montgomery in August 1960 to attend Air War College, also housed at Maxwell AFB.
Yeager’s return to Montgomery was the result of another promotion, this time to colonel, requiring a second round of education for officers who ascend to such a level.
He graduated Air War College in June 1961 and went on to command the Aerospace Research Pilot School, where military astronauts were trained.
Yeager’s life was a testament to what humankind is capable of achieving. He broke the sound barrier — requiring a speed of around 768 mph — only 44 years after the Wright Brothers completed their first flight.
According to the Air Force, Yeager earned “the Distinguished Service Medal, Silver Star with oak leaf cluster, Legion of Merit with oak leaf cluster, Distinguished Flying Cross with two oak leaf clusters, Bronze Star Medal with “V” device, Air Medal with 10 oak leaf clusters, Air Force Commendation Medal, Purple Heart, Distinguished Unit Citation Emblem with oak leaf cluster and the Air Force Outstanding Unit Award Ribbon,” during his time in the Air Force.
The branch adds that Yeager flew “more than 10,000 hours in 155 different types of military aircraft.” He ended his 33 years in the armed forces as a brigadier general.
“It might sound funny, but I’ve never owned an airplane in my life. If you’re willing to bleed, Uncle Sam will give you all the planes you want,” he told Men’s Journal in 2009.
President Ronald Reagan awarded Yeager the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1985.
“All I know is I worked my tail off learning to learn how to fly, and worked hard at it all the way,” Yeager wrote in his autobiography.
Yeager was preceded in death by his first wife, Glennis, and a son, Michael. He is survived by his second wife, Victoria, and by three other children he had with Glennis, two daughters and another son.
Henry Thornton is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News. You can contact him by email: henry@new-yhn.local or on Twitter @HenryThornton95.
