Aviation – The Chuck Yeager Foundation

The Right Stuff & Chuck Yeager’s NF-104 incident

By Victoria Yeager / December 12, 2022

General Yeager wrote the NF-104 part in The Right Stuff. Tom Wolfe wasn’t quite getting it from their interview. The production team asked General Yeager to re-enact his NF-104 flat spin scene. He had choice words for them which ended in an emphatic “No! Anyone who tries will kill themselves.” Then Col Yeager felt he…

Chuck Yeager, Escaping Nazis, Makes it to Gibraltar May 15, 1944

By Victoria Yeager / May 16, 2021

In General Yeager’s own words: “After 1. being shot down on March 5, 1944 and hiding out, sometimes in plain sight, from the Nazis, Gestapo, Germans, and French Milice (German controlled French police, sometimes much worse than the Gestapo), 2. escaping over the Pyrenees carrying a wounded airman, and 3. spending a few weeks at…

Chuck Yeager and Helicopters – Hint: Not his Fave

By Victoria Yeager / March 16, 2021

General Yeager was not a fan of helicopters. One reason was that most pilots hung out in the dead man’s curve. Another reason: While in the High Sierras, as a passenger, he was in a terrible helicopter crash. In his own words: General Chuck Yeager: “I took General Branch up to Rocky Basin Lakes, about…

Gestapo is Coming

By Victoria Yeager / March 15, 2021

Raoul ultimately takes me back to Gabriel. We ride bikes at night from Ambrus to get there. Gabriel was a larger-than-life man. I will never forget how he protected me. He was the leader of the Maquis in Nerac, the mayor, and was friends with the Germans in town. The Germans knew that the Maquis…

Gabriel, head of French Underground Threatens F/O Yeager With his Life

By Victoria Yeager / March 12, 2021

I stay at Gabriel’s house in Nerac, hiding from the Nazis in his shed out back. The first day, I’m bored so I leave the shed and sit under the tree in his yard. I remain outwardly calm as a small platoon of Germans march by. After they are completely gone, Gabriel calls me in.…

Flight Officer (F/O) Yeager Makes Way to Nerac to Evade Nazis

By Victoria Yeager / March 11, 2021

March 10-12, 1944 The Germans seem to have lost interest in finding me; there are fewer patrols now. Maybe they think if they stop looking for me so hard, I’ll become careless and fall into their net. And it nearly happens that way. Little Jean-Pierre and I are hiking to the pond, while crossing an…

6-9 mars 1944: Caché à la vue de tous à Casteljaloux et à Pompogne à Vélo

By Victoria Yeager / March 9, 2021

6-9 mars 1944 Abattu le 5 mars 1944, se cachant toujours des Allemands et de la Milice française. J’ai passé la nuit dans une maison bien en vue à Casteljaloux, France. J’étais caché sous la maison dans un espace qui s’étendait de l’avant à l’arrière de la maison, une petite fenêtre à chaque extrémité donc…

March 6-9 Hiding in Plain Sight from Germans and French Milice

By Victoria Yeager / March 9, 2021

March 6-9, 1944 Shot down March 5, 1944, still hiding from the Germans and French Milice. I spent the night in a house in plain sight in Casteljaloux, France. I was hidden under the house in a space which extended from the front to the back of the house, a small window at either end…

Germans at the Door – Escape and Evasion Continues

By Victoria Yeager / March 7, 2021

March 5, 1944 continued I decided to stay put until dark. Several times I hear low-flying planes-Germans hunting for me. I’m sweating but stay well-hidden under thick brush. I saw a lot of farmland coming down and at night I’ll pop out of these woods long enough to raid some turnips and potatoes. I figure…

General Yeager Leads Fly By for General Eisenhower’s Memorial – in his own words

By Victoria Yeager / March 7, 2021

General Yeager told this story at the National Memorial Day Parade in 2012: “Don’t tell anybody but: After General Eisenhower died, Mamie Eisenhower asked if I could plan, lead and execute a fly-by during his funeral procession. “I responded: Yes, ma’am! “I called the Pentagon and Andrews to set it up. A two star said:…

Shot down over France

By Victoria Yeager / March 4, 2021

Free falling. Flat on my back. Spinning from 16,000 feet. Velocity doubling each second. Hold off. Get below clouds where Krauts can’t see your chute. Yank that cord now, you’re dead. Germans strafe guys floating down. Clouds whisk past. French countryside filling horizon. Even so, wait goddammit. Ground rushing up. Occupied territory. Two fingers grip…

Combat over Berlin March 4, 1944. The Cavalry

By Victoria Yeager / March 3, 2021

Glamorus Glen March 4, 1944 Some of us never got word of the recall. The weather was stinkin’. There were only two of us P-51s escorting a box of bombers for the first US daylight raid over Berlin. None of us had gotten the recall. I spotted an Me-109 below me, dove on him and…