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March 6, 1944.Evening.WWII. Evading the Germans

By Victoria Yeager / March 7, 2014

March 6, 1944 evening: dark We ride off on bicycles: make it as far as Castaljaloux where they put me in the back of a house for the rest of the night and the next day. It’s right in the middle of town. Neighbors are pretty close. The Germans are still looking for me but have…

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Lt Col Chuck Yeager leads USAFE Gunnery Champs – 1955-1956

By Victoria Yeager / March 6, 2014

USAFE Gunnery Champs – 1955-1956 While stationed in Germany my wing won the Gunnery Meet in Europe. Then we moved to Nellis where all the pros were, the biggest competitors – that’s all they did at Nellis – gunnery. And we beat the heck out of them, too. Air to air, air to ground. Air…

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WWII.Mar 6, 1944: Behind Enemy Lines:Germans Everywhere Looking for Yeager

By Victoria Yeager / March 5, 2014

March 6, 1944: Behind Enemy Lines:Germans Everywhere Looking for Me: In the morning, I hear a rhythmic banging. I crawl to where I could see – it is a woodsman chopping wood. We were told, if we’re shot down or behind enemy lines, to approach poor people – they would be the most likely to…

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WWII. Other POVs. March 5, 1944

By Victoria Yeager / March 4, 2014

Children of the local pastor: My brother and I had just walked out of the rectory next to the church. My father is the pastor. The noise above us  – well, we knew a big battle was raging in the air. Deafening and scary. We see a plane on fire heading left to right diagonally toward…

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WWII. Shot down. Not so Sierra Hotel. March 5, 1944

By Victoria Yeager / March 4, 2014

March 5, 1944: Weather is stinkin’ again. We head to Bordeaux to hit some shipping targets. As we get closer, it is clear we can’t see the targets so we decide to head east to an air base as a target of opportunity. I call out: Bandits! Six o’clock! And turn into them – do…

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WWII.Shot Down My 1st E/A – March 4, 1944

By Victoria Yeager / March 4, 2014

In Chuck Yeager’s words: Weather was stinkin’. We scrambled – it was to be one of the first American daylight raids on Berlin. As I broke out in the clouds with my wingman, it was just the two of us. Wondered where the rest of the group was but forges ahead, found the box of…

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Do You Smoke? – Another General Yeager Story

By Victoria Yeager / February 7, 2014

General Yeager in his own words: When I enlisted in the Army Air Corps, they have you meet with an army psychologist. This was going to be fun! I was answering his questions when he pulls out a cigarette, slowly lights it, puffs, blows the smoke in my face and asks: Do you smoke? Me:…

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Yaw Damper & Snaking Discussion re F-86, F-104, Century Series

By Victoria Yeager / February 7, 2014

Question from a top engineering historian: I have been doing some research into specific airplanes, one of which is the production F-86A and later models. In two different places I came across engineers casually discussing the in flight high-speed ‘snaking’ motion of the F-86. One North American engineer just said ‘. . . the snaking…

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Visiting Jackie Cochran. Fellow guest: President Johnson

By Victoria Yeager / February 1, 2014

One weekend I was at Jackie Cochran’s in Indio, California, near Palm Springs. President Johnson was also visiting. Jackie invited him to go for a ride around the ranch. When they returned, Floyd Odlum, her husband, was livid: You don’t drive the President around. He has secret service and all sorts of people who need…

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British v American Fighter Pilots

By Victoria Yeager / January 16, 2014

Jan 16, 1944 – General Dwight D. Eisenhower took command of the Allied invasion force in London. And not a moment too soon for the US fighter pilots at Leiston, UK. The British, whose derrieres we were saving, were rudely saying: The Americans are: Overpaid Oversexed and Over here. After General Eisenhower took command, the…

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Yeager Gets Nuke Weapons at Hahn Air Base during Cold War

By Victoria Yeager / January 15, 2014

General Yeager: About 10 months after I arrived at Hahn Air Force Base, life became more complicated and dangerous for all of us. The wing received new airplanes – a bigger and more powerful version of the Sabre, called the H model, which gave us much faster acceleration. The MiGs discovered the fact when a…

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General Yeager Recollects B-47 & Gen Ascani

By Victoria Yeager / January 13, 2014

I used to fly from Wright Field to Edwards with a few stops along the way – Oklahoma City, OK, then Alberquerque, New Mexico. One time I flew a B-47 into New Mexico. General Ascani needed a ride. When he saw I was flying the bomber alone, he sputtered: Where’s your co-pilot? Me: I don’t…

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