I was a 20 year old 2nd Lt. living in a two apartment in Fort Worth while in rotary-wing flights school system Fort Walters in Mineral Wells,TX. It was a nearly one hour drive to and from the apartment to the base, and after flying (a lot of practice at hovering 3 feet off the ground in the early day on the Brazos River flat) it seemed like torcher to get to a cold beer and a hot shower. One day, I got to the apartment and there was this old guy (remember age is relevant) standing at the rail overlooking the pool who nodded hello as I passed still in my flight suit. He asked if I was a pilot and I explained that I was. He asked what I flew, all I said was helicopters. He said he was also and when I got showered I should come over and he’d have a cold beer waiting.

I was a 20 year old 2nd Lt. living in a two apartment in Fort Worth while in rotary-wing flights school system Fort Walters in Mineral Wells,TX. It was a nearly one hour drive to and from the apartment to the base, and after flying (a lot of practice at hovering 3 feet off the ground in the early day on the Brazos River flat) it seemed like torcher to get to a cold beer and a hot shower. One day, I got to the apartment and there was this old guy (remember age is relevant) standing at the rail overlooking the pool who nodded hello as I passed still in my flight suit. He asked if I was a pilot and I explained that I was. He asked what I flew, all I said was helicopters. He said he was also and when I got showered I should come over and he’d have a cold beer waiting.

When I got out of the shower and dressed, and never being one to turn down a free cold beer at the time, I went over and knocked on his door. He answered with a cold one in hand and he introduced himself. I have never been one to remember names (something I always blame on the Army, because everyone in the military wears name tags in uniform), but faces I remember. We sat and talked for a while until my newly wed wife got home. We talked about flying and he told me that he had been a pilot in WWII and had a fair amount of success in a P51, but had been shot down once over northern France. He asked me if I wanted to see the film, taken by his wingman, of him being shot down. Of course I could not deny myself that opportunity, and watched with sharp interest. He also showed me his papers that he was issued by the local marquis group to fool the Germans if he ran into them while working his way back to England. It was all very interesting and that was the only time we got together since he said he was only in town for a short time consulting with General Dynamics. I, of course, had no idea who I was talking to at the time. Chuck Yeager was not a household name in my family, and in my recollection, I think he only said his first name. It was only years late while watching a news clip of Chuck Yeager with the release of “The Right Stuff” that it finally dawned on me who I had been talking to. I have always been amazed at how humble he seemed to be since he only talked about flying and the incident of being shot down; not about how many kills he had, not about breaking the sound barrier, not about anything, really, just about flying. From a pilots perspective, he was an amazing man, and someone who did more to advance aviation than almost anyone. He was and remains an American hero.