NASA Administrator Statement on Passing of Gen. Chuck Yeager
“The following is a statement from NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine on the passing of Gen. Chuck Yeager: “Today’s passing of Gen. Chuck Yeager is a tremendous loss to our nation. Gen. Yeager’s pioneering and innovative spirit advanced America’s abilities in the sky and set our nation’s dreams soaring into the jet age and the space age. He said, ‘You don’t concentrate on risks. You concentrate on results. No risk is too great to prevent the necessary job from getting done.'”
Such a sad day. A modest man who lived an oversized life.
May he rest in peace. Keith, did you ever get to meet Chuck?
Yes I did here in DC at an event at the National Air and Space Museum with my late co-author Frank Sietzen.
Another great man, Frank was.
I was shocked and profoundly saddened to learn my friend and fellow West Virginian General Chuck Yeager has passed away. He was the definition of greatness and my hero. My wife Linda and I flew with him & his wingman Bud Anderson in T-6 trainers a few years back at Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama. He asked me, “Do you mind if I wring this puppy out?” I said, “Go for it, General!” I had absolute confidence in him because he was, per a quote in Tom Wolfe’s The Right Stuff, “the greatest pilot anybody ever saw.” His passing is a tremendous loss for the United States Air Force, the service he loved and mentored, our country, and our world. He inspired millions of people across the planet to be involved in aviation and he also set the stage for our movement into space with his famous X-1 flight that, for the first time, broke the sound barrier. Rest in peace, General, and thank you for a life well lived and service well done. My sincere condolences to his wife Victoria who provided the General the love and support he needed during his last years.
A legend and a rare breed of man, the like of which we rarely see.
He was my boyhood hero. I met him twice. The first time as an AFROTC cadet about six months after he punched out of that NF-104. He related that experience, along with movies of the event taken from the ground, narrating in the third person! The second time was at a dinner honoring him at Wings Over The Rockies a few years back.
RIP, General. Thanks for all your service to our country and aviation in general.
I watched the Right Stuff TV series on Disney+, and I think it is almost criminal the series totally left out even a mention of Chuck Yeager.