Why the president would not have been briefed on the Colonel's name and appropriate ways to honor the uniform was not disclosed. But to relate to him that he looked like an actor who played Chuck Yeager belies the substance of both the Colonel and the man Yeager himself. Why not honor him for carrying on the fine tradition of courage and service set by General Yeager and so many others?
Briefly, he was shot down by a German FW-190 shortly after he began his service in Europe as a P-51 pilot. He managed to evade capture and was taken to a French safe house. The woman in charge said to him upon looking him over, "Why, you're just a boy... My God, has America run out of men?" Well... he did just fine, ma'am. Thank you.
Upon return to the 8th Air Force, he was told he could not return to flying missions because he knew too much about the French Underground and were he to be captured, it would not go well for him as the Germans kept record of who had been shot down. He relentlessly pressed against the regulation until he was back in the cockpit. He became the 8th Air Force's first "ace in a day" with five kills. Donald Miller describes him in Masters of the Air in this way: "Yeager was a born aerial killer, with matchless vision and reflexes, and, in one flight leader's words, 'more (manliness) than brains." In World War II he flew 64 missions with 13 downed enemy planes to his credit. And he was just getting started...
John, I doubt seriously if Pres. Obama would have been as impressed had he met the real Chuck Yeager. What Hollywood has done to us is very unfortunate; more serious is that we've bought in to it.
ReplyDeleteWhen I met Gen. Yeager in 1982, he was nothing to model a movie star after, must less another pilot...in looks, that is. But his actions and subsequent accomplishments throughout his professional life spoke volumes compared to our current community organizer, as well as a group of over-achieving, fangs out Navy fighter pilots were mesmerized for a short, but memorable period one day in the summer of '82. I won't soon forget it, for he embodied everything we trained for, evaluated the weapons we helped developed, for, and desire to perform as, in the midst of combat, even as he did.
As storied as he was, he humbly ascribed true fighter pilot greatness to two of his closest friends, Bud Anderson and Bob Hoover. He fulfilled the quote you referred to above: "We want great men who, when fortune frowns, will not be discouraged."
None of this meant as a pejorative to the pilot of Air Force One, but to the one who wouldn't know the difference in the appearance of one, and the accomplishments of the other.
Thanks for your efforts,
Sandy