My back was fractured and it hurt like hell. I was moaning and groaning in a damned hospital bed. When the chute opened, I was knocked unconscious. I jettisoned the door and stuck my head out, and the prop wash seemed to stretch my neck three feet. Fire came out from under my seat and the airplane flew apart in different directions. I was indicating about 400 mph when there was a roaring explosion in the back. On 23 October 1943, while practicing tactics against a formation of Consolidated B-24 Liberator bombers, the engine of Yeager’s P-39 exploded. Sergeant Yeager completed flight training at Yuma, Arizona, and on 10 March 1943, he was given a warrant as a Flight Officer, Air Corps, Army of the United States.Īssigned to the 363rd Fighter Squadron at Tonopah, Nevada, Flight Officer Yeager completed advanced training as a fighter pilot in the Bell P-39 Airacobra. Air Force) Yeager’s P-39 over the gunnery range, Tonapah, Nevada, April 1943. Corporal Yeager in primary flight training. Private Yeager was accepted into the “flying sergeant” program. Initially an aircraft mechanic, he soon applied for flight training. He was 5 feet, 8 inches tall (1.73 meters) and weighed 133 pounds (60 kilograms), with brown hair and blue eyes. He attended Hamlin High School, at Hamlin, West Virginia, graduating in 1940.Ĭhuck Yeager enlisted as a private, Air Corps, United States Army, 12 September 1941, at Fort Thomas, Newport, Kentucky.

He was the second of five children of Albert Hal Yeager, a gas field driller, and Susan Florence Sizemore Yeager. Yeager, United States Air Forceīrigadier General Charles Elwood Yeager, United States Air Force, was born at Myra, Lincoln County, West Virginia, 13 February 1923.

Lighter Than Air by Rodney Charles