The FReeper Foxhole Remembers Capt. Chuck Yeager - 357th Ftr. Grp. - Aug. 27th, 2003

www.acepilots.com ^

[SAMWolf]

Lord,

Keep our Troops forever in your care

Give them victory over the enemy...

Grant them a safe and swift return...

Bless those who mourn the lost.
.

FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer
for all those serving their country at this time.

God Bless America
...................................................................................... ...........................................

U.S. Military History, Current Events and Veterans Issues

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Capt. Chuck Yeager - 357th Ftr. Grp.
World War 2 Ace,
shot down 11 German planes,
including 2 Me-262 jets

Chuck Yeager's accomplishments as an ace in WWII have been overshadowed by his achievements as a test pilot, but his fighter pilot experiences were remarkable on their own. An eighteen-year old West Virgina country boy, he joined the U.S. Army Air Force in 1941 and shot down eleven (and a half!) German planes, including two Me-262 jets.

He was also shot down over France, evaded, joined the Maquis, and made his way back to England via Spain. Somehow he persuaded the brass to let him continue flying fighter missions in Europe, contrary to policy. All of this by the age of twenty-two.

Born in 1923, son of Albert Hal Yeager (a staunch Republican, so firm in his party loyalties that he once refused to shake President Harry Truman's hand), Charles E. "Chuck" Yeager grew up in Myra, on the Mud River in West Virgina. His dirt-poor youth was filled with hillbilly themes that sound romantic today, but probably weren't much fun at the time: making moonshine, eating cornmeal mush three times a day, shooting squirels for dinner, chasing rats out of the kitchen, going barefoot all summer, butchering hogs, and stealing watermelons. At an early age Chuck could do well at anything requiring manual dexterity or math: ping-pong, shooting, auto mechanics.


Flight Officer Yeager’s P-39 over the Tonapah Bombing and Gunnery Range in April 1943

He enlisted in the Army Air Corps when he graduated from Hamlin High School in 1941, and became an airplane mechanic. He hated flying, after throwing up his first time in the air. But when the chance came to become a "Flying Sergeant," with three stripes and no K.P., he applied, and was accepted. His good cordination, mechanical abilities, and excellent memory enabled him to impress his instructors in flight training.

357th Fighter Group



Assigned to the 363rd Fighter Squadron, of the 357th Fighter Group, he moved up to P-39s with the squadron at Tonopah, Nevada. Unlike many other pilots, he always liked the P-39 (which probably would have been a decent airplane if it had had a turbocharger). Here at Tonopah, he first developed the fighter pilot's detached attitude toward death, even getting angry at those he thought had died needlessly or through lack of skill. During the ruthless weeding-out process at Tonopah, the pilots worked as hard at playing as they did at flying. They frequented the bars and cathouses of Tonopah and nearby Mina, until the sheriff ran them out of the latter establishment. He and his lifelong friend, Bud Anderson, both made it through the process.


A trio of 363rd aces: Maj. C.E. "Bud" Anderson (16.25 victories) and Captains Don Bochkay (13.75 victories) and Chuck Yeager (12.5 victories) at Leiston, England, January 1945.

When the squadron went to California to train for escort missions, Yeager drew temporary duty at Wright Field, Ohio, testing new props for the P-39 and also getting a chance to fly the big new P-47s. He took the opportunity to buzz his hometown, less than an hour's flying time away. As Hamlin's only fighter pilot, they knew who it was. He rejoined the squadron out in California, where he met his future wife Glennis, "pretty as a movie star and making more money than I was."


Capt. Chuck Yeager in the cockpit of his P-51D Mustang, late 1944

Next the squadron moved to Casper, Wyoming for more training. It was also great hunting; one time Chuck went up in his P-39 and carefully herded a dozen antelope toward a pre-arranged spot, where his armed ground confederates had a field day. They ate antelope roasts for a month. But he almost "bought the farm" in Wyoming. On October, 23, 1943, during a high speed exercise, his P-39's engine blew up, the plane burst into flames, and Yeager had to bail out. He survived, but was hospitalized with a fractured spine.


P-51 Mustangs of the 363rd Fighter Squadron., 357th FG, piloted by Bud Anderson, Bill Overstreet and Chuck Yeager, in combat with Me109s of JG-3 over Germany.

The 357th FG shipped out for Europe in winter of 1943-44, and began operations in February, 1944, the first P-51 equipped unit in the Eighth Air Force. Yeager shot down his first Messerschmitt on his seventh mission (one of the early Mustang missions over Berlin), and the next day, March 5, three FW-190s caught him and shot him down. He bailed out over occupied France, being careful to delay pulling his ripcord until he had fallen far enough to avoid getting strafed by the German fighters.



He had landed about 50 miles east of Bordeaux, injured and bleeding, but armed with a forty-five caliber pistol and determined to make his way over the Pyrenees to Spain. He hid in the woods the first night, ate a stale chocolate bar from his survival kit and huddled under this parachute. The next morning he encountered a French woodcutter.

With the Resistance

They couldn't communicate very well, but the woodcutter whispered "Boche" and gestured for Yeger to stay put. Uncertain as to the Frenchman's loyalties, but having no better choices, Yeager stayed, but trained his gun on the path when a he heard a couple people returning that night. "American, a friend is here come out."



His new friends led him to a barn where he hid, while the Germans searched for him. An English-speaking woman questioned him, and satisfied that he was not a German 'plant', the local resistance people help him, starting with a local doctor who removed the shrapnel from his leg. They took him to the nearest maquis group, to hide out with them, until the snow had melted enough to permit passage over the Pyrenees. The Maquis group, about 25 men, constantly kept on the move, always being hunted by German Fieseler Storch observation planes. Yeager was an outsider with the Maquis, and sometimes relations were strained, but they accepted him when he was able to help fuse plastic explosives.

After exciting and freezing adventures, he made it over the mountains into Spain. On March 30, 1944, he sat in the American consul's office. After he languished in a Spanish hotel for six weeks, the U.S. government negotiated a deal with the Franco government - a straight swap of six evadees for an amount of Texaco gasoline. The other 357th pilots were shocked when Yeager appeared; he was the first downed pilot to have returned.


Yeager, shortly after he returned to combat in August 1944, climbing into the cockpit of his second Mustang, a P-51C he named "Glamorous Glenn II."

Well-considered rules forbade the return of evaded pilots to combat; if they were shot down a second time, they would be liable to reveal information about the Resistance network to the German interrogators. But Chuck Yeager would have none of it; he was determined to return to combat. The evadee rule was strict,but Yeager and a bomber pilot named Fred Glover appealed all the way to General Eisenhower, who promised to "do what he could." While the decision was pending, the Group let Yeager fly training missions. Once they were called to cover a downed pilot in the Channel, a Ju-88 appeared and Yeager couldn't restrain himself from going after it, shooting it down at the German coast. He gave the gun camera footage and the credit to another pilot, but still caught Hell.

Return to Combat

Ike decided to allow Yeager to return to combat in the summer of 1944, which he did with a vengence, now flying a P-51D nicknamed Glamorous Glen, gaudily decorated in the red-and-yellow trim of the 357th. At first, the pickings were slim, as the German fliers seemed to be laying low. He flew in a four plane division with Bud Anderson and Don Bochkay, two other double aces. On September 18, he flew in support of the Market Garden glider drops over Arnhem, but couldn't do much to stop the appalling slaughter of the C-47s. By this time, he had been promoted to Lieutenant, a commissioned officer.

Yeager became an 'ace-in-a-day' on October 12, leading a bomber escort over Bremen. As he closed in on one Bf-109, the pilot broke left and collided with his wingman; both bailed out, giving Yeager credit for two victories without firing a shot. In a sharp dogfight, Yeager's vision, flying skills, and gunnery gave him three more quick kills.


Chuck Yeager makes a low pass over his first Me262 jet fighter 'kill'

The German Me-262 jets appeared in combat in late 1944, but went right after the bombers, avoiding dogfights with the Mustangs. Whenever they wanted, they could just open it up, and pull away from the P-51s with a 150 MPH speed advantage. One day Yeager caught one on its approach to an airstrip. Flying through dense flak, he downed the jet, and earned a DFC for the feat.


The Last Mission depicts Chuck Yeager's and Bud Anderson's last mission of World War II, in which they soared through the Alps and did a little sight seeing before turning their P-51 Mustangs toward home.

He flew his last "combat" mission in January, 14 1945. He and Bud Anderson cooked up a scheme to sign on for the day's missions as "spares," and then do some uninhibited flying. Anderson describes this, and other events in his life-long friendship with Yeager, in his autobiography, To Fly and Fight:

We hit the Dutch coast, took a right and flew south, 500 across France into Switzerland. Chuck was the guide. And I was the tourist. We dropped our tanks on Mount Blanc and strafed them, trying to set them afire (it seemed like a good idea at the time), then found Lake Annecy, and the lakeshore hotel where Yeager and DePaolo had met. We buzzed the hotel, fast enough and low enough to tug at the shingles, and then we zoomed over the water, right on the deck, our props throwing up mist.
Yeager and his ground crew in front of his P-51D, "Glamorous Glen III."

We'd just shot up a mountain in a neutral country, buzzed half of Europe, and probably could have been court-martialed on any one of a half-dozen charges. It didn't matter. We were aglow. It was over, we had survived, we were finished, and now we would go home together.

When we landed at Leiston, my crew chief jumped on my wing, "Group got more than 50 today. Must've been something. How many did you get?"

"None," I confessed in a small, strangled voice. I felt sick.


Yeager and his "Glamorous Glennis" were married on 26 February 1945

Chuck and Glennis were married in February, and he reported to Wright Field in July, the start of his even more extraordinary career as a test pilot. He impressed his instructors so much, that despite his non-com background and his West Virginia accent, he was assigned to the XS-1 project at Muroc Field in California.

[Soaring Feather]

Good morning all!!

[SAMWolf]

Morning Prof Engineer. Thanks for the bump.

[SAMWolf]

Morning manna.

[SAMWolf]

HI Feather.

I'm camped at the front of the line to get your autograph.

[Valin]

On This Day In History



Birthdates which occurred on August 27:
1770 Georg Wilhelm F Hegel German philosopher/inventor (dialectic)
1809 Hannibal Hamlin (R) 15th VP (1861-65)
1865 Charles Gates Dawes (R) 30th VP (1925-29, Nobel 1925)
1871 Theodore Dreiser US, novelist (Sister Carrie, American Tragedy)
1882 Samuel Goldwyn pioneer film maker/producer (MGM)
1886 Eric Coates Hucknall, Nottinghamshire, England, composer
1894 Charles Meredith Knoxville Pa, actor (Court of Last Resort)
1899 C.S. Forester Engl, historical novelist, created Horatio Hornblower
1905 Frederick O'Neal Brooksville Miss, actor (Car 54 Where Are You)
1908 Frank Leahy O'Neill Nebraska, football coach (Notre Dame)
1908 Lyndon B Johnson (D) 36th Pres (1963-1969)
1908 Martha Raye [Margaret Reed], Butte Mont, actress (Martha Raye Show)
1910 Mother Teresa [Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu], Yugoslavia (Nobel 1979)
1915 Walter W Heller economist (Old Myths & New Realities)
1927 Liselott Linsenhoff German FR, equestrian (Olympic-gold-1972)
1929 Elizabeta Bagrintseve USSR, discus thrower (Olympic-silver-1952)
1929 Ira Levin author (Rosemary's Baby, Sleuth, This Perfect Day)
1932 Antonia Fraser biographer (Mary Queen of Scots)
1937 Tommy Sands singer/actor (Teenage Rock, Dream With Me)
1941 Yuri V Malyshev cosmonaut (Soyuz T-2, T-11)
1942 Daryl Dragon Pasadena Calif, keyboardist (Capt & Tennille)
1943 Susan "Tuesday" Weld NYC, actress (Dobie Gillis, Wild in Country)
1949 Barbara Bach [Goldbach], Queens NY, actress (Spy Who Loved Me)
1950 Charles Fleischer Wash DC, comedian (Roger Rabbit)
1950 Cynthia Potter US, springboard diver (Olympic-bronze-1976)
1952 Pee-wee Herman aka Paul Reubens, actor (Pee-wee's Big Adventure)
1954 John Lloyd tennis player (former husband of Chris Everet)
1955 Diana Scarwid actress (Extremities, Psycho 3, Strange Invaders, Heat)
1959 Gerhard Berger formula-1 racer (Italian Grand Prix-1988)
1961 "Downtown" Julie Brown TV host (Club MTV, Inside Edition)
1963 Patty Duffek Woodland Hills Calif, playmate (May, 1984)

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Deaths which occurred on August 27:
1576 Titan Italian artist, dies
1635 Lope Felix de Vega dramatist/poet (Angelica, Arcadia), dies at 72
1840 William Kneass 3rd US chief engraver (1824-40), dies in office
1879 Sir Rowland Hill introduced postage stamps, dies at 84
1958 Dr Ernest O Lawrence inventor (Cyclotron-Nobel 1939), dies at 57
1963 W E B Du Bois scholar/founder (NAACP), dies at 95 in Accra Ghana
1964 Gracie Allen (Burns and Allen)
1967 Brian Epstein Beatles' manager, dies
1971 Bennett Cerf (Random House)/panelist (What's My Line), dies at 73
1975 Haile Selassie depossed Ethiopian emperor, dies at 83
1977 Steve Dunne actor (Professional Father), dies at 59
1978 Robert Shaw actor (Dan-Buccaneers), dies at 51
1979 Earl Mountbatten British adm of the Fleet, assassinated by IRA
1979 Nicholas Mountbatten, Lord Mountbatten's grandson, murdered at 14
1980 Sam Levenson humorist (Sam Levenson Show), dies at 68
1981 Joan Edwards singer (Joan Edwards Show), dies at 62
1984 Billy Sands actor (Phil Silvers Show, McHale's Navy), dies at 73
1990 Stevie Ray Vaughan blues guitarist, dies in a helicopter crash at 35

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Reported: MISSING in ACTION

1966 COKER GEORGE T. LINDEN NJ.
[03/04/73 RELEASED BY DRV, ALIVE AND WELL 98]
1966 FELLOWES JOHN H. VIRGINIA BEACH VA.
[03/04/73 RELEASED BY DRV, ALIVE AND WELL 98]
1967 BACIK VLADIMIR HENRY HOUSTON TX.
1967 BOGGS PASCHAL GLENN EAST POINT GA.
1968 PICK DONALD WILLIAM RICHLAND WA.
1970 ROGERS LYLE D.
1972 EVERETT DAVID A. BRUNSWICK GA.
[03/29/73 RELEASED BY DRV, ALIVE AND WELL 98]
1972 TRIEBEL THEODORE VIENNA VA.
[03/29/73 RELEASED BY DRV, ALIVE AND WELL 98]

POW / MIA Data & Bios supplied by
the P.O.W. NETWORK. Skidmore, MO. USA.

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On this day...
26 -BC- Origin of Egyptian Era
413 B.C. Eclipse of the moon causes panic on Athens fleet.
1665 "Ye Bare & Ye Cubb" is 1st play performed in N America (Acomac, Va)
1172, Marguerite, wife of Henry Plantagenet, "the Young King," crowned Queen of England
1626 The Danes are crushed by the Catholic League in Germany, marking the end of Danish intervention in European wars.
1667 Earliest recorded hurricane in US (Jamestown Virginia)
1776 British defeat Americans in Battle of Long Island
1783 1st hydrogen balloon flight (unmanned); reaches 900 m altitude
1789 French Natl Assembly issues "Decl of the Rights of Man & the Citizen"
1793 Maximilien Robespierre is elected to the Committee of Public Safety in Paris, France.
1859 1st successful oil well drilled, near Titusville, Penn
1862 Stonewall Jackson captures and plunders Union supply depot at Manassas Junction, Virginia
1883 Krakatoa, west of Java, explodes with a force of 1,300 megatons
1894 Congress passed the Wilson-Gorman Tariff Act, which contained a provision for a graduated income tax that was later struck down by the Supreme Court.
1900 U.S. Army physician James Carroll, Havana, Cuba, allowed an infected mosquito to feed on him in an attempt to isolate the means of transmission of yellow fever. Days later, Carroll developed a severe case of yellow fever, helping his colleague, Army Walter Reed, prove that mosquitoes can transmit the sometimes deadly disease.
1896 Zanzibar loses to England in a 38 minute war (9:02 AM-9:40 AM)
1909 Jack Chesbro's final Yankee game
1911 Chic White Sox Ed Walsh no-hits Boston, 5-0
1912 Edgar Rice Burroughs' publishes Tarzan
1913 Lt Peter Nestrov, of Imperial Russian Air Service, performs a loop in a monoplane at Kiev (1st aerobatic maneuver in an airplane)
1918 Dr Joseph L Johnson named minister to Liberia
1921 J E Clair of Acme Packing Co of Green Bay granted an NFL franchise
1927 Parks College, America's oldest aviation school, opens
1928 16 die in a NYC subway's 2nd worst accident
1928 Kellogg-Briand Pact, where 60 nations agree to outlaw war
1937 Bkln Dodger Fred Frankhouse no-hits Cin, 5-0 in 7 2/3 inn game
1937 George E.T. Eyston sets world auto speed record at 345.49 MPH
1938 Yanks Monte Pearson no-hits Indians 13-0, DiMaggio hits 3 triples
1939 Erich Warsitz makes 1st jet-propelled flight (in a Heinkel He-178)
1939 Nazi Germany demands Danzig & Polish corridor
1940 Caproni-Campini CC-2, experimental jet plane, maiden flight (Milan)
1945 US troops land in Japan after Japanese surrender
1945 B-29 Superfortress bombers begin to drop supplies into Allied prisoner of war camps in China.
1950 General Foods blacklists Jean Muir of Aldrich Family as a communist
1961 Francis the Talking Mule is the mystery guest on "What's My Line"
1962 Mariner 2 launched; 1st probe to fly by Venus
1966 Francis Chichester begins the 1st solo sail around the world
1966 Race riot in Waukegan Illinois
1972 - US bombs Haiphong North Vietnam
1974 NY Met Benny Ayala hits a home run in his 1st at bat
1975 Veronica & Colin Scargill (England) complete tandem bicycle ride, a record 18,020 miles around the world
1977 Toby Harrah & Bump Wills hit back-to-back inside-the-park-homers off Yankee Ken Clay at Yankee Stadium, Rangers won 8-2
1978 Reds Joe Morgan is 1st to hit 200 HRs & have 500 stolen bases
1978 Yankee Catfish Hunter's 6-2 win gives him a perfect 6-0 in Aug 1978
1981 Divers begin to recover a safe found aboard the Andrea Doria
1982 Rickey Henderson steals 119th base of season breaks Lou Brock's mark
1982 Soyuz T-7 returns to Earth
1984 President Reagan announces the Teacher in Space project
1985 20th Space Shuttle Mission (51-I)-Discovery 6-launched
1989 100 march through Bensonhurst protesting racial killings
1990 52 Americans arrive in Turkey from Iraq
1990 WWF Summer Slam-Ultimate Warrior beats Rick Rude
1996, California Gov. Pete Wilson signed an executive order aimed at halting state benefits to illegal immigrants.

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Holidays
Note: Some Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"

England, Channel Is, Northern Ireland, Wales : Bank Holiday ( Monday )
Gibralter : Late Summer Bank Holiday
Hong Kong : Liberation Day (1945) ( Monday )
Be Kind to Humankind Week (Day 4)/Willing to Lend a Hand Wednesday

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Religious Observances
RC : Memorial of St Monica, mother of St Augustine of Hippo
Old RC : Feast of St Joseph Calasanctius, confessor

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Religious History
1660 Following England's Restoration, books by poet John Milton were ordered burned because of his attacks on the monarchy. Milton had advocated an elder-ruled (presbyterian) church government over that of bishop-ruled (episcopal).
1830 English churchman John Henry Cardinal Newman wrote in a letter: 'It is our great relief that God is not extreme to mark what is done amiss, that He looks at the motives, and accepts and blesses in spite of incidental errors.'
1865 Rhenish missionary Ludwig I. Nommensen, 31, baptized four families of the Batak tribe in North Sumatra (Indonesia) the first to be converted to the Christian faith. Nommensen later established a theological training school and in 1878 completed a translation of the New Testament into the Batak language.
1876 At age 13, future English clergyman G. Campbell Morgan preached his first sermon. He later grew to become one of the most famous expository preachers and writers of late 19th century England and America.
1877 Birth of Lloyd C. Douglas, American Lutheran clergyman and religious novelist. Douglas published his first best-seller, "Magnificent Obsession," in 1929, followed later by "The Robe" (1942) and "The Big Fisherman" (1948).

Source: William D. Blake. ALMANAC OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1987.

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Thought for the day :
"Youth isn't a time of life but a state of mind."

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'You Might Be A Redneck If'...
"You've ever stolen toilet paper from a public restroom."

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Murphys Law of the day...
Don't be irreplaceable, if you can't be replaced, you can't be promoted.

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Cliff Clavin says, It's a little known fact that...
In 1945 a computer at Harvard malfunctioned and Grace Hopper, who was working on the computer, investigated, found a moth in one of the circuits and removed it. Ever since, when something goes wrong with a computer, it is said to have a bug in it.

[Colonel_Flagg]

Good morning!

Have had extensive computer trouble the last couple of days so I have back reading to do. Wound up having to reinstall my OS (ugh!)

Hope things are going well with you!

[w_over_w]

Morning Glory Snip and Sam~

What a great American and fighter jock . . . I thought Sam Shepard did an excellent portrayal of CY in "The Right Stuff". Great read folks.

[Samwise]

G'morning, everyone. Another good read.

[Soaring Feather]

Hubble Space Telescope

Click the satellite for a trip to the stars!
Little Space Cadet bentfeather!

[SAMWolf]

Thalia Menninger



Tuesday Weld - Sigh!!!!!!!!!

[SAMWolf]

Wound up having to reinstall my OS (ugh!)

ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGH!!!!!!!!!!

Good morning Col Flag.

[SAMWolf]

Good Morning w_over_w.

The Right Stuff was a pretty good flic. Never read the book though.

[SAMWolf]

DONUTS!!!!!!!!!!!

Good morning Samwise. How'd the Hobbit like the playset?

[Northern Yankee]

Thanks for your thoughts.

The great thing about the airshows now in Oshkosh is that you get the flight-line pass when you purchase your ticket, so you get a wonderful up-close look at these beautiful planes.

Another wonderful sight this year was to see a dozen mustangs running up their engines before they took to the skies.

Amazing...

[Soaring Feather]

Signing Soon!!
ROTFLOL!!

[Northern Yankee]

Hey buddy!

Where were you stationed?

I was at K I Sawyer, Shemya AFB, Alaska, and Malmstrom AFB.

Eagles up!

[SAMWolf]

Another wonderful sight this year was to see a dozen mustangs running up their engines before they took to the skies.

There is nothing like the sounds of piston engines. What a sight that had to be.

[Northern Yankee]

Oh...no kidding!

Those engines have the most beautiful throaty sound.

I literally plan my EAA visits around the warbirds display.

Am already looking forward to next year.

If you're ever in the area give me a call. I am only an hour away from Oshkosh.

[Prof Engineer]

Shemya AFB

Brrr. My tech school instructor went there right after my class graduated. A year later, he came to the same base I was at.LOL

I spent my 8 years at Reese AFB,TX. I was in POL. I love the smell of JP-4 in the morning!

[Northern Yankee]

Did you know Chuck Yearger did a cameo in The Right Stuff?

He was the bartender at Pancho's as they guys from NASA were trying to round up fighter jocks for the new space program.

Pancho's would have been a hell of a place to hang out back in tose days. Good steaks, drinks, and a few gals snagging up some of the flyboys.