I flew backseat in a Mustang once. This was a long time ago, but the pilot told me on the flight that he'd flown in a formation at a big airshow with Yeager, and told Yeager to go "[bleep] himself," over the open coms. If memory serves, I think he told me he couldn't buy his own drinks for the duration of the show, because of it.
K5DH wrote:
While I am honestly and truly in awe of Gen. Yeager's achievements in aerospace, I can't say that I was in awe of him. I met him twice at aviation events. He was arrogant, self-absorbed, rude, and unkind. I quickly lost respect for the man. I will, of course, never lose respect for what he accomplished.
That's fair.
I, too, have been around the man twice. I've met a
lot of Generals in my lifetime, some retired and many active duty from my Army days. There's an arrogance that comes with them all, but that man took it to a level that bordered on the comical.
I saw him interact with a kid dying of something (in a wheelchair hooked up too all the tubes you can hook a kid to), to the point one person I think said loud enough for him to hear, "If that was
anyone else, I'd drag him (referring to Yeager of course) out back and beat the [bleep] out of him," which a few other guys openly agreed.
K5DH wrote:
I'm sure some of you had much different experiences than I had.
No, I wish you were right about that...