Vice President Mike Pence speaks during a memorial service for the late Air Force Brig. Gen. Chuck Yeager in Charleston, W.Va., on Friday, Jan. 15, 2021. Yeager died last month at age 97. The West Virginia native in 1947 became the first person to fly faster than sound.
FILE – In this Sunday, Oct. 14, 2012, file photo, retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Charles Yeager talks to members of the media following a re-enactment flight commemorating his breaking of the sound barrier 65 years earlier, at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev. Yeager, the first pilot to break the sound barrier, died Monday, Dec. 7, 2020, at age 97.
Vice President Mike Pence speaks during a memorial service for the late Air Force Brig. Gen. Chuck Yeager in Charleston, W.Va., on Friday, Jan. 15, 2021. Yeager died last month at age 97. The West Virginia native in 1947 became the first person to fly faster than sound.
Vice President Mike Pence speaks during a memorial service for the late Air Force Brig. Gen. Chuck Yeager in Charleston, W.Va., on Friday, Jan. 15, 2021. Yeager died last month at age 97. The West Virginia native in 1947 became the first person to fly faster than sound.
Vice President Mike Pence speaks during a memorial service for the late Air Force Brig. Gen. Chuck Yeager in Charleston, W.Va., on Friday, Jan. 15, 2021. Yeager died last month at age 97. The West Virginia native in 1947 became the first person to fly faster than sound.
Members of the 88th Air Base Wing Honor Guard from Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in in Ohio post the colors during a memorial service for the late Air Force Brig. Gen. Chuck Yeager in Charleston, W.Va., on Friday, Jan. 15, 2021. Yeager died last month at age 97. The West Virginia native in 1947 became the first person to fly faster than sound.
West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice, right, presents Victoria Yeager, the wife of the late Air Force Brig. Gen. Chuck Yeager the state flag during a memorial service for him in Charleston, W.Va., on Friday, Jan. 15, 2021. Yeager died last month at age 97. The West Virginia native in 1947 became the first person to fly faster than sound.
Victoria Yeager, the wife of the late Air Force Brig. Gen. Chuck Yeager speaks during a memorial service for him in Charleston, W.Va., on Friday, Jan. 15, 2021. Yeager died last month at age 97. The West Virginia native in 1947 became the first person to fly faster than sound.
Vice President Mike Pence leaves after speaking during a memorial service for the late Air Force Brig. Gen. Chuck Yeager in Charleston, W.Va., on Friday, Jan. 15, 2021. Yeager died last month at age 97. The West Virginia native in 1947 became the first person to fly faster than sound.
FILE – In this Sept. 4, 1985, file photo, Chuck Yeager, the first pilot to break the sound barrier in 1947, poses at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., in front of the rocket-powered Bell X-IE plane that he flew. Yeager died Monday, Dec. 7, 2020, at age 97.
FILE – In this 1948 file photo, test pilot Charles E. Yeager, 25, poses for a picture in a jet’s cockpit. Yeager was first to fly faster than the speed of sound. Another Yeager feat, flying a jet under a Charleston, W.Va., bridge in 1948, was not reported by the local media. Yeager died Monday, Dec. 7, 2020, at age 97.
FILE – In this Saturday, Oct. 26, 2002, file photo, retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Chuck Yeager receives a plaque from the National Defense Industrial Association, recognizing his breaking of the sound barrier and the use of X- 1 loading pit, at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. Yeager again broke the sound barrier Saturday, for what he said was the last time, more than a half-century after he became the first person to accomplish the feat. Yeager took an F-15 Eagle to just over 30,000 feet. Yeager died Monday, Dec. 7, 2020, at age 97.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — Retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Chuck Yeager was remembered at a memorial service Friday as a hero, legend and friend who would go out of his way to help others.
Vice President Mike Pence started the service in Yeager’s home state of West Virginia by calling him “America’s greatest aviator” during a 15-minute address that detailed Yeager’s military career.
“America will cherish always the memory, the service and the example of Gen. Chuck Yeager,” Pence said.
During numerous video tributes, others spoke of the human side of Yeager, who died Dec. 7 at the age of 97. His love for growing tomatoes. For hunting and fishing. His work as a conservationist. And his love for the Oak Ridge Boys.
Friend Sean Duffy said Yeager was involved in conservation fundraising efforts that allowed a generation of children to enjoy the outdoors.
“He was a class act,” Duffy said.
Former astronaut Charles Duke said Yeager was his pilot school commandant when he applied for the space program in 1965. Yeager “was a great boss, a great mentor and a great encourager of all his students,” Duke said.
Caleb Deschanel, a cinematographer on the 1983 movie “The Right Stuff,” said that when Yeager wanted to go to a test pilot school, the elite students’ jaws dropped upon seeing him.
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