Above and Beyond
Above and Beyond
Into the Mist
December 7, 2020
Chuck and Sam
When actor and writer Sam Shepard died in 2017 one of the first things that came to mind was that Chuck Yeager was still alive.
Shepard portrayed Yeager in the exceptional 1983 film "The Right Stuff," which told the story of America's fist astronauts and of Yeager's breaking of the sound barrier in 1947.
How could it be that the young actor was outlived by the old pilot? It's not an urgent or even necessary question. No one knows how long anyone will hang around, but it is worth noting that Yeager was as tough as Shepard was full-hearted.
Now, on the anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack, we know that Chuck Yeager is gone, too, at the age of 97.
In recent years, Yeager's Twitter feed kept his heroics in World War Two and aviation alive. And with nearly 150,000 followers, he likely reached many people who know WWII only as a history lesson, and "The Right Stuff" through a choppy VHS tape in someone's basement.
Chuck Yeager appeared in that movie. The real Chuck Yeager appeared in a movie about Chuck Yeager portrayed by a man who would die before Chuck Yeager, as reality and fiction chased each other in a twisted blast of white smoke from an airplane, flying off the page of American enchantment. --TK
Monday, December 7, 2020