Vice President Mike Pence said he will escort Victoria Yeager, the widow of retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Chuck Yeager, along with his remains, to his funeral in West Virginia on Friday.
Pence, himself the father and father-in-law of two airmen, praised the first man ever to break the sound barrier.
“On Friday, joined by my family on Air Force Two, it will be my honor to accompany the widow and earthly remains of retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Chuck Yeager, America’s pilot, on his last flight back to his beloved West Virginia,” Pence wrote in an op-ed published by Fox News.
“Yeager will no doubt be most remembered for breaking the sound barrier. Where everyone saw an unbreakable barrier, a young man with just a high school diploma saw a gateway to an exciting new era in aviation,” he added. “In that, he represents all that is quintessentially American: breaking down barriers, and in their place building gateways to opportunity, innovation and new frontiers.”
Sometimes called “America’s greatest pilot,” Yeager, 97, died on Dec. 7 at his home in Los Angeles. Yeager, deemed “the most righteous of all the possessors of the right stuff” by author Tom Wolfe, who chronicled his life, had a storied aviation career. From overcoming occasional bouts of airsickness to shooting down 13 German planes during World War II to rocketing to 700 mph in order to travel faster than the speed of sound, Yeager enjoyed global renown for his feats.
A West Virginian by birth, Yeager will be buried in Charleston, a move celebrated by state officials. Sen. Joe Manchin, a West Virginia Democrat, released a video tribute that will be played during Friday’s ceremony.
“The legacy Chuck leaves is such an important part of our heritage as West Virginians,” Manchin said. “It is an honor to remember Chuck as part of our military service heritage and our way of life that sinks deep into the roots of West Virginia’s rich culture. I encourage all Americans to learn what they can about this legendary West Virginian.”
Yeager previously said his early days in the Mountain State prepared him for the feats he’d later accomplish.
“My beginnings back in West Virginia tell who I am to this day,” Yeager wrote. “My accomplishments as a test pilot tell more about luck, happenstance and a person’s destiny. But the guy who broke the sound barrier was the kid who swam the Mud River with a swiped watermelon or shot the head off a squirrel before going to school.”
