General Chuck Yeager visiting me during my tenure as Majority Leader of the California State Assembly, 1996
In memory of one of the world's greatest pilots and one of America's great heroes, General Chuck Yeager, who died today at age 97.
A combat pilot becomes an air "ace" after five confirmed enemy kills. During aerial combat with German planes in World War II, Yeager accomplished that feat in a single day. After the war, in 1947, he entered aviation's pantheon when he became the first test pilot in history to break the speed of sound.