From the Usual USAF Source...
Retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Charles E. “Chuck” Yeager and Brig. Gen. Robert C. Nolan II, Air Force Flight Test Center commander, get ready to fly faster than the speed of sound in an F-16 during a morning flight over the Mojave Desert, Oct. 14, 2011. Yeager visited Edwards, where he broke the sound barrier in 1947, to help celebrate the 60th anniversary of the AFFTC. (U.S. Air Force photo/Rob Densmore)
Chuck Yeager in front of the X-1 he christened Glamorous Glennis (Wikipedia) Sixty Years into the Unknown: A single F-16D accelerated through the sound barrier, celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Air Force Flight Test Center pushing the edge of the envelope at Edwards AFB, Calif. With retired Brig Gen. Chuck Yeager in the cockpit, together with AFFTC Commander Brig. Gen. Robert Nolan, the F-16's sonic wave reverberated, echoing Yeager's first supersonic flight in 1947. "When the Air Force Flight Test Center was established in 1951, Edwards Air Force Base had already become well known as the place where aviation history was being written," said Nolan, speaking at the celebration. Since then, the center "has been on the cutting edge of every major development that has transformed the field of flight—the turbo jet engine, supersonic and hypersonic flight," among many others, he added, addressing the hundreds gathered to mark the anniversary on Oct. 14 among test aircraft in Edward's hanger 1600. (Edwards report by Kate Blais)
Gen. Yeager is one of my heroes and it's good to see him still flying faster than the speed o' sound, even if he isn't the one at the controls. I spent some time on Edwards AFB in the wayback, living in crappy base housing that was prolly built around the time Gen. Yeager first broke the sound barrier. Blog-Bud Glenn is still there, working as a crew chief on a Lawn Dart, which is a kinda strange turn of affairs for a Squid, eh?
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Comment o' the day:
Miss Manners has left a new comment on your post "Dinner...":I'm posting this because (a) most people don't go back and read comments from week-old posts, and (b) it's good guidance even if a bit droll. And we are aware of everything you cited in your critique, dear Miss Manners, but we dispensed with the formalities since the occasion was Dinner for One. You'll no doubt be pleased to note that we observe all the social graces of table setting when we entertain... and did so even when it was just "the family" who sat down to dinner in the wayback.
That looks nice, but I will have to subtract 5 points for the knife blade facing away from the dish.
Forks on the left of the plate, spoons and knives on the right.
Minus 10 points for putting cutlery into a dish before the eater is seated. People must be allowed to examine their cutlery before use.
Yes, you must eat with the fork in the left hand, and the knife in the right hand. When using a spoon, it is proper to have your left hand in your lap holding onto your napkin, and not make slurping noises.
Left handed people should be placed at the ends of the table, nearest the fire and the masters dog.
On the "List of People I'd Like to Meet Someday", Gen. Yeager is right up there towards the top.
ReplyDeleteMy pet peeve is (are) wait staff who don't know how to set up your utensils. It's your JOB! Learn the rudiments!
ReplyDeleteI'm with Sully. If they don't know how to set the table... they don't deserve a big tip. ;-)
ReplyDeleteI've never quite had enough patience when I'm eating to transfer my fork from my left hand to my right after cutting a piece of meat... but I do know how to eat soup, Miss Manners. Oh, yeah... and that elbows on the table thing.
Question: What's Miss Manners doing up at 3:31am?
ReplyDeleteFunny stuff! Master dog, grrrr...
ReplyDeleteI was just thinking, my cousin is 87 years old, and she has six great-grandchildren!
ReplyDeleteShe pusses a stroller around the house because her bones are so brittle she would probably never live to get out of the hospital. Her hips were replaced in her 70's.
All I can say, is those West Virginia boys must have good gene's! The General is 88 now!
Press On!
Chuck Yeager is just dreamy!
ReplyDeleteI know how to set a table, serve you, hold my utensils, etc. But at some point, ya gotta draw the line on that manner stuff. It just takes all the fun out of a meal.
Buck,
ReplyDeleteWhen were you at Edwards? I was there from Oct 74 to Dec 79. Met my 2nd there; know the feeling about those. I did have the opportunity to visit the remains of Pauncho Barnes' place. Right under the flight path off the rumway. Must have been interesting times.
Best,
Tom
I like Uncle Skips question "What was Miss Manners doing up that late"
ReplyDeleteTo have lived half the life the good General has...I think the world may never see the likes of his kind again.
ReplyDeleteThe joints I eat at don't set the table for you. I mean, they give you your junk wrapped up in a taped up napkin, but that's about it.
ReplyDeleteI have been fascinated by Yeager for my entire life. Sometimes the saying, "They broke the mold" really applies...this man being one it surely applies to.
Inno, Lou, Dave and Andy: Agreed on Gen. Yeager. What a life!
ReplyDeleteTom: I was actually stationed at Boron AFS, about 15 miles NE of Edwards, but I lived in Edwards base housing until a house came open on the air station, about six months. This was in 1970/71.
Skip and ss: Manners NEVER sleep! ;-)
Yeager's the Man! I think it's so cool they allowed him to participate in the observation. I was also a big fan of John Glenn returning to orbit. There's a ColonelGlenn Road in Little Rock. I'll bet a lot of people don't make the connection.
ReplyDeleteI prefer American style to Continental when in North America, probably because I'm not too terribly dextrous with my left hand. But, I'm with Miss Manners on the knife blade thing. (And, she didn't even mention the difference in how one scoops the soup and brings it to one's lipsdepending on whether it's a cream-based or broth-based soup. Don't get me started on table manners!)
When I was four, I still remember confessing to my mother that father and I had eaten a peach in the park with our hands.
ReplyDeleteIt was there that she confided in me that my father was descended from Scandinavian savages, and that to follow in his footsteps would mean I would end up sleeping with wolves.
That night at dinner, father looked at me and growled. My mother told me many years later that my eyes grew as big as golf balls.
Moogie: I have NO doubt people don't make the connection in re: Colonel Glenn. And there's two different ways to eat soup, depending on its consistency? I gather drinking from yer bowl ain't one of 'em... ;-)
ReplyDeletele loup: Grrr!
They used one of Shadow's jets. The 445th FLTS on the other side of the field from Falcon and the 416th.
ReplyDeleteAt Falcon, this here old seadog is the crew chief for General Nolan. Me. Yep.
But that day I was busting my knuckles on our line.