Chuck Yeager is gone to Glory. As the West Virginia state song puts it, all things change, even the hills of West Virginia, but they point to a deeper eternal country, Prince Immanuel’s Land, where Yeager has gone by God’s grace:
Oh, the West Virginia hills! How majestic and how grand,
With their summits bathed in glory, Like our Prince Immanuel’s Land!
Yeager was a hero in World War II, that generation is slipping past us, so his death on Pearl Harbor Day is fitting. Most of his life was fitting, decent, honorable. The airport in the state capitol of West Virginia has his name and now, for the first day, this is a memorial.
Recollect.
Others are better able to tell his life story, I only know he was in the background for my entire life as someone any West Virginian could aspire to be. He also was passed over at times, because he did not have the right background. That too is something that sometimes happens if you are from the hills, but like most West Virginians I have known, he persisted and, in the end, outlived, vibrantly out lived, those who had the “better” backgrounds. The West Virginians I knew as a boy had a calm, a seen-it-all-and-still-here, faith in God. Many had to leave the state to get work or in service to the nation, but like Yeager did not forget their roots. Yeager incarnated the virtues of the state for the nation.
This was a good example for me as was his service and demeanor. He kept going, finding new challenges, refusing to be shelved. If ill health eventually forced him to stop flying, this happened much later in life than one might expect. Yeager gave me an example of risk taking that accepted even failure as part of the challenge and allowing for a new opportunity. His life was not perfect, but most often heroic. I cannot aspire to heroism, but I can try to do my duty, keep taking on challenges, and serve other people with dignity.
Yeager was cool, not trendy. As a result, he was never out of date. He might slip, for a moment, from public memory, but then a movie like The Right Stuff reminded many in my generation of his service. Like Queen Elizabeth II, Yeager lived as if he would live for decades, not briefly trending on social media. He was not afraid to give his opinions (even endorsing political candidates), but did so in a way that allowed one to agree to disagree. As a result, he could be (for the most part), a unifying American hero.
May the soul of Chuck Yeager Rest In Peace. The heroic dead are not gone for us so long as we remember them and so as long as our life brings us to them in Prince Immanuel’s Land.
Tonight I will rise a toast to you heroic pilot, American hero and sing once with you:
Oh, the West Virginia hills! I must bid you now adieu.In my home beyond the mountains I shall ever dream of you;In the evening time of life, if my Father only wills,I shall still behold the vision of those West Virginia hills.
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