The first man in the world to accomplish this feat, this spectacular flight was one of the

greatest achievements since the Wright Brothers at K-Haw.

Hi, this is Newt.

Due to the virus I'm recording from home, so you may notice a difference in audio quality.

On this episode of Newt's World, I'm going to talk about Chuck Yeager, and we're going

to listen to Chuck Yeager talk about himself.

He was a remarkable man, and his passing was a reminder that he was an example at a personal

level of what American exceptionalism is all about, because he was a high school graduate

from West Virginia who went on from there to remarkable achievements, serving his country

as a patriot, having unique physical talents that made him a remarkable pilot with apparently

spectacular eyesight, and at the same time, somebody who had both commitment to the professional

flying and who was eager to be fully involved in the development of modern aviation,

it's estimated that in his lifetime he flew 200 types of military aircraft.

He had more than 14,000 flying hours with over 13,000 of those in fighter aircraft.

It all began at the beginning of World War II when he joined up as an enlisted person,

and then found himself in what was at the time a program that you could get into as an

enlisted person, and he became a pilot.

He then got the equivalent of being a warrant officer in modern terms, and it was a very

brief period where the Army Air Force was willing to have people who were not college

graduates.

I thought it was a great example of how America has moved from achievement to certification

that by the time, about a quarter century later, that he was extraordinarily skilled, extraordinarily

...