The excerpt recounts many of Hatch’s adventures. Serving with him became a highlight of my life.” Without a doubt, he saved my neck on several occasions. It is true he grew up in West Virginia where there are some definite racial attitudes, but there is also a camaraderie among those who know what it’s like to be down and out. Chuck just wouldn’t tolerate that kind of crap.
#Black fighter pilot full
Only a handful of black pilots were scattered around the world in those days, and I knew I couldn’t afford to make any serious mistakes, but I was young, full of piss and vinegar, and when Chuck Yeager became my squadron commander in Germany, he stood between me and guys ready to jump me. There were racial incidents along the way with no shortage of rednecks eager to shoot me down. I came up through the ranks as an enlisted man, the same as Chuck Yeager, but it wasn’t easy for me as a black man.
The Air Force had only been integrated seven or eight years by the time I became a fighter pilot. If Hatch thought anyone hung the Moon, it was Yeager, who like Hatch was a mustang, an officer who began his career as enlisted man: Yeager’s widow, Victoria, posted excerpts of the aviator’s autobiography at her website, including the account of black fighter pilot Emmett Hatch. Yeager’s forbearance “qualif him to be the nation’s first black astronaut.”īut NASA, as two news accounts and Yeager explained, did not choose Dwight to join the 15 men who became Astronaut Group 3.īeyond ignoring that simple fact, the hate-Yeager mob could easily have learned how Yeager treated blacks under his command. Though Dwight was unqualified for the test-pilot school at Edwards Air Force Base, Yeager recalled in his autobiography, Yeager pushed him through with special tutoring and awarded him a diploma.
The ranting lunatics who attacked Yeager could easily have found out the truth had they looked for it. December 8, 2020Įmmett Hatch: Yeager the “highlight of my life.”
Chuck was a racist POS too.- Juan Rivera, P.E. Let’s not forget Chuck Yeager denied black pilot Ed Dwight his rightfully deserved spot as the first ever black astronaut.
0 kommentar(er)
