He was a farm boy from Hamlin, West Virginia.  Chuck Yeager join the Army at the outset of World War II, Have it wasn't long before he became a fighter pilot.

Two years after the war ended, in 1947, Chuck Yeager became the first test ilot to break the sound barrier.

He rose through the ranks to become a general, before retiring.

By the time I met him in the fall of 1988, Yeager was still finding new adventures. He and his longtime friend Bud Anderson co-wrote a book about their adventures hiking in the High Sierras.