By Andrew Conte TRIBUNE-REVIEW Friday, May 1, 2009
America's best-known fighter-jet test pilot foresees a day when the military no longer needs pilots in the air.
Unmanned drones make sense because pilots can remotely control them without risking their lives, retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Chuck Yeager said Thursday during a visit to Pittsburgh.
"That's progress, just like before we had jets," said Yeager, 86, a World War II flying ace and the first person to break the sound barrier. "This is the way wars are going to be fought in the future, and it's good."
Yeager toured St. Barnabas Nursing Home in Gibsonia before receiving the health system's St. Barnabas Hance Award during a Founder's Day celebration Downtown last night.
The award is named for Gouverneur P. Hance, the lay Episcopalian brother who founded St. Barnabas in 1900, and goes to a person of national acclaim who exemplifies benevolence, patriotism and service to others. Previous recipients include President Gerald Ford, astronaut Buzz Aldrin and entertainer Debbie Reynolds.
St. Barnabas uses the annual event to raise money for its mission to provide nursing services to residents regardless of their ability to pay, said spokeswoman Kathleen Brenneman. The system provided $4.3 million in free care last year, she said.
Yeager met with patients at the center and talked with some contemporaries, including Kenneth Keisco, 87, of Upper St. Clair, who graduated from flight school with him, and William Cully, 84, of Penn Township, a former bomber copilot who flew 34 missions in World War II.
Stopping to greet about 20 patients, many of them using wheelchairs, who gathered inside the nursing home's entrance, Yeager said he felt inspired by seeing them.
"If I don't drink whiskey or smoke, I'll be able to live as long as you," he said.
In giving Yeager proclamations from the state General Assembly, Sen. Jane Orie, R-McCandless, called him an "American patriot" and state Rep. Mike Turzai, R-Bradford Woods, told the native of Hamlin, W.Va., that he should feel "right at home" in Western Pennsylvania. Yeager lives in Northern California.
Patients presented Yeager with a flight jacket they adorned with patches they award Girl Scouts who volunteer at the center. William Day, president of the St. Barnabas Health System, gave Yeager an oversized key to the center.
"He was extremely warm and friendly," said Anne McMahon, 85, who lives at the nursing home.
Speaking briefly with reporters after the visit, Yeager talked about military strategy in Pakistan, where he served from 1971 to 1973.
He said U.S. military forces need to spend time getting to know tribal leaders in Pakistan's border region with Afghanistan. Yeager said he spent a lot of time getting to know the leaders there while hunting and fishing in the region.
"The military over there just haven't learned the customs of their people," Yeager said.
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