George Rebane

The Sportsmens Club of Nevada County has a kitchen that’s a mite rickety and long of tooth.  The club’s board appealed to General Chuck Yeager, its most celebrated member, to lend a hand in raising some funds to upgrade the kitchen, and ‘A Night with General Chuck Yeager’ was put on everyone’s calendar for tonight.  The clubhouse at the range was packing fast when Jo Ann and I arrived a little before 630pm.  I had never seen the place decked out so fine with every corner filled with tables covered with blue tablecloths, silverware, and even patriotic centerpieces – after all we are a gun and archery club.

In the old kitchen they were cooking up what turned out to be the best corned beef and cabbage ever.  You had to hustle your own drinks from the bar.  Most of the seats were already taken except for two right up front which we snagged just in time.  After some lubrication, introductions with table mates, and good talk, the General and Mrs.Victoria Yeager came in and sat at the head table.

Then they started serving these wonderful plates of food which after a bite or two made everyone ask why the kitchen needed fixing if they could turn out good stuff like this – you know, if it ain’t broke … .  With all that food going down, the evening got into high gear.  Finally, General Chuck and Victoria were introduced, and a very professional and previously aired video of the aviator’s life was shown to remind the younger people that they were in the same room with a living legend of our times.

After the video, the general stood up and spoke extemporaneously about stuff that you don’t want to put into a broadcast piece.  Those of us who knew the man from other encounters were not surprised to hear some pretty straight talk and observations on events ranging from WW2 dogfights to the historic test flights – two speed records and one altitude record – to recently being invited to put the A380 (“800 passenger flying hotel”) through some unexpected paces over the Pyrenees.  And the man was pretty frank about what/who he liked and didn’t like on his long and remarkable journey to our little clubhouse.

After Q&A time we had dessert and various people came up to pay their respects and look over some of the Yeager memorabilia on display and for sale – all profits going for the kitchen remodel.  During the evening I did a little catch up with Victoria – we have both been students at Alpine Aviation (I still am) and had an informal competition of who would solo first – she beat me by a skosh, but I had a good excuse if only I could remember it now.  Victoria and the General now fly together and practice formation flying over Nevada County skies.  And it’s General Chuck’s F-104 Starfighter, mounted to eternally fly into the big cedar tree, that greets visitors at the entrance to the Nevada County airport.

I also had a chance to talk to the General about some technical stuff regarding the current F-22 fighter and stand-off weapon strategies that he covered in his talk.  But I have yet to ask him if in early April of 1945 he was in that flight of P-51s that strafed the AA gun towers on a Luftwaffe airfield in Augsburg.  My mom, dad, and I were taking refuge in a small bungalow at the edge of the airfield and across the road from one of those towers.  The house was being riddled with 50-caliber machine gun bullets as we scrambled out of the back window while the Mustangs were screaming less than twenty feet over our heads.  But that’s another story.

And now you know how we start kitchen remodeling projects here in Nevada County 😉