eneral Chuck Yeager has been called "the true right-stuff hero." He may dispute or decline the honor, but there are reasons for the accolade. Most people know that on Tuesday, Oct. 14, 1947, he became the first human to break the sound barrier in the Bell X-1 at Muroc Airbase in the Mojave Desert.

Fewer know that in WWII he was an air ace, and on Oct. 12, 1944, he shot down five German ME 109s on a mission near Bremen, Germany, a feat unmatched in U.S. war history. On Nov. 27, 1944, he shot down four German FW 190s in ten minutes in his P-51 Mustang fighter. [For more on the life of Chuck Yeager, read Yeager: An Autobiography or the Right Stuff, by Tom Wolfe. The Editor.]

Yeager says "I've been shot up and shot down, but I've also been the luckiest man alive."

Chuck Yeager (above with his wife Victoria on the Alagnak River in September 2005) has fished Alaska for decades, and California's High Sierras since the 1950s. For more information on fishing Alaska, read John Randolph's article "Fabulous Bristol Bay" in the July 2006 issue of FLY FISHERMAN.

With good reason: As a 21-year-old on his eighth combat mission near German-occupied Bordeaux France on March 5, 1944, he says, "Two Fock Wulfs came at me head-on with 20mm guns blazing. I had no chance." His P-51B Mustang was torn apart with multiple hits that blew off his canopy and rolled it upside down.

Hit through his leg, Yeager popped out and parachuted into occupied territory. Fortunately he was found and hidden by the French Maquis. Three months later he and another pilot, narrowly escaping a German patrol that wounded his companion, hiked over the Pyrenees into neutral Spain. The American consulate negotiated his return to England, and thanks to Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, he received special permission to return to combat.

Chuck Yeager--a frequent guest at Katmai Lodge on Alaska's Alagnak River--shot down five enemy planes in one day in WWII, was shot down himself over occupied France and returned to service, was the first human to break the sound barrier, and flew 126 missions over Vietnam.

After the war Captain Yeager became a U.S. Air Force test pilot, surviving the most hazardous flying in experimental jet aircraft at Muroc. He was not chosen to become one of America's first astronauts, though by acclimation of his peers he was considered the best of the "right stuff" test pilots.

At 83 Yeager has not lost his love of fishing, especially with fly. For many years he has been an angler with the right stuff at Katmai Lodge, where the unassuming hero is called "Chuck" and treated with admiration and respect.