Chuck Yeager - Awards and Honors

Awards and Honors

On December 12, 1975, the U.S. Congress passed, and on December 23, 1975, President Gerald Ford signed, Public Law 94-179, which authorized the President to present, on behalf of Congress, a silver medal "equivalent to a noncombat Medal of Honor" to Yeager, "for contributing immeasurably to aerospace science by risking his life in piloting the XS-1 research airplane faster than the speed of sound on October 14, 1947." President Ford presented the medal to Yeager in a ceremony at the White House on December 8, 1976.

In 2004, Congress voted to authorize the President to promote Yeager to the rank of major general on the retired list. In 2005, President George W. Bush granted the promotion of both Yeager and (posthumously) air-power pioneer Billy Mitchell to major general.

Yeager, who never attended college and was often modest about his background, is considered by some to be one of the greatest pilots of all time. Despite his lack of higher education, he has been honored in his home state. Marshall University has named its highest academic scholarship, the Society of Yeager Scholars, in his honor. Additionally, Yeager Airport in Charleston, West Virginia, is named after him. The Interstate 64/Interstate 77 bridge over the Kanawha River in Charleston is named for Yeager. He was the chairman of Experimental Aircraft Association's Young Eagle Program.

The state of West Virginia honored Yeager with a marker along Corridor G (part of U.S. 119) in his home Lincoln County on October 19, 2006, as well as renamed part of the highway the Yeager Highway.

Yeager is an Honorary Board Member of the humanitarian organization Wings of Hope.

On August 25, 2009, Governor Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver announced that Yeager would be one of 13 California Hall of Fame inductees in The California Museum's yearlong exhibit. The induction ceremony was on December 1, 2009 in Sacramento, California.

Yeager served on the Rogers Commission that investigated the explosion of the Space Shuttle Challenger on STS-51-L. The Sacramento ABC affiliate sent a crew to Yeager's home, a few miles northeast of the city, following disaster's coverage on Nightline.Yeager provided a voice of calm, confidence, and understanding during the interview, saying "they have all the telemetry data available to understand what happened, and it will be just a matter of time to analyze it," while noting the risk accepted by crews in aeronautical flight tests.