The day I told Chuck Yeager to get his boots off my desk

GRASS VALLEY, Calif. - In 1981, I told the famous Chuck Yeager to get his "damn boots" off my desk at The Union newspaper where I had just been appointed managing editor.

Chuck Yeager in Grass Valley (Sacramento Bee file photo)

Yes, that Chuck Yeager, the sound-barrier busting, legendary test pilot/dare devil immortalized in Tom Wolfe's famous book The Right Stuff. Yeager was played by actor Sam Shepard in a movie by the same name, based on the book.

All these years later, I can still remember the look on Yeager's face when I braced him when I returned to my office. I found him sitting in my chair, his cowboy boots resting on the desktop, the papers that I had carefully arranged pushed aside in a heap. 

His expression when I barked at him was pure "I ought to punch you in the nose."

He didn't though. 

After a moment, he slowly stood up. Then he broke into a big grin as offered his hand for me to shake.

I had no idea this guy in a baseball cap was a luminary - or that he was invited guest of both my boss (the publisher of The Union) and the chairman of the Nevada County Board of Supervisors, an USAF vet himself. I recall they were taking him out for a swanky lunch in Nevada City and - had I been a little older,  less territorial and not quite so full of myself - I might have been able to tag along.

But I didn't get invited.

Much to my embarrassment then (and still, really) it had to be explained to me who Yeager was and what he had accomplished in decades of daredevil flying. It wasn't until a year or so later that I read The Right Stuff and got the full picture. The book is still a favorite of mine.

Yeager lived in the Grass Valley area until he passed away this week. And while he and I never became buddies, the few intersections we had were cordial. I suspect he relayed the anecdote about our encounter to more than a few folks, probably getting a good laugh.

In the years after leaving Grass Valley, I had occasion to interview several retired USAF pilots, some very distinguished but who never became famous like Yeager. One former pilot who lived in Paradise, Calif. (yes, that Paradise, the one that burned in a wildfire) said he knew Yeager from test pilot days.

When I told him about ordering Yeager to move his boots, he laughed so hard he had tears running down his cheeks. 

"I surely wish I could have seen that," he told me.

RIP, Chuck.  Fly fast and straight wherever you want to go.

Yeager in 1963