Chuck Yeager (Photo: U.S. Air Force)
FARGO, N.D. (KFGO) – Described by many as a national hero, Retired Air Force Brigadier General Chuck Yeager died Monday at the age of 97. Yeager, a fighter pilot in World War II and the first to break the sound barrier among his many accomplishments, spent some time in Fargo. He was a special guest and speaker at the 1989 Fargo AirSho.
Retired Maj. Gen. Mike Haugen, former North Dakota Adjutant General, was the Wing Commander of the 119th Air National Guard’s Happy Hooligans when he met Yeager during the Fargo visit.
Haugen says he and others sat and listened spellbound to Yeager’s stories, calling it “a wonderful experience, meeting and talking to him on a first-name basis.”
Haugen says the 119th Wing in Fargo has a history of its own and that Yeager was “very aware” of the Happy Hooligans through the connections he had with the fighter pilots, one of the reasons that brought him to the Fargo AirSho.
Haugen says despite Yeager’s amazing history, he called the pilot “a country boy at heart.”
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