Yeager: An Autobiography

GOOD-BY

Before leaving for Germany in 1954, there was a farewell party at Edwards that became a historic occasion because I actually got Jackie and Pancho together in one room. They hated each other from as far back as the 1930s, when they competed in women's air races. Pancho would say to me about Jackie, "How can you stand that old bitch?" And Jackie would say to me about Pancho, "That disgusting bitch-how do you stand her?" I had Pancho on one side and Jackie on the other and there were no fireworks. Glennis said pulling that one off was a bigger achievement than breaking the sound barrier and she was absolutely right.

Really, the person I was saddest to leave behind was Jack Ridley. We had worked so closely together for so many years that I felt naked going out into the world without him. I said to him, "Goddamn it, Jack, how in hell do I get a squadron from point A to point B without your slide rule?" 01' Jack was sad too, because my leaving really symbolized an end of an era for both of us. But he stayed on for a couple more years. He and Nell had a young son, Ronnie, after years of thinking they couldn't have any children. Then Jack was transferred to Japan. Glennis and I heard from them from time to time, and they were happy to be leaving the desert. "Nell is willing to go anywhere in the world where there is no wind or sand, ' Jack wrote.

We always thought we'd get back to Edwards again and be involved in some other hairy test programs. But it wasn't to be. We lost Jack in 1957. He was riding as a passenger on a C-47 that hit the side of Mt. Fuji. Whatever happened wouldn't have happened if only Jack had been in the pilot's seat. But he wasn't.

Nell renamed young Ronnie, Jackie L. Ridley, Jr. Jackie was Jack's legal name, but once he began to shave, he preferred Jack. Jack's son is now a fine-looking young man who resembles his dad. I saw him and Nell in 1980 at dedication ceremonies for the Jackie L. Ridley Mission Control Center at Edwards. That's the building that the flight engineers use, and among those guys Jack was a legend. Any Air Force night engineer at Edwards knows all about Jack. He was the best there was. "Well, son " he had said, the day I left Edwards, "we had ourselves some fun, didn't we?" Jack, we sure as hell did.