Charles Elwood Yeager was born in 1923 in Myra, West Virginia and grew up in the nearby village of Hamlin. Immediately upon graduation from High School he enlisted in the United States Army Air Corps to serve in World War II.

Read his interview

Chuck Yeager was the first human to fly faster than the speed of sound. A combat pilot in World War II, Yeager was shot down over France in 1943, but managed to escape without being captured. After the war he was put in charge of pilot training for experimental aircraft, and on October 14, 1947 became the first person to break the sound barrier, flying a rocket powered Bell X-1 jet. He helped train the first U.S. astronauts and, as if there were no end to his studliness, flew combat missions over Vietnam in the 1960s. In the 1980s Yeager became a celebrity, thanks in large part to the 1984 film made from Tom Wolfe's book The Right Stuff, an account of the early U.S. space program. He also worked as the technical advisor on the movie.

General Yeager (retired) worked his way up from being a mechanic to pilot and finally a General who trained the first astronauts in space.

Another good history link on Chuck Yeager