Chance meeting with a hero
On
October 14, Dr. Marty Becker, America's
Veterinarian and a neighbor to those who call
Boundary County home, was going through Salt
Lake City International Airport, on his way to
New York City to tape a segment for ABC's "Good
Morning, America," when he spotted a scruffy-looking old
guy he thought he recognized.Like any seasoned traveler used to airports today, the gentleman was dressed for travel; slip on shoes, comfortable blue jeans and a blue T-shirt, a black vest and a white baseball cap; attire to ease the ordeal of getting through security.
And, like many who are well travelled, this guy had the obvious knack of getting comfortable in those most uncomfortable seats all major airports provide for those interminable waits between flights.
Looking at the old traveler, you'd hardly guess he was someone famous, and you certainly wouldn't quite fathom what a momentous day he'd had.
You might have heard of the gentleman, now nearly 90 years old. He pitched products once for AC Delco, had a cameo appearance in the movie "The Right Stuff" playing a bartender named Fred.
If you keep up on the news, you might recognize the date, too, October 14. That was the day Felix Baumgartner stepped from a balloon floating at the edge of space and became the first person in history to break the sound barrier without being wrapped in an airplane.
It was also the 65th anniversary of the date the first man in history flew faster than twice the speed of sound, that time flying a Bell X-1 dubbed "Glamorous Glennis" by the pilot, a West Virginia farm boy who grew up to be one of the most famous pilots in the world.
 |
| The old gentleman in more formal attire. |
A man who enlisted in the U.S. Air Force as a private in September of 1941 and rose to heights unimagined.
While Baumgartner was hurtling earthward from the edge of space, Air Force Major General (retired) Chuck Yeager was on his way home to Penn Valley, California, having just visited his old stomping grounds over the Nevada desert, where he'd once again flown through the sound barrier, this time at the stick of a McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle, recreating, at age 89, that momentous flight he'd made on the same date in 1947, 65 years earlier to the day.
Marty struck up a conversation, at one point asking, "what do you dream about?"
"Shooting down more planes," Yeager replied. "I shot down a hundred planes in World War II, and there's nothing more exhilarating than air-to-air combat."