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Joseph L. Yeager

Joseph L. Yeager

No. 19948 • 7 Jul 1931 – 9 Sep 1993

Died: Lexington, KY
Buried: Interred at a friend’s farm near Lexington, KY


JOSEPH LINDEN YEAGER was born in Lexington, KY, and grew up in the small town of Ravenna, KY. His parents, Charles Everett and Mabel Clara Yeager, were perfectionists. His father was the scoutmaster in Ravenna, and Joe (who always preferred to be called “Lindy”) was the first in the troop to become an Eagle Scout. This task was not easy because there were no “soft” merit badges given in the troop. Each badge was hard earned.

Joe entered West Point with a strong sense of perfection. The more disciplined and the more exact, the better Joe liked it. The quintessential cadet, he tried to stand straighter than anyone else, and he personified enthusiasm. As an example to plebes, he would slip his chin inside his dress coat collar. He was “Jumpin’ Joe” Yeager and “Mr. Infantry,” but at the same time he could play the piano and was a jazz enthusiast, attending jazz sessions whenever possible. When he played, crowds of friends and bystanders would gather round to listen.

At the branch drawing First Class year, Joe stunned everyone by choosing the Air Force and not the Army. Much later, when he was asked why he had chosen the Air Force, he said he was afraid that as a platoon leader or a company commander, he would yell “Follow me!” and start up a hill, but when he looked back, there would be no one there. Image was very important to Joe.

Flight training was not easy for Joe. He struggled through primary pilot training at Bainbridge Air Base, GA, and went on to basic pilot training at Vance AFB at Enid, OK. From there, he went to advanced pilot training and on to the 38th Strategic Reconnaissance Squadron at Forbes AFB, Topeka, KS, and RB-47s. He quickly found that the Air Force was not the Army, and certainly not West Point. Before completing his checkout as a copilot, he had the opportunity to go to the Air Force Academy as an Air Training Officer (ATO), basically an upperclassman for the new incoming cadets.

Joe loved it. He was essentially back at West Point with the same rigor and discipline. One fellow ATO remembered, “He occasionally would get up on a chair in the cadet dining hall and give a rousing Patton-like talk on some subject. The cadets ate it up.” He had a “reputation of being a no-nonsense military disciplinarian. This was particularly true of his service with the Bayonet Committee from atop a four-foot high wooden platform, with a tight T-shirt, fatigue trousers with creases, [and] gleaming combat boots.” With his command voice and erect posture “the cadets knew this was something special.” They would shout back his commands, such as “Long thrust and hold.” His fellow ATO went on, “In this, he actually seemed more like an infantry troop [leader] than an Air Force one.” A member of the first class to graduate remembered him as “a strong, enthusiastic leader. We were not sure how he got all of his energy.” But, despite his energy and enthusiasm, he could sometimes be moody.

While at the Air Force Academy, Joe met and later married a very pretty young woman, Audrey Howell, which was not in accordance with his favorite quotation: if the Air Force wanted him to have a wife, they would issue him one. At the end of his tour as an ATO, he was assigned as a B-47 aircraft commander in the 310th Bomb Wing at Smokey Hill (later renamed Schilling) AFB, in Salina, KS. At this time, unfortunately, things began falling apart for him. He began having bouts of depression and was diagnosed with a bipolar disorder or a manic-depressive illness. Joe then was accepted by the Air Force Academy as an English instructor and sent to Columbia University for an advanced degree. There, he and his wife went through a very bitter divorce, and she received custody of their twin sons. She later died from an overdose of medication. The six-year- old boys were then raised by her family. Joe’s bouts with bipolar disorder increased to the point where he was medically retired as a captain with ten years of service, suffering from severe depression.

Following his retirement, Joe returned to Ravenna, made friends, worked for the state for a few years and was viewed as an intellectual: a Renaissance man with a dry sense of humor and a wonderful mind. The community loved him, found him a fascinating person, and took care of him when he needed help. Over time, however, his health deteriorated. His bipolar disorder became more severe, and he was in and out of the veterans hospital in Lexington more frequently. He had become a chain smoker, smoking up to four packs a day, which resulted in emphysema that required several heart operations. At times, he commented that he did not have to put up with the life he had.

On 9 Sep 1993, Joe died in his Lexington apartment at age 62, the result of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

God bless you, Joe. May you have found peace at last. We miss you.  

Your G-2 classmates

Originally published in MAY / JUNE 2006 TAPS

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