European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - October 23, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Chuck and Tennis Yeager in Iff Only photo the coup a had of each other while they were separated during world War  Ith Vitt escape from mail occupied France by Chuck Yeager and Leo Janos special to the stars and stripes f ree falling Flat on my Back. Spinning from 16.000 feel velocity doubling each second hold Oil. Get below Clouds where krauts can t see Chule. Yank thai Cord now you re dead. Germans Strale Guys floating Down. Clouds whisk past. French Countryside tilling horizon. Even so wait goddamn ii. Ground Rushing up. Occupied territory. Two lingers grip Chute ring. Now. I yank the ripcord ring. The Parachute blossoms breaking my fall and i m rocking gently in the Winter sky. Below me the Hill and Fields Are crawling with germans. I see the Black smoke from my air plane wreckage and sweat the slow ride Down. I m easy target practice from the ground. I m dropping Down Over Southern France on a deceptively peaceful Countryside i work the shroud lines toward a Pine Orost. Trees Rush at me. I reach out and grab on to the top of a 20-foot Pine i Bounce a couple of tuner on that Limber sapling leaning it Over to the ground just As i did As a kid in West Virginia when we d ride Pines Lor Miles through the Woods in Only seconds i m six inches irom the ground i step Down gather in my Parachute to use later As a shelter and Limp Oil into the Woods. There s blood on my Pant leg blood on my torn leather gloves and blood dripping Down the front of my lying jacket irom my head. It it lightly past noon on sunday. March 5, 1944 and i m a wounded. 21-year-old american lighter Pilot shot Down and on the run. After Only eight combat missions i m now missing in action world War ii shot out from under me by the 20mm cannons of a Focke will 90. Of von now. In Shock irom being shot Down cold and scared. I figure my Chancre re Good for Corning out of Tai alive. I know How to trap and Hunt and live Oil Mother nature. Back Home in we had a Job to do we die it and my Job now 15 to re Ide capture and escape. I can survive in Hirv Woods Lor As Long As it takes to keep the damned Gram inns trom finding me and hauling to of to a Row crimp out whatever happens Lor me the War is Over if i make in Over the pyrenees and manage to get Back to t it land. I la be sent Home. No More combat n Rulo Nicanol to protect the French underground irom pilots Thoy assisted who might later to shot Down again and tortured by the Gestapo into revealing escape networks so Lar. None of the Guys Sho Down in Rny Squadron have been Able to make it Back. I decided to stay put in the heavy Brush Unell dark. Several times i hear Low flying planes germans Hunting for to. I m sweating but slay Well hidden under thick Brush. I saw a lot of Farmland coming Down Nadaf night i la pop out of those Woods Long enough to raid some turnips and potatoes before dark it begins to ram and there Are no More search planes. I eat a stale chocolate bar irom by survival kit. Then wet and cold i huddle under my Parachute and try to sleep. I doze on and Oil but at first Light i m wide awake gripping my pistol. I peek out and see a woodcutter shouldering a heavy a. I decide to Rush him from behind and get Hal a killing him in necessary. I ump him Ancie drops the a no Roost dead with fright. With eyes the size of quarters he stares at the pistol i m waving in his face. He Speaks no English so i talk at him like Tarzan me american. Need help find  he jabber Back in excited French and if i understand right he tells me he will go get somebody who Speaks English. I read his lace which is scared but Friendly. He grins and nods when i Ray i m an american. Puts a Finger to his lips to whisper Roche then hurries Oil into the Lores after signalling to me to stay hidden and wait for him to get . I keep his a and watch him run off then i move across the Patch into a stand of big Trees wondering if i should take Oil or wait for him Here. Can i Trust the Guy i stay in a tiny storeroom in a Hayloft for nearly a week although each Day 1 spend More time out Idetha in. The germans have seemed to lose interest in finding me there Are fewer patrols now. Maybe they re hoping that in they Stop looking so hard i la become careless and fall into their net. And it nearly happens that Way one sunny morning. I climb Down the ladder and Ventur out of the barn Only to dive Lor cover when a Focke jul comes roaring Over the treetops. It s a pretty Arm. And i feel homesick. Late one night the doctor who patched me up returns hands me civilian clothes and tells me to put them on. We take i Little journey he says. We set out on bikes i have Ana strapped to Rny Back like any other French woodcutter. We travel Lor hours in the dark on empty country roads have logged identity papers and in stopped by a Germai patrol i m to let the doctor do the talking. We travel together Lor two Days biking most of the night resting in various farmhouses during the Day. Null finally we reach the Village of neral a few Miles from a More famous town named for its cheese roquefort la t dark when we enter a farmhouse. The Farmer s Nameh Gabriel a huge Guy with a thick Black Mustache. The Doc says Good by and Gabriel takes to out Back Toa shed that will he my Home Lor the next few weeks. Page 14 the stars and stripes one night Well after dark i leave by loot with Gabriel As my guide. We move deep into he Pine forests and alter two Days of mostly Steep Uphill climbing Gabriel tells me to wait while he goes on aloft i wait or him most of a Day and begin to wonder whether i be been deserted. But when he finally returns a s with a group of heavily armed men wearing Black berets and Bandolier of Rifle cartridges strapped across their chests. I Don t have to be told who these Guy Saf there Are the Maquis the French resistance lighters it live and hide in these Mountain Pine forests by Day and blow up trains and Bridges by night. I m to stay with them. Gabriel tells me until the Sno thaws in the High mountains. Then they will help me Cross Over into Spain. Robert is the commander of our Maquis group. He the me he s been a member for two years most of them Phi hiding lorm the germans in these Pine forests. I count 28 Guys in his group including a Lew really Tough old bards be Rosy Cheeks who ran hike longer and carry heavier Load 2 than Many of the younger men. 5