European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - October 29, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Yeager with the late poncho Barnes whose watering Hole on the Edge of the Mojave wot a favorite gathering place for test pilots in 1940s and Early 50s. Wild times a Panche spas Pancho s place near Edwards fab was Chuck Yeager s Lafortte watering Hole and scene of Many adventures during his test Pilot Days. In part four of this live part series adapted irom his autobiography Yeager he recounts some of them.  Ancho Barnes and her place were a big part of the 6 years i spent out on the Mojave. Ii her Little Oasis did t exist we test pilots would be had to invent something like it because it was the Only place in sight to unwind and have a Good time. Ii was our clubhouse and playroom and if All the hours were Ever totalled i reckon i spent More time at her place than i did in a cockpit Over those years. And i was trying about five different air planes daily. At the end of each flight. I d turn Oil All the cockpit switches but there was no Way i could so easily turn off All the switches inside myself. My wife Glennis understood that her Only serious rivals were not other women but other pilots like myself who shared the dangerous Lite of testing air planes. The physical and mental stresses were Felt by All of us and Drew us together in special ways. Often at the end of a hard Day the Choice was going Home to a wife who really did t understand what you were talking about and from whom you kept Back a lot so As not to worry her. Or gathering around the bar with Guys who had also spent the Day in a cockpit. Talking flying was the next Best thing to lying itself. After we had a few drinks in us we d get Happy or belligerent and raise some hell. Flying and hell raising one fuelled the other. And that s what Pancho s was All about. I met Pancho Barnes on my first trip out to a Turco Edwards air Force base Calif in August 1945, when we were testing the shooting stars Jet fighters. There were Only two places to eat Oft base Pancho s and maw Green s. Maw was a marvelous old Salty character a real desert rat like Pancho who ran a Little restaurant with her husband Angus. You could either eat at maws near Anderson s store on he Railroad track or drive out to Panchos about 10 Miles farther. Pancho had a Teal dude ranch operation out there a 20-room Motel a swimming Pool stables bleachers for a Rodeo and. Of course her bar which was desert Basic a Jukebox a Pool table in Back a battered old piano some tables and chairs. She also had a Landing strip people would Fly up from los Angeles to party. She raised her own cattle Ted them from her own Alfalfa Field aged her own beef and served a helluva Good Steak. She called the place Pancho s Fly  later on she changed it to the Happy Bottom Riding club making it a private club so she could get rid of some of the weenies who d Hung around. Gen. Jimmy Doolittle and i got the first two membership cards. Pancho was 46 when i first met her. She had Black hair and dark eyes slim hips and Broad shoulders. She would never use a live or six letter word when a tour letter word would do. She had the filthiest Mouth that any of us fighter jocks had Ever heard. Now. That s saying a lot. But it s True. She once complimented a general s wife at a party by saying. For a a you re a pretty Nice  for Pancho. That was just Normal talk. She had to be Tough because the Only argument about her was whether she was the ugliest woman we had Ever seen or one of the ugliest. But that did t keep her from being married Lour or five times and bragging that she had had More lovers than All of our flying time put together. Hall we liked each other right off the Bat. In Whoso Days most of the fliers who Hung out at her place were Hollywood stunt pilots and civilian test pilots. She found out i was a fighter Pilot an Ace in the War. And wanted to know All about combat flying. I d never met anyone like her. She had been a famous aviatrix. One of the first Hollywood stunt pilots and Winner of a Bunch of Tom thumb races in the Early 1930s. She had flown with Doolittle and Gen. Tooey Spaatz and aviation cameraman Paul Mantz. And they often visited her place. Her real name was Florence Lowe. Her Grandfather was Thaddeus Lowe one of the founders of Cal tech who had used a Hydrogen balloon for artillery observation in the civil War. As a girl she lived in a 30-room mansion in san Marino. She had a real society wedding and married a Pasadena minister the Rev. Or. Barnes. They had a son Billy who died in his 30s when the Mustang he was flying drilled a Hole not 500 Yards from Pancho s property. Pancho walked out on Barnes when Billy was still an infant and took up flying. She claimed that her husband had Only slept with her once and that produced Billy. So she divorced the reverend and took off. But she sure As hell made up or lost time alter that. She became a smuggler and gun runner flying into Mexico during a revolution. She flew rum runners into Ensenada and Tijuana. She spoke Spanish and yaqui better than i spoke the King s English. She had been living in the Mojave since 1933, where she started her place when the base was Little More than a rat s nest. When i met her. She was married to a Guy named Don Shalita and she invited me and another shooting Star Pilot named Johnny Johnson to go Down to Mexico for a Day or two with her and Shalita. So we drove Down in an old Cadillac and spent the Day in Tijuana. She knew everybody South of the Border. It was real interesting for me because it was my first trip to Mexico even if it was Only right across the Border from san Diego. In the Spring of 1947,1 again made a trip to maroc. And Pancho asked me to Fly Down to Mexico with her in Page 14 the stars and stripes her Stinson. She flew it herself and she was a damned Good Pilot. We flew into Hermosillo where the mayor greeted her like an old pal. They stuffed us with food and filled our tanks Wilh tequila to the Point where yours truly fell asleep standing in a closet. The next morning we set off on horses to a Remote yaqui Indian Village. We Rode All Day to get there and they welcomed her like a Queen. The indians took us out Hunting Deer on horseback. Every time i d shoot the damned horse would rear and while i held on for dear life it galloped me off into the Brush. The Yaquis thought i was a great Clown. From there we flew Down to Gua Ymas where Pancho had a Friend who owned a fishing boat. We went out and caught Narlin i had a Ball and by the time we came Back from that weekend we were Good friends. And i was just a maintenance officer. Her liking me had nothing to do with the x-1, the plane i Lew to break the sound Barrier. But when Bob Hoover and i showed up As the x-1 Drivers you can imagine How pleased she was. Hell she knew everything that went on at maroc. Her place was Only a few Hundred Yards from the Lake bed where we took off from the old South base. She got a bang out of the idea that we were flying the x-1 for the kick of flying it not for some big contract Bonus. She would t let us Ever pay for food or drink. She told Slick goodlin. The civilian x-1 test Pilot who quit the program right to his face do you know what Yeager makes two fifty a month. Do you know what he s getting to Fly the goddamn x-1? two Bucks an hour. And where Are you and your $ 150.000 Bonus you la be Reading about him in the paper when he does what you were supposed to  one night she asked Bob Hoover Why in hell Are you Only a lieutenant he shrugged and said something about a freeze in promotions. That s a Crock of a. The air Force never appreciates real  and she picked up the phone by the bar and called Gen. Spaatz on his unlisted number in Washington. Tooey she said i be got a Young lieutenant Here named Bob Hoover who s being fed Over royally Hoover liked to have died and i stopped laughing by the next Day. Just before our first flights in the x-1. Gene May. A civilian test Pilot came Over to Hoover and me at the bar and said. What makes you Young fellas think you can Fly faster than sound Hoover said. Well. Or. May. Capt. Yeager and i happen to have More time Hying jets than you or any other 10 civilian fliers you can name. So what makes you think we can to Pancho overheard this and said. That s right Gene these two can Fly right up your a and tickle your right eyeball and you would never know Why you were farting Shock  that was old Pancho. W he liked you she was As generous As All outdoors but Man if Pancho did to she was a tomcat by the Tail. For example if she Ever heard anyone say a word against me. Out they went. And they stayed out too. She just thought the world of me and As i be said this was before the sound Barrier. She gave me an old Triumph motorcycle a beat up old wreck but i loved to ride around on it. One weekend before Glennis came out i took Oil with Hoover Riding on the Back to go see Don Bochkay a pal from my old Squadron. Bock lived out Al Malibu and Hoover and i Rode right up the Steps of that front porch and into the living room. Pancho liked Glennis. She knew what it was like living on a Captain s salary and raising a family so she d pack up steaks for us to take Home a couple of times she put us All up in her Motel for a week or More while we were in the process of moving she had a Dalmatian named spot that followed her everywhere and slept right next to her in bed if any of her husbands did t like it. They went not the dog. When spot fathered a litter she gave a Pup to my kids. We named her  Short for sugar which is what i used to Call Glennis in our courting Days. When Pancho got married for the final time to Mack Mchendry. In 1952, she asked me to be Best Man. Albert