Yeager Delivers the Right Stuff for Burn Unit

It may be the experience as a World War II flying ace and as the first man to break the sound barrier that gives one the toughness to comfortably slip on shoes previously worn by Sir Edmund Hillary and Jacques Cousteau and face 460 informed, eager listeners.

Then again, this sort of fortitude may come naturally to Chuck Yeager, the retired Air Force brigadier general and aviation pioneer who came through with flying colors at Saturday’s 10th annual “An Evening With . . . ,” given at the Mission Valley Marriott as a fund-raiser for the UC San Diego Medical School by the school’s auxiliary. Besides Hillary and Cousteau, the gala lecture series--quite a one-of-a-kind event in San Diego--in past years has presented author Tom Wolfe, television newsman Eric Sevareid and sexpert Dr. Ruth Westheimer.

This year, the event benefited UCSD Regional Burn Center, the only treatment center of its kind in San Diego and Imperial counties. A university spokeswoman said net proceeds were expected to exceed $100,000.

Even though there weren’t any doubters in the crowd, Yeager demonstrated his possession of the right stuff by staunchly holding his ground during cocktail hour, despite the stifling crush that developed in the ballroom’s narrow, wind tunnel-like foyer. As the crowd built, lesser men quailed and fled outside.

During the reception, Yeager said he receives a constant string of speaking invitations but refuses most of them, partly because he spends two months every year as a consultant at the Flight Test Center at Edwards Air Force Base. Personal considerations led him to accept the UCSD invitation.

“Getting burned is a pretty tough deal,” he said. “It’s not like breaking a bone. Since I’ve been seriously burned myself, the burn center impresses me, and when they called and asked me to speak for it, I figured that was something I ought to do.” Yeager suffered first-, second- and third-degree burns to his face and hand after ejecting from an out-of-control F-104 test jet in 1963.

The flyer spent part of the day at the burn center, inspecting facilities and visiting patients. Ellen MacVean, chairman of “An Evening With . . . ,” accompanied Yeager on the tour. “He is a delightful person. We’ve had so much fun with him today--he tells such colorful stories,” she said.

The Bill Green Orchestra played between the courses of smoked shrimp, venison in minted berry sauce and “floating cloud” (a meringue dessert) dinner. Dessert spoons were replaced, however, when MacVean took the podium to announce an increase in the program’s tempo; Yeager had a jet waiting at Lindbergh Field and had to leave the hotel in time to beat the airport’s curfew.

Retired Navy Capt. Richard (Zeke) Cormier, who commanded the Blue Angels in the mid-1950s and is a longtime friend of Yeager’s, introduced the speaker.

“Yeager is a hero in the truest sense of the word and could qualify with the best of them,” said Cormier. “He contributed to the advancement of aviation technology and is one of the foremost aviation pioneers.”

Yeager, 67, amused the crowd by saying, “I tell things the way I remember them, and that’s not necessarily the way they happened.”

He also repeatedly teased the distinguished Navy fliers present--including Vice Adm. Jack Fetterman and former Top Gun pilot, now conressman-elect Randy (Duke) Cunningham by referring to them as “Navy weenies.”

The flyer offered a brief course in the correct manner to “drive” a jet fighter, discussed the difficulties posed by G-forces when engaged in aerial combat with Nazi pilots and outlined the sequence of events that led to his being burned when flaming rocket propellant from the ejection seat (which he called a “butt-kicker”) of a test jet ignited the rubber seals on his helmet.

“Guys like myself are very thankful for the work burn doctors do,” he concluded.

The guest list included burn center director Dr. John Hansbrough and his wife, Wendy; UCSD Medical Center hospitals and clinics director Michael Stringer and his wife, Barbara; auxiliary president Joanne Meredith and her husband, Robert; honorary chairman Audrey Geisel; Sally and Bill Ashburn; Judith Pettitt; Victoria and Frank Powell; UCSD Chancellor Richard Atkinson and his wife, Rita; Stephanie and Ted Gildred; Tony Motley; Councilman Ron Roberts and his wife, Helene; Marian Bourland; Leslie and Nick Frazee; Jan and Mike Madigan; Sheri and Ben Kelts; Stephanie and Ronald Saathoff; Susan and Guy Stone, and Mir Kazem and Sima Kashani.

The same evening, a sort of Jazzercise for the jet set left about 300 San Diego Symphony supporters huffing and puffing--musically, of course--as they raced up and down the escalators at Neiman Marcus in Fashion Valley.

“Tuxedo Junction,” a reprise of the “Catalogue Caper” event formerly given as a benefit for the Whittier Institute for Diabetes and Endocrinology Research in La Jolla, took the form of a dressy treasure hunt that sent participants scuttling from department to department in a quest for clues that, ultimately, would win prizes from the famed Neiman Marcus Christmas catalogue. A store spokesman said that future “capers” would be given for a changing roster of beneficiaries.

Chairman Elsie Weston shared her duties with perhaps the first literal co-chairs in history, a pair of actual chairs created in the likenesses of actress Carol Channing and NBC film critic Gene Shalit (the chairs are the featured “His and Hers” gifts in the NM Christmas catalogue and are available for a mere $6,000 each).

“My honorary co-chairs have been silent partners; I haven’t heard much from them,” said Weston, who added that she wore the “oldest and most comfortable” pair of shoes in her collection in anticipation of the floor-to-floor dashes required by the party’s format.

Musicians on the store’s first and second floors provided a background score for “Tuxedo Junction’s” frantic activity. Barry Levich and the Society Band alternated with the Benny Lagasse Trio in offering le jazz hot on the main stage. Upstairs, the Cecil Lytle Combination played a different mood of jazz near the dessert buffet, which in keeping with the event’s black-and-white Art Deco theme included a terrine of light and dark chocolate.

In addition to Weston, the committee included Helen Albritton, Barbara ZoBell, JoAnn Badeau, Yolanda Walther-Meade, Marion Bateson, Judith Shragge, Adriadna Wall, Phyllis Epstein, Madeline Goldberg, Sally Fuller, Maxine Trimble, Jane Walker, Nikki Clay, Beverly Muchnic, Mary Jane Morgan, Jackie Richey, Susan Pope, Kay Porter and Rena Monge.