Comments by "jim oberg" (@jimoberg3326) on "The New York Times" channel.

@slimtouche "Is there any guarantee Yeager isn't racist??" == Sad we have to resort to such rationalizations to preserve out own points of view. The basis for the accusations of racism that I've heard seem based on harsh verbal behavior Yeager applied to all his students in the school, expressing doubt about their ability to get through, as a gimmick to spur them to greater efforts [and uncover those who wanted to rely on the 'pull' of their sponsors rather than their own skills]. .
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@slimtouche - No intent to deflect, pose it again and let me tackle it again.
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@slimtouche == "you can't guarantee that Yeager never had a racist moment or phase then what's your point???" == The point is the baseless accusation that WITHOUT Yeager's alleged racism [which you seem to tacitly concede has no verifiable validation] Dwight would have been picked as an astronaut in 1963 and possibly been on an Apollo moon mission.
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@slimtouche == OK, I will.
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He inspired a follow-generation of black astronauts who fully joined into the triumphs and tragedies of space exploration. Worth all gratitude and honor from all earthmen.
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If you just rely on the version in the NY Times, maybe you still don't know important parts of the whole story.
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SicSem, somebody ELSE benefits politically from heightened inter-racial resentment as promoted by the NY Times '1619 Project', but accurate history is the loser. Yeager had nothing to do with 'astronaut applicants', it was a newly-established 'Aerospace Research Pilots" course follow-on for the standard USAF Test Pilot course [which Dwight had already completed]. Once the White House focused attention on him for get-out-the-vote purposes, he was obligated to leave the base for three-day-weekends doing nationwide speaking tours on behalf of the White House, and he made it clear that it was that time-away politically-imposed distraction that kept his ratings middling good, but not top drawer [and not any alleged career sabotage from Yeager, whose racist directive is only a third-hand hearsay without ANY primary or secondary witnesses]. The two top guys [Scott and Freeman] were picked by NASA in September 1963, and the class ended as scheduled in December with the remaining students disbursed to senior test pilot duties throughout the USAF [Dwight was named Director for Flight Test Operations at Wright-Patterson AFB, a senior assignment]. Kennedy's assassination in November had zero influence on the September selection OR on the long-scheduled December end of the training course. One additional factor NASA would have considered that is usually omitted in media accounts is that Dwight [at 5'3"] was 3" shorter than the design minimum piloting height for the Apollo Lunar Module [designed for 5th to 95th percentile male height for that time].
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