Yeh Changti

Yeh was born in November 1933 in Huiyang, Guangdong, He graduated from the Republic of China Air Force Academy of Taiwan in 1954. In 1960, he flew a McDonnell F-101 Voodoo on his first reconnaissance mission over the People's Republic of China (PRC). He flew another nine missions the following year, and was personally received by President Chiang Kai-shek of the Republic of China (ROC) twice and awarded two medals. == U-2 pilot and capture ==

In the late 1950s, the United States and the ROC initiated a top-secret reconnaissance program to spy on the PRC's nuclear bomb project. To reach the project sites located deep inland in Northwest China, ROC pilots were trained by the Central Intelligence Agency in the US to fly the Lockheed U-2 high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft. Yeh was selected to receive U-2 training and joined the Black Cat Squadron in 1963. , Beijing After receiving treatment at a PLAAF hospital, Yeh was held at an air force guesthouse in Beijing. Yeh was incarcerated for four years and underwent numerous interrogations. Although some claim he was tortured, Yeh later said he was treated humanely. After the outbreak of the Cultural Revolution, he was released and sent to work on a farm, before being transferred to work at Hanyang Arsenal in Wuhan. Because of his proficiency in English and knowledge in aircraft, he later became an associate professor at Huazhong Institute of Technology and translated papers from Chinese to English for the journal Applied Mathematics and Dynamics (), edited by Qian Weichang. == Release and later life ==

In 1982, the PRC government granted Yeh and Chang permission to return to Taiwan and sent them to Hong Kong. However, Chiang Ching-kuo, then President of the Republic of China, considered them compromised and refused to take them back. Yang Shih-Chu (), a former commander of the Black Cat Squadron, contacted the CIA, which settled the duo in the United States. Neither pilot received a medal from the CIA, but their shoot-down had a major impact on the agency and the US Air Force, which began to prioritize the development of drones at Area 51. Yeh's wife remarried after he was declared dead in Taiwan. After he was released from China, he only met with his former wife once. He remarried in the 1980s. ROC President Tsai Ing-wen and Minister of Defence Feng Shih-kuan both attended his funeral and officially recognized his contribution to the country. == References ==