Volume 44 - No. 25
June 19, 2014
by Claudia Aragon
As she outfitted her Cessna 180 for a trip around the world, she never set out to create a world record. She thought it would be something fun to do. Just the fact that Jerrie Mock was a woman made this extraordinary feat and her courage remarkable, but she was also a mother of three young children at the time and fortunate that her husband, Russ, was so loving and supportive. On September 28, 1924, four male pilots in U.S. Army service planes took flight to complete the first trip around the world. Two of the planes were lost, and 175 days later the two remaining pilots touched down in Seattle, Washington.
Thirteen years later, on June 1, 1937, Amelia Earhart and her co-pilot, flew out of Miami, Florida, attempting to be the first woman to fly around the world. Many people still believe Earhart was the first woman to complete a solo flight around the globe. However, that belief is incorrect. Earhart never completed her flight. Contact with her plane was lost on July 2nd, 31 days after her initial departure. She was declared legally dead two years later on January 5, 1939. The first record breaking woman to complete this monumental task in 1964, was a 38 year old mother of three, Geraldine "Jerrie" Mock.
She was born November 22, 1925, in Newark, Ohio. Her love of flying began as a small child in 1931, when her father, Tim Fredritz, made arrangements for Jerrie to ride in a Ford Tri-Motor plane. The hypnotic effect and pull on her was immediate. As soon as the wheels left the ground, she was hooked.
While in the 4th grade, Mock heard about Amelia Earhart's accomplishments. When she learned Earhart had made a solo flight across the Atlantic, Jerrie decided she was going to become a pilot as well. She began telling her friends and family she was going to fly around the world. When asked why she wanted to accomplish The Paper - 760.747.7119
website:www.thecommunitypaper.com
email: thepaper@cox.net
this, she said it was a feat she knew no woman had ever done and only a few men had completed.
Jerrie grew up with a hunger and thirst for adventure that only flight and travel could quench. She wanted to see the world and decided she would get her pilots license in order to fly herself to the places she wanted to visit.
She married Russell "Russ" Mock, and then obtained her
pilot's license in 1958. She was happy to discover her dream was still attainable; no other woman had made a solo trip around the world by plane. She still had her chance. She opened a flight school and an aircraft rental business. Jerrie continued to expand and grow as a pilot, taking longer and longer cross-country flights, as well as flights to the Caribbean and New
Brunswick. On one occasion, after taking a flight to the small French Island of St. Pierce, near Newfoundland, Mock could hear pilots talking over the radio through the walls of the room next to them, as they reported their positions over the Atlantic. She became fascinated as she listened and became hooked once more on the idea of an around-theworld flight. Her dream began to come together in 1960, when a neighbor, who was an Air
Around the World! Continued on Page 2