2007.11.TARPA_TOPICS

Seasons Greetings Happy New Year NOVEMBER 2007

TWA ACTIVE RETIRED PILOTS ASSOCIATION

Lockheed 1649 TWA Jetstream

CONTENTS TARPA TOPICS THE MAGAZINE OF THE TWA ACTIVE RETIRED PILOTS ASSOCIATION

FEATURES:

CONVENTION

7

Vicki McGowen

by Jon Proctor 15

DIETER DENGLER

by Jeff Hill Sr.

17

CROATIA

25

by Bob Dedman 47

by Dino Valazza

4

John P. Gratz

SECRETARY/TREASURER 5 Ed Madigan

FLOWN WEST

35

GRAPEVINE

77

Jeff Hill Sr. TARPA TOPICS

THE ROME DOMICILE

EDITOR’S NOTE

by Barry Schiff

3EASONS 'REETINGS (APPY .EW 9EAR NOVEMBER 2007

TWA HIJACKED

TWA ACTIVE RETIRED PILOTS ASSOCIATION

52

by Rodney C. Campbell

TOPICS is an official publication of TARPA, a nonprofit corporation. The Editor bears no responsibility for accuracy or unauthorized use of contents.

NOVEMBER 2007

Material contained in TARPA Topics may be used by non-profit or charitable organizations. All other use of material must be by permission of the Editor. All inquires concerning the is publication should be addressed to : Lockheed 1649

John P. Gratz, Editor Starliner

TARPA TOPICS

1646 Timberlake Manor Parkway

Chesterfield, MO 63017

3

Guy A. Fortier

300’ PER MILE

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

THE ULTIMATE CONNIE 11

DEPARTMENTS:

Lockheed 1649 TWA Jetstream

Covers: Jon Proctor For timely updates and TARPA news go to www. tarpa.com

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EDITOR ASSOCIATE & GRAPEVINE EDITOR FLOWN WEST COORDINATOR INTERNET WEBMASTER

John P. Gratz 1646 Timberlake Manor PPkwy Chesterfield, MO 63017-5500 (636) 532-8317 jpgratz@charter.net Jeff Hill Sr. 9610 Hidden Lane Woodstock, IL 60098 (815) 338-3551 grapevine_ed@yahoo.com John S. Bybee 2616 Saklan Indian Drive #1 Walnut Creek, CA 94595 (925)938-3492 jbybee4@comcast.net Jack Irwin 2466 White Stable Road Town and Country, MO 63131 (314) 432-3272 jack@smilinjack.com

OFFICERS AND DIRECTORS, 2005 - 2006 PRESIDENT

FIRST VICE-PRESIDENT

SECOND VICE PRESIDENT

SECRETARY/TREASURER

SENIOR DIRECTOR

DIRECTOR

DIRECTOR

INTERNET WEBMASTER

PAST-PRESIDENT

DIRECTOR OF HOSPITALITY

EDITOR

Guy A. Fortier Box 6065 Incline Village, NV 89450 (775) 831-3040 guy4ta@msn.com William A. Kirschner Box 3596 State Line, NV 89449-3596 (775) 588-4223 kshooter1@msn.com Dusty West 4700 Pinnacle Drive Bradenton, FL 34208-8497 (941) 538-0729 DustyGator@TampaBay.rr.com Ed Madigan P.O. Box3565 Incline Village, NV 89450 (775) 831-1265 edmadigan@charter.net Robert C. Sherman 1100 Dranesville Rd. A-320 Herndon, VA 20170-2092 (703) 953-3804 rcsherm2@cox.net Rockney Dollarhide #1Riverside Farm Dr. Crescent, MO 63025 (636) 938-4727 rockney@charter.net William Kientz 14981 Chateau Village Chesterfield, MO 63017-7701 (636) 527-5134 wkientz@sbcglobal.net Jack Irwin 2466 White Stable Rd. Town and Country, MO 63131 (314) 432-3272 jack@smilinjack.com Charles L. Wilder 122 Wild Dunes Way Jackson, NJ 08527-4058 (732) 833-2205 clwilder@optonline.net Robert W. Dedman 3728 Lynfield Drive Virginia Beach, VA 23452 (757) 463-2032 rwded@cox.net John P. Gratz 1646 Timberlake Manor Pkwy Chesterfield, MO 63017-5500 636) 532-8317 jpgratz@charter.net

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PRESIDENTS MESSAGE As Yogi Berra said, “When you come to a fork in the road, take it”. Well, it actually made a lot of sense...this was the directions to his house, and the road came back together before his house.

We at TARPA have come to a fork in the road...our membership has been decreasing at a rate of around 5% a year, and our expenses have risen at about 5% a year.

We have reached a point where the cost of the three TOPICS issues almost eats up our entire dues income. Your Board of Directors has addressed this point since our March 2007 meeting. Many solutions have been discussed...reducing one TOPICS issue, only having bi-annual conventions, having “mini-conventions”, and raising the annual dues.

Most Board members agree with me, that it is important to “keep in contact” thru the three issues of the TOPICS...and have our conventions annually for the same reasons. For the last two years we have sent out special post cards to Honorary Members, to confirm that they still wish to receive the TOPICS. If the cards are returned as undeliverable, or if the recipients decline to continue receiving the TOPICS, we save almost $10 per issue.

While this has saved us money in the past, it is not a source of revenue in the future. So...your Board has approved a $10 per year increase in annual dues for Retired, Active and Eagle members, effective January 1, 2008. This will make Retired and Active dues $50 per year, Eagle and Subscriber dues $40 per year. Per the By-laws, there is no increase in Honorary Membership, which is no charge.

It is our hope that this nominal amount of increase will be received by you, the members in realization of the ultimate inevitability...and be assured, I PERSONALLY HATE HAVING IT HAPPEN ON MY WATCH!! But, like Yogi’s convoluted quotes, it makes sense, leading us back onto the road of sound fiscal footing.

Finally, I need to beat the old drum again, and ask that all members look over their list of friends from TWA that are not TARPA members. Give them a call on an evening or weekend, have a nice chat, and ask them to try membership. Our 2008 convention will be in Nashville, in the center of the country, at the fabulous Gaylord Opryland Mega-Hotel, a great place to renew friendships face to face...I hope to see you all there.

Best Regards,

Guy

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EDITOR’S NOTE It has been my great good fortune to become acquainted with Jeff Hill, Sr. He has demonstrated a strong interest in preserving and enhancing our magazine, TARPA TOPICS. As you know, Jeff preserved the entire library of TOPICS on a CD-ROM. That was a monumental task. Previously, he had submitted several interesting articles and arranged the accompanying photographs using the Adobe PDF format. He has taken several classes to add to his knowledge and computer savvy.

As I finish my eleventh year as Editor of your magazine, I have been thinking of the day that I can pass the task along to a successor. Fortunately, I have found the man in Jeff Hill. You will recognize his talent as Grapevine Editor for the last few issues.

After discussions with President Fortier, Jeff and my brother David, who has been indispensable as Associate Editor from my first day, it has been decided that I will remain as Editor into the next year with Jeff assuming additional work as our Associate Editor as well as Grapevine Editor. We all believe that this plan will be the basis of an orderly transition, and the best interests of all concerned.

In this November 2007 issue, our cover story comes from frequent contributor, Jon Proctor. His Lockheed 1649 story appeared in Airways Magazine, whose Editor John Wegg graciously allowed us to reprint it. In addition, we feature contributions from Bob Dedman, Barry Schiff, Jeff Hill and Dino Valazza our third oldest Member who has been trying to finish and prepare his story of the Rome Domicile for many months, if not years. Finally, we have included excerpts from a book about the Hijacking of our Flight 741 along with four other airlines’ aircraft on September 6, 1970. That event was the subject earlier this year of a documentary film on PBS television called, “Hijack Sunday.”

You will find preliminary information about our TARPA Convention 2008 herein.

Your Officers and coordinator Vicki McGowen have selected the Gaylord Opryland Hotel in the vast Opryland Complex in Nashville. The Hotel and its surroundings give one a wide variety of restaurants and activities replete with Southern Charm.

Photos in this issue of TOPICS courtesy of: Bob Dedman, Jeff Hill and Jon Proctor.

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SECRETARY/TREASURER REPORT September 13, 2007 As of August 31, the membership is as follows: (R) Retired: (A) Active: (E) Eagle: (H) Honorary: TOTAL:

757 23 445 248 1,473

There are also 37 subscribers to Topics and 11 who receive complimentary copies. We have added five new members since the last Topics. They are listed later in this issue.

Following is the financial report for the period from January 1, 2007 thru August 31, 2007: 1/1/2007: Opening Balance Income Expenses Cash Flow

$49,671.01 $52,940.98 $59,764.70 ($6,823.72)

Balance 08/31/2007:

$44,549.97

As mentioned above we have five new members, but would like more.

Please contact your TWA pilot friends and ask that they join us in future events. They can contact me or go on the web site at www.tarpa.com to get an application.

Respectfully Submitted,

Ed Madigan PAGE ... TARPA TOPICS

New Members Ken Petschauer 1906 Sprucewood Way Port Orange, FL 32128 kencfii@aol.com Arnie Kellen (Peggy) 25022 W. Palmer Ct. Antioch, IL 60002 arniekellen@comcast.net

942 E. 1264 RD. Lawrence, KS 66047 Capt84@sunflower.com Wally Erickson (Connie) 325 Caloosa Palms, Ct. Sun City Center, FL 33573 connwall@tampabay.rr.com

Paul M. Wood (Pauline) 34 Hampton Meadows Hampton, NH 03842-1813 Irishmist20@gmail.com Frank Rodkey (Cathie)

Pictured are a few of the “TWA Romeo’s”- Real Old Men Eating Out. They meet every Tuesday morning from 0730 t0 1000 at the Corner Cafe in Riverside, MO. PAGE ... TARPA TOPICS

Nashville in ’08!

We are excited to announce the 2008 TARPA Convention will be held in “Music City,” Nashville, Tennessee. Live music and great entertainment are an integral part of this city. Nashville is home to more than 80 record labels, 130 music publishers, and 180 recording studios. On any given night there are more than 100 live music clubs in Nashville where you can see and hear artists from every genre performing. While most visitors think of Nashville and Country Music, you’ll also find Jazz, Bluegrass; Rock n Roll, and classical music with the Nashville Symphony performing in the all new Shermerhorn Symphony Center.

For our headquarters hotel, we have selected the finest property in the Nashville area, “The Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center”.

Located next to the world famous Grand Ole Opry this nine acre complex is comprised of three unique, glorious atriums; The Garden Conservatory, the Cascades with waterfalls, tropical flowers and Caribbean greenery, and the Delta with the rhythm and fun of a New Orleans style town. Our special TARPA rate at the hotel will be $140.00 per night for single or double occupancy. There is an additional resort fee of $10.00 per room, per night that includes complimentary local and 800 phone calls, high speed internet access, complimentary use of the fitness center, a USA Today delivered to your room, 2 bottles of water per day and scheduled resort transportation. Call 615883-2211 for reservations.

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The hotel is within walking distance of the Opry Mills Shopping Complex, with over 200 discount and specialty retailers, numerous world class restaurants and just 10 minutes from the Nashville Airport. For more information visit www.gaylordhotels.com

Country Music Hall of Fame

Our optional tours will include: x

Country Music Hall of Fame including a visit to the “Wild Horse Saloon”

x

The Hermitage: President Andrew Jackson’s Home & Gardens

x

An evening at the Grand Ole Opry

x

Dinner at the Gaylord Springs Golf Resort

x

Cruising aboard the General Jackson Showboat

x

Belle Meade Plantation

The official date of the 2008 convention will be September 28 – October 3, 2008. Official Convention Registration Forms and more detailed information will be included in the March 2008 TARPA Topics.

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Mark your calendars now to join us for an exciting and memorable trip Music City in 2008!

Questions, contact Ed Madigan or Vicki as listed below:

Ed

Vicki

Ed Madigan Treasurer, TARPA edmadigan@mac.com 775-831-1265

Vicki McGowen McGowen Marketing vickimcgowen@charter.net 775-722-2811

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TWA FLIGHT 800 MEMORIAL HELP NEEDED The tragedy of TWA 800 will be embedded in our memories as long as we live. Most TWA employees and retirees knew at least one member of the TWA family who perished that July 17, 1996. A beautiful memorial was constructed in a park overlooking the crash site. It was completed last year and was dedicated on July 17, 2006, the 10-year anniversary of the event.

Funds had been raised from the families of the victims, friends, corporations (including Boeing, but not TWA) and others. A 501(c)3 nonprofit corporation was established so that contributions would be tax deductible. John Seaman, whose 19 year-old niece was one of the victims, was elected president of the organization and remains the president today.

The Suffolk County Legislature agreed to have the memorial built in its park, and passed a resolution to maintain the site when it was completed. Unfortunately, that was a false promise.

This fiscal year, all funding for the site was eliminated from the budget, although Suffolk County does provide electricity and water. That has placed the entire project in jeopardy. Funding now rests upon the shoulders of John, his committee and friends of the memorial. The goal is to raise enough money to establish a Trust for the purpose of continuing maintenance at the site as well as to raise enough money to fund the maintenance until the Trust can be fully funded.

Several TWA groups have given some assistance, but not nearly enough to fund it for the future.

Jocko has contributed all of the profit from his sales of his TWA Employee Memorial Shirts, but those sales have dwindled to almost nothing. The committee is in dire need of additional funding.

The Memorial is absolutely beautiful. If you would like to see photos of the project, you can e-mail me at clwilder@optonline.net and I will forward them to you. I had the honor of attending the 10 year anniversary and dedication of the Memorial last summer at Shirley, Long Island. As the then president of TARPA, I presented a beautiful wreath to commemorate the occasion. All of the politicians were present, including the governor of New York. Only 10 days later, the funding was reduced and this year funding was eliminated entirely.

I would encourage you to donate as much as you can afford; no amount is too small. Make the checks to “The Families of TWA Flight 800 Association,� and mail to them at the following address:

The Families of TWA Flight 800 Association P.O. Box 1061

Clifton Park, NY 12065 Thanks in advance for your contributions!

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The Ultimate Connie Lockheed’s Starliner by Jon Proctor A slightly shorter version of this story appeared in the June 2007 issue of Airways Magazine, and may be ordered at www.airwaysmag.com.

Even as Boeing’s prototype 707 was taking to the sky in July 1954, trans-Atlantic air carrier managers were looking for an aircraft with reliable nonstop capability in both directions between the United States and European destinations while awaiting the first jets in 1958.

The model 377 Stratocruiser, introduced by Pan American Airways on the New York-to-London segment in June 1949, could barely operate nonstop with a limited payload and speed. The Douglas DC-7B began flying the same route six years later and could do so a bit faster, but neither was able to handle longer legs from southern European destinations, and even the shorter segments often required fuel stops on westbound runs due to headwinds. Likewise, Lockheed’s 1049 Constellations suffered the same capability shortfall, despite greater speed and in some cases, utilization of wingtip fuel tanks. The Bristol Britannia, which first flew in August 1952, was to begin service across the Atlantic in mid-1954 with BOAC, but technical issues resulted in delays lasting until late 1957.

In mid-1954, Douglas Aircraft Company launched the extended-range DC-7C with an order for 15 aircraft from Pan Am. Dubbed “Seven Seas,” it featured a slightly longer fuselage, more powerful engines and an increased center wing section. The airplane was to have a greater fuel capacity than the 1049G Constellation, and be able to fly fully loaded from Paris to New York three hours faster.

Meanwhile, at the request of TWA, Lockheed was working on a turboprop-powered model 1449 Constellation that would have more speed and range than the DC-7C. Howard Hughes wanted to order 25 for use by Trans World Airlines (TWA), which he controlled. The final long-body model, which followed nine earlier versions (1049A through the H) was designed with an entirely new, laminar-flow wing measuring 150 feet, 27 feet greater than the 1049 series airliners. It was to be powered by four Pratt & Whitney T-34 turboprop engines.

Early on, it was determined that the model 1449, with a fuselage identical to the 1049 series, was far too small to operate economically, despite its predicted 100 mph increase in cruising speed.

Nevertheless, Hughes pressed forward and his Hughes Tool Company signed a contract for 25 airplanes in December 1954. Deliveries were to begin in time to allow TWA to put the type in to service for the summer 1956 schedule, against Pan Am’s DC-7Cs Only a month later, Lockheed discovered that the T-34 was not conducive to the Constellation’s wing design, after the power plants produced serious vibrations on two U.S. Navy R7V-2 military versions of the Constellation. The fix would add between 3,000 and 5,000 pounds per airframe.

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At first, Lockheed proposed the model 1549 with Allison 501 turboprops, but ultimately, 3,400 hp turbo-compound Wright 3350 EA-2 engines were chosen for what would become the model 1649A. Larger, 16-ft, 10-in diameter propellers were incorporated as well.

The 1449’s wing was retained, allowing a 9,728gallon fuel capacity, enough to fly even Europeto-California polar flights nonstop. These complex engines, with direct fuel injection and two-stage superchargers, burned 115/145-octane avgas and were supported by the 1649A’s 245-gallon oil capacity. With the increased wingspan, it became possible to locate the engines farther outboard, reducing the cabin noise level. Lockheed brochures boasted a cruising speed 70 mph faster than any other airliner and stated that every European gateway city would be within nonstop range of New York in both directions.

In an effort to promote its final piston-powered civil airliner, Lockheed chose the name “Super Star Constellation,” but later shortened it to “Starliner.” A new agreement between Hughes and Lockheed was consummated in March 1955, changing the order to the 1649A. The manufacturer actually cancelled the entire program less than a month later, as its managers realized that they were far behind development of the DC-7C and would probably not garner enough orders to make the airplane profitable. But probably fearing a lawsuit and a loss of its best customer, Lockheed President Robert Gross finally agreed to build the Starliner at Hughes’ insistence.

While Pan Am’s DC-7Cs arrived in time for the summer 1956 season, the first 1649A did not fly until October 1956 and TWA began receiving its aircraft in May 1957, beginning New York (Idlewild)-London-Frankfurt service on June 1. After initially operating all “Sky Tourist” flights, the Starliners began mixed, first class/tourist flights in August. It was not until 1958 that the type dominated TWA’s trans-Atlantic flying, barely a year before 707s began replacing them, starting November 23, 1959, between New York, London and Frankfurt.

Scratching for any marketing advantage they could find, TWA’s marketing people chose the name, “Jetstream” for the 1649A, thinly disguising their reasoning with the claim that the type flew high enough to take advantage jet stream winds. In fact, the Starliner did not attain its speed advantage over the DC-7C as earlier predicted, a letdown particularly for Howard Hughes, who always wanted to be the fastest in the air.

On September 29, 1957, TWA began polar service nonstop from Los Angeles to London, a mindnumbing voyage lasting more than 18 hours. Return flights operated from London to San Francisco and on to Los Angeles. The westbound inaugural still holds the record for a regularly scheduled land plane flight: 23 hours, 19 minutes flying time (23:32 block time), accomplished using “super long-range cruise” procedures. Equally impressive, the cockpit crew, headed by Captain Gordon Granger, operated the flight on its final leg, down to Los Angeles.

A retired TWA pilot (who shall remain nameless), recently told me he was “pretty sure” that on one of the westbound polar flights, which he flew as first officer, they exceeded 24 hours in the air, but he added, “I’m not sure it was completely legal!”

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Until the jets arrived, TWA’s 1649As provided the industry’s premier transcontinental service, featuring “Siesta” sleeper seats and other comforts that American and United could not match with DC-7s. According to 1958 timetables, domestic Jet stream flights only utilized the Siesta seats, while overnight Super Gs still offered berths.

Among the favorite 1649As with business travelers and celebrities was westbound Flight 91, departing Idlewild Airport just after midnight and arriving LAX early the next morning, in time to turn back to IDL as Flight 4. Its evening arrival provided a rare (for those days) round trip coastto-coast aircraft utilization.

Air France, another loyal Lockheed Constellation customer, originally ordered a dozen 1649As, which it called the “Super Starliner,” but later settled on 10 aircraft. Its first delivered aircraft left Lockheed’s Burbank, California base on July 8, 1957, flying nonstop to Paris (Only) in a record 17 hours, 11 minutes, and began regular Paris-New York flights a month later. Unlike TWA, Air France began by operating a weekly “Golden Parisian” luxury flight seating only 32 passengers; mixed-class flights followed. Service began in early 1958 on the polar route from Paris to Tokyo via Anchorage.

While Lufthansa’s Constellation experience was limited to eight 1049G models, and later a pair of wet-leased 1049Hs, the German carrier purchased four Starliners for use on its long-haul segments.

Not ordered until March 1956, the “Super Stars,” as Lufthansa called them, were introduced on new Cologne/Bonn-New York flights in February 1958, followed by New York service from Frankfurt and Düsseldorf. The airline’s “Senator” service featured deluxe accommodations, including berths.

With four 1649As on order at the time, Italian carrier Linee Aeree Italiane (LAI) was merged into Alitalia (which had ordered DC-7Cs) in 1957. The airliners, already built and awaiting delivery, were acquired by TWA and handed over in May and June 1958, bringing that carrier’s fleet total to 29. Initially, these airplanes were not radar-equipped, and featured a white nosecone.

All four aircraft were converted to cargo configurations in the spring of 1961, serving in passenger service barely two years. In addition, TWA relegated six other Jetstreams to freight duties beginning in late 1960. Its passenger versions had come off trans-Atlantic routes in November 1961 and flew scheduled domestic segments until the end of 1962. The first to be retired was N7325C, when it became due for its first major overhaul. The last three passenger versions (N7314C, N7318C and N7321C) were withdrawn in March 1965 after seeing limited charter work.

Lufthansa also relegated a pair of Starliners to cargo flying from June 1960, and had retired all four by February 1966. Although Air France pressed some 1049G models into freight hauling, its Starliners did not, and as a result, left the fleet earlier, by the end of 1963.

Unlike earlier models of the Constellation, the Starliner saw no military service. Only 44 were built, versus 121 DC-7Cs, and the last one was delivered in February 1958, only eight months before the start of trans-Atlantic jet service.

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All three original Starliner operators enjoyed brief supremacy with their luxurious but expensive investments. The type went on to fly on a second-hand basis with several other operators, but none of the graceful aircraft spent nearly enough time in the air to reach their potential as the ultimate in piston-powered airliners.

Sidebar: The Hughes Factor Despite opposition from Robert Rummel, his long-trusted head of aeronautical engineering, Howard Hughes pressed ahead with the Starliner, aircraft that were certain to become obsolete long before they earned enough revenue to justify their $50-million price tag, at the time a huge sum for a single order.

It was claimed that Hughes had only a verbal agreement with Lockheed President Bob Gross and not an actual contract, while others say that the original 1449 order was still binding. By the time Lockheed began cutting metal, Hughes realized the 707 would catch up with the Starliner by less than two years, but it is said he went ahead with the deal as a moral obligation. Also opposed to the purchase was Ralph Damon, president of TWA at the time.

An incident involving the type would prompt Damon’s eventual successor, Carter Burgess to leave the airline. After commandeering a Starliner (N7310C) right off the Burbank assembly line, Hughes flew it to Montreal in June 1957, then on to Nassau two months later. Meanwhile, TWA was losing daily revenue thanks to the Starliner’s unavailability. During this time, Burgess kept begging him to return the airplane for TWA’s use.

Finally, on October 27, Hughes flew it back, by himself, nonstop from Nassau to Los Angeles. After a long flight across the country, he was forced to circle for nearly two hours because the airport was fogged in. TWA officials, fearing that Hughes would fall asleep, urged traffic controllers to keep talking with him as he circled over the Long Beach Airport, refusing to land there.

Even after returning to California, Hughes kept the airplane out of service and under guard until the disgusted Burgess resigned on December 31, barely a year after taking the job. Records show that TWA actually bought the airplane outright from Hughes Tool Co., but it may well have been tied up until year’s end.

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300 feet per mile by Barry Schiff When I was hired by Trans World Airlines in 1964, the airline’s Jack Frye Training Center occupied all eight stories of an old brick building at 1307 Baltimore Avenue in Kansas City, Missouri.

Soakie’s was a block away and a favorite watering hole for pilots in training to have lunch, most often a hot pastrami sandwich washed down with a mug of cold suds.

It was anticipated that when Elvin Gooch began teaching Electrical in monotone immediately after our return from Soakie’s, eyes would glaze and heads would fall. (Gooch was even known by other ground instructors as the “Sandman.”)

Those of us experienced in passing out knew to allow our heads to fall quietly onto a book instead of announcing our slumber with the distinctive sound made when a head hits the top of a wooden table. It amazed me that Gooch could continue lecturing about the Boeing 707’s transformerrectifiers throughout all of this without missing a beat (although I was not always sufficiently awake to observe). I recall once being awakened by a particularly loud crescendo of a snore that rose sharply above the sonorous ambiance created by others and broke through Gooch’s level of tolerance.

“Wake up that man!” he once commanded to those who were still awake.

The anonymous reply came from the back of the class. “You put him to sleep; you wake him.”

Thankfully, not all after-lunch classes were like that, but Electrical by Gooch was a great cure for insomnia. One of my favorite subjects was Flight Operations, and I had no trouble staying awake for that. It was there that I was introduced to the 300-foot-per-mile rule. The rule simply states that a conventional, 3-degree glide slope (normally the optimum vertical profile to use during a landing approach) descends 300 feet per nautical mile.

In other words, multiply your distance from touchdown by 300 feet to determine target altitudes while on final approach. For example, when three, seven, or 12 miles from touchdown, you should be 900 feet, 2,100 feet, and 3,600 feet height above touchdown, respectively. (A steeper 4-degree glide slope descends at 400 feet per mile, and so forth.)

This rule allows us to descend on an approximately 3-degree descent profile even when an electronic glide slope or visual approach slope indicator is unavailable. Although it can be used at any time, it is most valuable when executing a nonprecision instrument approach at night in low visibility and especially when over dark terrain. It helps to negate the effect of visual miscues and prevent premature descent from the minimum descent altitude (MDA), one of the riskiest aspects of such an approach.

As every instrument pilot knows, it is not permissible to vacate the MDA until other visual cues associated with the runway are in sight. The problem is determining the point at which it is safe to leave the MDA when such cues do become visible. For example, what if the pilot begins to see PAGE 15 ... TARPA TOPICS

the approach lights when three miles from the runway while at an MDA of 400 feet? It would be hazardous to begin a descent at this point because the descent profile would be much too shallow (133 feet per mile), and the pilot would run the risk of premature ground contact (a euphemism for crashing).

The question then becomes, how does a pilot know when it is safe to leave the MDA? This is when the 300-foot-per-mile rule comes in handy. A normal descent from 400 feet should begin when one and one-third miles from the runway (determined by dividing 400 feet by 300 feet per mile), not when the lights might first become visible three miles from the airport.

Premature, shallow descents are unwise for two reasons. First, the regulations mandate that a pilot may not leave the MDA unless he is in a position from which to make a normal approach using a “normal rate of descent.� A descent profile that is too steep or too shallow violates this regulation.

The second and most important reason for being patient about leaving the MDA is one not clearly understood by all pilots. Obstacle protection during an instrument approach is assured only while navigating a prescribed course at or above the minimum altitude shown. Once a pilot vacates the MDA, he assumes total responsibility for visually avoiding ground obstructions irrespective of how dark the night or how poor the visibility.

Many years ago, the beneficent FAA opted to show on instrument approach charts the exact location of the optimum point at which to leave the MDA, a point along the final approach course from which the descent profile would be about 3 degrees. Initiating descent before reaching such a visual descent point, or VDP, would obviously be risky, while doing so much after passing the VDP would require diving at the runway. We applauded the FAA for this. But then the program went aground almost as soon as it had begun. VDPs were established for some nonprecision approaches and not for others.

Now that virtually all airplanes used for instrument operations are equipped with GPS receivers, it is especially easy to establish your own VDP using the 300-foot-per-mile rule and the display of distance to the airport. You can even do this using a handheld receiver because it is being used for reference, not guidance, if you get my drift.

Reprint from AOPA Pilot

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DIETER DENGLER 1938 – 2001 TWA 3/29/68 – 1/1/81

By Jeff Hill, Sr. The recent July 2007 release of Rescue Dawn (Gibraltar Entertainment, directed by Werner Herzog, starring Christian Bale and Marshall Bell, color, 126 minutes) has revived memories of the saga of the only Viet Nam POW to escape to freedom. As one film critic wrote, “You know right off that this is not fiction.” “What producer would name an American Viet Nam war hero Dieter Dengler?” And indeed, it is not fiction. The story was told by Dieter himself in his 1979 book, Escape From Laos.

Lt. Dengler ca. 1966

THE BOOK First, there was the book; Escape From Laos. by Dieter Dengler (Presido Press, 505 B San Martin Dr. Suite 300, Novato, CA 94945, 1979, reprinted 1996, 209 pages.) (I bought my copy on the internet from Amazon.Com.) If you want to know Dieter, his book is the place to start. It is his first person narrative and by far the most expansive and detailed account of his five month ordeal.

The “About the Author” page sets the stage: “Dieter Dengler was born in Germany in 1938 and emigrated to the United States in 1957. He enlisted in the U.S. Air Force and, after his discharge in 1961, enrolled at San Francisco City College. He later transferred to San Mateo Junior College where he studied aeronautics and was awarded the 1962 Air Youth Award which is given to outstanding students in that field.”

“In 1963 he was accepted for naval flight training and a year later was commissioned an ensign. In December of 1965 his squadron embarked aboard the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Ranger, and he was soon flying missions over North Vietnam.”

“In February of 1966 he was shot down over Laos and captured by the Communist Pathet Lao. His unprecedented escape five months later made the front pages of newspapers across the country and around the world and prompted articles in Time magazine, The Saturday Evening Post, and other publications.”

“Lieutenant Dengler received the U.S. Navy's highest award, the Navy Cross, as well as the Distinguished Flying Cross, Air Medal, and Purple Heart. After completing his tour of duty in

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the navy, he joined Trans World Airlines as a pilot and is presently based in San Francisco.” (This was written in 1979.)

Dieter’s struggle as a young boy during WW II and the post war era may have helped him survive his ordeal. He tells of his mother going into bombed out buildings to salvage wall paper and then boil the wheat gluten out of the paste. Twenty some years later Dieter tells how, starving in the jungle, he catches a snake, “One of the nearby boulders was hollowed out into a shallow, bowlshaped depression, about five feet across and three feet deep, and in the bowl was coiled a brilliantly colored snake. Without even stopping to see if the snake was poisonous, I got into the bowl, beat the snake with my rucksack, and snatched it up. It coiled around my hand and arm, and I took the head in one hand and the tail in the other, pulling the snake taut and biting it in half. My mouth tasted of salt, as both ends of the snake coiled and writhed about my hands. The long brown liver hung from the gash in its body, and I began to eat it and kept eating it until half the snake was gone. I spread out the remainder of the carcass on the rock to dry, then lay down to rest.”

This book is not for the squeamish. Dieter is equally graphic in describing how he and his fellow prisoners were tortured, tormented and punished by their captors. The only comic relief here was the nick names they gave their guards, Bastard, Thief, Jumbo (a midget) Little Hitler, etc. It’s also amusing to hear Dieter tell how he would put on a fake smile and curse the guards with every filthy word he knew – in German, of course.

The decision to try to escape was difficult. Dieter: “Was the slim chance of freedom worth the high risk of death?

No matter how bad the conditions were in the camp, at least I was still alive. The moment I committed myself to escape I gave up that firm grip on life. I knew that as soon as we were on the other side of that fence and into the jungle, the rest would be up to us. It would have been so much easier and more secure to stay where we were and give it another six months or a year, hoping the war would end and we’d be released.”

And after escaping, things hardly went well; waving frantically at a chopper that then strafes them, being too cold and wet at night and baking during the day and always hungry and hurting from wounds, leaches, mosquitoes, ants and gnats – bare foot, also.

And bitter frustration: “I decided to explore the area. Duane stayed where he was. I found a narrow trail leading to the creek and then paralleling it into the bush toward the bank of an unseen river. I came across some pepper plants and a few corncobs that had been picked nearly

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clean. Since these were signs that people could be around, I kept hidden as much as possible. I pushed the covering brush aside and looked across the creek. Several abandoned huts sat in a small clearing along the river. Something about them rang a bell in the back of my memory. I checked each detail against the picture in my mind and, as soon as I was sure, heartsickness and despair overcame me. I knew we had been here before. At first I wanted to hide the truth from Duane, but he would find out on his own soon enough.” “‘Don’t panic,’ I said as soon as I got back to him, ‘but get ready to be sick.’ His eyes searched my face. ‘You know that abandoned village we spent the night at a few days ago?’ He nodded, ‘Well, it’s just across the creek over there.’” “‘I don’t believe you!’”

“I led him to the spot from where we could see the huts, and the two of us crouched there staring at the sight without saying a word. Finally the horror of it grew too awful to handle and the tears flowed. Disoriented by the floating, curved ridges and the twisting river, we had traveled in a circle. All of our suffering had been for nothing. We had crossed a ridge and thought we’d found a new river, when we had actually floated around a mountain by night, climbed over it, and come back to the same river.”

When Dieter is finally rescued, after being spotted by a Skyraider on patrol and what Dieter describes as “…the miraculous series of circumstances that led to my being spotted by the Spad”, I did not feel the joy of a happy ending. Rather just a great feeling of relief that the horror had finally ended.

Dieter after rescue

THE DOCUMENTARY Little Dieter Needs to Fly (1997, color, 74 minutes, not rated) is a documentary produced, directed and narrated by Werner Herzog who also directed Rescue Dawn. It is available on DVD from Amazon.Com and others at around $15. It is essentially Escape From Laos condensed and narrated by Dieter himself, now nearing age sixty, and hardly the gay

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blade, eccentric young pilot we remember from his brief tenure of 12 years at TWA (which included two furloughs). This film is as odd as its title. It is not a re-enactment of the story, as is Rescue Dawn, but here Herzog takes Dieter to the venues where his story unfolded and Dieter muses over what occurred there. We start at Dieter's home in Mill Valley, CA where he shows that he still feels the need to horde large quantities of staples such as flour, sugar, rice, etc. Then it’s off to his small hometown of Wildberg, located in Bavaria. And it is here that we learn how the odd title for the film came to be.

He tells of his boyhood and how, although the American bombers and fighters were bombing and strafing the town (there was a rail yard on the edge of town) he was fascinated by the planes and their pilots whose faces he could see in the low flying P51s. Speaking of the little boy (himself) in the third person, which would be a very ordinary sentence structure in his native German, he says that when the boy saw the pilots in their planes, it was then he (the little boy) knew that, “little Dieter needs to fly”.

Little did he know that one day he himself would be bombing and strafing villages in a Skyraider in Southeast Asia; little did he know that he would once more be running and hiding from American bombers and fighters after he was shot down over Laos in 1966.

In one particular scene in the jungle they re-enact the beginning of his forced march to the POW camp. Four young Asians act as guards, and as one begins to tie his hands, tears well up in his eyes and he chokes up and says, “This is getting a little too close to home”.

Otherwise, Dieter seems almost devoid of emotion, not even anger. Neither is he dramatic, he speaks nearly in a monotone. Again, as he tells of his rescue, I was more relieved than exalted.

NOW THIS IS IMPORTANT: When the film ends and the credits begin to roll, DO NOT STOP THE DVD. There is a postscript which shows Dieter’s interment at Arlington National Cemetery in 2001 – with full military honors, fly over and all.

Dieter ca. 1997

THE MOVIE Rescue Dawn, Gibraltar Entertainment, 2007, directed by Werner Herzog, starring Christian Bale and Marshall Bell, color, 126 minutes.

The book and the documentary are for the serious students; the movie is for the rest of us. It is well done and faithful to the true story. Bale as Dieter and Bell as Duane are convincing, even if not quite as dirty, scared, scarred, depressed and emaciated as I would have imagined Dieter and Duane were. It was filmed in Thailand and the scenery is magnificent.

Marshall Bell (L) and Christian Bale

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It is fun to see faces put on the characters. Bale looks a little like Dieter in his twenties. The Laotian Guards look like I imagined them – especially the midget (Jumbo). How could Jumbo know that the simple kindness of a little extra rice for a prisoner would soon save his life?

How does one compress a five month ordeal into a two hour film? One cannot, like most films, if you want the rest of the story, “read the book”.

So far, every TWA buddy I’ve talked with, who has seen Rescue Dawn liked it, whether or not they knew Dieter. It is different from the book and the documentary, in that while faithful to the story line it’s a dramatization designed to please an audience. One item a few people questioned, was the ending, thinking it was unlikely that four days after the rescue, some buddies would smuggle him out of the hospital at Da Nang and fly him to the Ranger for a reunion with his shipmates. That does seem a little “too Hollywood”, doesn’t it? I quote Dieter in the epilogue of Escape from Laos: “The tires of the S2F squealed in the old familiar way, and the plane decelerated quickly, as it had picked up the wire across the carrier’s deck. We taxied forward. The large elevator carried the aircraft down into the Hangar deck of the ship.”

“The next few minutes were indescribable. There was a red carpet and thousands of men yelled and cheered. Friends hugged me and we cried. I was maneuvered down the steep steps, through the gangways, along the narrow corridors, and hands and arms reached out to me. They had a big cake for the celebration and everyone had a million questions. I was the happiest man on earth. They put me in the admiral’s quarters where friends, doctors, and food kept me busy constantly….”

This is how Herzog ends the film. It is a “Hollywood ending” and it gives that “happily ever after” feeling, unlike the book and the documentary. But knowing this is not make believe, your vision may blur a bit and you may find it a little hard to talk for a minute or two.

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(The photo and comments were submitted by Lyle Bobzin after a recent visit to the Seattle Museum of Flight.)DC-2 Exterior is well done. The engine nacelles are original, note: propellers are constant speed, are from later DC-3 Wright 1820. What is not visible: later Wright 1820 engines have a hydraulic pump installed on the both engines. This DC-2 now has a hydraulic pump on the right engine. This was not the original hydraulic system in which the copilot hand pumped the gear and flap operation.

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Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award Phil Rimmler sends word that he and Rich Batchelor received the Master Pilot Award at a ceremony in Mesa, Arizona. They join 200 other pilots who have contributed and maintained safe flight operations for 50 or more consecutive years. We believe it is an achievement for which both of these TARPA Members can rightfully take pride.

Phil also sent this poem based on fond memories of the start of his 50 years as a pilot.

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CROATIA

WHERE IS THAT? by Bob Dedman Well, Indiana Bob and brave wife Ilse, decided to go seek out the unknown world, for us at least, and found a wonderful land with great people.

Once again, we departed Dulles Airport en route to Frankfurt and then to the Capital of Slovenia, LJUBLJANA, pronounced “Luble-ana.” The flight from Dulles was Lufthansa Business. It was not anything compared to our TWA business but surely better than sitting in coach for 9 hours. The flight from Frankfurt to Ljubljana was on an Adriana Airlines Airbus 320, a smooth flight and a “greaser” for the Captain on landing. The airport was clean, but no jet ways, terminal was like Amarillo in the 50’s. Very stark and small but baggage was delivered rapidly and we were met by our “Vantage Guide” and our luggage was put on the bus. About the last time we handled the bags except for putting them out in the mornings we were traveling.

Our first night of stay was at a place about 30 miles away named Lake Bled. To say it was beautiful would be an understatement.

Our hotel overlooked the lake with a castle directly across from us and when it was lit up at night, it was like Disneyland.

The castle is 1000ft above the lake and was built in 1004 when Henry II from Germany who ceded the land to the Bishop of Christen Brien with all of its 5000 square miles. The lake also contains the only island in the country and we were treated to a 20-person Gondola ride, not poled but propelled in the rear by one oarsman who stands up and rows forward. The island also had an old church and museum and legend has it that if you ring the church’s bell, your wish will come true.

Marshall Tito had a beautiful home on the lake, as well as most everywhere else in the country.

It is now a very exclusive hotel called Villa Bled. The economy of Slovenia is very stable as they were not involved in the Yugoslavian war however, they did suffer WW II damages.

We arose the next day to a clear day and with time to spend; we walked around the entire perimeter of the lake, 3.7 miles. Shaded walks, wild flowers, clean air and gentle solitude so when we boarded the bus again, we felt great. We went by a very luxurious bus to a mountain range called the Julian Alps (after Julius Caesar) to visit the largest lake in the country Lake Bohin, 3 x 5 miles of water with which they have a disappearing lake. When the snow melts in the spring, an overflow lake forms that is almost as big as lake Bohn but gradually flows away as summer begins. An area called Kransjska Gora is a very famous ski resort for the locals and Europeans.

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The area is also known for the famous Lipitzana horses that came from Lipica. The horse originated in 1580 from Arch Duke Karl’s stables and was later brought to the forefront in Vienna and other European cities. The rest is history.

The next day we went back to the capital, Ljubljana, following the river of the same name, into town. One of the big industries there is Bee keeping. They export bees all over the world.

We visited City Hall with its rather Gothic or Moorish structuring and were pleased by the entire structure. We visited several churches, the most impressive being ST. Nicholas Catholic Church. Almost 90% of Slovenians are Catholics.

Next day was a visit to Zagreb, our first stop in Croatia, which is well known from the years of fighting and liberation in Yugoslavia and the scene of military and humanity trials. Zagreb is an old city, dating to the 13th century and has many points of interest to visit but since we were there on a Saturday and Sunday, many museums and art galleries were closed but we still had so much to see and do. The main edifice is the Cathedral of St. Stephens with its spires rising over 110 meters each, roughly 350 feet. Believe it or not, one of the high lights after the church was a visit to the cemetery, which is located on the higher hills. This is much more than a burial place; it is adorned with beautiful vaults, tombs, flowers, walkways and all enclosed like a fortress with high walls with towers. Never seen a place like that and believe me, it was so pleasant walking around and taking pictures.

A little history, Croatia, even during the Yugoslavia rule under Tito, was a major producer. It supplied about 60% of the industry and products. It is very old, dating back to the 12th century when the Mongol’s took over and damaged the place. Shortly after that, a major earthquake and fire destroyed much of the city. The people rebuilt and what we see now is dating back to around 1903. Many churches abound with great statues and plazas to enjoy. One church that really stood out was the Greek Catholic Orthodox. They follow the Pope’s word but still keep the orthodox services. The roof is totally roofed in various patterns of ceramic tiles that are stunning. Croatia is also the greenest country in the world with over 80% covered with trees or vegetation. As a country, they allow NO non-organic food or drink to be imported; the water is clean and perfectly drinkable all over. Trash is non-existent but unfortunately, graffiti is starting in.

From Zagreb, we traveled the countryside to one of their magnificent national parks called Plitvika Lakes National Park. Full of waterfalls, ponds, fish. It was clean and well equipped for senior walking. The whole pace was relaxed and geared to enjoy. All took hoards of pictures and I am no exception. Knowing the limitations to our fine magazine, I shall let my friends John and David Gratz select what is appropriate, and will fit the page.

On our drive toward the coast (we had been inland so far), we passed a city that won three awards Internationally for their beers, Kalovasko, but don’t ask me to spell them, very good for sure. Passing Gorski-Kotar area and passing the Continental Adriatic divide, we started down toward the coast of Dalmatia. We passed 16 lakes and pools on mountain roads and then, there it was, the Adriatic Sea. 1185 islands on the Croatian Adriatic coast line and perfectly clear weather. Our guide pointed out that the island we were looking at straight ahead is called

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Golotok Island and it was the jail for Communists who disagreed with Tito’s non-alignment policies. There were over 15000 prisoners who were sent there and they were beaten, debased, abuse to hard labor. The few that admitted their “errors in thinking” were made wards, given benefits and eventually returned to society. The island is now deserted and no one is allowed there.

Our destination for the next three days was the beautiful seaside town of Opatija where we were booked into a fantastic water view room. The town is very tightly bound and the streets are small, traffic is terrible but every one is SOBER. Croatia allows NO drinking and driving and enforces it. Nice to know your fellow driver is sober. There is a 4 km. Boardwalk to enjoy with fishing vessels anchored, or moored nearby. Picture postcard place. Most of our meals were in the hotels with few exceptions and they were very good. The breakfast servings are unbelievable, cold cuts, cheeses, yogurt, fruits, eggs, etc., so you really don’t need the lunch that was included so, hey, free lunch, pilots dream.

Our next day adventure took us on the peninsula that is just south of Trieste, Italy, the site of much bombing and fighting but you would never know it by the highways, tunnels and villages.

First class. We visited Pula, pronounced PULA..hah, gottcha. They are most famous for their harvest of truffles. Very expensive but when used right, most tasteful in some dishes. Pula is also known for its ship building. They built the largest car carrying ship for the Japanese, a 7040 automobile capacity for Toyota.

Here we were also treated to the best preserved in natural stone, coliseum, capable of seating 23000 persons, in shade if necessary, with sanitary facilities to boot. Actually, amphitheater would be a more correct name for this edifice. It was just outside the walled city that still has its entry gates dating back to the 1 st century AD. One arch was later Roman from the 7th century AD. In the walled city, one still finds it is a wonderful Roman Forum square with 4 carved columns. Recent excavations have discovered more buried city but due to the lack of funds, they have been covered over for the time being, so sad. We then went north to Rovinj to view another ancient cathedral, some old tombs, and the remainder of the Roman highway toward Trieste and then back to our hotel for a free night out and believe it or not, we ate pizza and beer. Good too.

Next morning, we were treated to a boat ride along this beautiful coast but first, a shot of schnapps to start the day. The only homes on the waters edge are “grand fathered” and priceless. The rest of the rich folks have to build about 100 meters back if they can afford the land. We disembarked at 1000-year-old little town called Mosenicka Draga. Being a mediaeval town, its streets were very narrow and steep on a mountainside. In 1624, the Hapsburgs came, set up an olive mill driven by a horse, then hand pressed, barreled and then sold. It is still very much like that now except they do not produce olive oil anymore.

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As an extra trip, we were offered; was to go to some of the largest caves in Europe. They are called Postojna Caves. We once again went over the border of Slovenia. They have over 7500 caves in the country with over 24 open to the public and are a very popular tourist attraction. We were driven 3 km. into the cave by tram then started our walk. I really cannot explain how wondrous and beautiful these caves are because it defies description. Huge halls, draping stalactites, stalactites, growing stalagmites all cleverly lighted with safe guardrails and walkways. We were introduced to the “Human Fish”. No eyes since they live in total darkness, have no pigments, look like human skin, live over 100 years, and go without food for over 6 months. They are very shy and they can reproduce asexually. The grand cathedral was the high light but many of the side passages were equally beautiful. The temperature is always 47 degrees Fahrenheit so a sweater was nice.

Before we left Opatija, we were treated to a private lecture on the area by a special manager from our tour company, Vantage.

The city is 1300 years old being ruled by KNEZ until he died. In 925, the first Croatian King Tomislav ruled until his death then by his royal family from 1102 until 1990. Serbs were the majority population with 25 million. In the 16th century, half a million Serbs were offered land in return for military service and so settled in Croatia. WWII brought Hitler’s invaders into Poland but Yugoslavia opted for neutrality but the Germans forced them into the 3 party pact, of Italy-Germany-Japan.

In April 6 1939, Germany declared war on Yugoslavia and in 1941 they set up a puppet government. In September 1945, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia, Monte Negro, and Macedonia became Yugoslavia under Communism. The economy was in ruins, the Commies took everything and instituted 5 year plans for recovery. In November 1948, Stalin denounced Yugoslavia hoping to oust Marshall Tito. Then Yugoslavia was expelled from the Communist Communities. Tito was not ousted but went against Russian policies. Tito purged those who were against him by sending them to the dreaded Goliotk Island. Tito died in 1980. With the current world crisis it is interesting to note that Albania is the only Muslim country and over 90% Islamic. They are just south of Monte Negro and could upset the balance and become hostile since Croatia allows no mosques in their country.

I think we all were wondering, what would the Dalmatian Coast be like. Well, it is a view much like the coast of California but with islands in the foreground. Quaint little villages abound along the shores and fishing is a big business there. Clean is not just a word there, it is everywhere, no garbage, junk, or bottles.

We are now heading south to Sibenich (SHEE-ben-nick), located alongside the flooded mouth of the Krka River, and is a most picturesque city. It dates back to 1066, during the reign of the Croatian King Kresimir IV and the city is dominated by the fortress St. Michael. The complex of steep streets and arched passageways lead to the harbor and magnificent snippets of views from small niches. A visit to a UNESCO World Heritage site was a must and yes, it was another Cathedral, St. James.

This day was the longest on the road but it was also an eye opener. For a country that has only had 15 years freedom, what a highway system they have made. We see in the USA that highways PAGE 28 ... TARPA TOPICS

cost a million a mile plus overruns. Well, we traveled over some of the Best highways I have seen. They have made many tunnels, some 2.5 to 3 miles long and double lanes at that.

Absolutely well done but, they are also toll roads and who are we to say that is not the way to go to support your highway infrastructure. We had a couple of ‘comfort” stops with one being the Oteck Castle that is now a hotel and playground. Not too many castles have been able to make the transition from old to modern but this one was just great. After boarding the bus again, we proceeded to the town of Zadar where we had lunch at a local outside café. We dined on fresh tuna but many of our group did not like the strong taste of Adriatic tuna. We then had a walking tour of the city through two more cathedrals and also toured the Benedictine Nuns treasury. There were some collection of cloths, statutes, icons and paintings and they managed to keep them safe during all the battles, how, we don’t know and they do not tell.

One of the strangest “things” to see and hear is the only Ocean Organ in the world. Someone, who’s name did not come up, buried a bunch of pipes of varying lengths under the water front levees and when the waves moved in, air was compressed (at various tones) and music sounds out of “blow holes” in the concrete. Very interesting and I think that Bach might have been able to make a fugue out of the sounds. Another interesting fact that I have been trying to investigate is, our guide said that this town had been bombed 72 times by the Allies. I questioned that but she assured me that it was true. Still have found nothing to validate that except an excerpt on Google that referred to the severe Allied bombings. Why? The hotel we stayed in was very much like some of our “family’ places and were well equipped but the rooms were still the old Russian style with little comfort, small and would probably pass for motel 5 ½ in the USA. But, the bar, restaurant and patios were alive with dancing, disco, and things for the children to do, all in all, a nice place, crummy room and an air conditioner that should have been given a merciful death ten years ago.

The next morning we went to the Krka Park National Park with its beautiful falls, river gorges and a peaceful walking tour followed by a return boat trip and back on the bus where we proceeded to a small mountain top village, Jurlinovi Dvori for a rustic lunch. The village itself is small and charming and it’s a living testimony to the past. Homes are made out of local stone and roofs are also layered shale-like stones and are very water- tight. The people are very friendly and the local priest and some of his relatives hosted us. Lunch was served family style with about 10 persons to a table. Home made breads, wines, schnapps, soup, fried smelts plus fruits made for a wonderful time. We visited the small chapel, wine making room, smoke kitchen and the priest’s room and after cracking some fresh almonds, we bade our goodbyes and headed back to our Russian hotel, “The Ivan”. That evening, the whole group was treated to dinner al fresco in a charming garden and cabana setting with musicians strolling and entertaining. An excellent dinner and all in all, a great day.

After a huge buffet breakfast, that are customary there, we were on the road again heading toward the “jewel” of the trip, Dubrovnik but we still had one more great place to visit and that was Split, just like it is spelled for a change. The treat was another UNESCO Heritage Site, this one being Diocletian’s Palace and the walled city surrounding it. A most imposing gentleman named Damir Mrkonjic who was to be our guide met us. This man was a walking encyclopedia

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of information, dates and interesting facts surrounding the palace and city. A brief history about this city and the emperor who built it. In the 1st century, is was a small fishing village until it was occupied by the Romans. In 295 AD, Roman Emperor Gaius Valerius Aurelius Diocletianus started building his palace in the land of his birth. He came up through the ranks of the Army to Command it and later become Emperor; quite a feat for a non- Roman.

After his abdication in 305 AD, the retired Emperor left Nicomedia and settled in the palace, which took 10 years to complete, intending to spend the rest of his life there. The rectangular palace occupies an area of about 29000 square meters. After his death, the palace remained an imperial possession. The transformation of the palace into the town began in the seventh century when the inhabitants of nearby Salona took refuge in it during the invasion of Avards and Slavs. In the 10th and 11th centuries, Split came under the rule of Croatian Kings. At the beginning of the 12th century, like other Dalmatian towns, it became a free commune under direct authority of the Hungaro-Croatian king. At the beginning of the 15th century, the mediaeval free commune was replaced by Venetian administration that lasted until the end of the 18th century. In the 19th century, after a short period of rule under the French, the town fell to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. After WWI, the role of Split as a cultural, administrative and economic center became greater, reflecting in the towns expansion and large population influx. Following WWII, during which time the town suffered from frequent air raids, there began the most dynamic development of the city. This is what we were about to witness.

The city has four gates, all oriented on the compass. We entered the South gate that is under the walls that was originally a waterway entrance. It had high Moorish style ceilings to accommodate the rising and falling tides. Airshafts were built for the area for palace ventilation and moisture, I presume. Steep steps brought us up two levels to the main floors.

We visited the tomb of the Emperor and it is beautiful tiled and adorned with pillars that certainly took away any somberness of a tomb. Windows were later built in to allow light so visitors can see.

Across from the tomb is Jupiter’s temple built in the 9th century. Ironically, Jupiter’s statue is not there but one Ivan Mestrovich’s is. He was a very famous Croatian sculptor.

As one can expect from a walled city, there was no space to waste so ALL the streets are very marrow and steep with stairs. Except for the Main Square and assembly areas, the land was carefully used. Split reminds me of Rome a lot because you can come around a corner and boom, there are ruins, go another few blocks, and again, more ruins. For you historians, we visited Peristyle Square, Cathedral of St. Dominus, Golden gate, Statue of Bishop Grgur, many building in the Venetian Baroque styling and were even serenaded by “Klapas”, acappella singers. Coming out the North gate, there are ruins of a Monastery that Napoleon turned into horse stables. Also, next to the Monastery is an imposing statue of a 10th century bishop named Grgur Ninski, crafted by a famous Croatian sculptor named Ivan PAGE 30 ... TARPA TOPICS

Mestrovic in 1929. He has his work displayed in many cities including Madrid and Chicago.

Its original location was inside the city walls by the cathedral but when the Bishop opposed the Pope and the official circles of the Catholic Church because he introduced the Croatian language into the services so people could understand what it meant and by doing so, he strengthened the religion in Croatia. Since he opposed the Pope, his statue was cut into pieces and removed from the city. It was later found and placed outside the North gate with the bishop facing the wall as if decrying their actions. They say it is lucky to rub his big toe, which is bright bronze now, and make a wish, and it will come true. One couple in our group made a wish years ago to return and sure enough, their wish came true. All I got from rubbing his toe was “athletes finger”. There is also the beautiful bell tower erected in the 16th century.

All in all, a wonderful place to visit and enjoy. We certainly would like to go back someday before the Euro ruins everything.

Back on the bus for a ride to another country, Bosnia Hercegovina. I say this with tongue in cheek because all we saw was the Entry Customs gate, a 1 hour stop at a restaurant and grocery store in Neum then the custom gates at the exit. Bosnia Hercegovina only has access to the Adriatic Sea at that point and it is only about 20 kilometers wide but we were there no less.

As we drove on towards the “jewel”, we were given a very nice history of Dubrovnik. In 1272, they wrote their own Constitution, in 1301, they started health services for the populace, in 1313, they opened the first pharmacy which is still in use toady and a most important law passed in 1418 was the abolishment of slave trading.

The land going south turned into green fields and large growing areas for the various vegetables that they grow. There again, everything is so clean and neat. The excitement grew as we began to see the city but we had another hour to get there since traffic picked up and the roads are winding but when we finally got into town, or rather on the outside of town, we were treated to a most wonderful hotel, The Excelsior which is rated tops there. It indeed merited its 5 stars plus but at a rate of $550 dollars a night, it should but it was included in the trip and we had three nights there. Beautiful views overlooking the huge walls of the city, the port, and private yachts, which certainly separated the men from the boys, and little tour boats plying their trade. We had a wonderful dinner on the terrace with good friends and good wine.

The next morning, since we were not bussing anyplace, we were allowed the luxury of an extra hour of sleep but I think everyone was up and eager to go to the “city”. We again had one of those huge breakfast buffets with fresh made omelets, fruits, cold cuts, cheeses, yogurt and all kinds of sweet rolls and breads.

Where does one start with Dubrovnik? Well, the main entrance is a great start. I believe that the outside of this city is one of the most photographed and famous of all the Mediterranean Sea. You cannot mistake the rounded walls, the gun ports and bastions. The sea walls were 25 to 30 feet in depth because they believed that their greatest peril was from invading armies and navies from the sea. The remainder of the inland walls were a mere 15 to 20 feet deep.

The town was founded in the 7th century and named Rugosa. It was founded in the 7th century on a rocky island named Laws, which provided shelter for Latin refugees from the nearby city PAGE 31 ... TARPA TOPICS

of Epidamnus today’s Cavtat. Some time later a settlement of Slavic, growth at the foot of the forested hill. This settlement gave to the city its Slavic name “Dubrovnik.” The strip of wetland between Rugs and Deprave, was reclaimed in the 12th century, unifying the city around the newly made plaza, today Place or Stratu The plaza was paved in 1468 and reconstructed after the earthquake of 1667. The city was fortified and two harbors were built on each side of the isthmus.

From its establishment in the 7th century, the town was under the protection of the Byzantine Empire. After the Crusades, Ragusa/Dubrovnik came under the sovereignty of Venice (12051358), and by the Peace Treaty of Zara in 1358, it became part of the Kingdom of Hungary.

Between the 14th century and 1808 Rugosa ruled itself as a free state named Republica di Rugosa. The Republic its peak in the 15th and 16th centuries, when its thalassocracy rivaled that of the Republic of Venice and other Italian maritime republics.

The Republic of Rugosa received its own Statutes as early as 1272, statutes that, among other things, codified Roman practice and local customs. The Statutes included prescriptions for town planning and the regulation of quarantine (for hygienic reasons). The Republic was very inventive regarding laws and institutions that were developed very early* (quoted from Wikipedia).

Our morning walking guided tour took us along the fortified walls and the Minceta Tower, the Pile Gate, Franciscan Monastery and cloister, St. Blaise Church, the rectors palace, town hall, with marching band and parade for local dignitaries due to some holiday, little Onofrios Fountain and Clock tower with its digital workings, thru the Jewish neighborhood and a third floor nondescript synagogue. All these walks were thru narrow alleys and streets and steep stairs but each corner brought new and exciting views and “KODAK moments”. For a noon lunch, we ate in an alley restaurant that was great. We had a free “schnapps”, then a wonderful salad and a piece of Dover sole with a veggie that was to die for. That, with wine and a dessert, what more can one ask. After a good coffee, we were gathered as a group and were treated to a Private chamber concert at St. Saviors Church. This was a special from Vantage, our tour company, and it was great. The acoustics in the church were unbelievable and the quartet that performed was marvelous. To finish off a great day, we were bussed to a small village that was damaged by the recent war and were shown some of the left over damage.

The people evacuated except for the elders, but survived. Our hostess gave the group a tour of their small village and explained the rebuilding that had gone on and then, we were split into four groups to go to four separate homes for dinner. Our home happened to be the one of our hostess and a nice place it was. We again started with some welcome schnapps (this is not unusual in Europe); some specialty air dried ham, olives and cheese and then were seated in their dinning area. The food for all four groups was the same and very good with lots of wine, bread and cheeses. Our hostess told us about the war and the joy of being “free” and able to vote like we do. It was dark when we left and our driver maneuvered that bus through narrow lanes like a pro. We all gave him a big hand and he sure merited that.

After another “monster” breakfast, we were again off to see some more of the local area mainly, the Dubrovnik Riviera and Cavtat. They are both about 10 miles over mountains and then

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back down to the sea. Large sheltered coves housed yachts and smaller boats while paved boardwalks surrounded the area for peaceful walks with small cafes along the way. We climbed the highest hill to visit a small chapel and a very ornate cemetery .We ambled around the village and had some refreshments at a sidewalk cafÊ, much like the Spanish coast. Since this was our last stop, many of our group were going on extensions to Monte Negro, and we all had different departure times from the hotel, we had a group picture made, exchanged names and e-mails and went back to Dubrovnik to eat, pack and round up all the brochures and maps for future memories. The next morning, our bags were put out by the door, picked up and deposited on the bus and after some remaining good byes, we were off for a forty-minute ride to the airport. Small, but very clean and nice. No jet ways, we walked out on the ramp. We relaxed in the business lounge, bought a few trinkets and then off to Frankfurt and then on to Dulles. All went smoothly even at Dulles customs so after picking up a rental car and 4 hours of driving, we were back home in Virginia Beach. Tired but content, we went to OUR bed and had a wonderful night’s sleep. We sat around breakfast remembering what nice fellow travelers we had met and what a nicely arranged land tour it was.

Now the question is...where next????

Additional images of Croatia.

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Flown West

IN MEMORY OF CAPTAIN ROBERT C. DOWNING APRIL 30, 1906 JULY 14, 2007

Robert C. “RC” Downing passed away in his home on July 14, 2007, at the age of 101 years. He was born to Emery J. Downing and Pearl (Porter) Downing on April 3, 1906. He is survived by his wife, Pat; one sister, Jean Wall; her children, Charles Wall and wife, Paula, Tom Wall and his wife, Leslie, and their children and grandchildren; and one very special brother-in-law and sister-in-law, Dick Kennan and his wife, Mary, and their children and grandchildren.

Submitted by Pat Downing

IN MEMORY OF CAPTAIN HARRY A. JACOBSEN JULY 13, 1920 JULY 28, 2007 IN MEMORY OF CAPTAIN STEWART B. GILBERT AUGUST 7, 1921 JUNE 15, 2007 PAGE 35 ... TARPA TOPICS

IN MEMORY OF Captain Thomas Leigh McGrath May 21, 1930 - February 2, 2007 I hadn’t read my husband’s TARPA Topics before his death. But in going through it to help me compose a short history for posterity, I was warmed by the revelation that all his brother pilots felt as he did about flying. Some probably did as he did as a youngster - pedal his tricycle to the nearest airport to watch the planes take off and land - and then be heartbroken when his ultimately successful career ended at a youthful age 60. This is a shared personal tragedy that I understand may be amended by an additional five years for future commercial pilots.

My husband, Captain Thomas Leigh McGrath, 76, died at home at Lower Sherwood Farm in Albemarle County in Virginia on February 2, 2007. Tom was born in Los Angeles, California but spent some of his youth in his mother’s hometown of Truro, Nova Scotia where he became an excellent hockey skater. He graduated from Northwestern Military Academy and UC Berkeley. and played football for both schools. He was a member of Phi Gamma Delta fraternity, Airline Pilots Association (ALPA) and TWA Active Retired Pilots Association (TARPA).

Following college he joined the Air National Guard and, when that service was completed, he hired on with Trans World Airlines for whom he flew for 34 years, piloting everything from the Constellation to the equipment he retired on - the Boeing 747. Most of his service was as a captain or co-captain on international routes. He retired most reluctantly in 1990.

The first 20 years of marriage were spent in Bellport, N.Y. When the family moved to Virginia 20 years ago, he continued to be domiciled in New York for the four remaining years of his career. In Charlottesville, he and his wife and younger daughter had a llama farm operation and published an international magazine about camelids, McGrath was an avid golfer and belonged to the Gray Foxes at the Lake Monticello Golf Course.

Two distinctive “claims to fame” were being the great-grandson of “Post Hole Jack McGrath” - an early pioneer of the Wyoming Territory, and posing as the “Marlboro Man” in a 1960’s ad campaign. The latter turned out to be an irony lung cancer victims readily recognize.

He is survived by his wife of 41 years, Jo Ann; daughter and son-in-law Eva Addis and Lt. Col. Michael Lightfoot; son and daughter-in-law Michael Leigh and Katy Mook McGrath , daughter; Paige Flemming McGrath; and his four grandchildren: Taylor Jane Lightfoot, Collin Michael McGrath, Camden Reese McGrath and Colton Leigh McGrath.

The family expresses its undying gratitude to Hospice of the Piedmont for the extraordinary care given to him and his family as he endured the final months of his life. If anyone is so inclined, PAGE 36 ... TARPA TOPICS

support of that exceptional organization in any form, it would be a tribute to his memory and a benefit to others who need their care.

by Jo Ann McGrath

IN MEMORY OF CAPTAIN HIRAM L. MCFARLAND JUNE 26, 1917 JUNE 27, 2007 Retired Captain H.L. (Leo) McFarland, flew west June 27th, the day after his 90th birthday. Born Hiram Leo McFarland on the 26th of June 1917, in Branson, Missouri, a life well lived begins.

At the age of 5, his family moved to Kansas City. During his youth, Leo’s hero was Charles Lindbergh and from that his love of aviation grew. He would roller skate to the Kansas City airport to do odd jobs, such as sweeping hangars and washing planes to earn enough money to take a ride in an airplane.

After graduating from high school in 1935, Leo worked as an electrician for a neon sign company, but his intense desire to fly airplanes never wavered. During the World Was II effort, the government created the Civilian Pilot Training Program, which he embarked upon enthusiastically. From a ground school class of 100, he was one of 10 selected for the primary flight training class at the Joe Jacobson Flight School. The school was based at the Kansas City Municipal Airport - now known as the Charles Wheeler Downtown Airport. He completed primary, secondary, advanced and received his instructors rating March 26, 1942. On June 12, 1942, while instructing a student in a Piper Cub, Leo was involved in a mid-air collision, severing his right wing at the root, and crashed. Fortunately, everyone survived; however, Leo received serious injuries spending 3 months in the hospital. The following November he received his instrument instructors rating in Houston, Texas. In December 1943, the Houston Standardization Center (CAA) hired him to train pilots for the United States. Eighteen months later in June 1944, Transcontinental & Western Air hired him as an instrument instructor for their new hire pilots who lacked that license. Still striving for the goal set as a young boy, Leo joined the TWA seniority list as a pilot in June 1945.

Thus began his memorable 33-year career with TWA—retiring at age 60 in June 1977. During his tenure at TWA, Leo also instructed at the Training Center on the Connie, B-727, and the CV880. He also served as a line check airman in Kansas City on the B-727. He flew captain on the DC-3, DC-4, Martin 202/404, Constellation, CV-880, B-727, B-707, L-1011, and B-747. Leo flew international on the B-707 and the B-747 including numerous “round the world” flights.

In addition to his flying career, Leo had other talents and loves. He possessed what was termed a PAGE 37 ... TARPA TOPICS

“native” ability to repair and rebuild anything mechanical. That talent was very helpful in building two houses, building and owning several duplexes and helping family and friends.

On January 5, 1943, a very cold wintry night, Leo married his sweetheart, June Stanton—they eloped in Olathe, Kansas! Six weeks later June joined Leo in Houston. While in Houston, son Michael was born. In 1945, Leo moved his family back to the Kansas City area where second son terry was born in 1949.

Leo was an active father to son’s Mike and Terry. He attended many, many little league baseball games and helped build several go-carts for the boys. Both sons have wonderful memories of flights taken with “Dad” as the Captain of the plane. (I remember dad flying the Connie low over one of my baseball games.) Leo was also very proud of his granddaughters and would gladly share their accomplishments with friends.

In addition to his family, Leo loved animals - especially his dogs! It has been said by many that if there is reincarnation, they want to come back as one of Leo’s dogs!!

In his retirement, Leo became an avid tennis player - even installing a lighted tennis court at their home. This way “court time” was never an issue. He was a member of TWA Heart of America Seniors, “Save A Connie” organization and TARPA. Leo also become very accomplished in his computer skills while in his mid 80’s despite being blind as a result of macular degeneration.

Leo is preceded in death by his wife June (by two months), his mother his father, brother Frank, Leslie, and Earl, and his sisters Rae and Pearl.

He is survived by his sons and daughters-in law, Michael and Cyble McFarland, Terry and Debra McFarland, four granddaughters, four step-grandchildren, eight great-grandchildren, and numerous nieces and nephews.

With a few minor changes and additions, this article was written by Leo’s wife, my mother, June McFarland, a few weeks before her own passing on April 18th.

Mom, by the way, was the first in the family to work for TWA. Before marrying my father, she was a secretary in corporate personnel located at 10 Richards, Rd. Among many duties, she used to finger print all of the new hire pilots. I often wonder if she put dad’s application on the top of the pile. She says no. I wonder...

Dad spent the last two years in a nursing home. Mom used to read the TARPA magazine to him as soon as it arrived. They both loved everything about the publication - as do I. As I began to assemble this tribute to my father, the latest issue of TOPICS arrived. In the issue is a brief note from Mom thanking the TARPA staff for all they do (very timely). She loved TWA, its history, its people, and all it stood for.

I had the good fortune to have received my training for my commercial, instrument, instructor, and instrument instructor ratings from my father. What better training could I have had? I also had the privilege of flying first officer for Dad on two occasions, once on the 707 domestic and once on the 707 international. How very lucky I was. He had a velvet touch when he manipulated the controls and was a captain’s Captain. He was just plane good!

Yes, this was a life well lived - mother and father. I loved and respected my parents. They are missed.

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Good flight west, Dad. Your landing is your usual grease job. You’ve passed your last check ride with flying colors. Best of all, Mom’s waiting at the gate.

by Captain Mike McFarland (ret.)

IN MEMORY OF Capt. James H. Penney Jr. May 23, 1924 - July 3, 2007 Jim passed away at the age of 83 from naturaL causes. It was a shock and unexpected, as he was in good health and very active. He enjoyed bowling with the Airline Bowlers every Thursday, working on cars, and had just recently overhauled a Jacob’s engine for an airplane.

Jim joined the Navy in June of 1942 where he served three and one haLf years, and was honorably discharged 1946. He next attended the Spartan School of Aeronautics in Norman, Oklahoma, receiving his A&E License. After his program at Spartan concluded, he and a friend decided to move to Reno, Nevada, where he joined the Air National Guard, and attended the University of Nevada, Reno.

While living in Reno he met Virginia Quest, and they married in June, 1950. He continued to serve in the Air National Guard with the I 92’ Bomber Squadron until his honorable discharge in 1953.

Jim was hired by TWA on August 10, 1953 as a flight engineer, and was later promoted to Captain.

He enjoyed flying both domestic and international routes.

Jim is survived by his wife, Virginia, of 57 years, his four children, nine grandchildren, one greatgrandchild, as well as his brother and sister, and their families. His absence leaves a big hole in our hearts and lives. We love and miss him every day.

The Penney Family

IN MEMORY OF CAPTAIN CORRIDEN D. BARNARD JUNE 10, 1920 JUNE 6, 2007 PAGE 39 ... TARPA TOPICS

IN MEMORY OF LEWIS JUDD MARCH 5, 1921 SEPTEMBER 1, 2007 Lew Judd died of pancreatic cancer September 1, 2007 only two and a half months after it was detected.

He was born in Long Island City, New York on March 5, 1921, the only child of George and Isabella McCausland Judd. He joined the Army Air Corps in 1940. He served for in Panama for three years. After his discharge in 1944, he joined AOA, American Overseas Airlines. In 1948, he joined TWA as a Constellation Mechanic, and then Flight Engineer and pilot for thirty-five years with the company he loved, TWA. From the early days of the piston engine Constellation to the 747, were as he put it, “all the good years of flying.” The first scheduled non-stop westbound transcontinental flight across the United States, and the first scheduled non-stop flight to Cairo from New York.

He qualified as an International Relief Officer in 1968 on the 707. In 1974 Lew checked out on the 747, but above them all, he loved the 880. He retired in December 1985 and with his wife Vicki lived full time on their boat, “Tamarack” until it sank 16 miles offshore as they were sailing from West Palm Beach to Man o’ War Cay in the Bahamas.

Undaunted, we bought another boat which Vicki named, “Jet Lag.” Later, they continued their travels in a motor home; from the Bahamas to Mexico, Alaska and the lower 48.

His first wife Doris, son Kenneth and stepson John Glenn preceded Lew in death. He is survived by his loving wife of 42 years, Victoria (Vicki) Judd, sons Robert, Donald and Theodore, stepson Gary Glenn, daughter Susan and ten grandchildren and eleven great-grandchildren.

By Victoria Judd My father, Lew Judd was very much involved with the Boy scouts of America. His more than three decades of service to them, the BSA included the titles of Scout Master and as a Camp Acquisition Specialist. He worked hard to raise funds for new camps, found the properties to purchase, and helped to oversee their construction. In 1963, he was involved in the addition of 10,000 acres to Philmont Ranch, which now covers more than 200 square miles of rugged New Mexico wilderness, and with the buying and building of Onteora, in New York as well as others.

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Lew was selected as an Olympic Host for the 1996 Games of the XXVI Olympiad, informally known as the Centennial Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia. Lew’s participation was as a host for the White water Rafting competition. He was very proud to be part of it al land was especially proud that an American “won the gold” in that event.

On his 83rd Birthday, his wife’s gift to him was a one-hour flight in an AT-6 trainer. Although Lew was not allowed to take off or land, he spent the hour putting the plane through its paces. As the saying goes, “he still had it.” It put a smile on his face from ear to ear. The company that owned the plane filmed it all from another aircraft for posterity.

Growing up, I didn’t John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart or Charlton Heston as my heroes. My Dad was my hero, my mentor and my best friend. Many times when I went along on a flight with him I’d find myself sitting next to someone famous. They would ask if I was by myself and I would puff up proudly and tell them that my Dad was flying the plane. Dad is flying the plane West now along with all the heroes that have flown or ridden off into the sunset.

His love and devotion to his family, his vast knowledge and his great sense of humor will be remembered and cherished.

by Bob Judd

IN MEMORY OF francis d. fitzgibbon may 23, 1923 - july 11, 2007 Frank was born May 23, 1923 in Oswego, New York. When Frank was 13 years old the family moved to Washington, D.C. He graduated from the Hyattsville, Maryland High School and attended the Catholic University of America. His home was near the College Park, Maryland airport which is the nation’s oldest continuously operating airport, founded for Wilbur Wright to train the country’s first military pilots. Frank was fascinated by airplanes flying overhead and worked at the airport as a mechanic’s helper in exchange for flying lessons.

Frank became an Aviation Cadet in the U.S. Navy in May, 1943. He was designated a Naval Aviator in November, 1944, and served during World War II and the Korean Conflict. Frank flew over twenty different models of Navy airplanes and served in various squadrons assigned to aircraft carriers. His favorite airplanes were the F8F Bearcat, the F4U Corsair and the F6F Hellcat. In 1953 he moved to Kansas City and became a commercial pilot for Trans World Airlines and retired in 1983. He flew the DC-3, Martin 202 & 404, the Constellations, Boeing 727, Convair 880 and Boeing 707.

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In 1986, Frank and a group of other aviation enthusiasts formed the Save-a-Connie organization.

A Super-G Constellation was located in storage in Arizona. He and a number of others worked for nine months in the desert to get the Connie in shape so that he and another retired TWA pilot, Harry Ward, could fly the airplane to Kansas City. It took two years, a lot money and hard work by many people to get the Connie restored to its former glory. Frank and other TWA pilots flew it to a great number of air shows throughout the country.

Frank was an active member in several organizations TARPA (TWA Active Retired Pilots Association), Quiet Birdmen, Tailhook, ANA (Association of Naval Aviation), Navy League, Airline History Museum (formerly Save-a-Connie), TWA Seniors, Combat Pilots and the ROMEO’s (Real Old Men Eating Out), a retired TWA pilots’ breakfast club.

Frank passed away of colon cancer July 11, 2007 at the Kansas City Hospice House. He is survived by his wife, Toni, whom he married in 1952, and five children, Patrick, Colleen, Mary, Joan and Michael, as well as a sister, Carol, and ten grandchildren.

IN MEMORY OF edwin l. roman June 2, 1921 - april 29, 2007 Ed passed away peacefully although quite suddenly on Sunday April 29, 2007. Ed started with TWA in May of 1947 and flew for 38 years. His last flight was on the 747 to Athens. Ed missed flying every day of retirement and often said he had never worked a day in his life. He loved flying so much. I also flew for TWA as a flight attendant starting in 1965. Ed and I met while flying together. He truly was the love of my life and I miss him every minute of every day. We shared a wonderful life of working together and playing together. Ed and I spent three years in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia in 1975, 76 and 77. We retired to Rio Rancho, New Mexico in 1987 where we have been for the last 20 years.

Ed had a wonderful career with TWA. Most of his career was spent in New York out of JFK where he flew international and domestic as Capt and Flight Manager.

A Thank You goes out to all in the TWA family who have contacted me with their kind words, prayers and remembrances of Ed. Ed also leaves behind 5 children, 10 grandchildren and 7 greatgrandchildren.

by Dorothy Roman PAGE 42 ... TARPA TOPICS

IN OF in MEMORY memory of rutland baar rutland “rut” “rut” baar december 7, 7, 1917 1917 december - august august 11, 11, 2007 2007 Rutland Baar, whose heart flew with the intrigue of life and sky with Trans World Airlines TWA for thirty five years passed on August 11, 2007. He would have been 90 years old in December.

Captain Baar was employed by Embry Riddle Aeronautical University prior to his flying with TWA. He taught Royal Air Force Cadets at the University.

Cpt. Baar joined TWA in Kansas City as a Student First Officer. Transferring to LaGuardia Airport, he flew DC-3’s. He alternately flew Domestic and International routes. Retiring after flying 707’s, he was also a check Pilot and Supervisor during his last years. I am sure Pilots who have received valuable assistance and instructions from him will sorely miss him.

Upon retiring he joined Aero International Associates as an Aircraft Broker. He was an asset to the company and his knowledge was appreciated. Rutland leaves behind three children, three grandchildren and his charming wife Lucienne. Those we love never die.

by Dorothee C. Miller

IN OF IN MEMORY MEMORY OF CAPTAIN JOHN R. R. KIDD KIDD CAPTAIN JOHN AUGUST 9, 9, 1930 1930 – AUGUST AUGUST AUGUST 3, 3, 2007 2007 IN OF IN MEMORY MEMORY OF JUSTIN JUSTIN J. J. BECKER BECKER JUNE 6, 6, 1916 1916 –JULY JUNE JULY 17, 17, 2007 2007 IN OF IN MEMORY MEMORY OF CAPTAIN T. MANN MANN CAPTAIN HOWARD HOWARD T. JULY 21, 21, 1923 1923 – JULY JULY JULY 14, 14, 2007 2007 PAGE 43 ... TARPA TOPICS

IN MEMORY OF Roy f. gwin april 6, 1930 - july 15, 2007 Roy F Gwin, retired TWA Captain, died in his mountain home in July. People who knew him would say “HE WAS A Great MAN” He had a great life. Born on a golf course in Hayti, Mo. he started early enjoying a love of the game that stayed with him all his life. In high school he was popular and played all the sports. He was especially good in basketball and played 2 years at Southwestern University in Memphis Tn. During the Korean conflict, he joined the Air Force and took his training at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas. Upon completion of his training he was sent to Korea. One of Roy’s favorite stories was that he flew one mission, dropped a few bombs and as he laughingly tells it, “the next day North Korea surrendered!”

Leaving TWA he located on a golf course in Pine Island Florida where he continued his golf game and took up fishing. Summers were a little hot, so Roy bought a summer home up in the mountains of Virginia. His children and grand children loved to spend time in the mountains with him.

Everyone who knew him will remember his warmth, sense of humor, and enjoyment of life.

He is survived by his wife of 23 years, Sharon, three daughters, five grand children, one sister, and a brother. Roy was a great husband, father, grand father, brother and friend. He will be remembered as a special person.

At 77 Roy had lived a good life. He enjoyed it to its fullest. He will be missed’ “He was a good man.”

by Sharon Gwin

IN MEMORY OF CAPTAIN ROBERT W. BROWER OCTOBER 13, 1913 MAY 29, 2007 IN MEMORY OF CAPTAIN HADLEY N. RAY OCTOBER 9, 1920 JUNE 21, 2007 PAGE 44 ... TARPA TOPICS

IN MEMORY OF CAPTAIN HOWARD T. MANN JULY 21, 1923 JULY 14, 2007 On June 26, 1959,a TWA 1649 took a lightening strike near Milan, Italy. A flame front traveled from the right wing tip fuel tank vent to a tank at the wing’s root. The tank exploded breaking off the right wing. Howie was instrumental in reconstructing the sequence of events. Again, he was there in the wake of TWA’s first Flight 800 disaster at Rome’s Fiumicino Airport. (November 23, 1963) And, when TWA’s second Flight 800 exploded shortly after takeoff on July 17, 1996, Howie immediately got involved. His quiet work led to the conclusion that the 747 had been taken down by a missile, “The Devil Is In The Details,” AIRWAYS magazine’s “Classic’s” issue, reprinted in “TARPA TOPICS.” It was mainly Howie’s “Sherlock Homes” nature that unveiled the truth. Howie would hate it if more were made of his contributions than he cared to admit to. But neither should one make less of them.

Sometimes, during our telephone conversations about TWA800, Howie would begin to reminisce.

He spoke of his memories in Africa during World War II as a TWA mechanic, the dignitaries he met, etc. But, relishing the fruits of hindsight, Howie loved to tell of the events of the afternoon of February 17, 1961. TWA’s Harry O’Brien, then president of the FEIA in Washington, DC, phoned to explain that the situation between the ALPA and the FEIA had deteriorated to a point where the FEIA had to take action. O’Brien wondered if it would be possible to get the JFK based flight engineers to walk off their international flights that evening. Howie got right on it.

TWA’s flight engineers’ action, that night, opened the floodgates. Pan Am, American Airlines, Braniff, etc., quickly followed. John F. Kennedy, our newly elected president, tabbed Professor Nathan Feinsinger, head of the law school at the University of Wisconsin and a specialist in labor disputes, to lead the arbitration panel he had initiated. Feinsinger mandated a single labor union in the cockpit, the ALPA. However, he gave the flight engineers’ “grandfather rights” thereby protecting our jobs. While Howie never foresaw and was often amazed by the outcome of that fateful night at JFK, he eventually checked out as a TWA captain on the Lockheed 1011.

Above all, however, I’ll remember Howard Mann as a gentleman’s gentleman; a guy who had the highest level of ethics and lived by them. People like that are few and far between. That’s why, when his son-in-law phoned to tell me that Howard had “flown west,” I felt a profound sense of loss. I cried.

by Robert Allardyce

IN MEMORY OF CAPTAIN JACK L. GRAHAM NOVEMBER 17, 1920 SEPTEMBER 12, 2007

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The Lockheed Constellation By Peter J. Marson

BY e:mail sales@air-britain.co.uk www.air-britain.co.uk

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THE ROME DOMICILE by Dino Valazza It was the glory days for TWA. The Constellation was just coming into service. Jack Frye had moved to Washington and by his lobbying of Congress, much to the distaste and over the arguments of Pan Am, TWA was given around-the-world authority. Temporarily TWA would fly only as far as Bombay, India. Because of scheduling problems, it was necessary to establish domiciles both in Rome and in Cairo. The Rome domicile would catch the flights from Shannon, Ireland to Cairo, Egypt. The crews domiciled in the United States would fly to Shannon, rest, and fly back the following day. We would pick up the planes at Shannon and fly first to Paris, then to Geneva, and finally to Rome. The Cairo domicile would take flights from Lisbon or Madrid through Casablanca to Cairo, and Cairo on to Bombay. The crew members were selected for both domiciles on a bid basis except for Captain Jim Polizzi, who would be in charge of the pilots, and myself, Dino Valazza, who would be looking after the flight engineers. Both of us would be required to fly part of our schedules because of the small number of crews. Initially there were ten crews consisting of a pilot, a co-pilot, a navigator, a flight engineer and a radio operator. Very shortly after traffic control was underway they were able to eliminate the navigator and the radio operator.

Crews began arriving in Rome in September of 1946. As I recall, the Captains were Howard Wirth, Don “The Terrible Turk” Terry, Jim Polizzi, Judd “Pop” Noftsinger, Zell, Webb, Lynch, Fairchild, and Day. The flight engineers were myself, Mosher, Davis, Chianese, Boyd, Query, and Huntsinger. I had the title of Supervisor of Flight Engineering, which gave me an extra $50 a month for reporting to Polizzi. As for traffic control, Frediani was a dispatcher in Rome who was later promoted several times by TWA. The business control of the domicile was out of Paris and shortly thereafter they began replacing the American hostesses with German and French hostesses. These were recruited and domiciled in Paris.

The Rome crews were temporarily domiciled in a villa that belonged to an Italian General, Bodogilo, I believe, located in Borgahese Park in Rome. TWA would provide food and lodging for the crews until they were able to find habitation of their own. The terms of the domicile were that you were given three months to decide whether or not you wanted to stay. If you decided to stay, then you could have your wife and children brought over along with your furniture, etc., all free of charge from TWA. The crews arrived first, and families began getting together in December.

I think in October or November of that year there was a short pilot strike. We sat around on our duffs for a while, but it was over quickly and we all had to go find habitation in Rome, which was not an easy matter. The main city was experiencing rent control and every room in any habitation had to take care of at least two people. This you would only get on a priority basis. The net result was that, as usual, we found a way to get housing which was known as “co-habitating.” In other words, we lived with a family. However, the family members would move out, live with their relatives, but keep their mail coming to the same address and leave some clothes there so that the police would not find any reason to question the arrangement.

The first family that I stayed with was the Count Deliguero, married to Rena Deliguero, who was the great actress in Italy in the ‘30s. She also was a concert pianist. This arrangement lasted for four or five months, including the time when my wife Nonda arrived. While we were living in Count Deliguero’s home we found out that everybody was addressed by his title such as doctor, PAGE 47 ... TARPA TOPICS

engineer, captain and so forth. In my case I was referred to as Engineer Valazza. Not Dino Valazza, but Engineer Valazza. Obviously, rank was of serious consideration to the Italians and there were some tasks beneath the dignity of educated persons. As an example, most of the crew members were flying so many hours they had little time to renew their visas, which had to be renewed every six months. So I arranged with the Count Deliguero to renew visas on the passports I would bring home, and have them ready for the next day. He would get $5 for each, which was good pay for him. That worked pretty well for a month or so, and then one day I came home—no visas. I said, “What is the matter?” And he replied, “Well, you know I met a friend today and he asked me what I was doing. I was so ashamed that I could not tell him, so I cannot do this any longer.”

We didn’t like the situation and we soon found a place where we would not have to co-habit with anybody. This was the whole floor of a three-story apartment complex formerly occupied by the Spanish Ambassador. The lady that held the lease on that apartment was paying only about eight dollars a month because rents had been frozen by the city of Rome to pre-war levels. In 1946 you could buy 600 Lira for a dollar, so you can see that these people had an interest in subletting their apartments because they could make a bundle of money while still living with their relatives.

This landlady was also quite a character herself. She had been the mistress of a German general while the Germans controlled Rome. After the Americans and British took over, she was the mistress of an English general, and finally, as the war was dwindling down, she was the mistress of a captain in our U.S. Grave Registration area at Anzio. She had acquired some of the finest pieces of furniture, antique and otherwise, through her friendships with these generals.

Another interesting story that I recall was that when I got home one afternoon my wife told me that she had a visit by the Questura, a detective in the Rome Police Department, who came to check on whether or not we were legally renting the apartment and co-habiting with the owner.

She told me that he had “put the bite” on her saying he knew that the lady was not living there and he would like some favors for allowing us to live there. My wife very politely showed him the door and told him that she would report him to his superiors. This was the last of that episode.

Another time, while she was walking home, a fellow kept following her in his very fine automobile.

Finally it stopped and he went over to her and said, “Would you like to ride with me? I will take you home.” She said, “No thanks.” When she was telling some of our Italian friends about this they said, “Oh, my God, you should have taken him up on that. He would have shown you around, spent money on you all over, and taken you home.” My wife said, “Not for any price that I would have had to pay.”

Most of us found apartments in the very finest areas of Rome, such as the Monte Paroli District.

Some captains rented villas outside of Rome where they were not under the city-controlled rent regulations. For transportation the company supplied us with a bus to pick up the crews and take us to Ciampino, the airport 10 miles out between Rome and the Alban Hills. The bus would take us to the airport for our flights and then pick us up and take us back to our domiciles. The flight operations office at the Ciampino Airport was a bombed out building. For winter heat we had a clay stove with a chimney going out one of the panes of the windows and, although they had central heating, they had no coal or means of firing it up. We had a lady of Russian extraction who more or less kept the crew’s schedules, and a fellow who did odd jobs for her and us. At one time I came to the office during the winter and it was cold as hell. The janitor had not built a fire. Everybody was in their jackets and shivering. So I asked the young man who worked in the office to go over to the woodpile and bring us some wood so we could start a fire. He reluctantly left and I found PAGE 48 ... TARPA TOPICS

him outside the door and told him to go ahead and gather the firewood. He disappeared and did not come back. Soon I decided to go looking for him and found him coming back with only two pieces of wood in a brown envelope. He didn’t want to be seen carrying wood. I subsequently grabbed him and said, “Come on, we’re going to the woodpile.” We both loaded up with wood and as we returned the Italian mechanics we passed jeered and applauded because it was unbecoming for an educated man to be seen doing manual labor. The young man shortly thereafter quit his job, reflecting the attitude of Italians.

TWA was giving us $500 a month extra pay for overseas living and we were banking that very quickly because we were living cheaper and in much better circumstances, with a full time maid and all the luxuries that you can imagine, except for gas and heat. Even though the apartments had central steam heat, there was no coal or gas to run them. Most of the apartments had makeshift stoves installed. The maids would start cooking dinner on an electric stove and then if the electricity was cut, they went to gas and then when the gas cut out, they finished their cooking on a charcoal burner.

About the beginning of 1947, the FAA decided that all flight engineers should be certificated and would have to pass an examination. I arranged for the FAA man, who was stationed in Paris, to come down and give all my flight engineers the examination. He came to the apartment and stayed with me while he was in Rome. This made it easy for my flight engineers to take the exam. When he came down for a second trip to do the final testing and pass out certificates he brought a carbine with 500 rounds of ammunition and said, “I have to get rid of this. I have had nothing but trouble after I got this. Everybody wants it.” And then he said, “Would you like it?”

I said, “Yeah, I’ll take it.” So I took it. About a week later I was getting off the airplane in Tel Aviv when one of the Israeli mechanics came up and said, “You have a carbine with 500 rounds of ammunition. I will give you $500 if you will bring it and just leave it on the airplane.” I said, “No thanks, I won’t do that.” That was prior to Israel becoming a nation, and we were able to fly from Rome to Athens to Tel Aviv to Cairo and back to Rome. When Israel became an independent state, we could no longer go from Tel Aviv to Cairo and had to end up either in Cairo or Tel Aviv, returning back to Rome. What happened to the rifle you might ask? The rifle was disassembled into 14 million pieces, brought into the United States and then given to the Sheriff’s Department in Pomona along with the 500 rounds of ammunition. Nothing but trouble!

One of the interesting aspects of living in Rome was that families who had small children found the children were learning to speak Italian so well that when the fathers and mothers would go shopping, the children would do the translating and arranging for the purchase and delivery of an item.

The maids were also a God-send to everybody. First of all there were very few households that had refrigerators unless they had their own brought over. Unfortunately, Rome had a 50 cycle current instead of a 60 cycle. The voltage was down around 90 volts, which meant that very few refrigerators could stand the difference. I immediately had a refrigerator sent over with a transformer which charged the voltage up to about 130 so that we were able to get operation of that refrigerator. However, the maids more or less refused to use the refrigerator. They shopped for fresh produce and meat every day. This was part of their outing or enjoyment. They would go out to the open air markets to buy vegetables, produce, and meat, along with whatever they had planned for meals, bring it home, and use it that day. Very few things were left over for the PAGE 49 ... TARPA TOPICS

next day. I remember on one occasion we suggested to our maid that she didn’t need to shop every day because we had a refrigerator. She told us in no uncertain terms that this was part of her time off and she could visit with other maids at the shopping centers or markets. Another time we were getting fine white wines from the Alban Hills just above the Ciampino Airport. My wife said, “You know what, I would like just to have coffee with my dinner rather than wine.” She then asked the maid to provide some coffee for dinner. No coffee came. Finally my wife said, “What’s wrong with the coffee?” The maid put her hands on her hips and said, “Madam, it is not elegant to have coffee with your dinner in Rome.” So that was the end of trying to get coffee with our dinner.

In the hills of Monte Paroli all the windows would be open in the various apartments. In the morning you could hear the maids singing from the windows in the apartments surrounding the area where we lived. Every one of them had a fine voice.

Also in the area where we lived you could call up a theater that showed American movies with American dialogues and reserve a seat. When you got there an usher would show you to your seat.

During the intermission you could go out into the patio and there in the open air have yourself a cup of hot chocolate and then when the picture was about to start be shown back to your seat, all for a dollar an evening.

I remember a fine restaurant called La Biblioteca. A biblioteca would be a library. Actually, in this case it was the wine cellar of a huge villa in the center of Rome, and on the walls where the books had been at one time, they had nothing but bottles of wine that had been there so long there were cobwebs all over them. One evening when we were there eating dinner after 9:00 o’clock, which was the custom in Rome at the time, we noticed a table about 12-15 feet long with seating on both sides. We wondered whom that had been set for. Suddenly a group came in and it was obvious that it was the opera company that was doing the opera for the season in Rome. You haven’t been thrilled, really thrilled with goose pimples, unless you have had an operatic tenor or soprano singing 10 feet away from you at the top of their lungs. At this table someone would start a song, somebody else would pick it up and sing a little bit of it, and then another person would chime in, all around the table.

Nearby were the Baths of Carcalla, which were the ruins of the Baths under the Emperor Carcalla.

This had been converted to a huge stage that had been built and would seat 800 to 1000 people in an open-air setting. One particular evening we had gone to the opera “Aida”. You may recall that it deals with the King of Egypt and the wars and battles that he waged. The production was such that it had live elephants, camels, and whole armies. It was supposed to start at 7:00. However, nothing happened, with the orchestra members still tuning up their instruments. Finally at 7:30 a commotion arose in the crowd and it turned out they were waiting for Eva Peron, the wife of the dictator of Argentina, who was in Rome at the time.

I traveled from Rome to the airport, paralleling the Apian Way that carried water from the Alban Hills to Rome and then on to Naples. I was always intrigued with the engineering involved in this series of arched bridges.

The situation at the airport was quite primitive. We had to land on steel mats and I recall one time landing shortly after a rain. The airplane started sliding off the mat and those in the cockpit PAGE 50 ... TARPA TOPICS

were suddenly passengers, as we had absolutely no control. Finally the captain was able to get enough power to get the airplane to turn a little bit and get us out of this predicament, but it really was an exciting moment. Another incident involved a flight engineer who was substituting for our people who were on vacation. One day he came into my office screaming. He said, “That darn Don Terry, I don’t know what to do about him.” I said, “What do you mean?” “Well, when he came over the Alps towards Rome he suddenly reached up, reduced power and then started descending four to five thousand feet per minute in a 45 degree bank to circle the town 2000 feet below. Then he got on the PA system and said, “Folks, that is Cremona down there. That is where my Stradivarius violin was built.” And he did own one.

During this time I had acquired a Jeep that had been nationalized. In other words, it carried a Rome license. I got it painted and fixed up which made it possible for me to go to and from the office without having to wait for the bus. Also my wife and I were able to tour around the various parts of Italy with that Jeep. Unfortunately, the Italian fuel was 80 cents a liter at that time. It was more like kerosene than gasoline. Whenever we had a DC4 cargo plane into Rome, all the people that had automobiles went out to the airport and drained the sumps of the plane. I recall one time sitting there with a tube and a drain stuck in the gas tank of the Jeep when the custom guard came up and told me in Italian, “You are not supposed to be doing that.” I kept saying, “I don’t understand what you are saying. What are you saying? What are you saying?” About that time my tank was full and then I answered in Italian, “Oh, you mean you don’t want me to do that.” I sold that Jeep when the domicile was closed. I had that aviation gas in it and I am telling you, all you had to do was turn the key on the starter and the engine was running. It was just so smooth that the person who bought it from me said, “Well you can tell that you are an engineer because this is the finest-tuned car I have ever driven.” Little did he know that when he got the Italian gasoline he would barely be able to run on it Of course, all good things come to an end. The CIA in its infinite wisdom and its great detective work decided TWA had better get its crews out of Rome because Italy was going Communist and there would be blood in the streets and civil war. None of that ever happened, but TWA pulled us out and that was the end of the Rome domicile. That was in May of 1948.

Following this, I was asked to go to Cairo to teach the pilots and flight engineers who were based there on the new 749 that we had gotten. This second version had the water wagon portion eliminated and had a bigger and stronger engine. The airplane was heavier and could carry more fuel and was more suited for Trans-Atlantic flying. My wife Nonda followed me to Cairo and we were there approximately one month. I had a choice of bidding any domicile I wanted and so I asked my wife, who had a large extended family in San Francisco, where she would like to go. She promptly said Los Angeles and when I asked why, since all her relatives live in San Francisco, she said that is why she wanted to go to Los Angeles.

I flew out of Los Angeles domestically until 1965 when I bid internationally and commuted to New York to pick up my flight to Bombay and back. In 1967 I bid on a military contract to Vietnam out of San Francisco. I retired in April 1969.

It has been 60 years since I was in Rome so my memory may be a little faulty on the details. After all, I am 98, the third oldest member of TARPA.

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TWA Hijacked In its heyday, TWA’s logo was a trademark as famous worldwide as was Coca-Cola’s. This was a source of pride to TWA employees and it was assumed, a help to its sales. There was however, one glitch resulting from that fame. It came to be suspected as the reason that more hijacks were targeted on TWA than any other US airline. Two of these became headline news around the world. The first, September 6, 1970, saw our Flight 741 hijacked along with four other airlines’ flights. Three of those others ended up at Dawson field near Amman, Jordan along with our flight 741. An El Al flight avoided that fate when a guard on board shot one hijacker and captured the other. The events of that day were dramatized earlier this year in a Special Presentation on Public Television, called “Hijack Sunday.” I did not see that program, but noticed the chatter online and recalled the event and my subsequent conversations with Claude Girard. Claude played a part in the relief efforts undertaken by TWA, The US Government, several other Governments and various Non Governmental Organizations to secure the safe release of the passengers and crews that were being held hostage in the Jordanian desert.

Claude had a book about the event, which he let me read in the late 80s. It was extremely detailed, as I believe the TV program was. As accurate as it may have been, much of the online chatter did point out and complain that the TV producers named our flight 74 instead of 741. These things caused me to reflect about those times, and my times in the Middle East later as a crew member.

The similarities and the differences of the events in the Middle East then and now are especially intriguing.

It all began in 1948 when Israel was granted statehood. Ever after, there have been wars, guerilla raids and suicide attacks as Palestinians and their supporters resist the very existence of Israel.

In the early days, the resistance was almost exclusively political. These hijacking were part of an inter-Arab civil war. Recently, religious elements have become more and more involved. This makes a successful agreement more elusive than ever, but one that should continue to be pursued in the search for a peaceful outcome in the land Holy to three religious denominations.

For a look back, we have excerpted parts of “TWA 741 Sep 06-30 1970.” The genesis of the book is not fully understood, but it was written by Mr. Rodney C. Campbell, formerly a foreign correspondent of the London Sunday Times, and associate editor of Time magazine. Mr. Campbell took great pains to recognize the efforts of all the TWA personnel involved, from the Flight Deck and Cabin Crew to the TWA officials sent to Jordan, the reservations agents who kept constant contact with families of the hostages and finally the Corporate Officers at TWA Headquarters.

The complications of TWA 741 of September 6, 1970 were beyond anyone’s experience in those early days of hijacking. Editor

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TWA Flight 741 - Hijacked September 6, 1970 On September 6, 1970, the pride and purpose of four great airlines was put to the test in the largest multiple hijacking ever. The day began when an El Al Boeing 707 was hijacked after climb out from Amsterdam. A male hijacker was killed by Israeli security guards. A female hijacker, Leila Khaleed of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the 24-year-old Arab graduate of the American University in Beirut who had previously hijacked a TWA jetliner to Damascus, was overpowered and turned over to British police at London Airport. Approximately 45 minutes after the struggle in the El Al plane, TWA’s Flight 741 was hijacked while enroute from Frankfort to New York.

Almost simultaneously, A Swissair DC-8 enroute from Zurich to New York was hijacked over France and was turned toward the Middle East. Later in the day, a Pan American World Airways Boeing 747 was hijacked after leaving Amsterdam and was flown to Beirut, then to Cairo. There the $25 million aircraft was blown up within minutes of the evacuation of the Passengers.

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine claimed credit for the multiple hijacking while the aircraft were still enroute to the Middle East. This was one of the most militant of the dozen or so guerilla organizations formed largely of Palestinian refugees and based in the small kingdom of Jordan. It’s leader, Dr. George Habash was at that point journeying through North Korea on his way home from Peking, where he had sought arms and funds.

Dr. Habash and the Popular Front at the time were campaigning against the United States cease fire plan for the Middle East that had been accepted by Jordan’s King Hussein, and also by President Gamal Abdel Nasser of the United Arab Republic.

According to foreign correspondents on the scene, the Popular Front’s purpose in the hijackings was to embarrass the United States, the western powers, Jordan an Egypt, also to throw the allimportant peace plan out of kilter. The Popular Front also wanted to set up a bargaining lever, probably to pry free a handful of its members held in Western Europe, and some if not all of some 3,000 Arab guerillas held prisoner in Israel. If the United States and Western European governments could be induced to pressure Israel to release these prisoners, if Israel was likely refused, then there might be additional dividends in splitting Israel a little from the West.

These were some of the realities of international relations that led to the multiple hijacking.

These were some of the reasons why the governments of more than a score of countries, the United Nations, the International Committee of the Red Cross and a host of international aviation organizations focused on the problem with mounting anxiety during the month that followed.

The passengers of the four airlines were caught in the vortex of the crisis. The responsibility of the airlines was to bring them safely to their destinations. The pride of the airlines would shape the ways in which this would be done, assuming that it could be, and that the Popular Front meant what it said, that it did not wish to harm the passengers. The meaning of what the airlines had always said, the meaning of travel as an instrument of understanding, was suddenly put to the test.

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TWA Chairman Tillinghast summed up the story of TWA Flight 741, September 6-30, 1970. He said: The truth is, this could have happened to any of our flight deck crews, to any of our flight attendants, to any of our operations people, and to any of our reservation agents. Editor During all this time since the hijack over Europe, which was approximately six hours, this woman sat be­hind me, behind the pilot’s seat, with the grenade in her left hand. I don’t recall myself ever seeing her without the grenade and at all times she had the ring through her middle finger, holding it in her left hand, and quite leisurely was resting her arm on the back of my seat, which put that grenade probably some six to ten inches from my head.

And I don’t recall they ever explained to us, maybe they did, that we were supposed to land our Boeing 707 in the desert in the middle of Jordan, with this woman behind me, with the grenade, with the pin out. But we read the checklist and we dragged the field right back to the old C-47 days and we made what we considered to be a normal approach and a normal landing on the strip with a rollup just about like you’d make anywhere else on a cement run­way. We had a good airplane.

Captain Carroll D. Woods Pilot, TWA Flight 741 I’ve been flying with TWA more than 30 years and that landing was far and away the best I’ve ever seen. That landing was painted on the sand.

Captain Russell L. Morris Passenger, TWA Flight 741 We were there on Dawson’s Field on the desert in the 707 for almost a week, you know, and I call the 707 just like home, and I adore the 707, and I even did before this. At the time, I didn’t really appreciate the fact on the plane that nobody was hysterical. I have to really, you know, commend our passengers for this. Because, oh, they asked a million questions, and they all had a million little problems, but it was nothing that couldn’t be solved if you talked to them for a while. Did I wish I was back home at any time? NEVER, NEVER, NEVER. In fact, our whole crew said that if we got out safely you know, if everyone got out safely and it had to happen to us, that we would let it happen to us.

Bettie McCarthy Hostess, TWA Flight 741 The kind of people that work for an airline generally are responsible people. They want responsibility because they know that an individual in an airline, an employee, is more of an individual than in a lot of other businesses you can think of. And they meet all kinds of situations. You know, no one passenger is like any other kind of passenger. So I think they are motivated because they like to take responsibility for doing things on their own.

So you’ve got that kind of person, and when a situation like this arises, it’s not something they run away from. It’s part of their personal motivation. Again, it’s not just a matter of just selling a ticket. It’s a situation which arouses the more fundamental motivations of people, that is, trying to help people out.

F. C. Wiser Our group of telephone reservation agents in New York, we volunteered to man a special desk we called it the hijack desk and we kept calling the relatives of the passengers on the desert, every two hours or so, giving them the latest information. We became very close to these families and we were responsible. It was just a great personal pride in doing a job and helping these people as much as you could. As I said, they were on our flight.

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I’ve had well, for me, it’s more than most, because my mother was a hostess for TWA, my uncle and cousin worked for TWA, the family background, the whole thing, everybody’s a family. We’re very close to each other.

Mark H, Polansky

Reservation Sales Agent, TWA QUESTION: If bad news had to be given to the relatives of the people on the desert, and if you were on the hijack desk, and we know that everybody came through alright, but if they hadn’t, and if it was bad news, would you have been glad you and the people on the desk had to tell the families, had the job to do, rather than some plain, anonymous voice?

ANSWER: Yes. I would have dreaded the thought of it, and I don’t even know whether I could have done it, maybe I might have, I mean, if someone said, ‘Would you do it,’ I would have said, ‘Yes.’

Jeanne Zemarel Reservation Sales Agent, TWA Well, these are bullets, as a matter of fact, that are used by automatic weapons. They were removed from the walls of our bedroom in a hotel suite in Amman, as a matter of fact. These are shells, spent shells from .50 caliber machine guns and other automatic weapons. This particular piece is the I don’t know what we would call it the butt end, or percussion end of a mortar shell. These were picked up off the street when things had quieted down a bit in the civil war in Jordan.

Richard W. Wilson, Vice President TWA Leader of mission to negotiate the release of the passengers and crew of TWA Flight 741 Alighting from our car, driven by TWA’s man in Amman, David Jenevizian, the members of our negotiating mission proceeded to the reception desk of the Intercon mental Hotel to collect our room keys and messages. Within 30 seconds, we were flat on the lobby floor instant reaction to a mortar shell that landed just three or four yards from the car we had just stepped out of. Thirty seconds and all six of us would have been dead.

Thomas Bell Director, International Public Relations TWA After a bite to eat, I went back to the room. There were two bullet holes right through the middle of my pillow. If I’d gone to bed before 10:30, I’d have been dead.

Farid Alonzo

Manager-Sales, Middle East, TWA Yes, they were serious, they were serious. I told this Omar, the man in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, I told him, you don’t mean it, to put the passengers and the kids and so on, to blow the plane, and the women in it. He said, why not, and he says when our Palestinians are getting killed on the borders here and there, who pities them, so that we have to pick others, and he says, after all, we have nothing to lose.

David Jenevizian Manager, Amman, Jordan, TWA We had a good airplane, and we tried desperately to bring her home, but it wasn’t meant to be. I personally thank God that we were able to bring back the passengers and crew the same number we landed with in the desert. and it took a lot of effort from many, many people...

Captain Carroll D. Woods Pilot, TWA Flight 741 The pride of an airline pride in its people, in its passengers, in its planes, in its performance is a PAGE 55 ... TARPA TOPICS

magic thread that ties together a narrowing world. The TWA Boeing 707 hijacked over Brussels and flown to Jordan was one of a fleet of 246 jet transports that fly some 20 billion revenue passenger miles every year across TWA’s domestic and international route structure. The ten TWA crewmen and women of TWA Flight 741 are among 1,326 Captains, 1,257 First Officers, 1,340 Flight Engineers, 4,200 Flight Hostesses and 252 Pursers, worldwide. The 143 passengers aboard TWA Flight 741 were among more than 15 million people flown aboard TWA aircraft every year, almost double the population of Sweden or of New York City, more than three times the population of Chicago, more than ten times the population of San Diego, San Francisco, or Indianapolis.

TWA has more than 39,000 airline employees, including more than 3,900 based overseas, and including the nationals of more than 60 countries. The pride of an airline is also a magic thread of history. It is the memory, in this TWA 40th Anniversary Year, of the first transcontinental service in the United States. According to President F. C. Wiser Jr.: “This went 122 miles per hour, carried 13 people, had a box lunch served by the co-pilot, and took 36 hours with ten stops.”

The first international flight was a Constellation from New York to Paris via Gander and Shannon.

February, 1971 will be the 25th Anniversary of TWA across the Atlantic. In the cockpit of another of TWA’s 246 jets sits Captain George Gay, the sole survivor of the legendary Torpedo Squadron Eight of the Battle of Midway in June 1942. He is the living symbol of the turning point of the Pacific War, and he is still very much an operational pilot.

Incredible though it may have seemed, there was a representative already on the ground at Amman national Airport. Acting on his own initiative, without benefit of instructions from anybody, David Jenevizian TWA’s sales manager in Jordan, had driven out through Jordanian army roadblocks and along guerilla streets to see what he might be able to do to help. A popular, ebullient Palestinian, Mr. Jenevizian had acquaintances in both camps. Not long before, the hijacker Khaleed had turned up at the TWA office in Amman and asked for the return of her own personal bags the TWA plane she had helped hijack to Damascus. After that, she asked for compensation for the loss of her personal effects, and as she placed her hands on the ticket counter Mr. Jenevizian noticed she wore a ring made out of a Russian bullet. He told Leila Khaleed then: “What can I do for you, I can just offer you coffee, but in any other way I can’t help you.” She thanked Mr. Jenevizian’s for his trouble, and left.

Another of Mr. Jenevizian’s friends in Amman was the colonel in charge of security at the airport.

The colonel told Mr. Jenevizian that TWA Flight 741 appeared headed away from Amman, and Mr. Jenevizian and the word to the United States Embassy, and along channel of information around the world. Not long afterward, Mr. Jenevizian made contact on his own initiative with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and expressed his intense concern for the safety of passengers and crew of Flight 741. He was told they were not in danger.

Mr. Jenevizian, who had worked for TWA in the Middle East for seven years, had recently returned from his honeymoon in Italy with his young wife Vehanoush. Every time he pulled his blue Ford Taunus on to the street he was literally risking his life from casual sniper fire. Nobody can realize what it’s like to live in Amman,” he says. “But I work for TWA and somebody’s got to make the communications.” There was a second TWA employee in Amman, an Arab named Abed Mouhkased, a full time messenger.

In motion toward the Middle East at that moment was a TWA task force led by Richard W. Wilson, Vice President Office of the President, a former general manager of Saudi Arabian Airlines and PAGE 56 ... TARPA TOPICS

an authority on the Middle East. Mr. Wilson had helped conduct the delicate negotiations that followed the previous hijacking of a TWA jet transport to Syria. Mr. Wilson was operating under broad general authority from President Wiser, and he set off for the Middle East to help Flight 741 without specific instructions. Mr. Wilson and his wife had seen the movie Anne of the Thousand Days in Paris that day, and he reflected: “Well, Henry VIII, as I say, had some very positive qualities.

I’m afraid I’d be prone to be a little critical of the quality of his reign, in the overview.”

Mr. Wilson brought into his new mission to the Middle East a hand-picked group, Claude Girard, the Director International Flight Operations, was an all-round executive who could fly the Boeing 707, out of the Middle East if he had to. Art Zuger, a Swiss national, was a first-rate maintenance executive who could get the aircraft in shape to fly if anybody could. Thomas Bell, Director of Public Relations International, was the perfect man to handle the inevitable governmental and media crises that could be anticipated.

Farid Alonzo, TWA’s Manager-Sales in the Middle East, a Christian Arab based in Beirut, would be brought in at the top level to handle contacts with “local sources,” meaning among others the guerilla organizations in Jordan. Mr. Alonzo was spending the weekend at Brumana, in the mountains near Beirut, but he was not sorry to leave a bridge game to go to work. He said, “I was losing. But I usually do.”

Mr. Wilson was already in Rome before he made telephone contact with President Wiser in the United States. He received a formal renewal of his broad authority to do whatever he thought necessary to obtain the release of the passengers and the plane. He heard Mr. Wiser say, “Do whatever you think is right. You’re on your way, Dick. God bless.”

TWA Flight 741 was now boring through the darkness over Jordan, some five hours out of Frankfurt, and the hijackers made ready for the landfall. Captain Woods was directed toward some lights on the desert, smudgepots probably, and for all the worldwide mobilization of an airline behind him, everything would now depend upon the technical competence and the courage of the crew.

Captain Woods informed the hijackers that fuel dumping would be necessary to bring the aircraft weight down to landing weight, and he also requested a 30-minute warning prior to landing so that a normal descent might be made and normal checklists followed. Captain Woods then flew across what now appeared in the dusk to be a runway, lit by smudge pots and flares for some 4,000 ft. to 6,000 ft., and the Dopplers were set up to provide an accurate fix on the place. The Captain put the Boeing 707 into a gentle climb while Flight Engineer Kiburis dumped some 36,000 lbs of fuel according to checklist procedure. Then Captain Woods flew back to the landing site, taking care not to fly through any residual spray from the fuel dump in the atmosphere.

Flight hostesses Bettie McCarthy and Linda Jensen now tried to persuade the male hijacker to take his seat for the landing. Miss McCarthy had changed from her smock back into full uniform for the landing according to regulations. She said, “We tried to convince him to sit down because landings are sometimes bumpy. We said, ‘You might lose your balance,’ and he replied, ‘No, I walk 30 kilometers a day.’ Then Linda was adamant. I mean she really told him, ‘Please sit down,’ and at the very last minute he did. With him standing there with that grenade, I thought if we get this plane on the ground with him still holding that grenade, we’re going to feel like our worries are over.”

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Then there was a new problem. The nose gear of the Boeing 707 would not come down. The gear red-unsafe light was on. Flight Engineer Kiburis told Captain Woods, “Say, we don’t have a nose gear.” Captain Woods wondered to himself what else, what the hell else, what in the world else, is going to happen to this particular flight.

Flight Engineer Kiburis tells the story: “So now we told the hijackers that we had a problem.

They got very apprehensive again, thinking it was some sort of trick. So, after cycling lowering the gear and raising the gear twice and it didn’t come down, we told them we would have to use an emergency means. So now, I went for the jack handle, which is right on the bulkhead, and it’s very heavy. I got that, and told them we’d have to lower the gear because it was stuck and there had been a previous malfunction.

“The woman hijacker said, O.K., just like that. Her hands were still on her hand grenade, and she was passing the thing now, from hand to hand, and she was getting tired of holding it. She must have been in a hell of a state. I don’t think I can hold anything for five hours even an hour and a half.

“But, we put the landing gear handle in neutral, and that should get the hydraulic pressure off this thing, then, through the little door in the floor we lowered the landing gear. Then I have to go below in the inner bowels of the airplane, which is called the ‘Lower 41,’ to ascertain that the pin is in. With a gear malfunction, maybe it’s not down and locked, plus not knowing the condition of the runways, it’s better to lock this thing mechanically. I went through my procedure and I locked this gear in the down position. I came back up again.”

Then Captain Carroll D. Woods made the most perfect landing any of the crew on board could ever remember, one they will dream about for the rest of their lives. “Beautiful,” said First Officer Majer. “Beautiful,” said Flight Engineer Kiburis, who then told the Captain he had made an illegal landing because he was not checked out for that airport. Captain Woods made one of his few utterances of the trip. It was unprintable.

TWA Flight 741 landed at Dawson’s Field, some 25 miles from Amman, Jordan, at 7:41 P.M. local time. Checklists were read and cockpit was secured. The flight crew looked out across it appeared to be a dry lake bed, along a runway stretch-what seemed to be thousands of feet away beyond the flares and smudge pots. The flight hostesses opened the front door and, “It was like a movie,” said one. “There were all these people out there, happy and clapping, waving, you could see their guns, this was a soft night, very soft, I thought this is just like movie.”

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine now instituted its own routine procedures. Male and female guerillas with machine guns took control of the aircraft, distributed landing cards and some propaganda, collected passports from the passengers, gave out milk and water, removed the mail, extinguished the emergency lights and settled everybody down for the night. Meanwhile, the Swissair DC-8 had landed amid a bang-bang of engine stalls that led the TWA flight crew to believe it had crashed.

Flight Engineer Kiburis, who had saved enough fuel, 31,000 lbs, “enough to take us anywhere we wanted go,” now went back to the cockpit and pulled all the circuit breakers in order to help preserve the battery, and there was an air bottle that could be hooked up for takeoff. The crew’s PAGE 58 ... TARPA TOPICS

fundamental plan was to be ready for takeoff within 30 minutes. But even that first night, Mr. Kiburis doubted this would ever happen. He recalls: “That night, people started sleeping, and I went into the lounge area and I sat down, and I noticed when I walked by, there was a wire sticking out. I figured it was some sort of explosive device. So I decided to stay up and watch them wiring this airplane. So I stayed up most of the night and one hostess saw this, and she said, ‘What is that they’re carrying?’ I said, ‘forget about it, everybody’s sleeping and don’t tell anybody.’ I said, ‘I’ll watch,’ and I stayed up the remainder of the night watching. I was really concerned that they would, maybe, blow up the airplane with us in it. I didn’t think they would, but I said, there’s a chance.”

ORDEAL IN THE DESERT TWA Flight 741 rested on Dawson’s Field in Jordan for the next six hot, unforgettable days, imprisoned by the Arab guerillas of the Popular Front, who were themselves encircled by mechanized units of the Royal Jordanian Army. The passengers and the crews of the TWA and Swissair jetliners were now the pawns in the international chess game. Indians, Indonesians, French, Dutch, Ethiopian and Austrian passengers were quickly released, and the TWA passenger count was down to 102. Six passengers in TWA were quickly identified by the Arabs and taken away. They included three United States government employees engaged in confidential work, and three influential members of the United States Jewish community. TWA’s official report on what happened next could not be more laconic.

“The six days were spent in efforts to procure food and water from the Arabs, distributing the food, cleaning the aircraft, organizing sanitation details, reassuring the passengers and generally providing liaison. Food, water, baby supplies and medical supplies were provided by the Arabs, the Red Cross or the Red Crescent, the Arab equivalent. A doctor was present most of the time.

Without the flight deck and cabin crew’s efforts, it appears that the six days on the desert would have been a much more severe ordeal.”

Captain Carroll D. Woods, in his own personal report, added: “The only thing I have to say in this regard if I had tried in some way to handpick a crew, I don’t think I could possibly have picked a better group of people.

“They did their job and they did it well.”

TWA’s ten flight deck and cabin crew people on TWA Flight 741 and the captain who was riding on board as a passenger recall through a hot, desert blur of memories how it was on Dawson’s Field in Jordan in September 1970.

CAPTAIN RUSSELL L. MORRIS: It’s something we go through our lives, probably not realizing, and that’s how heavily passengers lean on the authority of the captain and the importance of the uniforms worn by the crew. The guerillas respected this, too, and it happened more than once.

Vicky McVey thought at one point that one of the guards was being a little obstreperous, and she just said, ‘Go away,’ and he went.

HOSTESS JUNE HAESLER : We divided our chores pretty much. It was each person. We didn’t PAGE 59 ... TARPA TOPICS

say, you have to do this, and you have to do that. Somebody would volunteer. Everybody sort of knew when someone else’s energy was down and they would just take over. We really didn’t have any set duties, we sort of leaned toward the cockpit crew for commands, like boil some water because the babies’ bottles have to be cleaned, one of us would get up automatically and do it. We sort of knew who was working and if it was our turn, we would automatically get up.

HOSTESS BETTIE McCARTHY: I know it was very hot because it was best if I sat still, and there were times when I had to get up and go by the galley door because I had to get a breath of air.

But what made it very bearable was the fact that night came, and that was cool, you know, but you only had maybe five hours of this. I’d say varied from about 120 degrees in the day to about 45 at night.

CAPTAIN CARROLL D. WOODS: We had one man open a suitcase, when the Arabs were doing one their searches, and there lay a shell about eighteen inches long. Of course, her son was taking it home to make lamp out of, that’s understandable. But it’s a bad time something like this to show up.

HOSTESS ROSEMARIE METZNER: I was telling a woman to sleep because when we are released you want to look well, and she said to me, ‘Oh, you don’t know what its like. I’ve been through a concentration camp,’ and all this, and I said, ‘I know what it’s like because I went tough a war myself, and I was a young child so I know perfectly well what you feel like, but don’t think negatively, try to make the best out of it.’ So I gave her a little comfort by just talking to her for a while. She felt better.

FLIGHT ENGINEER KIBURIS: The Arabs had many machine guns lying around and I thought some wild guy might shoot somebody. So I gathered up six machine guns and I put them in the lounge and I asked the Arabs get rid of them. I said, because someone could get shot.

HOSTESS VICKY McVEY: The commandos were carrying hand grenades and one of them was just sitting on the floor and he had it in his hand, and he said, ‘Here, catch,’ and went like this, and I said, ‘Don’t throw it at me. Of course, he wasn’t going to throw it, I guess, obviously.

CAPTAIN WOODS: They kept walking up and down plane, sight seeing, looking at us, and more of them come on board every day. It made everybody nervous and asked the Arabs to stop it, and they did.

HOSTESS McCARTHY: The worst night for me is when I was just going to sleep, and they came on with a list of six names they wanted removed. I was told to go to the cabin and get the six men, and it really bothered me. I just remember feeling nervous and very badly for these people. A guerilla was with me. He spoke English. I said, ‘Mr. Woods, they’d like to see you up front.’ I didn’t know then they would not be returned but I did know they were leaving the plane. I had to get them. It was night and dark. Afterward, I couldn’t sleep, you know, so I stayed awake all night.

HOSTESS McVEY: The six men were very brave, They just got their things and went. One of the six men’s names was mispronounced. ‘They always do that,’ he said. ‘That’s me. Hollingsworth.’

CAPTAIN WOODS: One woman got down on her hands and knees and helped me scrub out the PAGE 60 ... TARPA TOPICS

galley and worked as hard as I did. And we cleaned up that entire galley, all around the floor, the base of the galley, all their units, the stainless steel area and everything, and she helped.

FLIGHT ENGINEER KIBURIS: Sanitary conditions in the five lavatories got difficult, to put it mildly, and the captain and I went outside, and we unplugged the portholes, dumping the lavatories, and the Arabs dug trenches for us, for this stuff to dump into. But the funny thing is, I was in the back, and the captain was holding my legs, I was reaching through this thing, and at the time it broke open, and the co-pilot says, ‘I’m glad this is not done by seniority,’ and I almost fell into the cesspool, I was laughing. They could have shot me and buried me right there.

CAPTAIN WOODS: One day the president of the Jordanian airlines came out, and he was trying to send out a power unit to the airplane, which he did. But the power unit just barely fit the truck and due to the fact that the exhaust system came out low, near the ground, and the truck had sideboards on it about eighteen inches high, with about two inches to spare on either side of the truck, the thing could only be used about fifteen minutes at a time.

HOSTESS MCCARTHY: When we got the power truck, and the power went on, I went rushing to the lav and I never thought I’d enjoy cleaning lavs, but it was the biggest luxury to lock the door, have light and air and I mean, I scrubbed, everything, I decided I was always going to appreciate having air and light and power.

FLIGHT ENGINEER KIBURIS: There were some laughs. I told all the girls I needed an American mistress, and if one of them would have a good car and a bank account, I’d consider them, they said they’d all start saving and all that bit. The Arab girl came on, and I told them later I asked her if she had a red tank out there, and maybe she could take me for a ride and all that. They laughed at anything, anyway. An Arab invited me to be an espionage agent for $3,000 a month and I laughed.

One day, I was walking under the airplane, they let us out for a walk every now and then and this guy comes over, smiling, and he takes off his Arab headgear, it’s the hijacker. I don’t know how we got into the conversation, but he said that he got a charge out of my wife being a TWA hostess, and living in Paris, and he offered to hijack my wife and bring her there if I would give him the flight number. I said, ‘No thanks. I’d rather have her where she is.’

HOSTESS McVEY: There was Frank Allen, the student purser, this is his third trip, and he worked hard, a very good purser. At one time, he stood up and started yelling at the top of his lungs and we all started laughing. The one thing I remember him yelling was, ‘What do you think we have here, a waterfall.’ And there was a soldier, one of the passengers, who was interested in social psychology who was planning on getting his graduate degree. He was thinking of doing a thesis on the group, and was hoping to remain objective and not get involved in the activities.

FIRST OFFICER JAMES MAJER: Connie Pittaro, one of the passengers, she must have been about eight, got ill while we were on the desert. She had a temperature of 105, and it was tonsillitis.

The doctor had seen her and prescribed penicillin for her, oral penicillin, to be taken once every three hours, and prescribed aspirin to be taken to reduce the temperature, two aspirin every four hours, and also that she drink a lot of things.

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HOSTESS LINDA JENSEN : I’m the biggest chicken in the world when it comes to needles, but we all worked with our own particular strength and I guess helping with the children was mine.

Connie needed liquids and she needed hugging.

FIRST OFFICER MAJER: Connie seemed to act counter to what people would like her to do.

Perhaps she felt unloved at the time, but she wouldn’t drink what she had to drink. She wouldn’t take her medicine when asked to so, we tried to let this little girl know that we loved her very much. As a matter of fact, I said that to her one night just before she went to bed. I said to her, ‘I love you, Connie,’ and the next time she woke up which was an hour afterward, I woke her up to get her to drink and take the medicine, and she took it, and from then on, she woke up every hour and drank more, and took her medicine when the times came. She did a very nice job.

HOSTESS JENSEN: The doctor was a Swiss, a Red Cross doctor named Claude Frascani. He was just great. We all loved him.

FIRST OFFICER MAJER: For two nights on the airplane, we were up all night with Connie. Linda was up with her all by herself the next night.

CAPTAIN WOODS: What those two did for that kid was really above and beyond.

FLIGHT ENGINEER KIBURIS :The amazing thing is the hostesses were actually getting better all the time, even though they were only getting two hours of sleep every night. They were even starting to look better, and they had their shoes off and their smocks on. They always looked good, really, and they’d come up with their hair stringing all down a little bit.

HOSTESS McVEY: I just tie my hair back and it keeps it up and it’s so easy and it is very nice for flight. But later on, it was hanging down. A little boy about ten years old said, ‘You look so nice when you put your hair down.’

HOSTESS McCARTHY: All the passengers told me how great I looked, I must have really looked out there. In fact, the passengers were really very kind.

CAPTAIN MORRIS: The passengers were really calm. Not a single case of hysteria. Claustrophobia?

Would you like to be in a Boeing 707 for a week? But nobody rushed about screaming ‘Let me out.’

It shows what a group of humans are capable of achieving when they are put to the test. Most of the time was spent resting, and waiting for what happened next.

FLIGHT ENGINEER KIBURIS: Rudi Swinkels, Allen and the rest of us dumped out three of the life rafts one broke and one inflated and we put a canopy on and we put the children on it, and two women volunteered to get in and told stories to the children. We cut off pieces and made skip ropes for the children. On each line the raft, a retention line, there’s a rubber ball. I disconnected it, but it bounced and hit an Arab in the face. Arabs passed by with a water truck and they wet down area so the dust didn’t blow on the people. They were going to show they were friendly to us.

FLIGHT OFFICER MAJER: One day the guards informed us a hijacked BOAC aircraft was somewhere nearby looking for Dawson’s Field. We were allowed into the cockpit to contact Speedbird on 130.0 VHF. We described the location of the field and its elevation. We gave landing instructions and surface wind. After the BOAC plane landed safely, a good landing, we secured the cockpit.

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HOSTESS McCARTHY: The evening after the C plane landed, we had singing and stuff. Oh, ‘I’ll Never Fall In Love Again,’ popular songs that we hear all the time.

HOSTESS METZNER; I really believe I gained a lot from it. I figure I gained a lot of strength. If I can go through this for seven days, I can probably go through anything more. If something comes up in my life, I can probably cope with it. In this case, I made up my own little world in my mind, always had beautiful thoughts about beautiful things. Things I loved. I love San Francisco first of all, and I had the best time there, and then I love music and I play the piano, and I was going through music sheets in my mind. You know, in my mind, playing things. It’s the Beethoven year, so I was thinking of Beethoven. I don’t think there is anything wrong with that.

HOSTESS HAESLER: The desert was always clay like almost a camel color. One day when we went out I thought we were surrounded by lakes, and everybody else did, too. I thought when you had a mirage that only one person saw it.

HOSTESS McVEY: One day we had a sand storm and the plane was full of sand just like that. The sand, very fine, gets in your throat. The Arabs were coming from outside looking just like they were made of sand. Their hair was full of sand, their eyelashes were full of sand, and when we looked out the windows, it looked just like kind of a pink, beige, yellow lightness, and you couldn’t see anything at all, except there was this lightness. We didn’t feel the plane rocking, or anything like that. We just had an impression that the atmosphere was so strange outside the window.

HOSTESS McCARTHY: One evening we had a birthday party. We had given an extra bottle of water to this girl for her birthday and then a ‘passenger gave us a scarf from India, and we made a birthday card on the back of a menu, sang Happy Birthday, and we passed out little water jugs.

Linda Jensen had bought wine in Frankfurt and everybody got a water cup with some wine, you know, for the birthday. I think it was probably Moselle. Friday, we were going to have our talent show. We were, we had gotten terribly organized by now.

CAPTAIN MORRIS: Friday was the day they got word in the desert that the Sixth Fleet was being paraded, and it was a bad day for hostages. Very bad day. One of their leaders referred constantly to the need to blow up an airplane or two or three with people on it. No, this can’t ever be deduced as something beside harassment. There were harassments of many sorts that weren’t apparent to people who were kept busy. We tried to keep ourselves busy and as we began to settle down, we put other people to work so that their minds could be doing something else, besides this constant guessing game. But the harassments were there.

One of the guerilla leaders asked me what I would say if he blew up the airplanes on Dawson’s Field, I could only say it would be like putting a detonator in the engine of your nice new Mercedes, which you drove into the desert, and blowing that up it’s just as irrational.

Did I ever think they might go all the way, with us?

Yes, there were times.

That was how it was on Dawson’s Field in Jordan in the week that began September 6, 1970. This was the pride of an airline. On the night of Thursday September 10, ten male passengers were removed, reducing the count to 92. On the evening of Friday September 11, the male members of the crew and all remaining male passengers, almost all United States or Israeli nationals, were also taken off the Boeing 707. On the morning of Saturday September 12, the TWA flight PAGE 63 ... TARPA TOPICS

hostesses, the women passengers and the accompanied and unaccompanied children were taken into Amman and released. Five young United States women had been taken off to join the male passengers somewhere in Jordan.

Silver and gleaming in the broiling sun, tiny specks in the timeless desert, the TWA, Swissair and BOAC jetliners awaited their fate.

MISSION TO AMMAN They were such graceful animals, the gazelles, Farid Alonzo remembered, as the Royal Jordanian Airlines Caravelle flew through the Middle Eastern evening from Beirut to Amman. Some of the happiest moments of his life he had hunted the gazelles, down there on the dry lake bed of Dawson’s Field, so many years before. How many weekends had he raced his jeep across the hard surface toward the horizon, 60 or 70 m.p.h., and the gazelles were almost as fast, leaping and arching in the dawn. Four or five a.m. was the best time, he recalled, and when they shot the first one, that would be enough. They would cook it there and share it and another day they would be back. “It’s not a place like Africa, which is full of gazelles. It is very difficult to hunt them, using a car, and it is a good sport.”

Richard W. Wilson, the leader of the TWA mission to Amman, did not share the astonishment of many airline people that TWA Flight 741 had been able to make its landing on the desert. As he rode southeastward in the Caravelle with Mr. Alonzo, TWA’s Middle East Manager-Sales, Mr. Wilson remembered the years he had spent as general manager of Saudi Arabian Airlines. “We used to land aircraft in dry-lake beds for technical evaluations. Such dry lake areas are almost invariably fiat as a billiard table and very hard. I was surprised the first time I had occasion to check the soil characteristics of a dry lake bed, and see how stable and strong they were. This type of surface can withstand a surprisingly high impact weight.”

Thomas Bell, the TWA international public relations director, a third member of the mission to Amman, was aware that the British press had even managed to find Dawson, the man after whom the field was named. An elderly Royal Air Force officer, long since retired and living in the tranquil English countryside, Dawson used to bring air crews away from the heat of Cairo to Jordan in the long-ago days when the country was still Transjordan, policed by the British-officered Transjordan Frontier Force. Dawson told the British reporters he was fascinated to hear that TWA and Swissair jetliners had landed on his dry lake bed. “It used to be a good place to practice takeoffs and landings and all that,” Dawson said, “but mostly it was good to get away from Cairo.”

Claude Girard, the TWA international operations director, and Art Zuger, the TWA maintenance executive, were on the mission to Amman to help get Flight 741 off the ground safely, assuming that Mr. Wilson and Mr. Alonzo, not to mention the hundreds of other TWA people involved, and the hundreds of diplomats of dozens of nations, could negotiate the release of the aircraft. Mr. Girard said “the flyaway situation” was the best the mission might accomplish, but he doubted its feasibility. He feared the Popular Front guerillas intended to blow up the TWA and Swissair jetliners on the ground, perhaps one by one, perhaps just the TWA Boeing 707.

Mr. Wilson and Mr. Alonzo, along with the other members of the mission, did not really believe the Popular Front intended to harm the passengers. But there was a disconcerting new tempo in the perennial Middle Eastern dilemma. Mr. Wilson recognized the pilot of the Royal Jordanian Airlines Caravelle. Further, the first officer of the flight was a former Saudi Arabian flight trainee.

Mr. Wilson said, “They all knew why I was on board, and where I was going, I was glad to see them both.”

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But then the co-pilot asked Mr. Wilson out of a clear blue sky whether the United States would also release Sirhan Sirhan, the convicted assassin of the late Senator Robert F. Kennedy, in the exchange agreement for the release of TWA Flight 741. This had been one of the most extreme demands of the Popular Front’s most militant spokesmen during the day, but now it was a former associate, who said, in effect, that it would make everything easier. Mr. Wilson said sharply, “Don’t be ridiculous, Sirhan is an imprisoned American murderer who has nothing do with this problem.” But the co-pilot commented, Nell, he’s a Palestinian.”

David Jenevizian, TWA’s manager in Amman and the sixth member of the mission, was waiting at Amman international Airport. He had also picked up the new sounds from the Popular Front.

That day he had been talking with a Popular Front leader in the city, asking for relief and comfort for the men and women on Dawson’s Field, when the man picked up the telephone and called his headquarters in Beirut. The guerilla leader was armed to the teeth with machine guns, grenades and ammunition.

In front of Mr. Jenevizian, the guerilla leader asked Beirut to tell the world they would not release hostages until western governments released several Popular Front prisoners in Europe. There were three in Western Germany, three in Switzerland and now, since the failure of the attempt to hijack the El Al airliner the previous morning, there was also Leila Khaleed held in solitary confinement in London. She was the hijacker who had attempted get compensation from Mr. Jenevizian for the loss of their personal effects on the TWA plane she helped hijack to Damascus.

Mr. Jenevizian watched as the Popular Front leader talked on. Unless these demands were met, within 72 hours, the man said, the passengers would be blown up along with the planes. When Mr. Jenevizian asked the man if he as serious, he replied, “Why not.”

The Wilson mission formed up at Amman International Airport at 10:30 P.M. local time and a little later they drove in Mr. Jenevizian’s car through silent streets to the Intercontinental Hotel.

“There was not a single bird,” Mr. Jenevizian recalls his drive. “Nobody out. It was quiet like a desert. Somebody can come out between the buildings and say, stop, and then you don’t, and he will shoot you.”

At the hotel, they conferred briefly with United States Embassy officials and then they headed to the home of an old friend, Ali Ghandour, Director General of the Royal Jordanian Airlines. Mr. Ghandour, a notable leader and former president of the Arab Air Carriers Organization, said he had visited Dawson’s Field that day. He said that the passengers and crew were uninjured and that the aircraft was 100% airworthy. Dawson’s Field’s runway was approximately 20,000 ft long, he added, making it 5,000 ft longer than the runway at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City. Old Dawson had chosen his ground well.

Mr. Wilson and his mission drove back to the Intercontinental Hotel. It was 12:30 A.M.. They got out of the car and walked to the reception desk to collect room keys and messages. Then a mortar shell went off right behind them, some three or four yards from Mr. Jenevizian’s car, shattering the windshield. Six or seven seconds or three or four yards and they would have been dead. When things quieted down somewhat, they checked into a sixth floor suite. “Eventually,” said Mr. Bell, “we were really in a bad position up there with the crossfire between the Royal Jordanian Army and the guerillas that occurred rather steadily.”

Tuesday September 8 was the day in which the first phase of the Mission to Amman took shape.

Mr. Wilson was in charge at the Intercontinental working with Mr. Ghandour and also with Mr. Qui’ban, the Director General of Civil Aviation of Jordan, whom he had also met in international PAGE 65 ... TARPA TOPICS

aviation conferences and on his tours of the Middle East. Mr. Wilson expected that day to get through the twin circles of Jordanian army tanks and Popular Front guerillas to get aboard the TWA aircraft at Dawson’s Field, only 25 miles away. Mr. Zuger would probably accompany him to check the aircraft.

Mr. Girard and Mr. Bell went to the United States Embassy expecting to make contact on State Department channels with New York, and also to firm up liaison with United States diplomats in Jordan. Mr. Jenevizian, with occasional help from the others, began to look after the 39 TWA passengers already released. They were waiting for further clearance to assure their safe evacuation.

They were housed in the Intercontinental Hotel, across town in the Philadelphia Hotel and in a small hotel called The Shepherd, run by a Jordanian named George.

TWA Middle East Manager Farid Alonzo was the first man in the mission in action. A tall, powerful man of distinguished mien, he made an appointment, then strode into the Amman offices of the Popular Front.

“I asked them straight, ‘Are you going to do anything to those passengers?’ They assured me that these passengers are going to be kept as hostages, and everything possible will be done to protect them and secure their safety. But, they told me, there was a war going on, and if there was an air raid, or some other artillery bombardment or some other thing that could hit them, then they would die with them, but everything possible would be done to protect them.”

Mr. Alonzo made similar contact with all the principal Arab militant organizations that day, and soon he felt he had the whole story. Something had gone wrong with the plan otherwise, it would have all been over within two or three days. What had gone wrong was the failure to take the El Al plane. There was now no Israeli plane and passengers to hold against an exchange of Popular Front prisoners from Israel. Furthermore, Leila Khaleed was now in custody in England, and the British might have to be brought into the act. Mr. Alonzo’s information and his interpretation was correct: the Popular Front began to sift out and identify the United States citizens on the TWA and Swissair planes at Dawson’s Field and also Jewish people of all nationalities, whom the Popular Front consider to be Israelis. The next day, the BOAC VC-1O jet liner was hijacked between Bahrein and Beirut and brought to Dawson’s Field.

Mr. Wilson and Mr. Ghandour went together that afternoon to see the leaders of the Popular Front. They had not been able to get through the military confrontations to Dawson’s Field. “Its the damndest situation,” said Mr. Wilson. “The army troops can’t get any closer to the aircraft. If they do, there’s a threat the guerillas will destroy the aircraft and slaughter the passengers.”

Mr. Girard, Mr. Alonzo and Mr. Bell thought the Popular Front had already taken its decision: to blow up the aircraft without the passengers, to release some of the passengers, to hold the rest as bargaining counters, especially United States and Israeli nationals on the Swissair and the TWA aircraft. Mr. Wilson and his mission had a very clear policy on this issue, too: “I was asked many times how many Jews were on board TWA’s Flight 741,” Mr. Wilson said. “The answer was, I don’t know. I don’t know how many Catholics there are on board either, or Presbyterians. Because there isn’t anything in our documentation that will reveal a person’s religious faith. Nor should there be. “Do any of the passengers have dual passports? This was a possibility. Some could have an Israeli passport in addition to a United States passport. It is legal to carry two passports under certain circumstances.”

Sometime that day, Mr. Wilson and his associates learned that the six passengers had been taken off TWA Flight 741 the previous night. The Popular Front said the six had merely been taken off somewhere for interrogation, but the mission was frankly, fearful. These were possibly the VIP hostages who would be held until the last and, if things should go badly, these were the logical PAGE 66 ... TARPA TOPICS

ones to be shot.

That evening, the members of the mission grabbed a late bite to eat, then went up to bed in the Royal Suite. The place was in darkness and had been shot up. Mr. Alonzo borrowed a flashlight from Mr. Zuger. “I focused the torchlight on my bed and, behold, we found that the pillow had two bullet holes. The bullets had come through the glass wall on the veranda, which gave us a beautiful view of that side of Amman.”

During the next few days, Mr. Wilson and his associates held intricate and often frustrating meetings with a series of representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross. This organization was trying to set up a framework through which the hostages might be released.

The International Red Cross; along with the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, was helping out at Dawson’s Field, and was attempting to help evacuate the released hostages from Amman.

Through the next days, the mission also maintained and extended its contacts with both sides of the Jordan fighting. At one point, late at night, Mr. Wilson was given an escort of two young guerillas as he moved on foot about the town. Fully armed, they carried a couple of bags for him, would not accept any form of payment, and were polite and friendly.

Increasingly, the specifics of the negotiations in Amman were overshadowed by the incredible scene. Thomas Bell, the international public relations director, writes for this book an eyewitness account: “The scene was bizarre, terrifying, unreal, at the battered fortress of the Intercontinental Hotel.

In the blackout, tracers and rockets filled the air. Hotel guests took refuge in a basement shelter.

Frightened parents clung tightly to their children, the steady barrage of machine gun fire was clearly audible as gunners operated from nests in the hotel garden.

“By 8:00 A.M. local time, the dining room was open, as usual, and waiters cheerfully served breakfast. By mid morning, children were romping around the lobby, which had taken on the appearance of a miniature lake. The water tank of the hotel had taken a direct hit and there was a flood. ”Suddenly, the fighting erupts again. Back to the basement shelter. Two hundred persons are crowded in a space designed to accommodate half as many. Hordes of press and television cameramen are there, recording the drama. A six year old blonde girl hugs her white poodles. A few teenagers elect to play cards. A Zane Grey novel catches the fancy of one hotel guest, and an Agatha Chris­tie another. A medical unit appears with medicines and baby food. Cholera vaccine is administered to those with­out inoculations.

“There is still no word, only contradictory reports, about the welfare of those still aboard the aircraft on the remote desert strip only 25 miles away. They might as well have been on the moon.”

In this situation, the members of the mission per­formed the roles of passenger service agents, male nurses, couriers, company spokesman, typists, diplomats, teletype operators, purchasing agents, group escorts and baggage handlers, whatever came up next. Communications was essential: this might be handled via the United States Em­bassy, via the British Embassy, through the private SITA wires, by taxi drivers running messages at risk of their lives at sky-high prices, by running or walking the streets before and after curfew.

United States news correspondents were helpful when they tagged on to news copy some of the more urgent TWA messages for transmission to New York. Wilson Hall of the National Broadcasting Company even allocated time on his open circuit to New York for TWA messages that were passed on by NBC to TWA in Manhattan.

On the fifth day of the mission to Amman there was a major flap. Radio reports said that the PAGE 67 ... TARPA TOPICS

United States Sixth Fleet was deploying offshore, that United States and Royal Air Force units were positioned in Turkey and that United States Marine Corps reinforcements had set sail from America. Mr. Wilson commented, “This is a newscast and you’re sitting there listening to it, along with all of the Palestinian guerillas.” Negotiations through the International Red Cross were just about complete for the release of the women and children aboard the TWA, Swissair and BOAC jets when the newscasts came in. Then a Popular Front leader told Mr. Andre Rochat of the International Red Cross, “Will you please reassure me. My people are getting nervous and tired and I ask you to convince your people in Geneva and obtain a guarantee that there will be no military intervention. Because if there is, I guarantee it is going to be a massacre.” Mr. Rochat, in a subsequent urgent meeting with western governments and airlines representatives in Amman, urged them to “calm the outside world.”

Mr. Wilson reported through channels that, “Fantastic tension presently reigns at Popular Front headquarters. Rochat commented that they’re angry and desperate.” But the flap was off the same evening and the scene was set for the release of the women and children from the three aircraft on Dawson’s Field. The flight crew and the male passengers had been taken off TWA Flight 741 the previous evening, Friday September 11. The story was not yet one week old.

Not long after 11 :00 A.M. local time on Saturday September 12, shouts were heard in the Intercontinental Hotel lobby -”Here they come! They’re here! “ and every body stormed out of the front doors, swarming around a motor caravan, busses and trucks, heavily coated with desert dirt and sand. The procession was led by an open jeep escort carrying half-a-dozen grizzled guerillas, sand clinging to them, each carrying a submachine gun. The guerillas were singing a freedom song. Then the women and children passengers of the TWA, Swissair and BOAC jetliners stepped out wearily and were motioned into the hotel. Baggage with two to three inch layers of dust was heaped in a pile in front of the hotel and some broke apart.

The scene in the lobby was something else even for the Intercontinental. Some passengers held emotional reunions and others broke down. Some searched frantically for their missing husbands, to learn they were still in custody. They were hungry, thirsty, exhausted, tripping over television lines, shouting chaotic interviews with re porters. Mostly, they simply wanted to get inside the hotel where they could put their things down, pull themselves together, get a little solace and reassurance and the warmth of human contact.

Mr. Wilson, Mr. Alonzo and Mr. Bell formed an informal welcoming committee. They identified themselves, “We’re with TWA, come this way, you’re our responsibility, you’re safe now.” Mr. Bell began to unscramble some of the passenger baggage. “It was just necessary to try to sort out and identify some of the people’s belongings,” he said. Mr. Girard, Mr. Zuger and Mr. Jenevizian set up a TWA desk in one section of the lobby to check in and carefully identify all the TWA passengers. The Swissair and BOAC missions were manning their own desks for their own people, and gradually some semblance of order was restored.

Arrangements had been made for a meal to be served to all the TWA passengers in the dining room, and the women and children were ushered inside. Passengers of TWA Flight 741 stayed close to their five flight hostesses, continuing to ask them questions, taking them their problems, relying on them for whatever might happen next. None of the flight hostesses rushed off to take a bath, or to try to send messages, or to meet any personal needs. They stayed with the passengers.

At last TWA’s mission to Amman had checked in 92 passengers and the five flight hostesses. They were taken to nearby, more comfortable and safer hotels where they could get some rest before flying out the next day for Nicosia, in Cyprus. What was release like for the TWA hostesses from Dawson’s Field: PAGE 68 ... TARPA TOPICS

HOSTESS BETTIE MCCARTHY: They moved us to another hotel, the Philadelphia. We had two unaccompanied children with us all the time. We kept them in our rooms, the five of us would have them at the dinner table. ‘Don’t talk with your mouth full, no you can’t run round the table.’

The life of five mothers. The five of us and our little charges. It was kind of interesting, though, that some of the passengers did not want to leave the plane until they were assured, positively, that we were coming home.

HOSTESS LINDA JENSEN: Connie was much better by now, and we took turns taking care of her and the other little girl, Tsapore. But I was sort of sorry to leave airplane, if you can believe it. I knew what was going to happen to it, really, and I thought it was a sin.

HOSTESS ROSEMARIE METZNER: It was very strange. I couldn’t sleep. I was trying to lie down and sleep and couldn’t, so I went downstairs and ordered a cup of coffee, and I was falling asleep sitting up. You know, it just shows my body couldn’t adjust to all of this, all of a sudden, and fall asleep while laying down, the first night in a week I had a bed, but couldn’t sleep in it.

HOSTESS VICKY McVEY: I finally did get a bath. A journalist gave Bettie and me the key to his room and we finally got our showers. I can’t say how long we’d been dreaming about that.

HOSTESS HAESLER: I collected my things on the lane and assisted women and children down the ladder from the inside of the forward cabin door. When the line passengers ended, I looked back and saw in the coach cabin two women and some girls in their late teens. I started to go back and see what was going on but a woman guerilla with a rifle over her shoulder told me to collect my things and leave. She also said that the remaining women would follow us shortly.

In mid-afternoon of Saturday September 12, Mr. Zuger came up to Mr. Wilson, and he said, “Hey, how are your eyes this afternoon.” Mr. Wilson said they were pretty good, and Mr. Zuger went on, “Come here, let’s take a look.” They went over to the balcony, looked out in the direction of Dawson’s Field, and saw a distant cloud of black smoke. They looked at each other and nodded to one another. Mr. Girard, matter of fact as always, thought it was smoke from some of the rest of the war in Amman, but he did not doubt what was happening.

Mr. Alonzo was putting some passengers in a taxi when somebody moved up close to him and said, in Arabic, “We’re glad you’re safe.” In the Arab custom, this is what is said when somebody dies, or a catastrophe happens. Mr. Alonzo looked at the man, “What is it?” The man said, “Your plane is being blown up.” It was exactly at that moment, The mission moved into its second week: the aircraft was lost, but all the passengers and crew of TWA Flight 741 were safe, 38 excepted. How now to help save the rest.

“SOME DOPE MIGHT GET LUCKY WITH A 105 AND LOB A SHELL IN ON US” At 5 :00 A.M. local time, Thursday September 17, King Hussein sent the Royal Jordanian Army into combat against the guerillas in Amman. Among his targets was the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the hijackers of TWA Flight 741. In several days of bloody street fighting, he gained control of the capital by day, but he lost it again every night. Then a powerful force of Syrian tanks crossed the border, manned by Palestinians, and King Hussein requested western intervention, which was withheld. Somehow, King Hussein managed to detach enough armor from Amman to send north against the Syrian tanks, and he defeated them when the Syrian Air Force did not provide air support, one reason why the Syrians might not have sent up the planes PAGE 69 ... TARPA TOPICS

is a report that the Israeli air force would then have gone into action. In any event, the small Jordanian air force was unopposed and the Syrian tanks were turned back across the border.

In Amman, the fighting raged with increasing fury as the King’s desert Bedouin troops closed in on the guerillas in the city. But the issue had not been resolved there when President Nasser put together a shaky compromise between King Hussein and guerilla leaders such as Yassir Arafat.

A cease fire went into effect.

During these several, incredible days, TWA’s remaining hostages, and TWA’s mission to Amman, were separately striving to do little more than stay alive.

Before the fighting erupted, TWA’s flight crew, led by Captain Carroll D. Woods, were moved from one guerilla stronghold to another, until they were reunited with the male passenger hostages and the five Jewish girls, in a three-story concrete house somewhere in Amman. The purser, Rudolph Swinkels, was set free, almost certainly because he was a Dutch national.

TWA’s mission to Amman, led by Richard W. Wilson, visited Dawson’s Field and photographed the wreckage of the three jetliners there. Their numbers were reduced when Mr. Wilson assigned Thomas Bell, the international public relations director, and Art Zuger, the maintenance specialist, to accompany the women and children passengers to safety. Through their contacts in Amman, Mr. Wilson, along with Claude Girard, Farid Alonzo and David Jenevizian, managed to arrange a brief meeting with the TWA flight crew. Mr. Wilson was then able to report to President Wiser that the men were in fair shape, and that negotiations through the International Red Cross were continuing. On September 16, Mr. Alonzo was dispatched to Beirut to handle several special projects there.

Starting 5:00 A.M., September 17th, the TWA people in separate sections of the city were pinned down in the murderous crossfire between the guerillas and the tanks and armored personnel carriers of King Hussein. Captain Woods, Flight Engineer Kiburis, First Officer Majer, Student Purser Allen, the male passengers and the five Jewish girls, were trapped in the three-story concrete house. Richard Wilson and Claude Girard were trapped for four days in The Shepherd Hotel, where they lived in a bathroom with four British reporters, somewhat safer from the shells and bullets behind an additional set of walls than they might have been in a bedroom facing out.

In The Shepherd Hotel, Mr. Wilson received a superficial wound in the thigh and became the only TWA casualty of the mission. Later, they were trapped for two days in the United States Embassy. They left there in a Jordanian armored convoy, turrets circling and guns blazing away at the guerillas. Captain Woods and Mr. Wilson kept journals, and here for this book are related excerpts interspersed with heir more recent comments: SEPTEMBER 17 WOODS: It’s now 12:10 and one hell of a battle still aging. For the first time, we now have all the TWA people together. It is our belief there was a third hijacker on TWA Flight 741 he was a backup man if needed. They are firing some pretty heavy stuff off the top of our building. We have been out of water and electricity for two hours. Lunch green beans, rice, sauce with meat, fried egg, pretty tasty. We have been treated well.

WILSON: Fighting all day. We are sitting in the middle of a full-scale civil war. There is no basement shelter in The Shepherd. Girard and I get situated in a centrally located bathroom. He gets the bathtub as I like to sit up straighter. BBC TV team of four men join us Reg Pope, cameraman, Robin Green, sound, Mike Cockerell, director, David Lomax, reporter very courageous men.

At 9 :30 P.M. local time, David Lomax reaches the British Embassy on the phone, and he asks, ‘When will Her Majesty send the gunboats?’ He gets the answer, ‘When he damn canal is completed.’

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Later, I reach David Jenevizian on the phone. He and his wife are trapped in their apartment but say they’re OK. There are two Russians in the hotel, TV men. They’re doing a documentary on tourist travel in Jordan. Claude was in the bathtub covered up with blankets and pillows. Quite a sight.

SEPTEMBER 18 WOODS: At 5 :30 A.M. local time, all hell broke loose. The Royal Jordan Army got pretty close to us you never heard so much machine gun fire. When this happened, we were all forced into a room 12” x 16” 32 people. We don’t know where the six men taken off the plane are. Hot Holy mackerel, I thought I’d smother. We were pretty crowded all trying to lie on the floor. When I do get back to America, we’ll take off and go to Michigan, then to Kentucky. I hope the yard has been cut. I hope we got the leak fixed in the attic. I feel as though I have aged ten years. We’re not starving for food and water.

I assume the Popular Front won that round. I personally believe they would have killed us if the army had gotten much closer. Anyway, we were so tired. Right now I’m not too sure but what I’ll check on early retirement.

WILSON: At 5 :00 A.M. local time I heard vehicles. The Jordanian army was bringing in approximately ten to twelve armored units right into the street in front of The Shepherd, tanks, armored personnel carriers with personnel carrying rockets. Ten minutes later, heavy firing started.

They turned their turrets in the direction of the hotel, more specifically in the direction of buildings to the rear of the hotel where the guerillas were hiding. So I scooted into the corridor. Fifteen to twenty minutes later, I went back into the bedroom to grab my pants. The bed was covered with debris. Several sizeable shells had come through the wall.

About 9:00 A.M. all hell broke loose again and we had very heavy major firing. It just wasn’t wise to try to make it along the corridor to the comparative security of the bathroom. I saw a door, backed in through it, and there’s the boiler room, which seemed to be a secluded spot. It was while I waited in this boiler room that I was hit in the thigh area of the leg. It was not a wound of major consequence.

I was able to get a tourniquet around the leg and waited. I heard Claude calling for me, and I answered him. Together, we went into the bathroom, our favorite spot, and inspected the wound.

We washed it out with the only thing we could find that would cleanse it out a little bit, and that was Beefeaters Gin. This was our most difficult day in Amman. Heavy fighting, no power, no telephones, no communication of any kind. It was the type of situation that makes one pick up the prayer beads.

SEPTEMBER 19 WOODS: My birthday! How about that! Here I sit a prisoner. Very little water, no electricity, very limited amount of food. I cooked up a big pot of stew and someone else cooked the rice. Al Kiburis, I think it was this day, might have been another, did his usual thing. Where would we be without him. He chipped off inches of grime from the toilet bowl to make things a bit more pleasant for the girls. We used buckets and we couldn’t go outside. Some men had been shot by snipers with their pants down. It’s now 2:00 P.M. local time in Jordan, 7:00 A.M. in Kansas City.

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The big thing I worry about is the fact that some dope may get lucky with a 105 and lob a shell in on us. Oh well, can’t live forever, I guess.

WILSON: The level of fighting was about the same as yesterday. The guerillas are in the back streets, the army’s in the front street and the firing continues. We had an adequate amount of food and water. The day was an­other wingding. Claude is a literal Rock of Gibraltar with a mighty cool head under pressure. No one seems to be winning this struggle. When darkness comes, some of the army units withdraw the guerillas came out of hiding. We can see them right now in the adjacent alleyway when we venture out of the bathroom.

I worry constantly about the hostages. It will be a miracle if they come out of this alive. We’ve got to find a way to get out of this hotel. We can’t just stay trapped in here.

SEPTEMBER 20 WOODS: Around noon, we came awfully close to a direct hit. The shell took part of the top of the building next to us. The guerillas are more friendly now. They claim if worst came to worst they would evacuate us if that was not possible, they would lay on top of us in order to protect us. I hope this never comes to a test.

That Al Kiburis! Here or somewhere else, I forget. He made lamps for the passengers out of sardine cans, bits of lard and wicks of burlap. Jim and Frank, too, always with a smile, keeping the passengers cheerful, or trying to.

About the time the shell hit, there were ten or twelve guerillas. These people were sweating. The water was just running off them. You just didn’t know what these men would do. They had hand grenades. They had machine-guns. We talked about what to do about the hand grenades, if a hand grenade was thrown. We knew we’d have five to eight seconds to get it out of one of the windows.

There were some blankets around and they might have muffled it a little. But they stayed calm.

Each day, you don’t know whether you wind up with a different deal.

WILSON: Several Jordanian army soldiers appear at the front entrance of The Shepherd on foot. We greet them. An armored personnel carrier pulls up. I tell them we want to go to the Intercontinental. The BBC men are with us. They turn the APC around, open up the rear door, and tell us to hop in. Without a backward glance, or hesitation, we do. The two Russians stay.

They’d told us it was no worse than Sebastopol in 1942. Perhaps not, but the next morning one was shot between the eyes looking out of a window at The Shepherd.

It’s the Intercontinental again. Sniper fire in the streets outside. Soldier hit in the midst of many.

All scatter for cover. The army opens up again. Shortly after, the curfew is back on. But this time we’re in the Intercontinental and glad of it.

King Hussein and the guerilla leaders worked out their compromises and cease fires during the next few days under the prod of the United Arab Republic’s President Nasser. The western powers had decided not to intervene and the Israeli air force did nothing more than photograph the battle. The USSR also kept its hands off, and might have influenced the Syrians to withdraw their armor from Northern Jordan.

In this situation, the more moderate of the guerilla organizations in Jordan probably brought pressure on the Popular Front to let the remaining TWA, Swissair and BOAC hostages go. There is no question that President Nasser, in what turned out to be the last phase of his life, instructed the UAR embassy to try and assist in gaining he release of the hostages.

Under these multiple pressures and under the pounding they were taking from the Jordanian Army, the Poplar Front probably decided the hostages were becoming too much of an embarrassment.

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As TWA’S Claude Girard expressed it on the scene, “The hostages were too cumbersome for the situation, they were getting to be too much to handle.”

In the event, the Popular Front decided to release 32 f the TWA hostages, and others of the other airlines, and retain custody of “the six,” the prisoners they had taken way early in the game. But how were the 32 to be released across the lines in an on-again, off-again cease fire? As late as September 24, two large shells fell within 50 feet of the building occupied by Captain Woods and his TWA passengers and crewmen. He said, “We’re lucky to de alive.”

Meanwhile, Richard Wilson and Claude Girard were pinned down again, this time in the United States Embassy, for two more dangerous days. They had been managing to help in the release negotiations and they had arranged accommodation for the hostages in an excellent hospital run by an old friend of Mr. Wilson, Dr. Mua’shir, man with influential contacts on both sides of the conflict. From the Embassy, they could not venture outside without drawing fire by snipers.

The United States Embassy was now working on plans for the evacuation of all Americans in Jordan. There were some 200 United States citizens, wives of Jordanians and so on, 30 United States journalists, more than 50 United States government employees and more than 100 dual nationals, with United States and Jordanian credentials, and several alien dependent children.

The negotiations for the hostages seemed to be proceeding in Amman at a less active level. The key meetings were being held in Beirut and Mr. Wilson and Mr. Girard decided to try to get there at the first opportunity.

On September 24, an armored personnel carrier roared up to the Embassy ”Here we go again,” said Mr. Wilson. “Five vehicles, tanks and APC’s departed the Embassy at full speed with guns blazing, turrets swinging from one side of the street to the other. We disembarked at a Jordanian army headquarters, the Ambassador and another official, Claude and me. Another APC took us to the Intercontinental Hotel. Back again. Shave and cleanup. That afternoon, Claude and I headed out for Beirut on a Middle East Airlines Coronado. When this special flight was being hastily loaded on the ramp mortar shells started dropping in about 100 yards from the Coronado. They were quite noisy and distracting, probably ten rounds or more. At 4:35 P.M. local time, we left Amman. At 5:30 P.M. local time, we arrived in Beirut. We called Farid Alonzo and made other key local contacts to find out what was going on. I took a hot bath and a hot shower and a cold shower at the Phoenicia Hotel. Excellent steak dinner on the roof.”

During the next few days, Mr. Wilson welcomed his wife to Beirut, saw Claude Girard off to his normal duties as international flight operations director in Paris, briefed President Wiser fully, and prepared to return to Amman. His objective now was to facilitate the release of the last remaining passengers.

On the morning of September 26th, a guerilla strolled into the room in Amman where the hostages were, and he told Captain Woods, “You’re released.” Captain Woods said, “Well, that’s mighty nice, repeat it.” The man repeated it, and said Captain Woods was expected to go to the United Arab Republic Embassy in Amman. Captain Woods said, “Well, that’s nice. How do I get to the Egyptian Embassy.” With an escort of four guerilla soldiers and a woman guide, he left his quarters and made his way down streets littered with wrecked vehicles, burned out rubble and twisted wires. The girl noticed he was falling behind and she waited. “After all,” he said later, “I hadn’t walked anywhere since September 6th and I stopped to catch my breath.” He thought that his last valid physical for TWA ran out on September 30.

The soldiers melted into the byways and the girl dropped him off at a Jordanian army roadblock.

Soldiers took him to the Egyptian Embassy. There, he received an effusive welcome from the

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Ambassador. “He gave me some tea, some honey made in Cairo, some zwieback toast, some cheese and I sat there and ate it. He said he was tickled to death to see me alive. He also said to make the Embassy my home, I was welcome as long as I wanted to stay, and would I accept a gift in token of my visit. So, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a pack of Camels.”

After waystops at several Jordanian Army strong-points, Captain Woods arrived at Mua’shir’s hospital, and there he joined the others. He said: “The Egyptian Embassy is to be commended on their wonderful effort to get us all out, and to save lives in Amman.”

Flight Engineer Kiburis had a hair-raising ride across the lines. He was loaded into a car with three elderly male passengers and was driven through intermittent fire, he knew not where. An Arab laid himself across part of the windshield on this trip so Mr. Kiburis would not be hit by snipers. Eventually, they arrived at the plant of the Jordan Tobacco Company to make a rendezvous with more Egyptians and with the International Red Cross.

First Officer Majer, the Co-pilot who had helped look after the sick girl on the plane, was now the senior officer in charge of the passengers. At 3 :00 P.M. local time, some five hours after Captain Woods had been led away, two Egyptian guides led First Officer Majer and the remain­ing passengers on what turned out to be an eerie, two-hour march through the shattered city. One of the passengers was still TWA Captain Russell L. Morris. He recalls: “The procession didn’t proceed too fast. We went downhill, along one side a wall and apartment houses, buildings and shops on the other side. Some of the people there took a bongo drum from one of our girl passengers and broke it.

“At the bottom of a steep street we probably had our most frightening time in all our captivity. Here came six or eight young Turks, as they say, but the vehement type commando, all in civilian dress with machine guns and they were very agitated. We came on them quickly, and they came on us quickly, and we thought we were going to be ripped about by their fire, because they were just adamant about us going anywhere. We spent six or eight minutes maybe ten minutes, in this confrontation with these boys. The gentlemen from the Egyptian embassy were having their problems. Then a young man came that was ap­parently their leader, and we were permitted to go on.”

First Officer Majer and his procession were taken on to the Jordan Tobacco Company. He declined an offer to move to a nearby apartment because he noted that the tobacco company building had many floors, reinforced to hold heavy machinery. Mr. Majer felt his people would be safer there in the event of a resumption of heavy shelling. The apartment was also sheltering some wounded guerillas, said Mr. Majer, “and they might have presented a problem.” The guerillas over there “had no contact with the central coordinating committee of the Popular Front, and may have kept us prisoners in the apartment indefinitely.”

This cool-headed decision was the last one taken by the flight deck of TWA Flight 741. The International Red Cross picked up all the people at the Jordan Tobacco Com­pany and took them to Dr. Mua’shir’s hospital. There they were reunited with Captain Woods. The following day they were flown to Nicosia, in Cyprus, and to freedom.

Who then remained in Amman?

The last six hostages were in north Jordan somewhere, and Richard W. Wilson and Farid Alonzo were coming back to try to help them out. But there was one other - TWA’s resident man in Amman, David Jenevizian. For Mr. Jenevizian, the civil war in the streets was infinitely more hurtful, more personal, because for him, Amman was home, and he was not flying out anywhere. At some point,

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when the TWA Flight 741 crisis died down, he would open up the TWA office downtown and start selling tickets again. But, somehow, life after a war in which his brothers were slaughtering one another would have less meaning for him. Mr. Jenevizian, very late one night not long ago, put it this way: “The worst part to tell you, Mr. Campbell, let me tell you what exactly, what I was suffering from. My wife, she was not used to these bombs, this fighting, and so on, and my house is close to the government hospital which is allied Emergency Hospital. It is just about four meters, even less, three meters distance between my house. The hospital was covered with people wounded from the army and from the guerillas and from civilians.

Exactly next to your window there was a dead body. And they put another dead body there.

The bodies stayed there at least ten days.

“Do you believe what you heard when, that 11 days, the shooting which continuously was night and day, everybody was expecting that they would not meet each other gain. If somebody was going to come out he gets shot also, so they had to keep the dead body in the same house, the same place where they sleep for a day and the second day the smell starts coming out and they had to take their own dead brother or father or sister, whatever, dead children, and throw them out of the window.

“Imagine if, for example, you find out your own father or mother is dead from a bomb shot into your house, you keep them one day, you cry and so on. The second day, when the smell is coming out you question what you should do. You want to get rid of the body, only it is your father or mother. But you take the body and throw it out the window.

“How many dead? In my city? In my home? If it’s not more than 5,000, but I can tell you not less than 5,000. It’s impossible, Mr. Campbell, to come out, even just to look for each other. It is the truth, it is a miracle the hostages lived through it. It is a miracle.”

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THE

Bob Sherman’s article, “Connie Struts on Cicero Ave.” in the July 2007 TARPA TOPICS prompted a flurry of E-mail with several folks wondering about the fate of the L-049, plane number 501. The following Email tells the story: x FROM JIM McCLURE I flew for TWA for 28 years based in BUR-LAX 1945-46 and CHI 1947-73. I had moved to Chicago just before the Connie slid off the runway in 1949 and was the F/O on (it) with Captain Eddie Edwards and ACM Sy Gates on 7/27/51 in plane 501, Flight 1094, MDW-LGA, when we ran into a column of hail between two thunderstorms. We were just north of Pittsburgh at night at 20,000’ so we looked at the windshields and saw cracks and looked at the engine cowlings and saw a few dings and the Captain decided to divert to PHL and descend to a lower altitude. There the flight was terminated and part of the crew took the train to LGA. I never did hear anything more about the incident but flew the 501 several times before my final trip in it on 12/9/55. It was an amazing plane for it’s time, even without nose wheel steering or reversible propellers. It could get a little chilly over the Rockies at twenty five thousand in the wintertime before they installed a foot warmer on the right side. A very good predecessor to the sweetheart of propeller craft, the Super G Bird.

Fraternally, Captain James T. McClure

A TWA “INFOMERCIAL” FROM THE EARLY 1950s In "new hire school” at 1307 Baltimore (MKCT) in 1964, some of us in our free time would go to the film library room and watch old 16 mm training and other company films. Of course this was when we were having lunch at the Forum, as recommended by “Den Mom” Russ Hazelton, and before we discovered Soakies. One film clip was “The First B-707 Arrives At MKC”. From the looks of the landing (“Rudy Patrick approach”) the film probably wasn’t very widely distributed. Another good one was the maximum effort stop of a Convair 880 (during certification). Wow! The tires, wheels and brakes smoked and glowed red hot, but it sure stopped quickly. Another I remember especially well was "Letter From A Pilot". It was about a fifteen minute "infomercial" designed to convince the public that flying, at least on scheduled airlines, was safe. You will recall

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that in the post WW II era, flying was generally considered anything but safe and statistically speaking, it was not; at least by today’s standards. What remarkable improvements in air safety we have witnessed in the past fifty years!

Well, believe it or not, this classic B&W, with sound, 16 mm film is alive and well on “youtube.com”. It's titled "Flying the Super Constellation" (Part 1 and Part 2) but it is not a 1049 it is an 049 and it must have been prior to 1957 as the F/O makes a position report, reporting, “VFR on top at 19,000'” - this was before Flight Levels and positive controlled airspace, a direct result of the Grand Canyon tragedy (TWA Flt. 2, 30JUL1956 - same flight number!). Ironically, in the film the Grand Canyon is featured as one of the wonderful sights seen along the route of TWA Flt. 2 (LAX-MKC-LGA) They're flying the low freq. range along with ADF and making position reports as there wasn’t much, if any, en route radar at that time. They even show us a GEE WHIZ ILS approach into LGA and solemnly state that, “today, instrument landings are conducted routinely, thanks to the magic of radio”.

To find these clips, go to <www.youtube.com> and enter “super constellation” in the search window; if you have a problem, here are the complete URLs for parts 1 and 2: <http://youtube.com/watch?v=F6MTfjAQyy0> <http://youtube.com/watch?v=fquT_b9OSAE> You’ll also see links to several other great Connie videos…

There are great shots of a Connie Check C, then called “Operation 7”, at the Overhaul Base, takeoffs and landings from an externally mounted camera, in-flight air to air shots and interior shots of both the cabin and cockpit. See the F/E up on the wing "sticking" the tanks. That was a dangerous job; a little too far to fall. You can almost smell the gas. What did we used to burn, wasn’t it, 115/130 octane? Wasn't it dyed green?

The Captain and narrator was Urban “Urb” J. Kampsen, TWA 1940-1974, died 2004.

Can anyone name the F/O and F/E, or any of the other TWA employees on camera?

Circulating the above via E-mail, in late June 2007, to some TARPA friends, generated the following responses:

x FROM GENE RICHARDS I finally got the pictures downloaded. Great shots and it brings back memories. Those pictures were taken in the late '40s or early '50s - grey pilot uniforms and the hostess uniform that had a flap that would cover the TWA in case she wanted to have an adult beverage in a bar. (It was known to happen.) The overhaul base was not at 10 Richards Rd., but across the river at Fairfax Airport in K.C. KS. My first Connie experience was flying test flights out of Fairfax which always seemed to happen between midnight and 4 AM. I got lost trying to find Fairfax the first time out. As I recall Urb Kampsen was chief pilot at MKC and later VP-Training. I didn't recognize the other two crew members. In the film the Captain said he had been with the airline since '33 but Kampsen started in '40. (The sound track says he “started flying in 1933” – Ed.)

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Funny how things bring up memories. The Fairfax Airport, where the original overhaul base was located, was right at the confluence of the Missouri and Kaw Rivers, a natural flood plain. That flood happened in the early '50s. There was a panic to remove all of the flyable airplanes and there was a shortage of crew. One adventuresome Captain got into a Connie and soloed it to high ground. Ask around and I'll bet someone out there knows the exact details. Keep up the good work.

(You’re right, Gene. The only two people known to have soloed a Connie were Howard Hughes and Bronson White. See Dave Kuhn’s account of White’s flight as it appeared in the April 1982 issue of TARPA TOPICS on the next page – Ed) x BILL COTTRELL, TWA SENIORS CLUB PRESIDENT reports that “Letter From A Pilot” was shown at the Seniors Club annual general meeting in Scottsdale in May and was a big hit with all. x

FROM WALLY MORAN

Great clips. Urb Kampsen was staff VP of flight training when I was there. He retired about 1975. Wasn't flight one and two later used for the STL-HNL route?

I love the last item on the before take off check list "Airplane - Ready"! Good fun.

(Yes. Flights 1 and 2 were always the crème de la crème. In a 1963 timetable it is the first jet trans-continental non-stop, LAX-IDL-(JFK) LAX – Ed.) x

FROM BUCK PRATT

…thought I would offer one further bit about the Connie film clip you sent out earlier.

Just for what it’s worth, and thanks to Jim Loosen and Warren Berg, they have further identified a few of the people. As noted earlier, the Captain is U. J. Kampsen, F/O Vic Yuska, and the F/E in that sequence is Andy Beaton. The inbound Captain is Frank Burcham and shown elsewhere is F/E Barney Garriott. The classroom instructor in the plaid shirt standing by the engine is F/E J. R. Tundar. We feel quite positive that the Check Pilot in the right seat giving the instrument check is H. H. (Pat) Gallup. The Hostess standing by the door is Jan Fulton and the mech. waving out the flight is Stewart (Sam) Bloomfield. Wiley Barker is seated in the cabin as a pax. Then there is Warren Berg as a classroom instructor.

Here’s another neat clip taken at MDW in 1954 or ‘55 by a North Central CSA. The neat thing about Midway was that you could (unlike ORD) see the whole airport from the observation decks – and what a beehive of activity it was in just a few hundred acres!

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cm66qtg65DY>

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AND HEREâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S THE 1982 ARTICLE ON BRONSON WHITE B. WHITE

By Dave Kuhn It is agreed that B. White left us too soon. Tall, dapper, wiry, he loved golf, was a good poker player with the right cards, and had an eye for a well turned ankle. His worship of early birdmen who flew in open cockpits was obvious .....he sported a scarf and gloves when flying. A "Glove Pilot" who got his training in an Eaglerock, he was proud of a watch that King Farouk gave him. What with his Adams Apple, he was easily mistaken for a young Abe Lincoln.

Dave Kuhn

After years of line flying and ICD, he went into the training command at the Jack Frye Memorial Center. For any new plane TWA purchased, his saying was, "Where are the throttles and what does she glide at?" He impressed me as one of the few TWA check pilots on TWA who was able to instruct without displaying hysteria.

I believe it was spring of 1951. The rains came to Kansas City MKC is a dish contained by dikes on three sides and 10 Richards Road on the other. John A. Collings, Vice President in charge, usually stayed ahead of any contingency. He had plans to evacuate if the Missouri River came over the dikes. Obviously, Mr. Collings had none for the Kaw River. All the states from Kansas to the Rocky Mountains loosed a year's supply of moisture at the same time. The Kaw did it to them.

Since it was too wet for golf and no poker game going, Bronson was at the airport observing the happenings. The adjacent stockyards were caught unprepared. Livestock struggled for higher ground. White watched as a black man tried to salvage pigs in a small boat. Two pigs were not enough - - pulling in the third one capsized the boat and all went floundering.

Fairfax Airport is just across the State Line, in Kansas. Vice President Ray Dunn was heroic in getting most of his Connies and records out. B. White went there and proceeded to break and defy all rules and regulations ever promulgated by the FAA, the Company, and ALPA. He soloed a Connie to the Olathe Naval Base.

At the hearings, White found himself in a heap of trouble.

On take-off the water was only inches deep and with no pay load, of little concern. A mechanic with a useable battery cart aided in getting the engines started. However, White had no signed clearance

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from a dispatcher, there was no signal man to salute and guide him out. He filed no flight plan. He received no tower take-off clearance.

He failed to keep constant radio contact. The most damaging charge was the crew complement. The hierarchy of the Airline Pilots Association had only a few years previously proved to themselves, a Presidential emergency panel, the FAA, the Company and the world that the faster, heavier and more productive four engined planes could not become airborne without a Flight Engineer. (Note: later, on Jets, it was a third pilot). The Feds came down hard on this one. The Company was less critical -- a Connie was saved. White tried to plead ignorance.

It did not gain him points. Thankfully it all gradually subsided, as did the waters, and B. White was credible again.

As I said, B. White left us too soon.

LEGACY OF TWA Most of us are regular visitors to the TWA Senior’s Club web site. Webmaster Marc Brecy has done a marvelous job with it. In case you missed it, there is a most unusual and interesting video (click “TWA video” then “TWA Legacy” buttons. It consists of computer generated images rather than cinematography, ala Star Wars, Shrek, etc… A lot of time and work went into this and you will be pleased with the results. (See below)

x FROM MARC BRECY (TWA SENIORS CLUB WEBMASTER) ...FYI this video is already on our website <www.twaseniorsclub.org> ... the creation of this video is (by) Ron Horn and Allure Cisse ....Ron lives in Thailand and Allure in Japan...

07/07/07 Boeing, as part of its 787 premiere celebration, assembled a line-up of examples of all its major 7-series jetliners Saturday night, July 7, at Boeing Field. (From R to L) B-707, B-717, B-727, B-737, B-747, B-757, B767, B-777.

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IN THIS ISSUE WE TOAST THE “LITTLE DC-9”, ca. 1966 A LOT OF HORSEPOWER FOR THE AMOUNT OF METAL

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IF YOU LIKED “LETTER FROM A PILOT”, YOU’LL LOVE “FLYING WITH ARTHUR GODFREY” It’s 1953, the 50th anniversary of powered flight and Arthur Godfrey is not only going to take us on an Eastern Airlines Super Constellation from Idlewild to Miami he is also going to give us a couple of flying lessons along the way. And, yet again, assure us that flying is not as dangerous as everybody thinks. “Sure there’s risk, there’s risk in crossing the street,” Arthur explains, but the superior mechanics and pilots and other professionals at Eastern Airlines and the new Martin “Silver Falcons” and Super ConstelCaptains Eddie Rickenbacker and Arthur Godfrey lations that fly “above the weather” make it minimal.

The 50 minute film starts with a chat between Arthur and Captain Eddie Rickenbacker, Americas first Ace fighter pilot (WW I) and then president, of EAL. Arthur taxis up in a pre 1920s biplane and gives us a lesson in aerodynamics which is pretty good. Then Captain Eddie taxis up and parks his Spad under the wing of the EAL L-1049.

Captains Arthur Godfrey and Dick Merrill

The “co-captain” (who I’ll bet a million dollars is the one that signed the release) is Dick Merrill, another aviation pioneer in his

own right. (See a good bio at <http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0581276/bio>) After the take off and climb to cruise, Arthur says, “Whew! It’s time for a Chesterfield”, and everybody lights up, except Dick who is courageous enough to admit that he is not a smoker.

After the flight, Arthur tells us that, although this trip was flown in fair weather, foul weather is no problem as we fly above it and as for landing in bad weather, “no problema”, either. “Although the CAA has arbitrarily set limits of ceiling 200’ and visibility of ½ mile, we could easily land with ceiling and visibility, zero.” The reason is, “We not only have ILS, we also have GCA” (PAR). Anybody hired after 1960 didn’t get to do a lot of PARs, but you will recall that PAR monitoring was required in order to conduct parallel approaches and you can still get an ASR approach at any airport that has surveillance radar if a controller has time to do it. Some things seem to linger on forever, like ADF and VOR and non precision approaches.

When Captain Eddie and Arthur talk about the future they even hint that someday you

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may be able to jet to Miami in just two hours! Then, while talking about jets, there are some neat shots of a Lockheed F-94-C “Starfire”, one of which shows Lockheed’s Tony LaVier breaking the sound barrier, full throttle, straight down. That was a straight wing airplane; I’m surprised it could go that fast.

This is a “must watch” classic (color, sound) that you are sure to enjoy. It’s in two parts: <http://www.archive.org/details/Flyingwi1953> <http://www.archive.org/details/Flyingwi1953_2>

AND A BOEING 797?

THE SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME? There have been rumors going around the internet about the B-797 1000 passenger “flying wing” that will trump the A-380. If so, why isn’t Boeing talking about it? Here’s what, a seemingly heads up web site has to say: <www.truthorfiction.com>.

“The story says that the Boeing Company is developing a radical new passenger jetliner that will carry 1,000 passengers. It’s designated the 797 and is a “blended wing” design looking a lot like the old flying wing experiments of the 50’s.”

“The Truth: TruthOrFiction.com went straight to the source, the Boeing Company. A spokesperson said that it is not true that Boeing is developing a commercial blended wing aircraft. He asked that we help stop the perpetuation of the story.”

“What is true, according to Boeing, is that Boeing Phantom Works, the company’s advanced research and development organization, is doing research on the blended wing body design as a potential military aircraft. Boeing has built a scale model to test its low-speed flying characteristics in a wind tunnel. There are also plans (as of 7/13/07) to flight test a scale model.” Stay tuned….

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LUNCH BUNCHES LOCAL AREA TWA PILOT REGULAR GATHERINGS MIDWEST: In the July issue, I printed a letter from Barry Craig telling of the monthly luncheon get-togethers of Chicago area former TWA pilots, second Mondays @ “Pilot Pete’s” at the Chicago Schaumburg Airport (06C). Fly in, or drive in. For more information, contact John Rohlfing at: <retcap@comcast.net>

THIS PROMPTED THE FOLLOWING RESPONSES: NORTHEAST: (From Larry Vodra) …Since you suggested in the July, 2007 issue of Tarpa Topics that we tell you about pilot gatherings, I’ll try again; There is an everyother-month breakfast gathering in Newtown, CT. There are about 40 pilots, ex-TWA, TWA-LLC, and NCA, who attend from time to time, of which about 25 are at any given breakfast. We meet on the third Thursday of every-other (odd numbered) month (Sept., Nov, Jan, Mar, etc.) at 9 am at the Blue Colony Diner, which is located at Exit 10 off I-84 in Newtown, CT. Dress is casual, and no reservations are required. For information, contact Larry Vodra at: <jlvodra@aol.com> NORTHEAST: (From Bob Chapman) We have a TWA Breakfast in Madison CT on the first Tuesday of every month. We’ve been doing this for at least eight years. Have about 30 TWA retirees on the list and usually have a turn out of about 8 to 10 people.

The breakfast is held at 0930, Nick’s Place, 200 Boston Post Road, Madison. If anyone wants directions or would like to be put on a monthly email reminder list, please let me know. Sincerely, Bob Chapman <rdchapman@alumni.tufts.edu> I also received the same information from Kenneth Munro <kjmsons@yahoo.com> MIDWEST: (From Richard Lonski) In the Kansas City area, every Tuesday AM starting about 8 O’clock at the Country Inn Riverside, 25-40 TWA Pilots meet.

Breakfast is ordered @9 O’clock…. Contact: Richard Lonski” <rlonski@kc.rr.com> WEST COAST – LAX: (From Tom Weise) There is an Orange County group that meets in Dana Point, 3rd Wednesday of the month at noon except December when a Christmas party is in the evening. Jan Savage <jansavage@cox.net> sends out meeting reminders each month and has an extensive email list There is also a group in Thousand Oaks that meets about every 3 or 4 months. John Duhig <johnyd@aol.com> is a good contact and also has an extensive email list.

DOES ANYONE KNOW OF OTHERS? E-MAIL <Grapevine_Ed@yahoo.com>

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The normal climb schedule of the DC-9 is 320 knots IAS, but not in excess of M .74. At what altitude is 320 knots IAS equal to MACH .74? (Use your Jeppesen computer to find the answer.) a. b. c.

26,600 ft.

25,000 ft.

23,400 ft.

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All takeoff minimums will be increased by 100 – ½ by pilots with less than 100 hours in a particular aircraft. a. b.

True False

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How much power is being supplied by a 24 volt battery with a 10 ampere load? a. b. c.

10 watts 24 watts 240 watts

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COVER GIRL RON AND CHRIS PRICEâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S FLEET

Ron Price, TWA retired, and his son Chris (Air Wisconsin) own this beautifully restored Fleet recently featured on the cover of Trade-A-Plane. Ron is based at the Sonoma County, CA Airport (STS). The Fleet is presently at the Brodhead, WI Airport (C37) where Chris is a hangar neighbor.

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CHRIS CLARK AND IDUS INGLIS VISIT SMX x FROM JEANNE AND IDUS INGLIS VIA EMAIL AND CHRIS CLARK BY PHONE Idus: “It was the first of July 2007, vacation time and Chris Clark came out to see me. I met him at LAX we were off driving to SMX (Santa Maria, CA, just NE of Vandenberg AFB) to see Ruth (Richter-Holden’s) Locheed 12-A. The distance 313 miles and what a beautiful drive it was…”

Chris Clark Chris told me that he met Ruth at the Airline History Museum when she was in Kansas City visiting relatives. He said, “I really gave her the $5 tour, even put her in the left seat of the Connie for a ‘check out’”.

“She really enjoyed the tour of the Museum and made me promise that I would come and see her L 12-A the next time I was in California.”

Idus: “Ruth had been keeping the airplane in a rented Hanger in San Luis Obispo (SBP). She had moved it 22 miles to SMX, to a nice new hanger, one decorated with a woman’s touch, a garden spot and the airplane is mint, it is beautiful. Yes, we went for a ride in it.”

(See the March 2007 TARPA TOPICS for Barry Schiff’s article, with color photos, 0n Ruth’s Lockheed 12-A Electra Junior.)

Idus: “…we were treated like Royalty! The Hanger is on the N/S runway and Ruth had made a big picture window looking out over it with a Mt. range in the background. WHAT A BEAUTY TO Hey, Idus, we really like your hat!

BEHOLD! Would you believe that Ruth had even tiled the floor….”

Chris said that Ruth has a hangar neighbor who is the woman that just purchased what they believe to be, the last flyable Lockheed L-10 Electra, the model Amelia Earhart flew

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and as this is written, arrangements are being made to have it trucked from New Jersey to SMX. Chris said the lady wants to do a reenactment of Earhart’s flight in the Electra.

We hope Ruth, a long time TARPA member, will keep us up to date on this project!

Both Earhart and Lindbergh were prominent figures in TWA promotional advertising in the 1930’s.

Amelia Earhart c. 1935 Amelia Earhart’s L-10 (C-36) Electra. Manufactured by Lockheed, designed

By Hall Hibbard, Maiden flight 23 Feb 1934, number built – 149, Variants – Electra Junior and Super Electra – Wikipedia

FIRST TO HAWAII? How many knew that the first civilian to fly from the mainland to Hawaii was later a TWA Captain?

"Captain Ernest L. Smith completed the first civilian flight between the mainland and Hawaii on July 14 & 15, 1927. He was honored for this flight by being invited to "nail" his wings to the Famous Flyer’s Wall at the St. Francis of Assisi Chapel in Riverside, California. Captain Smith was later awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for his historic flight" – “Legacy of Leadership”, p. 58 And this from <www.pacificaerospace.org> “Jul. 1927 Ernest Smith and Emory Bronte (2 civilian pilots) … were the first civilians to fly from the mainland to Hawaii. Their airplane was named "The City of Oakland" and was a single engine Travel Air. They ran short of fuel and crash landed their airplane on the south shore of Molokai. Neither pilot was hurt."

The first commercial (scheduled) flight from the mainland to Hawaii was flown by a Pan American Airways M-130 Flying boat in 17 hours and 14 minutes in Apr. 1935.

(There is another picture of Captain Smith on the same page showing him accepting the first Air Express parcel sent – a Ford Tri-motor is in the background.)

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MIRROR, MIRROR ON THE WALL, WHO’S THE OLDEST AND/OR MOST SENIOR OF US ALL? In the July 2007 issue, in the article on Jose’ Grant I stated that he was our second oldest member after Rudy Truesdale. I have been corrected by Bob Sherman who states: “Harold W. [Rudy] Truesdale is the second oldest living TWA pilot; born 4/21/06. Earlier that month Robert C. [RC] Downing was born 4/3/06. Rudy was hired 7/22/35, while RC didn’t join up until 7/25/38. Also, Rudy stayed with TWA until 11/27/72. Age 60, mandatory retirement for pilots, would have been 1966, he must have stayed on in another capacity. (Anybody know what that was? Regrettably, R. C. Downing passed away July 14, 2007, just days after I received Bob’s note – ED.)

THE DAY WE FIRST WALKED THROUGH “THAT DOOOR” AND OUR AGE AT THE TIME IS WHAT MADE ALL THE DIFFERENCE!

Graph by Bob Sherman and Jeff Hill, Sr.

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A TR unit is used to: a. b. c.

Change AC to a different voltage DC Change AC to a different voltage AC Change DC to a higher voltage AC

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What occurs when the manual gear extension lever is pulled? a. b. c.

Doors are released and then the gear uplocks are released.

Door locks are released and weight of gear undetents doors.

Gear uplocks are released and weight of gear opens doors.

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How should brakes be applied on landing if anti-skid is ON and one or more anti-skid lights are on? a. b. c.

Do not use brakes, use reversing only.

Apply brakes modulating manually.

Turn off anti-skid so that manual braking is possible

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Buy this 1929 Ford 4-AT-E, asking $2.7 Mil. See details and a couple dozen stunning color photos at:

<http://www.ipass.net/ginkgo/N9612home.html>

WEB SITE ADDRESSES Recommending web sites is as dangerous as recommending restaurants; for all the same reasons… but, what the hey? If you would like this list in a PDF with active links e-mail me at <Grapevine_Ed@yahoo.com> These links tested OK on 9/12/07.

WHAT IT IS ADDRESS House built from 747 parts………………www.realestatejournal.com/buildimprove/20051111-frangos.html "Smart Cockpit" info for int’l crews……...www.smartcockpit.com/ Aviation artist has 727 in his studio….….www.rickbroome.com/ Car gas prices by zip code……………….www.autos.msn.com/everyday/gasstations.aspx?zip=&src=Netx Av fuel prices & other interesting info......www.airnav.com/fuel/ Movies/TV data base and search eng….www.imdb.com/search Crossword puzzle helper…………….…..www.oneacross.com/ Abandoned and little known airfields…...www.airfields-freeman.com Military aircraft cockpit photos…………...www.uscockpits.com Residential real estate appraisals…….....www.zillow.com/ Body mass index………………………….www.nhlbisupport.com/bmi/ Financial calculators of all sorts…………www.dinkytown.net/ History of twa in timetables………………www.airchive.com/SITE%20PAGES/TIMETABLES-TWA.html TWA memorabilia, mostly print ads……..www.airchive.com/SITE%20PAGES/MEM-TWA.html "Letter From A Pilot" TWA film part 1…..www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6MTfjAQyy0 "Letter From A Pilot" TWA film..part 2…..www.youtube.com/watch?v=fquT_b9OSAE TWA Flt Attendants - IFS memorabilia….www.twaflightattendants.com/royalambassador.html Big B-29 RC model launches X-1………..http://users.skynet.be/fa926657/files/B29.wmv The Aviator Howard Hughes……………..www.theaviatorhh.com/ Aerial views of the swiss alps…………….www.glumbert.com/media/swiss

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Airline memorabilia, inc.TWA TV ads.......www.airlineempires.net/ Giant B-52 RC model flies – crashes…….www.mcgirt.net/RC/VIDEOS/Giant_B52/ Last TWA LHR-JFK flt. Connie & 707……www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CT-cSpTjBU Jet photos net - Jon Proctor's site………..www.jetphotos.net/ DC-2 in TWA colors at Mus. of Flt, SEA…www.rbogash.com/dc2.html Howard Hughes - his life and times………www.library.unlv.edu/hughes/index.html Photos from various SW bone yards……..www.designshed.com/lostamerica/aircraft.html Interesting stats. on the "world clock"…….www.poodwaddle.com/worldclock.swf Flying with TWA 1992………………………www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEYMXk4-YDI&NR=1 Atlantis shuttle landing and HUD………….www.youtube.com/watch?v=9elcSXVNlMw Sopwith Camel flies with a Spitfire………..www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtprTL66-FY Several WW I fighters fly together…....…..www.youtube.com/watch?v=LeflHKIlGsI&mode=related&search= Western Air Express memorabilia……...…www.oldbeacon.com/beacon/airlines/usa/westernair.htm Yankee AF. http://www.richard-seaman.com/Aircraft/AirShows/YankeeAirMuseum2006/Highlights/index.html 1929 Ford 4-AT-E Tri-Motor for sale…..…www.ipass.net/ginkgo/N9612home.html Air Transport jobs in 1947…………………www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RgZ0eZbukI

CONTRIBUTIONS ARE EARNESTLY SOLICITED AND WILL BE GRATEFULLY RECEIVED x x x x x x

Anecdotes – good “hangar flying” stories Biographies Photos and art work Interesting bits of information Interesting web sites Anything else you think fellow TARPAns might find interesting or entertaining

Grapevine Ed patiently awaiting your submission

The easiest way, is to E-mail me at: <Grapevine_Ed@yahoo.com> otherwise, call me at 815-338-3551, or snail mail: Jeff Hill, 9610 Hidden Lane, Woodstock, IL 60098

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I received this information from John Rolfing that our membership may want to put to use. Ed.

Is the following something that can be run in the TARPA magazine? It’s a great way to save some $$’s on shoes. If not it’s a loss to the members.

Background info:

When I was Chairman of the Uniform Committee, which I inherited from Bob Sherman, we picked up a program from the Ozark Uniform Committee where a TWA pilot could purchase shoes from Allen Edmonds at a substantial discount. Captain Dan Peterson started the program for Ozark and still has contacts with Allen Edmonds.

I recently became aware that this program can still be made available to the TWA pilots as it is presently running for all the former Ozark retirees. It’s essentially unchanged from when we ran the program out of the MEC office... the only difference is that Captain Dan is now the middleman.

Allen Edmonds is one of the finest shoemakers in the world with a wide variety of dress and casual products. The TWA pilots would have access to an Allen Edmonds footwear program that provides approximately 45% off the retail pricing (think of it as ID 50 for your feet !!). You can see the current season catalogue on line at www.allendedmonds.com. Check it out and see if you find a pair, or more, to your liking.

For details on ordering, please contact Capt. Dan Peterson via e-mail at hpdp@cableone. net and provide day and evening phone contacts along with the name, number and color (if applicable) of the items that you are interested in. He will call back with details within a short period of time with the particulars. Shipping you ask?.... the shoes will be drop-shipped to your address. This is one of the few truly “good deals” still out there.

I don’t know of any other way to let the TARPA members aware of this program. How about Cap’n Jack’s system?

Let me know if this is possible. I sure hope it is.

Thanks.... John Rohlfing

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ITEMS FOR THE

EDITOR

FFA IMPROVED FEB 3 1964

NORMAL

TOPICS

______________ AFTER

CHECK LIST

READING _________________

1. RESUME NORMAL BREATHING 2. E-MAIL JPGRATZ@CHARTER.NET & TELL HIM, “WHAT A GREAT JOB!” 3. SEND ONE OR MORE OF THE FOLLOWING TO THE GRAPEVINE ED.: ¾ ANY AVIATION RELATED (ESP. AIRLINE, ESP. TWA) ITEMS YOU COME ACROSS – INCLUDING PHOTOS & GRAPHICS! ¾ ANY INTERESTING WEB SITES YOU COME ACROSS ¾ A PARAGRAPH OR TWO ON YOUR BEST TRIP, YOUR WORST TRIP, YOUR FIRST TRIP, YOUR LAST TRIP, YOUR MOST MEMORABLE TRIP, JUST LOOK AT YOUR OLD LOG BOOKS, THEY’LL GIVE YOU IDEAS! ¾ ANY NEWS ABOUT OUR OLD BUDDIES. ¾ WHAT YOU’RE DOING – HOBBIES, ORGANIZATIONS, ANY THING… ¾ RECOLLECTIONS OF UNUSUAL AND INTERESTING CREWMEMBERS. ¾ ANYTHING THAT YOU THINK WOULD FIT WELL INTO THE GRAPEVINE. INCLUDE YOUR WHOLE NAME, NICK NAME, YEARS AT TWA AND WHERE YOU’RE LOCATED – AND ANYTHING ELSE OF INTEREST __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________add as many pp as you like (Don’t forget the memory items & check list amplification) Then mail me at:

Grapevine_ed@yahoo.com – or : Jeff Hill 9610 Hidden Ln Woodstock, IL 60098

PAGE 103 ... TARPA TOPICS

MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION All former TWA cockpit crewmembers are eligible for membership in TARPA. Annual dues are $40.00.

If you wish to have two addresses listed for Directory or Topics mailing, please provide months of the year at each location along with the appropriate phone number.

Name ___________________________________ Spouse ______________________ Address 1 (From _________ to _________ ) Street _______________________________________________________________ City ____________________________ State ___________ Zip __________________ Telephone ( ___ ) ____ ______ E-Mail ______________________________________

Address 2 (From _________ to _________ ) Street _______________________________________________________________ City ____________________________ State ___________ Zip __________________ Telephone ( ___ ) ____ ______ E-Mail ______________________________________ Capt. ƛ F/O ƛ F/E ƛ Other ƛ _______________ Retirement mo/yr ___________________ Signature ____________________________________ Date ____________________

TARPA TOPICS SUBSCRIPTION For our friends who do not meet our membership requirements, TARPA offers regular subscriptions to our magazine, TARPA TOPICS. Simply fill out the application above, indicate “subscriber”, and make your check out for $30.00.

Make checks payable to TARPA Return form to:

Ed Madigan Tarpa Secretary/Treasurer P. O. Box 3565 Incline Village, NV 89450

edmadigan@charter.net

PAGE 104 ... TARPA TOPICS

Lockheed 1649 Starliner