In 1969, during the Vietnam War, a 21-year-old Seattle woman saw a job ad for a California cargo airline called the Flying Tiger Line that had a large presence in San Francisco. Knowing the outcome of the war - and how the US Congress of that era abandoned the people of Cambodia and South Vietnam - helps take the sting away, if only a little. Its ultimate destination was the Vietnamese city of Saigon, to which it was transporting 96 soldiers. All rights reserved. Crossing the international date line was my experience in time travel. I was a different person. God Bless you all. The women working the cabin on those flights were still known as stewardesses, not flight attendants, and they walked like fashion models down the aisles. I was a nurse in Namso I can appreciate their service. Piloted by the novice American Volunteer Group, who were from all branches of the military and civilians, these men provided military support to the Republic of China in their defense against the Japanese invasion between 1941-1942. The six man recon team was on an observation mission near Fire Support Base Alpine, about six miles east of the Laotian Border. Sometimes, when the wheels pulled up on takeoff, the whole plane would burst out in yells and clapping. Breen went from being gung ho about the war to suspecting the government was lying and thinking the war was a mistake. Flying Tiger Lines Airline Related Artifacts & Collectibles Miscellaneous Airlines: America (US) Artifacts & Collectibles . Not certain but I believe Delta may have been one exception. Curtis Smith served to disbandment and afterward returned to the U.S. Marines. Im still trying to figure out how to coordinate one of our own with one of theirs. As a grunt and a company commander from the 1st ID, who had left a few week old daughter and now was headed home to see her and the rest of the finally, I didnt cry but I damn sure slept well on that plane for the first time in 18 months. Sign up | Sign in. In the hours after the Constellations takeoff from Guam, witnesses on a ship offered potential clues. When a positive story about the Vietnam experience shows up it helps the healing that many of us need. Flying Tiger aircraft were getting old and worn, but their flight attendants were still top notch. Tiger Air Flights To Vietnam Tiger Air is one of the few low-cost airlines currently operating in Vietnam. It was a vivid reminder we were entering a war zone. (LogOut/ These ladies were great listeners and very supportive. The first of the "stretched" airfreights, it carried a payload of 110,000 pounds at 550 miles per hour over a 3,000 mile range. My +C $19.78 shipping estimate. Today. I very much enjoyed it and had no idea that those very attractive young ladies felt that way about us. I believe it helped to constantly stay connected with the world and the amazing young ladies that always had a smile and a kind word for the troops regardless of rank or service branch. From Singapore, there are three daily direct flights that arrive in Ho Chi Minh City. They were long, boisterous flights full of bravado and joking the men going off to war were trying to psych themselves up. Meanwhile, the flight attendants were becoming like a family. Several of these commercial flights left daily from military air bases on the west coast, ferrying newly trained soldiers across the Pacific Ocean to war - replacements not only for those injured and killed soldiers, but also for those young men who survived their twelve month war and were now going home. . Its variants seat 242 to 335 passengers in typical three-class seating configurations. But soon after they started working troop transports to Southeast Asia, the women realized that the job required a whole different set of skills. As I was sitting down one of my friends who considered himself a ladies man, smarted off to me Oh, you struck out too, didnt you? I told him that I had not asked for her address that she gave it to me. I think it is great! Adding their names to the Vietnam wall alongside their 58,318 brothers and sisters who made the ultimate sacrifice during the Vietnam War is a fitting tribute to these men and a reminder to all of us that our freedom is oftentimes secured by men and women who serve in silence, said Joe Reagan, director of military and veteran outreach for Wreaths Across America. The airline industry is always full of new developments! return home flight in July 69 was on a Flying Tigers stretch-8. Then all the guys just could not be held down by the stewerdesses and they did not even try to quiet the guys. A keen amateur photographer, he also recently reached the milestone of flying his 100th sector as a passenger. Each of the awesome giants flies more than 200,000 pounds of cargo at 575 miles per hour over a 3,500-mile range. Here we are, 60 years later, Kevin Woodward, remembrance coordinator at Wreaths Across America, said Wednesday during the ceremony. I would have been on Flying Tigers returning to the states. merging Ocean and Sky. Pre-Owned. I just stood there in my bedroom looking out the window for a very long time,saying to myself Did that really happen??? View Product. 15 March 1962: Flying Tiger Line Flight 7815/13 was a chartered flight for the Military Air Transport Service (M.A.T.S. It was really a struggle to decide what was right or what was wrong, said Okicich. Perhaps, I dont remember them because they were doing such a great job of quietly supporting each of us, letting us deal with our personal feelings in our own way. The flight attendants were as depicted in this article, both going and coming home. Such as, I didnt know if I was going to make it back and not wanting to think about that. and flew to Portland ,Oregon. Six decades later, and the families of those onboard Flight 739 still dont know what happened. Mel Beers ret first sergeant . Flying Tiger Line Country United States of America Operator Image Crash of a Douglas DC-8-63AF off Naha: 4 killed Date & Time: Jul 27, 1970 at 1136 LT Type of aircraft: Douglas DC-8 Operator: Registration: N785FT Flight Phase: Landing (descent or approach) Flight Type: Cargo Survivors: No Site: Lake, Sea, Ocean, River Schedule: Shamu the whale took a first ride on Flying Tigers. Others slept for hours, exhausted and often traumatized from their experiences in Vietnam. I remember the Tiger flights and their wonderful crews. God Bless those women who helped me on those hours headed home to start to feel like I might still have some humanity left in me. I recall the flight I took into Vietnam and even more than the flight I took home. This exhibition, based on extensive interviews with the key participants of the airlift operations, provides insight into their experiences serving aboard the Freedom Birds. This Is Your Captain by Reyne OShaughnessy, Flying Tiger Memories by Guy Van Herbruggen & Charles Kennedy, Tiger 747 by Guy Van Herbruggen/Charles Kennedy, DC-8 & The Flying Tiger Line by Guy Van Herbruggen & Charles Kennedy. Flying Tiger Line Flight 739 went missing on March 16, 1962, with 93 U.S. Army soldiers on board. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Air Jet Advance Flying Tiger Cargo Airlines 1:200 B747 Freighter Model Airplane at the best online prices at eBay! Flying the Freedom Birds Airlines and the Vietnam War Freedom Bird. However, despite an eight-day search covering hundreds of thousands of square miles of the Pacific Ocean, no trace of the aircraft or its 107 occupants could ever be found. Seller 99.4% positive. I went to Nam aboard a ship which very nicely cut 21 days off my tour. (1945 - 1947). The big, glamorous airline back then was Pan Am. $35.00. Flying Tiger Line Flight 739 went missing on March 16, 1962, with 93 U.S. Army soldiers on board. But nothing could have prepared her for what it was like to be a flight attendant at Flying Tigers during the golden era of aviation a job so fabulous and exciting on the one hand and emotionally brutal on the other that it transformed the lives of hundreds of young women like her who were hired during the war, forcing them to confront the realities of Vietnam in ways they never expected, and bonding them to each other for decades to come. Flying Tiger Line was the first scheduled cargo airline in the U.S., founded by ex-military pilots in 1945. All deals. First time over in July 68 I was a 29 year old Warrant Officer pilot and flew on a Seaboard World stretch-8 (DC-8-50) that was only a couple of years old but what I remember about the flight was that the plane was dirty and worn and the flight attendants were older than me. A true airfreighted with a unique swing-tail design, the CL-44 permitted the straight-in loading of freight no other plane could carry. The men were superstitious that the plane would crash it would be just their luck to die in a dumb accident on the verge of getting home. I was USAF and made that stop in Alaska. Her byline has appeared in numerous online and print publications including Al Jazeera America, USA Today, ForeignPolicy.com and US News & World Report. Many products featured on this site were editorially chosen. For military personnel, it was a deeply emotional journey in both directions. (1946-1951), C-46 Gen. -- The Curtis C-46 "Commando" that Flying Tigers flew on supply missions over the Hump during World War II came home for civilian duty, joining Flying Tigers' fleet in 1949. Asia Pacific Low Cost Airline of the Year 2019. Flying Tiger Line flight 739 was a multi-leg charter service that originated at Travis Air Force Base in the US state of California. Each of the awesome giants flies more than 200,000 pounds of cargo at 575 miles per hour over a 3,500-mile range. The Secretary of the Army has asked me to express his deep regret that your son Specialist Donald A Sargent was a passenger aboard a chartered aircraft that was reported missing while in flight over the Pacific Ocean on 15 March 1962, the telegram read. March 15, 1962, marked the first day of the Vietnam War Campaign, according to U.S. Army historians. His 93 U.S. military passengers, three South Vietnamese soldiers and the 11 civilian crew members aboard Flying Tiger Line Flight 739 disappeared on their way from Guam to the Philippines.. As Flying Tiger Line flight attendant Andee Wright recalled, There was no special training by the airlines or the military about how to handle it. And many didnt know what to think, caught between respect for the military and horror over the fates of the boys on their flights. All attempts to re-establish contact with the flight were unsuccessful.. The year 1962, however, would be a particularly bad year for the airline started by former military pilots. from Greece The picture below shows a full plane of troops heading to Vietnam on a Flying Tiger Flight. Also those that returned with ptsd, most of us. Thank you! Flying Tiger Line flight 739 was a multi-leg charter service that originated at Travis Air Force Base in the US state of California. It was acquired by FedEx in 1989, after more than 40 years of flying cargo and passenger . He wouldnt believe me until I showed him the slip of paper. I went back and was thumbing through all of the books there trying to find something that would keep me preoccupied from thinking about Viet Nam. Flying with Vietjet with thousands of tickets. The Army did pay out life insurance for Donald, but it was only $264. Reach further with Vietnam Airlines flights, a Skyteam member and a global leading 4-Star Skytrax and awarded airline. But some homeward-bound passengers were belligerent, unpredictable. The other airlines that that had the contracts to take service men to that war zone in South East Asia was Seaboard World Air lines it was rumored to be own by lady bird Johnson as she was on the Board of directors of Braniff International air ways and that they and Tiger Airlines got those troop movement contracts back in the day; The old boy network was in bed with the men sitting in the white house: Flying Tiger 707 (March 68) from Travis to Anchorage (refuel), on to Okinawa (refuel), and finally to Bien Hoa. I often wondered what happened to them and now your story has given closure. During a ceremony at the California Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the women, many now in their 70s, will also mark the disappearance of Flying Tigers Flight 739, which vanished over the Pacific in 1962 along with 107 passengers and crew, including four flight attendants. But the flight attendants realized that many were understandably scared. Flying Tigers 747. Onboard were 107 people, all of whom remain missing as the aircraft was never found after its disappearance. While there I recall them telling us that there are enemy at the end of the runway and when we take off we are pulling up as fast as we can to keep from being hit. I too was older at 25 and remember them well. And this aricle brought back many memories, both sad & scared, and delighted and full of joy! They coped, as always, by leaning on each other. She laughed. But my goal in life is that they will not be forgotten.. (it was the only one on the tarmac) Leaving Bien Hoa at 9:00 P.M on June 25th 1969 and arriving in Oakland CA on June 25th at 9:30 P.M.
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