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During the Vietnam War, the women who served on special Pan Am flights flew into a war zone to transport soldiers. Why has their role been forgotten?
In the winter of 1968, a Boeing 707, heavy with American troops and body bags, took rounds of antiaircraft fire immediately upon takeoff from Tan Son Nhut Air Base in Saigon. At once, a right engine burst into flames. It was the middle of the Tet Offensive, when coordinated Viet Cong raids pounded American installations in South Vietnam. A GI sitting by the wing spotted the engine fire outside his window and caught the attention of one of the stewardesses, Gayle Larson, then 25 years old, who… (www.washingtonpost.com) Más...Sort type: [Top] [Newest]
How great a service they preformed for those GIs during the flights but just like the female ferry pilots of WW2 did not get what they deserved.
Pay wall??? Come on Flight Aware.
paywall is Washington Post's..unfortunately.
I will NEVER forget returning from Vietnam 1n 1970 on a charter 707. Upon touchdown in Seattle, the stewardess announced "Gentlemen, welcome to the United States of America".
To us soldiers, many of which thought they may never return home, these were the most wonderful words they ever heard.
I still think of that moment often.
To us soldiers, many of which thought they may never return home, these were the most wonderful words they ever heard.
I still think of that moment often.
These ladies are as important as those that built the P51's in El Segundo and the mathematicians that did the calculations first by pencil, and later by computer at JPL that made jet engines and spacecraft part of our lives.
The Pan Am ladies also deserve recognition by a grateful nation for their service.
The Pan Am ladies also deserve recognition by a grateful nation for their service.
PanAm... Bangkok to Tan Son Nhut..then to Hong Kong and back R&R 1968... 553 RW Korat RTAFB
And the ferry pilots, the women that flew planes across the Atlantic Ocean to deliver them. My mother knew quite a few in this state that performed that service, and were deliberately forgotten. I met one of those women decades ago. The stories she told. People don't realize it, but quite a few of the planes never made it across the ocean. They failed, or were intercepted in route. A lot of gutsy women pilots lost their lives flying those planes, and the public at large has totally ignored their contributions.
The misogynist bent in American society is depressing. Sure, everyone talks about 'Rosie the riveter', but now Mary the pilot, or Sue the gunner. It's damned sad...
Women stepped up! Women LEAPT up! They need to be recognized for their contributions as much as men. Without them, the war would have been lost.
The misogynist bent in American society is depressing. Sure, everyone talks about 'Rosie the riveter', but now Mary the pilot, or Sue the gunner. It's damned sad...
Women stepped up! Women LEAPT up! They need to be recognized for their contributions as much as men. Without them, the war would have been lost.