Clipper, July 5, 1945

              AD and A-0 Adopt New AAF Program
Taking advantage of the recent Army Air Forces’ program, PAA has augmented its personnel with pilot officers released to civil airlines for commercial flying. These men continue as members of the Armed Forces subject to call to active duty if they leave the employment of the airline.
Under the plan for releasing pilots to the airlines, AAF pilots desiring airline employment must submit applications through proper channels to AAF headquarters in Washington.
When this new program started several months back, Captain George Doole, Assistant Chief Pilot, Personnel, went to Washington and screened the applications of the 1500 names offered as potential candidates. From this group he selected 400 for interview, who complied with the minimum requirements which PAA demands for Junior Pilots. These are:
750 CAA command hours.
Two years college education or the equivalent.
An instrument rating permitting flying as co-pilot on an airline.
Between the ages of 21 and 29.
Complying with the above requirements, the candidate must be physically qualified to pass a CAA examination.
To date four AAF pilots have been added to the Atlantic Division: Charles Regnier, Franklin McColgin, Joseph Deichl and Jack O’Mohundro.
A-0 Division has also taken advantage of this Army offer to supplement its personnel by adding: Merrill T. Ward, Roger A. Hov-den, Lester E. White, William A. Burdick, Charles A. Baer, William H. Hartigan, Marion E. Sprout, Raymond A. Berg, Ralph R. Pul-cipher, Terrill D. Shores, and Jack Watson.
Atlantic Division Gets Safety Award
The Atlantic Division, PAA, was awarded a Certificate of Merit in recognition of its outstanding achievement in the prevention of accidents, by the National Safety Council.
During 1944 the Atlantic Division flew 27,-634,104 passenger miles without fatality, building up its total passenger miles flown without fatality to 57,006,888.
In notifying the Atlantic Division of the award, Mr. Ned Dearborn, President of- the council said, “Your splendid safety record is a definite contribution to the campaign we are conducting to save Manpower for warpower.”
LESOMI Acci
17th Annual Report Shows Wartime Job
Heroism Cited
Heroic teamwork on the part of a Clipper Captain and crew saved the lives of 17 survivors of a torpedoed Liberty ship in the mid-Pacific war zone. The incident is related in the recent annual report. Captain Robert Ford earned Navy commendation for his prompt action in driving away a Japanese submarine maneuvering to attack lifeboats filled with helpless survivors.
“We dropped down to 1,000 feet,” said Captain Ford, “and fired a flare. The Jap sub, which had been riding high, submerged. When we had spent as long over the area as our fuel would allow, we flew on, after promising to send help.” The Navy later declared that the heroic action of this unarmed Pan American crew, which risked being shot down by enemy anti-aircraft fire, had prevented the sub from machine-gunning the merchant seamen survivors.
Further individual acts of heroism and of human ingenuity on the part of personnel performing wartime duties are cited in the report.
Three Clipper Captains flying the South Atlantic route saved the lives of Navy flyers whose bomber had gone down at sea last May, the report reveals. Every Pan American flight crew flying between Natal and Ascension was advised to be on the alert for the Navy bomber.
First to sight oil slick of the downed plane was Captain L. S. Boeck. A second Clipper, under Captain A. Elsaesser spotted the yellow raft of the survivors, and dropped a “Gibson Girl” radio transmitter to the stranded men.
Later, Captain Boeck’s crew dropped food and water. Still a third plane under Captain E. E. Jones brought about the final rescue, after circling the raft for six and one half hours.
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The record of our company during 1944 was again one “of devotion to the war effort,” President Juan Tjippe stated in the 17th Annual Report distributed this week to employes.
Mentioned in the report are the facts that over two hundred of the system’s personnel have given their lives in the performance of wartime duties; twenty-four employes and their families were released from Japanese prison camps with the liberation of Manila, and others are still interned in Japan and occupied China.
For 1944, the third year of war-time flying, the gross business of Pan American amounted to $93,000,000 as compared with $27,300,000 in the last pre-war year of 1940, and a decrease of $33,000,000 compared with 1943. The decrease was due to the termination in June, 1944, of military contract services for construction abroad. Non-military revenues, however, increased to $45,500,000 from the $39,400,000 reported in 1943.
Reported net income was $1,619,309 as compared with $1,929,764 in 1943. This figure, however, does not include earnings for the year for the carriage of mails from the United States to Africa and to and from Alaska. Mail rates for these services have not yet been fixed following resumption of commercial service.
During 1944, services for the armed forces underwent vast expansion. Pan American is now the largest air transport contractor to the War Department and the only such contractor to the U. S. Navy. Under contract to the Army and Navy our flight crews flew 31,710,000 plane miles during the year. In addition CNAC flew another 10,000,000 miles for the armed forces in the India-Burma-China theater. Our total flying, military and commercial, for the year, was 79,800,000 plane miles. Pan American flight crews averaged 17 over-ocean flights a day throughout the year.
“The System’s war contribution has been made possible only by the patriotism, loyalty and teamwork of Pan American employes throughout the world.”
During the year transport services were conducted to 57 countries, possessions and colonies, to every continent and overall major ocean routes.
Establishing a new high in all categories of traffic in 1944, PAA carried 750 passengers, covered 791,000,000 passenger miles and transported 128,800,000 lbs. of air cargo.