Pan American clipper, Vol. 8, No. 5, May 1950

              Volume 8
May, 1950
Number 5
stickney wins	All Hands Share High Praise for
Success of 'Operation Bermuda"
“Operation Bermuda” — the shuttling of 7,000 Clipper passengers between the U. S. and Bermuda during the 1950 Easter season — has come to a triumphant close, with all concerned sharing in the applause for a job well done.
FIRST PRIZE IN
PHOTO CONTEST
Babies and kittens — two of photography’s most sure-fire subjects — walked off with the three cash prizes in The Clipper Photo Contest which ended March 31. Two PAA-ers in Brussels are among the three winning photographers. Prize money of $20, $10 and $5 is now on its way to the winners.
Richard Stickney of service of supply, Long Island City, won first prize for the drool-glorifying picture he captioned “Fairytale.” The winning shot was taken with a 6V2 by 9 cm Ihagee.
Armand Strubbe of PAA’s traffic staff in Brussels took second honors with his composition of sunlight, shadows, and a kitten, titled “Poussy.” This picture, taken with a Welta Perfecta, was one of five excellent entries submitted by Mr. Strubbe. Three more of his pictures won honorable mention from the judges.
Miss Nicky Van Hove of passenger service in Brussels was awarded third prize for her record of youthful endeavor entitled “Escaping from Home.” An Agfa Isolette was the camera she used for this shot of her nephew, Johnny Reid.
Tough Job
The judges had difficulty in choosing from the many fine pictures submitted in the contest. At their suggestion, honorable mention goes to the following entries.
“Nitesong,” by Armand Strubbe.
“Strength,” by Samuel Zolick of maintenance at Idlewild.
“Off the Blocks,” by Uli Steinhilper of operations in Stuttgart.
“Phillipe,” by Armand Strubbe.
“Columns,” by Armand Strubbe.
“Leaning Tower of Pisa,” by Jack Ranaghan of traffic at LaGuardia Field.
“Damascus Ruins,” by Virginia P. Roiz of flight service at LaGuardia Field.
These and other photos entered in the contest will be printed in future issues of “The Clipper.”
Among the other amateur photographers who submitted one or more outstanding examples of their work were: Donald C. Bansen of the “A” Crew; Betty J. Lesmez of LAD traffic at LaGuardia Field; Raffoul Y. Assily of sales in Beirut; Charles Villa of maintenance at Idlewild; Norman A. Cole of PAA India; Jack A. Gosselin of traffic in Brussels; Marjorie Lundberg of public relations; Tom Mat-teson of maintenance procedures; B. A. Cuomo of maintenance, NBA.
Special mention goes to Walter A. Diehl of passenger service at LaGuardia Field for a series of unusually good color prints which he entered in the contest. Unfortunately color prints were not judged in this particular contest, but a future competition is planned in which pictures of all classes will be eligible.
O'Neal Listed Among Top Ten
Captain James Dent O’Neal, assistant chief pilot in charge of training for the Atlantic Division, has been named by American Aviation Magazine as one of the nationV- 10 top airline pilots.
Captain O’Neal was cited for the honor because of “valuable contributions to the science of crew training through his work with the Dehmel trainer.” All of the pilots named were adjudged to be outstanding on the basis of specific contributions to the advancement of air transportation over and beyond their routine duties in 1949.”
Captain Victor A.
Wright of Pan Capt. O’Neal American’s Latin American Division also made the list of the top 10. He was described in the citation as “responsible for the successful development of PAA’s cargo corps, rounding up and training the crews who have flown 3,700,000 plane miles without an accident.”
Captain O’Neal, a native of D’Lo, Miss., was graduated from Mercer University at Macon, Ga. He worked as a reporter on the Atlanta Constitution then, in 1933, joined the US Marine Corps Reserve. Completing his flight training at Squantum, Mass., and Pensacola, Fla., he was on active duty at Quantico, Va., until 1937 when he joined PAA at Miami as an apprentice pilot.
A-O Veteran
In 1939 Captain O’Neal was transferred to the Atlantic Division at Baltimore. During the war he served as assistant chief pilot for the Africa-Orient Division. He was a member of the crew who brought Wendell Willkie and his party back to New York after the presidential candidate had inspected war conditions in England. The flight from Lisbon to Bolama (an African coastal village in Portuguese Guinea) to Trinidad (25 miles off the coast of Venezuela), then to San. Juan and then to (Continued on page 8)
“I would like to express the appreciation of the entire traffic and sales department for the excellent operating performance of the Bermuda schedules during the recent Easter traffic peak,” said Vice President Willis G. Lipscomb in a message to Division Manager Horace Brock.
“As you know, our loads eclipsed all previous records and the good work done by Atlantic Division operations personnel in obtaining on-time performance "will result in long range benefits to the Company,” Mr. Lipscomb continued. “There is no substitute for a satisfied passenger.”
Vice President John H. Towers teletyped to Captain Brock as follows: “ATLANTIC DIVISION DID A SUPERB JOB IN HANDLING THE UNPRECEDENTED LOADS DURING BERMUDA EASTER PEAK. CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL CONCERNED.” “Tops,” Says Ops
Operations Manager H. B. Fleming added his praise in a memo to LGA’s Station Manager Ray de Haan. He said: “We wish to congratulate you on the excellent performance of the LGA station during the Easter rush. All reports indicate that your station and the line crew have given us the best Easter Season performance in the history of the Division.”
Between March 15 and April 16, there were 105 Clipper flights southbound from New York to Bermuda and they carried a total of 3,196 passengers out of New York plus 344 who started their holiday from Boston. Northbound during the same period there were 103 flights, and a total of 3,494 passengers. The grand totals came to 208 flights and 7,034 pax. About one-third of the passengers were college students enjoying their Easter holidays.
All LGA and BDA station personnel share in the credit for this outstanding achievement, together with the Allied Maintenance crews who did an excellent job in handling the interior cleaning of planes and the cargo and baggage loading.
10,000 Coming Up
Pan American’s GCA operators at Gander expect to bring in their 10,-000th plane to a radar-guided landing late this month. Since December 17, 1946, PAA’s GCA staff has been guiding commercial and military aircraft into Gander in inclement weather. About half of all Gander landings are made with the aid of directions radioed to the pilot by Joe Green, project supervisor, and his GCA staff.
Emergency f Volunteer Blood donors Needed May 23 at LGA