Clipper, Vol. 8, No. 24, November 27, 1952

              17th YEAR PACIFIC-ALASKA DIVISION
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LÍPPEH
Read From California to Calcutta, From Alaska To Australia
20th YEAR PAA HAS FLOWN IN ALASKA
Voi. 8 No. 24
PUBLISHED BY THE EMPLOYEES OF PAN AMERICAN WORLD AIRWAYS
November 27, 1952
SKIPPERS BANQUET
Vice Pres. Gray Is Given Big Sendoff to AD Post Vice Pres. Young is Greeted as New PAD Boss
RANGOON CLEAR TO LAND
PAD Opens 27th Line Station in Burmese City; Charlie Bennett, Al Lohg, Head Local Staff
HANDS AROUND THE WORLD
The two men above—Vice Presidents Harold E. Gray and Clarence M. Young—are in unique positions in air transport history. Together they command a network of farflung airlines that reach completely around the world. Formerly joint vice presidents of PAD, Gray has been transferred to New York as Vice President of the Atlantic Division, while Young takes over as full vice president of PAD. The big event was celebrated by a Panair Management Club dinner last week.
The big dinner at Hunter’s Point,^ where supervisory and executive employees formally said goodby to Vice President Harold Gray and welcome to Vice President Clarence Young was one of those rare occasions in banqueting history—an event where everything clicked happily in perfect harmony and mixed in the precisely necessary amounts of humor and seriousness.
First of all was the auspicious opening of the occasion, as everyone noted that a lashing rainstorm failed to daunt upward of 200 Panair Management Club members and friends who packed the big Officers’ Mess at the Naval Shipyard, to bid bon voyage to Gray in his transfer to New York to take charge of the Atlantic Division.
After a good steak dinner, with all the trimmings, Ed Holmes, Assistant Traffic Manager, took charge of the program and revealed himself to be as deft and confident an emcee as you could ever wish for. He set a light bantering tone far the occasion and produced one of Ogden Nash’s best poetic efforts to be read by Sales Manager Joe Fessio, and Joe brought it off in his best Stanford alumni style.
In quick succession—to the popping of flash bulbs for the photos accompanying this—came the presentation of the piece de resistance of the evening: a red flannel union suit to afford some comfort and nostalgia for California during the white Christmas and subsequent frigid nights and days Gray must spent in New York.
And no sooner than the laughter died down came another spur to the risibilities in the Barrel House Sextette who, from behind handle-(Continued on Page 4)
Charlie Bennett is SOM For New Rangoon Station
Changes Chill Alaskan North For Sunny South East Asia
Al Long is Named DTSM For New Burmese Base
10-Year Vet of HNL, Other Stations, Now in Rangoon
Charlie Bennett
Charles H. Bennett, 38. who has been named station operations manager at Rangoon, is a veteran of 11 years experience with Pan American.
He was selected for the new post on the basis of a fine record with the company, as a man eminently fitted for the duties of providing international flight service for Burma.
But for Charlie the assignment to a warm and sunny country is a welcome one, for he has served most of his time with Pan American in the chill northern regions of Alaska.
“I look forward not only to meeting the Burmese people,” Charlie said during his period of prepara-(Continued on Page 8)
Alfred D. Long, 33, has been appointed district traffic and sales manager for PAD in Rangoon.
Al brings a 10-year background in aviation to his new post, and a reputation for getting things done. He joined Pan American in Honolulu in 1942, shortly after graduating from the University of California, where he received his AB degree in general arts in 1941.
During his career with Pan American Al has been stationed in various capacities in Noumea, the capital of French New Caledonia in the South Pacific; on Espiritu Santo island, in wartime; in Brisbane, Australia; on Guam; and in Honolulu.
His most recent post was sales representative for the company in (Continued on Page 4)
+ One of the key cities of Southeast Asia, Rangoon, Burma, has been added to the Pacific Alaska Division’s twenty-six line stations skirting the continents on both sides of the Pacific and the Pacific isles with the inauguration December 1 of regular flight service to the new base.
This brings the total number of stations in operation to twenty-seven at the present time. The new service makes Rangoon a regular stopping point on our round-the-world service, and ties in the Burmese capital with the U. S., Europe, and other countries of Asia and the Orient.
One flight a week is called for by present schedules from the West Coast and Orient, and one per week in the other direction from New York and London. This will bring Rangoon within 40 hours total travel time from San Francisco. Los Angeles and other West Coast points.
The flights will be made to Tokyo on double-decked Strato Clippers and there they’ll change io the new Super Six Clippers for the last leg of the flight, via Bangkok, capital of Thailand.
All of which gives Pan American a couple of new firsts: The first airline in the world to link Burma by air to both the European and American continents, and the first U. S. airline to establish air service to Burma. Fast and easy transportation is thus provided to a country growing in political importance, already a major factor in international trade in the East, and an interesting area for tourist travel.
Rangoon is, of course, the spot “on the road to Mandalay, where the flying fishes play” that inspired Kipling to write his famous poem.
(Continued on Page 7)
Al Long