Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 23, 1962)
MEDFOHD MAIL TRIBUNE. MEDFORD. OREGON THURSDAY. AUGUST 23. 1962 Aviation Editor Finds Airline Work Trying Experience Editot' not UPI Avia tlon Editor Robert J. Serling recently donned the uniiorm of a United Air Lines passen ger agent and worked a "PA's" trick at Washington National Airport. This is an g-count of his experiences.) By ROBERT J. SERLING UPI Aviation Editor Washington - WPU - Well, there I stood in my new pas senger agent's uniform with blue trousers, blue shirt, blue jacket and a blue cap with United's silver wings and the first thing the supervisor said to me was: 'Who the Hell told you to wear brown socks?' This naturaly got me off to a poor start but, as it turned out, it was the least of my worries. I learned a lot in the next six hours, chief of which was the realization that pas 1 senger agents (some air car riers call them ramp agents) do more than check names off passenger manifest lists as the customers board flights, push the loading ramps to and from planes, and wave good bye to the stewardesses. This and a lot more. They answer myriad questions, mol lify angry passengers, pay special attention to the very elderly, the very young and the very ill and also figure out answers to such problems as what to do when you have a sold-out flight ready to de part, with no airplane. Assigned lo Center My first assignment was United's planning center, an office resembling a small con trol tower overlooking the airline's ramp area. Coordi nator Warren Gamble wel comed his new "agent" in the soft, calm tones of a man at peace with the world and commercial aviation. "You picked a blankity blank fine time to arrive!'" he roared. "I've got a possible cancelled flight to Norfolk with a full load, and I've got 45 minutes to decide what to do!" His problem was simple. A Viscount was supposed to be used as Flight 200 Washing ton to Norfolk but the plane had been delayed in another i ity and would not get into Washington in time to be used for the Norfolk trip, And ihere were no spare ships available. Obviously, Passenger Agent Serling was not going to be much help in this dilemma, but Gamble solved the situa tion neatly. He had a DC7 coming in from Chicago which theoreticaly could be used for Flight 200 and still return to Washington in time for a return trip to the West. But DC7s are too heavy to land at Norfolk. Gamble met this challenge by "swiping" a smaller DC6B scheduled to leave as Flight 417 to Colum bus and Dayton, Ohio, assign ing this to the Norfolk trip and substituting the DC7 for Flight 417. Simple? Not quite. One of Gamble's first calls was lo Dispatch to find out if there was a DC6B captain available who was qualified to fly the Norfolk route. Dispatch lo cated one a Capt. Jurnigan who was about to dead-head back to his home in Chicago. "Grab him," Gamble said. "Tell him he has to fly 200 to Norfolk." Short pause. Dis patch phoned back. Neck Looked Red "Capt. Jurnigan says he's very pleased and accepts the invitation." Gamble pointed out Capt. Jurnigan to me. He was walk ing away from the Chicago flight and even at a distance of several hundred feet, his neck looked very red. Gamble introduced me to Pat McDonald, in charge of special passenger handling, who in turn introduced me to some mysterious symbols that appear next to passenger names on manifests. "Mrs. J. Smith, S 1, 2. 3." That code means Mrs. Smith is an elderly person who requires a wheel chair that must be raised to the plane door with a special "fork lift." "S-4" is a woman with a small child who will need as sistance. "S-10" is a VIP pas sengerand one of the S-lOs I saw on a manifest that day was an "S. Carpenter." He de served the S-10 code. It was Astronaut Scott Carpenter. "S-6" is a passenger who does not speak English. "S-13" is a blind person. "S-12" is a passenger requiring special meal service. "S-8" is a per son on emergency travel. "S-5" is a child under 12 traveling alone. And then there's "S-9" a passenger who has been mishandled on a previous flight. Check for Codes "We check every flight for those codes," McDonald said. "We don't always have them marked down, of course, be cause a reservation may have been made by phone and we don't know whether we have a special handling situation until the passenger shows up. When you go down to the ramp and work a flight, watch for ticket envelopes that have the United shield .stamped on the cover with a figure "1" inside the shield. That indicates it's the first time the passenger has flown. It's a good idea to be just a little extra polite and pleasant when you see one." Now it was time for me to actualy "work" some flights. This exposed me to the public but, worse than that, it ex posed the public lo me. Unit ed had the foresight to as sign veteran PAs Larry Rice, Willie Thomas and Jay Dan iels to work with me so I wouldn't set commercial avia tion back 20 years-but even so, these gentlemen were not quite prepared. I was at a gate helping to check boarding tickets when a passenger approached. "Can you tell me how far it is from Newport News to New York?" "By plane?" I asked. "No, by car." PA Looked Green "About 900 miles and it's a single-lane highway all the way," I told him-proud of my striking a blow in behalf of scheduled air transportation. PA Rice looked a little green. "He's only joking, sir," he informed the passenger. "I'm not sure what the driving dis tance is so why don't you ' 1 511 A - iocihhmua EsgMtemvL yi rasj-sy', hotel -corner pp i . MctA,((((l I '$1SwM Moscow, USSR- .4 1 "I : Perilous Recreation B 9 Politicians Added To Natural Hazards of Week End at Beach jt . YfivlQ Air f4 l cm, ear WW Wef resist By DICK WEST Washington -UTfl- A week ; end at the heach is. under the ; ; best at conditions, rather i perilous r e c reation. If you i a r e lucky ; c n o u g h to i a v o i d sun bur n, shark ! b i t c s and I drowning, the chances are iri j Rockefeller chose good thai one jjufc"' $m i Wisl Sunday. They must have thought ducing himself to sunbathers, they were at one of Atty. Gen. ! who previously had only sand Robert P. Kennedy's poolside : fleas to disturb them, parties. The way things are going, , One reporter described the 1 America's beaches will soon scene at Santa Monica as 1 1,ave "ore candidates than "reminiscent of Conev Is-; sa"d crabs. I personally view land," perhaps not knowing ' ,ne situution Willi alarm, but how right he was. 1 there is one small consola- Conev Isl.inH hfinnoncri to ' tion. be one of the four New York I beaches that Gov. Nelson A. to stump At least the candidates won't be handing out cam paign buttons. Swim suits being what they are today, U.J A of those mils ciooouncl nuts i ! who insist on exercising will ' flatten you with a beach ball.' To this formidable array , of natural hazards lias just been added an artificial men ace: Politicians. Almost everywhere that you looked last week end, what was left of serenity at the shore was being shattered bv office - seekers who have i I I, ; ! by office - seekers who have J xA ITJ it Kp12?- mm suddenly discovered that a I 't,tiyHJ Ufi il Jj'i' sand smt usually contains a """"'"-"X4J ' ''(' ,J ' ready-made, pre-cooked audi- . - trrrf COLLECTOR'S ITEM-Romaine Fielding Jr. of Los An geles has a new and rare item in his stamp collection. It is an envelope mailed in Moscow bearing three four-kopeck Russian stamps lauding the Soviet Union's Sputnik sat ellite series and one four-cent American stamp commem orating the U.S. Man-in-Spacc Mercury program. Field ing, a manufacturer of laundry equipment being installed in Russia, received the stamps from one of his cmplo-'cei who is in Russia. (UPI) Justice Breaks Precedent To Speak on School Prayer Ruling By LOUIS CASSELS UPI Correspondent II is extremely rare for a member of the U. S. Supreme Court to comment publicly on ') a decision that has aroused con troversy. Custom de- i crees that a formal opin io n must speak for it self, without off-lhe - bench Cassrii interpretation from individual justices. In view of this tradition, considerable significance may be attached to a speech which Justice Tom C. Clark deliv ered this month before the Commonwealth Club of San Francisco. Justice Clark said the furor which followed the June 25 ruling on prayer in public schools stemmed, at least in part, from misunderstanding of the court's position. He said many people got the impression that the court had "outlawed . religious ob servance in public schools." "In fact, the court did nothing of the kind," he de clared. Nor did the court hold check when you gel to New port News?" 1 helped push boarding ramps to and from planes. I wished passengers a pleasant trip and greeted them when they got off. I watched super visor Bruce DeGroff straigh ten out a situation involving 51 passengers trying to board a 46-passenger plane. At the end of six hours, 1 have acquired new respect and sympathy for airline oper ating problems. Station Chief Rex Garrel came over to say goodbye while I was wearily removing my uniform. "I hope it wasn't too dull," he said. "Sunday's one of our easiest days." CHRYSTAL MEATS The House of Personal Service 4th and Fir Phone 772-7315 STEAK SPECIALS Rib Steaks t n I "DUIIbb Aged-Trimmed Boneless Top Cube Steaks Lex of Pork it. y r y Sirloin lw ZM 5 $100 ryi 1 -tAv-u ib. .:"ri Boned end Rolled LOCKER SPECIAL Klamath Fed LOCKER BEEF CUT - WRAPPED - QUICK FROZEN Hair or Whole lb. 47' 25 lbs. BEEF Family Order S1 298 thai "there could be no offic ial recognition of a divine be ing ... or public acknow ledgment that we are a relig ious nation." All it rtift Plai-li nnntiminrt was to rule unconstitutional I "a state written prayer cir-1 eulated to state employed I teachers with instructions to have their pupils recite it in unison at the beginning of each school day." The fact that student par ticipation in the prayer was on a "voluntary" basis "was not decisive," Clark said. "The Constitution says thai the government shall take no part in the establishment of religion. No means no." Clark did not seek to make the press a scapegoat for pub lic misunderstanding of the ruling. He said the court itself "might be blamed" for saving up its decisions to be handed down en masse on a single day of each week, Monday. On this particular Monday, he noted, the court issued 18 de cisions, and news agencies were "pushed even to get the result, much less the reason ing back of each judgment." Mail Trend Changed Initially, the court's mail was heavily critical. But "as soon as the people understood the holding, the trend changed. In fact most of my mail was favorable." Clark's comments may put the quietus on some of the more extreme interpretations which have been placed on the prayer ruling. But they still leave room for debate not among ill-informed people, but among the best constitutional lawyers about the effect of the ruling on religious exercises in pub lic schools. Clark said the court did not "outlaw relig ious observances" in schools. But Justice Hugo L. Black, who wrote the majority opin ion, said in so many words that the court was applying the Constitution "in such a way as to prohibit state laws respecting an establishment of religious services in pub lic schools." Opinion Explicitly Stated The majority opinion also ! stated explicitly that govern i mcnl has no business "writing , or sanctioning official pray ers." New York where the June i 25 case originated is the ) only state that has tried writ- j ; ing an official prayer for ' school use. But a good many states have laws which sane- j j tion. or require, the daily re- cital of the Lord's Prayer and I : the reading of passages from I the Bible. j Do such laws constitute "an establishment of religious i services in public schools?" ! Three cases which have j been npoealed to the court from Pennsylvania. Maryland ' and Florida will give the jus- : tiers an oportunity to answer j Two Flinbls Are Made With Injured Two 'lights were marie bv Mercy Flights Inc.. Wednes day. Raymond Lawson. Scotia. Colif.. suffered head and arm injuries in an automobile ac cident on Highway 2BH near Trinity dam. He was flown from Weavervillp. Calif., to Medford. and wa transferred to Sacred Hear! hospital for treatment V B. Ward. Horse Creek, Calif . was the 1.461st patient flown by the ambulance serv ice. Ward was hurt in a log ging accident near Happy i Camp, saifffring back and chest injuries when hit by a ' cable. He was flown from ! I Happy Camp to Medford that question, unequivocally, at their next term. REQUESTS REVIEW Portland - tJPti - Former government officer Earl C. Corey has asked the U. S. Su preme court to review his conviction of conspiracy and conflict of inleresl in wheat storage. ence President Kennedy's trip lo the West Coast was billed at non-political end he is not up for re-election this year. But his dip in the Pa cific was typical of what this type of campaigning can lead to. Bathers who were peace fully enjoying the sea air at Santa Monica found them selves being swarmed over by a tidal wave of President watchers, some of whom fol lowed Kennedy into the surf fully clothed. Descending on the half- baked hordes by helicopter. Rockefeller went around eating hot dogs, shaking hands and kissing babies. There Is no telling how many votes he lost by slap ping backs that already had absorbed too much sun. In Maryland, three Reonb , lican candidates made a heli copter tour of six beaches on . ' the bay shore while a Demo-, cralic congressional candidate! worked the ocean front. 1 i The Republicans set up j loudspeakers, which a beach I needs like a hurricane. The I I Democrat walked about intro-; Forest Grove Man Gefs Five-Year Term Salem -ItiPli- Joseph Robert' Manning. 20. torest Grove, has been sentenced to five years in the Oregon Correc tional Institution for his part in the $2f)7 holdup of the Market Basket grocery last April. Two companions ear lier received prison sentences for the robbery. there is no place to pin them. 1 Vi-JBI TV v ii i "s r 'a Crescent Toppings y ;) on Ice Cream ( MdVe your own sundaes, "splits," and pjrfjils with Crescent Top pings in a variety of delicious flavors: strawberry. C3ramel, pine apple, butterscotch and chocolate. Delicious and decorative, too. for cake fillings or icings. CRESCENT ', .i.-i!'?' ' T&itf7. -vj ' ' .: .' - kit' :' " ." V ' . " - P'r-' r ii , VipG -:t" " - , si' v , " - V ' i ' ' - wh 1 -w JT ' 1 v: v ' t" - w- : . NOW THERE IS A in artimin ai.minii e'ititiiionri.'.ili'J IN OR With new shape and OF EGON! bite-size flavor... by Dfu COURSE! Missions unique bile-size Space Noodle was made for flavor. It's fun to eat and an entirely new taste in noodles. It's nourishing with enriched high protein wheat and fresh eggs. Mission Space Noodles are as new and exciting as the "world of tomorrow" which inspired them. In just minutes the egg rich noodles cook to tender bile size. Yon savor the full flavor in every forkful with the delicate rihs holding a full measure of sauce. With this extra sauce, you get double the taste in each hite-size tidbit overflowing with mouth-watering good ness. Serve Mission Space Noodles with your favorite sauce, in a noodle casserole, with cheese or fricassee of chicken, fish or meat. Try one of the Kvo recipe suggestions on the package. Treat jour family! Serve Mission's new Space Noodles today. CLIP OUT i AND MAIL COUPON 'vp'. Nc.ei 9" Ccryr ryl i'lbl, M-uon lV.arcn; Co. i'n t IT?")! r 0 MS W ' 1 1 Send us one empty Mission Space Noodle package with this coupon and ice will send jou a certificate good or another package ol Mission Space Noodles Mail to Mission Macaroni Co., 1016 8th S., Seattle 4, West! (Limit of one per family. This offer expires Sept. 30, 1962 NAME ADDRESS CITY ZONE STATE (Void whre prohibited, taxed or otherwise restricted.) it, VULl 5HH. '.''ViE ' a-fwrntji.." lt'it.;'1B' mmjmm .'1 '" 1 " 1 . f'i 1. if-.-
