Veterans Air Express Breaking News 3 Nov 2015.
Incredible! Look who I found! Broughton. Martz. Cowart.
Last week I walked in circles. Paced the kitchen, my head evacuated of why I was in the room. Made that famous non-stop bunny envious of my energy!
Crew Manifests
I had stumbled on a valuable data source. Crew Manifests. First, I found just one. Then I learned how to “mine” the source. Now I have five. For 1946 Veterans Air Express historic UNRRA (United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration) flights to Warsaw, Prague and Athens! That I know of, I’m only missing one manifest. (Unfortunately, Jack Stettner, it’s your May 8th-13th 1946 flight to Warsaw. But I’ll keep after it!!)
In their order of appearance…
From the information on those manifests, so far, in their order of appearance, I found:
- The two sons of Richard N. Broughton, 1st Officer/Copilot on three UNRRA flights and 2nd Officer/relief Co-pilot on one UNRRA flight. Craig and Robert Broughton were surprised to hear from me.
- Edward Martz, Navigation Officer on one UNRRA flight and 2nd Navigator on two UNRRA flights. Ed lives in New Jersey with his wife.
- Thomas Cowart, Flight Engineer on four UNRRA flights. Thomas lives in South Carolina.
All three men served on the same crew for two flights to Prague and one to Warsaw. And Dick Broughton flew as 1st Officer with Thomas Cowart as Flight Engineer on the only UNRRA flight to Athens.
We interrupt this Breaking News…
Ed Martz and I just spent 45 minutes on the phone! With phenomenal and effortless recall, he told me about … Dick Broughton’s service history … how “a little old guy who had influence in the Truman administration” helped them procure their first DC-4 and UNRRA contract … Czech opera singer Novotna christening the DC-4 … the fate of the GAYE LYN … Carol Landis, the movie star, who christened the Company’s second DC-4.
And Ed told me my Dad, Saunie, was “Smart. Nice guy. Had enough sense to keep it going.”
To be continued…
So sorry, but I’m out of time for today!