Dear Reader, it’s unusual for me to address you in First Person at the beginning of a Post. But this Post was first published in July 2019. Today is 12 July 2024, and I have just finished days of combing through this and other Posts and other documents to more accurately present the “sequence” of the six “cargo” trips that Veterans Air flew in 1946 for United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration – UNRRA. (I have also “back-dated” the Post to 10 September 1946, the last day of the last flight Veterans Air conducted for the UNRRA – this one to Athens.)
Unsuccessful at locating additional government data, some important dates remain uncertain because they are illegible – as you will witness in this first Prague Manifest. United States Immigration and Customs either allowed or instigated crews to “recycle” their outbound flight Manifests with handwritten scratch-outs and write-overs for their return flight Manifests.
These UNRRA flights were tremendous accomplishments for this upstart group of committed aviators. And I figured if I wanted to know more, some of you wanted to know also. So, the first Post in 2019 about Manifests is greatly embellished here – if not ultimately resolving! And the original Post now contains only the Manifests for easy review. 1
This Post presents more background to the Manifests, a few stories adding “character” to the UNRRA missions, plus it is Footnoted as well.
Of course, another consequence of “combing” the data was stirring up more unanswered questions! Like, how did the Aircraft Mechanics manage three-day “turn-arounds” between Prague #1 and #2? And between the return of Prague #2 and departure of Warsaw #1? Note that the aircraft for the first five of the six UNRRA flights was the same DC-4 – NX58003. Kudos again to the mechanics – and at least one Flight Engineer who we know changed all 18 spark plugs on this DC-4 in the middle of an overnight stop in Santa Maria, Azores.2
But, for this Researcher, the biggest unanswered question remains. What else was going on? Before, in between, after, and other-than these six UNRRA flights? What occupied the existing ground and flight Crews for the three DC-3s other than Summer and Snow Bird flights? What else awaited the second DC-4, newly arrived? Because these five Crew Manifests alone revealed new and rotating Flight Crews – something afoot – the sign of a Future. Where was/is the rest of the story?
For now, here is what we do “know,”
Gaye Lyn
Veterans Air Express and the 1946 UNRRA Contract
Flights and Crew Manifests
Missions accomplished.
“PRAGUE” SPELLING CORRECTION: 26 April PRAGUE
DATE CORRECTION: Outbound date, 2 June Prague #3
(Not 8 June as shown).
PRAGUE #1 MANIFEST
Prague #1 Manifest epitomizes the importance of each Crew Manifest to this research. The most valuable were names, ages, aviation skills, marital status, and, sometimes (like this one), birthplaces of some of Veterans Air most experienced personnel who had remained unknown up to the point of discovering the Manifests.
This Manifest is Exhibit #1 as to how casual some international procedures were in 1946. This is the “going to” and “coming back from” Prague paperwork. The two-in-one document that made it impossible to determine the Prague #1 arrival date in Czechoslovakia.3
Still, the Manifests were sterling – even if the “two-in-ones” caused dating problems and three other Manifests only covered “one way” of the trip. The fact remains that these five Manifests tell the Veterans Air story. They are each evidentiary.
Of exceptional evidence as to the necessity and impact of these missions is the first Washington Post article direct from Prague by Staff Writer Michael Frome, who was also Veterans Air’s Navigator. Michael’s story alone ranks high on the inexplicable scale! 4
PRAGUE #2 MANIFEST
Prague #2 Manifest reveals the second of three inconsistent Company names and spellings.5
• VETERANS AIRLINES
• VETERANS’ AIR EXPRESS COMPANY
• VETERANS’ AIR EXPRESS CO., OPERATIONS DEPARTMENT, Overseas Division
Perhaps attributable to fast-growth pains, the Company aircraft liveries were likewise varietal.
And then there’s the Ooops story – when no one had thought to include “Veterans” in the Company’s official name as they were going Public!6
A management strategy also surfaced with Prague #2. These UNRRA Crews were prepared.
- Prague #1 Manifest listed 9 Crew. Captain and two Copilots (aka First Officers). Two Navigation Officers. One Flight Comm. Officer. Three Flight Engineers.
- Prague #2 (9 Crew again – with only one adjustment: Replaced 3rd Flight Eng with 2nd Radio Op)
- Warsaw #1 and Warsaw #2 (7 Crew each time).
WARSAW #1 MANIFEST MIA
Warsaw #1 Manifest never surfaced. But Jack Stettner was First Officer on that flight and kept his Logbook. The entries offered precise dates and en route stops – both outbound and on return! To date, no other pilot’s logs have surfaced for any of the flights. This one could not have been more valuable. 7
But, from this Researcher’s perspective, the fact that Jack shared those Logs with me all those years later at a face-to-face, joyous meeting in August 2015, was beyond valuable. 8
STETTNER’s WARSAW #1 – FLIGHT LOG and PRESS CLIPS
FOR EASIER READING. STOPS-ALONG-THE-WAY
To Dayton OH, Pick up Hatching Eggs
5/7 Newark, Harrisburg, Dayton, Newark
To Warsaw, Poland, four days en route
5/8 Newark / Stevenville [sic], Newfoundland (Stephenville)
5/9 Stevenville / Santa Maria Azores
5/10 Santa Maria / PARIS
5/10 PARIS / BERLIN
5/11 BERLIN / WARSAW
Return from Warsaw, four days en route
5/13 WARSAW / PARIS
5/15 PARIS / SANTA MARIA
5/15-5/16 SANTA MARIA / BOSTON
5/17 BOSTON / NEWARK
This history-making flight was the first post-WWII non-military, commercial air transport into Warsaw – which was Russian occupied and required Russian overflight permission. That detoured the Crew to Tempelhof Airport in Berlin which Stettner “captured” in his Logbook.
The nature and complexity of the paperwork may explain the obscurity – or perhaps a non-existence – of Warsaw #1 Manifest. However, the trip garnered confirming and additional information in publicity, like the following.
• A New York Times article which mentions Soviet “full documentation” and whose last paragraph revealed some politics-of-the-day in Russia’s reluctance to accept “international air agreements” despite “frequent queries to the Washington Embassy and Moscow.”
• A historic photo-story of the Veterans DC-4 on the ground at Berlin Tempelhof appears in a United States Government military weekly newspaper for Germany.9
• A very short but informative “Eggs To Poland” article in the Santa Cruz (CA) Sentinel that mentions accompaniment by Ray Petersime, a UNRRA representative, and crew of 6, plus Captain William Jakeman.
• A “Special to The New York Times” by Fred Graham. Interview with Veterans’ Captain Jakeman describing the first cargo mission to Warsaw as “Achieved ‘By Guess and By Gosh.’”10
WARSAW #2 MANIFEST
Warsaw #2 Manifest was the second two-in-one, scratched-out, written-over document that also took additional digging to sort out.11 But it does show us that Michael Frome celebrated his 26th birthday on this trip!
This Manifest included the name of Don M. Turnbull, a guest of UNRRA, and Secretary of the International Baby Chick Association – his title learned through reading an article that Turnbull wrote, submitted to, and was published by The Weekly Kansas City Star – a story about Warsaw’s war devastation.12
In depth press coverage of “the ruins” of Warsaw was penned by the same Michael Frome, the same First Navigator, the same Washington Post Staff Writer, who had wrangled a leave of absence from The Post to make the first UNRRA flight to Prague in April. This time, Michael’s powerful coverage earned him a 5-part series.13
PRAGUE #3 MANIFEST
Prague #3 Manifest format was newly designed to eliminate future “two-in-one” documents (but created a “one-way duration” hole in the process.)
No outbound Manifest has yet been discovered. But news coverage of a forced landing in Portland, Maine, dated Monday June 3, 1946, was sufficient to determine a Sunday, June 2 departure from Newark. Veterans Air Captain W. C. Jakeman explained to the reporter that heavy rain between Newark and Portland had disrupted crucial communications. Repairs were essential.14
This existing Manifest is the 8-day Prague return trip 8 June–16 June 1946. It’s of unusual length with no explanation.15
Of lessor but still significant importance to present day research was the newspaper story and photograph. (A treasure to this Researcher.) It put faces to names of all seven Crew members and the UNRRA representative accompanying the flight.
ATHENS MANIFEST
Athens Manifest listed a Crew of 6, smallest of the six UNRRA flights – and the last UNRRA flight. Crew reduction was likely influenced by accumulated flight experience, less demanding cargo-hold temperature restrictions, and a less treacherous airport environment. Take note, there remains no explanation for the uncharacteristic trip duration of two weeks and two days.16
“Handler,” along with Keloss. Wonder if the a Co. Rep is with UNRRA or Borden?
However, not without its own drama, the unique livestock cargo engendered press photo coverage across the country from a news wire pick-up. A 17-year-old “Handler,” Constentine Keloss, was listed on the Athens Manifest. As a 4-H high school student of Greek heritage, he was chosen to care for three dairy breeding stock in flight. Three calves – two heifers and a bull calf – had been donated by The Bordon Company.17