This September 1945 clipping from Newark Evening News takes the reader behind the scenes from bright idea to Board of Directors to the “mechanics” of a start-up express cargo airline owned and operated by WWII vets and the businessmen who saw great merit in their dream.
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The first stock offering was issued 9 November 1945. The certificate was printed even before the decision that “Veterans” should be part of the official company name. Pride in who they were and in hopes of bettering their chances for attracting business seems to have prompted the idea.
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Newspaper clippings and DC-3 Chief Pilot Robert Chambers’ “Pilots Running Log” record the first Veterans Air DC-3 cargo revenue flight on 3 December 1945. Iced, dressed turkeys from Louisville KY to Teterboro NJ were primary cargo destined for Newark and New York City.
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DC-3 “Snowbird” flights from Newark to Miami via “The Veterans’ Air Line.” (New York Times classified 18th and 21st January, 1946). And summer vacationers in Cape Cod are lured to relax and fly to the Cape via the “modern” Veterans airliner. (Newark NJ paper display ad, date unknown.)
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Timing is everything. Veterans Air Express needed a major maintenance and repair facility. And Florida seemed a location ideally suited to their growing cargo and passenger business. Hendricks Field, an AAF Pilot School during WWII in Sebring, FL was being deactivated and transitioned into Sebring Air Terminal. Photos & news clips from archives unfold the story.
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There’s a lot of Veterans Air Express information “out there.” Lots of it needs cross-checking. Much needs verification. And challenge. And discussion. Some of that input will best come from World War II vets…especially ex-Army Air Corps and their families…aviation buffs….and research librarians. Are you one of those folks? Or know them? VeteransAir.org is my website where I share what I know & what I need to know. I invite you to follow me here.
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Veterans Air Express prepared a Civil Aeronautics Board route application – for authority to engage in permanent, scheduled service, worldwide. The document & accompanying, impressive route map, were saved by John Greenleaf, Sr., a founding member of the 1945 company. He kept a copy among his papers. It’s a revelation of the hopes & intentions of these Vets & their investors.
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Veterans Air Express Navigator Edward Martz regaled me with stories I have not heard before. In our face-to-face meeting last month in New Jersey, Ed Martz shared vivid memories from his 1946 flights behind the Iron Curtain. You don’t want to miss the full story!
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EN ROUTE, a book published in 1993 by authors Lynn Johnson and Michael O’Leary, is a lovely, fascinating and well researched noteworthy collection of “label art from the Golden Age of air travel.” Come read who recently gifted a copy of the book to me — and why. And how the authors have unexpectedly emboldened my own research into a significant factor that contributed to the Veterans Air short-lived existence.
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