Saunie Gravely weds Lydia Amadio
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Veterans Air Express
Saunie Gravely. Founder.
Saunie Gravely, future AAF gunnery instructor, will found Veterans Air Express post-WWII.
Saunie Gravely. Founder, Board Chairman, President. My Dad!
WWII GIs, war surplus DC-3s and DC-4s, produce and passengers: Saunie’s 1945 non-sked air service.
Gordon E Bellman. Board Member. Operations Mgr.
Gordon E Bellman, a 6-year WWII vet of both RAF and AAF, Army Air Forces, joined Veterans Air Express in mid-1945 on Board of Directors and as Director of Operations.
First Stock Offering Absent Afterthought New Name
First stock certificate printed even before “Veterans” became part of the official company name.
Fly anything to anybody from anywhere. The 1945 plan.
With first cargo flight, Robert Montanarella, pilot, and Saunie Gravely, founder, get Veterans Air airborne.
KY journalist covers people, plans, glider, turkeys.
DC-3 Captain Robert Montanarello, left seat, is first hire of the Veterans Air Flight Crews.
Florida & Cape Cod by Air in 1946
Non-sked. Newark round-trip. Modern airliners. “Snowbirds” to Miami. Summer vacationers to Cape Cod. (NYT classifieds. Newark NJ display ad.)
Stettner logbook verifies 1946 non-sked history.
Research project of 1945 history gets huge boost with face-to-face visit in August 2015 with 92-year old Jack Stettner. His logbook contains the “missing” third DC-3.
“Experimental” DC-4 expedited for UNRRA war relief flights
An “experimental” DC-4. A high-energy group of hardworking ex-servicemen. A Veterans Air Express UNRRA contract for cargo flights behind the iron curtain. And Newark/Miami winter passenger flights. By mid-1946, the all-veterans organization was becoming recognized and starting to thrive.