This section “gathers” every Post on the website in “date order.”
Unfolding history surfaces first. Research efforts come next. (Sort of.) It’s an effort to create a coherent story for you by a chronological gathering of Puzzle Pieces. (Sort of.)
Saunie Gravely weds Lydia Amadio
I am tickled to show you the Saunie Gravely weds Lydia Amadio announcement & photo.
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….
1945 express delivery of perishable produce
Saunie considers C-60 Lockheed Lodestar. That will change. But Newark Evening News reporter gives extensive…
Gordon E Bellman. Board Member. Operations Mgr.
Gordon E Bellman, a 6-year WWII vet of both RAF and AAF, Army Air Forces,…
Gordon E Bellman. Core Founder. In full swing.
Named to Board, Gordon E. Bellman got into full swing with Founder Saunie Gravely to…
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.
Glider on the horizon
A scheduled cargo flight of ice-packed turkeys in a DC-3-towed-glider. A historic flight?
Florida & Cape Cod by Air in 1946
Non-sked. Newark round-trip. Modern airliners. “Snowbirds” to Miami. Summer vacationers to Cape Cod. …
Florida ideal secondary maintenance location
Growing business. 2nd ops base. WWII Hendricks Field to be deactivated. Archives tell the story.
Manifests
One bewildering, unfamiliar U. S. Immigrations Crew Manifest surfaced in Ancestry. There were others.
1st Prague crew returns. 23 April 1946. UNRRA
1946 press clipping with prized photo. 2015 face-to-face details from Martz and Cowart! Come see.
2nd Crew departs Prague 2 May 1946 UNRRA
UNRRA war-relief. DC-4 trips. 3 to Prague, 2 to Warsaw with hatchery eggs.
Russia demands 1946 Warsaw overflight permit
First DC-4 in the fleet makes first over-flight of Russian occupied territory enroute to Warsaw,…
1st Warsaw UNRRA war relief flight makes history
Dirty weather, dangerous runway conditions and Russian overflight permission define Jakeman and Stettner’s UNRRA flight…
“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…
2nd civilian UNRRA Warsaw flight takes off 20 May 1946
By the time these eggs arrive, chicks from the first May delivery will have hatched.
C-54 converted to DC-4 at Sebring FL ops base
Company techs convert an Army C-54 to second cargo DC-4 in just 13 days. But…
Growing a 1946 non-sked airline
Cargo Ton-Miles and Passenger Miles adding up CARGO. December 3rd to 21st (1945). Here we…
Carole Landis christens non-sked DC-4. July1946
Hollywood star Carole Landis christened Veterans Air Line DC-4 on July 24, 1946. The aircraft…
1948 Legal Action drops the “Final Curtain.”
Court decision No. 6582a naming lawyers for petitioner Matson Nav Co, trustee for Veterans’ Air Express…
The whole story. Air line ticket-selling romance.
Great fun recently meeting sons of Richard Broughton…Craig and his wife Carol in Florida and…