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. …
Stettner logbook verifies 1946 non-sked history.
Research project of 1945 history gets huge boost with face-to-face visit in August 2015 with…
Florida ideal secondary maintenance location
Growing business. 2nd ops base. WWII Hendricks Field to be deactivated. Archives tell the story.
“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…
1946 Manifests of UNRRA Crews
One bewildering, unfamiliar U. S. Immigrations Crew Manifest surfaced in Ancestry. There were others.
M. Frome. 1946 Navigator. Washington Post writer.
What an exquisite honor to introduce our newest Veterans family member. Our Veterans Air…
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.
1946 film of UNRRA Prague crew arrival
A pride hard to verbalize shudders through me every time I see this film footage…
2nd Prague Crew departs for home. 2 May 1946 UNRRA
UNRRA war-relief. DC-4 flights to Prague three times and Warsaw twice with poultry…
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…
15 May 1946. Bill of Sale for DC-3, N86583
DC-3 War Assets Admin. Bill of Sale. $20,000 Note and Aircraft Chattel Mortgage.
2nd-ever civilian flight to Warsaw. 20 May 1946.
By the time these eggs arrive in Warsaw, chicks from the first May delivery will…
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…