Ken Beaton: A smile is infinite

Earlier this year I wrote a commentary, “Some guardian angels wore fatigues and boots.”

Yes, our Army nurses wore Army fatigues and boots, but there was another group of young females’ heroes who were never recognized for all their service. They wore stylish uniforms, a girdle with nylons and had a choice of four eye shadow colors. Who were they? Allow me to introduce, Pan Am’s stewardesses. As “wash and wear” gals, their cheekbone was the limit for their hair length.

FYI, in 1927 Juan Trippe, a former naval aviator, became president of Pan Am with a mail route from Key West, Florida to Havana, Cuba. In 1928 passenger service began to the Caribbean islands, Mexico, Central and South America. By 1941 Pan Am began training pilots, helped to construct domestic and foreign airfields, transported troops and equipment.

After World War II Pan Am participated in the Berlin Airlift from 1948-49 and supporting the Korean War from 1950-53. In 1958 Pan Am was the first airline to purchase a four-engine passenger jet, Boeing’s 707. They were the first to purchase Boeing’s 747 jumbo jet in 1966.

From 1965-75 Pan Am was the only airline to fly American servicemen from our West Coast to Vietnam. In 1966 the military decision maker with three stars on each shoulder realized that the grunts “in country” needed some form of relief from being killed at any moment by mines, RPGs and concealed punga stick death pits. Pan Am was awarded the contract to fly troops to a “Rest and Relaxation” location in Hong Kong, Tokyo, Guam, Taipei, Sydney, Bangkok and the most popular, Oahu, Hawaii.

Many of the grunts on a R&R flight were 18 or 19 years old had never been on a flight before flying to Vietnam. The stewardesses treated those frightened kids like first class passengers.

Similar to the troops, the nurses and stewardesses never had a parade or any form of recognition for their service, just another pretty face. The stewardesses were perhaps a year or two older than those boys flying to Vietnam.

When a grunt was on a Pan Am flight to enjoy his R&R destination, all the stewardesses had volunteered for their flight. There was never a problem getting volunteers for a R&R flight. Those stewardesses were given the rank of a second lieutenant while in a war zone. This was “insurance” if for some reason she was captured by Viet Cong or North Vietnamese, she was protected by the Geneva Convention’s international agreement that established military prisoners of war rights.

Who could forget their emotional reaction to their first-time landing in Vietnam unless she was from the “Combat Zone” of a big inner city in the states. This is the place where body amour is required, and you have at least one-armed police helicopter above you. The stewardesses were shocked seeing bomb craters, wreckage burning with planes and helicopters. They wasted no time flying in and out of the airport. Every Pan Am flight into the airport rushed the passengers deplaning, fueling, taking on supplies and passengers. The control tower assigned a runway cleared for takeoff. Within seconds that Pan Am flight had lifted off and was rapidly gaining altitude.

If you were born after 1972, you’re too young to remember “Operation Babylift.” American decision makers in Vietnam wanted to fly as many infants and young Vietnamese children from Saigon to the states as possible. Tragically, the first flight was on a huge C-5A, the USAF cargo plane had just taken off on April 4, 1975, when a cargo door flew open causing the plane to crash killing 60 adults and 78 children. The next day, a 747 flew to San Francisco with 325 infants/children with 60 escorts.

Almost all of the adults had never changed a diaper until they had a several-minute “crash course” before takeoff. Each escort had slightly more than five infants/children. Can you imagine the decibel level with 325 infants/children crying to be fed? Can you imagine the odor in the 747 by the time they landed with at least 5,000 smelly diapers? (Have you viewed the movie, “Three Men and a Baby,” the first time the three guys changed a diaper with solid waste? Memorable!)

How does a person bottle feed more than one baby at a time? You lay the baby on their back, get least a couple of clean diapers, place the bottle nipple in the baby’s mouth and prop the bottle on those clean diapers. Prop four infants and burp the fifth infant until you get a burp then prop a bottle for that baby. Burp the next infant so the infant doesn’t puke on themselves or aspirate. Keep burping each baby on a rotating basis. Now it’s time to change each baby’s disposal diaper, suddenly there’s a horrible smell that singes the adult’s nasal hairs.

On “Operation Babylift” every infant was placed in a rectangular open corrugated container with an opening on each side to pass a seatbelt through to safely secure the infant for their flight. There weren’t enough seats, so those infants were placed under a passenger seat like your carryon luggage.

Each Vietnamese child wore a bracelet on one wrist with their Vietnamese name. The bracelet on their other wrist was the name of the family adopting him or her. Most of the rescue flights were overloaded attempting to rescue as many infants and toddlers as possible. Besides a number of cities in the states, Pan Am flew rescued children to Australia, Canada, Germany and London.

In Vietnam the angels wore either fatigues with Army boots or stylish Pan Am stewardess’ uniform with silver wings above her heart. Remember, it’s not too late to design a medal for the nurses and one for the Pan Am stewardesses. When the medals are awarded, give those gals a parade in our nation’s capital. The gals will either march, be pushed in a wheelchair or ride in convertibles looking like “a million bucks” while waving to people along the parade route. Now that’s the proper way to say, “Thank you for your service!” The nurses and stewardesses remind me of a late ‘50s tune, “Earth Angel.” Earth Angel was either the last dance tune or the next to the last. I was in lust doing a “body press” which we called a “slow dance” in a poorly lit section of the dance floor.

The Vietnam nurses and the Pan Am stewardesses are still Earth Angels in the eyes of every grunt who received a smile from her.