The Long Way Home (Revised Ed)

by Ed Dover

  NC18602 anchored in Bowery Bay upon completion of the historic flight, January 6, 1942.

  POSTSCRIPT

  The Crew

  Captain Robert Ford

  Following his arrival at LaGuardia and after the debriefing sessions, Bob Ford lost no time in taking a commercial flight back to San Francisco for a reunion with his wife, Betty. Following a welcome-home party with many of his friends, he returned to the routine of flight assignments across the Pacific.

  Due to ill health, Bob resigned from Pan American in the summer of 1952. He and his wife moved from their small ranch in Martinez, California to a much larger ranch in the Mother Lode country north of Sacramento, California, where they raised cattle. Ranching was very successful in restoring his health but not at all profitable financially. With some reluctance he went back to flying in the mid-1950s.

  Ford became a co-pilot in DC-4 freighters for Overseas National Airlines, flying between Oakland, California and Japan. He later became chief pilot, production flight test, for Lockheed Aircraft Service. There he and his crews test-flew Lockheed EC-121 and WV-3 radar picket planes after overhaul and before service acceptance by the Air Force or Navy. He later abandoned active flying to become Operations Engineer for the Flying Tiger Line, operating out of Burbank, California. He worked for them for several years and later served as a consultant for a few airline startup operations.

  Ford returned to his ranch in the mid-1970s and spent the rest of his life ranching. He died there in 1994 at the age of 88.

  1st Officer John Henry Mack

  John Mack returned to regular flight duties with Pan Am. In the course of a 32 year career he became a Captain and flew the Pan Am routes throughout the world. Following the end of the flying boat era he flew DC-3s, Lockheed Constellations, Douglas DC-4s and DC7s, and Boeing 707s. He was captain of the first inaugural flight from the United States to London. He retired in 1972 and settled in Vacaville, California but continued to travel. One of his favorite places was Auckland, New Zealand, where he enjoyed fishing for marlin. He died in September, 1988.

  Second Officer Roderick Norman Brown

  According to excerpts from his flight logs, copies of which were provided to me by Mr. J. L. Johnson of Groton, CT, apparently, following the flight, Rod Brown was transferred to the Atlantic Division. He flew B314s on the routes out of New York to Miami, Port-of-Spain, Belem and Natal in Brazil, and on to Fisherman’s Lake and Lagos in Africa. According to entries in his flight log, in May, 1942 he began trans-Atlantic flights between New York and Foynes, Ireland in the Vought-S44A aircraft. This would indicate that he left Pan American and went to work for American Export Airlines. Log entries as late as March, 1943 indicate that he remained with American Export at least through that date. I have been unable to obtain any other information regarding his employment or whereabouts after that date other than that he died in 1972.

  Fourth Officer John Delmer Steers

  Upon arriving at LaGuardia, John Steers discovered that Pan American was transferring him to New York. He called his wife, Mary, who was still living in their new home in Palo Alto, California, and told her that she and their new son were going to have to move East. He remained there for a year and was then assigned to Miami. After five years, he was able to obtain a transfer to the Pacific Division. John and Mary returned to Palo Alto, and eventually settled in Los Altos Hills, California. He retired from Pan American in 1973. An avid aviation enthusiast, John owned and enjoyed light aircraft, and built his own Stits Playboy airplane. He also spent a good deal of time building race cars which featured innovative engineering designs, and many boats; especially a 50-foot fishing boat built with the assistance of two other Pan Am pilots. John died on December 30, 1994.

  1st Flight Engineer Homans K. “Swede” Rothe

  Swede returned to flight duty with the Pacific Division. Following his return to California he and his family made their home in the Delta country around Sacramento. He retired from Pan American in 1963. For several years they lived in Burney, California. He loved to go sailing, and for many years this was one of his major activities. Later they moved to Redding, California, where he died in 1992.

  2nd Engineer John B. Parrish

  “Jocko” Parrish continued flying for Pan Am and eventually became a Check Flight Engineer on the Boeing 707 based in San Francisco. In January, 1970 he checked out in the Boeing 747. Later that year he retired due to health problems and died in late 1970. This information is courtesy of former Pan Am Flight Engineers Pete Ryden and Tom Kewin and retired Pan Am 747 Captain Bobby George.

  Chief Flight Radio Officer Jack Poindexter

  Jack returned to his duties as Chief Flight Radio officer for the Pacific Division. He died sometime in the 1950s from cancer.

  First Flight Radio Officer Oscar Hendrickson

  Of all the crew members, Oscar Hendrickson had one of the more varied and colorful careers following the flight. Hendrickson was also transferred to the Atlantic Division. Six months later his first daughter, Barbara was born in New York City in 1942. After the war, he was reassigned to the Pacific Division on the “Orient Route”. His second daughter, Katherine, was born in San Francisco in 1945. During 1946-47 Hendrickson was assigned to the Pan Am base at Midway Island as the resident radio engineer. He left Pan Am in 1953 and worked as a radio engineer for KSEN Radio in Shelby, Montana, and for KMON Radio in Great Falls.

  During this period he also pursued his lifelong dream of becoming an attorney. He enrolled in the LaSalle Law Correspondence Course and studied for two years during his late night shifts at the KMON transmitter. In 1956, he sat for and passed the Montana Bar.

  After a couple of years of private practice he ran and was elected to two terms as County Attorney for Blaine County from 1962 through 1970. During this time he prosecuted some local outlaws for cattle rustling. According to his daughter, Barbara, in the course of that investigation he was involved in some hair-raising chases on horseback that involved jumping across an irrigation ditch. The culmination of that chase and trial resulted in enough material that could have been used in an old-fashioned cowboy movie. Oscar was involved in his local community agendas for his entire tenure.

  He was also a bit of a “cowboy”. He had a horse and a truck. It was a Great Northern Railway truck with a flat bed that was 3 feet off the ground. All Oscar had to say was “GET IN THE TRUCK SKIDDO!!” and the horse would leap three feet straight into the air - right up onto the flatbed. For many years he participated in the local parades exhibiting her unusual talent.

  Oscar Hendrickson died on September 25, 1975, age 58. His wife, Grace, lived on to the age of 86. Today, his daughter Barbara Beeby lives in Helena Montana, and his daughter Katherine “Kitty” Tilleman lives with her husband in Chinook, Montana.

  Radio Operator Eugene Leach

  A few days after reaching LaGuardia, Eugene Leach was assigned as radio operator in charge of the Pan American radio station at Roberts Port, Liberia, on the west coast of Africa. He remained at this post for a year and a half. He was then transferred to the Pacific Division and assigned as operator in charge of the Pan American radio station at Pearl City, Hawaii. He held that post for one year. Then he was assigned to flight duty based out of San Francisco. In 1946 Eugene resigned from Pan American to go to work for his father in a Ford dealership in East Oakland, California. He held this job until 1959, then moved to San Ramon, California, where he opened an A & W Root Beer franchise. He ran this business until he retired in 1980. Eugene Leach died at his home in San Ramon in April, 2000.

  Flight Steward Barney Sawicki Assistant Flight Steward Verne C. Edwards

  Both are deceased, but I have no other information as to their activities or whereabouts after the flight.

  3rd Officer James G. Henricksen

  I have been unable to locate any information regarding the activities or whereabouts of Jim Henricksen after the flight.

  The Mechanics

  Verne White, Bud Washer, and Ralph Hitchc
ock were eventually picked up from their foreign assignments and returned to the United States. I do not have information as to their specific work assignments after returning home. Verne White died in April, 2001 and Ralph Hitchcock died on October 13, 2006.

  The Aircraft

  After a thorough inspection by Pan American mechanics, NC18602 was assigned to service with the Atlantic Division. It remained there until May, 1943 when it was returned to the Pacific Division. It continued in service through the final months of the Naval Air Transport contract and, for a short time after the war, under the renewed civilian operation until it was rendered obsolete by the coming of the faster, more efficient land planes of the post-war period. Its final fate is unknown; but, most likely, as with most of Pan Am’s flying boats, it was declared surplus by the War Assets Administration and sold for scrap.

  A full-scale model of a Boeing B314 flying boat is on display at the Foynes Flying Boat Museum at Foynes, Ireland. For more information about this model and the museum go to www.flyingboatmuseum.com. Photo by Ed Dover

  Ed Dover seated at his old radio operator station on flight deck of the B314 model at Foynes, 2007. Photo by Ed Dover

  APPENDIX

  THE DELAY IN KHARTOUM

  Shortly before we went to press with the original manuscript, Mr. Douglas Miller of Pelican Films, provided a copy of a hand-written letter which he had found in a collection of papers loaned to him by Betty Ford. The letter, dated 29 December 1941, and mailed at Cairo, was on Pan American Airways System letterhead and signed by a “Jim Smith.” It requested Captain Ford to wait at Khartoum for priority passengers and cargo. Smith must have been a Pan American employee, but his official position is not indicated. The text of that letter follows:

  Cairo

  Dec 29th

  11 pm

  Dear Bob,

  The news of your arrival in Khartoum has just reached here and I have been asked by General Adler, Commanding U.S. Military Mission in Near East to have you wait in Khartoum until Wednesday night or Thursday morning to take a load of official mail & passengers to the U.S. I do not know what your orders are, from whom they came or if you would have space from Khartoum to U.S. The situation here is that Cairo has been cut off so far as communications are concerned from the U.S. and you are the best chance of getting important military information to Washington that will probably come up for some time.

  A radio has already been sent you from Middle East Command R.A.F. about this or at least about your plans for return to U.S. You may not receive this as the radio is damn slow due to coding. If you do not have it before this, please send us by urgent radio – ask AOC Khartoum to send this “signal” through “Headquarters Middle East to General Adler.” Rammer will tell you how to handle it – the following information:

  1) How many pounds of additional load could you take to U.S.?

  2) What is last day on which you can leave Khartoum (This and next question is only important if you have space available.)

  3) If you must leave Khart. (sic) at once is your itinerary such that passengers & mail leaving here Wednesday could overtake you at Lagos – i.e., cargo would leave here Wed, leave Khartoum Thursday, leave Maiduguri Friday and be at Lagos Friday night.

  In conclusion General Adler considers it very important that you wait at Khart or Lagos if you have any space available and I feel you should do it unless you have orders to proceed at once from authority at least equal to General Adler. We are now making arrangements for special plane to leave here Wednesday so you may be assured that it will arrive Khart Wednesday night.

  In haste,

  Good luck & Regards

  Jim Smith

  I do not know if Bob Ford ever received this letter. It is evident from the information in John Steers’ log and from my interviews with Captain Ford that they considered the delay at Khartoum the result of bureaucratic fumbling rather than a priority issue involving important war information. Neither of them make any mention of a letter from Cairo. In any case, they were not planning on stopping at Lagos. Furthermore, the amount of fuel they would have to carry, plus the weight of the remaining spare engine parts still on board, would have put the ship so far over gross weight that it would have been impractical to take on any additional cargo or passengers between Leopoldville and Natal. I can only assume, at this late date, that Ford did transport the one woman passenger from Khartoum to Leopoldville, but from there on they were unable to comply fully with the request from Cairo.

  BIBLIOGRAPHY AND SOURCE MATERIALS

  Bibliography

  Daley, Robert, An American Saga, Random House, New York, 1980, pp. 323-329.

  Cohen, Stan, Wings to the Orient, Pan American Clipper Planes 1935 to 1945, Pictorial Histories Publishing Company, Missoula, Montana, 1985.

  Gandt, Robert L., China Clipper, The Age of the Great Flying Boats, Naval institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland, 1991.

  Lester, Valerie, Fasten Your Seat Belts!, Paladwr Press, McLean, Virginia, 1995, pp. 20-27.

  Pan American Airways, New Horizons, in-house company magazine, January 1942, pp. 11-13, somewhat censored article describing the flight of NC18602.

  Albert S. J. Tucker, Jr. and Matthew W. Paxton IV with Eugene Dunning, Pacific Clipper – The Untold Story, The News-Gazette Print Shop, 109 S. Jefferson Street, Lexington, Virginia, 2001

  Prange, Gordon W., At Dawn We Slept – The Untold Story of Pearl Harbor, McGraw-Hill Books, New York, 1981, p. 387

  Beall, Wellwood E., Engineer-in-charge – Boeing Aircraft Company, Design Aspects of the Boeing Trans-Atlantic Clipper, a technical paper presented to the Air Transport Meeting of the Institute of Aeronautical Sciences at Chicago, November 18 and 19, 1938. (Photo-copy of this paper provided by Boeing Aircraft Company).

  Boeing Aircraft Company, Boeing Model 314 Transoceanic Clipper, a brochure describing the technical and operational features of the B314. (Photo-copy of this brochure provided by Boeing Aircraft Company).

  New York Times, January 7 1942, article, Pacific Clipper, Racing War, Circles Globe, Lands Here, by Byron Darton. Also a somewhat censored article describing the flight of NC18602.

  Vacaville Reporter, VISTA Magazine, January, 1972, pp. 11-13, Thirty-Two Years in the Wild Blue: The Global Odyssey of a Pilot, by Jim Jones.

  Personal Sources

  My first hand experience was flying aboard Pan American Clippers between 1942 and 1948 as a flight radio officer. This included several flights on NC18602 between San Francisco and Honolulu. I was a ground station operator at the Pearl City base and at Noumea, New Caledonia, during the period 1943-1944.

  In January, 1992 I visited Captain Ford at his ranch in Northern California and spent two days as his guest, obtaining several hours of taped interviews. He gave me a copy of the flight log kept by Fourth Officer John D. Steers.

  In August, 1993 I visited Eugene Leach, the radio operator who came on board NC18602 at Noumea. He gave me additional photo-copies of John Steer’s flight log. During this same trip I re-visited Captain Ford and stayed overnight as his guest. During that time we reviewed the information obtained from the first interview. In October 1997 I had several telephone conversations with Eugene Leach at which time he was able to clarify certain points in the narrative.

  During August 1996 and most recently in July, 2009 I corresponded with J. L. Johnson, Jr. of Groton, Connecticut. Mr. Johnson has researched the history of Pan American Airways flights for a number of years. He provided me with a copy of a report he received regarding the naming of Clipper aircraft, and copies of articles reporting on Captain Ford’s flight from the February 1942 issue of The Bee Hive, the in-house company magazine of United Aircraft Corporation. In July, 2009 he sent me copies of pages from 2nd Flight Officer Rod Brown’s flight log. Brown’s entries confirm the use of two B314s during the flight.

  Details of some of the biographical sketches included in the Postscript were obtained from: Betty Ford, wife of Captain Robert Ford; Mary Steers, wife of Fourth Officer John St
eers; Marian Rothe, wife of First Engineering Officer Swede Rothe; Barbara Beery and Katherine “Kitty” Tilleman, daughters of Flight Radio Officer Oscar Hendrickson; and Eugene Leach, the extra radio operator taken on board at Noumea.

  During the course of writing this story, wherever I found a discrepancy between bibliography sources and my personal sources, I chose to use the information from my personal sources; particularly certain details of the flight as related to me directly by Captain Ford.

  Ed Dover and wife Nancy at the Pan Am Clipper docking site at Pearl City in 2006. The memorial plaque was placed there on November 22, 1985 by employees of Pan American celebrating the 50th anniversary of Trans-Pacific flight. Photo by Ed Dover

  * * *

  [1] Prange, Gordon W., At Dawn We Slept – The Untold Story of Pearl Harbor, McGraw-Hill Books, New York, 1981, p. 387