John was not just a war hero fighter pilot and twenty year veteran flying Airliners all over the Americas, he was also a very good Salesman. When we first met we talked about the various jobs we had held and jobs we wished we had held, l thought of the cold call l had made on the radio station manager in Palmdale Ca. and actually got hired. lt was a Friday and l agreed to start (on AIR!!!) the following Monday. Later that evening l found out that thel FBI was only about a day or two behind me (l was a fugitive then, having skipped from a sentence of two years probation in the state of Maryland). That night, l stole a car in San Gabrial, Ca. and drove it to my Dad's place on Gobbler's Knob, never to again set foot in Palmdale again.
John remembered all of that. When he was setting up the details of Alpha Aviation he made a cold call to the manager of KSKO, a small AM station in Santa Clara, the closest such station to the A.A. strip. The outcome was that A.A. would provide KSKO with ninety minutes of traffic condition reports from 7AM to 8:30AM, five days a week. John would fly the plane to "the condition" and l would report it to our audience. Not quite the same as sitting in a control booth at the radio station, spinning records and reading news for four hours a day, but close. KSKO was owned by Hart Bankroft, popular host of the very popular TV game show "You Bet Your All". ln less than an hour, John sold Hart our whole package. He would fly the plane and choose our covered areas, l would report what l saw to our listeners. AND WE BOTH GOT PAID!! John didn't tell me about this part of my job at A.A.
until my first day there. lt was kinda like a signing bonus for me and l just loved talking to the commuters over the radio. KSKO listeners could call us at our airport offices and be connected via radio-telefone to those of us in the plane. This was about twenty years before the advent of cell phones so no one was able to call us from their car but there were public
phones (indoors and out) everywhere. Which commuters used to report road conditions and weather. We averaged about twenty calls per ninety-minute morning. We often exceeded our ninety-minute schedule when accidents or other causes of changed conditions would
arise and extra monitoring was needed.
lt was just like John to want my job to be special to me and l was very appreciative of his
efforts on my behalf. YOW!!! l was flying almost every day and talking on the radio five mornings a week and being quite well paid, to boot.
While we did sell flying lessons one at a time, as students could afford them, but our primary
focus was the "Garenteed six months private pilot license" package. The package price was
$600. (ln 1966 and 1967) l received $100 per pkg sold (l did all of the package sales,there.
And my flying lessons, up to private pilot, were all free. After that,any plane usage or other services l used would be billed at 50% of retail.
Once John received his diagnosis his condition plummeted. Two months in; he perished.
John's wife and many of his friends arranged for a memorial fly-over at the Alpha Aviation
Strip.There were many fly-overs and even more who landed and joined the others who had stories to tell of John's amazing history. At one point, l counted 88 planes parked everywhere but on our runways and taxiways.
About a week was required to shut down A.A. The larger part of that was returning the planes to the leasing company in Wichita and the office furniture to the rental company,in
Mountain View.
Looking back as l left for the last time, l realized that i'd never find myself in a job that l would like as much as the one l was leaving. l was surely going to miss it and then some.
Especially the "slip". Not an article of foundation "garmentry" the slip is a manuver that
allowa a landing on a too-short landing strip with complete safety. lt lets your plane behave like a parachute and it's very easy to deploy; Slow to landing speed as you pass over the
runway's threshold. Push the stick to it's forward limit. Then, holding it forward move it all the way to the left. Then move the rudder all the way to the right. When you are within a few feet of the runway's surface, return the controls to their center position, throttle down and land.
l came to like the slip so much that l almost always slipped my landings at the A.A. strip.
A few days later, l was parusing the Mercury/News want ads for some kind of Sales Management position that would fit my experience.l did find one such position. l wrote down the name and number and reached for the phone. which ranf as l picked it up. lt was not Thom Kessler. Not Dolph Malterer ,or Red Hankins. lt was Ray Davilla! Of MPT. lt turned
out that he had been a drive-time listener to KSKO for years and had heard every oneof our
morning traffic shows and of course, knew l was unemployed again. He had called, he said, to inquire about my plans. "Right now my plan is to get down on my knees and beg you to take me back" l said. He laughed and said,"Well, l did call to see if you have any interest in returning".
Ray, like John, had been a WWII flying hero. Ray, though was not a pilot, but a waist gunner on a B-25 attack bomber.The day that John stopped by MPT to tell me he was almost ready to open A.A. he and Ray had quite a talk after l introduced them both as my favorite War Heros. l wasn't able to hang with them then, having an early morning appointment with client. Later, they both told me that they both enjoyed their meeting and
intended to get together again. They didn't manage to do that before it was too late. l have
had the good fortune to know more than my share of remarkable folks. l don't mean to glorify war, by glorifying a couple of exemplary men who, like so many others put their own lives on hold while they stopped the Axis powers and saved the free world. My gripe ois that the end of WWII ushered in perpetual war that has continued (somewhere) to this day.
The silver lining is that young people, in droves, are becoming anti-war activists,generation
after generation, all over the world.
l had intended to stop by the MPT offices in the next week or so (to seem in less desperation) l sure didn't expect Ray to call me, but then, l didn;'t know that he was
a KSKO listener.
That was in the middle of the week. Ray said l could start Monday. l was very interested to know how things might have changed in my absense. Would l be assigned to a different territory? Maybe a different car? There was one new person added to the front counter
in my absense.,Bill Sedgwick. He had been hired to replace Bob North as Counter Mgr.
when Bob retired. l was told that Ray and Dave made calls in my old territory to cover
some of our most valued clients., do you get the idea they expected me to return? soon?
They didn't re-assign my car, the maroon Galaxy 500, but used it to make calls in the territory. My job at AA was so brief that my car needed sevice only once in my absense.
My second week back, l worked a day with Mike Warren. As usual, he offered me cannabis.
Usually l would say "Thanks, but no thanks" On that day,though (June 9, 1967) l said "Thank
You, l believe l will.
As l write this it is July 30,2017. Just about six weeks since l have celebrated my 50th
anniversary of smoking medicinal-cannabis.(June 9,1967 was the first day). That's a story
in itself and you can read about it in an older blog titled "Visited by Rastas"
l celebrate that date because adding cannabis to my personal medicine cabinet was the single best thing l ever did to benefit my health. l have a condition that requires six
prescriptions to keep my heart working properly. Those medicines are so mean that they are almost unbrerable, but a little cannabis added to the mix and the side effects of the prescriptions just vanish. Now, l feel great all of the time. l highly recommend the stuff.
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