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Show WES ORDGRE BR R 23 2 WES: Well, I did at first, but they were getting quite a few pilots back out of the service then and a lot of them had flown transports at the time, which was the same thing the air carriers were using, so they offered to take me on as a mechanic, seeing I'd been a mechanic. But, I didn't want that. So, since then, air traffic control, I'm glad I went into that because I worked with the airplanes, not on them but with them. The SR-71 Blackbird and like that, we used to work with that, flying, which we couldn't say anything at the time about them. But we'd see them and we knew what they were. But the aircraft that made the speed run over the Atlantic from New York to London, which still holds the record and that was back in the early 70's that they made the run, I happened to be on watch that night and worked him across the Salt Lake area because he took off at Edwards Air Force Base in California and refueled over Malad, Idaho. A tanker met him there and refueled him. Then he flew to New York; they refueled him there. Then from New York he made the speed run to London. It just so happened that one week later I was working on the mid-watch and he was coming back, same pilot with the plane, and as he came over I asked him if he had broken the record. He said, yeah, he had the speed record, and it still stands. Got a chance to work several aircraft during the years, a lot of them were famous people who owned their own aircraft: Arnold Palmer had his own; he used to fly across. I can't think of his name-it must be Alzheimer's (laughs). BEC: Well, it's been a few years. WES: Yeah, the one that died not too long ago, he was quite a famous singer. Anyhow, he used to have his own airplane come across. I recognized him, or his plane number, and asked him to sing us a few bars. So he did, on the radio (laughs). BEC: He did? That's funny (laughs). 20 |
