the airplane. I had forgotten to carry extra airspeed for the ice so when I eased the power off to flare, the airplane stalled a few feet above the ground. I just sucked the wheel all the way back and, surprisingly, the airplane made a nice three-point touchdown. But because we had a strong quartering crosswind and the braking action was poor, I had to keep jabbing the left throttle to keep it straight. My foot was shaking badly when I tried to apply the brake for directional control and we just barely got stopped before the runway ended. I could not figure out why my captain did not give me some advice or lend me a hand. I had clearly been way over my head in those conditions and had no idea why he let me make the approach in the first place. It was not normal for a captain to put a newer pilot in a situation like that and I can’t explain what he was thinking.
IN THE SPRING OF 1951, MY PARENTS’ GOOD friend and former Wien Airlines pilot Herm Joslyn came to visit during one of his trips to Fairbanks. He was now a Pan American captain based in Seattle. During the visit, he said Pan American was having trouble finding pilots and asked me if I would be interested in flying for them. I was dumbfounded at the thought of possibly being a Pan Am pilot flying the DC-4. I expressed interest and a short time later I had an interview and received a job offer from Ralph Savory, the chief pilot of the Seattle division. My only concern was that I had two weeks left in my sophomore year and would lose my draft deferment if I quit school. Ralph emphasized that they would be hiring more pilots in that time and that seniority would be very important. He assured me that he could get a deferment for me because Pan American was crucial to the support of the Korean War. It was a tough decision to quit school early but I did, and left for Seattle. It turned out to be the wrong decision but sometimes fate calls the shots for a reason.
After two weeks of ground school in Seattle and two days flight training, I was checked out as co-pilot in the DC-4. I turned twenty-one a few days before I started flying and thought I was the youngest pilot Pan American had ever hired. I later found out that Jack Burke, who was one of my instructors, was actually the youngest, having been hired at age eighteen. The Pan Am stewardesses seemed to be intrigued by the “boy aviator” and I got a lot of attention from them, though I will admit I was very bashful amongst so many beautiful girls.
I flew two trips to Honolulu and two trips to Alaska a month and I was making three hundred dollars a month—one hundred dollars less than I was making at Wien but I supposed that flying a DC-4 to Hawaii was worth it. I flew with some excellent captains at Pan Am, particularly Jack Burke, Jimmy Stewart, Dick Ogg, Dick Hawley, Roy Holm, Frank Fuller, and, of course, Herm Joslyn. Herm was a wonderful mentor to me. Very often when I flew with him, he would give me his leg in addition to mine. He was also captain on my first flight to Honolulu. There were four legs on the Seattle-Portland-Honolulu route and four pilots so we each got a leg in the left seat.
When I first walked up the stairs into the Moana Hotel in Honolulu, I could not believe my eyes. Looking through the lobby, I saw that it had no wall on the ocean side and to me, a young man from Alaska, the palm trees and the beautiful surf made it look like a fantasy land. I could not wait to get to the beach. Not too long after getting settled on a beach towel in the sand, I heard Herm say, “Well, Merrill, I think you have had enough sun for the day.” After arguing about it for a while, I reluctantly went back to the hotel. In a few hours I developed the most painful sunburn that I had ever experienced. Even on the ground I had lessons to learn as a new pilot.
On one of my flights with Herm Joslyn, it was my shift in the left seat, maintaining the heading directed by the navigator as we flew from Honolulu to Portland. As usual two crew were on duty for two hours while the other two slept. During my shift, Captain Joslyn was asleep on his cot. It was a beautiful night with a full moon and the stars were shining brightly. Scattered clouds below reflected the silvery moonlight. I could not believe that I was so fortunate to be where I was. I suddenly realized I had been staring out the window and shook myself from my daydream. Checking the instrument panel, I noticed that the number four auxiliary tank had quite a bit more fuel in it than the other seven tanks. I thought that it would be nice to make the tanks more even so I put all four engines on the one auxiliary tank to get it down to an equal level. It was such a beautiful night and I soon returned to daydreaming. Then, guess what? All four engines quit. The number four auxiliary tank had emptied in no time. I hurriedly pulled the throttles back, put all four engines back on the main tanks, and turned on the respective boost pumps. The engines gradually came back to life as I eased the throttles back to cruise power. About that time, I turned around to see Captain Joslyn standing in the aisle looking through the curtain. He looked around long enough to see that everything had returned to normal and then crawled back into his cot. He did not say a word. Kinda wish he had.
GROWING UP IN FAIRBANKS, FRESH FRUIT AND VEGETABLES had to be canned for winter consumption. My grandparents had a huge garden and greenhouse and canning took place in earnest every fall. We had a limited supply of fresh milk, which we mixed with powdered milk from the dairies. Often we simply drank powdered milk. After being in Seattle I could not get enough of fresh milk, fruit, and vegetables. Whenever I was able to bring fresh food and milk home from Seattle, it was a big hit.
The first time I brought a suitcase full of milk cartons home, I did not pay attention to how I packed them. Shortly after takeoff, the stewardess came up to the cockpit to say that there was a lot of white liquid draining down the aisle from where the crew bags were. I thought, Oh, no. I went back to the crew baggage storage and saw that the milk was flowing out of my suitcase. As we climbed, the reduced pressure in the cabin had caused the milk to flow from the top of the cardboard containers and the other crew bags piled on top did not help. That was very embarrassing and it took me a while to mop it up. Another lesson learned.
AFTER I HAD BEEN WITH PAN AM FOR a while, I had a few days off so I went to Fairbanks and rode around with Fred Goodwin on a tourist flight to Nome and Kotzebue. When we departed Kotzebue for the flight back to Fairbanks, Fred said, “Take the left seat.” It had been about four months since I had flown the DC-3 but I knew Fred would keep me out of trouble. As I got in the left seat he put the jump seat down and sat in it. I could not believe my eyes. I don’t know if he was confident in me or confident that Gerry Bolms, the co-pilot, would be able to correct any deviations. The DC-3 felt good but like a much smaller airplane after flying the DC-4. At this time in my life, I was in hog heaven at Pan Am but circumstances can change very fast, as I was soon to discover.
4
In the Army Now
In September 1951, I got a call from my parents telling me that a draft notice had arrived in the mail. Right away, I went to Ralph Savoy with the news and he said that he would take care of it. He petitioned General Hershey, the head of the Selective Service, but my request for deferment was refused. I then had a choice: I could be drafted into the Army and serve for two years or I could choose to enlist in the Air Force and serve five years. I could not imagine doing anything but flying in the military so I chose the Air Force. I still wonder whether I made a mistake because many of my friends decided to take the draft and they ended up serving in Alaska at Fairbanks, home every night and out in two years.
I received a military leave of absence from Pan American. When I went to work for Pan Am, I had taken a six-month leave of absence from Wien Airlines with the thought that I would get some good experience for a short time and would probably come back to Wien a better pilot. Because I was drafted short of my six months with Pan Am, I received a military leave of absence from Wien Airlines as well as Pan Am. It was comforting to know that when I was released from the Air Force, I could take my pick of which airline to return to and keep my original hiring date.
I enlisted in the Air Force at Ladd Field along with Dave Vincent, a friend from Fairbanks. I immediately applied for pilot training in the cadet program but found out that because I had not completed my sophomore year of college, I did not meet the requirements. I actually did have two years of college because of the extra quarter I had at the University of Washington, but because I did not get any credit for the semester I almost completed at the
