PAGE TWO
THE PIEDMONITOR
NOVEMBER-DECEMBER, 1966
THEPiEomonim
Piedmont Aviation, Inc.
Smith Reynolds Airport
Winston-Salem, N. C.
Betsy Winstead, Editor
aoiro/Pj
An Airport's Inhabitants
Like a scientist’s laboratory, an airport functions by a
twenty-four hour clock.
At 1800 hours, when a city’s officies and factories have
emptied their parking lots and freeways are filled with a
continuous chain of colored metal that honks and blinks its
way onto side streets and out to rural roads that lead to home,
an airport’s day is only three quarters lived.
Inside the port of airliners stops passengers stand and sit
and pace and wait. Some buy cigarettes; some buy candy; for
seven quarters some buy $75,000 worth of life insurance.
Two young girls wearing little heeled shoes and wrinkled
stockings listen to their well-dressed mother. “If Daddy isn’t
there just sit down and wait. Don’t talk to strangers. He’ll be
there in a minute ..
A colorfully dressed car rental girl makes final arrange
ments for a grey suited banker to pick up a black sedan upon
his arrival in a far away city.
An outwardly calm co-pilot strolls through the terminal’s
lobby. He glances waitingly around with eyes not quite so
relaxed as his gait.
A lanky shoe shine boy leans lazily against a marble
wall. His business is better at 0800. It fluctuates and flourishes
according to the outside world’s eight-hour day. Airport em
ployees work behind counters. He gets few calls from them for
spit shined shoes.
An old gentleman looks up from his Wall Street Journal
to watch a stewardess walk into the restaurant across the way.
As his eyes linger on the closed door the ever pleasant odor
of hot coffee reaches his nostrils, seemingly reminding him to
turn back to his newspaper.
Inside the Greek proprietor’s haven for hurried travelers
the stewardess orders a thick milk shake as she joins her crew
at a back corner table. Two tables away a large woman turns
back to her cottage cheese salad. Her next bite doesn’t seem
to taste as good.
At the apex’ of the airport building is the green glass
tower. Above the passengers and the planes the government’s
airport workers look out and over, to guide and to direct, as
government should.
Behind a frosted glass door beneath the tower but above
the lobby is Space Control.
Down this upstairs hall, past a powder room that doesn’t
require dimes like the one in the lobby below it, is a door
titled Flight Control. There’s no carpet on the floor and it
looks and sounds like a newspaper’s wire room. It is a wire
service of coded weather picture maps. There are maps for
clouds and maps for winds and maps for temperature changes.
The map machines run continually and the bulletin board
walls are changed constantly.
Voices float into this room from bodies that are not there.
The voices belong to pilots transmitting their questions and
reports from miles away. The answers and acknowledgments
are radioed back. All planes report in at no less than twenty
minute intervals. Otherwise is something flight controllers
don’t like to think about. But they all always know.
A twenty-four hour clock unlike any a Swiss timemaker
could imagine covers one wall. It operates horizonally. Reading
from left to right red numbers of aircraft are followed by
black numbers of flights through a schedule of originating
cities and departure times to locales of destinations and pro
posed arrival points on the clock.
Crews check in, file flight plans and catch up on news
from their friends at other bases, points those downstairs
passengers are thinking of as far away places. Theirs is the
proverbial small world. Southern suppers and northern break
fasts is a part of it.
Downstairs beyond the doors behind the counters ramp
agents wrap up and head out to the plane. They load the
luggage and the cargo and the mail. At the passenger service
counter the ticket agent presses his intercom button. “This is
the first call for Flight 788. Will all passengers ticketed on this
flight please report to Gate Six immediately.”
Nowhere and night begin begin beyond Gate Six. Forty
people with as many thoughts head for the folding stair steps.
A smiling young woman extensd a gloved hand to take those
forty tickets. The names of distant destinations and an ir
regular sequence of numbers are blown across the airport’s
ramp by the ever present wind.
Statistically those forty folks have a better chance of
getting where that plane is going that they had when they left
home to drive to the airport. But most of them never think
that thought.
The silver steps are locked in place. The silver tube is
streamlined as its designer intended. The airport’s temporary
inhabitants have departed leaving sandy ash trays filled with
half smoked cigarettes.
Before the last stub of tobacco has burned itself out the
airport’s janitor has ambled up to sift and clean the sand.
Congrats
IS YEARS
D. W. McGuire—Inspector, RCA
A. M. Ward—Station Mgr., BLF
L. C. Hundlev—Sr. Radio Tech., CVG
W. F. King—Jr. Meeh., INT
R. L. Jackson—Chief Agent, PAT
H. B. Dull—Stock Clerk, INT
G. E. Malcomb—Captain, TYS
R. T. Powell—S.tation Mgr., ATL
10 YEABS
E. J. Tompkins—Sr. Mech., SDF
R. S. Jackson—Cleaner, INT
E. C. Kearney—Agent. GSB
J. K. Pfaff—Jr. Mech., INT
Leamon Wilcox, Jr.—Agent, LEX
5 TEARS
L. G. Brooks—Agent, ISO
M. F. Everidge—Jr. Mech., INT
R. D. Sarrer-Sr. Mech., ORE
R. E. Cashatt—Lead Agent, GSO
J. E. Dail—^Agent. ORE
L. S. Simmons—Mech. Spec., INT
J. M. Bruce—Agent, CLT
M. B. Shropshii'e—Jr. Spec., INT
Jo.vce Reinhardt—Agent, ORE
D. K. Hicks—Jr. Sotck Clerk, INT
J. B. Hurt, Jr.—Cleaner, ROA
J. E. Raiford—Cleaner, INT
C. T. Redmon—Sr. Mech., INT
Around The
System
JfEW EMPrOTEES
M. R. Anderson—Key Punch Operator,
Jr., INT-A
J. A. Bennett—Stewardess, ATL
H. J, Biggers—F/O Trainee, INT
M. N. Blocker—P/0 Trainee, INT
D. M. Bradley—E/O Trainee. INT
P. C. Briggs—F/O Trainee, INT
E. M. Burgess—Stewardess, INT
G. M. Cahill, Jr.—F/O Trainee, INT
n. H. Cheatham—Agent-Opers., RIC
n. A. Clabough—E/O Trainee. INT
B. A. Coon(^Agent-Res., INT-SC
J. S. Cornatzer-Jr. Stock Clerk, INT
*'^INT Clerk, Jr.,
O. C, Pavis—Cleaner, ROA
L. D, Dudley, Jr.-E/O Traine,e INT
L. S. Edwards—E/O Trainee, INT
L, M. Edwards—P/O Trainee, INT
D. R, Evans—Cleaner, INT
P. A. Foster—Draftsman, INT
D. P. Polmar—P/O Trainee, INT
R. Groover, Jr.—Agent-Opers., ATL
C. H. Hall, Jr.-Jr. Mech,, INT
R. A. Hardesty—Aircraft Salesman,
ORE
R. G. Hart—Agent-Opers., PHF
R-^^awkins—Secretary-Stenographer.
R. S. Holder—Jr. Spec., INT
C. W. Hooker—Sr. Draftsman, INT
P. G. King—Jr. Stock Clerk, INT
S. J. Knight—Stewardess, ATL
W. E. Knight—Jr. Specialist, INT
R. H. Law,ton—Jr. Spec,, INT
C, A. McKenzie—Agent-Res., CVG
■T. P. Messick—F/O Trainee. INT
J. D. Moore—General Clerk, Jr., INT
B. W. Morris—Agent-Opers., RDU
B. L. Nichols—Agent-Opers., DCA
J. P. Odnm—E/O Trainee, INT
C. P. Reece—Jr. Spec., INT
N. L. Robinson—Stewardess, ATL
B. P. Sacra—Agent-Opers., CHO
E. V. Scales—Jr. Spec., INT
K. D. Seymour—E/O Trainee, INT
D. E. Shea—Stewardess, ROA
G. P. Smith—Lineman, ORF-PB
W, H. Smith—Cleaner, INT
P. A. Snyder—Agent-Res., DCA
L, M. Spach—Jr. Mech., INT
M. F. Spindle—Agent-'Opers., DCA
I. V. Swicegood—Jr. Spec,, INT
J. D, Thomas—Agent-Res., RIC
J. C. Tornow—Stewardess. ILM
R. Townsend—Cleaner, INT
M. T. Wall—General Clerk, Jr., INT-A
B. G, Webb—Jr. Spec., INT
E. G. Wood—P/O Trainee. INT
R. Wright—Cleaner, ATL
D. L. Eroy—Jr. Spec., INT
.1. B. Love—Jr. Stenographer, INT
D. M. Inman—Commnnicationist, ROA
R. J. Dodd, Janitor, INT
P. E, Ingram—Apprentice Radio Tech.,
INT-M
J. R. Lane—Part Time Cleaner. TYS
C. L. Moorefield-Jr. Spec., INT
G. A. Motsinger—Utility Serviceman,
INT
C. E. Murphy—Jr. Spec., INT
O. L. Shepherd—Apprentice Cabinet
Shop, INT
R. D. Strickland—Utility Serviceman,
INT
G. D. Terry—Aircraft Sales. ORP
E. O. Vogler—General Clerk, Jr„ INT
V. C. Walker—Jr. Spec., INT
D. L. Walker—Jr. Stock Clerk, INT
W. S. Weaver—Cost Accounting Clerk,
INT-A
,T. F. Widener—Cleaner, ROA
J. C. Wilson—Jr. S,tenographer, INT
N. R. Adams—Agent-Opers., BLP
J. W. Athan, Jr,—Act./Supervisor, INT
D. B. Brannan—Jr. Mech., DCA
Jessie Broomhead—Cleaner. ATL
B .W. Cassell—Jr. Radio Tech., ROA
R. L. Forsyth—Mech., DCA
C. B. Gambill—Opers. Engineer, INT
L. M. Gould—Industrial Engineer, INT
J. L. Hauser—Jr. Clerk, INT
B. J. Marion—F/O Trainee, INT
James Reed—Cleaner, ATL
M. D. Sugg, Jr.—Print Shop Helper,
INT
Ij. H. Wilmoth—Jr. Stenographer, INT
B, G. Griffin—Helper, INT
L. J. Lanier—Jr. Stock Clerk, INT
B. J. Adams—Stewardess, ILM
M. Austell—Stewardess, INT
C. D. Bradsher—Apprentice. INT
L. V. Brown—Utility Serviceman, INT
M. J. Carpenter—Stewardess, ROA
D. B. Craig—Stewardess, ILM
E. D. Doland—Jr. Spec., INT
A. S. Ellis—Stewardess, INT
P. A. Hafley—Stewardess, ILM
C. R. Hance—Jr. Radio Tech., INT
H. J. McPherson—Cleaner, ROA
T. L. Morgan—Jr. Spec., INT
J. M. Royall—Stewardess, INT
G. A. Sample—Jr. Spec., INT
D. M. Simpson—Stewardess, ILM
R. M. Snipes—Stewardess, INT
Pamela Stead—Stewardess, INT
C. S. Tolbert—Stewardess, BOA
C. H. Watson—Jr. Clerk, INT-FB
P, J, Smith—Cleaner, INT
L. L. Warren—Stewardess. ILM
T. R. White, Mech. Spec., INT
W. R. Wimmer—Jr. Mech.. INT
P. G. Wooten—Utility Serviceman, INT
PROMOTIONS
B D. Caudill—DCA promoted to Lead
Mechanic
B. P. Bailey—TRI promoted to Sales
Cartoon Is Captioned
“Oversold Again!” — Cliff Rhodes, LSI Service Corporation,
Harrisburg, Pa.
* * *
“Another deal with Neill.” — LEX
“Didn’t HSP say something about having an oversale for this
flight?” — Sharn Perry, HSP
* * *
“Must be an NR.” — Tony Steelman, INT-R
* * *
“Don’t look now, but I think there’s an FAA inspector watch
ing us.” — J. HUl, INT-C
* * *
“No, I didn’t pay for the bubble gum, I thought you did.”
“That INT agent said he’s never refunded an oversale yet.”
“You break more pencils than most co-pilots break sun visors,
and now purchasing has caught up with you.”
“Better make that two with onions and two without.”
“Make a note to see what happened to those cockpit curtains
we requested.” — E. B. McBride, INT—Metal Shop
* * *
Captain: “Hey, Kilroy, I thought you said we were in range
(LGA) about 15 minutes ago, grrrrr . . .!” Co-pilot: “Huh?” — P.
Walden, RIC-O
* * *
Captain Cox, F/O Evans and Engineer Willetts. “Say, I thought
the engineer was supposed to be in here with us, wasn’t he?”
“Gray, why don’t you let Willie ride inside the rest of the way?”
— Merrill T. Gadker, SOP
VFR
with
Turby
Well, Piedmont Airlines really put New York City on the map
last week. The Inaugural Flight was made on Monday, November
14, and I must say it was the best Inaugural we have had thus far —
everything went as scheduled. Hats off to those who did so much
work in arranging things so well — Bill McGee and his troops
well as Don Britt and his gang; also to our fellows in New York
Eddie Jones, Frank Reynolds, Wayne Tucker and Johnny Lawrence,
who were on the firing line. Eastern employees did a bang-up job
in getting the airplanes in and out as planned.
Not only did we put New York on the map, but as Mr. Davis
put it, we hope to take some of the “dull” out of Dulles. At Dulles
we had a most delightful luncheon and, again, ever3rthing was well
planned and went off very smoothly. Don Sutphin and his boys and
gals looked like they just stepped out of Esquire — they really
were sharp!
Representative
R. J. Matheny—INT promoted to Mech.
Jeane M. Higgins—INT promoted to Jr.
Planner
Ben H. Windley—INT promoted to
Mech. Spec.
J. J. Stout—INT-FB promoted to Sr.
Spec.
C. R. Bowers—ROA promoted to Lead
•\gent-Pass. Service & Ticket Counter
T. W. Roberts—INT promoted to Sr.
Radio Tech.
D. S. Tuel—ORP promoted to Lead
Mech.
C. C. Vogler—CPA promoted to Utility
Serviceman
J. E. Mitchell—INT-IBM promoted to
Systems Analyst
J. C. Ward—INT promoted to Sr. Mech.
B. L. Hanes—INT promoted to Mech.
.1. L. Samples—INT promoted to Radio
Tech.
D. W. Shoaf—INT promoted to Sr.
Stock Clerk
W. H. Walker—INT promoted to Meeh.
R. E. Wall—INT promoted to Mech.
TRANSFERS ’
W. R. Redman—itransfer from stock
room to Apprentice FB Engine Shop
P. A. White—ORE transfer to Opers.
Clerk
O. Wagoner—transfer from INT-PB to
INT Paint and Fabric Shop
J. K. McGee—transfer from Cost
Accounting to Jr. Spec., INT-M