Forty-six gold stars

[mgc1961]

The company newspaper for American Airlines employees is called Flagship News. It's been continuously published since 1941. However, there have been other company newspapers that met with varying amounts of success. Two of these now defunct news sources were named Astrojet. One of them served Tulsa employees from 1961-67 and the other (1966-1971) was the forerunner of the current on-board passenger magazine, American Way.

A third newspaper, which emphasized global stories, was also published for one year (1945). The following alphabetical list is that of American Airlines employees who served and died during World War II. The following names and information about their respective civilian duty is extracted from the May-June edition of Flagship World.

Lt. Geroe C. Allen, a ticket agent from FL.
Lt. Col. Keith N. Allen
Lt. William G. Beake
Pfc. Jacob E. Brown
Lt. James H. Calloway
Lt. (jg) David F. Currier
Cpl. Cornelius E. Curtin, a fleet service clerk from NY.
Capt. Jean W. Dixon, a meteorologist from Nashville, TN..
Lt. Edward W. Double
Lt. James P. Dundon
Comm. William F. Eadie, pilot.
Sgt. Ernest F. Fichtl, a clerk from NY
S/Sgt. Robert D. Gilbert worked in the bulletin room.
Lt. Fred N. Gondor
Lt. Comm. Lauren W. Hawes
Pvt. David D. Hunter
T/Sgt. Melvin Isserson, a mechanic from NY.
Sgt. George Johnston, janitor.
F/O John W. Kauffman, pilot.
Major James G. Kohlwes, station agent.
S/Sgt. George Lawlor
A/C Vincent Liddy
Pvt. Harry Luberoff
Lt. Edward Mcintyre
Lt. Walter O. Mertz
Lt. Earl F. Morrison
William J. O'Malley
Pfc. John B. O'Reilly, stock clerk.
S-2/c Henry J. Primm, Jr, reservation agent.
Lt. Joseph A. Porterfield
Capt. Ralph J. Quale
T/Sgt. John A Ras
Capt. Willard Reed, Jr
Lt. David N. Renshaw
Pfc. James P. Sammin
Cpl. Albert Schneider
Pvt. Howard H. Schwarting, stock clerk.
Lt. Alva Sink
T/4 Ward L. Seely, radio operator.
Major Harold Skelly
Pfc. Clayton E. Sprague provided ground service. He was from Maine.
Ens. W. Mason Stevens
Capt. Carl Stuetzel
Major Harwell P. Tilly III, pilot.
Capt. James M. Treweek
Lt. Warren J. Wade, pilot.

[NYC_SKP]

1. I thank them for their service.

And I wonder who would unrec this.

:shrug:

[Wait Wut]

2. Just WWII?

That's a lot for one company. It must have been hard for the employees (and probably higher ups) to deal with the emotional strain.

I wonder if any companies have kept track of servicemembers since then?

[mgc1961]

3. There's a number at the top of the story which says 1883 employees served.

Another thing I found interesting as I thumbed through some of the 1941 Flagship News editions is the way some employees seemed to be moved about the system to cover leaves of absense. Each city provided a short story about events in their respective stations from month to month. One of blurbs mentions a name from that list of deceased as having spent some time in Nashville as a relief pilot in early 1941.

The Flagship World also has some very interesting stories about navigational methods employed during the pioneering days of overseas travel by commercial airplane. Perhaps I'll copy and post some extracts from them later.

[Wait Wut]

4. That sounds really interesting.

I gotta give credit to AA for this. 1883 employees. That's just amazing. One thing I heard is how commercial airlines were put into use (I believe) during WWII. My dad said that any plane that was used would get some type of marking. I think he said it was a star or something.

[mlmarmer]

5. Flagship World May-June 1945

Hi mgc1961.

I was googling a Harry Luberoff, who was my uncle who is listed in your post about the Flagship World, as he died in a plane crash in FL in 1944 while in the Army. He did not work for the airline, as he was 20. Anyway, could you contact me at [e-mail], as I would like to get a scan of the that page or anything else from that magazine if you could be so kind.

The death of Harry Luberoff to my mother and her parents was devastating for the rest of their lives, as I am sure it was for anyone who lost a love one in a war.
thank you , Mike

[mgc1961]

6. I'll e-mail you what information I have.

Perhaps it's a different person with the same name.