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During the Vietnam War, commercial airliners along with their crews were chartered to fly US troops into combat zones. Few of the flight attendants were prepared for the reality of serving on a plane taking young men to war. The soldiers were equally unprepared. U.S. Army Airborne veteran Warren Williams remembers how little he was able to grasp the gravity of deploying to active duty, “I knew I was going to miss my family, but it was a casual thought. I was young.” U.S. Army veteran Jack McCabe recalls how the seriousness of their situation dawned on the soldiers aboard the aircraft, “On the flight over, we were chatty on the way to Anchorage, but we were all quiet on the way into Vietnam.” Joe Kricho, a U.S. Air Force veteran describes how the seemingly random mixture of people aboard affected the mood, “You went over and came back with people you didn’t know. It was disorienting and bewildering.” See “Flying the Freedom Birds: Airlines and the Vietnam War,” on display pre-security in the Aviation Museum and Library. http://bit.ly/FreedomBirds This image was posted on December 18, 2019.

This post mentions the following things involved with the SFO Museum collection:

Pan American Airways. It is related to Pan American World Airways (the company) .