Originally Posted by
tonytales
Later, when at Eastern Air Lines I was assigned as Tech Rep to many White House Press Charters in one of our DC-8. I rode jump seat in the cockpit. We had to get the Press on the ground ahead of Air Force One so the photographers could take that same picture of President Nixon emerging from in the open door of Air Force One with hand upraised.
Back in the 1980's Pan Am flew a lot of those press charters. The media corps would photograph the President leaving, then hop in the chartered plane and as you said, race to land before Air Force One to get the arrival pictures.
These charters required additional background checks and a security clearance and were flown by management pilots.
Now, this is no s**t ...
During the Reagan administration George H.W. Bush was the Vice President and on the road he would sometimes play tennis with Pan Am pilot Ben Shelfer.
On one trip Bush called the flight crew layover hotel looking for Captain Shelfer for some tennis. As is still common with crew hotels, the sign in list had the room numbers jumbled and the call went through to Shelfer's colleague Sam Cannato.
Sam didn't recognize the voice and asked 'Who the hell is this?'
Bush was taken aback and said 'Why, this is the Vice President, I'm looking for Captain Shelfer'.
Cannato thought a Pan Am executive was interrupting his rest period with something that could be put on a note under the door and he indignantly challenged 'Vice president of WHAT???'
Sam didn't get any more press charters for a while.
