VIETNAM MAILS WERE DELIVERED BY THE 'SANTA CLAUS EXPRESS"

During the Vietnam War mails were carried by contract carriers namely Pan American Airlines and others. An eyewitness to it all is 92 year old Captain Gould  McIntyre! This Suffield, CT resident was born in 1926 on February 28th. His lucid memory of today tells of the way it was during the Vietnam War. As Mail Clerk in Vung Tau I was witness to the process. Captain McIntyre relates " there were hundreds of wood pallets chuck full of green nylon U.S. Mail bags and packages ad nausea."


The U.S.P.S. encourage package shipments as early as August. The mails reached a fever-pitch as Christmas Day approached. Many packages bore high denomination U.S. Postage. I know this as I once delivered a package bearing a lined pair of $5.00 stamps bearing the image of President Calvin Coolidge!


It seems everything shipped to Vietnam was expedient. While ships took days, trusty Boeing 707s took hours. flying the Pacific wasn't for sissies. Captain McIntyre seemingly flew everywhere in his three decades as a Pan Am pilot.


On the personal side, "Mac" was a "three pack a day Pall Mall smoker." In 1980 he saw clean air inside and out and kicked the habit! He was an incessant smoker firing up one after another. He even wagered $500 with his mother-in-law. She too quit then fell to recidivism and smoked again!
They agreed her $500 bet would be sent to the Lung Association.


Gould McIntyre's stories are far better than those of The Ancient Mariner!@ He truly was a 'Mariner of the Skies."


TO BE CONTINUED.


Robert Louis Potvin
A Student of Gould McIntyre
2018