National Affairs: Flying Chauffeur

Bad weather was reported dead ahead. Airport officials at Key West, anxious for the President’s safety, were loth to permit a takeoff. Then the President put it up to his pilot.

“What would you do if I weren’t aboard?” he asked.

“I’d fly,” said Hank Myers. Without hesitation, President Truman got aboard the plane. The trip to Miami was made—without incident.

This decision, made last March, was not the first of its kind for Hank Myers, who would fly the President to Key West for a brief vacation this week. As a command pilot, Lieut. Colonel Henry Tift Myers, holder of a “Green Ticket”* in the Air Transport Command, has the authority to clear his plane to any destination under any flight plan he elects. As personal pilot for the President, Hank Myers’ decisions are not always easy.

Routine Rain. On Christmas Day, 1945, President Truman wanted to visit his mother in Grandview, Mo. An all-night downpour of sleet, which had sheathed the Washington airport in ice, turned to murky rain by morning. Hank Myers studied the weather reports. He laid out a flight plan, made his decision. At 12:06, the President’s plane, with Harry Truman aboard, lifted into the mist. Nearly six hours later, Myers cushioned the Sacred Cow to a landing at Kansas City airport. When newspapers called the flight foolhardy, Pilot Myers was amazed. “Routine,” said he.

In 5½ years as the A.T.C.’s foremost flying chauffeur, most of Colonel Myers’ flights have been routine. Since piloting Franklin Roosevelt to Yalta in 1945, Myers has logged 48,000 presidential miles. His passenger roster has included Congressmen, Cabinet members, Generals. In his 17 years of flying, he has been in the air 15,000 hours, has covered more than two million miles over 30 countries. He has never had an air accident.

Ideal Passenger. Hank Myers, a 39-year-old Georgian, got his wings from the Army Air Forces in 1931. He flew for commercial airlines until called to active duty with the A.T.C. in 1942. From the start, he was given the job of toting VIPs; his engaging, infectious self-confidence soothed the nerves of air-wary officials. His popularity as a pilot has allowed him little time to spend with his wife and young son.

Hank Myers considers his present boss the ideal air passenger. When someone recently suggested that it might be a good idea to replace Hank with a Missourian, the President replied with a grin, “Even if Hank were a Republican [being in the Army, he has no politics], I’d rather have a pilot who knows how to fly this plane than a Democrat who doesn’t.”

* Highest A.T.C. classification, under which a pilot is qualified for blind take-offs and landings.