Chili Saves the Day
Pan Am captains – and all the folks on an aircraft’s crew – had jobs that required a lot more than just technical know-how. Diplomatic skills such as empathy, multi-cultural sophistication, foreign language skills, and honed public relations aplomb were part of the job for Pan American’s crews.
Traveling could be stressful on everyone. For passengers, the journey wasn’t always about delightful get-aways. Long hours in unfamiliar surroundings, days away from the comforts of home, sharing spaces with total strangers for long stretches, anxiety about flying, all could easily work to amplify negative feelings.
Boeing 377 Stratocruiser Crew (PAHF Collection).
For the professionals who kept the airline’s operations on the ground and in the air functioning as they should, dealing with the grind of long hours on their feet or at the controls of complex aircraft, confronting the demands of a constantly changing cast of customers, there was no lack of challenges either.
In looking back at what is now remembered as the golden age of air travel, people can forget that there was never a time when everyone got everything they wanted or expected out of the experience. Then as now, it required something more than technical expertise to keep the operation functioning smoothly.
Take the example of the gentleman who wrote the letter excerpted here (courtesy of the Alex Vaughn family). He had gone to great lengths –carefully documented in this letter toPan Am’s President Juan Trippe – to assure himself a berth on a stratocruiser flight to Rome in 1953.
He was rudely discomfited when told a few minutes before his flight was to depart New York City’s Idlewild Airport that his reserved berth was not available. He wrote this angry letter –copied to his Congressman! – to express his outrage.
His one note of praise fell on Captain C.S. “Chili” Vaughn, a Pan Am veteran who understood that the core of Pan American’s success depended on happy customers. Whether he was playing host to famous celebrities like Bob Hope on the flight deck, or smoothing the ruffled feathers of an irate businessman, Captain Chili Vaughn understood – and gave - what the job demanded.
