Making Friends and Influencing People

My First Trans-Atlantic Flight

June 27th, 2008

Twenty years ago this month I commenced a set of orders that would take me to the land of fire and ice. We lived in Iceland for two and a half years, I have tons of stories to tell about our adventures while there but this isn’t going to be one of them. What I am going to share during this post is how really small the world can be. How you really never know…

Before I selected the orders to Iceland I was actually given a few choices but I was looking for an opportunity to live overseas. That narrowed things down a bit to the Embassy in Seoul, Korea or an island I only heard stories about. At the time in 1988 there was rioting in Seoul over the coming Olympic games - the stuff seemed to be on the news every night. For that reason and also the fact that a transfer to Keflavik, Iceland included a school which was located in Latina, Italy. The school was for NATO’s version of SATCOM - yup, I got to work on state of the art, 46 foot in diameter antenna, satellite ground terminal equipment - God, I love the Navy! Anyway, back to my story…

I had been to Italy before, the USS Forrestal pulled into Naples for a little over a week during one of our port calls while on the 82′ Med cruise - I was with 5000 other Sailors. When I flew to Rome on Trans World Airlines (TWA) it was my first time in Europe by myself. Different experience, trust me.

When I prepared to board the TWA flight from JFK airport in New York an announcement was made that they had over-booked the flight. They wanted to know if there were any volunteers to take the next flight the following day and receive $150 - they would also put the person up in a hotel and feed them. I was the first volunteer! Heck, $150 was a lot of money and it was Friday and I didn’t NEED to be there until Monday - the choice was easy. I stood at the counter and I watched as they closed the main hatch to the full 747 jet. Well, I was lead to believe the jet was full - so happens they had a single seat open. I was asked if I wanted to take the single first class seat they somehow happened to over look. Now keep in mind I had flown before, coach seats sucked for 1 hour flights. The prospect of sitting in first class during a 7 hour flight intrigued me - I took the seat.

I was lead onboard the aircraft by what was then known as a stewardess, BTW, call them anything but a flight attendant today and you will not get snacks, they will move the screaming baby to the seat behind you (every flight has at least one) and I doubt you would be saved in the case of an air disaster - just a warning, your call. The stewardess showed me my seat and as I went to sit down a man darted up to her and stated that the seat she had shown me was in fact his and I had NO RIGHT to it. He after all was a frequent flyer and I wasn’t entitled to the seat because I obviously didn’t deserve it (he had pointed out I was wearing a T-shirt and blue jeans, not the apparel for those on the first class side of the tracks). He was a bit uppity you might say. The stewardess Flight Attendant quickly put the man in his place, told him to return to his seat and apologized to me for his behavior. I smiled and sat down in my seat.

I knew as soon as I sat down I had made the right choice. This seat and the area around it seemed to have more square footage than most single family homes. The area of the plane we were in also had its own staff, not to mention the head (bathroom), it was, well, bigger. I also had a larger choice of meals and the drinks were free - Ahhh, the only way to fly!

A couple of hours into the flight I had my shoes off and my feet were propped up, I was reading a magazine between conversations with the gentleman sitting next to me about various world affairs when the man who tried to take my seat once again entered our domain. He wasn’t wearing shoes, you could tell he was making attempts to sleep in those small crowded and cramped seats in the back without much luck - he looked as if he was actually having the worst day of his entire life. He walked pasted my seat, didn’t give me a second look but headed directly to the head. I announced, “Sir, you must use the facility in the same section of the aircraft as your seat.” (I knew this because I listened to the announcements during the pre-flight :)) His head snapped around and he glared at me as he reached for the door handle for the head. Just then the Flight Attendant reaffirmed my statement and told the man to get back in his section - he was not impressed. I really think he now wanted me dead. After landing we exchanged a few more pleasantries as we waited in line for customs - as I said, he was having a bad day.

After I made it through customs I was very lucky to find a couple of other people who would be attending classes (not the same one as I) - they had secured a ride for the 45 kilometer ride to Latina, they had an extra seat and I was happy to fill it. Before I knew it I was checked into the barracks and making new friends.

The alarm clock that Monday morning came early - we had to be at the school at 0700 and I still wasn’t acclimated to the time change. Took a shower, donned my uniform and walked the 200 yards to the school’s main entrance. NATO runs a tight ship - school check-in was a breeze and before I knew it I was sitting in my classroom seat only getting up to introduce myself to the other students as they arrived. Then it happened…

I recognized him the moment he walked through the door. Manuel was from Portugal, he was a highly educated electrical engineer hired by NATO to be the site engineer at NSGT F-15 in Keflavik, Iceland and he was also the same gentleman who wanted my first class seat. I quickly got his attention - I said, “Hey, I remember you!” and for the next two and a half years that I worked with Manuel we would reminisce about our trans Atlantic fight, I would laugh and Manuel would just give me the look - dang, I miss him