The Boxcar Blues (24 page)

Kenneth Freeman and two other pilots were
hired to fly on the line. For Kenneth, who proved to be a
professional and skillful airline pilot, this had been a dream of
his since he first learned to fly. Being black, he’d assumed his
dream would never come to fruition. Now, however, he was living his
dream and he often told Catwalk how much he appreciated the
job.

John moved out to help Mattie run the farm
while he waited for an opening in school. After three months on the
farm he started in airframe and power plant school. He did well in
his classes and often told Catwalk he felt like mechanical work was
truly his calling.

The two new routes to San Francisco and
Phoenix were approved by the Commerce Department, and service
started in late 1935. Their fleet, which now consisted of six
planes, kept growing. In the spring of 1936, they took delivery of
two Douglas DC-2 airliners. When Catwalk first flew the DC-2 with a
Douglas test pilot, he was amazed at the power and performance.

After landing the Douglas pilot said, “Jack
Frye and Eddie Rickenbacker flew this baby from San Francisco to
Newark in thirteen hours and four minutes. Can you believe it?”

“
I don’t doubt that, but
I’m concerned with passenger comfort more than performance. The
passengers keep us in business.”

“
Mr. Jackson, when you
consider the improved heating and ventilation system, along with a
smoother ride at higher altitudes, wider seats and toilet
facilities with lavatories, your passengers won’t even know they’re
on an airplane.”

“
Wonderful. As soon as we
can train our maintenance and ramp people, we’ll put the planes
into service.” For Catwalk the new planes made him feel like the
airline went from a fly-by-night operation, to a first class
carrier over night. Now, they had the same equipment to compete
with United, Continental, Western and Braniff.

With the new planes they hired stewardesses,
who were all registered nurses, and began serving hot coffee,
pastries and cold beverages on their flights. Passenger feedback
and increased loads told him this greatly appreciated.

Six months later, the airline added two more
upgraded DC-3s, the latest in the Douglas line that featured full
feathering propellers and deicing boots on the wings for
safety.

Although time away from his duties was hard
to come by, he drove out to see Barney as often as possible.
Unfortunately there was no good news about Barney’s medical
condition. He’d visited several different spinal specialists, but
their prognosis was always the same: his injury was permanent and
there was no known medical procedure to restore his mobility. His
only hope was that medical research came up with a new procedure in
the future.

On Catwalk’s last visit he and Barney
discussed the future of Rocky Mountain Airways. Barney said, “I
know you like flying more than you like the administrative duties,
but it’s time you became the official President of Rocky Mountain
Airways. By some standards, you’re pretty young, but you’ve been
here since day one and this is a young industry. You can still fly
on the line, but most of your time will be spent at our
administrative headquarters.”

Catwalk asked, “Is there anything about the
airline’s operation that concerns you?”

“
No, but we’re growing up
fast. There will be a lot of expansion in the coming years. We’re
going head to head with TAT, Western and others on many of our
routes. If we sit still, we lose passengers to them.”

Catwalk had known this was coming and he
couldn’t say no to Barney even though he’d prefer to fly more. He
said, “I agree and there’s something I’ve been thinking about doing
for a couple months now. I’m going to adjust our schedules so we
always leave half an hour before our competitors. They’re
scheduling flights at the same time as each other to try and pick
up a share of the passengers, but I’m going one better. While
they’re fighting for passengers we’ll already be in the air.”

“
I like it. While you’re
at it have our ad agency take out some newspaper advertisements
that tells folks if they’re flying with us, they’ll get there
first.”

“
All right, I’ll do that.
Anything else?”

“
How’s your brother
doing?”

“
He’s doing great. He’s
certified on all our equipment and he loves his job. He’s on Jack
McMillan’s crew and Jack says he takes to aircraft maintenance like
a duck to water.”

“
I’m glad to hear that.”
Barney paused while his nurse gave him a drink of water. “Have you
been reading about the war in Europe?”

“
Yes. A couple days ago I
read that Hitler said he’s going to conquer Europe—then the world.
Is he a crackpot, or someone to be concerned about?”

“
Well, I think he’s a
crackpot to be concerned about, and I wouldn’t be surprised if we
don’t end up right in the middle of this thing.”

“
What will that do to the
airline?”

“
I don’t know, but it sure
as hell won’t be business as usual. We’ll probably be pressed into
service to fly troops and you might end up wearing a uniform.
Nothing is going to happen soon, but when it does we might lose
most of our pilots, and planes to the military.”

“
That means no revenue,
which will mean lots of layoffs, right?”

“
I hope not, but at this
point I don’t know, Cat.”

On the drive back to Albuquerque, Catwalk
thought about his conversation with Barney. He’d adjust his
schedule to accommodate Barney’s wishes, but would make it a point
to fly often, both for proficiency and to stay abreast of the
operation.

As far as the war, Barney had always been
one to stay well informed. If he thought the country was going to
war, chances are it would come to pass and he would end up serving
with the armed forces. He wouldn’t mind serving his country, but
was concerned that his Momma would worry herself sick about it.

In March, 1937, Rocky Mountain Airways
became a public corporation. The stock opened trading at two
dollars a share and quickly went up to four dollars a share.
Catwalk had invested half of his savings in the stock, and as
president of the company was given five hundred shares, so he
doubled his money over night. In turn he bought more stock, which
continued to increase in value. In his mind, his Momma’s house was
getting bigger all the time.

The board of directors consisted of five
men, three of whom were in the airline business. The other two were
executives from the Union Pacific railroad and the Fred Harvey
hotel chain. Before their selection for the board, Barney talked to
all of them at length; none of them seemed to have a problem with
the airline having a black president.

Catwalk made it a point to talk to the men
at the first board meeting and his instincts told him that none of
them had any racial issues that they were hiding. They all seemed
pleased with the way he was managing the airline. He and the
railroad executive, who had once hopped a freight train to get to
his first job, shared a few laughs about their mutual experiences
with railroads.

Between his duty as the full time president
and his required flying, Catwalk had time for his passion, reading
everything in sight, but little else. To say that the industry and
Rocky Mountain Airways were growing was an understatement. He took
this as a sign that the country was healing its wounds and pulling
itself out of the depression.

Over the next year routes to Cheyenne, Los
Angeles and Portland were approved and the fleet was expanded with
the delivery of ten DC-3 aircraft. A high-speed reservations system
was implemented and sleeper service was introduced on Rocky
Mountain’s long night flights.

The industry as a whole saw improvements
such as high octane gasoline introduced by the Texas Oil Company,
and two way radios, which enabled the pilots to call station
managers to see if there were any passengers at intermediate stops.
Continued research of instrument flying techniques brought
equipment such as the radio direction finder, or “homing
beacon”.

Catwalk had proven himself as a shrewd and
savvy airline president who gained a reputation for taking care of
his employees. He’d been known to reprimand an employee
on-the-spot, for infractions such as working out of uniform, but
he’d also encouraged bonuses for meritorious performance. He made
it known that if you did your job well, you could go far in the
airline, but if you were a slacker, your tenure would be short.

Barney had told him that he was only as good
as the people around him. To that end, he hired the best airline
management personnel he could find, often luring people away from
other airlines with attractive pay packages and incentives. He also
hired top executives from other non-aviation companies and trained
them in the airline business.

One day he told his secretary, “Melba, I’m
taking a week off. I’m going to visit Barney, and then I’m going
out to see my family in Mississippi. Get me a seat on a flight to
Meridian leaving day after tomorrow.”

“
I’ll take care of that
and Telex the information to you at Barney’s. Tell him we said
hi.”

On his drive to the farm, Catwalk felt like
he was on top of the world. With the new planes and new reservation
system the airline business was growing at an astonishing rate.
Their loads were better than ever and in two months they were going
to start competing with the railroad by offering exclusive cargo
flights and freight forwarding by the Railway Express Agency. Now,
Rocky Mountain Airways offered an exclusive service, which meant
businesses could send merchandise by air and have it arrive the
same day.

Barney greeted him from a wheel chair in the
yard with his nurse. “It’s a beautiful day out here. You should
take up golf so you could enjoy a day like this.”

“
I don’t have time for
golf, and you know those country clubs don’t allow black
people.”

“
Well, I’ll build a golf
course and we’ll allow only black people to play it. How’s
that?”

“
Maybe when I retire. I
want to ask you for a favor.”

“
Sure. What is
it?”

“
I’m going back to visit
my family. With my stock and savings, I’ve got over two thousand
dollars saved up and I’d like to buy my Momma a house, so my family
can get off the farm. I know they won’t give me a loan for
property, but they’d give you a loan.”

“
Yes, they will. Are you
going to look at houses while you’re back there?”

“
If Earl Slade can help
me, I will. I don’t know a thing about buying a house.”

“
Well, you might be better
off buying some land and then build a house. How many kids are
still at home?”

“
Seven, but Cecil is going
out looking for work, so he might not be there.”

“
Have Slade call me. We’ll
find some land and build your Momma a house that she’ll
love.”

“
I appreciate
that.”

Barney then said, “Have you heard about the
DC-4?”

Catwalk had seen promotional pictures of the
newest aircraft in the Douglas line. “Yes, I have. Douglas sent us
a promotional package.”

Barney said, “She carries 112 passengers at
two hundred and seventy miles an hour, with a range of 1,500
hundred miles.”

“
It’s an impressive
airplane, but I don’t think this is the time to be buying new
planes.”

Barney looked at Catwalk with unspoken
questions on his face. His philosophy was, in order to stay
competitive, it was best for the airline to maintain an inventory
of state-of-the-art equipment. Catwalk had always embraced this
concept so the statement surprised him. Rather than ask the obvious
question, he said, “American Airlines already ordered ten of
them.”

“
Good for them. I don’t
care if they ordered fifty. It’s not a good time for us to buy new
equipment. The war in Europe is heating up, and I agree with what
you, that we’re going to end up in it. When we go to war our
inventory will be taken over by the military, and when the war is
over our planes will be extremely used; worth very little. I’d
rather have a bunch of used up DC-3s that we own, rather than hold
the loan on a bunch of used up DC-4s. After the war we can buy as
many DC-4s as you want. Then, we’ll have new state of the art
equipment.”

“
Well, I don’t disagree
with you, Cat. I was thinking about this Trippe fellow that started
up Pan American Airways. He’s got routes to Europe and South
America, so he thinks there’s a market there. If we had long range
aircraft, like the DC-4, we could go head to head with
him.”

“
We still can but now
isn’t the time. I say we wait to see what happens in Europe. While
that’s going on we can expand some of our hangar space, so we’ll be
ready for new aircraft. Maybe the war will be over in a year or
two. Then we can buy the new equipment. Douglas will have made
upgrades by then, so we’ll be going after those new routes with the
newest planes in the sky.”

Barney smiled, “O.K. It goes against my
grain to stand still and watch everyone else get the new planes,
but I guess you’re right.”

“
The worst that can happen
is we own all of our equipment, which gives us the best debt to
equity ratio in the business. That will look very impressive to our
investors.”

Barney smiled and said, “We’ll talk more
about this. Go home and have a nice relaxing visit with your
family. Tell them I said hi.”