Dear aviator44-ga;
Thank you for allowing me an opportunity to answer your interesting
question.
Cyrus Rowlett (C.R.) Smith and Elwood "Pete" Quesada most likely first
met each other personally DURING the war. There is a logical reason
why this makes perfect and sense; most prominent is that the dates and
locations of their commands and assignments would have made this quite
improbable – except for one brief instance, where they can be placed
in roughly the same proximity of one another for a time.
Here is a reference to a moment in time well after the war when
Quesada, a newly appointed FAA Administrator, went to bat for his
friend Smith in 1959, some 14 years after the end of World War II:
“…It began as a personal favor by the FAA’s new Administrator, Elwood
Quesada, for his friend and former wartime associate C.R. Smith,
chairman of American Airlines…”
PPF PETITION FOR EXEMPTION
http://www.age60rule.com/docs/PPF10-7.html
It struck me that they are referred to here as “friends and former
wartime associates” and not “former wartime friends”. They both
participated in high-level command operations during the war, but
looking at their biographies I thought that it probably wasn’t likely
that they could have known each other during the war because their
responsibilities covered interests that were literally at opposite
ends of the earth. Then I ran across this article that again peaked my
interest in trying to find a common assignment. It refers to the pair
as “wartime friends” implying that they did in fact know each other
DURING the war:
“Mediators eventually ruled in favor of the pilots, after which
American Chairman C.R. Smith reached out to his wartime friend and
then-FAA Administrator Elwood Quesada.”
PILOTS RENEW FIGHT
http://www.paad60.com/aviationweek.htm
Let’s go back to World War II and examine the facts…
Cyrus Rowlett Smith’s assignments from the time he entered the Army in
April 1942 were largely administrative command positions related to
airlift operations in the Pacific theater and Indo-China, meaning that
unless we can OFFICIALLY place the pair together prior to 1945, they
most likely didn’t know each other until after the war.
AIRLIFT TANKER ASSOCIATION – HALL OF FAME
http://www.atalink.org/hallfame/c.r.smith.html
It became obvious that they could not have met BEFORE the war, since
Elwood Quesada was already well established in the military by 1929
(2nd Lt. Elwood Quesada is mentioned as one of the now famous
“Question Mark Crew”), when Smith was known to have been gainfully
employed in the private civilian sector in both accounting and (later)
aviation all the way up until the time he enlisted himself.
AIRLIFT TANKER ASSOCIATION – HALL OF FAME
http://www.atalink.org/hallfame/hooe.html
Quesada’s responsibilities during the war were almost exclusively
related to the European theater – WITH ONE EXCEPTION. In December
1942, Quesada took the First Air Defense Wing to Africa to participate
in several campaigns. Smith’s biography states that he received the
Legion of Merit for his services as “chief of a special mission to
French West Africa”. NOW we can place them in the same place at the
same time. It is highly unlikely that two command level members of the
military forces would ever be in the same theater operations and not
arrange at meeting, or perhaps even host the other as a VIP. It is
only here then that the two could possibly (and most probably) have
first met and began their long friendship and eventually their
post-war association.
Quesada retired from active duty in 1951 (Smith in 1945) and it is not
until then that we find the first references to any common interests
between the two men outside of the military; that being their NATO
posts. By 1959, when the two communicated about the “Age 60 Rule”, the
could very well have been “long time friends” and “wartime associates”
by virtue of the similar commands they held during that time, but it
is most likely that the two met on this common World War II assignment
in Africa some time between 1942 and 1945.
MILITARY.COM
http://www.military.com/Content/MoreContent/1,12044,ML_quesada_bkp,00.html
As a matter of interest here are more articles about Quesada and Smith
as it seems they generated much more controversy for themselves after
the war than fame during the war:
This page details the infamous back room post-war deal that was struck
between the two many years after the war ended.
THE AGE 60 RULE
http://www.avweb.com/news/aeromed/181875-1.html
“The PPF's lengthy petition includes a February 5, 1959, letter from
C.R. Smith, the then-CEO of American, to then-FAA Administrator Gen.
Elwood Quesada. The PPF claims the two were “LONGTIME FRIENDS” when
Smith told Quesada that the pilots' association was balking at the
company's mandatory retirement age of 60 and suggested the FAA make it
law.”
AVIATION NEWS
http://www.najaco.com/aviation/news/2002/june/june_11.htm
Below you will find that I have carefully defined my search strategy
for you in the event that you need to search for more information. By
following the same type of searches that I did you may be able to
enhance the research I have provided even further. I hope you find
that that my research exceeds your expectations. If you have any
questions about my research please post a clarification request prior
to rating the answer. Otherwise, I welcome your rating and your final
comments and I look forward to working with you again in the near
future. Thank you for bringing your question to us.
Best regards;
Tutuzdad-ga
INFORMATION SOURCES
DEFINED ABOVE
SEARCH STRATEGY
SEARCH ENGINE USED:
Google ://www.google.com
SEARCH TERMS USED:
"C R SMITH" QUESADA MET
ROWLETT SMITH QUESADA
CYRUS SMITH QUESADA
SMITH QUESADA “WORD WAR II”
“C R SMITH” BIOGRAPHY
“ELWOOD QUESADA” BIOGRAPHY |
Request for Answer Clarification by
aviator44-ga
on
04 Jul 2003 15:58 PDT
Hello,
This is the first time that I have used this (Google) service and I
wasn't exactly sure how to respond to tutuzdad who did the research.
I'll give it a go.
I had come across most of the information that you relayed to me. I
already have put together a 50 plus page document on the Age 60 Rule.
I have been in contact with Mr. Samuel Woolsey of Age60Rule.com and
Mr. Bert Yetman of PPF. To the best of my knowledge, neither of these
gentlemen could give a specific cite for the initial meeting of Smith
and Quesada. The Africa connection sounds logical, but it is still a
little wanting.
There have been other suggested places where these two could have met,
but there was nothing citable in the information. That is how I
arrived at the Google service.
I know that the two met, because Smith used the name Pete in some of
his correspondence that he sent to Administrator Quesada's home. Yes,
I said home. The Age 60 Rule was a wish come true for Smith who wanted
to ground his "older" pilots and Quesada knew it.
With fresh evidence appearing almost every year to prove this
mandatory retirement regulation unnecessary and erroneous in its
concept, it still stands. Thousands of otherwise experienced and
healthy pilots have been forced into retirement because of this
regulation.
I have the documentation that was released through the Freedom of
Information Act that suggests very strongly that Quesada disliked
airline pilots and wanted to help his buddy Smith. Most importantly, I
need a citable reference to the beginning of their relationship which
will make my case even stronger. I'm sure that you understand what I
am saying. Let's see if we can't get that citable reference.
Sincerely,
Aviator44
Incidently, two weeks after Quesada resigned from his positon as
administrator of the FAA, he joined the Board of Directors at American
Airlines.
|
Request for Answer Clarification by
aviator44-ga
on
05 Jul 2003 07:14 PDT
Sorry that I didn't mention this information to you earlier, but I
assumed that most people like myself try to do their own research
first and turn to the Google service out of frustration. I have spent
10 or more hours researching this one question, but I am not by any
means a professional researcher. So much for assumptions.
The paper that I am writing will be presented to a law school review
for publication. I am not sure if they will accept my point about this
relationship between Quesada and Smith without a citable quote on the
beginning of the relationship. By the way, what were your thoughts on
Quesada joining the American Airlines Board right after leaving the
FAA? Interesting?
I have some suggestions as to how we can proceed from here:
1. Quit looking and split the difference on the fee.
2. Continue looking, if it makes any sense.
3. Change the search to another question for the original fee.
The question - Quesada supposedly disliked airline pilots before he
became the first FAA administrator. It is rumored that he and Dave
Behncke, the "founder" of the Air Line Pilots Association, crossed
swords regarding duty regulations and privileges that airline pilots
could expect while in the service of their country. These ALPA pilots
were delivering freight for the military during WWII and the Berlin
Airlift. Allegedly, General Quesada became enraged when Behncke
demanded that his ALPA pilots be allowed to use the Officers Clubs
while in service. Are these rumors/stories true? Remember that
everything has to be citable. An underlying premise to my paper is
that Quesada disliked airline pilots. When Smith strongly suggested a
federally mandated age sixty retirement, Quesada was more than happy
and equipped to accomodate him.
I'll look forward to hearing from you on the options. If you have any
questions for me which would help in the search, please ask me. I'm
sorry that I didn't tell you how much time I have spent on this paper
and the information required to compose it.
Sincerely,
Aviator44
|
