Goodwill: The Around-the-World Flight of Cong. Peter F. Mack Jr.

By Mona Mack Melampy

Copyright 2021 All Rights Reserved

Copyright 2021 All Rights Reserved

Copyright 2021 All Rights Reserved

Copyright 2021 All Rights Reserved

It is 1951. Countries continue to struggle politically and economically after World War II. Hostilities, unlike any others throughout history, rage between peoples and nations. The Cold War and the Korean and Indochina conflicts, to name a few, are costing many lives. A brilliant idea is shared by one friend to another. A young congressman from the homeland of Abraham Lincoln borrows a record-setting single-engine light monoplane and christens her the Friendship Flame. Guided by his Christian faith and determined to do his bit for peace, the lone pilot lifts off from Carlinville's grass runway to circumnavigate planet Earth and carries only essential supplies and friendship scrolls, a unique tool he utilizes to express goodwill toward his fellow men.

Ride along on his daring and epic journey traversing oceans, islands, deserts, forests, mountains, and plains. The tranquil Terceira Island, one of the world's deepest coal mines in Borinage, the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, the Dublin Mansion House, the Vatican in Rome, the Victory Monument in Ankara, mosques in Baghdad and Tehran, an orphanage in Calcutta, the Shwedagon Pagoda Temple in Rangoon, Wat Pho in Bangkok, and the Genbaku Dome in Hiroshima are just some of the fascinating stops on the world tour.

Friendships and alliances are forged in faraway places as the solon meets local citizens and gifts his goodwill scrolls to mayors and other government officials.

The reader will be inspired by this delightful, heartwarming account. What can one person do to spread peace on earth?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Mar 9, 2022
• ISBN: 9781638746287

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Goodwill

The Around-the-World Flight of Cong. Peter F. Mack Jr.

Mona Mack Melampy

ISBN 978-1-63874-627-0 (paperback)

ISBN 978-1-68570-995-2 (hardcover)

ISBN 978-1-63874-628-7 (digital)

Copyright © 2022 by Mona Mack Melampy

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

To my father, with much love and admiration.

Acknowledgment

To my husband, Gary. Thank you for the countless hours you devoted to fact-checking, editing, and proofreading this book. Your assistance with the technology was invaluable. I love you.

Author’s Note

The 113-day Goodwill flight described in this book was an actual event in our nation’s history.

My father, then a US congressman from Carlinville, Illinois, piloted a small single-engine plane on a solo, around-the-world peace venture starting in October 1951 and culminating with his return to Springfield, Illinois, in January 1952. He flew 33,000 miles, stopping in thirty-one countries on three continents. He met dignitaries and ordinary citizens everywhere he went. Many of the everyday people described throughout the book are fictionalized but are based on information that exists about his flight. Any similarities with real people are purely coincidental and not intentional.

The world map that wraps around the front and back covers of this book is part of the Goodwill flight’s history. Students at Johns Hill Junior High School in Decatur, Illinois, used this map during their Social Studies and English classes to track the progress of the Friendship Flame. You can still see the marks of the red pencil they used to follow the flight around the globe. The students presented the map and an accompanying scrapbook to my father at his homecoming ceremony in Springfield on January 27, 1952.

Chapter 1

Lighting Fires for Peace

Peter’s heart was jumping out of his chest. Am I really going to fly this thing around the world? Literally with only God as my copilot? The enormity of his mission contrasted starkly with the diminutive craft before him.

Sure, she was beautiful, glistening in the late afternoon sun on that clear October day in Carlinville, Illinois. But the single-engine Friendship Flame, as she had been rechristened, looked more suited for a leisurely jaunt to St. Louis and back than a four-month-long solo flight around the world.

Was she up for the task? Could she cross the vast oceans? Would her 185-horsepower, six-cylinder engine sail over the frozen Alps? How would she perform in the heat and sand of the Middle East and the humidity of the Indian subcontinent? And the most fundamental question of all was this: what had possessed a US congressman to take on such an outlandish endeavor?

One glance at the little Beechcraft Bonanza Model 35 evoked all those questions and more. It took the congressman just nine strides to walk the twenty-five feet from the tip of the propeller to the tail of the plane. She had a wingspan of thirty-three feet and rose just seven feet from the tarmac to the top of her V-tail. Small but mighty. He knew one thing for certain: starting tomorrow, he and the Friendship Flame were going to become fast friends in the months ahead.

The backstory of this adventure started a few months earlier in May 1951. Cong. Peter Francis Mack Jr. was honored to serve as representative from the twenty-first district of Illinois in the Eighty-Second US Congress. His district encompassed the state capital of Springfield and the farming communities in the surrounding area. He was in his second term in office, having first been elected November 2, 1948, at the age of thirty-two. He and his family were members of the Democratic Party, yet they voted for each candidate in every election based on his or her qualifications for office and were not as concerned about party affiliation at the polls. Peter’s father had run twice for Congress, neither time successfully. With scant resources, the Mack family planned and executed grassroots campaigns, culminating in Peter Jr.’s election to Congress.

Now thirty-four but not yet married, Peter had served as a navy air corps pilot and flight instructor during World War II. He earned the rank of lieutenant, and after the war, he continued to hone his flying skills as a weekend warrior with the Naval Air Reserve as a member of Fleet Air Service Squadron 665 based at the Anacostia Naval Air Station in the District of Columbia (Washington Times-Herald, October 8, 1951).

The congressman hailed from Carlinville, a town fifty miles southwest of Springfield. It was the Macoupin County seat and had a population of about 5,100. In the early 1800s, the area had been a Native American hunting ground for Sauk, Fox, and Kickapoo Indians. The town, founded in 1828, was named after Thomas Carlin, seventh governor of Illinois. Peter’s ancestors from Ireland settled in the area in the mid-1800s primarily for the vast expanses of rich and fertile farmland. Central Illinois was in America’s heartland where ordinary, hardworking, salt-of-the-earth folks made their livings as farmers, mom-and-pop business owners, bankers, teachers, tradespeople, and other professionals.

Peter had returned from Washington to his home district for the Memorial Day holiday weekend. It was during this visit that the idea of a world peace flight was first born. John W. Hobbs, a good friend and confidant, owned a small vehicle-parts-manufacturing business in Springfield. During a conversation over that weekend, Hobbs was grumbling about the costs to the American taxpayer of funding US aid to countries across the globe following the end of World War II. Hobbs said, "The trouble with these international operations is that our top brass just talks to the top brass of other countries. They never get down to the level of the people themselves, and so those people in foreign countries don’t understand us. They think we’re all millionaires dispensing charity. When Congress adjourns, why don’t you fly to some of these countries and talk to the people?" (Collier’s Magazine, Friendship Flight, July 12, 1952, 52 [emphasis in original]).

In that moment, the idea of a friendship mission was hatched. As they continued to talk, the two friends strategized a barnstorming-type campaign in which the navy flier would take to the skies again, this time to bring a message of peace and goodwill from everyday Americans to people in other countries. Their imaginations soared until they settled on an around-the-world tour starting and ending in the Land of Lincoln in God’s country of central Illinois.

At the time, neither the congressman nor Hobbs knew if the venture could become a reality. There were many obstacles to overcome, the greatest of which were financing the mission and finding an airplane capable of making the flight.

When Peter returned to Washington in June, he began making inquiries at the State Department and the Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) about the possibility of a civilian world flight. The congressman and Hobbs had tentatively agreed which countries should be included on the itinerary, and Peter pitched the proposal to the State Department. Though formal approval by State was not required for a civilian flight such as this, he realized that those early days of the Cold War were fraught with uncertainty and peril. Including the State Department in the process could open doors and ease the flight’s path across the globe.

The government agencies gave their approval, but one major hurdle remained: he still needed an airplane. And it couldn’t be just any airplane. Since finances would be limited, it would have to be a small plane, very economical on gasoline—but with the fuel capacity for long overwater flights and sufficient ceiling to get over high mountain ranges (Collier’s, 52).

Peter made telephone calls to anyone and everyone he could think of to see if such a plane existed and could be made available. He began to think the idea may not have wings after all. Then he spoke with Paul Garber, a curator with the Smithsonian Institution. Garber listened intently and exclaimed, "There is such a plane—perhaps the only one that fits the bill—but it’s in our museum. It’s the one in which Bill Odom set the nonstop distance record for light aircraft, from Honolulu to New Jersey, in 1949" (Collier’s, 52 [emphasis in original]).

Incredible as it sounds, the Beechcraft Bonanza that the congressman was now walking around—tail number N80040 (nicknamed Old No. 4 because she was the fourth one built)—was indeed, as Garber told him, housed at the Smithsonian’s National Air Museum. The owner, the Beech Aircraft Corporation of Wichita, Kansas, enthusiastically agreed to lend him the plane with one small catch: Peter would have to pay the costs of any necessary recondition or refit.

Old No. 4 was already a distinguished aircraft and Peter considered it a stroke of great fortune that he found her. On March 7–8, 1949, Capt. William P. Odom piloted her (then under the name Waikiki Beech) from Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii, to Teterboro, New Jersey, setting a world nonstop distance record for light planes (Collier’s, 52; A Year of Anniversaries for Record-Setter Bill Odom and the Beechcraft 35 Bonanza, May 20, 2019, airandspace.si.edu). Peter was satisfied that she was up to the challenge of a 33,000-mile around-the-world journey, tentatively (depending on the weather and travel times) visiting forty cities and thirty nations. He held the plane and its prior pilot in high esteem, saying, Bill Odom was a pioneer in the modern flight era, and in my role of a pioneer air peace crusader, it is fitting that I should use the plane with which that great airman set one of his many records (Newsday, August 3, 1951).

For now, though, the Friendship Flame belonged to Peter, at least for the next few months. The interior and exterior had been customized for the flight at the Beech Aircraft factory in Wichita, and the refurbished ship was soon ready for her next voyage. Her engine had been completely rebuilt, and in addition to the factory-standard fuselage fuel tanks, auxiliary tanks had been added to the wings and wingtips so the plane could now store 268 gallons of gasoline.

Though she was more fuel-efficient than the large cars of the day, the Friendship Flame would still fly only eighteen miles for each gallon of fuel she burned. With the additional fuel tanks, she could fly five thousand miles—farther than a B-29 bomber—without refueling. This would prove vital near the end of the planned circumnavigation when Peter would fly across the Pacific Ocean from Asia to California with planned stops only at Iwo Jima, Wake Island, Midway Island, and Honolulu. The wingtip fuel tanks added another crucial benefit—they could be emptied and serve as flotation devices to keep the plane afloat in an emergency at sea (Collier’s, 52).

The Bonanza could reach airspeeds of 184 miles per hour, but Peter expected to cruise closer to 150, using about 7.7 gallons of gasoline per hour (Anacostia Naval Air Station Newsletter, October 5, 1951). Additional customizations for the Bonanza were a new metal propeller and updated radio equipment.

The plane was designed to carry one pilot and three passengers, but for Peter’s flight, the two rear passenger seats were removed to make room for supplies and equipment necessary for the global flight. Instead of a copilot, the front right seat was occupied by luggage and miscellaneous personal items.

She had been painted silver with scarlet detailing on the nose, both wingtips, and the outer sections of the V-tail. Red stripes decorated each side. Her new name, Friendship Flame, and the slogan Abraham Lincoln Good-Will World Tour had been freshly emblazoned in black paint on both sides of the fuselage and the cowling. The monoplane had undergone rigorous testing at the Beechcraft factory before Peter traveled to Wichita on September 21, 1951, to fly her back to Washington DC about two weeks before the world flight’s scheduled departure.

The pilot had also undergone extensive preparation himself. During September, he completed two weeks of navigational training with the Navy Air Transport Squadron One and flew a transport plane on a round trip to London (Illinois State Journal, September 19, 1951). He spent many hours with navy air navigation experts going over routes and possible weather patterns and learning what he could about each airport where he planned to land. One of his good friends, John Dean Jack Rice of Gillespie, Illinois, provided invaluable assistance with flight and aircraft preparations. On October 4, the Bonanza returned to Wichita for three days of final mechanical checks.

Once he had acquired a suitable craft, the other major challenge—financing the venture—became front and center. The congressman was adamant that no taxpayer funds would be used for any part of the flight. Looking back seventy years later, the $10,000 he budgeted for the 113-day mission seems miniscule, but to Peter in 1951, it was a hefty sum to raise.

Hobbs formed the Abraham Lincoln Good-Will World Tour Committee, a volunteer bipartisan team of local journalists, business owners, professionals, and farmers, who were tasked with soliciting contributions from constituents. The committee was headquartered at the Leland Hotel in Springfield, where members accepted donations and paid all bills related to the flight. When Peter needed money, he would contact Malden Jones, committee vice chairman, to cable cash to him wherever he was in the world. Donations came from Democrats and Republicans and ranged from pennies to $250. Ordinary citizens, including some school-age children, gave what they could. The Springfield Chamber of Commerce, the Jaycees, the Manufacturers and Employers Association, additional civic and business organizations, and many churches also made monetary contributions toward the flight.

In the end, the committee raised about half of the $10,000 needed for the flight. The rest came from Peter’s personal bank account, along with the $3,200 cost of retrofitting that he decided to pay himself. He was not a wealthy man, as his annual congressional salary was only $12,500, but he lived frugally and had saved about $6,000. His close-knit family had offered to pitch in if needed. He said the expense of the flight would be a small price to pay for peace and understanding in the world (Airline Pilot, October–November 1951). Peter was grateful to everyone who made the flight possible.

In August and September, Peter had obtained visas and landing permits for all the stops on his itinerary except one—he had not received permission to enter the Soviet Union and fly to Moscow. The congressman contacted the Russian Embassy in Washington about obtaining a visa and he finally visited a charming gentleman at the embassy named Chidirov, who promised that I probably would have clearance before my departure; if not, I could pick it up at the Russian legation in Helsinki. I never heard from him again (Collier’s, 52). His efforts to seek permission from the Soviet Union to travel to Moscow continued up to and even after the start of his trip. But permission never came, and Moscow was ultimately scratched from the itinerary.

The pilot fondly recalled the lively debate among his constituents about what to name the plane and her goodwill mission. There was a deep consensus to select a name incorporating Pres. Abraham Lincoln, who, a century earlier, had also represented the Springfield area when he was a US congressman. Lincoln spent many years living and practicing law in New Salem and later in Springfield, where he began his political career. He served in the Illinois General Assembly from 1834 to 1842 and then was elected to the US House of Representatives and served one term from 1847 to 1849 before returning home to practice law again. He was elected the sixteenth president of the United States in 1860.

The collective hope was that the Friendship Flame would light a few fires for peace (Airline Pilot, October–November 1951). The citizens of central Illinois believed the Abraham Lincoln Good-Will World Tour would ignite a flame of international friendship with local peoples and governments around the world, and Springfield and the surrounding communities would always be remembered as the home of Lincoln.

Chapter 2

Off the Ground

October 7, 1951, began as an ordinary day. Peter shared his favorite breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon, and buttered toast with his parents at the family home at 812 East 1st South Street in Carlinville. He showered, shaved, and dressed in a brown two-piece business suit, a white dress shirt, a tie, and dark-brown shoes.

It was a Sunday, but to Peter, that only meant there would be a full chapel instead of the handful of worshippers that he normally saw at daily Mass at St. Mary’s Catholic Church when he was home. He remembered his light-gray overcoat as he rushed out the door, but forgot his hat and barely reached St. Mary’s in time for 8:00 a.m. Mass. After the service, Peter lit a cigarette while he talked to his pastor, Father Robert McCarthy, outside the church. Father blessed him, made the sign of the cross over the congressman’s head, and said he would pray for his safe return. Peter slipped a rosary that Father McCarthy gave him into his coat pocket and promised he would pray to the Blessed Mother as often as possible during his tour.

The autumn chill was already in the air. Peter shivered while his bare hands clenched the car’s cold steering wheel as he drove to Carlinville’s sole airstrip a few miles east of town. The skies had turned gloomy overnight, warning of the approaching winter’s arctic blast of frigid air and heavy snowfall. When he arrived, his brother Paul and Bill, a childhood friend, were already at work examining the Friendship Flame’s engine and reviewing the final preflight checklist. The three had spent countless hours in the Mack garage over the past twenty-plus years tinkering with auto and airplane engines, taking them apart and reassembling them. Paul had a photographic memory and could even recall auto parts’ numbers. He was a seasoned pilot himself and had also served as a navy aviator during the last world war.

She’s magnificent, and she’s ready to go! Can you believe today is finally here? Paul said as he slapped his brother on the back. Peter nodded and walked around the plane several times. Your prep was thorough, and I know this plane is as ready as she will ever be. Departure has been delayed from nine thirty until noon so that everyone who wants to be here to say goodbye will not miss Sunday school and church services, Peter replied.

Any second thoughts about going it alone? Paul teased. I still have time to go get my flight suit. I could make sure you don’t miss those little islands in the middle of the Pacific.

Bill chimed in and said, Or I could go with you if you’d prefer a quieter companion.

Peter laughed and simply gestured toward the front right seat of the cockpit where there was not enough room for a spare ham sandwich, let alone a spare pilot.

Paul pulled the gasoline hose to the plane and filled all but the new auxiliary fuel tanks. The strong odor of gasoline permeated the air as Peter checked each wheel’s tire pressure. Bill gave the engine and the instrument panel one final visual check. He wiped his greasy hands on his faded blue jean overalls before he offered a hand to Peter, who continued to move the last boxes of supplies from his car onto the plane. Bill had limited experience in a cockpit, but he knew airplane engines and was thorough and diligent. Even so, as he always did, the pilot performed his own preflight routine as well. His checklist was permanently embedded in his memory and seemed as normal to him as brushing his teeth. Peter mentally ticked off each item as he walked around the plane. As he knew would be the case, his team had missed nothing, and the Flame was ready to go.

After the preparations were complete, Paul drove Peter’s car to Springfield, an hour’s drive, where he joined the rest of the family at the airport for the official send-off. Meanwhile, Peter sipped coffee from his thermos bottle as he watched the nearly deserted airfield in Carlinville slowly fill with churchgoers dressed in their Sunday-best clothes. They excitedly crowded around the silver plane, and small children clamored to sit in the pilot’s seat for a few minutes. Peter shook hands with his neighbors and friends as they bid him goodbye and posed for photographs next to the ship.

The Carlinville High School band played patriotic tunes until the brief ceremony began. Circuit Judge L. E. Wilhite stepped up onto a small hastily assembled wooden platform and spoke to the crowd of several hundred locals.

On this Sunday morning, in this land of liberty, in this congressional district once represented by the immortal [Abraham] Lincoln, we are gathered here without regard to political faith or religious creed, to pay our respects to Peter Mack, Jr., a fellow townsman who has elected to risk his life in a solo flight around the world, in the hope that he may in some measure assure the peoples of foreign lands that America wants to be friendly and at peace with all the world… We honor him for his laudable ambition, and we assure him that as he sails over oceans, mountains, and plains, he will carry with him the well-wishes and the prayers of every worthy American, and particularly of those who know him best and who not only honor him for his heroic effort but love him for his sterling character. (Macoupin County Enquirer, October 11, 1951)

Carlinville mayor Virgil Clark presented Peter with a small bottle of black soil from the town square park so he would have a piece of his hometown with him during his flight. Knowing that Peter was of Irish descent, Police Chief Sam McCormick gave him a shamrock, a four-leaf clover for good luck during his journey (Collier’s, 52). Resolutions from the local Lions Club and Knights of Columbus chapter were read aloud by Denby R. Boring and Joe Dunn, respectively. The aviator thanked everyone who had