April 28, 2009

Fliers tell about 'seeing the elephant'

Marion Barnett (right) and Cicero Lucas (left) provided a program on "The Greatest Pilot that No One Knew: Jim Ryan" for the Washington Kiwanis Club at its regular meeting last Tuesday. Barnett gave a history of the Flying Tiger Airline that became Air America, the secret airline of the CIA in the 1960s. He decribed some of the missions he flew over Vietnam and Laos dropping rice to some of the United States' friends during that time. He mentioned that he took his first flight in Washington from the old football field and went on leave Washington to "see the elephant." This phrase, used by military men since at least the third century B.C., became synonymous with journeys and experiences in strange and far-off places. Club President Sherry Hudson (center) welcomed them to the meeting.