Begin forwarded message:
From: Sharyn Bovat <sharynbovat@icloud.com>Subject: This is what i did today on Memoir Monday...Date: October 21, 2014 at 12:26:40 PM EDTTo:
Hello & Happy Monday: Just to get a job i gotta explain HOW i got sucked into the 80’s stuff so I'm working on a memoir…isn’t it odd that i’d be asked to spy for the President the SAME year my Uncle became in charge of White House press flights? When I learned I was really just a spy for Nancy it made me feel less important. Now I think it’s cool:):)More soon…. SharynFYI - I’m dyslexic and this is NOT easy.I first began flying White House charters in 1984 when President Reagan made a trip to China. …” Bill Frisbie (my uncle the former Chief Pilot of Pan Am who led Presidential Airport commission for both Reagan & Bush- multiple times he testified to the Senate Intelligence committee & some believe he lied about Lockerbie to protect the President-to this day I do not know “which one” …. )
“A Presidential trip overseas is an enormous undertaking. The Presidential staff does not want the public to know the size and cost of these trips. Advanced teams go to each stopover with operations, security and support people and special vehicles – all bullet proof – are flown to each city to await the arrival of Air Force One. Bill Frisbie (I was asked by Dean Lesher (owner of the Contra Costa Times) in 1984 to be a “friendly fixture” a pair of ears for America. Years later I learned some research & tasks that I did went to Nancy Reagan & others went to the FBI. Google Buck Revell…. creepyIn December 1989 I was asked to plan a democracy trip to the USSR - with a suitcase filed with Cosmopolitan magazines I traveled to RUSSA in winter 1990- after the official Pan Am report came out saying drug trafficking was involved in the crash of Pan Am flight 103. I was told that we had to "end communism" so Bush would not get the credit. OMG!!! I believed everything I was told back then.....After being held by KGB (some say they were working w/CIA wanting to know “if” i’d talk about the Lockerbie Bombing,…)… i do not know the facts and still haunted by being abducting in my hotel room in the early morning hours.My uncle was chief pilot of Pan Am, my grandfather instead in December ALL the family meet in Pebble Beach not just for Christmas but the week before Christmas, Papa (what I called my grandfather) kept asking if my cousin Carol was accounted for & he only felt at peace when each cousin arrived & or had their no show excuse verified.. Carol was a Pan Am flight attendant who flew LOTS of Heathrow flights, later i learned the significance of Papa’s concern. The memories of that week were an emotional high: The feeling of being part of “real” family that was protecting is own. Knowing papa cared so deeply about wanted us together that week made me feel special - yet not knowing why. The mood crashed when the phone rang in the late/morning & my grandfather said the call was for my uncle…. silence. Everyone stood did not seem surprised he seem solum - he asked for names of the crew. The family reunion was over…
Tom Huffaker When i met him at the age of 19 in 1984 was a divorce lawyer in Lafayette CA, my mom couldn’t stand the thought of me dating a lawyer that was “just” an associate for a local law firm so Tom got fast tracked to become a US diplomat. Today he’s an Oil Exec. We broke up when i learned he got the job. Actually it was when Mr. Lesher learned that he got the job. He told me my mom wanted me to live in some 3rd world country and I’d have a boring life with no TV… later I accused Tom of sleeping with my mother (literally) & threw the engagement ring into a heat grate. He then met his current wife Clair during diplomat training… I hear she’s a great lady.Going Back- I met Tom when I was doing election night reporting for a local TV station (Dean Lesher a friend of the Reagan’s got me the job)…. Sadly my television career was cut short because of my immaturity: Tom was at the county office monitoring vote counting for a friend of his running as a sacrifice for congress. It was boring waiting for the votes to be processed and my job was to get the #’s after the clerk released them and run to the only pay phone to call the TV station with updates (before cell phones) anyway Tom took me to a bar across the street and I forgot to call in the #’s for the 11 o’clock update. Mr Lesher summoned me to a meeting in his office at the Contra Costa Times he was NOT happy with my lack of professionalism - I told Mr. Lesher that the local judges distracted me with a drinking game based on who had the largest margin in their victories…they bought me drinks even when I told them I was 19. One said “if your Carolyn Bovat’s daughter your old enough to drink” .. then Mr. Lesher asked me “who were the judges?.. what else did they say…..” it was after that I got sucked into spying for the Reagan admin. looking back on it… I was young-curious & had no sense of boundaries- just what they needed.Below is from a Pan Am archive thing-it a source. Thank god for the internet the tech invention saved my bacon- Thanks Al Gore:):)
Bill Frisbie, another retired Pan American Captain, flew the 747’s. His experiences are included in a story he contributed to Pan American World Airways – Aviation history Through the Words of its People. Below are excerpts:“I first began flying White House charters in 1984 when President Reagan made a trip to China. The White House knew that I had flown all the proving and initial flights to Beijing, Shanghai and Canton starting in 1978 as the bamboo curtain began to fall, with the journey of the Boston Pops to Shanghai. The White House wanted the benefit of my China experience as China’s air traffic system was unbelievably backward, mostly ADF approaches, altitude measured in meters not feet, wind speed in meters per second and although the charters carried five crew members, they were all pilots who had no knowledge of navigation in the area. Also, in those days, the de-icing of a 747 was accomplished by opening the over wing emergency exits and having the Chinese beat the ice off the wings with bamboo sticks.“A Presidential trip overseas is an enormous undertaking. The Presidential staff does not want the public to know the size and cost of these trips. Advanced teams go to each stopover with operations, security and support people and special vehicles – all bullet proof – are flown to each city to await the arrival of Air Force One.“Many aircraft are involved. In addition to Air Force One, there is usually a backup Air Force One in case of a mechanical problem. Then there is the White House press plane, other passenger jets including 707’s, Gulfstream’s, Lear Jets and countless cargo and rescue aircraft.“On the White House press aircraft we carried cabinet staff members, security personnel and secret service members. We even took along our own customs and immigration staff so we could clear US government formalities onboard and also carried medical personnel.* * *“The longest duty day I remember was returning from Asia on the occasion of Emperor Hirohito’s memorial services. We left Tokyo before dawn for Seoul, South Korea and stayed at the airport all day during the President’s meetings. We then left Seoul around dusk for Washington and while en route we saw a sunrise and another sunset before landing in Andrews well before dark – and then we had to ferry the aircraft back to JFK.* * *“All of our trips were exciting as we were witnesses to history. I especially remember the 1987 economic summit which was held in Venice– what a beautiful and romantic place. We also included a side trip to Rome. Then we left for Berlin where President Reagan delivered an address at the Brandenburg Gate in front of the Berlin Wall exhorting President Gorbachev of the Soviet Union to ‘tear down that wall’. The flight to Berlin was a challenge as we landed at Templehof Airport that was used in the Berlin airlift following World War II. We had to fly between the apartment buildings on landing and had only 4,300 feet of runway with no glide path aids. The runway was actually longer than 4,300 feet but was only 143 feet wide so the 747 could only use the first 4,300 feet to permit a turn-around.“In December of 1988, shortly before leaving office, President Reagan invited our crew to meet with him and have lunch at the White House in appreciation for the support the White House received from Pan Am. This was a great thrill and remains to this day one of my greatest memories from my flying days.”
