View Single Post
Old 03-18-2020, 05:37 PM
  #15  
Cicada
Gets Weekends Off
 
Joined APC: Jun 2019
Posts: 303
Default

Originally Posted by Hank Kingsley View Post
Educated

Where the Crawdads Sing
Good one,

Flying Drunk, by Joe Balzer

True story of a NWA Pilot arrested along with the rest of his crew for flying intoxicated. After revocation of all certificates and a year in jail, the author re acquires all certificates and is ultimately re employed as a pilot for American Airlines. Currently LAX Captain. True story.


To one of the finest men I have ever know, Captain Cecil Ewell, May you Rest In Peace. Cecil Ewell was a man of Faith. He was a man of courage. He was a man of honesty. He was a man of great wisdom. Many men had the opportunity to help me in a time of great need, but Captain Ewell was the man who’s actions and courage changed my life. Not a single major airline would even send me a postcard reply to my applications. I walked into his office in December 1998, playing the last card I had in my hand. Nobody in the majors was ever going to hire me to fly. As I walked into his office, He was signing letters to personally congratulate each and every new hire pilot, welcoming them to AMERICAN Airlines. I told him I was a convicted felon, that I had been fired from a major airline, lost all of my licenses through emergency revocation, and spent 5 years in the penal system including a year in prison. I told him “I had to attach my heart to this application because nobody else would even read it” With that he put his pen down, looked up at me, and asked me to take a seat. He was already late for a meeting at headquarters, but he didn’t care. I told him my story. He said to me, “You haven’t done anything all the rest of us haven’t done, you just got caught.” I almost fell out of the chair. He told me later that he was almost falling out of his. He told me , as he drew a large circle on his desk with his finger, “you know Joe, some times you make a mistake in life, and things go full circle, and you get back to a point where someone is willing to give you a second chance”. Having been through a lot of hell the previous 9 years, emotions in that moment are impossible to describe. I knew I was in the presence of a very special man. He set me up for an interview with as he put it, “no special treatment”. “Just go down there and do a good job, it will be up to the board”. I was totally flabbergasted. He said to me, “You are my hero, you never gave up on your dream”. The next week after the interview, I went back in to thank him. He told me the board was unanimous and gave the thumbs up to hire me. Only one catch. This honest man told me he had to take it to his boss, Mr. Bob Baker, the man who was running AMERICAN Airlines. A few days later I received a call from Renee Hair, knowing I was rejected by American (because Cecil always made the calls himself) my heart sank, and I again felt the lead in my stomach and the rejection I had experienced so many times before. Renee apologized to me and said Captain Ewell was out of the office, and he didn’t want to keep me in limbo over the Christmas holiday, and wanted to know if I was still interested in flying for American? My knees buckled and I hit the floor. The rest is history. After my first line trip and completing OE, Mr. Baker called me at home and welcomed me to American Airlines. To quote Cecil again, he told me, “To hell with the naysayers!!!!!” I am a civilian pilot. I told Cecil a few weeks later at our class indock that I had a squadron of civilian pilots who I would love to recommend for hire. One of them didn’t even have a college degree (happens to be one of the smartest guys and best pilots I’ve ever known) . Cecil hired them all. I have been blessed to fly with many fine men. Captain Cecil Ewell is in a class of his own. God Bless you Cecil, your wonderful wife Rhoda, your fine son and your grandchildren. You will be sorely missed. Captain Joe Balzer LAX
Cicada is offline