Northwest History. Alaska. Crosson, Joe.

• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1936
• Subjects: Joe Crosson; Alaska; mercy pilot; Lockheed Electra; the Pacific-Alaska Airways; San Diego; Will Rogers; Wiley Post; Walter Hall; Murray Hall; department of commerce engineer; transportation; dog team; Fairbanks; Bethel; Nome; Juneau; Pan-American Airways; Del Valle; Seattle; Northwest; Pacific > History > 20th century; Pacific
• Online Access: http://content.libraries.wsu.edu/cdm/ref/collection/clipping/id/90139

Modest Pilot Won't Discuss His Own Life: Joe Crosson Will Talk About Any Phase Of Flying -- Except Himself. MODEST PILOT WON'T DISCUSS HIS OWN LIFE Joe Crosson Will Talk About Any Phase of Flying— Except Himself. There's one thing about which Joe Crosson, famed Alaska "mercy pilot," will not speak—himself. His job, the future of flying, anything in regard to aviation but not himself, are Crosson's topics of conversation. "You don't want a story on me," Crosson grinned. "Flying is' great but the pilots aren't important. GOOD SHIP "We always get credit for what a good ship can do." Crosson is about six feet tall, dark haired and broad-shouldered. He wears a short-clipped moustache and appears to be about 35 years of age. Tests were to be made Saturday of a new type of ski landing apparatus on the Lockheed Electra which Crosson will fly for the Pacific-Alaska Airways in Alaska. Joe began flying about 13 years ago in San Diego. He's been at the job ever since and likes it fine. Perhaps the saddest duty he ever had to perform was the job of taking the bodies of Will Rogers and Wiley Post from their crash scene in Alaska last summer. Wiley Post had been an intimate friend of the Mercy Pilot for many years. Walter Hall, Crosson'! co-pilot first met Crosson where he was on a bear-hunting trip in Alaska. Post was the third man on the trip. PRAISES PILOT Hall proved another man who wouldn't talk very much. He just couldn't help saying something about Joe. "How good is Joe?" he asked. "He's just as good a pilot as newspapers say he is, and that's measuring up a lot better than some!" Murray Hall, incidentally not a brother of Walter, is the department of commerce engineer who will pass on the flights today. "Everytime a radically new piece of machinery is to be put into commercial flying," Hall explained, "the department of commerce must first pass on it. Tests will be made from the field here with different weights in the ship." PLANES IMPORTANT In Alaska, the flyers explained, air travel is becoming the most important mode of travel. There are three ways of transportation; air, train or dog team. Traveling by dog team is much the costlier and takes months. Crosson will serve as operations manager of the 12 ships which offer year-around service between Fairbanks, Bethel, Nome and Juneau. The company is a subsidiary of Pan-American Airways which recently blazed the air trail across the Pacific ocean. With Crosson and Hall is Engineer Del Valle, representative of the Pan-American Airways. When the test is completed here, Crosson and Co-Pilot Hall will proceed to Alaska, via Seattle.