The Flying Tiger Line has always been heavily involved in chartered passenger airlifts in support of humanitarian efforts all over the world. In 1948 and 1949, only three years after its founding, FTL was instrumental in the Yemenite Airlift which involved the relocation of almost 50,000 Jews from Yemen to the new State of Israel.
However, no humanitarian effort was more extensive or long lasting than the transportation by Flying Tigers of over 1,000 Korean War orphans to new homes in the United States from the late 50’s into the 60’s.
The Korean War, a large-scale conflict between North and South Korea, lasted from 1950 to 1953. As is often the case in the aftermath of war, the children left alone without family present the most tragic result for which a brutal toll is often paid. It is estimated that over 100,000 Korean children were orphaned or displaced across the Korean Peninsula, separated from their parents by death, geography and poverty.
Enter Harry and Bertha Holt, a simple farmer and his wife from Creswell, Oregon who, driven by their faith, compassion and generosity, created world renowned attention and focus on the humanitarian crisis that still existed long after the war was over. In 1956, they revolutionized the definition of family when they adopted their own eight children. They pioneered international adoption efforts and founded Holt International, which still exists to this day.
As featured in the January 1959 issue of Tigereview, Harry Holt, described as a “one-man baby-lift,” arranged for the transportation of 107 unwanted children aboard a Flying Tiger Super H Constellation from Seoul, Korea to Portland, Oregon during the 1958 Christmas weekend. Besides the aircraft, fuel and crew to fly the 8,000-mile distance, Flying Tigers arranged for food supplies, medical and nursing aid on the flight and during fuel stops at Wake and Honolulu. Shown left to right: Navigator Sy Cohen, Captain Al Perrault, Captain Robert Raines and Flight Engineer Leroy Tripp with one of the nurses that accompanied the children.
The children ranged in age from less-than-one year, of which there were 50, to an 11-year-old. They were accompanied by an additional 18 escorts – nurses, doctors and stewardesses, and the flight thus transported probably the largest number of persons ever carried at the time, 125, on a single aircraft across the Pacific. The aircraft landed in Portland, with more than 100 waiting parents from 21 states on hand to claim their new children. Holt, himself, had crossed the Pacific more than a dozen times in setting up the project but was not present to greet the flight. Instead, he sent his wife, Bertha while he stayed home to care for eight of his own adopted orphans. At right: Mrs. Bertha Holt upon arrival with Ray Keiser, District Sales Manager of Portland
One of the escorting passengers and daughter of the Oregon farmers was Molly Holt.
“This was our best trip,” beamed Holt, as she sought out her mother at the airport, crowded with waiting parents and spectators. “We didn’t have any trouble except for four children running temperatures. But that isn’t anything when you have 107 of them!”
Above, then left to right: Stewardesses Lilah Carey, Anna Lou Spino, and Susan Carll after arrival on Portland ramp
Another airlift featured in the November-December 1963 Tigereview utilized a Flying Tiger CL-44 prop-jet which operated from Seoul to Los Angeles on November 30, 1963. In previous “Baby Lifts,” children were simply flown to the United States. This was the first flight under a new law which required that new parents first fly to Korea to meet and visit with their new children before adoption. Accordingly 58 such couples were flown to Seoul a week earlier by FTL crewmembers (left to right: Capt. Stuart McMahon, Navigator Jack Wanzer, Flight Engineer Hank Germain and Captain Robert Zalusky with stewardesses Elizabeth Lambert, Joy Yates, Carolyn Lee, Sally Zajac and Dorothy Martinson. The new parents then accompanied their 81 children, ranging in age from two weeks to 14 years old. The plane landed at Los Angeles International Airport with a total of 194 persons aboard, believed to be the largest number of persons every carried in a commercial airliner at the time. The aircraft actually departed Seoul 22 hours earlier with 197 persons onboard, but one couple and their new child were left behind during a planned stop in Anchorage, Alaska because of illness of the child. The stop was made to clear customs and avoid the confusion that would arise from a combination of customs and welcome at Los Angeles. Continuing down to LAX, a crowd of several hundred friends and relatives of the couples was on hand to greet them.
Details of the flight were handled for FTL by Eddie Holohan of the Los Angeles Contract Sales staff, who devoted his entire time to the project over a period of several weeks, handling such problems as immigration, customs, public health and a myriad other details. According to the article, another flight was planned for April, 1964.
Reporter Jack Baldwin of the Copley Press, which published a chain of newspapers at the year, accompanied the flight and said the following in part. “I guess it’s the greatest story I ever covered,” he remarked. “I have never been so emotionally affected in my life. I haven’t cried since I was a kid, but you couldn’t keep the tears back among so many wonderful people and such heart-warming children.
At left: Stewardess Tresso Koken aboard the aircraft with her orphans in cradles specially designed by FTL.
Unfortunately, Harry Holt died suddenly on April 28, 1964 at the age of 60 while returning from downtown Seoul to the orphanage he had established in Ilsan Seo, Goyang-si, Gyeonggi, Korea. He was buried near his orphanage, next to one of the graves of the children that he loved so much. Some 4,000 persons attended his funeral. The group of children that he had arranged for adoption in Seoul was flown back to the United States shortly thereafter and on schedule via Tigers. See May-June 1964 Tigereview for more details.
More on the Holts and the renowned organization that they developed can be found at History of Holt International