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Wall of Honor Level:
Air and Space Friend

Honored by:
Susan Jansen

Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum Wall of Honor

Honoree: Stephen Joseph Gledich

Stephen J. Gledich was born in Hartford, Connecticut on October 18, 1924. After graduating from Buckeley High School, Hartford, Connecticut, in June 1942, he was recruited by Colt Firearms. Not enjoying office work, he enrolled at Samson Tech Aviation School, in Hartford, for a 2 year course in Aircraft and Aircraft Engines Maintenance. He opted to take the accelerated course, condensing the course into 14 months, completing A&E School in July 1943. He immediately took the FAA exams and received his A&E licenses.

All the airlines having Army MATS or Navy NATS needed mechanics and he was hired by Pan American Airways in August 1943 at LaGuardia, NY, into the Navy Reserves-Inactive. PAA operated Boeing 314 and Navy PB2Y-3R Airboats. He worked plane overhaul, line crew and propeller overhaul. PAA had a training school for Flight Engineers which sounded good, but had a wait list of 6-8 years.

So in 1944 he went into active service with the Navy, assigned to Flight-Gunner Aviation Machinist Mate School in Norman Oklahoma, where he lost his company by spending 2 months in the hospital with pneumonia. He then picked up another company and completed training, after which he was sent to Pensacola, Florida, and assigned to Air-Sea Rescue, periodically flying PBY Flying Boats to get flight pay. The war ended and he was discharged in July, 1946.

With no jobs available in the airlines, he went to work for Western Electric, installing new telephone equipment in Manhattan Telephone Centers. He married in 1948 and lost his job after his honeymoon.

He was hired as a mechanic by United Airlines, where he worked Line Crew at LaGuardia and Newark. Airlines began putting Flight Engineers on domestic flights so he took the FAA exam in 1951 and applied at American Airlines, where he started in April 3, 1951. After 6 weeks accelerated training he was assigned to Midway, Chicago, Illinois, flying CHI-LAX-SFO-PHX-Washington. The best flying while in Chicago was CHI-LAX at night, 8 hours, flying low over lit up towns and cities- over the Rockies, around and through thunderstorms with no radar and no autopilot.

Stephen was then transferred to LaGuardia, Queens, NY in 1953, where he also earned his private flying license. At this time he was qualified on Douglas DC-6, DC-7 and DC-10, Boeing 707 passenger and freighter, Lockheed Electra, Consolidated 990 and Boeing 747. He later qualified on the 747 to fly the Vietnam Airlift, but the war ended before his first scheduled flight. The best flying in the 1970s and 80s were the long hauls - JFK-HNL, nonstop 10 hours depending on winds, then on to Fiji, Sydney, Australia, Auckland, New Zealand and Pango-Pango. And the Caribbean was beautiful, flying over the islands scatted in the Caribbean Sea. He enjoyed traveling world by plane with his wife and children.
His favorite planes to fly were the Boeing 707 and then 747. The most beautiful planes were the
Boeing 314 Flying Boats.

He retired from "the best job in the world" on April 1, 1984 after 33 years with American Airlines.

Submitted in honor of Stephen J. Gledich by
John and Susan Jansen, Krista Jansen and Lara, Matthew, Leah & Benjamin Rouillard
19 Cedar Lake East, Denville, NY 07834
Phone: 973-625-8210 email: sajansen2@hotmail.com