The missing Malaysian airliner brought back some memories of another airliner that disappeared without a trace on March 16, 1962. It was Flight 739 and it disappeared shortly after taking off from Guam. It had 93 U.S. Army personnel, 3 Vietnamese soldiers and a crew of 11. I have a somewhat personal connection to Flight 739. On March 15, 1962, when I was 13 years old, my family and I were waiting to fly out of Guam back to the States to visit my dying grandfather. At the terminal, while we were waiting to board our flight, Flight 739 landed and taxied up and stopped directly behind our plane. I remember the soldiers disembarking from their plane and entering the terminal. They were so glad to be off the plane after a long flight and able to stretch their legs. Most were joking and laughing with each other. One of the soldiers, an Asia-American, who I now believe was James Wong, bought me a coke. After a little while, the soldiers watched us as we boarded our plane and took off on our flight to Hawaii. When we landed at Honolulu, my dad told us that Flight 739 had vanished a short while after it left Guam. This made quite an impression on a 13 year old youngster. I learned that one minute you can be so alive and vibrant and the next minute youre gone. To this day, I have never forgotten the soldiers of Flight 739 and can still see them coming into the terminal building on Guam, forever young and alive.
Posted on: Sun, 09 Mar 2014 22:22:08 +0000
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