FRANKFURT GERMANY OPS 1967 ONA F/A /DC-8 CHECKOUT AND GRADUATION OF JUNE 1966 INTERNATIONAL AIR BAHAMA 1968

ONA NEW YORK 1967! Elisabeth Gustavsson Gyllman, Marianne Mathiessen Ohman and Jacquie Cuvier in new uniform with suede coat.

HONOLULU, HAWAII 1967 Birgit Schnor and Elisabeth

DC-8 galley 1966 Johanna Heinrich Echols and Elisabeth

LOS ANGELES 1967 Bill O´Hara at left - Anne Braddock Preede and Elisabeth

FRANKFURT GERMANY Senior stewardess Crew Briefing Wanda Acevedo, Marie Warberg Curman, Nettie Miller and Elisabeth

LAS VEGAS AIRPORT Eivor Johansson Hedin and Elisabeth

Nettie Miller and Elisabeth ANCHORAGE ALASKA 1967 Karin Baardsen Evensen and Elisabeth

Elisabeth at Camh Ranh Bay Camh Ranh Bay, Vietnam Crew Layover at Tokyo Hotel Korakuen, Tachikawa 1966 Bob Houlihan

CAMH RANH BAY, VIETNAM, SPRING 1967 On the photo I am standing right by the plane and was off the aircraft only minutes since we were ushered onboard again, just so that we could say we had touched Vietnamese soil with our feet! It was very hot and we had the thick new uniforms on. In my hand I have a small roll of paper that a GI gave me and asked me to phone the person he had noted on the paper, I got several pieces of paper after the first one, I also got dollar bills to cover the phone call cost once I got back to the States. I was in Vietnam with Fifi LaBine as chief stew, Johanna Heinrich, Margarita Ortiz, and one more which I forgot the name of. Male crew was Bob Houlihan (ONA´s answer to Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt AND Richard Geere!) and Bill Whitesell, which I have on photos from that very trip, unfortunately I forget the rest of the names of cockpit crew. Flights to Vietnam originated from McGuire AFB New Jersey with first leg to Anchorage Alaska, that time. Then on to Tachikawa AFB, Japan and then finally to Camh Ranh Bay. From Camh Ranh Bay we ferried the plane, a DC-8, to Frankfurt Germany, to pick up next flight. I dont remember where the intermediate landing was from Camh Ranh, first Bombay and then probably Abu Dhabi or Kuweit. Some adventure! It was so weird having that big DC-8 to ourselves empty without passengers as we ferried to Frankfurt, contrasting the crammed flight we had from Tachikawa to Camh Ranh. In Tachikawa outside Tokyo Japan, we stayed at the Hotel Korakuen in Tachikawa, a real Japanese hotel. In the room was the bathroom with the Japanese bathtub kind of cubicle tub where you sit and bathe. The matresses were rolled out on the floor to sleep, there were small partitions between different spaces in the room and the partitions were dressed in rice paper, which made you feel you slept with seethro walls. In the room was a guest service pink kimono that I wore in the hotel garden! Returning from Vietnam to Tokyo, we stayed in the Tokyo Hilton in town. Hotel Korakuen Tachikawa Tokyo

VIET CONG EAR IN A GLASS JAR After another ONA flight to Honolulu Hawaii in 1967 - New York - Los Angeles - Honolulu, I was on layover in Honolulu. The crew stayed a whole glorious week each time we took tourists to Hawaii. I sat with F/A senior Marianne Meissner at a bar close to the Waikiki Beach. I was 20 years old and having a ball! The bar was kind of darkish tho it was afternoon and full sunshine outside. I came right out of the boondocks in Sweden a little earlier and life was thrilling and fast and I had to try everything! Beside me sat a nicelooking guy and we started talking. He said he was on short leave from Vietnam for a couple of days and I was thrilled to pieces and couldnt quite grasp that one day you were in a war and then you got leave to have holidays. I dont remember where he said he had been to fight but after a while he hauled a jar with some liquid in it from his pocket and sat it on the bardesk. As I recall it the jar still had a brandname on it, a label, like a jar of peanutbutter would have. - Do you know what this is, he asked. I looked and since it was rather dark in the room I couldnt make out what was floating in the jar. - This here is a Viet Cong ear, he said. He explained he had been in combat and had killed a Viet Cong gerilla soldier and had taken one ear as a kind of souvenir. I dont recall the guy´s name but the story stuck forever in my mind and I thought a lot about how he actually got that ear and still think about it often. The fear of dying that makes you go almost insane I can imagine, being in combat and waiting to get killed yourself, or kill someone. It really had impact on me, this happening in sunny Honolulu, sunshine paradise with leis and maitais, far away from the war scene. These are my Vietnam memories.

Elisabeth on hotel balcony close to Waikiki Beach, Honolulu, Hawaii

Elisabeth in school! Later years´ language lessons

Later years´ language lessons by Elisabeth Gyllman

IN FOND AND LOVING REMEMBRANCE OF ALL ONA FRIENDS AND COLLEAGUES WHO ARE NO LONGER WITH US