by TOM FENWICK, RON ROBERTI AND TOM HUF 
1933 Cadillac and a WR1 Wolf F1 race car  Lockheed L-188 Electra N284F at JFK in 1973 
It´s wonderful to see pictures of some of the old ONA gang!
It brings back
so many memories of great friends and good times. The 60s, 70s and 80s had
to be the best years of my flying career with ONA and I miss it very
much.
Crew photos wanted! I have a favor to ask. I want to have some of my memorabilia from my flying days framed so that my children will have something of me in my younger days. So much was lost when I moved to Houston. Any of the old gang that might have some pictures of me in the ONA days I sure would like to have some copies. Should any of you guys have a picture of me in uniform, a hat emblem and a pair of wings, I would be more than happy to pay for them, they can be sent to my home address. My address is in the passworded listings at the crew caption on this web. 
A gifted ship model construction artistRON ROBERTI IS REPRESENTED AT THE HOUSTON MARITIME MUSEUM OCTOBER 7, 2006 Cheers from Ron! For the gal that plans on moving to Italy I hope things have changed since our flights back in the 70's! I had many trips to Rome, Milan and a few to Sicily. You could not drink the water and they did not have any refrigerators.  In Sicily they didn't have hot water until after 6 pm. Otherwise the fun we had made up for it. On my first trip to Sicily we spent the night in Catania which is the birthplace of my grandparents so I went to their city hall and found out where my grandfather was buried and I was able to put flowers on his grave. They came to America in the early 1900s but after many years grandpa went back to Sicily. Grandma lived with us for the rest of her life. She was 97 when she died. She had 13 children,77 grandchildren and 45 greatgrandchildren. When I told my mother what I had done while in Sicily she flipped out! My brother also worked for ONA, his name is Tommy Delessio and he worked in the stock room at JFK. All the best from F/E Ron Roberti 
Joe Iscareo and navigator Franzek, Los Angeles 1967, outside Holiday Inn We had a lot of long hard trips but the fun we had made up for it. I live in Houston, Texas now and I retired 6 years ago and work on my hobby full time. Right now I'm busy finishing up a ship model for a client but in about 2 wks. I'll answer your request for more ONA stories. I do have many stories but some are probably not for publication!
 Captain Ed Veronelli, F/O David Mulligan and F/E Ed Kaye The guys that I had the most fun flying with were Tom Fenwick, Jim Hamilton, Tom Huff, Eddy Kaye, Dave Case, Ed Chandler and the most fun of all was with Ed Veronelli. Tony Gaeta and I became close friends during the Elecra days in OKC and our families visited often. So far I have heard from Tom Fenwick, Sam Rogers, Jack Gold and Dave Case. Greetings from Ron! A man and his ever-nagging wife went on vacation to Jerusalem. While they were there, the wife passed away. The undertaker told the husband, "You can have her shipped home for $5,000, or you can bury her here, in the Holy Land, for $150." The man thought about it and told him he would just have her shipped home. The undertaker asked, "Why would you spend $5,000 to ship your wife home, when it would be wonderful to be buried here and you would spend only $150?" The man replied, "Long ago a man died here, was buried here, and three days later he rose from the dead. I just can't take that chance.  The Gibson Girls Maureen Hanna Perincheef and Fifi LaBine working the emergency transmitter, popularly named The Gibson Girl, at DC-8 ditch training, Holiday Inn, Jamaica New York in June 1966.  Photo to the right - Ulla Andersson and Christine Zintz, ONA 1968 You gals really took good care of us up front and I for one really appreciated it. The burp bags of miniatues sure helped make for some good layover parties. I was with ONA about 20 yrs. I started back when we had DC6s as a mechanic, then the company folded. When they started back up I came back as a maintenance rep. We still had only DC6s at that time, early 60s. Then came the DC8, DC9 and Electra so I started flying around 1965 or 66 until the end. 
JEDDAH GALAXIE 1975 Galaxie - The Love Boat Photo courtesy Maggie Lloyd Zeibak I hated flying the Hadj every year but when we had the cruise ship it was a blast! The love boat was the talk of the middle east for a long time. |
SPECTACULAR SHIP BUILDING USS Constitution American Flagship,
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