First 'Air Force One' To Be Retired
By Jamie McIntyre/CNN
ANDREW AIR FORCE BASE, Md. March 18 -- The first jet to be des-
ignated "Air Force One" is being retired later this year, heading
for a museum at Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio.
The Air Force Boeing 707 with tail number 26000 has a storied
past. It was state-of-the-art when it became President John F.
Kennedy's plane in 1962.
Over the span of three and a half decades it served seven pres-
idents, but it is most remembered for the somber last flight it gave
its first chief, in November 1963.
"This is the airplane that flew President Kennedy to Texas and
flew his body back to Washington ... after the body being placed
aboard, President Johnson was sworn in as president of the United
States," remembers Joe Chappell, retired Chief Master Sergeant.
Explaining that the plane's bulkhead was easily removed,
Chappell said, "The crew didn't want President Kennedy's casket to
travel in the cargo hold, so they made room for it in the passenger
compartment. We removed the seats, two rows of seats ..."
The historic aircraft, only called Air Force One when the pres-
ident is on board, took Kennedy to Berlin in 1963, Secretary of State
Henry Kissinger to Paris in 1970 for secret talks with the North
Vietnamese and President Richard Nixon to China in 1972.
This year, in what could have been its last duty as Air Force
One, it rescued President Bill Clinton when his jumbo jet got stuck
in the mud in Illinois.
* And it even took celebrated ex-White House intern Monica Lewinsky
to Europe on her last trip with Defense Secretary William Cohen. *
The venerable aircraft has logged more han 13,000 flying hours,
and million of miles carrying not just presidents, but cabinet sec-
retaries, congressional delegations and heads of state.
In 1981 it carried former Presidents Nixon, Gerald Ford and Jimmy
Carter to the funeral for Egypt's Anwar Sadat. But the prime state-
room was commandeered by Secretary of State Al Haig, because he was
the official representive of President Ronald Reagan.
Retired Chief Master Sergeant Stan Goodwin was radio operator on
that memorable flight. "It was one and only time that I'd seen three
president and two secretaries of state standing in line to go to the
men's room," Goodwin recalled.
What do folks like to do when they are on Air Force One? Why,
use the phone to call friends and brag, like the time unsuccessful
presidential candidate Humbert Humphrey was given a lift by President
Nixon.
"He came on board. The president allowed him to sit in the pres-
ident's seat, and he made 150 telephone calls between Minnesota and
Washington, D.C., to tell people he finally made it on Air Force
One, and he finally made it to the president's chair," Goodwin said.
Next May this workhorse of the presidential fleet will make it
last flight, to the Air Force museum in Ohio, where it take its
well-earned place in aviation history.
Goodwin said, "We made a lot of progress and have done a lot of
good ... but there are sad memories bestowed on this airplane; hope-
fully we will not have that happen in the future."
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Airport Concourse Evacuated
CLEVELAND -- A passenger terminal at Cleveland's largest airport
was evacutated Wednesday after a man rushed through a security
checkpoint and disappeared.
About 1,500 people were escorted from a concourse at Cleveland
Hopkins International Airport while police and dogs trained to sniff
out bombs conducted a search. Passengers from about 20 planes wait-
ing to take off were also evacuated as a precaution.
Passengers were permitted to return two hours later and about a
dozen planes were delayed for up to 1 1/2 hours as a result of the
scare.
The man went through the exit instead of the screening checkpoint
at Concourse C, said Latisha James, program coordinator for the
Department of Port Control, which oversees the city's airports.
After security personnel were unable to locate him, authorities
cleared the concourse as a precaution.
"They didn't find anything," James said. "They think maybe it
was just someone in a hurry to catch a plane."
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