Thanksgiving

CLXII

The China Clipper left Wake at 6:01 A.M., one minute behind schedule, on November 27^th, bound for Guam 1311 miles and nine hours away. When the China Clipper touched down in Apra Harbor, the crew were amazed. Guam had a population of just over 20,000, and it appeared that every single Guamanian was waiting to greet them. To a cacophony of bands, drums, conch shells, truck horns and Navy sirens, Ed Musick and his crew were met by the Governor of Guam, Captain George A. Alexander. He pumped each of their hands enthusiastically.

Capt. George A. Alexander was the 38^th Naval Governor of Guam. He purged the Guamanian legal code of old Spanish laws and replaced them with a legal system based on the Code of California, lobbied (unsuccessfully) for Guamanians to be U.S. citizens (a right conferred by Congress in 1952), and after his tenure, commanded the U.S.S. Arizona (1936-1937)

Musick and his crew were a little bewildered. They knew that the China Clipper was news, and they knew that it was worldwide news, but it seemed that the further it traveled the greater the excitement. Except for size, the reception at Guam exceeded anything they had experienced at Alameda or Honolulu.

Pan American employee Bill Taylor at Guam with the China Clipper in the background, 1935

Wake and Midway, too, had celebrated far out of proportion, and the crew put it down to the fact that not much else happened in these isolated corners of the world. There was that; but the China Clipper in a very real sense represented America, and more importantly, was a tangible symbol of American interest in its far-flung colonial holdings. By flying the Pacific, Pan American Airways was, in effect, bringing Midway, Wake, Guam, and the Philippines under the protective shadow of the wings of the American eagle.

 

The officers of the China Clipper outside the Pan American Skyways Hotel, 1935

If the PAAville colony on Wake felt isolated, Guam felt surrounded. The rest of the Mariana Islands were Japanese territory, and the nightglow of Saipan could be seen from Guam on moonless clear nights. Of late, Japanese warplanes had overflown Guam in transparent attempts at intimidation --- they weren’t on their way to anywhere else because there was nowhere else to go. And, like clockwork, the Japanese lodged a formal diplomatic protest with Washington after the clipper landed at Guam, stating that the Pan American aircraft had violated Japanese airspace. The protests became a part of ordinary life until the start of the Pacific War.* 

The Japanese might claim Wake as a possession, but Guam was literally in their front yard. Anything that bound Guam closer to the United States was a welcome improvement.

The binding was somewhat metaphorical. With the China Clippers, Guam was only a week by air from San Francisco. In our 21^st Century era of instantaneous communication a week of travel might seem like forever, but the Matson Liners that plied the seas between Apra and the Golden Gate took more than three weeks to make the journey. An exchange of letters might take two months. Defensively, Guam was a month from aid in the event of an attack, but the psychological impact of the presence of the China Clipper in Apra Harbor could not be minimized.   

 

Pan American’s first offices in Agana, Guam

After the obligatory celebration down at the harbor, the crew were taken on a brief tour of Agana (today called Hagatña) the capital. They were shown the Pan American Skyways Hotel, still under construction, and then taken to the Governor’s Mansion, the seat of power since Spanish days. 

Ed Musick was itching to get back to the harbor, where he needed to confer with the Pan Am ground crew about servicing the China Clipper.  He wanted to make an early liftoff for Manila the next morning. Who knew what orgiastic rites awaited them in the Philippines, and he wanted them over with.

There was bad news of a sort awaiting them. It seemed that the Pan American publicity machine had finally fouled up. They had absurdly miscalculated the effect of the International Date Line, and all the celebrations in Manila were scheduled for two days hence. The crew of the China Clipper was ordered to lay over at Guam for a full day.

Upon hearing the news Ed Musick did something then that seemed out of character for him. He contacted New York. His crew was tired, he said, of the constant crush of publicity, of the banquets, of the photographers, of the reporters. Although nobody would be very interested in the return journey from the Philippines the crew still had to fly the 8,000-plus miles home. Couldn’t they just slip into Manila quietly and be there when the celebrations started?   

China Clipper promotional material

The answer that came back from Pan American headquarters was unequivocal:  On no account was the China Clipper to arrive in Manila before midday November 29^th. Why, didn’t Captain Musick understand that President Quezon had declared November 29^th Pan American Airways Day, a national holiday? Moreover, the pronouncement of Pan American Airways Day was the first official declaration of Quezon’s Presidency. Captain Musick and his crew were to do nothing that would detract from President Quezon’s kind actions. To do so would be a sign of utter disrespect to him personally, to the Self-Governing Commonwealth of The Philippines, to the United States of America, to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and, perhaps more importantly to the crew, to Pan American Airways and its President, Juan Terry Trippe. 

An insular postage stamp from Guam, commemorating the China Clippers

It was as much of a dressing down as Ed Musick would ever receive as a Pan Am pilot, and it stung. It made Ed sullen, which only meant that he was more taciturn than usual. It was a little unfair to his host, Captain Governor Alexander, but Alexander pretended not to notice. Instead, the Governor organized a trip into the countryside around Agana so that Pan Am’s prize crew could see the natural beauty of Guam (and make a good report to Pan Am on the island’s potential as a tourist destination). In the best imperialistic style, the crew was served brunch and cocktails by white-jacketed Chamorros on the veranda of the unfinished Pan American Skyways Hotel. The Governor dispatched a Navy maintenance team to assist the PAA maintenance team in readying the China Clipper for her next flight. It was a goodwill gesture toward the frustrated crew, it gave Alexander’s Command bragging rights over having worked on the China Clipper, and it familiarized the Navy with the latest American flying boat technology.  

The veranda of the Pan American Skyways Hotel in Sumay, Guam

Lastly, and not least, the men of the China Clipper were invited to the Governor’s Official Thanksgiving Dinner on their off day, the 28^th of November.** Many of the goodies served that afternoon were taken from the belly of the China Clipper herself.

An unnamed Marine stands in front of the Guam offices of Pan Am, 1938

The next leg of the voyage of the China Clipper, the sixteen hundred miles between Agana and Manila, was the only hop that had not previously been made by the Pan American Clipper back in April, but the crew had no anxiety about casting off into the unknown at 6:12 A.M. the next morning. 

The China Clipper , of which so many had had so many doubts, had proven herself to be a lady of the skies, demanding little but giving much in a manner that made her unobtrusive. One of the crew fondly called her Sweet Sixteen, and she was known by that name to Pan American pilots for the rest of her days.

Sunset on Guam

*Given Guam’s position to the south of the lesser Marianas, violations of Japanese airspace sometimes occurred accidentally. However, the clippers were also used for covert photographic intelligence missions. However, Japanese overflights of Guam by military aircraft were almost always certainly done with intent. The overflying remained a sore point between the two governments until Guam was seized on the first day of the Pacific War. After the war, the U.S. asserted control of Guam, the Northern Marianas, and Saipan. Guam and the NMI (including Saipan) are now commonwealths of the United States. 

**In the continental United States, Thanksgiving Day 1935 fell out on November 28^th, and so it was celebrated in Hawaii and Midway. On the far side of the International Date Line, the 27^th was the 28^th and the 28^th was the 29^th. Since Wake and Guam were both under Navy administration, they observed the holiday on their 28^th. The Philippines, which had just become nominally independent on the 15^th of November, did not officially celebrate Thanksgiving, but it had up until that year. President Quezon’s declaration of Pan American Airways Day on the Philippines’ November 29^th served the purpose of acknowledging the China Clipper’s flight and allowing resident Americans and Filipinos who wished to observe Thanksgiving a day to do so.