Airport - The Best Years of Our Lives (1947) Discussion

[–] turtletommy 10 years ago

Since they were destined for the same city yes why not. They just got funneled from different directions to the same airport preceding their flight to Boone City. I don't recall that airport location where they met was ever made known.

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[–] Chris398 10 years ago

Al Sevenson told his wife he called from Portland. I would think if you were coming from the Pacific your first stop would be a west coast airport. From Europe an east coast airport. Also a good chance they arrived by boat to the U.S.

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[–] turtletommy 10 years ago

Portland...Oregon -I'm assuming. Once on the west or east coast whatever mode of transportation returning vets would have used to get home surely included plane, train, or automobile/bus. There were a zillion planes I imagine at war's end to move military personnel around with. Excellent chance that returning vets arrived back to the U.S. mainland by ship. This really is one of the generally untold stories about the war's end- the relatively quick de-mobilization of personnel back to the USA. An amazing logistical endeavor, as one can only imagine. As far as our movie gents, I'm not so sure they didn't have to make numerous legs of whatever journey they took before they ended up at that airport at the film's beginning.

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[–] Chris398 10 years ago

Ok...Lets assume Portland Oregon. Not likely Fred returning from Europe would pass through the airport in Portland Oregon.

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[–] leader-7 10 years ago

Boone city , Iowa. Boone city Nc
Portland Maine
Portland Oregon

Where they are is fictional. As is the airport.

*****************************************
There's no place like home.fortheholidays.

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[–] turtletommy 10 years ago

Yep understand that. The OP asked an interesting question. Just having fun trying to imagine the general routes these fictional servicemen took to get to the "unknown" airport we see at the beginning of the film. I don't think that airport was meant to be in Portland Oregon because why would Fred Derry be there coming from Europe and heading to the midwest, where all three were heading? Al said he called his wife from Portland well maybe that was an earlier leg of his journey. It makes sense that the opening scene airport was somewhere closer to the center of the country, then the 3 guys make their final flight to Boone City. Unless I'm forgetting that the armed forces didn't always follow normal logic and would send returning servicemen in crazy zigzag routes home...

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[–] dannieboy20906 9 years ago

Al and Homer both mention being in the Pacific Theater of Operations (Southwestern Pacific Theater (SWPTO), Western Pacific Theater (WPTO), or China, Burma, India Theater of Operations (CBI)). It is less clear with Fred. It is sure that Fred spent time in the European Theater of Operations (ETO), but it is not clear that he was only there. It may only be his most memorable part of the war.

He was a B-17 bombardier. He had five hash marks on his sleeve and I think that represents over 30 but less than 36 months overseas duty in a war zone. Had he flown only in the ETO and returned to the United States, he would have problems achieving five hash marks. The 12th Air Force started operations in August 1942 and the war ended in May 1945, 33 months later. That timing works well, except that the mission in August was flown by B-24's. It is more likely that he went to the ETO in 1943, as he references that year when seeing the boneyard.

In addition, upon flying his 25th mission he would have been eligible to return to the U.S. for a year. Unless he volunteered to rollover or go to the Pacific. He may also have not completed his required 25 before late 1944 when the number of missions was increased. In either case, he may have volunteered to go on to the Pacific rather than return to the States. That raises an interesting question about his back story and whether he wanted to see his wife again. Maybe he expected the kind of reunion that he got.

The best diplomat I know is a fully charged phaser bank.

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[–] Chris398 10 years ago

It's strange to think they were in the Portland Oregon airport. West coast Air Transport Command facilities were in San Francisco, Long Beach and San Diego.

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[–] turtletommy 10 years ago

by Chris398 » 2 hours ago (Thu Feb 12 2015 08:56:39)
It's strange to think they were in the Portland Oregon airport. West coast Air Transport Command facilities were in San Francisco, Long Beach and San Diego.

Funny, the opening scene WAS filmed at the real Long Beach Airport but of course wasn't identified as that and was used for filming for its proximity to Hollywood. The original terminal (built during the war) is I believe still close to what it looked like in the movie (Art Deco) but apparently additional terminal bldgs. have been added recently.

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[–] flyboy909 10 years ago

I think it's quite possible. Almost 10% of the American population were in the military in 1945. After the war ended there was a lot of pressure and demand to discharge most of the troops and get them home ASAP.

Though Boone City was fictional, it was implied that it was a mid-sized city in the heartland of America. A city that size would have had a large number of men all eager to get home.

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[–] notorious918 10 years ago

There is a Corn Belt trust company, Al's bank, in Pittsfield Illinois.

And it is still in business.

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[–] sjcatja 9 years ago

I think it's out of business now. And Pittsfield is a small town. No where near the hustle and bustle of Boone City.

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[–] Cairo-5 10 years ago

When they all meet at Butch's bar the night they come home Homer makes the introductions and says that he and Al were both at the battle of Lingayen Gulf. That places them both in the Pacific theater in January 1945. Where Fred was in January 1945 is much less clear.

When he sees all the airplanes destined to be scrapped Fred says, "What we could have done with those in '43!" We also know he was flying bombing missions into Germany.

But, and here's the question mark, when was he flying those missions? The implication is that he had completed his training and was now actively engaged in combat missions over Germany as early as 1943 and possibly into 1944. However bomber crews were not expected to keep flying those missions in perpetuity. Due to the extreme hazards they faced and their horrible attrition rate they were rotated back to the U.S. if they completed a certain number of missions. In 1943 the number of missions was 25. Later the number was raised to 40.

If Fred was in action in Europe in 1943, and clearly he was not killed or captured, then he would inevitably have completed 25 or even 40 missions well before 1945. So he would have rotated home. Later on he could have returned to combat, and many of the airmen who started in the European theater were then sent to the Pacific theater. If Fred was one of them that could well explain his presence on the West Coast and not the East Coast when he came home from the war.

That's how all three men could end up in the same airport.

***
It's easier to be an individual than a god.

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[–] turtletommy 10 years ago

Cairo, if Fred had somehow been in/rotated back to the States he surely would have had an earlier reunion with his wife (of 2 weeks when his service began) than what the film showed. All we know is he was in the 8th AF (Europe), from when his Pop read his Distinguished Flying Cross citation. Yeah it's kind of a mystery where Fred was when he wasn't guiding bombs to their targets in the 8th AF- besides Paris of course. (-:

My stepfather was in the 15th AF in Italy when Germany surrendered and was given stateside leave during which he fully expected to serve next in the Pacific Theatre but Japan surrendered, thankfully.

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[–] Cairo-5 10 years ago

I agree. That's the weak point in the theory. Apparently once Fred went overseas, to Europe, he didn't see his family again until he returned from the war. If he had rotated back to the U.S. he should have been able to visit his home town.

These rotations did happen and it could explain Fred being on the West Coast, but there's that one big problem.

***
It's easier to be an individual than a god.

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[–] turtletommy 10 years ago

Wonder if rotations were done in the European side of the war- where fliers did their 25 etc. missions, rotated home then returned to that theatre, not necessarily the same group for more?

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[–] Chris398 10 years ago

There was no indication that Fred was in the Pacific.....just Europe. He brought his wife back perfume from Paris, but no chopsticks from China.

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[–] turtletommy 10 years ago

I could see Fred and the other two meeting up at some West Coast airport in the film (say in Portland, Oregon) if Fred had been on the West Coast awaiting Pacific Theatre duty when WW2 ended but he would have surely seen his wife at some point before that while in the States and any stateside things he had done were never brought up. One thing that comes to mind is treatment in a USA hospital for PTSD (then combat fatigue/shell shock).

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[–] Chris398 10 years ago

Giving his wife French perfume rules out that he saw her and then went to the Pacific.

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[–] turtletommy 10 years ago

by Chris398 » 3 days ago (Wed Feb 11 2015 22:41:41)
Giving his wife French perfume rules out that he saw her and then went to the Pacific.

Sure, like I said he would have seen her if back in the States on a rotation/leave from Europe. So some info we find out in the film- at the beginning in the airport as Fred enters the public address announces a westbound American Airlines flight is boarding. When he speaks with a female ticket agent he says he just arrived from overseas. Then later in the Army Air Forces Air Transport Command terminal the public address announces a flight(s) to Denver, San Francisco and Seattle have been cancelled. When Al & Millie reunited at home he said he had called her from Portland and had given her an apparently longer ETA to get home than what eventually transpired. He said they were lucky and got a flight to Wellborn- thought they might get stuck there but got through. Wonder if this "Wellborn" was the airport the 3 vets left from on the B-17 to Boone City? In this movie scenario I still think wherever that airport was the 3 vets took off from together in the B-17 was someplace in the middle of the country to explain why the two returning Pacific vets and one European vet would meet en route home. Makes no sense that Al was in Portland, Maine if he served in the Pacific and lived in the Midwest (which I'm assuming most people figure is the location of fictional Boone City).

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[–] Chris398 10 years ago

Wellburn sounds like some place in Australia.

They were not in a midwest terminal....ATC had no midwest facilities. Pacific ATC terminals were in California and Atlantic ATC terminals were on the east coast.

The desk clerk said they would have a long ride because they were making a lot of stops.

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[–] turtletommy 10 years ago

It was Wellborn according to what he said and the subtitles on my DVD. If Portland was supposed to be in the USA, he said they flew from Portland to Wellborn so it wouldn't have been in Australia. I also doubt he would have called her from anywhere else other than after reaching the USA/Alaska or Canadian mainland in those times. Anywhere else communication maybe by wire?

I'll defer to any knowledge you have of ATC operations as I'm not enough up to snuff on the subject. I did read thru this a bit, very interesting at any rate: http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/AAF/VII/AAF-VII-8.html

The ATC apparently contracted out domestic flights to existing airlines like Western, American Airlines, etc., operating as ATC flights. All this moving of men and equipment worldwide on the scale it did during and especially after the war is remarkable.

Again, whether the ATC had just west and east coast terminals and our 3 vets met at one of them WHY was a newly arrived European vet on the west coast or the two Pacific vets on the east? See what I'm saying? Can't believe the screenwriter (or Wyler) would have let this go.

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[–] Chris398 10 years ago

ATC

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/70/Atcroutes-1sep1945.jpg

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[–] turtletommy 10 years ago

Yep saw that ATC route map yesterday during my research thanks. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/70/Atcroutes-1sep1945. jpg

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[–] Soujurn 10 years ago

Nothing in the film says Fred is returning from Europe. At the end of '44 and early '45, Air Force personnel were being sent to the Pacific theater from Europe.. Al fought in the Pacific as did Homer. So it is reasonable they all ended up in California looking for a flight to the midwest. It took them part of a day, all night and into the next morning to fly home. Make some rough calculations on the range and flying speed of a B-17.

"Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government."
-Dennis

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[–] Chris398 10 years ago

Yes....Possibly Fred was in the Pacific, but there was nothing in the movie to indicate that.

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[–] Chris398 10 years ago

Fred was a decorated Army Air Forces captain and bombardier in Europe. Homer lost both hands from burns suffered when his aircraft carrier was sunk, and now uses mechanical hook prostheses. Al served as an infantry platoon sergeant in the Pacific. All three have trouble adjusting to civilian life.

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[–] Chris398 10 years ago

If Fred had gone to the Pacific they probably would have let him stop home for a few days. If he did stop home before going to the Pacific he would have given his wife the gifts from Paris then. Why were there no gifts from Asia if he went to the Pacific ?

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[–] dannieboy20906 9 years ago

I think a trip home is authorized between back-to-back tours, not required. I think that if he volunteered and requested reassignment to the Pacific they would interview him and query why he did not want a delay en-route for leave. If they accepted his reason, they would have let him go on.

Maybe he expected the kind of homecoming that he got, so he was in no hurry to go home.

The best diplomat I know is a fully charged phaser bank.

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[–] dannieboy20906 9 years ago

I wrote a similar comment before reading yours. I think Fred started in the ETO and ended up in the PTO and they begin on the west coast of the US.

The best diplomat I know is a fully charged phaser bank.

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[–] wrfarley 9 years ago

That sounds plausible. I, too, have heard that some B-24 pilots were sent to the Pacific after serving in Europe. Someone else on this board conjectured that Fred flew from ETO to an Army Air Force base in Texas where he was de-briefed and then mustered out, which explains him traveling west of the Mississippi. Of course, that doesn't tell us why he flew farther west to California or Oregon only to fly back east. Given that the film was made in 1946, only months after the end of the war, the situations presented here are surely accurate, as veterans who saw the film would have scoffed at anything that didn't ring true.

I think dannyboy20906 settled the argument. Like Homer and Al, Fred is flying home from the Pacific Theater.

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[–] turtletommy 9 years ago

I just don't understand why Fred who hadn't seen his wife (yes I know of very short duration before he went to war) in a year or two (?) wouldn't have been able to meet up with her at least for a little time on his way to the Pacific if he indeed served there. But then again if duty served and he felt compelled to join the action against Japan he just packed away the perfume for her from Paris until he did finally reunite with her back home. It's still kind of a murky path home for Fred from what the screenplay gives us.

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[–] Ed in MO 9 years ago

Al was already in the plane when the other two boarded; it's possible he came in from an earlier leg of the flight.

Of course the most likely possibility is that the writers didn't think about this as deeply as we have and just looked for a way that the three could meet each other and talk. A long flight home from wherever was the best of their options.

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[–] turtletommy 9 years ago

Yes Al was already on the plane (we didn't see him in the lounge with the other two) so it did seem like he had flown in on that plane from an earlier point on its journey. I agree that probably the writer just didn't find it necessary or that important to the central story to have the audience know any more info than what was given in the film concerning the vets' flight path! In reality was it really THAT necessary short of some fully obvious mistake(s) that actual vets would care enough to hoot about? I have no doubt actual service people probably shook their heads at many Hollywood depictions of war and/or military life back then!

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[–] 10 years ago

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[–] aciolino 10 years ago

We're they the ONLY servicemen in the airport? No. It was loaded with them. What is the mystery?

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[–] MsELLERYqueen2 10 years ago

Why not?

~~
💕 JimHutton (1934-79) and ElleryQueen 👍

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[–] bradford-1 9 years ago

When my father died several years ago, I found his travel itinerary from December 1946 when he was released from the Navy. He sailed to San Diego from Pearl Harbor; Maybe a two-day wait for a plane to either Kansas City, Mo. or St. Louis; another two-day wait for a train to Indianapolis(?); and finally, a train to Pittsburgh (home, sweet home).

May I bone your kipper, Mademoiselle?

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[–] rickyturner505 9 years ago

Millions of men and women mustering out, millions of possibilities. Here’s mine. Homer required extensive medical care and rehabilitation and could have wound up in a stateside facility almost anywhere. Al possibly was part of a National Guard unit that was federalized. As a senior NCO he was briefly assigned to a stateside headquarters for demobilization functions. As Fred’s group was being demobilized he got tagged to assist with the movement of aircraft or materiel to a stateside depot where he was mustered out. All could have wound up in the same place in spite of their theater of service.

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[–] cultfilmfreaksdotcom 8 years ago

LOLOLOL.

"That's nitpicking, isn't it." Nigel

All Movie Reviews www.cultfilmfreaks.com

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