Flying Chief One Of Few Enlisted Pilots;
From Oregon, The Pajaris Like Kodiak
By Miriam J. Angell
Correction: We made a serious
error last week and herewith of
fer our opologies to the Com
missar, Mr. E, J. Kratochvil. The
picture and interview identified
him but our spelling of his name
was hardly recognizable.
Our neighbor, ADC-AP Victor H
Pajari (pronounced Pahry), is one
of the few men remaining in his
rate in the Navy. He is an enlisted
pilot, a rating first established
at the end of World War I when
the Treaty Of Versailles set limits
on all armaments, ships strenghth
and the numbers of men who
could be employed to serve, among
other categories, on officer status
in the flying services. Whether de
liberately or not is a matter for
speculation, but the loophole was
there and the Navy used it: there
could be any number of pilots, if
they were enlisted, and many were
trained as such.
Chief Pajari said, “Near World
War II there were very few left
and the Navy needed a lot of pilots
in a hurry, so they started train
ing them again. There were many
men who wanted to fly but did
not want to take cadet training.
I was one of them.
“In 1939 I went through boot
camp and aboard the Carrier York
town, from there to Aviation
Machinist Mate School, to a car
rier squadron and then to Flight
Training. We graduated right at
the end of the war because they
kept addng phases to the program,
making it longer than the thirteen
months originally intended. So we
were all trained as combat crews,
but too late to go into combat.
Instead I went to a flying boat
squadron, and for four and a
half years flew the Mars, princi
pally between Alemeda and
Hawaii. My squadron set the re
cord for the number of men car
ried in any plane; there were 309
men on one flight and as far as
I know <t still stands. The Mars
set fantastic records; it could car
ry a cheaper ton mile than any
plane ever built. In 1956 when the
turbo prop plane came in all the
Mars were decommissioned and
some were sold to a Canadian
timber company.
Privately owned forests in Can
ada are not protected by the gov
ernment so they look for cheap
and efficient ways to fight forest
fires. The timber company can
land the Mars on a lake, open the
hull tanks, fill them with 8,000 gal
lons of water and dump it on the
fire, wherever it is. They need
experienced pilots and I have
even thought a little about the
job myself.”
Chief Pajari added that he pro
bably would not promote the idea,
because he and Mrs. Pajari are
anxious to go back to Whidbey Is
land where they own a home they
have not been able to live in for
some years. He is slated to retire
next July, after twenty-one and a
half years in the Navy. “I grew
up on the Oregon coast so this
is like home to me. I might have
retired on tewenty but we liked
Kodiak, the hunting and fishing;
it seemed a shame to lose these
two years here.”
The Pajaris transferred here
from a Naval parachute unit in
El Centro, California.
“It was still in the 80’s and 90’s
in December when we came here,”
the Chif continued. “The duty and
units in the desert were some of
the best I’ve had but the climate
was the worst.” We asked what
sort of flying he did there.
“Well, I flew R4D’s and towed
targets for two and a half years;
it is sometimes not so safe. I’ve
had seven thousand feet of cable
out behind my plane and they
woud still shoot in front of me.
You’d wonder what they logged
in on; you were pretty sure it
wasn’t the sleeve. We had some
close calls — one gunner clipped
the cable four hundred feet from
my plane tail.”
We wondered what might have
been the most interesting flight
on this tour. The Chief told us
there were two trips to Adak,
one last year, when he flew
caribou to the island. “They want
ed to stock the island; on this
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second trip they tried younger
caribou because they had a sur
vival problem with the mature
ones in ‘58, and they were also
hard to transport. Helicopters
went out from Anchorage and
drove off the mothers of a heard
so about 40 babies could be taken.
They were tied up in gunney sacks
and put in pens built into the
station plane. Some Fish and Wild
life men went along with us to
care for the caribou; inside the
plane they let them out of the sacks
so they could move around. We
thought by hand feeding they
would get along better than the
older ones on the first attempt,
but the death rate was about the
same. Only about eleven lived; five
died en route. They didn’t seem
particularly afraid of flying but
they were very young and in a
state of shock. I haven’t seen
them since.”
There was another time, some
years earlier, when Chief Pajari
aided a shipload of animals being
taken from the Far East to the
San Francisco zoo; the ship, still
400 miles at sea, ran out of the
curious variety of foods fancied by
the menagerie.
The captain feared the ele
phants and larger animals might
tear up the ship if they became
hungry enough, and called for
help. The Oiief flew out and drop
ped large plastic bags of worms
and hay and other like delicacies,
and all was well. In appreciation
the zoo named one elephant for the
wife of the Commanding Officer
of the squadron, VR-2, then based
in Alameda.
We asked Melba Pajari to tell
us something more about the fam
ilyand their plans for next year.
“We have three girls; Elaine is
fourteen and a sophomore in high
Peggy, ten. This is the first time
school; Shirley is thirteen, and
I’v been at what you might call an
overseas station, and I like Kodiak
very much. It’s a terrific place to
raise children, with all the out
door activities, and the exception
ally fine schools. We own a cabin
at Ohiniak and use it for camping
out and beach-combing expedi
tions. It seems odd, but Victor has
found glass balls on Afognak and
at Cold Bay, but we have never
located any on Kodiak. We spent
a week on Afognak last June and
found th fishing wonderful. It’s
a great surprize to us that more
enlisted men don’t take advant
age of the camp there.
“Next year when we go south
we plan to drive the Alcan and
camp along the way, making side
trips to places we want to see.
We like the Navy life, but we
make most of our plans now for
our home on Whidbey.”
Mrs. Pajari told us she became
a Navy wife when she graduated
from Baylor University in Waco,
Texas, and that she was initiated
into the moving circle almost im
mediately. "We moved constantly
for the first few years, so now
when we settle downfor two or
three years, it seems pretty fine. I
like gardening and you have to be
(Continued on Page 11)
BPW Postpones
Regular Meeting
Mrs. Melanie Draper, president
of Kodiak Business & Professional
Women’s Club wishes to remind
all members that the regular din
ner meeting has been postponed,
due to the Alaska Music Trail
program to be held on Monday
night, 17 October.
The meeting will be held at the
Island Fountain at 7 o’clock on
Monday evening 24 October. All
members who are not on the cur
rent standing reservation list,
please call Mrs. Xenia Sturmer
(Phone 4761) before noon on Sat
urday.
<i.ii«»*rriiii'iu—f>inri tmiiii—i—wwr’ »»-amiirawrwuimit*
Mr. and Mrs. Victor H. Pajari
U.S. Navy photo
News Team Returns To Local AFRS-TV
Lee Haynes, known to AFRTS
TV audiences for her previous
UPI news show, will return this
week to Channel Eight.
Each Sunday evening at seven
o’clock, Mrs. Haynes will present
her show, NEWS OF THE WEEW
IN REVIEW, a half hour sum
mary of the highlights of the
week’s news from around the
world.
Mr. (Gene) Haynes will assist
with the show, offering forecasts
and comments on the weather in
Kodiak and around Alaska. Mr.
Haynes extensive knowledge of
meteorology (he’s communications
officer at the U.S. Naval Fleet
Weather Central aboard the
Kodiak navel station) will assure
viewers of complete and correct
forecasts of the weather, insofar
as that is possible in Kodiak.
Mrs. Haynes although the
mother of two teen age daughters,
takes an active interest in radio
and televison, and has volunteer
ed her services to AFRTS Kodiak
as program director and voice
teacher as well as newscaster. She
has taught a class of volunteers at
AFRTS, assisting them to learn an
nouncing techniques.
Mrs. Haynes states she has no
concrete plans for working in
television, but says that she is in
terested in commercial advertising
for TV, and hopes to explore this
field when Mr. Haynes is released
from the Navy.
Mr. Haynes has been in the Navy
for fifteen years, and both he and
Mrs. Haynes say that they like life
in the service.
Both are evidently sold on Kodi
ak, as Mr. Haynes is beginning a
year’s extension of his tour here.
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