Book review: ‘Women of Pan Am’ traveled the globe, played role in history – The Florida Times-Union

Richard Klinzman| For the Jacksonville Florida Times-Union USA TODAY NETWORK

"Come Fly the World: The Jet-Age Story of the Women of Pan Am"

Author: Julia Cooke

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $28, 288 pages

Julia Cooke's intriguing book about the rise and fall of Pan Am airlines is a great diversion from the summers thrillers. Cooke conducted extensive interviews with many stewardesses who were part of the Pan Am family throughout the life of the company.

She primarily focuses on three women: Lynne Totten Rawling, Karen Walker Ryan and Tori Werner.Although not household names, all three are very bright and accomplished women who set the standard for other young women not hypnotized by a life with so few options in the late 1950s through the 1970s.

In an extremely interesting take on the dawning of the Jet Age, Cooke weaves in two other societal changes. The first is the Women's Liberation Movement, which began with that generation's women deciding that the limited options reserved for them were nowhere near enough, and the Viet Nam War all three events beginning at roughly the same time.

Most airlines served their own countries with a few nominal trips to other countries. Pan Am decided from the beginning that they would solely be an international company and created flight paths that were deemed to be important to industry.

The role of a stewardess was deemed so important that strict rules were set up relating to looks, height and weight. Although agreeing to these conditions in the beginning, women soon began questioning the need for this. Bedrock changes were coming, not only in how women looked and shaped the world around them, but how society also began questioning the rights and wrongs of our government regarding the war.

You will come to care about these people and their bravery. Not all heroes carried guns. Some were heroic in serving the public. The most touching and soul anguishing is detailed as Saigon was about to fall and the people of Pan Am were rallied to serve in Operation Baby Lift, a U.S. sponsored rescue program to save thousands of children fathered and abandoned by U.S. servicemen. It is a part of our history that was almost forgotten. It never should be.

Richard Klinzman lives in Middleburg.

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Book review: 'Women of Pan Am' traveled the globe, played role in history - The Florida Times-Union