The Jerrie Mock Story

by Nancy Roe Pimm

  Her first instinct was to land the plane, so she reached for the throttle to slow down. But a bumpy landing could cause an explosion. Even a safe landing in the desert could create sparks and spell certain death. Jerrie pushed back in her seat as fear held her in its clutch. Visions of plane crashes flashed in her mind. She remembered stories of the bomber Lady Be Good. In 1943, during World War II, the plane had crashed over the Libyan Desert. Fifteen years later, Lady Be Good and the skeletal remains of eight of its nine crewmen were finally found.

  The smell of burning wires filled the cabin. “My mind flapped like a frightened bird caught in a net. Crazy fears flew at me; wild ideas about landing the plane stormed my mind. I told myself to relax. I couldn’t.”6

  She looked at the door and thought about jumping, but her parachute was out of reach. Besides, if she jumped she would have to survive the desert, where the temperature of the sand could reach 140 degrees. In those extremes, she’d only survive eight to ten hours. Just the thought of it made her sweat. But what could she do? The radio was clearly out of order, so she couldn’t put out a distress call. The burning wires were behind the tank, and there was no way she could reach them. She felt breathless and dizzy. Jerrie shook her head. She needed to think good thoughts. She needed to pray. She took a few deep breaths and repeated the words of the twenty-third Psalm of the Holy Bible over and over again until a peaceful feeling flowed through her.

  Finally, the smell of burning insulation and wires cleared. The sun shone and Charlie hummed along as if nothing had happened. Jerrie said a prayer of thanks, thankful to be alive.

  With a clear day and great visibility, Jerrie had a smooth landing in Tripoli. The airport was like a ghost town, and for once no one was around to greet her. When she made her way to the terminal, she learned no one from the Bône airport had sent the flight plan to Tripoli, and so the airport staff was not expecting her. She had hoped to gas up in Tripoli and continue on to Cairo, Egypt, but, after learning of more reports of severe sandstorms, she decided to spend the night. After the morning she had endured, she needed rest and a little relaxation. She checked in with customs and other officials and left the airport to spend the day sightseeing. Always the lady, respecting the customs of other countries, she changed out of her “flying skirt” into her “on-the-ground dress.”7

  Hoping to take in some local sights, Jerrie ducked down the sandy alleyways of the city. Women passed by wearing what appeared to be white sheets. They held the material over their nose with one hand, and with the other hand they held the front together. With both hands occupied, they carried everything on their heads. The shy women averted their glances, while the men bullied her. Jerrie went down one alley and a passing man bumped into her, sending her flying into a stall in the marketplace. When one fellow tried to run her over on his horse, Jerrie decided to end her shopping trip early.

  Back at the hotel, Jerrie met an American woman who told her that the men in Libya didn’t like women who weren’t dressed in traditional robes that completely covered their heads and bodies. She added that, to respect the customs of the country, she didn’t drive a car. Jerrie spent the rest of the day and the evening visiting other Americans at the hotel. Some of the men advised her to follow the coastline to Cairo. They said that they felt more comfortable flying over the desert than over the Gulf of Sirte. Jerrie politely listened to their advice, but just the thought of flying over deserts made her sweat. She decided right then and there that flying over the Gulf of Sirte was the route for her and Charlie.

  JERRIE’S PASSPORT WITH VISA STAMP FOR LIBYA

  Susan Reid collection

  Jerrie was rushing from country to country, unaware that Joan Merriam Smith had been stranded in Surinam. Joan had been held up for eight days. She had to wait patiently while the mechanics worked to repair a leaky gas tank. Jerrie had landed in Bône on the same day Joan finally headed to Brazil.

  Western Union Telegram

  March 31, 1964

  Families and sponsors scared to death because no word from you all day after landing in Tripoli. Air Force spent hours locating you from this end. Your mother in tears. Love, Russ8

  DID YOU KNOW?

  In 1964, Libya had two capital cities, Tripoli and Benghazi. On September 1, 1969, a coup led by Muammar Gaddafi overthrew King Idris of Libya. When the Libyan Arab Republic was formed, Tripoli became the only capital of the country.

  FLIGHT SEVEN

  EGYPT AND SAUDI ARABIA

  ON APRIL 1, Jerrie Mock finally found herself in the sky, bound for Egypt, the land of the pharaohs. Excitement built inside her as she got closer and closer to the ancient lands she had only dreamed about as a young child growing up in Newark, Ohio. She had flashbacks of images from her geography book, picturing men in flowing robes traveling by camel, trudging through the hot desert sand. Maybe, just maybe, she could find the time to ride a camel across the Sahara Desert.

  After flying more than seven hours, she was cleared by the tower controller in Cairo to land on runway five. As soon as Charlie’s wheels touched the ground, the voice of the controller asked where she was. Wasn’t she on the ground? Wasn’t she at the Cairo airport? How could he not see her?

  Jerrie veered her plane off the runway so she could come to a stop to figure out why she seemed to be invisible. She called the control tower again, then, right at that moment, three trucks barreled down the runway. Uniformed military soldiers surrounded Charlie. The men jumped out and waved their guns around. One of the soldiers told Jerrie to turn off her airplane. She turned off the engine and opened the door.

  The man stepped forward, poked his head inside the cockpit, and politely said in perfect English, “Madam, you are not in Cairo.”1

  Although the sight of the soldiers and their guns terrified her, she didn’t want them to sense her fear. She thrust a chart at the soldier by the plane and asked him to show her where she was on the map.

  Instead of pointing out where she was, he shoved the map back at Jerrie and ordered her to follow him. Forced to leave Charlie behind in the custody of two soldiers, Jerrie was escorted to an air force officer’s club; a building that she later learned had once been the palace of King Farouk of Egypt. Jerrie followed the soldiers into a massive hallway with a broad, tiled staircase on each side. She looked at the empty and barren rooms, and imagined how regal the palace had once looked when oriental carpets had covered the floors and beautiful thick draperies had framed the windows. She sat at a small table on the terrace, alongside a waterless swimming pool, sipping cider and tea. She explained that she was expected in Cairo, and people were waiting for her arrival, but she was told to sit and wait.

  Men dressed in khaki uniforms snuck down the hallway to peek into the room where she sat. They seemed amazed at this “lady pilot” who had just landed in her plane. They wanted to know where she was headed, while Jerrie desperately wanted to know where she was. Her location remained a mystery for a while, but eventually she discovered that she had mistakenly landed at a “top secret” air force base called Inchas. They questioned her for hours until she began to wonder if they thought she was a spy!

  Jerrie wanted to leave this place, and get on with her journey. She needed to eat and she needed to sleep, but most of all she needed to get to Cairo. They were expecting her! She remembered that her NAA observer was a retired Egyptian Air Force general. He would be waiting for her in Cairo. Maybe he could help? Then suddenly the air force commander came in and announced, “OK, madam. Now you can go to Cairo.”2

  Before she boarded her plane, the officer told Jerrie not to land at the military airport on her left, but to look to her right for the lights of the Cairo airport. Once Jerrie sat behind the controls, she tuned her high-frequency radio to the radio beacon coming from Cairo, to be certain not to land at yet another military base.

  The stress of the unexpected landing and all the commotion that had followed had her so exhausted she could hardly think. She focused on landing her plane, hoping to get a
more welcome reception when she finally arrived at Cairo International Airport. Her wish came true. A crowd of people cheered for the long-awaited “lady pilot” as she approached the terminal. Jerrie got out of her plane and went through the motions of posing for photos, answering questions, and giving autographs. In a trancelike state, she looked after Charlie, took care of all the necessary paperwork, and sent a story to the Columbus paper. She ordered brakes and a new antenna motor even though her brain felt clouded and muddled from exhaustion. A couple from the American embassy, Mr. and Mrs. Peter Barker, greeted Jerrie and offered to host the weary pilot in their home. Jerrie accepted their kind offer, relieved to enjoy a nice dinner and a warm bed after such a challenging day.

  Jerrie awoke the following morning to the sound of chirping birds and the smell of fresh-brewed coffee. After breakfast, Peter Barker took her to the airport to make all the necessary arrangements to depart for Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, the next day. She scheduled a flight plan, checked with the weatherman, and made sure her plane was refueled. With all the paperwork complete, she was ready for some sightseeing. She knew she should get back in the air, but she was standing on the land she had dreamt about from textbooks back in grade school. Today, she would take in all the sights and sounds of this exotic land. She’d make up the time somehow, someway.

  With the Barkers as her tour guides, Jerrie went across the Nile River, and traveled to the Great Pyramid of Giza, one of the Seven Wonders of the World. The three were greeted in the parking lot by camel drivers dressed in colorfully striped galabiyas, loose cotton nightshirts. Thrilled at the sight of the first camel she had seen outside of a circus or a zoo, Jerrie climbed aboard the smelly animal and rode down a twisting trail beside endless sand dunes. By the time she arrived at the pyramids, she decided that she would rather fly in a plane for ten hours than sit for thirty minutes on a camel. Jerrie wrote about the camel ride, “It is easy to see why the airplane is replacing them.”3

  At the end of the path, Jerrie found herself looking at the giant Sphinx and the 4,500-year-old Pyramid of Cheops, things she had only dreamt about visiting. Jerrie stood silent, as if under some kind of ancient magical spell. She stared at the scene before her, trying to etch it in her mind, in hopes of keeping the memory forever.

  Later in the day they stopped by the Muski Bazaar, a bazaar so large it would take days to see everything. There were merchants from all over the world selling jewelry, spices, perfume, pottery, dolls, exotic outerwear, and brass, gold, and silver. After picking out a souvenir for each of the members of her family, Jerrie went to a tailor to purchase a galabiya of her own. She also found a brass lamp she could not resist, and had it shipped to her home in Ohio. That evening a reception was held in Jerrie’s honor at the Aero Club. She and the Barkers gathered around a television set, sipping tea, to watch a rerun of the Spirit of Columbus landing at the Cairo Airport the night before.

  The following day, April 3, Jerrie awoke to the sound of roosters crowing at 3:30 a.m. When she arrived at the airport, the immigration representative would not let her through because she didn’t have a ticket. She tried to explain that she didn’t need a ticket because she flew in on her own plane. He must have thought she had lost her mind because he kept repeating, “Lady, get out of here. I’m busy. Go buy a ticket.” General Attia, her NAA observer and a retired air force general, came to her rescue, speaking in Arabic to explain the situation to the immigration man.4

  . . .

  THE SEVEN WONDERS OF THE ANCIENT WORLD

  IN 120 BCE, a Greek poet called Antipater of Sidon listed seven awe-inspiring buildings and structures that amazed him. They are known as The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. All the “wonders” can be found in a small region around the eastern Mediterranean. The Great Pyramid of Giza is the only one that still remains. The pyramid is a tomb, a royal burial place built in an ancient cemetery at Giza in the country of Egypt. Some archeologists believe it may have taken over 100,000 men to build it. They used more than 2 million stone blocks, each weighing over 4,000 pounds. The mummified body of the great pharaoh, King Khufu, known to the Greeks as Cheops, was placed in a burial chamber deep inside his pyramid. More pyramids were built around it for King Khufu’s son and grandson as well as smaller pyramids for their queens.

  The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World are:

  1. The Great Pyramid at Giza.

  2. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon: King Nebuchadnezzar II, King of Babylon, had a beautiful garden built with every tree imaginable for his homesick young wife to remind her of her Persian roots.

  3. The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus: King Croesus built the grand temple in honor of Artemis, the goddess of the moon and of the hunt, and a protector of animals and young girls.

  4. The Statue of Zeus at Olympia: A famous Athenian sculptor, Phidias, was chosen to create the forty-three-foot-high statue in honor of the god Zeus.

  5. The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus: Queen Artemisia built a massive tomb in Turkey as a tribute to her deceased husband and brother, King Mausolus.

  6. The Colossus of Rhodes: A giant statue of the Greek titan-god of the sun Helios stood at the port city of Rhodes, on the Greek island of the same name, in the Aegean Sea off present-day Turkey.

  7. The Pharos of Alexandria: The first lighthouse in the world was almost 450 feet tall; its beacon was created by fire. A huge amount of wood was needed to keep the fires lit.

  . . .

  A CROWD AWAITS JERRIE’S ARRIVAL AT THE DHAHRAN INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT IN SAUDI ARABIA

  Courtesy of Phoenix Graphix

  Jerrie settled behind the controls of her beloved Charlie and flew over the blue-green waters of the Gulf of Suez en route to Saudi Arabia. She followed a black pipeline, an area that wasn’t so desolate, so if her plane went down she could be rescued. She flew over clusters of villages and many watering holes with animals gathered about. An hour into the trip, she found herself feeling dizzy. As she looked around, she noticed things had lost their shape and appeared to be blurry. She took out the oxygen mask, hoping to clear her head. Everything remained out of focus. She wiped her sunglasses. Suddenly it became clear to her that she was in the middle of a sandstorm. The only advice she had ever received about sandstorms was to avoid them. But it was too late for that. This hadn’t been on the weather report—not a mention of it. She thought of landing the plane and waiting for it to clear but the ground below seemed to be moving. With the use of her instruments, she kept Charlie on course, and flew right through the blinding storm.

  MEMBERS OF THE ROYAL ARABIAN AIR FORCE GREET JERRIE AT THE DHAHRAN INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT

  Courtesy of Phoenix Graphix

  Finally the sky cleared, the sun shone, and a majestic airport came into view. Jerrie looked down at the marble columns of the Dhahran International Airport and felt in awe of its regal beauty. She landed on the concrete runway and came to a stop. Hundreds of white-robed men surrounded the plane. In Saudi Arabia, it was illegal for a woman to drive a car, but there were no laws about woman pilots.

  As soon as Jerrie climbed out of the cockpit, she was handed an armful of flowers. Members of the Royal Arabian Air Force, sent on behalf of King Faisal, greeted Jerrie. A man in the crowd eagerly pushed his way past the guards to sneak a look into the cockpit. After seeing nothing but huge gasoline tanks and only one seat, he turned and shouted, “There is no man!” The crowd erupted with a “rousing ovation.”5

  CHARLIE AT THE BEAUTIFUL DHAHRAN INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT

  Courtesy of Phoenix Graphix

  DID YOU KNOW?

  The Israeli army made a surprise attack against Egypt’s airfields on June 5, 1967. The Six-Day War virtually destroyed the Egyptian Air Force on the ground, including the top-secret Egyptian Air Force base called Inchas. Jerrie wondered if the palace or any of the men she had met that night had survived the blast. She had accidentally arrived on the airstrip at Inchas on April 1, 1964, and has since called it her April fool’s landing.

  FLIGHT EIGHTr />
  PAKISTAN AND INDIA

  JERRIE WOKE feeling refreshed, ready for the next stop on her journey, Karachi, Pakistan. She pointed Charlie’s nose out over the Persian Gulf, toward Bahrain Island, a place where Marco Polo had once wandered. About an hour from her destination, she heard a voice from the control tower, “November One-Five-Three-Eight Charlie, PIA Oh-Five Karachi requests your occupation.”

  Puzzled by the request, Jerrie asked him to repeat the question. Once again she was asked her occupation. She answered, “PIA Seven-Oh-Five, this is November One-Three-Five-Eight Charlie. If you want my occupation, it’s a housewife.”1 The radio went silent for a bit before he thanked her for the answer. Why would they ask such a question? She had already been labeled “the flying housewife” back home. Jerrie had never liked it; she only wished to be respected as an able pilot, with no references to her gender or her occupation. Jerrie rolled her eyes and took another look at her charts as she flew along the shoreline of the Arabian Sea, to Karachi, the largest city in Pakistan.

  JERRIE’S PASSPORT WITH VISA STAMPS FOR PAKISTAN AND INDIA

  Susan Reid collection

  Jerrie exited her plane and greeted the crowd that had assembled. The women wore colorful silk saris and dainty pantaloons, a stark contrast to the women in Saudi Arabia, a country where ladies hid under a full body covering and observed the world through slits in their black veils. After securing her plane, Jerrie was invited to stay with John and Adelaide Tinker from the American embassy. Adelaide had much in common with Jerrie, as she too was a pilot.

  While en route to the Tinkers’ apartment, the three wove through streets filled with bicycles, rickshaws, cars, trucks, and camels pulling carts. Once inside, Jerrie settled into her room. One window overlooked the Arabian Sea and the other window had a view of the Gulf of Oran. She sat down by a window to write and to enjoy the beautiful scenery. After finishing a letter to her mom, she wrote an article to send to her hometown newspaper.