The Pan Am Podcast

• Episode 57: Steve Ford (son of President Ford), Adoptee Thuy Williams and the Legacy of Operation Babylift

  Send us a textIn this episode we are joined by two special guests, Steve Ford (the youngest son of President and Mrs. Ford) and adoptee Thuy Williams to mark the 50th anniversary of Operation Babylift, the frantic evacuation ordered by U.S. President Gerald R. Ford of Vietnamese war orphans in the final days of Saigon in 1975. The Pan Am Museum, in partnership with the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation and the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library & Museum, commissioned filmmaker Dirk Braun to create the documentary short film, Operation Babylift: 50 Years Later: 1975-2025, A Celebration of the Human Spirit.Steve Ford has enjoyed a remarkable acting career spanning over 40 years, with appearances in more than 800 hours of film and television productions. He has worked on over 25 films and numerous guest-lead roles in television. Early in his career, Steve spent six years playing Andy Richards on the CBS daytime soap opera The Young and the Restless. His film and TV credits include Transformers, Black Hawk Down, Contact, Armageddon, Starship Troopers, Eraser, Heat, When Harry Met Sally, J.A.G., Columbo, Murder She Wrote, Happy Days, along with many others.Steve is the third and youngest son of President and Mrs. Gerald R. Ford. He currently serves on the Board of the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation. Adoptee Thuy Williams was born in Ho Chi Minh City in 1970. When she became an adult, she wanted to serve the country that gave her a second chance by joining the U.S. Army as a tank mechanic. After serving for eight years, Thuy returned to her adoptive hometown of Portland, Oregon and started her own business, a construction and roofing company called Acme High Performance. She is also a missionary with One Challenge and a coach of soccer, track, and lacrosse…spending her time traveling the world, using sports to bridge the gap with traumatized people in refugee camps in third-world countries and helps these kids process trauma by using sports as a way to create friendships and smiles. Thuy is on the board the nonprofit Breaking Boundaries, which takes kids from the US to do community service projects in third-world countries. Like Steve Ford, Thuy is also motivational speaker encouraging people to make a difference in their communities that leaves a lasting legacy for generations to come. Support the show Visit Us for more Pan Am History! Support the Podcast! Donate to the Museum! Visit The Hangar online store for Pan Am gear! Become a Member! Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter!A very special thanks to Mr. Adam Aron, Chairman and CEO of AMC and president of the Pan Am Historical Foundation and Pan Am Brands for their continued and unwavering support!

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• Episode 56: From the CIA to the Pan Am Board Room and Changing the World Through Music

  Send us a textIn this episode we are joined by Donald Devito who worked for the Pan Am board of directors from the early 1960s until the end of the airline. Also, joining us is his son, Dr. Donald DeVito, a renowned musical educator. The senior DeVito will share stories working for the Central Intelligence Agency in the 1950s and being hired by Pan Am in the early 1960s to work for the corporate board of directors and founder Juan T. Trippe. He was on a first name basis with Mr. Trippe and coordinated the materials and presentations for board members such as aviation legend Charles Lindbergh and banker James Rockefeller, among others. His hiring by Pan Am was tied to his cryptography training in the U.S. Air Force and Central Intelligence Agency where he served in the 1950s during the Cold War in Rangoon, the Philippines and Libya. Don’s son, the junior Dr. Donald DeVito, will share his memories of traveling around the world as a Pan Am kid and how that shaped his career in education. Dr. Don is a music educator at the Rawlings Elementary Center for Fine Arts since 2018 and is an adjunct instructor in the University of Florida Online Masters in Music Education program. From 2001 to 2018 he was the music director and special education teacher at the Sidney Lanier Center, a public school in Gainesville, Florida, for students with disabilities between 3 and 22. The music programs are global in scope and linked online with universities and music programs internationally through research, cooperative music making, and professional music education organizations.  Dr. DeVito was named the 2011 National Teacher of the Year by the Council for Exceptional Children.The elder Mr. DeVito, his sons, and their families live in Florida. They even have a rescue horse that lives on their farm affectionally named "Clipper" in honor of Pan Am! Support the show Visit Us for more Pan Am History! Support the Podcast! Donate to the Museum! Visit The Hangar online store for Pan Am gear! Become a Member! Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter!A very special thanks to Mr. Adam Aron, Chairman and CEO of AMC and president of the Pan Am Historical Foundation and Pan Am Brands for their continued and unwavering support!

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• Episode 55: Yvonne Conde, Operation Pedro Pan and the Untold Exodus of 14,048 Cuban Children

  Send us a textIn this episode we explore Operation Pedro Pan, the clandestine operation of the U.S. Government, the Catholic Church and Pan American World Airways to relocate over 14,000 children out of Cuba to the United States between 1960 and 1962. Our guest for this episode is Pan Am veteran Yvonne Conde who wrote the book Operation Pedro Pan: The Untold Exodus of 14,048 Cuban Children. She will share many personal insights on being one of the many children that were sent away by their parents for a better future in America in the early 1960s. Yvonne will also share her stories of working for Pan Am during her 18 years in the air as a flight attendant. Her father, Pedro Conde, worked for Pan American in Havana from the 1940s to the early 1960s. Yvonne is a freelance writer based in New York City and has written for Latina Magazine, Crain’s, Smithsonian, and Hispanic Business Magazine and has been featured on the NewHour with Jim Lehrer and National Public Radio. Operation Pedro Pan facilitated the migration of Cuban children to the United States as a response to the Cuban Revolution and the subsequent fear among Cuban families that their parental rights would be revoked and their children would be indoctrinated into communism.Under the operation, more than 14,000 Cuban children, primarily between the ages of 6 and 18, were sent to the U.S. without their parents. The children were placed in foster homes, orphanages, and other institutions, with the intention of reuniting them with their families later. The operation ended during the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962 that put the United States and the Soviet Union on the brink of nuclear war. Support the show Visit Us for more Pan Am History! Support the Podcast! Donate to the Museum! Visit The Hangar online store for Pan Am gear! Become a Member! Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter!A very special thanks to Mr. Adam Aron, Chairman and CEO of AMC and president of the Pan Am Historical Foundation and Pan Am Brands for their continued and unwavering support!

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• Episode 54: A Trip to Japan and Making Connections in the Air

  Send us a textIn this episode, Host Tom Betti shares insights on his recent trip to Japan where he met Charlie, a purser with United Airlines, on his inbound flight to Tokyo and on his outbound flight from Osaka met United flight attendants Leslie and Lynn who both worked for Pan Am from 1977 to 1986 until the Pacific Division was sold to United.Tom also shares some personal travel stories and gives many updates about this program and the Pan Am Museum! The Pan Am Podcast was recently awarded the 2025 Platinum Muse Creative Award and the 2025 Platinum Vega Digital Award. To learn more, read Tom's interview with Muse staff about this incredible achievement: Tom Betti on Telling the Untold Stories of Pan AmOn April 24, 2025, the Pan Am Museum, in partnership with the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation, and the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library & Museum, hosted an event in Garden City, NY celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Operation Babylift, the frantic evacuation, ordered by President Ford, of Vietnamese war orphans in the final days of Saigon in 1975. In addition, on May 9, 2025 the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum hosted an event in Grand Rapids, MI to celebrate the anniversary. To mark the occasion, the three organizations produced a short documentary film by Dirk Braun that premiered at both events. You can view this film on our YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9pNjUZwXb4There’s also an officially branded Pan Am coffee available from Expedition Roasters Coffee Company that was recently released. There are two kinds available: Organic Guatemalan Single Origin which is more of a medium roast and Sumatra Single-Origin from Indonesia which is more of a dark roast. Here is the link to purchase Pan Am coffee:https://expeditionroasters.com/collections/pan-amSupport the show Visit Us for more Pan Am History! Support the Podcast! Donate to the Museum! Visit The Hangar online store for Pan Am gear! Become a Member! Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter!A very special thanks to Mr. Adam Aron, Chairman and CEO of AMC and president of the Pan Am Historical Foundation and Pan Am Brands for their continued and unwavering support!

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• Episode 53: Pan Am Returns to the Skies with Gary Bartelings

  Send us a textIn this episode we are joined by Gary Bartelings, a supporter of the Pan Am Museum and founder and managing director of Bartelings, a company dedicated to unique travel experiences by private jet. We also welcome back to the program our good friend Becky Sprecher. She has been a frequent guest and contributor to this podcast. Becky brings great history to this episode about the flying boats of 1930s and the insight into Pan Am’s legendary passenger service. From June 16, 2025 to June 28, 2025, Pan Am returns to the sky for an exclusive journey for 50 intrepid voyagers aboard a luxurious and modern private 757 aircraft with Pan Am livery! This exclusive trip, called Tracing the Transatlantic, will follow some of Pan Am’s original flying boat routes across the Atlantic Ocean with stops in New York, Bermuda, Lisbon, Marseille, London and Foynes. For more information, visit criteriontravel.com/panam Founded in 2015, Bartelings was incorporated to provide discerning travel companies access to extensive expertise and knowledge to create incredible and exclusive trips for customers. Their aim is to create unique experiences throughout the world allowing guests to connect with other cultures, visit incredible sights –both natural and man-made– and to develop a deeper understanding and appreciation of the world we all inhabit.Our guest Gary Bartelings grew up in the Netherlands. His original career plan was to study at the Hotel School, however, he changed his mind and wanted to broaden his education to tourism. Gary started his travel career in 1987 with Qantas Airways in Amsterdam after completing his education. During his career he has been involved in everything from telephone sales to aircraft dispatch, brochure production to contract negotiation, crisis management to tour managing, public speaking to PR relationships and so on.Having had the privilege to travel extensively around the world he believes there is no better way to connect people and cultures than through understanding, acceptance and respect. The best way to achieve that is to travel, to visit, to interact, to learn. Gary has a passion for travel in all it shapes and forms, he has explored Asia donning a backpack, drove a classic car through Southern India to raise money for charity and at the other end of the scale visited famous monuments of humanity traveling by private jet and each experience  strengthens his appreciation of the world we live in. Support the show Visit Us for more Pan Am History! Support the Podcast! Donate to the Museum! Visit The Hangar online store for Pan Am gear! Become a Member! Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter!A very special thanks to Mr. Adam Aron, Chairman and CEO of AMC and president of the Pan Am Historical Foundation and Pan Am Brands for their continued and unwavering support!

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