JAKE LAMKINS AGENT When I got discharged from the Air Force July 15, 1964, I knew I wanted to continue working around airports and airplanes. My Mom was living in Hot Springs, Arkansaw at the time and I returned there after being processed out at Travis AFB, California. About a week after getting back to Hot Springs, I went out to the airport with the idea of applying at all four airlines serving the city. The ticket counters were all in a row and I started at the first, Delta Airlines. The gentleman behind the counter said, "I'm sorry, but Atlanta does all our hiring". Next was Braniff Airlines and the fellow allowed as how everybody with them got hired down in Texas somewhere. Then I went to Trans Texas where the guy told me that Dallas did their hiring. That left only one, Central Airlines, down in a corner behind a pillar. When I got to it there was a well dressed man in a suit with a name tag that said "Jeff Gilbert, Manager". He told me that all their hiring was done in Ft. Worth but he had an application and would be glad to send it in for me. I went to Ft. Worth for an interview with Truman Jones and got a call from him a few days later offering me a job as a Passenger Service Agent in my choice of four cities: Kansas City, Harrison, AR, Paris, TX or Fayetteville, AR. I chose Fayetteville since I wanted to continue my college work. I started August 26, 1964. Little did I know everything airline in my life would end almost exactly 22 years later. I became a station agent when Frontier bought us October 1, 1967. In July 1968 I transferred to St. Louis and became a Senior Station Agent a little afterwards. Restless, I moved to Jackson, WY in May, 1970 and went to Lawton, OK at the end of the summer season in September working as Sr Agent both places. Then I came back to Fayetteville in January, 1971. I remained in Fayetteville until 1982, except for going to Jackson for the Summers of 1971 and 1972. In 1971 I became the station representative for the Air Line Employees Assn and over the next 15 years I held nearly every elective office in the Union, culminating in my election as Int'l VP in 1985. During that 15 year period, the greatest part of my union activities was meeting so many of the great Frontier folks on the system. By 1982 things were starting to get rocky on Frontier. We negotiated a "giveback" contract in an effort to keep the airline going. Fayetteville was closed in January of that year and I was assigned to Atlanta. Before the Crash in August of 86 I was based in San Diego, Midland, Tx, and finally Denver where I got my PHD in airline operations as a station agent then senior station agent. I was based there when the end came. There followed 2 years of "semi-retirement" back in Fayetteville. I had never sold my home near the airport (lucky for me) so I returned, fathered a daughter (wonderful), and went to work at the Fayetteville Post Office October 22, 1988. I work there as a distribution clerk and find it enormously entertaining everyday. Simply put, it's a zoo!! I've served two different unions at the post office and currently serve as senior steward for the American Postal Workers Union. Looking back on those 22 years in the airline business, there are two things that stand out - all the great opportunities to travel (which I took full advantage of) and the tremendous range of people I've met, especially the Frontier folks. It was one hell of a ride! (6/1/99)