Around the World in Twenty-Five Years: A Memoir

This is the story of Chief Master Sergeant John Trimble's extraordinary career in the U.S. Air Force. He served aboard Air Force One, as radio operator for the domestic travels and foreign state visits of three Presidents and other government officials, and had other airborne and land-based communications positions. Trimble's stories span three wars and and encounters with various dignitaries and ordinary people he encountered in his twenty-five years crisscrossing the globe in service to his country. As the President's airborne communications specialist, he was the direct link between the President and the outside world. In this role, CMSgt. Trimble was privy to more top secret information than any other member of the crew of Air Force One. This book captures the drama of serving aboard the flying White House, such as the chapter covering the last flight of President John Kennedy and the first of President Lyndon Johnson, both on November 22, 1963. This chapter contains Trimble's dramatic verbatim radio transcript of communications between Air Force One and Administration officials both in Washington and elsewhere, including LBJ's call to Mrs. Rose Kennedy, JFK's mother, in which Mrs Kennedy was the first person to address LBJ as Mr. President, shortly after his swearing in aboard the aircraft. Trimble also flew with Presidents Johnson and Nixon, as well as scores of congressmen and world leaders. He has documented here-to-fore unrecorded incidents, such as his meeting with Emperor Haile Selassi of Ethiopia and the "gold coin", French President Georges Pompidou of France's embarrassment over the private showing of a movie, and both China trips of National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger, which eventually resulted in the reestablishment of ties with China and during which John personally met with Premier Zhou Enlai. Zhou was largely responsible for the re-establishment of contacts with the West in the early 1970s. The book also covers Trimble's experience beyond Air Force One, from a harrowing experience aboard a twin engine plane lost in a violent storm over the vast Pacific, evacuating wounded troops from Korea, and grounding in Vietnam. It is an exciting tale, chock full of anecdotes, weaving humor, history, geography and first-hand observations, taking the reader around the world several times, in a career that entailed over 9,000 hours of flying. "John Trimble is one of the few who transformed his rendezvous with history into words to be read and appreciated far into the future. It is the best account I have seen of the world of SAM FOX--VIP travel performed by the Air Force." (Robert F. Dorr, Author/Columnist)