A tribute to Freddie Bissert
I first met Freddie shortly after I started with Pan Am in 1964, but it was not till 25 years later, 1989, that we began a close working relationship. The relationship turned into a friendship which would lasted till the moment he passed away. Freddie called me the Sunday before and was asking how I was doing. I didn’t think anything of it at the time, but Freddie sounded a little melancholy. Other than that it was just another of our periodic updates.
It all began in 1989 when I took a job in Pan Am’s Ramp Training dept. at JFK. It was Freddy’s job to make a trainer out of me and from then on we were together most every day for the next three years. Later that year we found ourselves in Berlin for an advanced train-the-trainer course. It happened to be the time that the Berlin wall was coming down. I can remember the both of us chipping away at the wall with the tire iron from our rent- a-car to collect some souvenir pieces of the wall. It wasn’t long after that – August of 1990 – that the war broke out in the Persian Gulf. The Civilian Reserve Air Fleet was activated and Pan Am was in the thick of it, and so were Freddy and I. We worked as a team going ahead to many U.S. military bases around the country to meet and work the arriving Pan Am flights. The flights came to pick up the troops for their long trip to the Persian Gulf. Freddie and I worked together at: Fort Hood, Fort Campbell, Fort Bragg, Fort Benning, Langley Field, San Antonio, Volkes Field, Charleston, and Cherry Point Marine Corps Air Station. We spent Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years at Cherry Point working the Pan Am operation which participated in deploying the Second Marine Division to the Gulf. This was the largest airlift of Marines in history and Freddy and I were part of it.
When the war began – January 17, 1991, Freddie and I were asked if we were willing to fly into the “Desert” to work the Pan Am flights, both passenger (troops) and cargo. There was never a question about that. We were put at the Albani Hotel in Rome and from there made numerous trips into Dhahran, Riyadh, Al Jubal, and Bahrain. We worked the troop flights out of Rome and the freighters out of the U.S. Airbase in Ramstein, and the NATO base in Sigonella, Sicily. There was little time off between the 8 hour flight to Saudi Arabia, the three to four hours on the ground, and the 8 ½ hour flight back. We had two days off in Rome and on one day we saw Pope John Paul II in St. Peter’s Square during the Palm Sunday service. The next week we got – through the good graces of the Rome Pan Am staff – tickets to a Papal audience. Freddy and I were close enough to the Pope to reach and touch him. In Sicily we had a day off and took our rent-a-car to the top of Mt. Etna – We have that day on DVD compliments of Pan Am Captain Duke Dent. The end of the Gulf War brought us back home to a failing Pan Am, and the eventual takeover of Delta. Freddy and I lost touch for a few years after he moved to Las Vegas and I went to St. Petersburg Russia as the Delta Station Manager. One day I got a call from Freddie who told me that we and some other Pan Amers were to receive the Air Medal from the U.S Air Force in a ceremony in Frankfort. Freddy captured that day on film for all the participants.
Freddie’s family should be proud of his service to his country which included a tour in the U.S. Army where he was stationed in Berlin and his service during Desert Shield and Desert Storm for which he received the Civilian Desert Shield/Desert Storm award and the Air Medal (a military award). Freddie was like a big brother to me and was always my mentor. For one who had lived with Freddie in many places during some hair raising experiences, I can say with certitude that he was one of the kindest and most generous persons I was ever associated with. Freddie was a big man, but his heart exceeded his physical dimensions. He was exuberant and loved to share his joy of living with all he came into contact with. We had a lot of exciting and good times together. He was truly so full of love and life.
Freddie came to visit my wife, Larissa and me the last two years. She took to him right away and often reminded me to call him if I hadn’t done so in a while. Larissa wasn’t aware that Freddie had called me on Sunday, and on Wednesday – the day Freddie passed – she said to me, “you haven’t heard from Freddie in a while you better call him.” “ I said we just spoke on Sunday.” Maybe Freddie was just saying goodbye to Larissa. Freddie never forgot to tell me to give his love to her.
Always in our prayers, we will miss him dearly.
Charlie & Larissa Imbriani
