Happy St. Patrick's Day

     Today as we celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, we are thinking about people we care about.
     While the voice of John McCormack (1984-1945) is warbling across the room i recall my great friend and hero of global air cargo from Ireland, the late, great Sean McCool (above photo right, with son, Ian); a lovely man and air cargo pioneer.
     Without "Too Cool McCool" who left us in 2023 at age 92, doubtful, that there would be a Shannon Airport.
     Fortunately his son Ian has carried on International Airlines Marketing Ltd. (IAM), which today is part of ECS Group, and remains Ireland’s largest Air Cargo General Sales and Service Agent (GSSA).
     With me (above photo left) also today is Michael Kelly, Cargo Communications Manager who served at United Airlines, reporting to Jan Krems, when Jan flew into town eleven plus years ago and blew the doors off The Willis Tower U.S. Headquarters of United Cargo.
     Mike was an absolute professional in every sense of the word, who shared and enhanced the sense of excitement as United Cargo came front and center as the biggest transportation story of this decade.
     Kelly loved the cargo business and was someone that always made me think of The Hartigans and the Irishry of United that once ruled in Chicago, back when UA operated that gigantic 10-story horizontal office building in Des Plaines near O’Hare Airport.
     One thing Mike, Jan and I always did every summer, was get together for some facetime at the airline HQ, to build story lines aplenty.
     That turned out to be a front row seat to the most exciting story in air cargo, after Jan got there.
     Today, many of the people of that era have retired, including Mike, who the last time we spoke, was still right there at home with his eclectic collection of great musical artists of the 1930s big band era and artists like “Whispering” Jack Smith and Dick Haymes.
     Once we looked for memories in a file cabinet or phone numbers on a rolodex and thought about friends.
     A break for a coffee at work would allow a moment to read a paper or an email as time moved inexorably toward the cell phone sending us instructions.
     Now our pictures are timed on our phones to appear as favorites in no particular order.
     I wrote this in one go just after pictures here, one after the other, appeared on that little slice of electronics on my desk.
     The Kelly Air Mail Act may have authorized the U.S. Postmaster to contract for air mail carriage at three bucks a mile, and that led directly to the formation of the U.S. airlines.
     Well move over, Rep. Clyde Kelly of Pennsylvania who authored the "Kelly Act".
     Future generations have a legacy in print from people like Mike Kelly, who delivered word pictures of what makes a great cargo department work.
     Mike did just that for decades with wonderful spirit and élan.
     With a tip of the Arend hat to everyone, yesterday and today, wanted to share what a pure honor it was, just walking down the street for a time with Kelly & The McCool's.
     Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
Geoffrey Arend