THE ADVENTURE BEGAN FORTYFIVE YEARS AGO TODAY

by

Thaine H. Allison, Jr.

VP Programs

June 15, 1962 San Francisco airport, CA A group of 102 young, and not so young, American's assembled in the passenger waiting area of Pan American Airlines waiting to board Pan Am's Flight 101 westbound for Honolulu and the far East. They were the first group of Peace Corps Volunteer trainees to be assigned to North Borneo and Sarawak, British colonies, on the Island of Borneo. The Borneo territories were destined to become part of Malaysia a year later. The trainees were teachers, agricultural workers, surveyors, nurses and an economist. They ranged in age from 18, three had graduated high school the previous Saturday, to 50 from all over the country. For many arriving in San Francisco was their first air plane ride, their first visit to California and some their first trip outside their home state.

We were all scheduled to fly to Honolulu on the morning flight but due to some mix-up on the part of the airline half the group left on the morning flight and the other half stayed behind and had a grand tour of San Francisco with a grand lunch at Alioto's on Fisherman's Wharf. Late in the day we boarded Pan Am 201 Boeing 707 service to Honolulu. We arrived Honolulu in a rain storm and transferred to Hawaiian Airlines DC-3 to Hilo.

It was nearly midnight when we arrived at the Hilo campus of the University of Hawaii, our new home away from home. The women were funneled off to a dorm, the men to the gym and five married couples to a four bedroom house near by. Breakfast was at 7:00 and a mile walk away at the technical trade school where the culinary arts students were to feed us for the coming three months. This was the beginning, not quite boot camp, not quite summer camp, a lot of work and tears, and joy that summer as our ranks dwindled from 102 to a final 62 who were sworn in three months later as the first contingent of Peace Corps Volunteers for the new nation of Malaysia.

Pan Am Flight 101 leaving us behind

A similar DC-3 on a sunny day

We were in the top right corner

Map of Hawaii

University of Hawaii, Hilo

The trade school for breakfast