[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 37 (Friday, March 7, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E411-E412]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        ANDREW PITAS HONORED BY AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL ASSOCIATION

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. FRANK R. WOLF

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, March 6, 2003

  Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, I want to share with our colleagues a recent 
article from The Loudoun times-Mirror which honors my constituent Mr. 
Andrew Pitas of Lucketts upon his receipt of the Glenn Gilbert Award 
from the Air Traffic Control Association for his lifetime commitment 
and leadership in the field of aviation.
  I am proud to call attention to the achievements of Mr. Pitas as he 
is honored with this prestigious award. On behalf of the people of 
Virginia's 10th Congressional district, I congratulate Mr. Andrew Pitas 
for his outstanding efforts in the field of air traffic control.

             [From The Loudoun Times-Mirror, Feb. 12, 2003]

              Lucketts Man Honored for Aviation Leadership

                           (By Scott Cissel)

       Lucketts resident Andrew Pitas first experienced air 
     traffic control in 1941 when he enlisted in the U.S. Navy. 
     One day a supervisor at the Anacostia Naval Air Station in 
     Washington, D.C., asked the 17-year-old to work in the 
     control tower.
       ``It looked warm up there,'' recalled Pitas, who had been 
     working outside in the chilly air, inspecting airplane 
     propellers for cracks.
       Now more than 60 years later, the Air Traffic Control 
     Association, an organization cofounded by Pitas in 1956 and 
     based in Arlington, is honoring him with the Glenn Gilbert 
     Award for his lifetime commitment and leadership in the field 
     of aviation.
       Only 15 people have received the award, including U.S. 
     Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta and Najeeb Halaby, 
     father of Queen Noor of Jordan. Pitas' name will be added to 
     the Glenn Gilbert trophy, which is kept on permanent display 
     in the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.
       ``It's kind of humbling,'' Pitas said. ``Air traffic 
     controlling is a team effort. There are so many people you 
     can get in trouble and who can get you in trouble. There are 
     no cowboys in this business.''
       The 80-year-old, raised on a dairy farm in Rhode Island, 
     learned air traffic control when it was a fledging 
     technology. He was stationed in England during World War II 
     as a controller.
       After the war he worked at the Washington Tower in D.C., 
     now Reagan National Airport. Returning to the farm, where as 
     a boy he had watched planes fly overhead en route to Boston, 
     wasn't an option.
       ``There were better ways to make a living,'' he said. ``I 
     had to milk cows morning and night.''
       Before radar became a standard practice after the war, some 
     pilots refused to take radar readings from controllers, 
     according to Pitas. Others liked it so much they played the 
     radar position he broadcast to their passengers in the cabin.
       And some pilots and crews had enough time to sing a 
     greeting song to him as their planes neared landing. 
     Controllers knew many of the pilots by name then.
       ``In the early days we knew a lot of them,'' said Pitas.
       As air traffic increased, so did the stress on controllers, 
     which prompted Pitas to develop a system that is now 
     universally used--the automated terminal information system. 
     The service sends a recording with continuously updated 
     information on flight conditions to pilots. Before, pilots 
     had to radio the tower for updates.

[[Page E412]]

       Pitas later brought his talent and expertise to the Federal 
     Aviation Administration, where he rewrote the handbook used 
     by air traffic controllers.
       In 1956 he and some colleagues founded the Air Traffic 
     Control Association, perhaps his most lasting contribution to 
     the industry. Air traffic controllers did not have retirement 
     benefits or adequate insurance and pay in the 1950s, recalled 
     Pitas, and they could suffer the blame of plane collisions 
     even if they had performed their jobs well.
       ``It was almost like you were on your own,'' he said. ``The 
     ATCA was instrumental in getting the government to beef up 
     protection. After all, we were agents of the government.''
       Through lobbying efforts and representation in Congress, 
     the ATCA gained better benefits for its members and has 
     become a source of international recognition for controllers.
       ``It gives people all over the world an outlet for their 
     views,'' he said.
       Stanley L. Seltzer, chief controller at Washington Tower in 
     the late 1940s, remembered Pitas not only for his technical 
     innovations, but also for his leadership in the ATCA.
       ``He was the live wire and the real go-getter,'' said 
     Seltzer, who now lives in Florida. ``He was always saying 
     that people didn't care enough about the controllers' point 
     of view. . . . ATCA really made it possible for an exchange 
     of thought on technical improvements, and put a voice there 
     that was never heard before.''
       Aviation was viewed as a safer way to travel by the public, 
     according to Seltzer, because of the early air traffic 
     controllers' work in preventing midair collisions and 
     improving communications.
       ``Had it not been for them I don't think that air transport 
     would have been as widely accepted,'' he said.
       After retiring from the FAA in 1983, Pitas has pursued his 
     interest in the history of air traffic control, including 
     research on the first women controllers.
       He raised cattle on his farm in Lucketts before swelling it 
     in 1990, and once stored a three-ton radio navigational 
     device in one of his barns for the National Air and Space 
     Museum.
       Since 1986, Pitas has been assistant vice president of ATCA 
     and has been active in securing funds for U.S. 15 road 
     improvements between Leesburg and Point of Rocks, Md.