Pilot Guest Log Book belonging to Air Force Col. George A. Amsler. May 12, 1949 to Aug. 19, 1952 for U.S.A.F. plane 43-49338 containing more than forty different signatures from famous government and military persons. Also included are Amsler's military hat, navigation instruments, Lockheed constellation pocket handbook, his wife's military I.D., an unidentified eagle patch, two presentation folders of both of Amsler's Air Force Commendations Medals, 29 black and white photos of Amsler and his crew, his family and dignitaries, life size face card of Averell Harriman from his campaign for President, and two file boxes of his special orders, classified and unclassified from 1942-72, many which pertain to the Marshall Plan in the European Theater and now declassified.
The Pilot’s Guest Log contains more than forty different signatures from famous government and military persons. The second title page includes the purposeful full page width signature of W. Averell Harriman and signed again later in the book. Personal signatures in this flight book include: First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, First Granddaughter Eleanor R. Seagreaves, Asst. Secty of Sate Andrew H. Berding, Sen. Sidney Fine, Ambassadors Tasca, Riddleberger, Martin, Bruce, and others. Detailed list of 39 identified signatures available upon request and their titles, more than 200 signatures total are in the logbook. Amsler was the Captain in charge of the mission flights to and from and around Europe for implementation of the Marshall Plan. He was selected as pilot for the U.S. Ambassador-at-Large of the Economic Cooperation Administration to Averell Harriman and his successors till late 1952.
This is the only document found with the signatures of Eleanor Roosevelt and her granddaughter Eleanor R. Seagraves together on the same page. The flight is dated Jan. 20, 1952 as they flew from Paris to Lille.
The back of the logbook is Amsler’s hand written records of the flights including dates, arrival times, destinations and a brief list of passengers of which many did not sign the front pages. The logbook itself is in excellent condition being high quality leather bound gilt edge paper with a hand made and applied dust jacket made from a water proof topographical map of the French countryside. A hand drawn silhouette of the Constellation on the cover in black with 9338 in the upper left corner. The dust jacket has several tears, but in amazingly good shape for having been flown and handled by so many passengers. In the back of the book is a self-made envelope of two plank pages holding newspaper clippings about Harriman’s life as a small memorial to his friend who died in 1984 at the age of 94.
U.S. Air Force Colonel George A. Amsler, (d. Apr 27, 2004 at 89). Col. Amsler was in the African Campaign during WWII. He was then assigned to Special Air Missions at Bolling Field, Washington DC. He served as a United Nations observer during the Arab Israeli Conflict in 1949 where his duties included those of Interpreter for the Senior Observer in Jerusalem. He was selected as pilot for the U.S. Ambassador-at-Large of the Economic Cooperation Administration to the Marshal Plan in Paris, France. He served as pilot for Averell Harriman and his successors till late 1952. During the summer of 1954 he was transferred to the 756th Troop Carrier Squadron and served as the Units first acting commander. In 1974 he retired as Director of Operations for the 459th Troop Carrier Wing at Andrews Air Force Base. He logged over 10,000 accident free hours of flight time during his career.
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