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August 26, 1948

Captain Richard Thornton
601 Seale Avenue
Palo Alto, California

Dear Captain Thornton:

Red Foster has been on sick leave and has asked me to answer your letter to him of August 4.

Your first question is, "What is a pilot's status if during, or as a result of, a strike he finds himself without a job?"

The proposed air line pilot's retirement system provides benefits in the following types of cases:  (1) when a pilot is disqualified as an "air line pilot"; (2) when a pilot's permanent physical or mental condition becomes such as to disable him for all kinds of employment; (3) when a pilot attains the age of 50 or more and retires from whatever job he may be holding at the time; (4) when a pilot dies.

When an air line pilot ceases to be such for reasons other than the above, he retains certain rights to the specified benefits.  These rights are dependent upon his length of service as a pilot and may change with the length of time elapsing after the termination of his service as a pilot.  But none of the rights has any relation whatever to the reason for his ceasing to be a pilot, other than those which result in immediate benefit payments.

Several points should be made in this connection:

(a) If you have served as an air line pilot for 20 years, none of the rights to any of the four benefits specified above will be lost by termination of service, whether on account of a strike or for any other reason.

(b) If you have had 5 years of service and become disabled for all kinds of employment within 18 months after you cease to be a pilot (assuming that you were a pilot continuously up to the time your services terminated), you will be entitled to your disability annuity and the $200 a month minimum would apply.  If you had 10 years of service and became permanently and totally disabled for any kind of regular employment, you would immediately