The tour of MIA's control tower mentioned in the story was arranged by Don Innes, the FAA's tower chief, who lived about half a block east of me in the unincorporated area. In a weird coincidence, Mr. Innes' father was a career airfield supervisor with the Dade County Port Authority, where I worked after it turned into the Aviation Department in 1973. His son has written in comments on this site. Little did I know at the time that I would be in charge of the same tower many years later when we moved the airport's gate controllers into it in January 1992 after Pan Am died the month before. The FAA occupied the tower until 1984 or so when they moved to a new tower on the west side of MIA. Pan Am leased the tower for ramp operations after that and occupied it until December 4, 1991 when the airline was shut down.

The personal tour of Homestead Air Force Base was a result of a letter that I wrote to the Secretary of the Air Force about a screwup in air show dates. The Miami Herald printed a story about the annual air show being on both Saturday and Sunday but when we and thousands of others showed up at the gate on Sunday we were told that the air show was only on Saturday. The Air Force Secretary sent a letter back apologizing for the mix up and he gave me a Colonel's name and telephone number to contact for a personal tour. I arranged a tour with him and a junior officer took me all over the base and out on the flight line to climb in any aircraft I wanted. I remember sitting in a B-47 bomber cockpit, among other aircraft, and it was a great tour.