Former Employee's History of Chicago O'Hare Airport

Lieutenant Edward "Butch" O'Hare served the United States well, even giving his life in the end. Because of his heroism, we have what is now known as Chicago O'Hare International Airport. O'Hare Airport wasn't always known by it's current name. O'Hare's story began in 1946 when the U.S. Government bought the land, all 7,000 acres of it. In the next three years, 2.4 million dollars would be spent to aquire more land. At this time in history, the name "Orchard Field" had been in use for some time.

By the time the extra land was purchased, Orchard Field was known as "O'Hare Airport" in memory of the young Lieutenant O'Hare. O'Hare airport was opened to domestic commercial flight in 1955, and by 1962 all scheduled flights / connected business was transferred from Midway to O'Hare. Until 1998, Chicago held the honored title of the "world's busiest airport" which was taken from it by Atlanta, main hub for Delta Airlines.

Let's rewind back to May 13th, 1994 - my entrance into the world of Aviation Services. I was Junior in High School who would work full time, striving for an on - time graduation. When my employment began, Andy Frain Services was in the sub-contract employ of American Airlines in terminal 3, and United Airlines in terminal 1.

Until my employment, I was an avid admirer of everything aviation. I remain so to this day. Prior to those early working days, I had spent lots of time there with family as a hobby. If you would have lived with me, you would have observed a bedroom full of die - cast metal airplanes arranged neatly, with lots of aviation books and photos. As a young student I wrote . I wrote about aviation for those children who knew nothing at all. My books were accepted and recognized by many airlines, too many to name. How or when my material was used remains unknown to me today.

As a young worker, my first observations were so overwhelming that I went home with migraines for days. Thankfully, I had great professionals to train me. Not so many others were so lucky. Either that, or they didn't think enough of it to take it seriously; the result of which was a poor work ethic and bad reflection to the traveling public. Let's just call it what it is....poor service.

My biggest factual realization was that O'Hare was changing. The airport I knew was changing like people change with age. Airline employees were grumpy, most were just tired and indifferent. Long hours with bad compensation, bad treatment by management, and in-fighting due to corporate politics made it clear that interesting things were happening. One big factor in the airport changes was constant construction. Everything from the "moving pedways" to the taxi ways, and portions of concourses were always being worked on. Lost travelers who were running short on time for their flight departures, arriving into Chicago late, who were stressed, hungry, and often times whose patience was tested by missing luggage made for a baptism by fire.

Mr. Airport wizard here was smart enough to study O'Hare Airport maps, the airport physical lay out from visits with family, and knew where everything was. With a naturally professional mindset, A dream of showing everyone else up; this helped everything to fall into place quickly. Here's a quick lesson for anyone contemplating a career in aviation at all: NEVER put a uniform on and walk through an airport as a new person without having someone experienced close to you. Passengers don't take kindly to new people, even if they're in training. My worst encounter was a passenger who needed to be sent through a complicated maze of protocols and procedures that I was just starting to learn. Needless to say, it was a lesson in changing airport culture.

That's what aviation is, a culture. O'Hare has it's own culture from the employees who do everything from basic facilities maintenance to those at the top who engineer daily operations. A lot of people will say "it's just an airport".That's true if you're from a small place that rolls up the streets at 5PM rain or shine. O'Hare is a city inside an airport. So, if Chicago is a city all to itself; O'Hare is a city within a city. We're going to rewind to the 1980's when all there was were four terminals. If you used terminal four because you were an international traveler or flying some charter airline, you had to take a bus to the airfield or "AOA" where you would board your aircraft from a set of "mobile" stairs attached to a service vehicle.

It wasn't too easy to get lost in the airport in the 1980's. Since then, the CTA (Chicago Transportation Authority) expanded the "El" or "L" service right into the airport. Old news, i know - but significant. Travelers no longer had to rely on a cab or even their own vehicle to get to the terminal doors. One could just leave the car behind to use the train if the amount of luggage was not a horrible one. This became a convenience since all you have to do now is walk from the train to the terminals from teh pedestrian walkway. This has made me wonder if the architect designed this with inspiration from downtown Chicago's connected pedways linking what used to be Marshall Field's to what is now the Blue line, Red Line, and passageway to city hall and the Daley Building / City Hall / County Building.
This same question has been posed to me by many in their transits.

Stay with me here because it is neccesary to weave in and out of the time lines of this behemoth aviation mecca to understand the growing pains. Comparison and contrast is needed to detail the relationship between the many different professions and their relationships to the traveling public. You likely thought this was going to be another political piece, didn't you? Politics cannot be ignored, but that portion comes in time as this piece develops. To keep from the tired beating of a dead horse, the structure of this article was designed towards everyone...the passengers, employees, hobbyists, everyone. To have a well rounded understanding of such a city within a city, everything has to be included in careful detail.

One of my greatest ponderings was the organization and structure of O'Hare's logistics, funding, and political workings. The political workings include those in charge, those who are corporate managers, and those who had to be involved from nearby suburbs. The best thing I could have done was to keep my mouth shut, ask only the right questions, observe with careful common sense from both the personal and business vantages. One thing that couldn't be put behind me was the experiences of the consumers. Consumers have many nicknames unbeknownst to them. They are "Passengers", the "Traveling Public", "Frequent Flyers", "Miles", "Corporate Income", "Tax Dollars", "Dollar Signs", "Business Travelers", "Vacationers", and the list is endless.

Contained in this brilliant work at the appropriate junctures are tips for a smooth relationship with airline employees, airport personnel, Aviation Service Sub - Contractors, City Employees, Hotels / Motels, and will overall be used both to inform and guide everyone from both ends of the spectrums. Hang in there!
My task and objective is to give oversight while bringing an understanding to aviation workings to aid everyone in the travel experience. No newspaper will do this for you. No news agency has ever attempted this that I am aware of, beyond a compressed consumer news feature fit into a rigid time constraint.

Part two coming tomorrow.