Finally!

Forty-five years. That is a long time to wait for a project to become reality.

Forty-five years ago, my father was killed in a helicopter accident. The year was 1978. He had been a pioneer in aviation at Bellingham Airport since 1952. With partners, he started Bellingham Flying Service, a Cessna dealership/ flight training school/ crop dusting service/ charter service/ and cafe.

It was a time when there were still pilots living locally who flew in the WW2 and Korean wars. These men would flock to Bellingham Airport to drink coffee, eat breakfast or lunch in the two cafes, watch aircraft land and depart, and talk flying. Dad was a B-24 pilot at the end of WW2, flying supplies and personnel between India and China over what was then called then the Burma Hump. He fit right in as he regaled the men with stories, many times in his humorous way, of flying missions over the Himalayan mountains.

In the early 60s, dad and his partner Earl Erickson, sold Bellingham Flying Service and moved across the airport to start a new business which brought to Bellingham the first helicopters. They named the company Emco Helicopters. Bringing the first Bell 47 helicopter onto the field, they used it for crop dusting, charters, sling loading, delivering Santas, and just about any other creative idea they could think of. The local newspapers were quick to write stories and print photos of the helicopter operations since the readership was so awed by this new type of flying machine in Whatcom County.

One of my pilot friends once said, “There are old pilots and there are bold pilots but there are no old, bold pilots.” On July 14th, 1978, while taking a charter of three geologists over the hills of Big Lake, Washington, the helicopter went down and crashed in the timber. Only he was killed. It is debatable as to what caused the helicopter to lose power, but many theorists say that the helicopter was shot at from the ground.

In the months to follow, the airport manager, Larry Lepic, went before the Port commission and suggested that the new Aviation terminal being built at Bellingham be named the Paul Mitchell Terminal. The commissioners considered the idea but instead decided to name the main drive from Bakerview out to the terminal, Mitchell Way. It is no coincidence that the name of this blog site is Mitchellway.

Two or three times since the road was named, I have talked with the airport managers about putting up a sign inside the terminal explaining why the road to the terminal is called Mitchell Way. Each new airport manager has been interested in hearing the story but the idea of putting up signage in the terminal died each time. And then the U.S. Army Chaplain Corps got involved.

Since dad was a WW2 veteran, an active-duty Army Chaplain who knew of his service made it his job to see that dad was honored. The Chaplain made a call to the current Airport Operations Manager, Alexander Young, who is himself a veteran. A meeting between the two of us was scheduled and after deciding on a mounting location in the terminal, a proof was made by a local sign company and Alexander started pushing it up the long chain of command at the Port. Many months later we got the green light.

I am proud to say that on Thursday, September 19th, 2023, a very nice sign was mounted just inside the door at Arrivals and Baggage Claim. It honors my dad, Paul Phillip Mitchell as a veteran and pioneer at Bellingham Airport and explains why the main road to the terminal is called Mitchell Way.

Many thanks to Alexander Young, Bellingham Airport Operations Manager, for making the Port managers believers, and 1000 thanks to the U.S. Army Chaplain who believed that it was time.

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