Master Mechanic John J. Goglia

The Hon. John J. Goglia recalls how proud he was when he got his Airframe and Powerplant Certifications after graduating from East Coast Aero Tech in Bedford, Massachusetts in 1963. With his A&P license in hand, he signed on for his first job as a mechanic for United Airlines. “New York has always been special to me because that is where I started my career at United Air Lines at JFK Airport. It was during the Jet Age, and jets were just starting to be worked on. Getting up to the line and working on a jet airplane was always a thrill for us young guys stuck in the hangar,” said Mr. Goglia in an interview with Metropolitan Airport News.

Mr. Goglia worked for United at JFK until the airline laid off several mechanics in 1965. He went on to work for the airline in Washington, D.C., and then onto Baltimore. In between that time, he married a girl from Boston who was very close to her family in Massachusetts. Wanting to move back home to Massachusetts, Goglia searched for the only job he could find in Boston as a mechanic, and he was hired by Allegheny Airlines. “I went with Allegheny, and it actually changed my career because Allegheny treated their maintenance people a lot differently than United, and so I grew with Allegheny over the course of the next 30 years. They gave me freedom, and I ended up doing a lot of jobs that typically a mechanic for other airlines may never get to do…on the quality side, on special projects, as an inspector, a crew chief,  all kinds of jobs within the maintenance department.”

Allegheny went through several mergers with Lake Central, Mohawk, Pacific Southwest Airlines, and then Piedmont. Goglia got on a committee over people assigned to work the mergers before they took place, doing many tasks, other than turning wrenches, to bring the two companies together. 

In the course of his career, Goglia worked on many types of aircraft, starting with the DC-6, DC-7, 8, 9s, Convairs, Caravelles, 720s, 727s, 747s, and the BAC-One Eleven. He also worked the non-scheduled side of the house. “I had two jobs, looking for extra income… with three kids, and I worked the Lockheed air terminal. 

When Allegheny became U.S. Airways, some of the unique jobs Goglia had took him to Washington, D.C. He worked with the FAA for several years, reviewing flight safety and maintenance rules. This work got him noticed and allowed him to put his name in for a position with the NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board). Shortly after Goglia received a call from the White House and was subsequently Presidentially-appointed under the Clinton Administration as an NTSB Board member, serving in that role from 1995-2004.

John Goglia received the Charles Taylor Master Mechanic Award after 53 years as a certificate holder in March 2017. At the time, he was promoting other people for the award. He said, “When you do that, you tend not to make accolades for yourself. It was secretly done behind my back, so I was surprised with the award at a competition I run called the Aerospace Maintenance Competition which took place a few years ago. My family flew down, and it was a big event. They had me crying.” 

Goglia reflected upon how FAA national resource specialist, the late Bill O’Brien, pushed hard to get the Charles Taylor Master Mechanic Award in place and how O’Brien really made it happen through his dogged determination and keeping it alive until somebody in the FAA thought it was a good idea and moved it forward. “Mechanics just do their job…a mechanic’s attitude is “see problem, fix problem, next problem,” said Golia, adding, “The Award is very important for the mechanics in general because it is one of the few forms of recognition that you have for a career, an unblemished career, because if you have problems with enforcement, you’re not going to get it. You have to have a clean record. It’s a tribute to what you’ve accomplished over the course of your career.”

Note: The author of this article is Metropolitan Airport News. They want to thank Charles Taylor II, Ken MacTiernan, and Joshua Lang for their assistance with this article.

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