Master Mechanic John Q. Gilbert

In 1952, at the age of seven, John Gilbert’s family relocated to Brooklyn from their home in South Carolina. John graduated from East New York High School in 1963 with a Technical Diploma in Aviation Technology. The following October, he enlisted in the U.S. Air Force and graduated from Chanute Air Force Base as a Multi-Jet Engine Aircraft Technician on March 24, 1964, at 19. Assigned to Loring Air Force Base, Maine, in the 42nd Organizational Maintenance Squadron, an attachment of the Strategic Air Command (SAC) 42 Bomb Wing, John was assigned to three different Vietnam temporary duty assignment missions between 1964 and 1966. Aircraft participated in air refueling missions to cover U.S. fighters and bombers flying in the theater of operation. He was promoted to KC-135 Crew Chief and honorably discharged in October 1967.

​Shortly after, Pan American Airlines hired him as an aircraft cleaner at JFK International Airport and promoted him to mechanic’s helper. As a licensed A & P and Radio Technician, Gilbert also worked in the Pan Am Avionic Department. In 1987, he was promoted to work in the Maintenance Control Operation (as a Repetitive MEL Supervisor) and remained in that position until Pan Am declared bankruptcy in December 1991. He remained in his position and was asked to answer phone calls until January 1992. Some two months later, “I started another path on my journey within the commercial aviation industry, working with Northwest Airlines Technical Operations Department in Minneapolis, accepting a position within the company’s Maintenance Control Operations as a Maintenance Operations Technical Representative (MOTR). My position required that I examined repetitive aircraft system faults and design specific troubleshooting and corrective action procedures for the problem, “said Gilbert; he held the position until July 1997 and was promoted to Northwest’s Line Maintenance Manager for Newark (EWR) and Philadelphia (PHL) Airports, a position that he held until retirement from the company in 2005. In September of that same year, North American Airlines, a contract charter operation, hired him as Manager of Maintenance Control until the company’s bankruptcy in 2013, whereupon he officially retired.

Mr. Gilbert received the Charles Taylor award in 2017.

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