Ironically, Miami was where the airline had started 64 years earlier. Some might say December 4th, 1991 was significant in that it marked the death of history’s most significant airline. Indeed, Pan Am was an airline of firsts: the first 707, the first 747, the longest flights, the best flights as it pioneered routes from the United States all around the world. I fondly remember Pan Am flights 1 and 2 — which signified the westbound and eastbound round-the-world flights on its legendary Clippers. My first jet flight, with my parents, at the age of 12, was on a Pan Am 707 to Paris. I flew on every one of its 747s, including its first one (with the appropriate tail number N747PA, and named the Juan Trippe, after its legendary founder). Pan Am named each plane. I flew in the cockpit of the Clipper Maid of the Seas — and three days later the ill-fated 747 — was blown up at 31,000 feet over Lockerbie. I flew the Pan Am plane that became the last flight out of Vietnam in 1975. In all those years, I probably flew to about 65 different destinations on Pan Am — from Monrovia and Liberia to St, Martin, from Hong Kong and Manila to Hawaii….from Dakar and from Fiji. From Buenos Aires to Miami. From Fairbanks and to London. The airline just didn’t take me to places. It transported me to the experiences of a lifetime. To a substantial extent, it enabled my career as a journalist. In the process, I developed an emotional connection with America’s flag carrier. But then, 30 years ago, it was over. But that emotional connection continues to this day. And tomorrow, December 4th, I am reminded that Pan Am may be gone, but it is not forgotten.