Thanksgiving 2018

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Published: November 21, 2018

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As the nation prepares to celebrate Thanksgiving, PASS is grateful for our members at the Federal Aviation Administration and the Department of Defense who protect the largest, safest and most complex air traffic control system in the world. This week—the busiest travel week of the year—that system will be taxed by the estimated 4.4 million Americans expected to travel by air to be with their families and friends. And many PASS members will be on the job, maintaining telecommunications and radar equipment, providing aeronautical charts and information and more. They will have inspected the very aircraft you are sitting on. They will be away from their own families on Thanksgiving because they are committed public servants and work for the American taxpayer who rely on their expertise.

Thanksgiving became a federal holiday in 1863, during the turbulence of the Civil War. In his proclamation, President Abraham Lincoln noted the difficulties in which the divided nation found itself while her farms and fields continued to prosper and the population grew. “It has seemed to me fit and proper that [these great things] should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and voice by the whole American people.”

That we will do on Thursday at tables large and small around this great nation. And PASS is honored to represent the dedicated men and women who helped to get you there.