Someone You Should Know

In Seattle, where he's based, employees describe him as a "unique person with a well-developed sense of humor and an unusual gift for entertaining passengers." Seattle Inflight services supervisors agree he's a good flight attendant, but even more importantly, a good team player. We agree he's someone you should know. He's Hal Fernandez: flight attendant, free spirit and Renaissance man. He went to 17 schools before graduating from high school in 1966.

Immediately after college he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force where he was a weapons systems security officer in a Strategic Air Command security police unit. "I never wanted a career in law enforcement," he remembers. And he laughs when he recalls his subsequent flight attendant interview. United asked me if I'd ever worked with the public. I said, "Sure, I was a cop." United gave him the job and he's still flying today.

Hal in 2005...

Along the way, there have been some interesting detours. Such as a special assignment in United's advertising department in 1975 and a short editorship of the Seattle Inflight News 10 years ago. Fernandez says he is frequently asked by other flight attendants, "What are you doing in this job?" He replies, "I missed the three, seven and 10-year slumps. What I do is different each day and I love it."

"I'm not serious enough to be a true academic," he adds. "And I had my fill of being a day worker when I was in the Air Force. Sure there are other lines of work, but personally I couldn't be an assembly line worker, spending eight hours a day picking up things and putting them down on top of other things."

"You could probably get by doing the same thing in the aisle of an airplane, but the point is you don't have to. This job is a challenge. I go on kid patrol or invite a row of strangers to play 'stump the flight attendant.' I wouldn't want to waste my life just getting by," Fernandez says.

Did he plan to make his flight attendant job a career? He says, "No. I've enjoyed being a flight attendant. Some people ask if I'm just a flight attendant? I never worked with anyone who was just a flight attendant. He admits that at first he thought of his flight attendant role as temporary. I wasn't looking at this as my life's work."

"I had these plans to do free-lance writing, but they never came through. Then I acquired a real estate license during the second year I flew, but it only took me a few months to realize that I didn't have the stamina to work two jobs. I chose to be a flight attendant." He adds, "I'm glad I did. Now I can say with pride and confidence that it's better to be good at what you enjoy than to choose a profession just to impress the neighbors or to justify who you are to strangers who pigeonhole you as soon as they hear what you do for a living."

After eight months of flying for United he was diagnosed as having multiple sclerosis (MS). "When it was first diagnosed, I thought I didn't have much longer to live, much less any hope of a career as a flight attendant," he says. "In reality, it has slowed me down from time to time but it's never stopped me. In 1973 a neurologist explained to me that I might have a full and productive life if I learned to pace myself and adopted a positive attitude," says Hernandez. "I tied myself in knots trying to manage stress. Then I learned to eliminate it. The early symptoms of MS were not pleasant. Fear of what the future held was absolutely terrifying.”

"The message from my doctor was that I couldn't have everything. Like a child, I took that to mean that I couldn't have anything.” "I'm happily long past that," Fernandez says. "I have learned that my mental outlook need not suffer because of a loss of physical stamina. I am living proof that a positive attitude influences one's physical health."

Employees at the Seattle Inflight Services department agree that Fernandez is anything but a sympathetic character. Words like "unique, upbeat and positive" and "team player" are more often used to describe him. One Inflight Services supervisor says: "Hal's strength lies in his ability to see the passengers on an airplane as his audience. He understands the value of entertaining travelers."

Fernandez talks confidently about his career and his art - poetry. His poems were recently published in a new book, Ferry Tales From Puget Sound, published by Vashon Point Productions. "I think the word 'inspiration' as it applies to poets is overworked," Fernandez says. "I am not inspired by my job. But life experience has always made me reach for a pencil to write. And I think flight attendants lead the pack when it comes to experience."

He has written verse since he was 15, but points out it isn't something one puts on a job application because it isn't something one gets paid for. He remembers the first time he showed someone a poem they asked if it had been published. "They still ask, and now I can answer 'yes.' Like the joke goes, when my ship came in I was at the airport. After years of collecting reject slips I started getting published in 1983," he says.

He studied writing at the University of Washington. "The late '60s were strange years for an aspiring poet," he recalls. "They wanted me to read Emily Dickenson, T.S. Elliot and Robert Frost. The verse I heard in my head was Bob Dylan and John Lennon. People who were buying poetry were buying Rod McKuen. I just developed my own style." He adds, "Seeing your work in print is great for the ego, but the satisfaction is in the writing itself."

"Similarly, if I am truly having a good time doing my job, then I must be doing it for myself. Maybe my job is art. Just don't tell my EXO..."