Bethlehem Steel Learjet corruption (Allentown airport)

Three or four Learjets parked at the Allentown airport whose primary winter function was ferrying Bethlehem Steel executives to Florida golf outings. Tom's parallel example: US Air Force Reserve C-5As flying cases of Coca-Cola to Tokyo so reservist pilots could log flight hours while shopping for cheap stereos.

I worked at the steel company for thirteen months before I said, "Where do I want to be five years from now?" and the clear answer was not here. By twenty months I was gone. Today I would use the word corrupt. They had three or four Learjets parked at the Allentown airport, and their primary function was to fly the executives to Florida on the weekends in the winter so they could play golf. The only other organization I've ever seen doing similar types of things was the US Air Force Reserves, where they had to get their flight hours in and they would fly cases of Coca-Cola over to Tokyo on a C-5A so the pilots could get their time in and they could go to the electronic shops in Tokyo and buy stereos cheap. That wasn't the same type of corruption. They weren't making any money. They could just buy cheap stereos for their friends. I could buy Coca-Cola in Tokyo cheaper than I could buy it in the United States per case, flown over air freight courtesy of the C-5A and the US Air Force Reserves. It's an interesting system of economics in the world sometimes.