Yesterday, 323 people landed here.

I’m also receiving word of news outlets in many places displaying the photos from this post with a “Courtesy of keepapitchinin.org” line — this post must be one of the few internet sites with photos of the 1960 quake. The real credit belongs to the Church News and Instructor of 1960.

May God bless those who need help and who are giving help, in Chile, and Haiti, and wherever there is need.

“‘Representatives (missionaries) of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in neighboring South American countries went immediately to Chile to render such aid as was possible. From the Church’s Welfare Program warehouses in Salt Lake City, 352 cartons of supplies valued at $31,433.57 were shipped. These included antibiotics, blankets, clothing, rugs and 181 pairs of new shoes. In addition, 274 cartons of men’s, women’s and children’s shoes and clothing valued at $16,830.90 were sent to Chile.’

“Mission President J. Vernon Sharp reports that Church aid to the Chileans has created much good will towards the Church. Missionaries, once limited in their activities, are now given permission to pursue their missionary labors. There is no quota now on missionaries permitted in Chile.”

“Church recognized for aid to Chile during earthquake in 1960,” Church News, week ending 26 August 1961, 16.

She also said that there was a emergency plan in place for the missionaries, in case of a large earthquake. I wonder if the plan included placing themselves “at the government’s disposal for relief efforts”?

Two minor issues:

An anachronism–there were no “home teachers” in the church in 1960. That didn’t happen for another four years. They would have been “ward teachers.”

Second, as your photograph suggests, much of the air transport fleet in 1960–whether civilian or military–would have been propellor-driven. Both the Boeing 707 and the DC-8 were in service by 1960, but the airlines were still using a lot of DC-7s (which is the United aircraft shown in the photograph), Lockheed Constellations and other propellor-driven aircraft.

The “Globemaster” aircraft you mentioned is not the C-17 currently in use by the U.S. Air Force, but was a piston-engined plane developed in the late 1940s. It had a range of about 2,000 miles and a top speed of about 350 mph.

But, even if most of the cargo that was transported to Chile (or the film of the disaster that was brought back for broadcasting on U.S. television) was taken on propellor planes, it was still a lot faster than going by boat.