Once upon a time back when The Golden Door was the place to dine and to be seen atop the International Arrivals Building (IAB) at JFK International Airport, the half dozen best parking spots in front of the giant Hangar like IAB were reserved for the shipside reporters that had migrated from the waterfront of Manhattan, away from the big passenger ships, as jet travel almost overnight made ocean travel, the big story in transportation obsolete.
     Every airline had a press officer. Every step of the ladders before the advent of jetways, were branded with airline logos leading up and into the waiting airplanes.
     The IAB JFK Press Room was daily staffed by Associated Press, United Press International plus several of the local newspapers including Daily News, NY Times and Herald Tribune and others.
     The person who handled the growing demand of reporters covering the big airline story, the comings and goings of the famous, including the day the Beatles came to New York, and who supervised action and clearances in the IAB JFK Press Room was Milton A. Caine, (pictured above with wife Elaine) Port Authority Press Officer at JFK International Airport.
     That press room was a frenetic scene.
     Reporters, each had their own short wave radio, competing to cover the action with celebrity flights coming and going, listening to conversations between the planes and the control tower and so it went as often the words “Stop Press” echoed around the room just like “Breaking News” flashes today on television screens.
     Looking back, I recall that in morning hours the action at JFK International was slow, almost to a crawl.
     But starting in the mid-afternoon around three thirty, as the international flights began to arrive, the beat really picked up and by early evening, the arrivals and departures were thunderous.
     In 2025 it is hard to believe but it wasn’t until 2000 and the start-up of JetBlue that JFK was discovered to be an around-the-clock airport.
     Milt, as mentioned was the go-to person for all the reporters.
     But like everything else, after 20 years at his post eventually the day of the airport reporters ended. To be sure, a few of us hung around, yours truly as part of Jack Mallon’s Airport News in 1971 successor to Jim Cahill’s Aviation News, the first local airport newspaper, which Cahill and his wife Edie had launched in 1958 with another reporter named George Enell.
     So the airport press room closed and that era of reporting passenger action ended (Frank Engle was the last beat reporter; Frank had a great picture of himself smiling as actor Telly Savalas handed him a wrapped lollypop. Telly always had a lollypop in his mouth (as opposed to a cigarette) on his popular TV series Kojak). Our local airport newspaper was what remained and carried forward the press presence at JFK.
     Fast forward to today, in 2025 there are still two newspapers Airport Voice and Metropolitan Airport News that are read by airport employees and some passengers at JFK.
     This media can rightfully consider that their coverage (and ours as Air Cargo News, which began publishing with distribution at JFK/EWR/LGA Cargo area in March 1975) have continued the tradition of airport coverage with reporters whose beat and dedication to serve the great airports on the shores of Queens, New York and New Jersey was/is priority one.
     Coming back to Milt, I used to see him back in the days of mechanical typewriters and IBM electrics, sending reports and missives around for The Port Authority, and issuing passes and instructions for others.
     But unlike the eight or so people that populated the Press Room every day, Milt did not sit whilst typing, he always stood at his axe and banged out the copy.
     He also did not mess around, never chasing celebrities or joining his story subjects in some 'duck-into-the watering hole' for a few quick ones.
     During the late 1970s after the IAB Press Room closed and we were starting up Air Cargo News, Milt, then retired from the Port Authority joined us as one of our first reporters alongside his wife Elaine, a photographer. The couple traveled the world bringing our readers stories and photographs of the advent of modern air cargo, including Boeing B747F Freighters and the adaptive reuse of former front-line passenger aircraft tasked now for cargo, plus up close and personal stories of the people who were building and making air cargo go.
     From Natchez to New Orleans; from Paris, London and Rome to Asia Pacific and into South America our air cargo coverage was raised by The Caines.
     We became close friends and often spoke with Milt and Elaine, both always smart, warm and effusive when the couple lived on Long Island.
     Milt Caine continued on until age 96 when he passed on March 18, 2018. Elaine Caine lived until just this past January 15, 2025 when she passed at age 98.
     Even though we drifted apart in later years, our once, very close relationship lived on both in fond memory, and also some furniture in our home.
     Milt and Elaine provided an antique marble-top dry sink that today serves as a cellarette and sits in a place of pride inside our home in Queens, New York.
     As an endearment, our family refers to the lovely piece as Milt and Elaine’s table.
     We share this story, both for its historical note and also to once again, with a sense of wonder, marvel at the hundreds of wonderful people we have met during our 50 years of Air Cargo News/Flying Typers.
     Although some have departed this dimension, we respectfully share the hope that our friends Milt and Elaine and hundreds of others who remain such great spirits in our memory are together here, there, and everywhere.
Geoffrey Arend/SSA