Blog Alumni

blusk
Author Since 2006

Brian Lusk

Of all our bloggers, I am probably the oldest, but I don’t feel my age. I was born in 1952, just a couple of blocks from the Santa Fe Railway’s main transcontinental line in Clovis, New Mexico to an airline father, so transportation (planes and trains) got in my blood at an early age. As a child, my fondest memories are spending days at work with my dad on the ramp in Amarillo, Texas and on the old observation deck at Dallas Love Field. After graduating from Southern Methodist University in Dallas as a journalism major, I got my first airline job with Delta in 1976. During my time at Delta, I worked at Dallas/Fort Worth (during three separate occasions), Detroit, Oakland, Atlanta (at the old terminal), Portland, Oregon, Paris Orly, and Dayton, Ohio. My 18½ years with Delta were split between ramp/operations and ticket counter/gates. I joined Southwest (thankfully!) in 1995, as a Reservations Sales Agent, but then I moved to the communications group in the Executive Office, where. I corresponded with our Customers on a wide variety of topics, but I also got to work on different projects like this blog. About five years ago I moved into the Communication & Strategic Outreach Department and worked primarily in our social media area. Then in 2011, I got my dream job as Southwest's Corporate Historian. I enjoy sharing and preserving Southwest's past with our Employees and the public at large.

Fun Facts

Languages

English and Blog

Hobbies

Aviation and Railroading

Pets

My basset, Annabelle

High School

El Segundo High School, El Segundo, Ca and WT White in Dallas

College

Southern Methodist

Favorite Sports Teams

Texas Rangers, Dallas Stars, Dallas Mavs, SMU, Cowboys

Favorite Travel Destinations

Scotland

Your Favorite Southwest Story

The current week's Flashback Fridays

Recent Activity:

Recent Activity Posts

Flashback Fridays: Kicking Off Southwest's 40th

Jan 07 2011
Welcome to the first Flashback Fridays of 2011, and as most of you may know, this year marks Southwest Airlines’ 40th Anniversary.  From time to time throughout the year, I will be sharing information and photos from 1971, and we start that off today.  But, before we do, I have an extra credit question that won’t win you anything other than pride in having a correct answer:  What other major... read more

Flashback Fridays: Tales of Airline Christmases Past

Dec 24 2010
Hi everyone.  I am posting this on Christmas Eve, and I hope that you will allow me some personal reflection in this edition.  During the 58 years I have been on this planet, I have been associated with the airline industry in all 58 of those years either through Dad’s employment with Continental or my own almost 35 years of airline employment at Delta and for the last 15+ years, Southwest. ... read more

Flashback Fridays: Oakland International in the late 1970s Part Two

Dec 20 2010
In part one of our previous Flashback to Oakland in the late 1970s, we primarily looked at the scheduled airlines and cargo charters.  In this final installment, we take a look at some large first generation jets serving the Oakland Airport (OAK).  There was a 20-year period from the end of World War II to the introduction of the 727 and DC-9, when the words “four-engine equipment” were a... read more

Flashback Fridays: Oakland International in the late 1970s Part One

Dec 10 2010
For the next two holiday editions of Flashback Fridays, I thought I would share some photos that I took back when I was the youngest instead of oldest in my work group.  At the start of my airline career, I worked several years in Oakland for Delta.  We only had three flights a day, so there was a lot of free time, even after we cleaned the layover aircraft’s interiors from stem to stern and top... read more

Flashback Fridays: A Look at Houston Hobby Before It Was Houston Hobby

Dec 03 2010
This week, we flashback to Hobby Airport in Houston before it was Hobby Airport and before Southwest was a twinkle in Herb’s and Rollin’s eyes.  I confess that I owe the inspiration for this post to Michael Bludworth who is a volunteer with the 1940 Air Museum at Hobby.  (I’m saving that building for a future Flashback because it is a unique gem among aviation architecture.)  Michael, who is a... read more

The Best Holiday?

Nov 24 2010
I’m not a big “holiday guy."   I’m usually in bed before the New Year clicks over, I don’t wait for Christmas with eager anticipation like I once did as a kid, and I won’t drive far to see fireworks on July 4th.  However, I do have a very special holiday, and Thanksgiving Day is a very big deal to me. In my previous incarnation with another airline, I had the privilege of working in Paris... read more

Flashback Fridays: 30-Year-Old Workdays

Nov 19 2010
One thing I’ve learned while exploring our archives is that we have a lot of photos of people, but very little photos of processes.  That’s not surprising because of our Culture of placing the Employee first, but it does cause some historical gaps.  Recently for a video project, we were looking for photos of our old plastic boarding passes in use.  For so many years, we just took that procedure... read more

Flashback Fridays: An Early Visit to the Boeing Factory

Nov 12 2010
I think it’s time for some more photos of Southwest Airlines aircraft and hot pants from the early days.  While rummaging through our files recently, I found another bunch of slides and negatives that I had never seen before.  Especially for the 1970s, we have a lot of photos that were taken for promotional purposes, which were used once or twice, and then stored away and forgotten.  For example... read more

Flashback Fridays: Factoids About 737s

Nov 05 2010
Even a casual reader of Flashback Fridays will know that the Boeing 737 features prominently in many of these posts.  I thought we would take a moment to look at a few pages from the 737 history book this week.  For instance, how many of you know which airline was the first to operate the “baby Boeing?”  United would be a good guess, and some of you probably said Southwest, but the 737 was... read more

Southwest Airlines' Media Day 2010 Recap

Nov 01 2010
Wow, that was a busy day!  Last Thursday was Media Day 2010, where media representatives from all over the nation had access to our Officers.  We filled their day with updates on major projects and breaking news. We began the day in Freedom Hall here at Headquarters with a Brand Update from Kevin Krone.  Kevin talked about the success and history of our Bags Fly Free campaign, emphasized our... read more