And just one year later this routing would not have been available. CO had replaced PA on the GUM service, using DC-10s. This was mainline CO, not Air Micronesia, although the DC-10 did run up to Japan and back as an Air Mike service. I think only to NRT, though; OSA et al were served with a 72S (the 72M fleet was all on the truly Micronesia routes). The DC-10 also flew the DPS turn, if I remember correctly -- I'm a little hazy on that one.

Of course, I didn't get to fly on either of those two airlines on my first trip. I was on HK -- South Pacific Island Airways (SPIA) -- on an aging 707 that had served in the Middle East somewhere (as evidenced by the Arabic writing on the No Smoking/Fasten Seat Belts signs). HK lost the government contract with the advent of the 1984-85 fiscal year, but because CO operated the route only 3 days per week I became the very last government contract passenger on 1 October. Fortunately, by then I knew about the $40 space available upgrade to F so I was able to avoid the uncontrolled kids running around the cabin in back. Interesting thing about that particular trip: I was flying OMA-HNL-GUM (USAF didn't have any planes going my way for a few days), and the announced flight time for DFW-HNL and HNL-GUM were both 7 hours 43 minutes. I wasn't kidding when I said Guam was in the middle of nowhere!