Cooks were such a valuable commodity that they were given priority seating on Alaska Airlines flights.
From Chapter 14 of Alaska Traveler:
I followed the tram track outside to a line of miniature rail cars hooked together, a two foot-by-four foot flatbed, a mucking machine, a GE electric locomotive, a one-ton ore car. Each ore car was rolled out of the mine one at a time by trammers. The ore cars had no brakes. The trammers, the interpretive sign says in a masterpiece of understatement, were usually large men.
Dana Stabenow. Alaska Traveler (Kindle Locations 885-887). Gere Donovan Press.

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