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Air America – CIA Airline

Air America was an American passenger and cargo airlineestablished in 1946 and covertly owned and operated by the Central IntelligenceAgency (CIA) from 1950 to 1976.

It supplied and supported covert operations in SoutheastAsia during the Vietnam War, including providing support for drug smuggling inLaos.

CAT was created by Claire Chennault and Whiting Willauer in1946 as Chinese National Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (CNRRA) AirTransport to airlift supplies and food into war-ravaged China.

It was soon pressed into service to support Chiang Kai-shekand his Kuomintang forces in the civil war between them and the communistsunder Mao Zedong.

Many of its first pilots were veterans of Chennault\'s WorldWar II combat groups, popularly known as Flying Tigers. By 1950, following thedefeat of Chiang\'s forces and their retreat to Taiwan, the airline facedfinancial difficulties. In August 1950, the CIA bought out Chennault andWillauer, continuing to operate as CAT, until 1959, when it changed its name toAir America.

Air America\'s slogan was \"Anything, Anywhere, Anytime,Professionally\".

Air America aircraft, including the Curtiss C-46 Commando,Pilatus PC-6 Porter, de Havilland Canada DHC-4 Caribou, Lockheed C-130Hercules, and Fairchild C-123 Provider, along with UH-34D, Bell 204B, Bell 205,and Boeing CH-47C Chinook helicopters, flew many types of cargo to countriessuch as the Republic of Vietnam, the Kingdom of Laos, and Cambodia.

It operated from bases in those countries and also frombases in Thailand and as far afield as Taiwan and Japan. It also on occasionflew top-secret missions into Burma and the People\'s Republic of China.

From 1959 to 1962 the airline provided direct and indirectsupport to US Special Forces \"Amofferextrous\", \"Hotfoot\", and\"White Star\", which trained the regular Royal Laotian armed forces.After 1962 a similar operation known as Project 404 fielded numerous US Armyattachés (ARMA) and air attachés (AIRA) to the US embassy in Vientiane.

From 1962 to 1975, Air America inserted and extracted USpersonnel, provided logistical support to the Royal Lao Army, the Hmong Armyunder command of Royal Lao Army Major General Vang Pao and combatant Thaivolunteer forces, transported refugees, and flew photo reconnaissance missionsthat provided intelligence on Viet Cong activities. Its civilian-marked craftwere frequently used, under the control of the Seventh/Thirteenth Air Force, tolaunch search and rescue missions for US pilots downed throughout SoutheastAsia. Air America pilots were the only known private US corporate employees tooperate non-Federal Aviation Administration-certified military aircraft in acombat role.

By mid-1970, the airline had two dozen twin-enginetransport aircraft as well as Boeing 727 and Boeing 747 jets plus two dozenfixed wing short-take off-and-landing aircraft in addition to 30 helicoptersdedicated to operations in Burma, Cambodia, Thailand, and Laos.

There were more than 300 pilots, copilots, flightmechanics, and airfreight specialists based in Laos, Vietnam, and Thailand.

During 1970, Air America delivered 46 million pounds(21,000 metric tons) of food in Laos. Helicopter flight time reached more than4,000 hours a month in the same year.

Air America flew civilians, diplomats, spies, refugees,commandos, sabotage teams, doctors, war casualties, drug enforcement officers,and even visiting VIPs like Richard Nixon all over Southeast Asia.

Its non-human passengers were even more bizarre onoccasion. Part of the CIA\'s support operations in Laos, for instance, involvedlogistical support for local tribes fighting the North Vietnamese forces andthe Pathet Lao, their local opponents. Forced draft urbanization policies, suchas the widespread application of Agent Orange to Vietnamese farmland created adisruption in local food production, so thousands of tons of food had to beflown in, including live chickens, pigs, water buffalo, and cattle.

On top of the food drops (known as \"rice drops\")came the logistical demands for the war itself, and Air America pilots flewthousands of flights transporting and air-dropping ammunition and weapons(referred to as \"hard rice\" to friendly forces.

When the North Vietnamese Army overran South Vietnam in1975, Air America helicopters participated in Operation Frequent Windevacuating both US civilians and South Vietnamese people associated with theSaigon regime.

The famous photograph depicting the final evacuation, byDutch photographer Hubert van Es, was an Air America helicopter taking peoplefrom an apartment building at 22 Gia Long Street used by USAID and CIAemployees.