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Wings of Air America A photo history by Terry Love Soft Cover
Wings of Air America A photo history by Terry Love
Soft Cover
Copyright 1998
104 pages.
Air America was the largest of the CIA's secret airlines. Air America was one of the world's most extraordinary airlines. It was run by the CIA, operated secret missions, publicly flew scheduled routes, and, at its peak, Air America had the largest commercial fleet in the world! The airline emerged from China after World War II, had close ties to the famous Flying Tigers, Claire Chennault, other airlines, and foreign governments. But was it really an airline, or just a military cargo division? Air America operated a wide variety of helicopters and other aircraft. They did maintenance for foreign military, other competing airlines, American military, and had the largest facilities in Asia - in fact, the American government denied that they even existed! But they did exist, and a magnificent job was done by them. Revealed here, for the first time, is some of the flight equipment that was used on some of these secret missions, They "invented" aerial resupply - even before the Berlin Airlift. Finally, they did most of the evacuation from falling Saigon in 1975. Unsung, unheralded, but always brave, courageous, and dedicated, they lived up to, and often died, with Air America's motto of "Anything, Anywhere, Anytime - Professionally."
The story of Air America actually began in mainland China in April of 1937, when a career U.S. Army Air Corps Captain retired after 20 years of service as a fighter pilot. He served in World War I and in the peacetime Air Corps. He was partially deaf, and had wrinkled skin from years in open-cockpit biplane fighters. This Captain was a man who always seemed to be marching to the beat of a different drummer. He was very passionate in his beliefs and commitments, and frequently stepped on the toes of his superiors. He was a military rebel and a maverick. Therefore, his career languished, but he did lots of flying of pursuit aircraft, and was the expert in the area of fighters and tactics. Immediately upon his retirement, he obtained a three-month contract to make a confidential survey of the Chinese Air Force. While conducting this survey, China and Japan began full-scale war. He volunteered his services to the Nationalist government, and he assumed duties with an Air Force that his survey had revealed to be in deplorable conditions. He started a flight training school in Kunming, China, to begin to rebuild the Chinese Air Force. The Chinese were a very backward people at the time, and not very technically inclined. Therefore, this retired captain had to bring in some fellow Americans to help in flight instruction, maintenance, etc. The retired captain was Claire Lee Chennault, and his fellow Americans were the American Volunteer Group, or the AVG, which was better known as the
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