Air America

Air America was an airline secretly owned by the U.S CIA during the Second Indochina War (see also Vietnam War). By the summer of 1970, the airline had some two dozen twin-engine transports, another two dozen short-take off-and-landing (STOL) aircraft, and 30 helicopters dedicated to the Secret War in Laos. There were more than 300 pilots, copilots, flight mechanics, and airfreight specialists based in Laos and Thailand.

During 1970, Air America delivered 46 million pounds of food in Laos. Helicopter flight time reached more than 4,000 hours a month in the same year. Air America crews transported tens of thousands of troops and refugees, flew emergency medevac missions and rescued downed airmen throughout Laos, inserted and extracted road watch teams, flew nighttime airdrop mission over the Ho Chi Minh trail, monitored sensors along infiltration routes, conducted a highly successful photo reconnaissance program, and engaged in numerous clandestine missions using night-vision glasses and state-of-the-art electronic equipment. It also allegedly transported opium and heroin, perhaps unwittingly. When the U.S. withdrew from South Vietnam, Air America helicopters evacuated the embassy in Saigon.

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The 1990 film, Air America, starred Mel Gibson as an Air America pilot.