'Air America' and what the movie got right

When I was in Vietnam in the 1st Infantry Division, we were scattered out in three different locations and we moved around a lot.

Consequently, my job as combat support had to do with re-fueling helicopters, I flew around a lot to different locations, mostly places where the French had rubber plantations, as the big plantations had small air strips.

One time, I was at some remote location, now as time has faded my memory , I can't remember where or what I was doing there. But here was this small transport plane loading some Vietnamese people into the plane, maybe 15 or 20. The plane was marked Air America. At the time, I had never heard of it.

The two pilots were American dressed in civilian clothes. I went up to them asking who they were and what they were doing, all I got was smart-aleck answers — period. Later I found out the Air America was the CIA.

In fact, there was a movie, Mel Gibson, about Air America and in the movie the pilots were also smart-alecks, just exactly like what I had encountered.

The movie had it exactly right as to the portrayal of the pilots. Just like the CIA, the operation was clandestine and I never knew what, why or where.

Roger Gregory is a Vietnam veteran and business owner in Priest River.