Posted by Walt (69.106.180.46) on February 24, 2010 at 11:09:34:
This 1988 16-page article is an interesting account of the early days of airtankers, CIA "proprietaries", and how they worked together outside the spotlight to do what (they thought) needed to be done : http://www.bollyn.com/index.php?id=10684
Quite a few airtanker pilots, and others associated with the airtanker industry, were active in South East Asia in the 1960-70s. Don Ornbaum, Bob Wofford, Carl Kennedy, John Wiren, Ray Salucci, Terry Luther, Morrie Kensler, and Bert Foote flew for Air America (AAM) and flew tankers before and/or after their SEA tour.
Continental Air Services (CASI), which did roughly the same job in the same places, recruited a bunch of tanker jocks in mid-season during a operator/pilot squabble in the mid 60’s, including Joe Hammer, Joe McCoy, Bob Johnson, Dick Douglas, Jim Betts, Buck Radcliffe, Al Schwartz, Al Adolph, and Phil Barnett (mechanic). They were the mainstay of CASI’s Pilatus Porter STOL program, which included aerial supply drops into minuscule drop zones; flying airtankers was recognized as excellent training for the job.
Jim Ramage (CDF/USFS) flew choppers for AAM in Saigon. Larry Moore (FireTrol) was a “customer” on the ground near the Golden Triangle in Laos collecting ears with Tony Poe (Poshepney). Don Gearke would occasionally make an appearance in Thailand or Laos; he later flew for BLM out of Boise. Ernie Brace (“A Code to Keep”: GREAT book! Amazon.com), Bird & Sons Porter pilot, was captured by Pathet Lao and spent seven years, 10 months, and a couple of wake-ups in the Hanoi Hilton before repatriation and serving as Director of Operations at Evergreen (B17 and P2V airtankers). Kudos from McCain and Stockdale for his performance as a civilian POW earned Ernie the DOD Medal for Distinguished Public Service. Pat Thurston was with AAM in Laos, and was in the first Aero-Union GI Bill/FAR141 DC-6/7 type-rating class with me; Pat never flew tankers, but eventually was Director of Ops for America West. Andy Anderson flew for AAM before flying leadplanes for USFS. Jack Laughrin (AAM, Bird & Sons) and Bill LeCount (AAM, CASI) were both carded with T&G and were Captain/copilot on the T&G DC-7C sprayer/tanker that survived a SAM-7 hit over Mauritania in 1988. I flew with both AAM and CASI before flying TBM’s for HVFS in 1971.
Arguably the most notorious S.E.A. tanker pilot was Frank Sibley. While on an RON at LS20 Alternate (Long Tieng, Laos) flying Pilatus Turbo-Porters for CASI, Frank and Buck Radcliffe got into an argument over baseball scores; Sibley took offence and started chasing Buck around the compound with a loaded AK47. Jim Betts tripped him, there was a major pile-on, and Frank was sent home in a straight-jacket. After reportedly flying a TBM airtanker for a season in Nevada, Frank longed for the big time, so he tried to hijack a 727 from Reno -McCarran Airport to drop a million bucks to Hanoi war orphans. There was a scuffle, and he fought his way off the plane. After eluding authorities for a couple days, he was retired to a long vacation at state expense.
There was a web of companies at the time, not exactly connected, but with considerable movement between them; Air America, CASI, Bird & Sons, InterMountain, Rosenbaum, Evergreen, Southern Air, FPL, airtanker operators and fire agencies, several foreign cargo operators, even a few Air Forces that were always looking for unemployed American skyhags. It was interesting work, occasionally lucrative. You took care of your buddies, knowing that you might need a hand tomorrow. And there was no sense lying about hours or experience with that group; there was bound to be someone there that knew of you, or whereof you spoke.
Walt Darran