Saturday, May 01, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Employees of former CIA airline seeking benefits

John Condon squeezes into the cockpit of a homemade plane he is building in Las Vegas along with partner Ward Reimer. The two men are former Air America employees and are hoping to become eligible for federal retirement benefits. Photo by Ralph Fountain.

WASHINGTON -- For 20 years, Las Vegan Ward Reimer couldn't tell people what he suspected, that he worked for the CIA.

The Taiwan-based airline that had hired him as a mechanic was a cover for the CIA from the 1950s until American troops pulled out of Vietnam in 1975.

Reimer's bosses at Air America Inc. never disclosed the truth to him or to many of the hundreds of employees who serviced planes and flew missions over China, Korea, Laos and Vietnam during the era.

"There were CIA people around there. It was unofficial. It was a thing you didn't talk about," said Reimer, who started working on planes when he was hired in 1957.

He later became a company manager in Cambodia until 1975, when the CIA shuttered the airline, leaving 500 Americans jobless.

Those who knew of the CIA connection were sworn to secrecy, unable to seek government benefits, said William Merrigan, a Defense Department lawyer who was Air America's counsel from 1962 to 1975.

Almost 30 years later, the former civil servants and the spouses of some who have died, are asking Congress to grant them federal benefits, as is done for employees of other corporations owned by the U.S. government.

At their request, Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., introduced legislation Thursday that would make the mechanics, the crew members, the pilots and the widows of Air America eligible for federal retirement benefits.

"We'd just like to get a little for ourselves. There's only 500 of us left," said John Condon of Las Vegas, who was an Air America flight engineer for 11 years. "It would be nice and help some people that really need it."

Reid said his bill would guarantee benefits to all employees of Air America and its subsidiaries and not limit payments only to those who went on to other government jobs.

"These are American heroes, many of whom were killed in action while flying dangerous missions for the CIA," Reid said in a statement. "They deserve to be recognized as such and at a minimum receive the same benefits that other federal employees receive."

Merrigan, who helped write the bill, said congressional action is needed because the courts and the government have denied appeals from the airline's former employees.

Reid's office did not have a cost estimate for the proposal. Merrigan predicted the cost would be minimal, given the small number of workers employed by the airline.

Founded by retired Maj. Gen. Claire Chennault of the Flying Tigers and American entrepreneur Whiting Willauer, the airline first operated in China as a cargo corporation called Civil Air Transport.

They carried supplies throughout China after World War II, to Nationalist Chinese troops battling the communists. In 1950, the CIA purchased the airline for clandestine missions across Asia.

At the same time, the airline continued to fly scheduled passenger flights, providing a cover for its secret operations, former employees said.

"It's an interesting and unique blend of covert operations and commercial operations," said Erik D. Carlson, who oversees aviation research as the coordinator of the Special Collections Department at the McDermott Library at the University of Texas at Dallas.

"All these men flying these planes are civilians," Carlson said. "They did a lot for the effort to fight communism throughout southeast Asia."