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Air America Begins Search and Rescue Operations

May 22, 1964

1964-05-22_Air_America_Pilatus_PC-6_in_flight
1964-05-22_Air_America_Pilatus_PC-6_in_flight
An Air America Pilatus PC-6 Porter over Southeast Asia. Air America used light aircraft and helicopters to conduct search and rescue and other operations from short, crude, remote “Lima Site” runways. (National Museum of the U.S. Air Force)

The CIA’s Air America, formerly Civil Air Transport, begins search-and-rescue operations in Laos and North Vietnam. Its first rescue mission, on June 6, is an attempt to recover U.S. Navy aviator Lieutenant Charles F. Klusmann, who is shot down while flying a reconnaissance mission over the Plain of Jars, in Laos. Initial attempts to rescue Klusmann fail, however, and he is captured by the Pathet Lao. Klusmann later escapes and is picked up by Air America after three months in captivity.1

1Air America: Upholding the Airmen’s Bond,” A Symposium held at the University of Texas, Dallas, date unknown, https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/historical-collection-publications/air-america/air-america.pdf  (Center for the Study of Intelligence and the Information Management Service), 8, 10, 11; Tucker, ed., Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War, 10; Michael E. Haas, Apollo’s Warriors: United States Air Force Special Operations during the Cold War (Maxwell AFB: Air University Press, 1997), 185–86; Stuart I. Rochester and Frederick Kiley, Honor Bound: The History of American Prisoners of War in Southeast Asia, 1961–1973 (Washington, D.C.: Historical Office of the Secretary of Defense, 1998), 52, 54–56 See also http://www.foia.cia.gov/sites/default/files/document_conversions/89801/DOC_0000011620.pdf (accessed 7/1/14); and Klusmann’s own account he wrote in 1999, “The Price of Freedom,” http://www.air-america.org/Articles/Klusmann.shtml (link is external) (accessed 7/1/14)