France honors Southern Utah man St. George resident to receive award for service in Asia in 1954

By BRIAN PASSEY bpassey@thespectrum.com

     St. George resident Bill Shaver talks about his experiences flying supplies into Dien Bien Phu for French troops while he was working for Civil Air Transport, a CIA front company in Southeast Asia, in 1954. Shaver and the six other surviving CIA pilots who flew missions to Dien Bien Phu will be awarded the Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur, or Legion of Honor, by the French government next week in Washington, D.C.

ST. GEORGE -- During World War II, M.W. (Bill) Shaver flew supply planes in the Philippines. When the war ended it took him 30 years to return to the United States.

When Shaver joined the U.S. Army Air Corps, he was initially stationed in the Philippines. After the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, he flew over the two cities on a trip to Korea. He said his eyes "bulged out" at the destruction when he stopped to refuel in Nagasaki.

As the war ended, the Air Corps asked him to stay on and help transition into the Air Force, but Shaver decided he was through with the military. He began flying for various airlines throughout Asia.

However, Shaver was not through flying in combat.

From 1944 to 1976, Shaver logged 29,000 flying hours with airline and cargo companies. Only 300 of those miles were in the United States.

His Bloomington home is filled with souvenirs of his travels: Decorative plates from Japan, an elephant tusk carving from Libya, a Buddha figurine from Thailand. Three of his four children were born overseas.

Now one short period of his life is appearing in newspapers across the nation. On Thursday at the French Embassy in Washington, D.C., Shaver will be one of seven men to receive the Chevalier de La Légion d'Honneur, France's highest military and civilian honor.

"You have been chosen to be named Knight of the Legion of Honor," his invitation reads.

What did an 84-year-old civilian pilot -- originally from Lenox, Iowa, -- do to receive such a high honor from France? Well, the Central Intelligence Agency would know. But up until a few years ago it would not have said why.

In the early 1950s, Shaver began working for the Hong Kong-based Civil Air Transport, which was really a front company for the CIA. The agency had bought the nearly bankrupt company and continued to operate it as an airline until the time came for a different mission.

"Just recently they've acknowledged they purchased CAT in 1950," Shaver said. "So really we were working for the CIA."

Shaver and the other pilots did not know their company's president was really a CIA agent at first. But after a while, he said they got an "inkling."

But for Shaver, he was doing what he loved: Flying.

"I used to sit there in Iowa on that old corn plow and see those airplanes go over and I wanted to fly," Shaver said. "I loved flying."

Then in late 1953, French forces in Vietnam began feeling pressure from Chinese-backed communist troops in the north. They fortified a valley near the Laotian border, 220 miles behind enemy lines.

It was called Dien Bien Phu, and control of the valley would become a decisive point in the French Indochina War.

The isolated valley required all supplies to be flown in and gave the French forces a sense of relative security. They didn't think the communist Viet Minh would ever be able to move large artillery through the thick jungle surrounding Dien Bien Phu.

Since the French lacked the cargo planes necessary to supply the valley, they appealed to the U.S. government. The decision was made to paint Air Force C-119s with French symbols and use 37 CAT pilots to deliver supplies to Dien Bien Phu from an airfield at Hai Phong in northern Vietnam.

Shaver was one of those 37 pilots.

The CAT pilots flew two missions per day beginning in March 1954. Each plane had a few kickers in the back to roll the cargo out the open back end.

Guns, ammunition, food and other supplies were dropped over Dien Bien Phu, triggering parachutes as they fell out of the planes. For heavy equipment and artillery guns, they had to attach four 100-foot parachutes, Shaver said.

The runs began smoothly, but as Viet Minh forces grew, anti-aircraft fire did, too. Shaver said they got shot at all the time.

"I just knew where I needed to go and where it needed to be, so I put it there and got out," he said.

During one night trip, the anti-aircraft fire was especially bad.

"All I know is when I went over it looked like the Fourth of July celebration down there," he said. "The ground fire was heavy enough it looked like sparklers."

Shaver saw 37-millimeter rounds go right past his wing that night. After only a few planes had completed their drops, they canceled all the rest of the flights and returned back to Hai Phong.

"Was I glad to get out of there," he said.

Shaver cannot remember if he ever found bullet holes in his plane, but they did check it each time they returned to the airfield. Two other pilots were not as lucky.

James B. McGovern, known as "Earthquake McGoon," and Wally Buford were shot down during one of the runs and died in the crash. Their two French kickers made it out alive but were captures by the communist troops.

"I'm surprised they didn't shoot down more of us with that many guns," Shaver said.

Dien Bien Phu finally fell to the Viet Minh on May 7, 1954. The French eventually left. Vietnam was split into the communist north and American-supported south, paving the way for the Vietnam War.

The CAT pilots, however, were not acknowledged by the U.S. government, even though McGovern and Buford died while employed by the CIA. On June 2, 2001, the agency finally honored the pilots with a group citation.

After Dien Bien Phu, Shaver worked for CAT while it transformed into Air America and continued operation during the Vietnam conflict. He stayed on right until the end and helped evacuate Saigon.

Shaver said he thought about quitting a time or two as he risked his life flying into Dien Bien Phu. But they were fighting communism, he said, and he liked working with the other pilots.

"I grew up with them out there. You get pretty well-aquainted when you're out flying and getting shot at."

Originally published Sunday, February 20, 2005 The Spectrum.com

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