Home Page : News: Newspaper Articles This article appeared online on November 8, 2003 Aviator headed up clandestine
venture
Even Kentuckians who are familiar with the state's military history and its
many war heroes probably never have heard of Hugh Grundy. But the Washington County native played a major, though
behind-the-scenes, role in one of the most debated periods of American
history. Grundy, now 87, was president of Air America, ostensibly a private
airline, but in fact a CIA-front operation that flew secret intelligence
missions and carried food, ammunition, supplies and even livestock for
anti-Communist fighters in Laos, Vietnam and other parts of Southeast Asia
from the early 1950s to the early 1970s. "Air America was the largest of a network of aviation
companies that this giant CIA air complex ran under a holding company called
Pacific Corp.," says William Leary, the E. Merton Coulter professor of
history at the University of Georgia. "It was all classified. And Hugh
Grundy basically was the operational head of the entire complex." The arrangement allowed the U.S. government to secretly do things
that it couldn't do openly because of political concerns. For example, the
operation flew ammunition and supplies to French forces surrounded at-Dienbienphu
in 1954, at a time when the United States officially was staying out of
Vietnam. Later, after the United States entered the war, Air America pilots,
such as Lexington's Lee Howell, flew into tiny jungle airstrips, often under
fire, to deliver cargo and pick up wounded. One of the war's most famous photographs shows an Air America
helicopter plucking refugees from a Saigon rooftop during the collapse of
South Vietnam in 1975. In recognition of Grundy's service, the Aviation Museum of Kentucky
is inducting him tonight into the Kentucky Aviation Hall of Fame. Three
other aviation pioneers with Kentucky ties also are being inducted at Blue
Grass Airport. Hired by CAT in China Grundy earned his pilot's license in Louisville around 1930,
beginning an aviation career that would take him around the world. By 1941, he was in Africa, helping develop a commercial air route
for Pan American Airways. After serving as an Air Force major during World
War II, Grundy went to work for a Pan-Am affiliate in China. Soon after,
however, he was hired as chief engineer for CAT, a civilian airline in China
launched by Gen. Claire Chennault, creator of the famous Flying Tigers. The U.S. government had been contracting with CAT for several years
to fly classified missions in China, then being overrun by the Communists.
The CIA secretly bought the airline outright in 1950, just about the time
Grundy came on board. "Very few people in the company knew that the CIA owned
it," Grundy recalled. "I didn't know myself until I was formally
briefed on it about 1953." Shortly after that, Grundy was named president of the company and
suggested a name change to avoid confusion with a similarly named operation.
The new name was Air America. A balancing act Most of Air America's operations involved straightforward
commercial flying, moving cargo and passengers. But revenue from that
supported the classified missions that no one talked about. "It was designed not to cost the CIA anything, so it had to be
a profit-making operation," said Leary, who has studied Air America's
history. "On the other hand, it wasn't supposed to make enough money to
be competition for other American airlines. So, running it was a balancing
act. "The CIA wanted somebody who could run it without drawing
attention. And Grundy played that role magnificently." Working out of offices in Taiwan, Grundy directed an operation
that, over the years, involved up to 700 pilots and 10,000 employees. But it
was so secret that Grundy's wife, Frankie, never knew the true nature of his
work until the CIA openly honored him for his service in 2001. "I had a boss in Washington who was a CIA person, but also an
airline person," Grundy said. "He gave us directions as to what he
wanted done, and we tried to carry them out." But if directing Air America was tough, flying for it was a
death-defying adventure. Pilots loved adventure, pay Flying slow, unarmed planes, Air America pilots battled long hours,
dismal weather conditions and intense enemy fire, landing in spots that
barely qualified as landing strips. "We had one strip in Laos that was about 700 feet long, with a
dog-leg in the middle," Grundy said. "It was on the side of a
mountain, so part of it was supported by bamboo poles. It's hard to imagine
if you never saw it." Nevertheless, the company attracted a rousing gang of former
military fliers, crop dusters and stunt pilots who loved the adventure and
the good pay Air America provided. They wore colorful nicknames like
Squeaky, Willie Lump Lump and Earthquake McGoon. "You had a sense of adventure and patriotism, and it was the
best flying you would ever do," says Lee "Woo How" Howell of
Lexington, an Air America pilot from about 1962 to 1971. "But it was
hazardous. We bent up an awful lot of airplanes over there." Nearly 300 Air America pilots were killed. The operation ended after South Vietnam collapsed. Grundy returned
to the United States and worked in Miami until retiring and returning to
Washington County in 1984. Today, he minimizes his contribution. "I had a lot of good people working with me; the credit goes
to them," he said. The saga of Air America inspired a 1990 movie of the same name,
staring Mel Gibson and Robert Downey Jr. But Grundy, like most Air America
veterans, didn't think much of it. "I saw it," he said, "and it was terrible." This article appeared online on November 8, 2003 |
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