Home Page : News: Newspaper Articles Last Updated March 10, 2004 This article appeared in Tulsa World on June 14, 2003 Former CIA pilot to join state hall of fame
RHETT
MORGAN World Staff Writer Former CIA pilot Bob Rousselot is to be inducted into the Oklahoma Aviation and Space Hall of Fame in September. OKAY -- Former CIA pilot Bob Rousselot spent the better part of a lifetime flying under the radar of recognition. But he and his covert past are being spotted with increasing regularity. Two years ago, the Central Intelligence Agency honored him for his distinguished service and leadership in a Cold War role he never admitted to until then. "They just don't throw those things around. If the citation was a paragraph about like that," said Rousselot, spreading his thumb and index finger about an inch apart, "it can say an awful lot." The state of Oklahoma will say even more in a few months. Rousselot recently was selected for induction into the Oklahoma Aviation and Space Hall of Fame. He will enter the hall in a Sept. 20 ceremony at the Kirkpatrick Science and Air Space Museum in Oklahoma City. "I'm flabbergasted," Rousselot, 81, said from his cattle ranch near Okay. "There were a tremendous amount of people who I think are very deserving for a various reasons. I guess 'honored' is the best word." William M. Leary, a professor of history at the University of Georgia, penned a letter of recommendation for Rousselot's entry into the shrine. "Of all the airmen who fought the secret battles of the Cold War and whose names are known to few Americans, none made a more significant contribution than Robert Rousselot," Leary wrote. "In the years to come, his ac complishments will earn him a special place in the pantheon of American aviators, alongside Doolittle, Chennault and other stellar airmen of the 20th century." After serving as a fighter pilot in World War II, Rousselot joined Gen. Claire Chennault's relief airline in China in 1946. Two years later, he became chief pilot for an airline -- Civil Air Transport (CAT) -- that soon functioned as a paramilitary adjunct to Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist forces during the civil war in China. Rousselot flew in relief supplies, national troops and evacuated wounded. "We did everything in the book," he said. "This day and age, they would send you to the penitentiary for doing it." Rousselot's exotic cargo ranged from cattle to water buffalo to rams. Workers built bamboo stalls to corral on-board buffalo and spread canvas to catch the animals' waste, which could eat through an airplane's floor. For two months in 1947, Rousselot played a part of Operation Bo-Peep, transporting hundreds of pedigreed New Zealand sheep from Shanghai to Lanchow. All of that added to the airline's growing reputation of being able to transport "anything, anywhere, anytime," Rousselot said. In 1950, the CIA secretly purchased CAT to support its convert activities in Asia. During the Korean War, Rousselot flew numerous top-secret missions. He later became director of operations and personally organized relief missions into Dien Bien Phu to help French troops. In 1959, the CIA's airline began using the name of Air America and became a central factor in the agency's anti-Communist efforts in Laos. "There were lots of hazards," Rousselot said. "There were two worlds operating in the same territory, and neither one had any appreciation of the other." He left Air America in 1963, and three years later, the Noel, Mo., native moved to Wagoner County. "The Boss," as he is affectionately known by friends and relatives, now oversees a 2,700-acre ranch with his wife, Ann, who also worked for the CIA, and their two sons, Wade, and Jason. The former pilot no longer gets around like he once did, and his right arm trembles as a result of Parkinson's disease. But his Cold War recollections still burn brightly with detail. "He's just my hero," said Wade, whose parents will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary next summer. "I spend more time promoting him and telling his stories than I do anything else."
Rhett Morgan 581-8395 This article appeared in Tulsa World on June 14, 2003 |
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