ARTIST’S INSPIRATION:

The Stories of Sacrifice & Dedication publication design was derived from an actual CAT Mandarin Jet. The cover of the publication 

is representative of the outside of the plane with metal texture, rivets and even the occasional bullet hole. Upon opening the cover, 

the viewer quickly “boards the plane” and is greeted with interior walls featuring Asian decor and an Emergency Exit sign. 

The commemorative coin for the June 2nd event features one of the CAT planes, the Air America / 

CAT logos, two stars representative of Snoddy and Schwartz, and laurel leaves symbolizing honor. 

Pilot: Conrad Seigrist.
2 STORIES OF SACRIFICE & DEDICATION CIVIL AIR TRANSPORT, AIR AMERICA, AND THE CIA 3

TABLE OF CONTENTS

SYMPOSIUM PARTNERS.................................................................................................................4

SYMPOSIUM OVERVIEW .................................................................................................................6

REMEMBRANCES OF SACRIFICE & DEDICATION

In Gratitude to the Crews of Air America: A Speech to an Air America Symposium ...... 8

Extraordinary Fidelity: Two CIA Prisoners in China, 1952-73 ...................................... 13

DCI Presents Director’s Medals ................................................................................ 18

The People of the CIA...John Downey and Richard Fecteau ...................................... 23

A Hunting We Did Go ............................................................................................... 24

Pilot of the Month..................................................................................................... 28

Our History Then...And Now..................................................................................... 29

SELECTED CIA DOCUMENTS.........................................................................................................37

SELECTED DOCUMENTS FROM THE AIR AMERICA ARCHIVES:

UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT DALLAS MCDERMOTT LIBRARY SPECIAL COLLECTIONS........................45

SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES ...............................................................................................................53

C-46 with buffalo.

STORIES OF SACRIFICE AND DEDICATION: 

CIVIL AIR TRANSPORT, AIR AMERICA, AND THE CIA

National Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson AFB

2 June 2011 • 5:30 pm to 9:00 pm

5:30pm – 5:35pm WELCOME AND OPENING REMARKS

Lt. Gen. (Ret) Jack Hudson

Director, National Museum of the United States Air Force

5:35pm – 5:40pm THE CIA’S HISTORICAL REVIEW PROGRAM: 

IMPROVING ACCESSIBILITY OF AGENCY DOCUMENTS

Mr. Joe Lambert 

Director, Information Management Services, CIA

5:40pm – 6:10pm KEYNOTE SPEAKER

Hon. Craig Duehring

Former Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Manpower and Reserve Affairs

6:10pm – 7:15pm TEAMWORK AND SACRIFICE AT LIMA SITE 85 

Dr. Tim Castle

CIA Historian

7:15pm – 7:45pm INTERMISSION

7:45pm – 7:50pm INTRODUCTION TO EXTRAORDINARY FIDELITY

Dr. Nick Dujmovic

CIA Historian

7:50pm – 8:50pm EXTRAORDINARY FIDELITY (CIA DOCUMENTARY FILM)

Produced by CIA’s Center for the Study of Intelligence

8:50pm – 8:55pm REMARKS ON FILM 

Dr. Nick Dujmovic

CIA Historian

8:55pm – 9:00pm EXCHANGING OF COMMEMORATIVE AWARDS AND CLOSING REMARKS

Mr. Joe Lambert 

Director, Information Management Services, CIA

Lt. Gen. (Ret) Jack Hudson

Director, National Museum of the United States Air Force
4 STORIES OF SACRIFICE & DEDICATION CIVIL AIR TRANSPORT, AIR AMERICA, AND THE CIA 5

The National Museum of the United States Air Force located at Wright-Patterson Air 

Force Base near Dayton, Ohio, is the service’s national institution for preserving and presenting the Air Force story. Each year more than one million visitors come to the museum 

to learn about the mission, history and evolving capabilities of America’s Air Force. The 

museum is the world’s largest and oldest military aviation museum featuring more than 

360 aerospace vehicles and missiles on display amid more than 17 acres of indoor exhibit 

space. Thousands of personal artifacts, photographs and documents further highlight the 

people and events that comprise the Air Force storyline, from the beginnings of military 

flight to today’s war on terrorism.

The Historical Collections Division (HCD) of CIA’s Information Management Services is 

responsible for executing the Agency’s Historical Review Program. This program seeks to 

identify and declassify collections of documents that detail the Agency’s analysis and activities relating to historically significant topics and events. HCD’s goals include increasing 

the usability and accessibility of historical collections. HCD also develops release events 

and partnerships to highlight each collection and make it available to the broadest audience possible.

The mission of HCD is to: 

•	 Promote an accurate, objective understanding of the information that has helped

shape major US foreign policy decisions.

•	 Broaden access to lessons-learned, presenting historical material that gives greater

understanding to the scope and context of past actions.

•	 Improve current decision-making and analysis by facilitating reflection on the impacts

and effects arising from past foreign policy decisions.

•	 Showcase CIA’s contributions to national security and provide the American public

with valuable insight into the workings of its government. 

•	 Demonstrate the CIA’s commitment to the Open Government Initiative and its three

core values: Transparency, Participation, and Collaboration.

The History Staff in the CIA Center for the Study of Intelligence fosters understanding 

of the Agency’s history and its relationship to today’s intelligence challenges by communicating instructive historical insights to the CIA workforce, other US Government 

agencies, and the public. CIA historians research topics on all aspects of Agency activities and disseminate their knowledge though publications, courses, briefings and 

Web-based products. They also work with other Intelligence Community historians on 

publication and education projects that highlight interagency approaches to intelligence

issues. Lastly, the CIA History Staff conducts an ambitious program of oral history interviews that are invaluable for preserving institutional memories that are not captured in 

the documentary record.

The Special Collections Department is located on the third floor of the Eugene McDermott 

Library. The Library administration established the Special Collections Department in the 

mid-1970s to house rare books acquired by the library. In nearly thirty years Special Collections has grown to include the History of Aviation Collection, the Wineburgh Philatelic 

Research Library, and the Louise B. Belsterling Botanical Library.

The History of Aviation Collection is the largest section of the department, consisting of 

a world-class aeronautical archive and library. The Wineburgh Philatelic Research Library 

is an outstanding regional resource for both philatelic and postal history. The Louise B. 

Belsterling Library holds an extraordinary collection of rare botanical books, including the 

library’s oldest volume. 
6 STORIES OF SACRIFICE & DEDICATION

STORIES OF SACRIFICE AND DEDICATION: 

CIVIL AIR TRANSPORT, AIR AMERICA, AND THE CIA

On 2 June, 2011, the CIA, in partnership 

with the National Museum of the United 

States Air Force, will present a symposium 

recognizing the sacrifice and dedication of 

Civil Air Transport (CAT) and Air America 

(AAm). These CIA air proprietary companies 

routinely supplied and supported covert 

operations, provided search and rescue 

capabilities for the US military, and conducted photo reconnaissance in east and 

southeast Asia from the end of World War 

II through the Vietnam conflict. This event is 

being held to highlight the public release of 

about 900 recently declassified documents 

from CAT and AAm corporate files and CIA 

holdings spanning 1946 to 1978.

The event, scheduled from 5:30 pm to 9:00 

pm, will be held at the National Museum of 

the United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson AFB just outside Dayton, OH. The

Honorable Craig Duehring, retired Assistant 

Secretary of the Air Force, will serve as the 

keynote speaker. Mr. Duehring served as a 

USAF forward air controller in South Vietnam and Laos and will share his personal 

story of being rescued by Air America. Major General (ret) John Singlaub, one of CIA’s

original officers, will be a featured speaker. 

Gen. Singlaub, CIA’s chief of operations 

for Asia after WWII, oversaw CAT missions 

throughout the area. The focus of the event 

will be two specific stories that exemplify 

the themes of sacrifice and dedication.

The first story, presented by CIA Historian 

Dr. Tim Castle, covers Lima Site 85, a covert radar installation in the mountains of 

Laos. On the evening of 10 March 1968 

Site 85 was attacked by a rocket and mortar barrage. It was believed that the technicians and CIA personnel could be safely 

evacuated the next day. Unbeknownst to 

the Americans, a Vietnamese sapper force 

had climbed the western face of the mountain and surrounded the USAF facility. At 

about 3AM the North Vietnamese began firing RPGs and AK-47s into the radar vans 

and living area. At the time of the attack 

there were 16 USAF technicians at Site 85. 

There were also two CIA paramilitary officers and one USAF forward air guide working at the Agency facility located near the 

helipad. This story recounts the personal 

heroism and sacrifice of those involved.

The second story, presented by CIA Historian Dr. Nick Dujmovic, covers a CIA mission utilizing CAT flight support to recover an 

agent inside Communist China. The mission 

was compromised, resulting in the shoot 

down of the flight, the death of the CAT pilots, Norm Schwartz and Bob Snoddy, and 

the capture of two CIA officers. The CIA Officers, John Downey and Richard Fecteau, 

were held prisoner for twenty years. The 

highlight of this story will be the public premiere of a film produced by the Center for 

the Study of Intelligence documenting their 

ordeal. The film focuses on Downey and 

Fecteau’s dedication and underscores CIA’s 

dedication in supporting the men and their 

families throughout this ordeal.

We anticipate that the symposium will be 

attended by 1,500 people including current and retired military, the Air America 

and CAT associations, the Association of 

Former Intelligence Officers, students from 

local universities, and the general public. 

We will be providing every attendee with a 

booklet and DVD containing the entire collection of declassified documents as well 

as the movie, additional video, photos, 

Studies in Intelligence articles and reflections from CAT and AAm personnel.

SYMPOSIUM OVERVIEW
8 STORIES OF SACRIFICE 

& DEDICATION CIVIL AIR TRANSPORT, AIR AMERICA, AND THE CIA

9

IN GRATITUDE TO THE CREWS OF AIR AMERICA: 

A SPEECH TO AN AIR AMERICA SYMPOSIUM

Craig W. Duehring

The following was a speech Mr. Duehring 

delivered to participants, including many 

veterans of Air America service, in a sym-

posium held at the University of Texas at 

Dallas on 18 April 2009.

As a presidential appointee, I usually speak 

from a position of having access to the 

latest policy, or at least I have the implied 

aura of representinga subject thatI deal

with every day. In layman’s terms, the audi-

ence assumes that I know what I’m talking 

about. This audience is very different. Here 

I am speaking to a group of peers—of peo-

ple who have assembled here because of 

their common experience during a unique 

period of American history. This period 

burst on the scene because of countless 

factors, now visible only through a close 

examination of history, which provided an 

opportunity for each person in this room. 

Like the Robert Frost poem, we faced a 

fork in the road and, for whatever reason, 

we chose our destiny. The consequences 

of this choice still evolve and, indeed, bring 

us together tonight.

So, what I thought I would do was give you 

a glimpse into what a Raven saw when 

he looked at the people who made up Air 

America. For you were certainlya major,

major player in what we accomplished in

the 6–7 years that the Raven program and 

its predecessor, the Butterfly program, was 

in existence.

1

 As I think back to my time at 

Long Tieng, every picture includes a vision 

of an Air America aircraft.

My first tour out of pilot training was in the 

III Corps where I flew O-1 Bird Dogs for the 

25th ARVN Division stationed in the farming 

village of Duc Hoa, about half way between 

Saigon and the Cambodian border. It was 

August of 1969 and, because of the feroc-

ity of the fighting in that area during Tet of 

1968, the area was rather peaceful with ir-

regular actions, by the Viet Cong, mostly. 

We had some action but even being shot at 

was a cause for great discussion at the little 

army bar that was the venue of our nightly 

rendezvous. After several months, I learned 

of a program that involved flying some-

where outside of Vietnam and since I faced 

the double incentives of a boring war and 

a boss who I detested, I followed my am-

bition and applied for the “Steve Canyon” 

program, or “Project 404,” which were the

official titles of the Raven program. I waited 

for word to leave which, inexplicably, never 

came. In desperation, I flew to Bien Hoa 

to determine the cause of the delay. I was 

told that they had tried three times to reach 

me but, communications being what they 

were, I never received the message, and so 

they sent the number-two guy on the list. 

My only recourse was to extend for a sec-

ond tour because the next opening wasn’t 

projected to come up for several months.

Imagine my surprise a few short days later 

when I received an urgent call to pack my 

bags and head to Udorn in early April 1970.

After “sanitizing” in the men’s room of base 

ops, I met the guys at Detachment 1, near 

your own compound as I recall, and a day 

1 The Ravens were US Air Force forward air controllers flying covert missions over Laos from air bases in the 

kingdom.

later flew to Vientiane. My new boss wel-

comed me with the news that I was to be 

assigned to Long Tieng to fly for Vang Pao 

and the Hmong people. I was thrilled. Ac-

tion, at last! His second message was to 

tell me that the pilot who had preceded me 

there, Dick Elzinga, had disappeared along 

with the pilot he was to replace, Hank Allen, 

on his very first mission. To this date, their 

bodies have not been found. This was only 

one of many “silver bullets” that I dodged 

during the next 11 months at Long Tieng.

My first encounter of a group of Air Amer-

ica pilots was in the Purple Porpoise, run 

by the British owner and probable intelli-

gence provider, Monty Banks. As I stepped 

through the circular door I was greeted with 

his famous call, “Shut the bleeding door.” 

We joineda group of your folks, one of

whom was celebrating his first $100,000 

with the company. I was extremely im-

pressed but tried not to show it since he 

was buying.

Long Tieng under siege was a new experi-

ence for me. We flew hard. In fact, on my 

first day on the job,I directed airstrikes ona

site northwest of Long Tieng that was being 

attacked by a large group of NVA soldiers. 

After putting in three sets of A-1s, the at-

tack was broken off and, according to the 

Hmong forward air guide on the ground, 

an estimated 200 enemy soldiers were 

killed. In retrospect, I believe those fig-

ures are suspect but, after only 24 hours 

in country, it was enough to impress this 

young pilot, I assure you.

From that point on, our lives were totally 

intertwined with yours. We ate often at 

the Air America hostel where you could 

get the best fried rice ever made, party 

at the bar or, more importantly, brief up 

a hazardous resupply mission or even 

a search-and-rescue mission.

On one occasion, we had two F-4 aircrew 

members who had spent a very cold night 

on the PDJ [Plane of Jars]. We planned the 

next day’s mission using two sets of Ra-

vens. The first primary and backup took off 

in the dark to direct the search and rescue 

by the Jolly Greens from Udorn. Two more 

of us launched with Air America helicopters 

to provide an immediate rescue force for 

any aircraft that might get shot down that 

day. We did this because the Jolly Greens 

had a nasty habit of pulling off and regroup-

ing whenever one of their aircraft was shot 

up. This way, if we were there, we could 

keep the big rescue team on task while 

we tidied up the loose ends. In addition, 

we wrapped up a rifle, ammunition, food, 

water, clothing, and radios in blankets and 

stuffed them in a Pilatus Porter. The idea 

was, in case we were unable to pick up 

the crew members by the end of the day, 

the Porter would fly at extremely low level 

out of the setting sun and kick the bundles 

out the door so that our guys could survive 

the night. It was a nasty battle but the Jolly 

Greens were successful.

CAT engine repair.
10 STORIES OF SACRIFICE & DEDICATION CIVIL AIR TRANSPORT, AIR AMERICA, AND THE CIA 11

Of course, anyone who flew in that area 

knew that the primary rescue source was 

not the Air Force but Air America, simply 

because they were usually close by. All of 

us had your frequency set in our radios. 

When a plane went down, there was a call 

to Cricket and a call to Air America. Time 

and time again, you guys dashed into the 

unknown and saved American lives. After one rescue, this time of a Raven, the 

flight mechanic offered my friend a cigarette, only to have it refused. “I’m trying to 

quit” was the answer. At this point the flight 

mech laughed and said, “That’s the funniest thing I’ve ever heard—a Raven quitting 

cigarettes—for his health.”

There was more humor. One day I took off 

from Long Tieng in a T-28 and followed a 

C-123K on its way to Vientiane. I couldn’t 

resist the urge to sneak up behind him and 

park off his left wing tip until he noticed me 

there with a noticeable jerk of the yoke. I

laughed and pulled out ahead of him, feeling quite pleased with myself. A few minutes later I heard or, rather, felt something 

out of order. When I finally looked to my 

right, there he was—two props churning 

and the doors open on both J-85 pods. A 

flash of the trusty “bird” on his part brought 

about laughter in both cockpits, I’m sure.

In a more serious incident, my buddy, 

Chuck Engle and I were playing “highlow” 

looking for targets along Route 4 just west

of Xien Kouang ville. In this silly game, one 

aircraft flies low and as fast as he can down 

a road while the other “flies cover” right behind him. All was well until Chuck took a 

load of AK-47 fire in the cockpit that shot 

out his side window. He claimed he could 

see the bullet pass in front of his face. Another round hit him just above the left ankle, passed completely through his leg and 

fell onto the floor. He recovered the bullet 

and had it mounted on a gold chain that 

he wore around his neck. Chuck pulled off 

while I shot a rocket in the direction of the 

soldiers. Then we began the 30-minute 

flight back to Long Tieng. Of course, our 

first call was to an Air America helicopter 

that changed course to intercept us. In the 

meantime, I tried to keep Chuck conscious, 

as nausea and pain took over. The entire 

story is written in the book, The Ravens. 

Eventually, a Huey came into position and I 

dropped back. The helicopter stayed with 

Chuck through the landing at Long Tieng. 

I remember that Chuck, as he saw the aircraft drifting off the side of the runway, took 

his useless leg and jammed it onto the rudder pedal, causing the aircraft to cartwheel 

and come to a stop. The flight doc and others pulled him from the aircraft and rushed 

him onto a waiting Volpar that took him to 

the hospital at Udorn. In retrospect, the 

stupid part of that entire mission was “our” 

doing, while the common sense part was 

compliments of the Air America team.

I’ll tell one last story and then wrap it up. 

But, in this case, I’ve saved the best for 

last. And in this case, the professionalism 

of the Air America pilots saved my life. You 

may recall that, during the rainy season, 

the weather could get nasty for days. Even 

you guys were forced to sit it out once 

in awhile. During those times, we would 

move from the breakfast table to the poker table for an all-day session of dealer’s 

choice, nickel-dime poker. Even on a bad 

day, you wouldn’t lose more than about 

$25. By 9 or 10 in the morning, the beer 

lamp was lit with one of us staying sober 

just in case the weather broke. As it happened, it was my day to drink Coke and, 

sure enough, sometime in the afternoon, 

an A-1 descended through a hole over the 

PDJ and said the area was full of active targets. Cricket did his thing by launching the 

fleet and I headed to Vang Pao’s house to 

pick up a backseater. We made it to the 

PDJ and learned that the weather had improved well enough to start popping bad 

guys. Does the term “sucker hole” conger 

up any nightmares? We normally planned 

to get back to Long Tieng with at least one 

hour of fuel left, in case we had to divert. 

Well, Cricket kept laying on the fighters, 

and I stayed out a bit too long. It wasn’t 

until I tried to make it home that I realized 

the weather had closed in behind me. I 

picked my way through mountain gaps that 

still appeared below the huge cloud banks 

now resting on the ridge lines. When the 

most direct route didn’t work, I flew west 

to the lateral valley that formed a “V” with 

Long Tieng and Sam Tong in between, and 

attempted to come in what we called the 

“back door.” That, too, was blocked, so I 

took advantage of the last opening I could 

find and popped out in the east-west valley that lies between Long Tieng and Sam 

Tong, just north of Skyline Ridge. The only

sign of civilization was the winding dirt road 

that connected the two bases. I seriously 

considered crash landing on that road but 

decided against it because I knew that the 

wings would likely shear off and, as they 

pinched the fuselage, the flaps would come 

into the back seat and decapitate my backseater. So, I reemerged back into the valley 

west of Long Tieng and flew in circles with 

the clouds coming down on top of me, the 

fog filling in the valley below and daylight 

running out fast. I had 45 minutes of fuel 

and a one-hour flight to Vientiane, if I didn’t 

hit a mountain on the climb out.

All the time this was going on, I was talking 

to the other Ravens in the Raven hootch. 

They said the rain was coming down mercilessly and that it was getting very dark. 

One of them volunteered to contact the 

Air America helicopter pilots to see if they 

could think of something. Shortly, I heard 

some chatter on the tower radio channel 

as three UH-1s cranked up on the ramp. 

Within minutes, they lifted off and flew in 

trail, slowly, out the “back door” to where 

I was orbiting in a space that kept getting 

smaller and smaller by the minute. “Hey, 

Raven” the first pilot called out, “I see you. 

Turn left...more...roll out. You are pointed 

at the back door. The gap is right in front of 

you.” “You’re nuts,” I replied, “I don’t see a 

damn thing except clouds and mountain.” 

“It’s an optical illusion,” he said, “the gap is 

filled with heavy rain.” I drove my little airplane straight at the mountain wall with my 

heart in my throat and past the hovering helicopter as I entered the point of no return. 

At the last possible second I saw a shimmering “V” coming down out of the cloud 

bank, only a couple of hundred feet tall. 

“Turn right, roll out...you are on track.” I hit 

the heavy rain with an audible splash. Hell, 

everything is audible in an O-1. It poured off 

the wind screen in a constant torrent, but I 

found that I could see the ground flashing 

by on both sides and below me. “I have 

him,” said the second helicopter pilot, “turn 

left...roll out... slightly right...watch out for 

that karst.” Karst was right! It rushed by me 

below my left tire, far too close to be comfortable. I passed the second helicopter. 

“I’ve lost him,” he said. “I’ve got him,” the 

third pilot said. I was getting vectors from 

three Air America helicopter pilots hovering 

in trail of each other, in the heavy rain and 

fog. “Turn right...roll out. There. You are 

on extended downwind. Good luck.” They 

headed on their way back to Vientiane, by 

what route, I have no idea.

I saw the ridgeline falling away a bit to the 

right, and at that point, I crossed over the 

compound below. A couple of the other 

Ravens raced out as they heard my engine, 

but the rain was too heavy to see anything 

even though I was much lower than normal. I searched for the runway in the darkness and, miraculously, I saw a silver-blue 

ribbon to my front left side. It was the runway, totally covered in water, reflecting the 

last wisps of light that had forced their way 

through the clouds. Minutes later, all would 

be dark. I knew that, somewhere in front of 

me, another hillside loomed, and I needed 

to turn final just before I got there. I held on

as long as I could then pulled the power 

back and established my best guess at a 
12 STORIES OF SACRIFICE & DEDICATION CIVIL AIR TRANSPORT, AIR AMERICA, AND THE CIA 13

descending left turn to the opposite direction. As soon as I banked, the perspective 

changed and I lost sight of the runway. 

One potato, two potato, three potato, and 

I rolled out on heading. Again the runway 

appeared although somewhat shorter than 

I remembered. This was because I had 

turned early and positioned myself to land 

long. Never mind, the operative word was 

“land,” which I did, with the water spraying everywhere from my hydroplaning tires. 

Fortunately, the water was deep enough 

that it rapidly slowed me down so that I 

was able to turn off onto the Raven ramp.

I shut off the engine and sat there shaking. 

Finally, I climbed out of the airplane and 

just hung on to the strut while I contemplated how close to dying I had just been.

My backseater bolted for VP’s house, while 

I searched for my jeep. I also took time to

say a prayer of thanks to all those who 

helped me in my hour of need, especially 

those wonderful Air America pilots who 

came through—again. 

When I departed Laos, I realized that I had 

served the longest tour at Long Tieng of 

any Raven—a record never broken. And, 

as I think back through a memory that is 

now getting a bit fuzzy here and there, certain images remain crystal clear—my fellow 

Ravens, the Hmong, VP, the mountains, 

the fear, the joy, and the bitter pain of loss.

Always in the picture and in virtually every 

good war story I have, there appears a blue 

and silver bird or, perhaps, simply a silver 

bird that, even 39 years later stands as a 

towering symbol of courage, sacrifice, caring, skill, and honor.

Why did we do it? Why did we forsake all 

that was comfortable and well known to us 

to travel to a faraway land to risk our lives 

for people who will never know our names? 

Was it for our country? Was it for the money? Was it the feeling of knowing that you 

are the best at your trade? Or, was it for the 

fleeting thrill of being young and invincible? 

Perhaps it was all these. Certainly no one 

outside of our fold will ever understand, so 

why try?

Many beautiful words have been written 

which capture the emotion of this time from 

Rudyard Kipling to Lt. Gen. Hal Moore of 

We Were Soldiers fame. But, my choice is 

the poem by Robert Frost that I mentioned 

at the beginning of this speech entitled 

“The Road Not Taken.” Let me close by 

reading the final stanza.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

Thank you for allowing me to be a part of 

your program and, on behalf of my Raven 

friends, thank you for always being there—

anytime, anywhere, professionally.

The declassified documents released in 

conjunction with the symposium are available at www.foia.gov/airamerica.asp, 

among the special collections listed in the 

FOIA reading room of CIA’s public web 

site. (U)

EXTRAORDINARY FIDELITY:

TWO CIA PRISONERS IN CHINA, 1952–73

Nicholas Dujmovic

This article draws extensively on operational files and other internal CIA records that 

of necessity remain classified. Because 

the true story of these two CIA officers is 

compelling and has been distorted in many 

public accounts, it is retold here in as much 

detail as possible, despite minimal source 

citations. Whenever possible, references to 

open sources are made in the footnotes.

Beijing’s capture, imprisonment, and eventual release of CIA officers John T. Downey 

and Richard G. Fecteau is an amazing 

story that too few know about today. Shot 

down over Communist China on their first 

operational mission in 1952, these young 

men spent the next two decades 

imprisoned, often in solitary confinement, while their government 

officially denied they were CIA 

officers. Fecteau was released 

in 1971, Downey in 1973. They 

came home to an America vastly 

different from the place they had 

left, but both adjusted surprisingly

well and continue to live full lives.

Even though Downey and Fecteau were welcomed back as heroes by the CIA family more than 

30 years ago and their story has 

been covered in open literature—albeit in 

short and generally flawed accounts—institutional memory regarding these brave officers has dimmed.1

 Their ordeal is not well 

known among today’s officers, judging by

the surprise and wonder CIA historians encounter when relating it in internal lectures 

and training courses. 

This story is important as a part of US intelligence history because it demonstrates the 

risks of operations (and the consequences 

of operational error), the qualities of character necessary to endure hardship, and the 

potential damage to reputations through 

the persistence of false stories about 

1 Downey’s and Fecteau’s CIA affiliation was revealed as early as 1957 by a disgruntled former USIA official and 

by early exposés of the Agency, such as David Wise and Thomas Ross, The Invisible Government (New York: 

Random House, 1964). Later brief treatments can be found in William Colby and Peter Forbath, Honorable 

Men: My Life in the CIA (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1978), in which former Director of Central Intelligence 

Colby identifies Downey and Fecteau as “CIA agents”; John Ranelagh, The Agency: The Rise and Decline 

of the CIA (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1986); William Leary, Perilous Missions: Civil Air Transport and CIA 

Covert Operations in Asia (University of Alabama Press, 1984); Norman Polmar and Thomas Allen, The Encyclopedia of Espionage (New York: Gramercy, 1997); Ted Gup, The Book of Honor (New York: Doubleday, 

2000); and James Lilly, China Hands (New York: Public Affairs, 2004). The public also can learn of the case at 

the International Spy Museum in Washington, DC, and through the Internet’s Wikipedia.

The Airmen’s Bond – 

Keith Woodcock
14 STORIES OF SACRIFICE & DEDICATION CIVIL AIR TRANSPORT, AIR AMERICA, AND THE CIA 15

past events. 

Above all, the 

saga of John 

Downey and 

Richard Fecteau is about 

remarkable 

faithfulness, 

shown not 

only by the men who 

were deprived of their freedom, but also 

by an Agency that never gave up hope. 

While it was through operational misjudgments that these two spent much of their 

adulthood in Chinese prisons, the Agency, 

at least in part, redeemed itself through its 

later care for the men from whom years 

had been stolen.

THE OPERATIONAL CONTEXT

John Downey and Richard Fecteau were 

youthful CIA paramilitary officers: Downey, 

born in Connecticut, had entered CIA in 

June 1951, after graduating from Yale; 

Fecteau, from Massachusetts, entered on 

duty a few months later, having graduated from Boston University. Both men had 

been varsity football players, and both 

were outgoing and engaging with noted 

senses of humor. They were on their first 

overseas assignment when the shootdown occurred. 

By late 1952, the Korean War had been 

going on for more than two years. Accounts often identify that war as the reason for the operation Downey and Fecteau were participating in. While largely 

true, the flight the men were on was part 

of operations that had antecedents in the 

US response to the communist takeover of 

China in 1949. In accordance with US policies, CIA took steps to exploit the potential 

for a Chinese “Third Force” by trying to link 

Chinese agents, trained by CIA, with alleged dissident generals on the mainland. 

This Third Force, while anti-communist, 

would be separate from the Nationalists, 

who were assessed to be largely discredited on the mainland.2

This Third Force project received new emphasis after the Communist Chinese intervened in the Korean War. At that point, 

the project aimed to divert Chinese resources from the war in Korea by promoting domestic anti-government guerrilla operations. This was to be accomplished by 

small teams of Chinese agents, generally 

inserted through airdrops, who were to link 

up with local guerrilla forces, collect intelligence and possibly engage in sabotage 

and psychological warfare, and report back 

by radio.3 The operational model was the 

OSS experience in Europe during World 

War II, which assumed a cooperative captive population—a situation, as it turned 

out, that did not prevail in China. 

By the time of Downey and Fecteau’s involvement in the Third Force program, its 

record was short and inauspicious. Because of resource constraints, the training of Chinese agents at CIA facilities 

2 Declassified reference to Third Force covert operations is available in a National Security Council report on 

“Current Policies of the Government of the United States Relating to the National Security,” 1 November 1952, 

reproduced in Declassified Documents Reference System (Farmington Hills, Michigan: Gale Group, 2006), 

document CK3100265583. A description of the Chinese Third Force program is also available in the cleared 

account by former CIA officer James Lilley, later US Ambassador to Beijing, China Hands: Nine Decades of Adventure, Espionage, and Diplomacy in Asia (New York: PublicAffairs, 2004), 78–83. Lilley describes the “three 

prongs” of CIA covert operations against the Chinese mainland at the time: the first was support of Nationalist 

efforts, the second was the Third Force program, and the third comprised unilateral operations. For a personal 

story of CIA’s China operations in concert with the Nationalist Chinese, see Frank Holober, Raiders of the China 

Coast: CIA Covert Operations during the Korean War (Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1999). 3 Lilly, ibid.

in Asia was delayed, and the first Third 

Force team to be airdropped did not deploy until April 1952. This four-man team 

parachuted into southern China and was 

never heard from again. 

The second Third Force team comprised 

five ethnic Chinese dropped into the Jilin region of Manchuria in mid-July 1952. 

Downey was well known to the Chinese 

operatives on this team because he had 

trained them. The team quickly established radio contact with Downey’s CIA 

unit outside of China and was resupplied 

by air in August and October. A sixth team 

member, intended as a courier between 

the team and the controlling CIA unit, 

was dropped in September. In early November, the team reported contact with 

a local dissident leader and said it had 

obtained needed operational documents 

such as official credentials. They requested air-exfiltration of the courier, a method 

he had trained for but that the CIA had 

never attempted operationally.

At that time, the technique for aerial pickup involved flying an aircraft at low altitude and hooking a line elevated between 

two poles. The line was connected to a 

harness in which the agent was strapped. 

Once airborne, the man was to be 

winched into the aircraft. This technique 

required specialized training, both for the 

pilots of the aircraft, provided by the CIA’s 

proprietary Civil Air Transport (CAT), and 

for the two men who would operate the 

winch. Pilots Norman Schwartz and Robert Snoddy had trained in the aerial pickup technique during the fall of 1952 and 

were willing to undertake the mission. On 

20 November, Downey’s CIA unit radioed 

back to the team: “Will air snatch approximately 2400 hours” on 29 November.4

The question of who would operate the 

winch, however, was still unresolved. Originally, Chinese crewmen were to be used, 

but Downey’s unit chief decided that time 

was too short to fully train them. Instead, 

two CAT personnel trained in the procedure 

were identified for the pickup flight, but the 

CIA unit chief pulled them four days before 

the mission because they lacked the requisite clearances. Downey, who had been at 

the unit for about a year, and Fecteau, who 

had arrived in the first week of November, 

were directed to fill the breach. They were 

hurriedly trained in the procedure during 

the week of 24 November. 

Late on 29 November, Downey and Fecteau boarded Schwartz and Snoddy’s olive 

drab C-47 on an airfield on the Korean peninsula and took off for the rendezvous point 

in Chinese Communist Manchuria, some 

400 miles away. It was a quiet, uneventful 

flight of less than three hours. The moon 

was nearly full and visibility was excellent. 

At one point, Fecteau opened a survival 

kit and noted that the 

.32-caliber 

pistol therein 

had no ammunition—

joking about

that was the 

only conv e r s a t i o n 

the men 

had on the 

flight.

4 For details on the pickup system, see William Leary, “Robert Fulton’s Skyhook and Operation Coldfeet,” Studies in Intelligence 38, no. 1 (Spring 1994), 67–68. The aircraft pickup system in use in 1952 was not, as is 

sometimes asserted, the Skyhook system developed in the late 1950s by Robert Fulton but was rather a more 

rudimentary arrangement known as the “All American” system that the Army Air Force had modified during 

World War II from a system to pick up mail bags.

Norman A. Schwartz

Robert “Bob” Snoddy
16 STORIES OF SACRIFICE 

& DEDICATION CIVIL AIR TRANSPORT, AIR AMERICA, AND THE CIA 17

MISSION GONE AWRY 

The C-47, with its CAT pilots and CIA crew, 

was heading for a trap. The agent team, 

unbeknownst to the men on the flight, had 

been captured by Communist Chinese se-

curity forces and had been turned.

5 The 

request for exfiltration was a ruse, and the 

promised documentation and purported 

contact with a local dissident leader were 

merely bait. The team members almost 

certainly had told Chinese authorities ev-

erything they knew about the operation 

and about the CIA men and facilities as-

sociated with it. From the way the ambush 

was conducted, it was clear that the Chi-

nese Communists knew exactly what to 

expect when the C-47 arrived at the pick-

up point.

6

Reaching the designated area around 

midnight, the aircraft received the proper 

recognition signal from the 

ground.

7 Downey and Fec

-

teau pushed out supplies 

for the agent team—food 

and equipment needed 

for the aerial pickup. Then 

Schwartz and Snoddy flew 

the aircraft away from the 

area to allow the team time 

to set up the poles and 

line for the “snatch.” Re-

turning about 45 minutes 

later and receiving a ready 

signal, the C-47 flew a dry 

run by the pickup point, 

which served both to ori-

ent the pilots and to alert 

the man being exfiltrated 

that the next pass would 

be for him. Copilot Snod-

dy came back momentarily to the rear of 

the aircraft to make sure Downey and 

Fecteau were ready. On the moonlit land-

scape, four or five people could be seen 

on the ground. One man was in the pickup 

harness, facing the path of the aircraft. 

As the C-47 came in low for the pickup, 

flying nearly at its stall speed of around 

60 knots, white sheets that had been 

camouflaging two anti-aircraft guns on 

the snowy terrain flew off and gunfire 

erupted at the very moment the pickup 

was to have been made. The guns, strad-

dling the flight path, began a murderous 

crossfire. At this point, a crowd of men 

emerged from the woods.

8 Whether by 

reflex or purposefully, the pilots directed 

the aircraft’s nose up, preventing an im-

mediate crash; however, the engines cut 

out and the aircraft glided to a controlled 

5 CIA’s Far East Division later assessed that the Chinese agent team probably had been caught and doubled 

immediately after its insertion in July. 

6 See Fecteau’s reminiscences as told to Glenn Rifkin, “My Nineteen Years in a Chinese Prison,” Yankee Maga

-

zine, November 1982.

7 Twenty years later, after his return, Fecteau remembered the recognition signal as a flashlight signal; Downey 

thought it comprised three bonfires. Both were used. 

crash among some trees, breaking in two 

with the nose in the air. 

Downey and Fecteau had been secured to 

the aircraft with harnesses to keep them 

from falling out during the winching. On im-

pact, both slid along the floor of the aircraft, 

cushioned somewhat by their heavy winter 

clothing. Fecteau’s harness broke, causing 

him to crash into the bulkhead separating 

the main body of the aircraft from the cock-

pit, which, he later said, gave him a bump 

on his head “you could hang your coat on.” 

Other than suffering bruises and being 

shaken up, Downey and Fecteau were ex-

tremely fortunate in being unhurt. The Chi-

nese apparently had targeted the cockpit, 

with gunfire passing through the floor in 

the forward part of the aircraft but stop-

ping short of where Downey and Fecteau 

had been stationed, although one bul-

let singed Downey’s cheek. Meanwhile, 

tracer bullets had ignited the fuel. Both 

men tried to get to the cockpit to check 8

	 Beijing recently publisheda highly fanciful, heroically written version of events that night, which claims the

Chinese awaited the CIA aircraft with 37 guns—half of them machine guns, the rest antiaircraft cannon—along 

with 400 armed security forces, all of which fired at the plane! The account also asserts erroneously that 

Downey and Fecteau came out firing small arms before surrendering. See “The Wipe-Out of the American 

Spies in An Tu County,” in Documentary On the Support to Resist the U.S. and Aid Korea, (Beijing: China Liter-

ary History Publishing House, 2000).

9 After years of negotiations, the Chinese government in 2002 finally allowed a US Defense Department excava

-

tion team into the area, where they discovered fragments of the aircraft. In June 2004, the team found bone 

and tooth fragments, which later were identified as Robert Snoddy’s. To date, no remains of Schwartz have 

been identified.

on the pilots, who were not 

answering Downey’s shouts, 

but their part of the aircraft 

was burning fiercely and 

the two had to move away. 

Whether due to gunfire, the 

impact, or the fire, the pilots 

died at the scene.

9 Fecteau 

later remembered stand-

ing outside the aircraft with 

Downey, both stunned but 

conscious, telling each oth-

er that they were “in a hell 

of a mess.” The Chinese security forces 

descended on them, “whooping and hol-

lering,” and they gave themselves up to 

the inevitable.

ASSESSING FIELD RESPONSIBILITY 

Over the years, various explanations arose 

within CIA to explain Downey and Fecte-

au’s participation in the ill-fated mission. 

It seemed incredible to operations officers 

that two CIA employees, familiar with op-

erations, locations, and personnel, would 

be sent on a mission that exposed them 

to possible capture by the Chinese Com-

munists. One of the most persistent myths 

was that the two must have been joyrid-

ing because their participation was, it was 

thought, a violation of the rules...

This article continued in full on the included 

DVD and at the following web address:

https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-thestudy-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csistudies/studies/vol50no4/two-cia-prisoners-inchina-1952201373.html

Unmarked C-47.

Mandarin jet take-off.
18 STORIES OF SACRIFICE 

& DEDICATION CIVIL AIR TRANSPORT, AIR AMERICA, AND THE CIA 19

On June 25, Director of Intelligence (DCI) 

George Tenet presented the Director’s 

Medal to Judge John T. “Jack” Downey 

and Richard G. Fecteau. Downey and Fec-

teau were captured by the Chinese in 1952 

while conducting agent resupply and pick-

up operations as part of our war effort in 

Korea. This was their first overseas assign-

ment. In 1954, China sentenced Fecteau 

to 20 years and Downey to life imprison-

ment. Late in 1971, nearly 20 years later, 

China released Fecteau and in March 1973 

released Downey. Following their release 

they returned to work for the Agency and 

later retired.

Below are DCI Tenet’s remarks on the oc-

casion of the medal presentation.

I know that I speak for everyone in this 

room, and everyone in this Agency, when 

I say, welcome home, Jack Downey and 

Dick Fecteau—two great heroes of the CIA! 

Welcome back to the CIA!

You have never left our thoughts—not dur-

ing your long years of imprisonment, and 

not during the decades following your re-

tirement from the Agency. We are forever 

proud that you are our colleagues. You 

have been an inspiration to the intelligence 

officers who served with you, and to the 

generations who followed you.

Your story, simply put, is one of the most 

remarkable in the 50-year history of the 

Central Intelligence Agency.

It is the story of a daring flight over Man-

churia during the Korean War. The mission: 

to swoop down and snatch out our imper-

iled agent. It is the story of an ambush—of 

a crash landing—and of capture. Of being 

declared missing and presumed dead, only 

to reappear very much alive two years later 

for a Red Chinese “show trial”, where Dick 

was sentenced to twenty years and Jack 

received a life sentence.

Even more remarkable is the story of 

how these brave men endured decades 

of imprisonment, regained their freedom, 

and went on to live full and active lives, 

marked by service to their communities 

and their country.

DCI PRESENTS DIRECTOR’S MEDALS

REMARKS OF THE DIRECTOR OF CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE 

GEORGE J. TENET ON PRESENTATION OF THE DIRECTOR’S 

MEDAL TO JOHN T. “JACK” DOWNEY AND RICHARD G. FECTEAU

June 25, 1998 

Shortly after his return to the United States, 

Jack told his debriefer: “you come out of 

captivity basically about the same as you 

go in.” Jack Downey and Dick Fecteau 

went in as young men—Jack was all of 22; 

Dick was 25. What they took in with them 

was the character and the values that they 

learned from their parents—integrity and 

honor and commitment to country.

Jack and Dick, I know that your parents are 

in your hearts and thoughts today, as they 

are in ours. The medals we present to you 

today in honor of your unmatched service 

to our country are given also in honor of 

your extraordinary parents.

Jack’s widowed mother Mary Downey 

waged a fierce behind-the-scenes struggle 

for her son’s release until her health gave 

out. Ironically, it was her stroke that became 

the basis for his eventual release. Mrs. 

Downey personally petitioned four Presi-

dents beginning with Eisenhower, succes-

sive Secretaries of State, Senators, Con-

gressmen, the Catholic Church, and the 

United Nations. Nobody who met the in-

domitable Mary Downey will ever forget her.

Phil and Jessie Fecteau—decent, downto-earth people with an abiding devotion 

to this country—believed deeply that what 

their boy was doing was important to US 

security and that they must do nothing to 

jeopardize that. Throughout nineteen cruel

years of waiting, they put unquestioning 

faith in their government—in this Agency 

in particular. I pray that they never felt that 

their faith was misplaced.

There is no adequate way to describe the 

uncommon grace and fortitude with which 

the Downey and Fecteau families bore their 

burdens of grief. And to that awful weight 

of worry was the added burden of silence. 

Thank God, Mary Downey and Phil Fec-

teau went to their rest in peace, knowing 

that their sons were free.

Just imagine what it was like to hear that 

your son was missing and presumed dead, 

only to learn years later that he is impris-

oned in Red China.

Imagine what it was like to have your hopes 

for his release raised and dashed and 

raised again.

Imagine what it was like Christmas af-

ter Christmas knowing that your son was 

spending it alone in a cold cell.

Imagine a mother assembling care pack-

ages, lovingly filling the cartons with cook-

ies and warm socks and issues of Sports 

Illustrated, not knowing when, or even if, 

they’d be delivered.

Imagine turning over and over in your 

mind all the political and personal consid-

erations, then deciding to make the long 

journey to China fora prison visit. And all

the while you knew that your time with your 

son would be agonizingly brief, that you 

wouldn’t be able to have a private conver-

sation, and that when you left, you might 

never see him again.

We cannot imagine. We can only stand 

in admiration of such courage [DCI leads 

standing ovation for the parents.]

I know that Dick and Jack feel deeply 

blessed to have had such wonderful par-

ents, and to have such wonderful families. 

Dick’s wife Peg regrettably couldn’t be with 

us today, due to a very sore back. And, 

Dick’s mother, Jessie, also is unable to be 

with us to share today’s honor with her son, 

but we send them both our warmest good 

wishes and know they are with us in spir-

it. Twin daughters Sidnice and Suzon are 

here. The girls were three years-old when 

their father was captured.

Jack’s wife Audrey is here. Audrey’s and 

Jack’s marriage is a wonderful, life-affirm-
20 STORIES OF SACRIFICE & DEDICATION CIVIL AIR TRANSPORT, AIR AMERICA, AND THE CIA 21

ing story in itself. Jack met Audrey Lee 

when he went back to New Haven after 

his release to visit Yale, his alma mater. Audrey is a naturalized American citizen who 

was born in China, coincidentally ten miles 

from the place where Jack was shot down. 

Their son, John Lee Downey, starts Wesleyan University this Fall. We also welcome 

Jack’s brother Bill, who worked tirelessly for 

his release, together with Bill’s wife Jean.

It is wonderful to have multiple generations 

of the Fecteau and Downey families here today. I’m sure that there isn’t a day that goes 

by that Dick and Jack aren’t grateful to be 

surrounded by your love. I salute you all.

But beyond your immediate families, we 

would like to think that you also feel that 

you have another family—your extended 

Agency family. There are folks here today 

who kept in touch with your loved ones and 

managed your personal affairs all those 

years. I know that they saw it not as a duty, 

but as a sacred trust.

We also have here today a large representation of officers from our China desk in the 

DO. You are true legends to them.

And there is a contingent of fellow officers, 

many of whom you haven’t seen since your 

training courses in the early 1950’s, who 

are thrilled to join you today. As your former colleagues will attest, training camp is 

a bonding experience, and I know you’ve 

been swapping stories as you would at 

any reunion. I understand, Jack, that when 

they evaluated you at the end of your training, you got a pretty low grade in, of all 

things: “Survival”!!!

And Dick, although your evaluators 

thought your great sense of humor was 

an asset to morale, they were concerned 

about your lighter side and thought that, 

for your own good, you should “be more 

serious.” Like Jack’s survival marks, the 

graders got this one wrong too. The following is classic Fecteau.

Shortly after Dick and Jack were captured, 

they were separated, and spent two years 

in solitary confinement, much of the time 

under interrogation and in chains. But 

Dick’s sense of humor never left him.

On the day of their “show trial” in 1954—remember Dick and Jack had not seen one another for two years—Dick is marched into 

the courtroom through a battery of lights 

and cameras. Jack is already standing in 

the dock. For propaganda effect, Jack 

has been outfitted in a new, black padded suit, clothes, shoes, and a beanie 

hat. Dick sees that Jack is looking rather 

down and figures he needs cheering 

up. They order Dick to go stand next to 

Jack. He walks over to Jack and whispers: “Who’s your tailor?!”

Until Dick’s release in 1971, and Jack’s 

in 1973, the two men were listed in our 

personnel files as serving on “Special 

Detail Foreign” at “Official Station 

Undetermined.” And serve they did. 

Not in the ordinary way, of course—but 

in a most extraordinary way. How did they 

serve? By keeping their faith in our country, 

and by being faithful to it no matter what.

When Dick was debriefed upon his release, 

he said he never lost his sense of Agency 

affiliation. He said that he felt he was engaged in a struggle between the Agency 

and the Security Bureau in Peking. He said 

that his country was much more than an 

abstraction to him. When his jailers kept

trying to drum it into him that the US was 

an imperialist country, and that Americans 

were the scum of the earth, he said he “resented the crap out of it” and “sort of took 

it upon my shoulders as a representative of 

my country and my people” to be the opposite of how they portrayed us.

One of the many things we all admire about 

you is that neither of you have let your experiences make you bitter. When a reporter 

asked Jack how he’d describe the 20 years 

he spent in prison, he answered: “They 

were a crashing bore!” “I won’t dwell upon 

the past because I’m too preoccupied with 

the present and the future.” Since their release, both Dick and Jack have made every 

day count.

Just imagine being taken right from a Red 

Chinese jail and finding yourself back home

in the United States after a twenty-year absence. Dick and Jack remarked about the 

rush of colors, the variety and number of 

cars, the radical change in fashions—it was 

the seventies after all.

But both men saw more than the superficials. 

Dick took great joy in the simple pleasures of

freedom that all of us take for granted: he 

told his debriefer: “to me, just to get up and

make a nice breakfast and take a shower is 

beautiful, it makes my day.” Jack observed 

changes in American society—rural Connecticut being overrun with housing developments and suburbia, the positive effects 

of the civil rights movement.

Dick elected to retire from the CIA in the 

mid-1970s, after over 25 years of service. 

He had to be convinced to stay that long. In 

Dick’s words: “I did not want them to make 

work for me. It would embarrass the life out 

of me.” As if he hadn’t done enough for this 

Agency and this country already! Dick later 

joined the staff of his alma mater, Boston

University, and became Assistant Director 

of Athletics. He retired from the university 

in 1989.

Jack also opted for retirement. When he 

was offered the opportunity to stay, he 

quipped: “You know I just don’t think I am

cut out for that kind of work!” After leaving the Agency, at age 43, Jack enrolled 

in Harvard Law School. He practiced law 

privately for a number of years, was appointed by the Governor of Connecticut to 

a number of public service positions, and 

even started a run for Senator of Connecticut. (Jack calls it his other crash!) In 1987, 

Jack became a Judge, like his father before him.

Both of these great men refuse to consider 

themselves heroes. They are not the sort. 

Their parents and their New England upbringing have a lot to do with that. When 

Mary Downey was reunited with her beloved 

Jack in her hospital room, she wagged her 

finger at him and said: “You’re a celebrity 

now—don’t let it go to your head!”

Jack was not about to let himself, as he 

put it: “be one of those guys who goes 

through life making a career out of being a 

CIA agent who was imprisoned in China.” 

And the most Dick will say on that subject

is that he supposes that he “did the best he 

could under the circumstances.”

Dick and Jack, you can be as modest as 

you like. But we cannot see it that way. What 

you did—the way you did it—is a proud part 

of our history that we will never forget.

Above: Mandarin Jet.

Below: Damage to a C-119.
22 STORIES OF SACRIFICE 

& DEDICATION CIVIL AIR TRANSPORT, AIR AMERICA, AND THE CIA 23

You demonstrated one kind of heroism 

when you signed on to that perilous mission 

in wartime and crash-landed and survived 

and endured those early interrogations.

You demonstrated heroism of a whole oth-

er magnitude during those dark decades 

of captivity that followed. In those endless 

years, heroism meant getting through an-

other day, and then another, and then an-

other, with your dignity, and your humanity, 

and your will, and your wit, and your honor, 

and your hope intact.

Both men would argue that others in this 

room would have done what they did 

under the same circumstances. Maybe. 

We’d all like to think we would. But the 

fact is, it wasn’t somebody else in that 

prison. It was you. It fell to the two of you 

to do a hard, hard thing. And you did it. 

For two decades. Magnificently. Gallantly. 

With extreme valor.

When they came in 1971 to tell Dick he 

was being freed, his first question 

was: “What about Jack Downey?” 

And after his return home, when Dick 

was offered piles of money to tell 

his story, he refused the offers—de-

spite his family’s modest means—for 

fear that publicity would harm Jack’s 

chances of freedom.

Two years after Dick’s release, Jack’s 

day of freedom finally arrived. Jack 

has described his reaction as think-

ing to himself: “Well, Christ, it’s about 

time.”

In this—our 50th anniversary year—it 

is also about time that you and Dick 

received the small tribute we confer 

today by presenting you with the Di-

rector’s Medal. I do this on behalf of 

all my predecessors because all of us 

know that at the end of the day men like 

the two of you—with wonderful families 

behind them—have sacrificed everything 

with grace and courage and in absolute 

anonymity to serve this agency and our 

country. We have been truly blessed to 

call you our colleagues and friends.

The words inscribed on the back of the 

medal are simple, yet direct—Extraordi-

nary Fidelity and Essential Service. Bet-

ter words were never written or spoken to 

describe Jack Downey and Dick Fecteau.

We will always be grateful to you and to 

your extraordinary families for all that you 

did for our country.

I would now invite you both to come for-

ward for the presentation of the medals. 

I would also ask Ben DeFelice, the man 

who knows better than anyone in this 

Agency what you and you families went 

through, and who so caringly handled 

your affairs during your long captivity, to 

read the citation.

On March 12, 1973, CIA officer John 

Downey walked across the Lo-Wu Bridge 

from the People’s Republic of China into 

the then-British Crown colony of Hong 

Kong. He was a free man after more than 

two decades of imprisonment.

Communist Chinese forces captured 

Downey and fellow CIA paramilitary of-

ficer Richard Fecteau when their plane 

was shot down in Manchuria in Novem-

ber 1952. Both men were riding in a C-47 

operated by a CIA proprietary airline, Civil 

Air Transport, on an operation to retrieve 

an agent. The team planned to extract the 

agent with a device that involved a hook 

snagging a line between two upright poles 

on the ground. The agent was connected 

to the line by a harness. Once the hook 

caught the line, and the agent was jerked

off the ground, Downey and Fecteau were 

to winch the man into the aircraft.

The Civil Air Transport plane, however, 

flew into a trap. The Chinese agent team 

on the ground, trained by Downey, had 

been caught and turned by the Commu-

nist Chinese. Antiaircraft fire downed the 

plane, killing its pilot and co-pilot, Norman 

Schwartz and Robert Snoddy. Downey and 

Fecteau survived.

Presuming there were no survivors, the 

U.S. government was surprised when Bei-

jing announced Downey’s life sentence for

espionage; Fecteau received 20 years. The 

announcement came in 1954, two years 

after the Civil Air Transport plane was shot 

down. After harsh interrogations, both men 

faced dismal conditions for most of their 

incarceration. But they learned to cope 

through patience, faith in eventual release, 

humor, and exercise.

The lack of official relations—and Wash-

ington’s continued insistence that the 

men were Department of the Army civil-

ians and not CIA employees—ensured 

stalemate on the men’s fate. Throughout 

their imprisonment, Fecteau and Downey 

received their CIA pay and benefits in es-

crow, as well as periodic promotions. The 

CIA invested their savings and assisted 

their families.

When negotiations commenced in 1971, 

leading to President Richard M. Nix-

on’s opening of China, Fecteau was re-

leased. Soon after Nixon publicly admitted 

Downey’s CIA affiliation, his life sentence 

was commuted and he was released.

Fecteau and Downey have focused their 

lives on the future, not dwelling on the past. 

Fecteau returned to his alma mater, Bos-

ton University, as assistant athletic director; 

he retired in 1989. 

Downey returned 

home to Con-

necticut and be-

came a respected 

judge;a New Ha-

ven courthouse is 

named for him.

THE PEOPLE OF THE CIA... 

JOHN DOWNEY & RICHARD FECTEAU

Left: Richard Fecteau.

Right: Jack Downey.
24 STORIES OF SACRIFICE & DEDICATION CIVIL AIR TRANSPORT, AIR AMERICA, AND THE CIA 25
26 STORIES OF SACRIFICE & DEDICATION CIVIL AIR TRANSPORT, AIR AMERICA, AND THE CIA 27
28 STORIES OF SACRIFICE 

& DEDICATION CIVIL AIR TRANSPORT, AIR AMERICA, AND THE CIA 29

OUR HISTORY THEN...AND NOW

L. Michael Kandt, General Secretary and Chaplain, Air America Association

Many dictionaries define ‘history’ as the 

branch of knowledge that records and ana-

lyzes past events. Yet understanding histo-

ry is also key to understanding the present, 

and sometimes the future. That is why few 

students should leave their school years 

without several courses, or even years, 

learning American and international history: 

but few do. Many of us graduate with little 

exposure to even our own history. 

They have been shortchanged. They have 

missed the joys of discovering the heroic,

fascinating, and at times unbelievable sto-

ries that comprise the history of our na-

tion. Some of us engaged in these historic 

events—through our service to the coun-

try—yet departed posts without a full un-

derstanding of the importance or historical 

reverberations of those acts. 

History is basically the diary of mankind, 

and also of each of us. Some of the pages 

in that diary include hidden events or ac-

tivities, kept from the public for various 

intervals for national security reasons. So 

early readings of the diary might mystify 

us as to why certain actions were taken, 

or others never mentioned, or quite made 

sense. When these secrets are declassi-

fied and now shared, as happening today 

at this conference, it presents a rare, im-

portant opportunity to amend or set right 

a number of these historic events, espe-

cially those previously subject to misinter-

pretation. Actions take on new meanings, 

and what seemed like confusing decisions 

take on a clarity only available to those 

who have reliable information. Fortunately, 

with fresh evidence, all the myths or vindic-

tive counter-theories should return to the 

ether from which they were cre-

ated. The newly released addi-

tions to the growing documentary 

evidence provides surprises and 

also gives us a chance to engage 

in lively, honest analysis. We have 

that chance again today. 

A benefit of age is a growing un-

derstanding of the importance 

of history, for we’ve now lived 

some of it. Even been a part of 

significant events. Fellow Air 

America members who served in 

Asia in the period between 1946 

to 1975—and our invited col-

leagues, guests, and members 

of the public—if they did not al-

ready know, will leave this confer-

ence with a greater appreciation 

for the importance of our efforts 

Two C-46 jets.
30 STORIES OF SACRIFICE & DEDICATION CIVIL AIR TRANSPORT, AIR AMERICA, AND THE CIA 31

abroad. While we can remember what we 

witnessed, what we were told from eyewitness accounts, and what consequence 

those events presented to us personally 

and to our nation’s interests, over the years 

these memories faced different accounts 

presented in the media. Some reported the 

same facts which matched our own firsthand experiences; unfortunately, we also 

encountered others who claimed to present facts but did not. Today, the real history of those days can be etched deeper 

into the factual record, augmented by the 

documents and personal accounts being 

discussed, shown, and released this week.

The symposium focuses on one particular, 

harrowing event in 1952. The background 

leading up to it, and actions of those involved, and the long-running saga of postaction events, is living history in its most 

unsettling and authentic form. It shows that 

truth is indeed more compelling than fiction. The documentary film we will see is 

Extraordinary Fidelity. It presents a 1952 

operation that captures the risk, bravery, 

betrayal, privations, dedication, and constancy of certain officers doing their jobs,

and what traits sustained them in this appropriately titled film that hints at the guiding principles.

The value of understanding the purpose 

and consequences of this one ‘past event’ 

can be instructive to us all—a take-home 

message, if you will—as we hear about 

other historic events, and notice that some 

are surrounded by versions of stories from 

news or online outlets, based on rumors 

and unnamed, questionable sources, with 

little resting on trustworthy data. Good historians know that rushing to judgment in

the absence of facts is a fool’s errand.

Extraordinary Fidelity might make one ask 

“What inspires such selfless dedication and 

risk-taking?” A recent YouTube segment 

caught my eye and provides other examples. Jonna Doolittle Hoppes, the granddaughter of Jimmy Doolittle, was speaking 

at a banquet of the Historical Flight Foundation. She told of her father’s famous raid 

on mainland Japan early in World War II. 

Doolittle and the military planners knew 

this strike would be, to put it gently, a ‘calculated risk.’ They also knew there would 

be casualties, and success unlikely. Still, 

the crewmen were not assigned but were 

volunteers, well-trained, and strongly motivated by Col. Doolittle himself. Multitudes 

of historians have written about the attack 

and aftermath. Most describing it as a great 

victory. An event which gave the American 

public a needed boost in morale at an important moment for our Pacific Forces after weeks of bad news. A few opined that 

the cost in lives and material for such a 

relatively insignificant military outcome was 

not worth the effort. However the raid did 

something intangible yet crucial in war—it 

showed the world the U.S. determination 

to fearlessly engage and defeat the enemy—despite any risk or bad odds. 

In this short video segment, the gracious 

Ms. Doolittle Hoppes captured the bravery and honor of her father, and also of his 

crew, and movingly explained why we all 

recognize them as the war heroes they are. 

In the McDermott library at the University 

of Texas at Dallas, the Doolittle archives 

share the History of Aviation collection with 

the archives of Civil Air Transport [CAT] and 

Air America [AAm]. Included in the Doolittle 

exhibit is the only Medal of Honor awarded 

Jimmy Doolittle which he accepted on behalf of all his crew. 

Why do I mention the Doolittle mission? Because in November of 1952, another operation was being planned that also was facing 

a grave calculated risk. It was deemed sufficiently important that the unfortunate high 

level of danger did not diminish the need to 

move the operation ahead. And, unlike Doolittle and his crews, this operation required 

it be conducted as Top Secret. That meant 

no public praise for success, and possible 

anonymous oblivion for failure. Few operations face higher risks and offer so little to a 

crew heading off on the mission.

Pilots Robert C. Snoddy and Norman A. 

Schwartz had challenged the fates before 

and survived, and were ready to roll the 

dice again. The two young ‘customers’ who 

comprised the crew of equipment technicians also were aware of the dangers, but 

chose to do the job. Brave, dedicated volunteers were they all. 

But this was no spy novel. Betrayal and 

treachery doomed the mission. It took the 

lives of the brave CAT crew. And the customers—John T. ‘Jack’ Downey and Richard G. Fecteau—were considered lost, as 

well. Only after years of being deemed Missing In Action [MIA] but presumed dead, did 

the Chinese government announce that both 

men had been captured and incarcerated in 

China. One could only imagine—or perhaps, 

better not to—the treatment they endured all 

those years. As we learn from the documentary, the Chinese eventually released both of 

them, decades after that 1952 flight when 

they vanished into the unknown. 

In his book One Day Too Long: Top Secret 

Site 85 and the Bombing of North Vietnam,1

 Historian Timothy N. Castle writes: 

“Those who are prepared to forfeit their 

lives should have no doubt that in the event 

of their death or capture their families will 

be treated with compassion and respect.” 

And so we are here in Dayton, Ohio, almost 

60 years later, to witness how the sacred 

bond Castle describes was, in fact, faithfully honored, and actions taken that upheld 

the trust and hopes of the fallen. These 

acts give comfort to those officers today, 

who are taking many similar risks on behalf 

of us all, in an era of unprecedented violence and asymmetric warfare. 

For those who take these risks, they ask 

for no medals of honor—given or expected. Stars on a wall will suffice. But 

the greatest comfort is the expectation of 

compassion, respect, and loyalty for their 

families who might be left behind. It is this 

last concern that occupies thoughts during those perilous final moments when 

their own lives are out-of-control and rest 

in the hands of providence.

1 Timothy N. Castle, One Day Too Long: Top Secret Site 85 and the Bombing of North Vietnam, New York, NY: 

Columbia University Press, 1999.

Left: Allen Pope.

Right: Ed Sims.

Schwartz, Bable, Marsh, 

and Fore Golfers.
32 STORIES OF SACRIFICE & DEDICATION CIVIL AIR TRANSPORT, AIR AMERICA, AND THE CIA 33

From China Pilot: Flying for Chiang and 

Chennault During the Cold War,

2 author 

Felix Smith writes: “Flying the Hump had 

put me in awe of Mother Natures’ ferocity, but her wildest phenomenon is benign 

compared to human cruelties. And during 

our brutalities we’re tantalized by exhibition of nobility that flash, in those dark 

hours, like summer lightning.” 

THE INVENTION OF AIR AMERICA

Also little-known or well understood outside of a few aviation historians are those 

early 1950s when CAT became an arm of 

the fledgling Central Intelligence Agency, to 

assist with covert operations. Nor did many 

realize CAT played a role in the creation of 

Air America. 

Using CAT facilities, in 1959 the CIA organized another airline to be used for covert 

missions. It was known as Air America. 

This carrier was to fulfill the more clandestine flight operations, particularly in 

Southeast Asia [SEA]. Air America obtained both fixed-wing and rotor-wing 

aircraft more appropriate to the mission 

and terrain. The history of this group, 

based on material available at the time, 

has appeared in numerous books and articles published by responsible historians, 

careful in their sourcing, using well-documented facts. Unfortunately, there were 

others—historians, writers, journalists,

and movie directors—more interested in 

sensationalism, book and movie sales, 

and the attention that comes from exposés. Unencumbered by facts, they built 

pseudo-histories out of innuendo, rumor, 

gossip, and underpinned on occasion by 

malicious intent, skewing the record and 

honor of those who had served in covert 

operations. Because of remaining classified aspects of the programs at that time, 

it left a vacuum and little fear of their fictions being countered by the truth, and 

these bogus histories festered and expanded—taking root and misinforming 

the public. In more recent years, the truth 

arrived from several declassification releases which proved the rumormongers, 

dodgy scholars, and writers wrong. 

These latter ‘scholars’ have sought—wittingly or not—to distort Air America’s role in 

providing U.S. government aviation support 

in SEA. Alfred W. McCoy in his book The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global 

Drug Trade, Afghanistan, Southeast Asia, 

Central America3 is one extraordinary example of a young graduate student coming to 

Laos with a pet theory and agenda, cherrypicking whatever stories could be goosedup to support an already preselected finding 

and conclusion. And most of it wrong but 

ideal for one seeking to create a firestorm of 

public interest, book sales, interviews, and 

misplaced outrage. It also influenced a movie, twisting it from fact into fiction.

Another writer who wrote perhaps the 

most well-known history of Air America 

was Christopher Robbins. In the book 

Air America: From WWII to Vietnam: The 

Explosive True Story of the CIA’s Secret 

Airline,

4 Robbins told a honest story, with 

many anecdotes elicited from frank talks 

with pilots, occasionally conducted in bars 

in Vientiane and Bangkok. Many of those 

boozy tales may have been only loosely 

accurate. Robbins writes in the prologue 

to his revised edition of Air America: 

“In many ways, the secret world of Air 

America depicted here has come to 

seem as remote as the battles of the 

ancients. But it should not be allowed 

to be forgotten. In the circumstances, 

and until a more comprehensive book 

comes along, it is a privilege to bring 

the activities of this band of brave men 

to new readers, in the certain knowledge that a chronicle of genuine courage never truly dates.” 

Unfortunately, Hollywood decided to use 

Mr. Robbins theme about Air America and 

developed, produced, and distributed a 

1990 film Air America with Mel Gibson and 

Robert Downey Jr. The film was an impressive flop, going from a supposed distorted, 

fictional political sting plot, into one that 

was a weak, unamusing buddy-actioncomedy failure. Those interested in reading 

Robbins’ assessment of the misbegotten 

film based on his book should turn to his 

chapter fourteen: “Air America, the Movie.” 

It tells all any intelligent truth-seeker needs 

to know about the film, Hollywood as historians, and how paranoid the film industry 

can be [could it be their fondness for cocaine?]. Thanks again Mr. Robbins. 

Historian Don A. Schanche wrote about 

“The Adventures of a Peaceful Man in a 

Small War” in Mister Pop5 a well-written 

biography of Edgar ‘Pop’ Buell a gentle 

Indiana farmer. Everyone who ever landed 

at Sam Thong (LS20) be it by Helio, Porter, Caribou, or if you were very brave in a 

C-123, knew ‘Pop’ Buell. 

Everyone in Lao knew him or of him, including the enemy who offered a high reward for his capture. His great work with 

the Lao Hmong was deeply respected. In 

the preface of Schanche’s book, author 

John Steinbeck, in Laos at the time, wrote: 

“I think Pop is an example of how 

the ancient gods were born and preserved in the minds and graven images of people all over the world. Remember, the story invariable goes—in 

olden times the people did not live 

3 Alfred W. McCoy, Cathleen B. Read, Leonard P. Adams II, The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global 

Drug Trade, Afghanistan, Southeast Asia, Central America, New York, NY: Harper Row, 1972. 2 Felix Smith, China Pilot: Flying for Chiang and Chennault During the Cold War, Washington, DC: Brassey’s, 

1995.

4 Christopher Robbins books on Air America have appeared in numerous editions. They are: Air America (Corgi, 

1988); Air America: The Story of the CIA’s Secret Airlines (Hardcover - Jan 1, 1978); Air America: From WWII to 

Vietnam: The Explosive True Story of the CIA’s Secret Airline (Paperback - Jan 15, 1988); Air America: The True 

Story of the C.I.A.’s Mercenary Fliers in Covert Operations from Pre-war China to Present Day Nicaragua (Jan 

1991) Corgi; New Ed edition (January 1991); Air America From World War II to Vietnam (Paperback - 2003). 5 Don A. Schanche. Mister Pop: The Adventures of a Peaceful Man In A Small War—The Inside Story of the 

American Involvement in Laos. New York: David McKay, 1970.

Left: Paul Holden.

Right: Wallace Buford.

Thomas Sailer.
34 STORIES OF SACRIFICE & DEDICATION CIVIL AIR TRANSPORT, AIR AMERICA, AND THE CIA 35

well as they do now and they practiced abominations. 

Then a stranger appeared and he 

taught us to use the plow and how to 

sow and how to harvest. He brought 

us writing so we could keep records. 

And he gave us healing medicines to 

make us healthy, and he gave us pride 

so we would not be afraid and, when 

we had learned these things, he went 

away. He was translated. That is his 

figure there, carved in limestone. 

Well, I don’t think Pop is likely to be taken up in a sweet chariot even if he had 

the time or the inclination, but that ancient story is Pop Buell’s story. Whether 

you believe it or not, there are still giants in the earth.”

—John Steinbeck, Laos, April 1967

Pop was not a historian, had little concern 

over what was said or written about him; 

however, his right-hand man of many years 

was a Lao former Buddhist Monk, Thongsar Boupha, with different sensitivities and 

an understanding that bad history needs to 

be countered with the truth—sooner than 

later. While Boupha may not have been a 

historian either, he was a philosopher and 

poet. Schanche recorded some of Thongsar’s philosophic understandings about 

Buell and others, at the beginning of each 

chapter of his book. 

Thongsar’s writings might inspire current 

historians: 

As my Lord Buddha said, “the more you 

know the more you do right; the more 

you understand well, the more you can 

give and explain much to others; the 

more you practice, the more you get 

the experience in your knowledge.” 

– The Letters of Thongsar Boupha

And this gem: 

Telling the truth; the truth never die, 

never be rotten, never be broken and 

never spoil your feelings and thinkings, 

but the truth makes you believe and finish in what you are wishing and interesting to do. 

– From Answering and Telling Generally 

 Questions by Thongsar Boupha

In his own way he has captured the essence 

of what is conveyed in the biblical quote on 

the entrance hall of the modern CIA: 

And ye shall know the truth, and the 

truth shall make you free. 

– John 8/32, King James Bible

The story of Pop Buell is an essential part of 

the history of Air America. It was because 

of this man and many others, that the people of Air America felt that what was being accomplished for our U.S. Government 

customers as well as the Lao people was 

important and worth the effort. Pilots and 

mechanics recognized that they could go 

back to the U.S. and get far better paying 

jobs with several air carriers, and avoid the

danger and hostile flying conditions. Some 

made that choice, but the majority stayed

and flew for guys like Pop and the other 

respected customers many knew only by 

their radio call signs. 

Flying in Vietnam was quite different for 

the Air America crews, primarily because 

of the navigation facilities and the abundance of airfields throughout the four military regions. Also because of the military 

flight operations in-country, there were 

more assets for Search and Rescue and 

cover fire in certain areas were available. 

Nonetheless, Air America aircraft were 

subject to the same hazardous weather

phenomena and the same potential for 

ground fire, even shoulder-fired heatseeking missiles. 

Lao operations in the north and south 

provided its own somewhat different set 

of challenges. Historians have recorded a 

thousand stories from a multitude of different perspectives to detail what certainly is 

among the most unusual aviation activity 

ever known. 

I thought it would be interesting to know 

how some Air America passengers might 

contribute to this history. Once again from 

the wise and observant Lao philosopher 

Thongsar Boupha: 

Where is our office? On the high fearful 

air. We are working on the air because 

when we got a ride in the planes, from 

the first start of the plane’s take-off 

and until the plane lands down on the 

ground, I myself always fixed out and 

think much about the dangerous mountains and valleys that how I could get 

out from the planes when the planes 

are bad shot and cracked down. 

Sometimes I and Tan Pop and the 

other fellows have been got a shot 

and bad hit right to the center of 

our plane, or sometimes the bullets 

did hit our plane behind our seat, 

in front and back, by the group of 

enemies; but we said that the enemies did play a big trick, and we 

always said Bopinyan (no matter, 

never mind), because everything 

in this world is a possible, there 

will be nothing to be the act permanent, excepted our goodness, 

kindness, gratefulness and sincerity at this present only.

– From Answering and Telling 

 Generally Questions by Thong-

 sar Boupha

Much of this history—the telling of these 

extraordinary events—of CAT and Air 

America centers on the pilots and flight 

crews. To me, this is as it should be. These 

are the folks who took the greatest risks, 

and would have paid—or did pay—the 

ultimate price, and deserve the highest 

level of recognition. Those of us who ‘flew 

desks,’ counted beans, bent wrenches, 

ordered-and stocked parts before they 

were needed, and even provided the cold 

beer and clean sheets the crews needed 

to be ready for the many days spent facing unfriendly skies, are comfortable with 

the reflected recognition from those doing 

the main mission up in the sky. This, too, 

is as it should be. But was the recognition 

and appreciation as fleeting as it sounds? 

Even more important to any flight crew, as 

mentioned before, is the love and support 

of their families. Too often, the stark lives 

that befell the wives and children of lost pilot or crew only came fleetingly before us 

when their husbands first were lost. Their 

stories and own struggles to move on, in 

later years, sometimes has been forgotten. 

But not by us.

The Air America Association was never 

meant to be a support group. But the orWells, Snoddy, and Hughes.
36 STORIES OF SACRIFICE & DEDICATION

ganization has a profound soul and sacred 

mission that drives us to keep track of the 

families, invite them to reunions, and celebrate the memory of those who have gone 

before. It is a way of paying respect and 

reminding all that we have never forgotten their sacrifices, just as we now will not

forget the sacrifices of Snoddy, Schwartz, 

Downey and Fecteau from Extraordinary 

Fidelity. As we grow older, these relationships, and our shared roles 

in history, become more important than ever. 

As Chaplain of the association, it might seem appropriate that I close this article 

with some religious references. But I do not think prayer 

or poetry appropriate during 

the short reunion memorial 

services. Rather, I urge each 

person, during a moment of 

silence, provide their own religious perspective and pay 

homage to all those who sacrificed from the beginning, up 

to this most recent list of those 

who have passed on. And their 

families. We owe them that, 

and so much more. 

Recorded history of those war years is 

still being studied. Some historians have 

provided very different analyses about 

these events. Mark Moyar in his book Triumph Forsaken: The Vietnam War, 1954 

-19656 is an example. As is From Enemy 

to Friend: A North Vietnamese Perspective on the War by Bui Tin.

7 I recommend 

both. Much is being revised in light of 

more intelligent and truthful consider6 Mark Moyar, Triumph Forsaken: The Vietnam War, 1954 -1965, New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 

2006. 7 Bui Tin, From Enemy to Friend: A North Vietnamese Perspective on the War, Annapolis, Md: US Naval Institute 

Press, 2002.

ation. It is worthwhile to keep up with the 

current writings, for most of you will feel 

better from these newer accounts, about 

why we were involved in what was an important, righteous, meaningful endeavor 

to help our fellow humans keep and maintain their freedoms. Little human activity 

is better than that. Ask anyone who suddenly gains freedom. Just a thought. 
38 STORIES OF SACRIFICE & DEDICATION CIVIL AIR TRANSPORT, AIR AMERICA, AND THE CIA 39
40 STORIES OF SACRIFICE & DEDICATION CIVIL AIR TRANSPORT, AIR AMERICA, AND THE CIA 41
42 STORIES OF SACRIFICE & DEDICATION CIVIL AIR TRANSPORT, AIR AMERICA, AND THE CIA 43

46 STORIES OF SACRIFICE & DEDICATION CIVIL AIR TRANSPORT, AIR AMERICA, AND THE CIA 47
48 STORIES OF SACRIFICE & DEDICATION CIVIL AIR TRANSPORT, AIR AMERICA, AND THE CIA 49
50 STORIES OF SACRIFICE & DEDICATION CIVIL AIR TRANSPORT, AIR AMERICA, AND THE CIA 51
52 STORIES OF SACRIFICE & DEDICATION
54 STORIES OF SACRIFICE & DEDICATION CIVIL AIR TRANSPORT, AIR AMERICA, AND THE CIA 55

DR. TIMOTHY N. CASTLE

Dr. Timothy N. Castle joined the CIA’s Center for the Study of Intelligence (CSI) in August 2006 and currently directs CSI efforts 

to develop lessons learned on counterterrorism and military programs. He served 

as a career Air Force intelligence officer 

with wide-ranging Asia experience, including two tours in Southeast Asia during the 

Vietnam war. Dr. Castle is the author of One 

Day Too Long: Top Secret Site 85 and the 

Bombing of North Vietnam, Columbia University Press, 1999, selected by the Chief 

of Staff of the Air Force for inclusion on the 

USAF Professional reading list, and At War 

in the Shadow of Vietnam: United States 

Military Assistance to Royal Lao Government, 1955-1975, Columbia University 

Press, 1993. 

HON. CRAIG W. DUEHRING 

The Honorable Craig W. Duehring was 

commissioned in the Air Force in 1968 and, 

after pilot training, served two combat tours 

as a forward air controller, first flying O-1’s 

in Vietnam and then as a Raven FAC flying 

O-1’s and AT-28’s at Long Tieng, Laos. In 

later years, he flew fighters and trainers including over 1200 hours in the A-10 Thunderbolt II, mostly in Europe. Colonel Duehring’s last assignment was as the U.S. Air 

Attaché to Indonesia.

Colonel Duehring retired from the Air Force 

in 1996 and ran for Congress from the Minnesota 2nd Congressional District in 1998. 

Later he was the Executive Director for the 

Patrick Henry Center for Individual Liberty, a 

non-profit educational and charitable foundation. In 2001, Mr. Duehring was appointed 

by President Bush to serve as the Principal 

Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for 

Reserve Affairs and was performing the duties of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for 

Reserve Affairs during the attack on the Pentagon on 9-11. He was responsible for the 

largest call-up of the Reserve components 

of the United States since World War II.

In 2007 he was appointed by the President 

to serve as the Assistant Secretary of the 

Air Force for Manpower and Reserve Affairs. As such he was responsible for more 

than 700, 000 Air Force military and civilian 

personnel. He retired from this position in 

April 2009.

Secretary Duehring is a combat veteran 

with over 800 combat missions. He is the 

recipient of the Silver Star, the Distinguished 

Flying Cross with one oak leaf cluster and 

the Air Medal with 26 oak leaf clusters. In 

1988, he was awarded the Air Force’s top 

individual award for leadership in the senior 

officer category, the Lance P. Sijan (SIGHjon) Award. Secretary Duehring is married

to his wife, Theresa, an elementary school 

teacher and lives in Fairfax Station, Virginia.

DR. NICHOLAS DUJMOVIC

Dr. Nicholas Dujmovic has served as a CIA

historian since January 2005. He came to 

the Agency in 1990 as an analyst on the Soviet Union. He has also served as speechwriter for Directors of Central Intelligence 

John Deutch and George Tenet and was 

the deputy chief editor of the President’s 

Daily Brief. A frequent contributor to Studies in Intelligence and other intelligence 

journals, Dr. Dujmovic also is the author

of The Grenada Documents: Window on 

SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES Totalitarianism (1988) and, under the pen 

name Charles Lathrop, a quotation book 

on intelligence, The Literary Spy (2004). He 

is currently working on a study of President 

Reagan’s use of intelligence. 

JOHN L. “JACK” HUDSON

John L. “Jack” Hudson, a member of 

the Senior Executive Service, is Director, 

National Museum of the U.S. Air Force, 

Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. 

He manages the world’s largest and oldest military aviation museum, portraying 

the heritage and traditions of the Air Force 

through specialized exhibits. The museum 

features a 17-acre campus that includes 

nearly one million square feet of public exhibit space with more than 360 aerospace 

vehicles and missiles and thousands of 

historical artifacts on display. Mr. Hudson 

is responsible for more than 122,000 artifacts in the National Collection both at 

the museum and on loan to military and 

civilian sites all over the world. He provides technical and professional guidance 

to the U.S. Air Force Heritage Program, 

which includes 12 field museums, and 

260 domestic and international heritage 

sites. Additionally, he assists in ensuring accountability for artifacts on loan to 

more than 470 civilian museums, cities, 

municipalities and veterans’ organizations 

throughout the world.

Mr. Hudson entered the Air Force in 1973 

as a distinguished graduate of the U.S. Air 

Force Academy and served for 36 years 

on active duty in a variety of positions including T-38 instructor pilot; A-10 pilot, 

instructor pilot and flight examiner; and 

test pilot. He served as director of several 

Air Force and joint system program offices and was senior military assistant to 

the Under Secretary for Defense for Acquisition and Technology. Mr. Hudson also 

held assignments as Program Executive 

Officer and Program Director, Joint Strike 

Fighter Program, Office of the Assistant 

Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition; and Assistant 

Deputy Under Secretary of the Air Force 

for International Affairs. He last served as 

Commander of the Aeronautical Systems 

Center at Wright-Patterson AFB before his 

retirement in October 2009 in the grade of 

lieutenant general. He was appointed to 

the Senior Executive Service in December 

2009 and served as the museum’s Deputy 

Director until December 2010.

JOSEPH W. LAMBERT

Mr. Lambert entered on duty with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in 1984, serving initially in the Office of the Deputy Director for Intelligence and on the support staff 

of the National Intelligence Council. Subsequently, Mr. Lambert served as the Information Management Officer for both the National Photographic Interpretation Center 

and later for the Directorate of Intelligence. 

Mr. Lambert has served as the Director of 

Information Management for the National 

Imagery and Mapping Agency, the National 

Reconnaissance Office and since December 

of 2007, the Central Intelligence Agency. In 

his current role, Mr. Lambert is responsible 

for records management, national security 

classification management and declassification and release programs at the CIA. In 

addition, Mr. Lambert is the Deputy Privacy 

and Civil Liberties Officer at the CIA.

Mr. Lambert earned his Master of Public 

Administration (MPA) degree in Executive 

Legislative and Regulatory Management 

from the George Washington University 

in 1994. Mr. Lambert is a recipient of the 

Intelligence Community’s National Intelligence Certificate of Distinction. 
56 STORIES OF SACRIFICE & DEDICATION

DISCLAIMER: 

All statements of fact, opinion, or analysis expressed in this booklet are those of the authors. They do not necessarily reflect official 

positions or views of the Central Intelligence Agency or any other US government entity, past or present. Nothing in the contents should 

be construed as asserting or implying US government endorsement of an article’s or interviews statements or interpretations.

Major General John K. Singlaub’s World 

War II duties included a parachute mission 

into occupied France to organize, train, and 

lead a French Resistance unit which provided assistance to the Allied invasion forces. 

He then went to China to train and lead Chinese guerrillas against the Japanese. Just 

before the Japanese surrendered, he led 

a parachute rescue mission into an enemy 

prisoner of war camp on Hainan Island. This 

resulted in the release of four hundred Allied 

prisoners of war.

General Singlaub was assigned as Chief of 

a U.S. Military Liaison Mission to Mukden, 

Manchuria, where he served for three years 

immediately following World War II. He 

served two tours during the Korean War; 

one with the CIA in Korea and the other as 

an infantry battalion commander in the Third 

Infantry Division. General Singlaub served 

also as Commander of the Joint Unconventional Warfare Task Force (MAC SOG) in 

Vietnam, and later served as the Assistant 

Division Commander of the 8th Infantry Division in Germany. He served as the Chief 

of State, United Nations Command, United 

States Forces, Korea, and the Eighth U.S. 

Army in Seoul, Korea. Concomitantly, he 

served as the U.N. Command Senior Military Member of the Military Armistice Commission at Panmunjom.

Interspersed with the above wartime command positions were numerous training 

assignments both at home and abroad. 

General Singlaub was instrumental in the establishment of the Ranger Training Center at 

Fort Benning, Georgia, where he also served 

as an instructor. He helped establish the 

Modern Army Selected Systems Test, Evaluation and Review activity at Fort Hood, Texas; and was named responsible for training 

and combat-readiness of the Army Reserve 

and Army National Guard Units in a ten-state 

area. General Singlaub was also appointed 

Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for 

Drug and Alcohol Abuse. The General’s thirty-five year military career has frequently reflected vanguard military action, having been 

awarded thirty-three military decorations including the Distinguished Service Medal with 

Oak Leaf Cluster, Silver Star Medal, Legion 

of Merit with two Oak Leaf Clusters, Soldiers 

Medal and the Purple Heart with Oak Leaf 

Cluster. He was awarded combat decorations from six foreign governments. More 

recently, following an investigation of CNN’s 

false charges of war crimes, the Department 

of the Army awarded his Command a Presidential Unit Citation.

Born 10 July 1921 in Independence, California, General Singlaub is a graduate of 

the University of California at Los Angeles 

where he was Cadet Colonel of the ROTC. 

He graduated from the U.S. Army Command and General State College, and subsequently served as an instructor on its faculty. In addition, he is a graduate of the Air 

War College.

Following retirement, he traveled extensively 

in the U.S. and abroad lecturing on national 

security issues with special emphasis on 

the requirement to maintain U.S. Forces in 

Korea and the need to upgrade and consolidate the U.S. Special Operations Forces.

In retirement he has received many awards 

to include an Honorary Doctor of Laws Degree from Yeungnam University, Korea, the 

VFW National Armed Forces Award, The 

Ranger Hall of Fame, Distinguished Member of the First Special Forces Regiment, 

The Truman Reagan Freedom Award, The 

George Washington Military Leadership 

Award, UCLA Distinguished Service Award 

and others.

General Singlaub’s career was chronicled 

in his autobiography, Hazardous Duty – An 

American Soldier in the Twentieth Century,

published by Simon & Schuster.

MAJOR GENERAL JOHN K. SINGLAUB1

1 While scheduled to appear at the symposium, Gen. Singlaub may not be available to speak.