Air America

Back in 1971 I was out of the army after two tours in Vietnam and unemployed. I had spent the money I had saved to keep the instructor job I had in upstate New York. I figured the only thing to do was to bite the bullet and get a fixed wing licence, so I borrowed money from my father and went down to Florida. After finishing the multi-engine airplane, a call from my father said that there was a telegram asking if I wanted a job in Southeast Asia. I was to call a number in Washington, D.C. To make a long story short, I said yes, was told to go to the University of Miami to take a test, then up to Washington for an interview that took all of five minutes, and informed that I should go home and wait. It took a number of weeks before I was sent tickets.

The flight went from New York to California, then to Anchorage before final destination Taipei, Taiwan. By the time the plane landed I had met all of the other pilots and mechanics that had been hired at the same time....