An Air America Story from the Past - Long Tieng, Laos

Early one morning back in 1973, I was a passenger returning to LS-20A on an Air America Porter. After about an hour, I was dozing off when the pilot spoke to me asking, “Does anything look familiar to you?”

Garry Jenkin - 1973

I looked out the window, and what I saw was something I’ve never forgotten. We were slowly flying in the middle of billowy white clouds with tips of limestone karsts showing here and there.

I said, “Sorry...nothing's familiar,” and went back to my nap. 

We arrived safely. 

I never even thanked him, but my thanks and admiration to an Air America pilot (name unknown), now fifty years later, for his incredible skills and courage...and maybe his sense of humor. There’s always a possibility he was just trying to scare me.

Note:

This story has a message not to be lost. During the two years I was in LS-20A, my trust in the AA pilots was unyielding and total...enough so that I could go back to sleep shortly after seeing what normally should be the last few seconds of my life.