Undercover Armies - CIA FOIA - Central Intelligence Agency

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Chapter Three
Accordingly, every Hmong command post boasted a Helio strip. Some of
these defied all the safety rules even of military aviation, and Phou Fa provided
a dramatic example. The strip there followed a sharply sloping ridgeline
near the summit. It also sloped to one side, near the downhill end, where the .
Hmong reduced the angle by building a log retaining wall and filling earth in
behind it. The result was something that resembled a ski jump, and whenD
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Ivisiting Laos again in mid-1961, insisted on seeing a couple
of upcountry sites, Bill Lair decided to acquaint him with the most innovative
aspect of the new guerrilla program."0 .
Introduced to it only a few months earlier, when he took the FAR payroll to
Savannakbet, Lair had recognized the potential of the new, Agency-developed
Helio-Courier STOL (short takeoff and landing) aircraft. It would
extend the reach of Vang Pao's thin leadership cadre-s]
and US
advisers-to the smallest Hmong operational bases. It would also transport
sensitive and valuable cargos (payrolls, medicines, and radio gear, for exampie)
and allow speedy evacuation of the wounded. More of these craft would
be needed to supplement the slow-and scarce-H-34 helicopter, and Lair
wanted I . ~support.D
He assigned Bill Andresevic, perhaps the most accomplished of Air America's
Helio pilots, to make the trip, and Lair sat in the back to let him brief
I Ion the terrain as they made their way up from Vientiane.
Approaching the Phou Fa strip, Andresevic maintained flying speed until the
landing gear hit the sloping runway. As the plane slowed under the force of
gravity, Andresevic had to apply more power to keep it from rolling backward,
and the Helio clawed its way to the level spot at the top.D
Over the years, the Hmong-and other irregulars in the Laotian Panhandle-eut
dozens of the tiny landing strips that allowed them to exploit this
ungainly but superbly adapted machine. None of those who built or used the
STOL strips were deterred by the unforgiving terrain, of which Phou Fa represented
an extreme example. Many of them followed ridgelines that ended in a
precipice at one end and a nearly vertical mountainside at the other. Landings
were always made going uphill, and the approach had to be right the first time,
for if an unanticipated downdraft or other mischance forced a pilot to break
off an approach as he neared touchdown, he might collide with the mountain
before he completed his turn.s?D
Flying the Helio, as it was always called, demanded steady nerves, superior
coordination, and a certain native optimism. The pilots who stayed came to
~8BillLaiD
59 Ibid.; author's recollection; descriptions of other strips by officers including 1
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