SYNOPSIS: During the Vietnam war, Air America contracted with CIA to fly in Laos transporting a variety of supplies. Because the United States "was not at war" in Laos, some AA activities were secret. CIA considered its work important enough to deceive the U.S. Congress, and obtained a large portion of its funding through AID dollars that Congress believed were for civilian help. Although Air America openly spoke of its humanitarian drops of rice, blankets and medicine, they also conducted many "hard rice" drops - ammunition, grenades, bombs and weapons to the secret CIA directed indigenous army.

Many Air America pilots were crack pilots from World War II and Korea who just were not ready to quit flying in the challenging arena of war. Some took the job because they believed that in doing so, they could help fight communism. Laos was a tough assignment. Not only were maps antiquated, forcing the pilots to "eyeball" their way through the countryside, but the weather and terrain could also be quite unpredictable.

Refugees created by the war depended on Air America, whose planes could alter weeks of starvation, when the wounded suffered without medical supplies, in a single drop. Enough food and supplies could be dropped in a single morning to supply and feed five thousand people for a month. The secret army depended on the AA materiel drops to such an extent that they sometimes resorted to trickery to make sure they occurred. On one occasion, a pilot observed the wind sock at a village strip hanging straight down, but when he landed found the wind dangerously strong. An amiable native explained, "We know plane not land when sock flies, so we put rocks in sock."

At the foot of any runway, an AA pilot could encounter armed communist troops intent on preventing him from ever flying again. Many planes returned to base peppered with bullet holes, and some were destroyed. Others were downed and their crews captured.

On March 7, 1973, a C123K flown by Clarence Driver on which James Ackley was a crewmember was sent on a mission over Laos. The C123K differed from other C123 models in that it had the addition of auxiliary turbojet engines mounted in underwing pods. While this addition did little to increase the speed of the "Provider," it added greater power for quicker climbing on takeoff and power for maintaining altitude. Driver's aircraft crashed in Louangphrabang Province, Laos, about 25 miles north of the Laos/Thailand border near the city of Pak Beng. Ackley and Driver were classified Missing In Action.

As late as 1984, reports were being received that at least Driver was alive, in good health, and being held in a group of 8 American prisoners. Four of the original 12 prisoners had died of dysentary, and two who were still resisting had rings in their noses and were treated like beasts of burden. A private, unauthorized rescue plan was formulated to attempt to free him in 1984. The attempt was unsuccessful.

Over 10,000 reports relating to Americans missing in Southeast Asia have been received by the U.S. Government since 1975. A Pentagon panel concluded in 1986 that there were at least 100 men still alive. Ackley and Driver are two of nearly 600 Americans lost in Laos. Although the Pathet Lao publicly stated that they held "tens of tens" of Americans, NOT ONE MAN returned that had been held in Laos. The U.S. has yet to negotiate their release.

Clarence Driver's daughter Sharon describes the agony of their uncertainty, "Imagine yourself on a telephone and ther person says 'hold on, I'll be right back,' and they never come back...you just keep holding on."

How much longer must these men wait for their country to bring them home?

Clarence Driver retired in 1964 as a KC135 pilot at March Air Force Base in Riverside, California.