I'm not altogether sure I trust this story. One would think some under the table compensation would be available for under the table service. Maybe not.
I can think of others who were publicly hung out to dry. Oliver North, and Nick Rheault always comes to mind.!
Quote:
FRENCH HONOR U.S. PILOTS WHO FLEW SUPPLIES TO DIEN BIEN PHU -
On 24 February, nearly 51 years after the fall of Dien Bien Phu, the French ambassador in Washington will make seven pilots chevaliers in the Order of the Legion of Honor, AP reported. The pilots flew covert CIA resupply missions to besieged French forces. http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/worl.../17/2003223407
Six of the seven, all of whom were later disowned by the agency, will gather at the residence of Ambassador Jean-David Levitte to be invested with the insignia of the order.
"It's a nice gesture on their part," says Douglas Price, who was 29 years old when he flew 39 airdrop missions to Dien Bien Phu in April and May 1954 as a civilian employee of Civil Air Transport, a flying service whose undeclared owner was the CIA.
The agency sent the pilots into harm's way in unarmed C-119 Flying Boxcar cargo planes with the understanding that if captured or killed they would not be acknowledged as agents of the U.S. government. "I was a covert employee. We were expendable," says Roy Watts.
Watts tried unsuccessfully to sue the government for extended disability and retirement benefits on the basis of his 16 years flying covert missions in Asia. The CIA argued that the men technically were not government employees since they worked for an agency front company. (PJK, DKR)
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