(Washington, D.C.) – Congressman Glenn Grothman (WI-06) has reintroduced the bipartisan Air America Act, which will correct an inequity suffered by the brave Americans who are former employees of Air America by ensuring they receive the federal retirement benefits and recognition they have earned. This legislation was inspired by Neil Hansen, a resident of Wisconsin’s Sixth District, who was a pilot for Air America during the Vietnam War. Between 1950 and 1976, a group of approximately 1,000 U.S. citizens worked for Air America, which was portrayed as a private company carrying out flight operations during the Cold War. However, now-declassified documents have revealed that Air America was wholly owned and controlled by the U.S. government – meaning these brave Americans were federal employees under the law. The Air America Act will ensure that those Air Americans who qualify for retirement benefits under the law will receive what they earned and deserve. Those who don’t have the years of experience required for retirement benefits will nonetheless be honored finally with the recognition that their efforts were carried out on behalf of the U.S. government.
“Congress has twice passed corrective legislation for other covert CIA-affiliated groups,” said Grothman. “It is not right to continue to ignore Air Americans. These patriots risked their lives, many of them giving their life, fighting communism in the same way members of the Air Force did.
“I am honored that so many of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle are joining me to support these heroes. Now is the time to properly recognize Air Americans for their service to our country.”
“The Air America Association urges Congress to dedicate its efforts to passing this long overdue legislation with the same zeal that Air Americans applied to their secret and often hazardous work every single day on behalf of the United States throughout the Cold War. The Association appreciates Congressman Grothman and the legislation’s many bipartisan cosponsors and values the cooperation of the CIA to ensure that Air Americans are finally properly compensated and their legacy rightfully honored,” said Robert Noble, President of the Air America Association.
Background Information
According to now-declassified documents, we now know that Air America was not a private company and, in fact, acted as a top-secret arm of the executive branch in implementing Cold War policies under the management of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Air Americans saved tens of thousands of lives in search and rescue missions for downed U.S. military pilots, evacuations of allied refugees, and the final evacuations of Danang and Saigon in 1975. The Air America Act would grant the individuals who worked for Air America the federal retirement credit they rightfully earned. Air America employees have not been granted their retirement credit because of an Office of Personnel Management (OPM) rule change in 1985 that required government form SF-50/52 to prove federal employment status. While these patriots were, during their tenure working for Air America, legally defined as federal employees eligible for civil service retirement credit, the covert nature of their work resulted in a narrative that they were employees of a private entity. Moreover, for obvious reasons of secrecy in a clandestine operation, our government did not hire Air Americans using standard government forms. The unusual and unjust retroactive application of the amended regulation requiring form SF-50/52 in 1985 should never have been applied to Air Americans whose employing U.S. government entity, Air America, was dissolved in 1976.
Grothman is joined by 91 cosponsors, including Representatives Carlos Gimenez (R-FL), Paul Tonko (D-NY), Derrick Van Orden (R-WI), Bill Foster (D-IL), Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), Valerie Foushee (D-NC), Derek Tran (D-CA), Bryan Steil (R-WI), David Valadao (R-CA), Dina Titus (D-NV), Eric Sorensen (D-IL), Gus Bilirakis (R-FL), Gwen Moore (D-WI), Jefferson Van Drew (R-NJ), Juan Ciscomani (R-AZ), Julia Brownley (D-CA), Lois Frankel (D-FL), Maria Salazar (R-FL), Mark Pocan (D-WI), Raul Ruiz (D-CA), Ro Khanna (D-CA), Robin Kelly (D-IL), Seth Moulton (D-MA), Timothy Kennedy (D-NY), Tom Tiffany (R-WI), Buddy Carter (R-GA), Barry Moore (R-AL), Frank Mrvan (D-IN), Sanford Bishop (D-GA), Zach Nunn (R-IA), Jared Huffman (D-CA), Judy Chu (D-CA), William Timmons (R-SC), Susie Lee (D-NV), Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA), Daniel Meuser (R-PA), Delia Ramirez (D-IL), Henry Johnson (D-GA), Mike Thompson (D-CA), Randy Feenstra (R-IA), Sylvia Garcia (D-TX), Jim Costa (D-CA), Rick Larsen (D-WA), John Moolenaar (D-MI), Scott Franklin (R-FL), Shelia Cherfilus-McCormick (D-FL), Adam Smith (D-WA), Bruce Westerman (R-AR), Claudia Tenney (R-NY), Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), Donald Davis (D-NC), Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), Gregory Meeks (D-NY), James Baird (R-IN), James Himes (D-CT), Jill Tokuda (D-HI), Jimmy Panetta (D-CA), Joseph Morelle (D-NY), Linda Sanchez (D-CA), Lucy McBath (D-GA), Mark Takano (D-CA), Maxwell Frost (D-FL), Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL), Salud Carbajal (D-CA), Sean Casten (D-IL), Shontel Brown (D-OH), Stephen Lynch (D-MA), Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR), William Keating (D-MA), Juan Vargas (D-CA), Marilyn Strickland (D-WA), Brittany Pettersen (D-CO), Chris Deluzio (D-PA), Daniel Goldman (D-NY), Jared Golden (D-ME), Joaquin Castro (D-TX), Marc Veasey (D-TX), Nikema Williams (D-GA), Norma Torres (D-CA), Richard Hudson (R-NC), Sharice Davids (D-KS), Vicente Gonzalez (D-TX), Aumua Amata Radewagen (R-AS-At Large), Jamie Raskin (D-MD), Nanette Diaz Barragan (D-CA), Pat Fallon (R-TX), Tom Suozzi (D-NY), Suzan DelBene (D-WA), Greg Landsman (D-OH), Chris Pappas (D-NH), and Marcy Kaptur (D-OH).
