What does the CIA do in 1968 when a pilot from the super-secret airline they spun up, Air America, is shot down and kidnapped in a country we are not supposed to be at war with? The answer can’t possibly be sending in Chase Black, a former Jesuit priest, airline pilot, and now a covert CIA operations officer. Can it?
North Vietnamese Army (NVA) forces, operating unlawfully in Laos located the plane and captured Captain Sam McLean, taking him to a NVA base outside Vientiane. The NVA were competent in lots of areas of warfare, but communications security was not one of them. The CIA followed the operation live in real time and knew the approximate location of Captain Sam McLean. SOG forces were more than willing to do a hostage rescue, but additional intel was needed. Enter Chase Black.
At the time, Black was working out of the Agency’s Manila Station, the largest in the world at the time. It was classic spy vs. spy in a neutral location with agency officers attempting to recruit their counterparts from the Soviet Union, other Eastern Bloc countries, and China. Notionally, the war in Vietnam was the United States trying to stop the spread of communism from North Vietnam to the south and beyond. Practically, it was a proxy war with the USSR and China.
If all you know about Air America is the semi-comedy movie of the same name, you need to fix that.
Genre: Thriller
North Vietnamese Army (NVA) forces, operating unlawfully in Laos located the plane and captured Captain Sam McLean, taking him to a NVA base outside Vientiane. The NVA were competent in lots of areas of warfare, but communications security was not one of them. The CIA followed the operation live in real time and knew the approximate location of Captain Sam McLean. SOG forces were more than willing to do a hostage rescue, but additional intel was needed. Enter Chase Black.
At the time, Black was working out of the Agency’s Manila Station, the largest in the world at the time. It was classic spy vs. spy in a neutral location with agency officers attempting to recruit their counterparts from the Soviet Union, other Eastern Bloc countries, and China. Notionally, the war in Vietnam was the United States trying to stop the spread of communism from North Vietnam to the south and beyond. Practically, it was a proxy war with the USSR and China.
If all you know about Air America is the semi-comedy movie of the same name, you need to fix that.
Genre: Thriller