MAN WHO SET UP C.I.A.'S AIRLINES IS HONORED

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00587R000100360003-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 18, 2011
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: December 29, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/02/18: CIA-RDP91-00587R000100360003-1
ARTICLE A ED
ON PAGE r% If -
NEW YORK TIMES
29 December 1985
Man Who Set Up C.I.A.'s Airlines is onore
Spacial to rim Now York flms.
PHOENIX, Dec. 29 - The ano-
nymity that George A. Doole Jr. culti-
vated in life very nearly followed him
to the grave.
Mr. Doole founded the Central Intel-
ligence Agency's network of covert air
operations, including Air America, Air
Asia, Civil Air Transport and several
subsidiaries such as Intermountain
Aviation and Southern Air Transport.
In peak periods in the Vietnam War
years, Mr. Doole's air operations are
said to have employed 23,000 people,
more than the parent agency's esti-
mated 18,000 employees worldwide.
Mr. Doole died of cancer last March 9
in Washington Hospital Center in the
District of Columbia. He was 75 years
old and unmarried. His death went
largely unnoticed. Private family serv-
ices were held in Liberty, Ill.
Plaque on Remote Hangar
Today a bronze plaque on the wall of
a new 60,000-square-foot hangar at a re-
mote airport in the central Arizona
desert is the only permanent public ac-
knowledgment of Mr. Doole's connec-
tions over more than 20 years with the
intelligence agency.
The $3 million hangar was built by
Evergreen International Aviation at
Pinal Air Park near the town of Mara-
na, Ariz., midway between Phoenix
and Tucson and far from the interstate
highway connecting the cities.
The huge airfield was built and oper-
ated by the C.I.A. It is now owned by
Pinal County and serves as a storage
facility for 60 surplus'civilian jetliners,
as well as a maintenance center for
Evergreen, which is one of the world's
largest jet aircraft-leasing concerns.
Mr. Doole was on Evergreen's board
of directors at the time of his death,
and was a consultant to Evergreen as
well as having other aviation interests.
The plaque acknowledges that among
his aviation achievements he was
"founder, chief executive officer,
board of directors of Air America Inc.,
Air Asia Company Ltd., Civil Air
Transport Company Ltd."
The Mystery Lingers
Although Mr. Doole's connections
with the C.I.A. and his role in founding
the agency's air operations have been
documented in books and by Congres-
sional reports, the C.I.A. does not ac-
knowledge the relationship.
According to a spokesman at the
agency's headquarters at Langley,
Va., Mr. Doole's name is not listed on
any official file.
However, Richard Helms, a former
Director of Central Intelligence, said of
Mr. Doole: "He was very competent at
his job. He had a passion for anonymi-
ty. It was a difficult job he handled
without fanfare. And nobody had done
it before."
Mr- Doole retired from intelligence
work in 1971.
A large quiet man with a pixie sense
of humor, Mr. Doole interrupted a new
career as a pilot with Pan American
World Airways in the 1930's to obtain a
master's degree in business adminis-
tration at Harvard University.
Early Days at Pao American
He returned to Pan American, where
he became a master pilot, and helped
chart new routes through South Amer
ica..
In the late 1940's he left Pan Amer.
ican to begin his long career in intelli-
gence activities. In 1960,'he chartered
the Pacific Corporation in Delaware. it
was the parent company to the airlines! Mr. Doole would later create.
Air America and Air Asia, the best
known of the operations, concentrated
their activities in Southeast Asia.
Nearly 200 aircraft of all sizes were
used for hauling personnel and
materiel in several countries, includ-
ing Laos.
At one point, Mr. Doole was able to
make a profit for the agency by acquir-
ing civilian freight contracts to help
maintain deception about the real pur-
pose of the operations.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/02/18: CIA-RDP91-00587R000100360003-1