CROSSVILLE — Completing high school in 1938, and after two years at Lambert College, young Randall Richardson departed his Jamestown home in the hills of Eastern Tennessee to pursue his dreams and fulfill his innate desire to fly. During the next 32 years, he lived a life that few others would experience, and many could only dream about.

Seventy years later and a bit grayer, the quiet, non pretentious gentleman, has returned home to join his family in Crossville, TN.

Richardson learned to fly in the Navy Air Corps. One day, he recalls receiving word of a beginning volunteer program forming in China to fight the Japanese. “Why not”? He obtained a release from the Navy and entered into an adventure that would mold the rest of his life.

Kunming, China, early 1941. Randall worked for the original American Volunteer Group (AVG) more commonly known as the Flying Tigers. The AVG were civilian pilots and support crews authorized by the U.S. Government and under the leadership of a brilliant unconventional air combat strategist, Claire Lee Chennault. The newly organized unit was contracted to the Nationalist Republic of China and Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek.

The volunteer group’s primary mission was to assist the meager Nationalist Chinese Air Force and to “antagonize” the overwhelming Imperial Japanese Air command, who enjoyed complete control of Asian skies. Subsequently, the small group of feisty volunteers, flying mostly British lend-lease P-40 aircraft in China and Burma, proved themselves formidable adversaries against the Japanese invaders.

The Dec. 7, 1941, surprise attack at Pearl Harbor, led to a U.S. declaration of war on Japan. Most of the original Flying Tiger group re-entered the U.S. military to continue flying for their country. Richardson was no exception, he returned to the Navy Air Corps, and served as a flight instructor.

When World War II ended, Randall, armed with a fresh ATR (air transport rating,) returned to fly with Civil Air Transport (CAT), an airline founded after the war by General Chennault and Whiting Willauer. The commercial carrier operated throughout Asia. He became semi fluent in three Chinese dialects and had a working knowledge of several other Southeast Asian languages. During those days he remembers, “If you wanted to operate safely in Chinese controlled airspace, it was most advantageous to understand instructions given only in the local language, and dialect.” One can only imagine Mandarin spoken with a southern drawl.

In 1948, the civil war ended, when the Chinese Nationalists were defeated by Mao Tse-Tung’s Red Chinese Communists. Randall was directly involved with the evacuation of the Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek family from mainland China, and has many memories of flying the wealthy Nationalist Chinese, and their treasures and gold to the South China Sea island of Formosa (now Taiwan).

During August of 1950, in order to support U.S. covert objectives in Asia, the CIA secretly purchased the assets of Civil Air Transport (CAT). Captain Richardson came with the package and, as a new contract employee of the Central Intelligence Agency, he continued flying covert missions throughout South East Asia, Korea, the Philippines, India, and wherever he was needed. (March 26, 1959, CAT was officially renamed Air America.)

During the years 1950, 1954, the Vietnamese military gained momentum under the leadership of Ho Chi-min, and General Vo Nguen Giep, who, ironically, were trained by the American OSS during World War II. As French influence in the Indochina region began to wane, they solicited the U.S. for air support and material assistance.

Randall and a small group of American pilots and crew were contracted to fly in support of the besieged French in Laos and Viet Nam during their final days. They flew C-119 cargo aircraft bearing French markings and colors.

Randall remembers, “The French were fighting a conventional defensive battle, and they were always surrounded. Paratrooper and cargo air drops to their small outposts were quite hazardous, as you had to fly low and slow to be successful. We made fine targets for enemy ground fire.”

Completing 55 perilous missions, with enemy ground fire a constant threat, Randall was never shot down. However, at the siege of Diem Bien-Phu, one plane was shot down and the American crew was lost.

Their defeat at Diem Bien-Phu was instrumental in ending French colonialism in South East Asia.

During the next 20 years, Randall went on to fly thousands of missions for Air America throughout Southeast Asia and other parts of the world. He has logged pilot in command and check airman time in dozens of different makes and models of aircraft, to include single, twin, and four engine piston and turbine, and large jets.

Most of his flying was done in an unfriendly covert atmosphere. He is allowed to talk about most of it now, and could tell stories of experiences that would fill a large book. However, he prefers to remain silent. Perhaps its years of doing a job that he was never allowed to talk about, or perhaps it’s that today’s generation would find it difficult to comprehend. When asked if he would write a book, a gentle smile crosses his face and he looks away.

Number 7 on the pilot seniority list, accumulating 27,800 hours of flight time, and completing 32 years of service, Randall retired from the CIA in 1974. There were no parades, pomp, or ceremonies. Only, a long walk alone down the Vientiane Laos airport tarmac, past aircraft he once commanded, and now turned over to the Royal Lao Air Force.

Summarizing those 32 years, Randall S. Richardson was present and actively participated in the Japanese/Chinese war, World War II, the Korean conflict, the French Indochina war, the Vietnam war, the secret CIA activity in Laos, and other cold war air missions.

He and his loving wife, Kay, returned to private life in Hawaii. Married for 50 years, Kay passed away in January of 2010. He then returned to Crossville and now resides with his sister, Jean Wright.

Randall regularly keeps in touch with his old friends and comrades by e-mail, telephone and Air America/CAT Association and AVG annual reunions. Although well compensated, CIA civilian pilots and crews did not receive medals, accolades or other credits. They often flew covert missions without personal identification.

Air America/CAT was divested by the CIA in April 1972, and began leaving South East Asia in June 1974 with its final flight, a helicopter evacuation flight from a rooftop, as Saigon fell on April 29, 1975.

Air America/Cat was formally acknowledged by the CIA in June 2001, making most of their past covert activities available to the public through the “Freedom of Information Act.” At that time, members were presented a medallion honoring, respectfully, not their individual feats, but as a tribute to their friends and comrades, who never returned.

“In memory of absent comrades"

Randall S Richardson, the people of Crossville and the great state of Tennessee are forever grateful for your service.

Welcome home.

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Lee Garner is retired from a successful career in business and corporate aviation. He knew Richardson while employed by Air America in Laos during the sixties. He resides in Crossville.