HOW THE SECRET CONTRA-SUPPLY MISSION CAME UNGLUED

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000302540002-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 25, 2012
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: March 8, 1987
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/09/25: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302540002-9
ARTICLE APB
ON P
PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER
8 March 1987
Crewmen found an operation beset by sloppy ?superrisinn. faulty equipment and incessant infighting.
How the secret contra-supply mission came unglued
d h 1 ified section of
ass
t
b
By 51eve Stecklow,
Markfazlallah
and Frank
Ingd~M M dnu
WASHINGTON - The C-123K cargo plane
was on a secret weapons mission to the
Nicaraguan contra rebels, flying perilously
low over the jungle along the Nicaragua-
Costa Rica border about 3 a.m. on a hot June
night last year.
As the pilots searched for the contras. the
plane dipped lower and lower, slicing
through thick rain clouds.
Suddenly there was a jolt. The left side of
the plane had struck a tree, crippling a
booster engine, scraping a wing and crum-
pling the nose landing gear doors.
The large plane began to roll. The pilots,
William J. Cooper and John Piowaty, strug-
gled to regain control. Finally, they man-
aged to pull the nose skyward, barely skirt-
ing a hillside, and to lumber back to El
Salvador.
The incident, recounted by crewmen, was
just one of many close calls in the shaky,
brief lifespan of the clandestine arms-deliv-
ery network. Between April and October of
last year, the supply operation airdropped
tons of weapons each week to the Nicara-
guan rebels, including rifles, grenades, mor-
tars and ammunition, crewmen said.
The operation - now under investigation
by a special prosecutor and Congress - was
manned by a revolving cast of retired com-
bat veterans, many of them middle-age men
who longed for another taste of wartime.
They were recruited to keep the contras
armed while President Reagan worked to
persuade Congress to lift a 1984 ban on
direct or indirect U.S. military aid to the
rebels.
Despite that ban, the sunnly operation
known within the National Security Council
as "Project Democracy," received support
(rom at least w o active-duty U 1j. officers
monitored by [_t. CoL Oliver L North and is
believed by the Tower commission to have
been illegally funded with millions of dol-
lars diverted from secret U.S. arms sales to
lm.
The assistance was not nearly enough. As
participants tell it, the operation was
plagued by sloppy management, internal
bickering and equipment problems.
Crewmen tell of daring, successful weap-
ons drops into Nicaragua - and of drivers
who didn't show up to take them to the
airport, a $22,000 high-tech radio communi-
cations network that never worked and a
newly bought plane that made it to its desti-
nation only after a spare engine and a refrig-
erator were tossed out a cargo door.
"Command and control were so screwed
up that ... we never knew who an order
came from or whether it was legitimate,"
.1
e
url to
said lain Crawford, 30, a former Green Beret The ad,
who worked in the supply operation be- the Dec. 2,1985, issue of Air Force Times, was
tween March ai}d May last year. the first known case of recruiting for the
Added Willi K. "Jake" Wehrell, 51, a contra supply network.
ilot who flew apons missions in August When Jim Stanford, an aircraft mechanic, STAT
p
and September, "We frequently had no food sent his resume in February, he said, he
in the house, no gas in the car and we received a telephone call from ANMC's presi-
couldn't get fuel to take off. We had the dent, Richard B. Gadd, a retired U.S. Air
wrong planes for the missions, and they Force commando who has received federal
were ancient mechanically." contracts for several covert military opera-
- tions. Gadd told Stanford that after working
In September, as Congress debated ending for six months in Honduras, he could move
the ban on military aid and approving a $100 to the advertised job in California or an-
million contra aid package, the pace of the other Air Force base in Florida, Stanford
supply operation quickened, crewmen say. said.
e and rst that Stanford was not interested in going to
t rs were truing to win the favor of the CIA Central America. But he spoke to a friend,
so that they could continue suovlvin2 the who was hired by Gadd to repair aircraft.
contras in the future - under lucrative The friend, who asked to remain anony-
federal contracts. mous, told another mechanic, 61-year-old
d Cooper, the operation's chief nilot, Jim Steveson of San Diego, Calif., who was
on t to friends that he envisioned trans. hired to procure aircraft spare parts.
forming the fledgling operation inter an- To find pilots and parachute riggers, the
other Air America - the giant MA-riin operation's organizers tapped into, several
airline that flew supplies to U .S. servicemen close-knit circles of retired military men
durin the Vietnam War. experienced in covert operations.
the pressure mounted to drop more and John C. Cupp, a former Army Special
more arms to the contras, the crewmen say. Forces sergeant who works for Gadd, used
the pilots decided in mid-September to begin his contacts at Fort Bragg in North Carolina
flying into southern Nicaragua in the day- to recruit from "an old boy network" of ex-
time so the airdrops would be more precise. commandos, crewmen say. At least three
It proved to be a fatal decision. On Oct. 5, recruits, including Crawford, had been
an arms-filled, C-123K cargo plane was shot members of the Delta Force, the elite coun-
down over southern Nicaragua in broad day- terterrorist unit that participated in the dis-
light by a teenage Sandinista soldier, and the astrous 1980 hostage-rescue mission in Iran.
operation came to a fiery halt. The network also hired more than a half-
Cooper, who piloted the plane, and two dozen veterans of Air America. Most were
others were killed. The only survivor was recruited by Cooper, an ex-Air America pilot
Eugene Hasenfus, who was captured by the who in April became the network's manager
Sandinistas and readily talked about the from the operation's base in El Salvador.
secret supply effort. The crewmen, many of them veterans of
What follows is a detailed portrait of the Vietnam or Korea, say they were drawn to
supply operation, based on interviews in the the operation by a desire to fight commu-
last four months with the men who flew the nism and, for some, a nostalgic yearning for
missions, repaired the planes and provided the battlefront.
other support. In all, more than two dozen "There's always an old war horse in all of
crewmen, equipment suppliers and other us who wants to make that one last run."
sources in the United States, Central Amer- said Joseph Smith, 49, a military surplus
ica and Canada were contacted. Some spoke dealer from Shirleysburg, Pa., who provided
only on the condition that their names not parachutes for the operation but rejected an
be published. Many agreed to tell their sto- offer to work in Central America because of
ries on the record. for the first time. How- medical problems. "Even after 40 to 50 mis-
ever, the men who recruited and supervised sions in Korea and some in Vietnam, you
them - including two key figures who re- want that one last time, just to get the
cently were granted immunity by Congress, adrenaline flowing."
Edward T. de Garay and Robert C. Dutton - Money, too, was a factor.
declined to be interviewed. Depending on the job, their pay ranged
? from about S2,500 to $4,250 a month, plus
The advertisement sought aircraft me- mission bonuses. Called "project pay" or
chanics to work at an Air Force base in simply "P-pay" by the crewmen, it paid a
Southern California. But applicants who re- pilot an extra $1,000 for flying into Nicara-
sponded learned that American National gua, while a parachute rigger, who pushed
Management Corp. (ANMC), a management weapons out of the plane, could earn a bonus
servicesicompany in the Washington suburb of up to $500.
of Vienna, Va., was looking for men to go to The crewmen, who gegerally worked 90-
Central America. day contracts, said they did not know the
Cotihftued
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 I i
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/09/25: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302540002-9
source of the money or the weapons. They Bustillo, cost the crewmen the li) cards - September stating they had been exposed to
said their paychecks and bank wire trans- identifying them as U.S. military advisers - "classified information" that was "highly
fers came from a maze of companies in that allowed them on the base at Ilopango. sensitive" and that they could be prosecuted
Quarryville, Pa.; Vienna, Va.; Miami and Pan- Most eventually got new cards, but several by the U.S. government under espionage
ama that provided cover for the operation. days were wasted. laws if they disclosed any aspects of their
The bonus money was paid in cash. On top of all of these problems, the supply work.
Said one mechanic, "I just took my money operation's aging cargo planes - two Cart- "I understand that this agreement may be
and done my job." bous and two C-123Ks purchased for a total retained by the U.S. government for its fu-
manner he first weapons drop into Nicaragua was of more than $1.5 million. - constantly ihirse P ojienctaIIthe agreementistahed~o~ of
T
planned for April 10. At the time, the supply broke down.
operation owned two Vietnam-vintage cargo The first plane, a Caribou purchased in The agreement referred to a company
planes, a DHC-4 Caribou and a C-123K. Nei- Canada in January, barely survived its ini- called "CAS Ltd.," an apparent reference to
ther was in any condition to ily the mission. tial flight to El Salvador. After one of its two Corporate Air Services, an obscure air char-
Instead. Crawford said Gadd leased an Ir engines died, the crew had to toss out an ter firm in Quarryville, Lancaster County.
00 civi ian car o glane for 54000 an our expensive spare engine and a refrigerator to The firm, headed by Edward T. deGaray,
from Southern it rans rt a is keep it airborne. The aircraft, which one employed many of the crewmen, including
Or airline once own mechanic described as "just a pile of junk," Hase f us. logs show at least 11 tele
contracted to transport weapons from Portu- required a complete overhaul. 9 Telephone gal to the contra supply operation. The second plane purchased, a C-123K, was phone calls placed in mid-September from
"They needed a good bird and the L-100 the one that struck a tree during the aborted the crewmen's safe houses in El Salvador to
was a Cadillac," explained Crawford, who June mission and was out of commission for North's White House office. In addition to
flew on the first mission. more than two weeks while mechanic Steve- his April visit, it has been reported that
According to Crawford, Army Col. James son repaired it in Miami. Another C-123K, North flew to Central America immediately
Steele, commander of U.S. military forces in bought in California in July, broke down after the Oct. 5 plane crash.
El Salvador, helped plot the flight path of twice in Texas before finally hobbling into The Senate Intelligence Committee re-
the 100 . he for repair. ported that North, before he was fired from
radar sites Steele, n said, Wehrell, who flew the Caribous, recalled his White House post in November, was
"told L us into Nicaragua
for dar us. tes were and who that on his last flight in September, the fuel "working hard on support for the Icontral
wuld us where looking g radar
would out
three of them on a mapl and pointed out the and temperature gauges, as well as the ta- fighters." To keep the contras armed, he
armament sites in Nicaragua." chometer for the left engine, weren't work- enlisted retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Richard
V. Secord, the committee and the Tower
'dams of CIA operatives in Costa Rica had ing properly.
helped plan the tory of weapons to be "I was actually opening the window of the commission reported.
delivered and had also relayed the location airplane doing my (.pre-flight) checks and Secord, who was also deeply involved in
of the rebel units said contra sources. listening to the sound of the engine instead the US. arms sales to Iran. arranged for
Crawford sai t e weapons - seven tons of looking at my instruments because my Gadd to organize the contra arms delivery
of rifles, grenades and ammunition - were instruments didn't work," he said. operation, crewmen say. The two have had
first flown from Aguacate, a secret Hondu- Even when the planes were flight-worthy, ties dating back to their days together in the
ran military airstrip used by the contras, to the missions were not always successful, Air Force.
Ilopango, a Salvadoran air force base in San crewmen say. In some cases, the contras Gadd recruited the crewmen, bought
Salvador, where they were repacked and either failed to show up at the correct drop planes and equipment, established bases of
loaded on the L-100. zone or the airdrops were made in the wrong operation in El Salvador and at a remote
On the night of April 10, the Southern Air place. Sometimes, planes had to turn around airstrip in Costa Rica and set up a radio link
crew flew into Nicaragua. But though they without dropping anything, wasting up to between Central America and his offices in
found the area targeted for the weapons six hours in the air. northern Virginia. The costly radio system
drop, they couldn't spot the contras. After "You can't just dump it out in the jungle, was based in a posh penthouse apartment in
flying in circles for more than a half-hour, explained one crew member. "There's a hell Alexandria - but it never worked properly,
they gave up and returned to El Salvador. of a lot of money being hauled around in a To cordihanngdletoproblemscrewmen in and radio weapons-supply
This time, the operators. the
lit i tried bonfires again. on a that plane." ? operation, Secord dispatched a business asso-
The next night,
the the contras crew
mountain to outline the drop zone - and Dick Gadd sometimes referred to "the ciate, retired Air Force Col. Robert C. Dut-
Crawford pushed the weapons out the cargo benefactor" and "the principals." Bill ton, to take charge of the operation in late
door. Cooper spoke of meeting with "the bosses" spring and again in September, crewmen
News of the successful mission was re- in Miami. Other than these veiled refer- said. When he arrived in the fall - with
Aril 12 in a "secure ences, however, crewmen say they never Congress on the verge of passing the 5100
message" from a CIA field officer, the Tower knew who really was behind their opera- million aid package - he ordered the crew-
men to speed up their delivery schedule, the
commission reported last month. In add.- lion.
tion, Craw ord said that on April 20 he Nevertheless, the backgrounds of leaders crewmen said.
personally briefed North about the mission of the operation, as well as telephone re- Explained pilot Elmo Baker of Weather-
on a private jet flight from El Salvador to cords of calls made from the crew members' ford, Texas: "I think the thinking was, 'Let's
Washington. North nodded in approval and Salvadoran safe houses, show that the net- deliver what we have to somebody because
seemed relieved, Crawford said. work had powerful ties to the U.S. govern- the cavalry is coming, the $100 million au-
The arms drops continued through the ment stretching all the way up to the White contra aidais around
suppthe ly corner.'"
summer, with as many as three or four House. Other the 's were v
federal
contract southern flying northern and ? n s whoa sriatiez. one of .three former isted the crrewmen in E CIA to deliver the congressifor onally approved aid.
quent Nicaragua. But t there fre- d---uent delays and postponements. e were d t with Vice President Bush or his "Everything hinged on the $100 million,'
Sometimes, the drivers assigned to take staff 16 times since 1983 Bush's o ice has said a radio operator, who was in close
the crews to Ilopango from their three acknowledged. us , w o met personally contact with Cupp. "They wanted to be able
rented San Salvador "safe houses" never with odriguez three times denied to transport the stuff, and they were work-
showed up. Other times, the crew arrived to knowing that Rodriguez was involved in ing on a contract with the government to do
find that the planes had no fuel. assisting t e contras.
In late July, a dispute with the powerful ? veral crewmen, including Steveson,
Salvadoran general who ran the base, Rafael were asked to sign secrecy agreements in Continued
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3,
At first, Baker said, Dutton tried to "force-
feed" the contras by ordering the plane
crews to airdrop arms regardless of whether
they could see the rebels.
"Dutton said we're going to go down there
and drop this where they the contras] say
they are and then tell them, 'We dropped it.
Go find it ... ' " Baker said.
"Force-feeding" was tried only once, Baker
said. The weapons landed seven miles away
from the contras, he said, and it took the
rebels nearly four days to find the equip-
ment.
"After that there was no such thing as
force-feeding," Baker said.
?
It was obvious to the crewmen that accu-
racy was a problem for the air drops. The
contras had trouble pinpointing their posi-
tions in the remote jungle of southern Nica-
ragua, while the pilots were handicapped by
often useless navigational equipment.
In mid-September, the pilots adopted a new
strategy: daytime missions. And at first, the
three-times-a-week flights went smoothly. "It
was an intensive effort," said Baker. "We put
a lot down there, probably more than they
(the contras] could lug off."
Cooper was especially driven, said crew-
men. Once the $100 million aid began flow-
ing, he told them, the operation could be-
come a new Air America. "A lot of people
were thinking about what happened in Viet.
nam," said one pilot. "They were fantasizing
what a big, tremendous thing this was going
to be down there."
According to Baker, Cooper dreamed of
heading the new airline.
On Sunday, Oct. 5, Cooper took off for
Nicaragua in a C-123K with co-pilot Wallace
Sawyer, parachute rigger Eugene Hasenfus
and a contra radio operator. Security appar-
ently was not on their minds: They carried
IDs, business cards and other documents
connected with the operation, and Cooper
chose to fly a particularly hazardous route
- directly across the southern end of Lake
Nicaragua, an easy target for Sandinista ra-
dar.
It would be the supply operation's last
secret mission.
?
In the days that followed the crash, the
remaining crewmen and the supply net-
work's organizers scrambled to salvage what
was left of their operation and shield it from
the public.
On Tuesday, Oct. 7, Salvadoran Gen. Bus-
tillo told the crewmen that the two Caribous
parked at Ilopango were no longer welcome.
"He was afraid that reporters would come on
the base," said pilot David Johnson, 31, of
McAllen, Texas. "He told us the airplanes
must be off the base by 6 a.m. the next day."
Johnson and the other pilots new the
planes to the still-secret Honduran base at
Aguacate.
Meanwhile, in Miami, Steveson worked
through the night to complete repairs on the
surviving C-123K. About 3 a.m., Piowaty and
John McRainey, who had been on leave, flew
the plane to Aguacate.
Three days later, the crewmen boarded
commercial flights from El Salvador to the
United States. The pilots were told they
might be asked to recover the planes in
Honduras; others were told they were no
longer needed.
Only one pilot was called back. In Novem-
ber, long after Hasenfus' disclosures made
headlines around the world, the pilot was
instructed to return to Central America to
determine if the operation could be resur-
rected.
The planes were still at Aguacate. he
found. But there was nothing else left of the
operation.
"It was totally dead," he said.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/09/25: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302540002-9