Between the wars on “colonial policing” missions (and possibly over jungle in the second war?) British aircrew carried not actual gold but a Ghoulie Chit. This promised gold for the safe return of the crew person. To translate the British slang, chit is an official form and ghoulies are testicles. It was a form to try to ensure that you were returned intact.
Wandering further OT, I read Sir Arthur Harris’ autobiography. His chapter about those colonial policing missions failing to pacify Afghanistan with DH9s could have been written fifty years later about Mi24s or seventy years later about Predators. Those who forget history, etc.
The guy to talk to about the real Air America is John Deakin.
He flew DC3’s and C46’s for them before he became a pilot with Japan Airlines.
https://www.avweb.com/news/pelican/182178-1.html
https://www.avweb.com/news/pelican/186964-1.html
some excerpts or get his book “Full Throttle”. Best read I’ve had in years. And he’ll sign it for you too if he gets to send it out himself.
This is a great thread. Not off topic. Keep it coming 
About 25 years ago, I crawled all over the mountains of Laos and Vietnam to document the recycling of spent (read: crashed) aircraft parts and other war materiel. It;s amazing, how much stuff there is in these forests. I think my favorite was a fleet of paddle boats with the pontoons made from drop tanks.
(Wikipedia)
There are continuing casualties from unexploded ordnance (UXO) dropped by the U.S. and Laotian Air Forces from 1964 to 1973. It has been reported that, between 1964 and 1973, areas controlled by the invading communist North Vietnamese and Pathet Lao were hit by an average of one B‑52 bomb-load every eight minutes, 24 hours a day. More than 2 million tons of bombs were dropped on Laos, particularly on Xiangkhouang Province, 30 percent of which failed to explode immediately.102 U.S. aircraft dropped more ordnance on Laos than on all countries during World War II, leaving Laos with about 78 million pieces of UXO by the end of the war.103
That is a lot of bombs.
Saw the documentary yesterday. Great piece of aviation history!
The sad consequences of American adventure in Vietnam can still be seen. People there still get hurt from unexploded bombs and children are still born with malformations caused by agent orange.
It’d certainly have been better if the French had been directed to give up Indochina immediately postwar, once Japan was ousted, and the US had maintained friendship instead with the (at that time) fiercely pro-American Ho Chi Minh! Bad decision making, respecting old power instead of the emerging reality. I have no idea why that exception was made while other European countries were forced to give up most of their colonies.
Of course it would be a lot better if everybody in today’s poor SE Asian countries could live like the Japanese or South Koreans (inability to fly privately not withstanding!) but history didn’t allow it. Too bad, but interesting history regardless. A number of the more experienced older pilots in my area flew in Vietnam, one had the record with his number of carrier landings, and now flies among other things a Bücker Jungmeister. My flying mentor flew up and down the coast providing communications, worrying about missiles coming up to meet him from directly below. He’s flown everything, and today flies an RV-8 almost daily. Also a number of former Huey pilots, including a Chilean American coworker who was I guess somewhat lucky to die of an illness recently instead of NVA small arms fire 45 years ago.
@172driver, your aircraft hunting & repurposing documentary adventure sounds amazing, reminding me somehow of a local American guy who flew his C180 across Russia in about 1989, just before the end of the Soviet period, meeting people and making friends along the way. The resulting film was incredible.
