Eastern Wisconsin’s representative in Congress has reintroduced the bipartisan Air America Act.
Congressman Glenn Grothman says the measure aims to correct an inequity suffered by Americans who are former employees of Air America by ensuring they receive the federal retirement benefits and recognition they have earned.
Between 1950 and 1976, a group of approximately 1,000 U.S. citizens worked for Air America, which was portrayed as a private company carrying out flight operations during the Cold War.
However, now-declassified documents have revealed that Air America was wholly owned and controlled by the U.S. government – meaning these Americans were federal employees under the law.
The Air America Act will ensure that those Air Americans who qualify for retirement benefits under the law will receive what they earned and deserve.
Grothman noted that Congress has passed corrective legislation for other covert CIA-affiliated groups twice before, saying, “It is not right to continue to ignore Air Americans. These patriots risked their lives, many of them giving their life, fighting communism in the same way members of the Air Force did.”
