Old Warbirds: What Fascinating Stories They Tell
FORWARD:
In an earlier article I suggested this essay would present a true story. I said I’d somehow weave together an Air Force C-123 airplane I once crewed, Doan's Headache Pills, Tom Cruise, Ayatollah Khomeini, “The Fat Man and the Fat Lady,” Richard Nixon and Watergate, FBI, José Fernando Canales Aleman, CIA, a USAF 439th TAW Honduran beach bar with wings, Ms. Fawn Hall’s September 2025 wedding, Dennis Hopper, Pablo Escobar and lots of cocaine and money.
Plus, for extra credit, Ronald Reagan and jelly beans. “Now there you go again.” If you wish, simply
return to this paragraph to check off players, events and other items as the story evolves. All this = one story. And true!
I freely admit this is a long and detailed read, but it happened with terrible consequences. I guess I like to hear myself type almost as much as hear myself talk, however I'll try to keep this short enough my printer won't choke on it.
Things like this shouldn't have happened but seem to bite us sharply in our national politics again and again. Maybe our poetical parties need an ethics and morality device, kind of like Spock’s Star Trek tricorder. That would be so cool!
Everything began to unravel on October 5, 1986, when a Nicaraguan soldier downed an American plane carrying arms to “Contra” guerrillas, exposing a tightly held U.S. clandestine program. A month later, reports surfaced that Washington had been covertly selling arms to Iran (our sworn enemy and a state sponsor of terrorism), in exchange for help freeing hostages in Beirut. The profits, it turned out, were going to support the Contras, despite an explicit ban by Congress.
In the firestorm that erupted, shocking details emerged, raising the prospect of impeachment, and the American public confronted a scandal as momentous as it was confusing. At its center was President Ronald Reagan amid a swirl of questions about illegal wars, consorting with terrorists, and the abuse of presidential power.
DATE AND SETTING: Western Hemisphere, 1982-1988
Chapter One, Ronald Reagan: (continued below)
"Now there you go again." President Reagan's mild censure of his White House press corps gave every reporter in the briefing room fits of frustration at his evasiveness and those smiles that the Old Man does so effectively.
And so graciously, compared to today’s “Fake News” that a different (and even older!) president would shout out decades in the future. Fake News, he'd argue, even if just being told the time of day. Fake News to avoid every question or statement that future president considered unworthy of even a partially truthful response. Fake News, to demean and insult, great for keeping his admirers excited. Fake News, otherwise granting selected reporters answers only to inquiries meant to pay tribute to his famous wisdom. Fake News shouted loud and often enough that we're bruised past any further notice. Those phony Fake News accusations seem almost to have destroyed the media's most important role, "Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?"
President Reagan: "Oh, no, no, as I say, I can't remember just when, in all the calls and meetings and so forth.” On March 19, 1987, Reagan opted to use his secondary evasive phrase (many variants but built around “can't remember”) permitting him a couple more seconds to construct an answer for UPI’s Helen Thomas. Standing at the podium, he's been asked the first reporters’ questions following his television address to the nation the night before. He'd reserve “Now there you go again” for an easier softball question.
The Thursday night TV slot, and the news conference the next day, were the first words from the president since an arms sale to Iran made news fully six months earlier on November 25.
The subject at hand: somehow American arms had been delivered to Iran, contrary to an international embargo and American policy to never exchange money or weapons for hostages in Ayatollah Khomeini's Iran and in Lebanon. Also, somehow American arms had also gone to the
Contra fighters in Nicaragua, contrary to law and stated US policy. What does the president have to say to the American public?
Oopsie. Awkward! Watergate was still recent enough to make politicians very, very nervous; one could tell by the twitch in their eye as they lied. But Reagan knew the questions were coming and his briefing binder was there at the podium with him. Answers put together by Don Regan and Secretary of State George Schultz Answers, true or not, to pour oil on troubled DC political waters.
Those troubled waters were growing stormy years earlier, when the President was frustrated by Congress in his yearning to both free eight Iranian-held hostages in Lebanon, and supply weapons for the Contras to fight the godless Communist government of Nicaragua. Congress tossed in a few laws that the President felt improperly constrained his conduct of foreign policy. “We gotta fight those godless Communists coming at us through the soft under belly of Central America.” Nonetheless, those were the laws of the land. On paper.
Fortunately (oh, perhaps no) for Reagan, National Security Advisor Admiral John Poindexter and his staff were highly creative. So creative, so crafty and ingenious, that Charles Dickens would have honored them with his “artful dodger” accolade. Seconded to the White House NSC was Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North USMC, a loyal, highly intelligent and politically savvy Vietnam combat veteran. “Oli” was admired and trusted by both the President and his team.
Oli’s ideas were creative, complex, intriguing, and, they delivered results President Reagan wanted. Or thought he wanted, as Oli and the Admiral described their plans while everyone enjoyed Jelly Belly jelly beans from the jar on the Resolute Desk. M&M addiction would come later.
Chapter Two, José:
Helen Thomas’ questions weren't really the start of this event, nor the end but just one of the thousands of details that decades later still confuse even skillful historians.
She was asking about what was already being called the “Iran/Contra Affair.” Perhaps that wording because Iran-ContraGate didn’t sound quite right: Most worthwhile political scandals in Washington are promoted to proper “-gate” scandals if at all interesting. Watergate, Travelgate, even an imaginary Obamagate. Here, we and history must settle for a mere downgraded wishy-washy “affair.” Meh.
Let's start unwinding this, not exactly in chronological order but generally as event became public knowledge.
José Fernando Canales Aleman, then age 19, had never done it before. Still, he was to do it well enough to be awarded his nation's highest medal for bravery, the Camilo Ortega Saavedra Gold Medal. Before that day in October 1986, he’d had no training on an antiaircraft rocket, only poorly translated instructions from the old, sweaty Russian operative supporting his Sandinista unit. The senior men on his patrol made this new kid on his first patrol carry the heavy stuff; that's how he came to earn his gold medal.
Just after noon on October 5, 1986, José heard the airplane approaching. If he was to shoot, have to be fast. He remembered he'd have a better shot once it passed overhead, the infrared energy from its engines’ exhausts sure to draw the attention of the primitive computer inside his Russian-made SAM-7 shoulder-held antiaircraft missile.
One of 50,000 the Soviets built, 2,000 of which ended up in Nicaragua, the SAM-7 was heavy...along with his other gear, the 34 pounds weapon was a back-breaking weight to tote through jungle trails.
And it was old...perhaps sixteen years without any field maintenance since leaving the Russian factory. But because he was young and because he was made to carry it, he was like any other youth daydreaming about heroic acts, which for José Fernando Canales Aleman was to shoot down a Yankee devil aircraft with his Russian missile.
Daydreaming stopped because this approaching airplane noise was real! Unshouldering his missile, José summoned that Russian’s instructions as best he could remember, his Sandinista comrades now all shouting and distracting him:
No use. Sweat stinging his eyes.COMRADE:
•When engaging slow or straight-receding targets, track the target with the iron sights in the launch tube and apply half-trigger. This action allows it attempt to track. If target IR signature can be tracked against the background present, this is indicated by green light and buzzer sound.
•Pull the trigger fully and immediately apply lead and super-elevation for a manual engagement.
•When engaging slow or straight-receding targets, track the target with the iron sights in the launch tube and apply half-trigger. This action allows it attempt to track. If target IR signature can be tracked against the background present, this is indicated by green light and buzzer sound.
•Pull the trigger fully and immediately apply lead and super-elevation for a manual engagement.
•For automatic mode against fast targets, fully depress the trigger in one pull followed by immediate lead and super-elevation of the launch tube. The seeker will uncage and will automatically launch the missile if a strong enough signal is detected.
BAM! It worked! In fractions of a second the missile leapt from its launch tube, the rocket motor ignited, and it sped skyward at Mach 1.4. Only then, just before the airplane was out of sight, did José see his target more clearly...an old airplane, green, and hopefully slow enough that his missile would find one of its engines. Then, both the missile and the airplane were no longer visible in the dense jungle cover.
The explosion told José his dreams had been fulfilled. “Got it,” his natural reaction. José didn’t know his missile had instructions to self-detonate before its motor burned out, but he wasn’t to be disappointed–the plane was mortally wounded.
Besides the explosion, his patrol caught glimpses of smoke rising perhaps ten kilometers away and immediately began jogging the rugged trail. The patrol also spotted a parachute, visible only a couple seconds before falling into the trees. Perhaps...a valuable Yankee survivor.
The difficult trail cost the patrol two hours delay reaching the crash site. The old green airplane, exploded into still-burning wreckage, was spread widely in a clearing, a small stream and partly into the jungle. Enough of the front of the airplane was intact enough to see the three still figures. All dead. Two American former military pilots and a local radio operator.
“Search that plane,” ordered the patrol commander, as many parts of the wreckage weren’t yet burning and the next few minutes were all that was necessary to collect briefcases, notebooks, log books, some weapons and, most curiously, boots. Lots and lots of boots. An army marches on its stomach, of course. Napoleon had actually said, “much better to do so wearing nice boots.”
Then fire consumed more of the wreckage and ammunition began cooking off in the flames. Too dangerous to continue at the wreck, the commander ordered his patrol into several sections to begin looking for that parachute; several hours effort proved useless.
It took two days for other search teams to find the man who'd jumped from the airplane. Eugene Hasenfus, despite his pilot’s orders, wisely wore a parachute and when their airplane was stuck by Lucky Jose’s missile, he alone survived and hid. Hasenfus’ diplomatically inconvenient survival, and the logbooks and other materials recovered from the wreckage of the Fairchild C-123 Provider medium assault transport, were what eventually led to Helen Thomas’ sharp questions of President Reagan at his press conference.
Chapter Three, Oliver North:
Now we must keep going back in time to continue uncovering this story, to see what brought that heavily-laden low-flying C-123 over Nicaragua in time for young José to shoot down. And we want to cover from whence came the weapons and ammunition in the C-123.
Back to the NSC and Lieutenant Colonel North. His ideas about helping President Reagan evade Congressional restrictions on aid to the Contras and the President’s pledge to never ransom hostages from Iran were brilliant. At least, at the time. As we understand it today here's what Oli did, his “really neat idea”:
1. In 1985, he secretly sold missiles and spare parts to Iran for 15% profit, contrary to public policy and contrary to Iran's designation as a sponsor of state terrorism and also contrary to the international embargo the US initiated
2. Channeled part of that $48 million to the Contras to buy weapons, contrary to the Borland Amendment
3. Oli raised money from eager private and corporate donors in the US, passing it to the Contras and buying weapons with it for them, also contrary to the Borland Amendment
4. Nicaragua has insisted, without confirmation, that the US somehow also provided many of its 2,000 Russian SAM-7 missiles to Central American governments, some of which were available to the Sandinistas. What did Oli know, and when did he know it?
Money to buy weapons for the Contras is illegal but also very nice, but where would the weapons be purchased and, more to the point, how would they get to the Contras to fight in Nicaragua? Oli had taken care of bagging the dollars without and despite Congress. Even with help from weapons dealer Richard Secord, a wealth of details needed to be worked out.
FIRST: Where to buy? First, Oli leaned on his contacts, and their contacts, to put the arm for $10 million on the Sultan of Brunei. Perhaps Oli wasn’t great with fine details. That's because he gave the wrong number of the Swiss bank account intended to launder the money; it went instead to a Swiss businessman. A Senate committee later tracked that down to return to the Sultan.
1. Oli got $32M from Saudi Arabia and a mere $2 million from the tight-fisted government Taiwan. In the States, milking private Republican donors, he raised an estimated $2.7 million.
2. Finally, Oli skimmed back part of a million dollars sent to Panamanian strongman Noriega from the Iran sale. Some, of course, the Contras raised a lot themselves by selling cocaine that the CIA helped smuggle into other countries (such as the USA,) but Oli sure collected a lot. It isn't known exactly how much “profit” was made selling Iran the Israeli missiles, but most historians suggest 15%, the “mark-up” Oli’s own notebooks mention. Total, outside of Contra's ample drug money, was at least $42 million. And counting. A marketing genius in his Marine 0-5 uniform!
3. For Oli, with some careful shopping for quality used goods, drug money and his collection were just enough to buy a counter-revolution's supply of arms.
4. Congress somehow bought into administration requests for humanitarian, intelligence, medical and other support, freeing up over $114 million between 1983-1986. It is not known how much of this was diverted into arms sales prohibited by the Borland Amendments.
SECOND: Oli and his Contras seemed flush with crisp new Benjamins. Now, where to shop for the necessary shootin’ goods? Easy. Retired US General Richard Secord’s off-the-books US government agency had a Rolodex full of licit and illicit weapons dealer’s worldwide contacts. And there proved to be a full stable of others eager to swap their used or surplus airplanes, ships, river boats, uniforms, vehicles, ammunition, weapons, field gear, communications equipment, rations, medical supplies and so much more, for Oli’s crisp new Benjamins.
The international arms merchants proved well-capable of meeting Oli's needs. From their own stocks, by buying surplus gear from warring governments throughout Africa and the Far East, and by diverting legitimate shipments.
Wonder of wonders, even the good old US of A. As the world’s largest weapons manufacturer, there were certain to be a few odds and ends laying around and available for the Contras to buy. Maybe even several shiploads. As later White House occupants would say, “Let’s make a deal!!”
And deal we did! Not so much directly but in a more Oli-approved back-channel manner. Shipments to legitimate international buyers that were transshipped to the Contras. Shipments of ammunition leaving US ports marked “humanitarian relief.” Shipments to US military that were shorted a few items, here and there. Who’d miss an occasional M-4 or Redeye SAM or cases of C-rats?
Chapter Four, The Provider, part A:
Finally, we get to the part of this saga I find most interesting: the airplanes. Specifically, the Fairchild C-123K Provider medium assault transport aircraft. In fact, two of them.
If you've faithfully read my other essays as I have, you’ll remember that the Air Force C-123K Agent Orange-contaminated spray airplanes that we flew after Vietnam were flown into storage in the famous Boneyard at Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona. This was around 1983-1984.
When our squadrons delivered them to the Boneyard, the C-123s were all airworthy and had most of their equipment still aboard; stanchions, deck cargo rails, instrumentation and more. Spare engines, tires, props, first aid kits and the old chlorobromomethane fire bottles, navigational equipment, oxygen bottles, manuals, everything we no longer needed.
Technicians at the Boneyard had sealed the airplanes up to protect against desert sand and rodents. There the planes settled into retirement with virtual "For Sale" signs on them. And sold off many were. Two to Walt Disney Movies for ConAir, a couple sent north to Alaska for back-country air freight. The Forest Service got a couple. Some were sold for modification as fire fighters. The State Department got some. Several old warbirds were sold to South Korea and Thailand's military.
One good looking C-123K, Tail Number 54-679, was an excellent aircraft. We flew it, and eleven other C-123s. At Westover she'd been super-well maintained up to her retirement at Davis-Monthan.
#54-679 caught the eye of a buyer walking through the Boneyard to select a plane. #54-679 was checked out very carefully, paid for, tires inflated, and a temporary airworthiness certificate plastered on. Fuel topped off, water and coffee jugs refilled, a stack of sectionals on the dash, #54-679 was then flown off by its new private owner, Mr. Roy Stafford of Jacksonville, Florida.
The flyers donned oxygen using their yellow walk-around bottles as the C-123 climbed up to 12,000 feet and over the nearby Rincon Mountains. Heading east, it was flying into years of mystery and intrigue. It wasn’t coming home.
Chapter Five, The Provider, part B:
Roy Stafford proved an interesting character. For an unknown, perhaps speculation or operating as a front man, Stafford bought his C-123 on June 17, 1983. For another unknown reason, three weeks later he sold it to wealthy Harvey Dorn. Dorn was known for “Dorn's Headache Relief” but also owned Dorn Helicopter Service out of Daytona Beach.
While this airplane buying and selling was going on, Oli was busy raising money for weapons. Keep that thought –
–we’ll come back to it.
In April of 1983, a low-life named Barry Seal was arrested by DEA in Fort Lauderdale. A year earlier than that, Mr. Seal had been turned as a DEA informant by his attorney Richard Ben-Veniste (surely, you remember him–Nixon's Watergate prosecutor.)
Seals was a truly natural pilot, licensed at age sixteen and with tons of experience. Still, he seems to have a bit of trouble flying. In May 1984 Seal loads of quality coke but crashes on takeoff. Thank goodness, the coke is spared any damage. The drugs get reloaded into another plane that Seal borrows, loading 600kg that time. More trouble – the borrowed plane is shot down and Seal briefly arrested for his trouble.
Seal was a bad guy who wanted a C-123, so he bought it from Dorn in June 1984 for cash and Seal's old airplane. Here's where things get extra-interesting.
On June 23, thirteen days after his purchase, the CIA works with frequent felon Seal to install cameras in the C-123, doing the work in a hangar at Homestead AFB for privacy. The next day, Seal and some buddies fly his C-123 to Key West and then Los Brasiles, Nicaragua.
We're now at June 25, 1984. A character named Pablo Escobar met Seal's plane, and supervised the reloading of the 660kg of coke from the last crash? Remember that, or are you getting confused already?
Seal fuels up the C-123 with 2000 gallons of AVGAS, then poses for pictures on the CIA cameras. Heading back to Homestead he lands on June 26, when the drugs are given to the CIA and the CIA pictures are developed.
Now an especially interesting thing. Two days after the C-123 lands at Homestead and presumably back in control by CIA or DIA, our friend Oli North writes in his notebook, "C-123 acquired by DEA source. Installed two cameras – plane to Miami. "Freddy Vaughan works for Thomas Borge. Photos show.”
Just two days after a drug-hauling C-123 pops up at Homestead, a lieutenant colonel working out of the White House learns about it. Even more interesting, ten days after the C-123 left for Homestead Oli had it headed right back to Nicaragua. Testimony showed North recruited Sears, but the speed at which things were assembled is beyond belief.
Hey, these guys might be shifty characters or misguided patriots, but wow –they work fast!
Sears has $1.5 million of Oli’s money aboard as he heads south once again, along with a box of something labeled "toys" for Escobar, who meets the C-123 on arrival. Goods delivered to the drug lord, Sears is asked to do another coke haul of 700kg but passes on it, claiming security concerns. July 8 finds Sears back at Homestead.
Fast-forward to June 1985, Sears sells his C-123 back to Doan for $250,000. By February of 1986, Sears is murdered in his halfway house and departs our story as well as "this mortal coil."
Chapter Four, part B: Beach Lady #54-663:
There's another C-123 involved. The arms hauling required two for delivering all the stuff North's money was providing.
Jose destroyed Oli’s C-123 on October 5, 1985. It was pretty easy for Nicaraguan authorities to establish the C-123 mission and ownership, partly because damning documents were recovered from the crash, and Eugene Hasenfus was still alive, talking freely and obviously an American.
Threads started unraveling quickly and very publicly. In fact, the sister C-123 had some mechanical issues and was grounded at San Jose. It didn’t fly that sad day. In fact, as it developed, it would never fly again now that Oli's Iran-Contra arms delivery op was blown. There it sat. And sat.
Until, it caught the attention of an enterprising local restaurateur. His idea: Buy it for $3,000, then cart the thing in pieces back to a beach in Costa Rica. Gut it. Give it some TLC and bring it back to life as a bar and café. I should mention that, just like the ill-fated C-123 that brought fame to Jose, I’d crewed this C-123 also. Both aircraft were at Westover when it came time to retire them to Davis-Monthan, and both aircraft ended their flying days in Central America.
Our surviving C-123 was Fairchild #54-663, still in cammo green with our 439TAW shield above what used to be the crew door, now sits comfortably opposite a beautiful state park. Reborn with much creativity, it is now known as El Avion Restaurant and Bar in Quepos, Costa Rica.
My story should end here, except I have yet to deliver the extra details of Tom Cruise, The Fat Man and Fat Lady, and Dennis Hopper. Here they are:
· Fat Lady was a nickname for the doomed C-123
· Fat Man was the insulting name a mysterious character named “Sayahatae” gave the 300lb Seal, along with colorful and insulting language. The Fat Lady and the Fat Man = C-123 + Seal.
· Tom Cruise played the character of Seal in the movie, “American Made.” Cruise is in better shape than was Seal. Way shorter, too. Finally, Ms. Fawn Hall and Oli North announced their marriage in September 2025, forty years after all the excitement.
· Dennis Hopper played Seal in the cable movie, Double-cross
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