9
Jet America
In 1983, I was hired by a Learjet charter company based at Lakefront Airport in New Orleans. Although we were a legitimate charter operation, rumors were that we were really a front and money laundry for a major group of political players involved in a series of questionable special activities.
Image result for IMAGES OF Barry Seal
After about a year with “the company”, I began flying a wise guy named Barry Seal, a gregarious man of forty with a quick wit and photographic memory. In the early 1980's, Barry was becoming a legend around the backwaters of southeast Louisiana. Local pilots had all heard the rumors that Mr. Seal was a covert agent of God-only-knew-which government agency. He had accumulated a wide assortment of airplanes and helicopters and would appear out of nowhere at Lakefront or any other Gulf Coast airport and disappear just as quickly, usually in a black Mercedes or black Hughes helicopter.
—————————————
For the next six months, I would be Barry Seal’s Geronimo Line, his air escape route in a dangerous Drug Enforcement Agency mission to capture Pablo Escobar, a notorious Columbian who ran the Medellin Drug Cartel. I flew his Learjet 23, a six seat rocket ship that had enough room for Seal, two politicians and two Tumi suitcases. I figured he was either one hell of a suitcase salesman or was running cash all over North and Central America.
Soon, I was catapulted into a wild world of coordinated activity within a cloud of secrecy. Our operation took us all over the country and I was trained to leave no tracks. Everything from jet fuel to hotel suites was paid for out of a seemingly endless supply of cold cash.
Flying for Barry was never routine and wherever we went there were always armed guards, their gun handles protruding above the belt in the back.