During my time with Chem-Man, I had the opportunity to work with and visit aerial operations all over the United States and Canada. I must admit that in my many years of working for an aerial operation in the Delta of Arkansas, my scope of the industry was very narrow and limited. It has been truly astonishing to me to see just how different and complex the aerial application businesses are in various parts of the world. Just as I was accustomed to conducting operations in rice and cotton countries, operators in other geographical regions have particular area-specific crops along with a unique way of treating those crops.
It seems that every day, I am introduced to a new company in a new part of the country with distinct characteristics in how they conduct operations. Regardless of the way the various operators across the world conduct business, they all seem to work toward achieving the same goal of treating an area for a pest to enhance the agricultural performance in that area. It wasn’t until recently that I learned of an aerial operation whose target pest and end goal were slightly different than usual. In my last article, I had the honor of speaking with George Moore, whose resume and credentials far exceed the allowable length of my article. George mentioned in my last article a division of ag aviation that I was unaware of and found fascinating; that area he mentioned was the use of ag planes in our nation’s fight in the war on drugs.
George had spent seven years flying ag in Mississippi. He was fortunate to be offered the position of flying a Stearman in the Red Baron Squadron, sponsored by the Red Baron frozen pizza company. During his three years with the Red Baron Squadron, George attended an NAAA convention, where he first met Phill Bragg and Greg Smith, who would later not only become lifelong friends but also become integral to George’s beginning the journey of fighting the war on drugs with an Air Tractor.
Phill and Greg were assigned to recruit prospective new pilots in the US Department of State’s Narcotic eradication program. The program, which had been operating for some time, used Thrush aircraft and OV-10 Broncos. The powers that be decided to implement the use of Air Tractor 802s into the fleet, and what better place to find pilots for the newly introduced 802s than at the site of the world’s largest gathering of aerial applicators from around the world?
George had made quite an impression on the two and found himself at the top of a stack of information sheets from several interested pilots. In 2001, George was later contacted by EAST Inc., contracted by the Department of State, and asked to come down to Melbourne, Florida, and complete a series of training flights to test his aptitude and ability in a spray plane. After completing the screening processes, he was quickly offered the position, which George eagerly accepted.
At the beginning of his time with the program, George could be overseas spraying poppy plants in Afghanistan. Keep in mind the time frame was just a few months post-9/11. George, who was in his 30s and reluctant to start over in the military, was looking for an avenue to participate in the war on terror. He felt the desire to fulfill his duty to his country would be best achieved by eradicating the poppy seeds that would later be turned into heroin that terroristic organizations such as Al-Qaeda would use to traffic and fund their terrorism efforts.
After joining the team, focus and attention shifted elsewhere, and the mission gradually changed its efforts to Colombia. The easily recognized drug lords and cartel leaders such as Pablo Escobar and the Medellín cartel were long out of the picture by this point, and a long-existing thorn in the Colombian government’s side began to gain traction in Colombia. The FARC, short for the “Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia.” Which translates to the “Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia,” a Marxist-Leninist guerrilla group that wanted to overthrow the Colombian government and spread communism across the country.
The FARC funded their endeavors and ability to purchase firearms by manufacturing and selling cocaine derived from the coca plant which happened to be Colombia’s largest and most valuable cash crop. At the time, The United States government wanted to keep drugs off the street, and the Colombian government wanted to suppress opposing forces. A symbiotic relationship was formed between the two governments, and with the help and cooperation of the Colombian government, the US Department of State could fight its war on drugs.
Before George and the team of 802 pilots were turned loose in Colombia, they had to undergo a long, intensive training process that lasted roughly seven months. Regardless of the thousands of hours of ag flying and total flight time George and the other pilots had, training was still mandatory and imperative for a successful program. The training regimen consisted of a series of training flights in the 802, amounting to around 100 hours, emphasizing formation flight, instrument training, flatland spraying, and mountain spraying. The mountain training consisted of maneuvering over mountain-top summits, transitioning into entering canyons, spraying within the canyons, and exiting the canyons while overcoming high-altitude flying and mastering high wind-induced mountain turbulence.
George was one of the five men selected to train the first group of pilots in the 802s’ introduction into the DOS Airwing’s eradication program. After training, the team flew the 802s from Albuquerque, New Mexico, down to Colombia, where the group’s first mission would begin in September 2002. It wasn’t long after the team started the first flights that they took fire from the armed coca farmers below as they aerially treated the coca fields and patches with a glyphosate product dispensed from their aircraft.
In an attempt to prevent spraying back-to-back passes resulting in continued gunfire from the insurgents below, the team was instructed to spray a pass in one area, then vacate to another location where they would spray a pass, then leave and continue to another area. Heavy fire was a distinct possibility, so the aircraft’s cockpit would be retrofitted with armor to protect from the gunfire below. Often, each flight could receive any number of bullet holes, most of the time luckily not rendering the aircraft unflyable and still maneuverable.
George recalls the most brutal hit he took from the gunfire was on Christmas morning in 2002 when his airplane received 12 entry holes and even more bullet hits. One bullet punctured his onboard oxygen canister. While he was flying, 100% oxygen was being emitted into the cockpit, which had the appearance of smoke to George at the time. George spent 13 years in the program but took a brief pause after experiencing a crash in May of 2003.
One morning, while George was attempting to spray a coca field down the side of a mountain, George struck a tree that was commonly left behind in the patches to be a hard-to-see debilitating obstacle to the aircraft. George snap rolled down the side of the mountain after losing an entire wing left behind in the tree all while taking heavy fire from the guerillas below. After his crash landing, he was able to exit the aircraft on his own, even while having broken ribs and several bumps and abrasions.
While George took a week or two to heal, he returned to complete a check ride before returning to flight status. During his check ride, his standardization instructor, pilot Bob DeRossier, insisted George take a few days’ break and insisted he let Bob take the first mission, allowing George to mentally prepare for hopping back in the saddle. While Bob was flying the first mission in George’s momentary pause, Bob was shot down after taking a bullet through the propeller hub that quickly drained the engine of all the oil, resulting in an engine failure. George took the incident as a sign to reconsider his position within the program and felt it would be an excellent opportunity to return stateside. While back in the United States, George began firebombing for an entire season in 2004, where he quickly rediscovered his desire to be back in Colombia. His year away from the eradication work was enough time to regain his “Mojo” and prepare himself for his return.
In early 2005, George was back in Colombia chasing the adventure. The gunfire received, as well as the wild scenarios, became second nature to all involved, and he recalls finding it humorous how the stories never seemed to be communicated between the different teams as it was all becoming just a regular day’s work for them. While a few men unfortunately lost their lives, and some airplanes were also destroyed, all the men involved became very close and forged many strong friendships that remain to this day.
The tasks were adventurous and thrilling for the pilots involved. I asked George what some of the biggest takeaways from his experience in Colombia would be, and he replied that it was reassuring to him that everyone involved took the program and its efforts seriously. He says that most people would assume and speculate that the Colombian government did not actively participate in or aid the efforts. Still, he assured me that the men involved in the Colombian government upheld the highest standards in devotion to the program’s goals and efforts. George comments on how relieving it was not to encounter any corruption within the program that would ultimately jeopardize the safety of the pilots and the integrity of the mission.
George mentions some of the intricacies of his experiences in Colombia. I was curious to learn what they used to determine where they needed to fly and how they would identify the areas to spray. He replied that the regions where the coca was planted gradually shifted over the years, going from larger, more open areas similar to row crop operations that eventually scaled down to smaller one-to-two-acre patches surrounded by thick jungle canopy.
This was a tactic the FARC used to protect their plants from George and the team. The areas would be identified by infrared satellite imagery, and then a shapefile would later be created that the pilots would use to upload onto the Del Norte GPS that the airplanes were equipped with. The more George describes his work in Colombia the more similarities I see with the aerial application practices that the readers and I are accustomed to. I asked George how comparable it was to regular ag flying, and except for the strategic flight patterns and the reception of gunfire, it was just like normal ag flying. While some rice pilots who have made the mistake of turning over the wrong tomato garden here and there might be able to relate to the gunfire issues, I would imagine from the description George has given that it was closely related to the routine ag flight that all of us associated in the industry are familiar with.
