EVERYDAY AMERICANS PUT ON DRUG WAR'S FRONT LINE

Pilots, Others Stand In For Troops In Colombia

LARANDIA, Colombia -- They are private U.S. citizens but work on the front
lines of America's war on drugs.

Under a little-known program, more than 100 pilots, mechanics and others
work for the U.S. State Department in Colombia as part of a program to
eradicate Colombia's coca and opium poppy fields.

Some of the Americans fly planes that spray herbicides on the illicit crops.
Others fly gunships that accompany the spraying missions. Still others fly
hulking transport aircraft or work as aviation mechanics, logistical experts
and medics.

Some U.S. critics said the private contractors are proxies for the U.S.
military in a place where the public would not allow a more direct U.S.
military involvement.

But others said private contractors are needed because the U.S. military is
stretched thin and attention is focused on Iraq and other hot spots.

The U.S. Congress, concerned about private citizens fighting a dangerous
drug war overseas, mandated that a maximum of 400 U.S. contractors be
allowed in Colombia. U.S. officials said there are, on average, about 120
American pilots and other private contractors in Colombia's antinarcotics
program at any one time.

"We don't even come close to the limit," one said.

The pilots, interviewed on the condition of anonymity, downplayed their
cowboy image and characterized themselves as regular guys with wives, kids
and mortgages -- even if their job is anything but ordinary.

>From dawn until dusk, 16 U.S. spray planes take off from Larandia's dusty
airstrip, heading south to the coca fields. Once there, they swoop down and
drop the herbicide, making pass after pass just over the tree line, often
while being shot at by leftist rebels and drug traffickers.

The work is endless. Colombia has hundreds of thousands of acres of coca --
the raw material for cocaine.

The fumigation, part of the $1.5-billion U.S.-financed program known as Plan
Colombia, has accelerated under recently elected President Alvaro Uribe, who
agrees with U.S. officials that fumigation is the fastest way to get rid of
the illicit crop.

The Americans live in spartan dorms and relax by watching cable television,
lifting weights and fishing for piranha at the base's artificial lake.

Some of the pilots are two decades removed from their military careers. Many
have had second careers flying for the United Nations and other
organizations. Others used to fly crop dusters or crisscrossed the United
States dropping retardant on major forest fires.

Some hooked up with DynCorp, the main U.S. antinarcotics contractor in
Colombia, because of the pay and work schedule: Most pilots work 15 days and
then have 15 days off. The most experienced pilots earn more than $100,000 a
year.

Many of them are in their late 50s, gray-haired and grandfatherly. "I'm way
too young to retire," said one pilot pushing 60. "I'll be doing this till
I'm 95."

That is, if he doesn't get killed. Bullets have hit spray planes more than
150 times this year, most fired by members of the leftist Revolutionary
Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, an 18,000-member rebel group that
receives millions of dollars a year from taxing and protecting coca fields.

If a plane does go down, the pilots are in serious trouble, even though they
never fly without two heavily armed helicopter gunships and a third rescue
helicopter. Pilots carry pistols and receive survival training.

But the FARC, which has designated the Americans military targets, controls
much of the coca-growing region. It has never attacked the base.