U.S. CIVILIANS WAGE DRUG WAR FROM COLOMBIA'S SKIES

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.

A leading Colombian news weekly last year ran a cover story describing
the American pilots as "gringo mercenaries" and "lawless Rambos." Some
U.S. critics say the private contractors are proxies for the U.S.
military in a place where the public would not allow a more direct
American military involvement.

"It creates a space for further involvement without putting U.S.
soldiers on the ground," said Ingrid Vaicius, a Colombia expert at the
Center for International Policy, a Washington think tank. "The
contractors are not watched as closely as U.S. military personnel would be."

But others say 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 only up to 400 U.S.
contractors be allowed in Colombia. U.S. officials say there are on
average about 120 American pilots and other private contractors in
Colombia's anti-narcotics program at any one time.

"We don't even come close to the limit," said one U.S. official in
Colombia.

The pilots, interviewed on the condition that they not be identified,
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 American 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 as they are 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 - planted along steep ravines and
in recently cleared jungle terrain.

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.

Some Colombians say the herbicide, glyphosate, causes severe skin
rashes and other illnesses. The American pilots at Larandia, a
sprawling Colombian military base in a swampy plain, say it's safe.

"Too much O.J. will kill you," said a 35-year-old who trains pilots
for the program. "Everybody wants to (spray) coca. You don't get much
downtime (at Larandia). It's pretty much all work and no play."

The Americans live in spartan dorms and relax by watching cable
television, lifting weights and fishing for piranha at the base's
artificial lake. Their pet buzzard took off a while back and hasn't
returned.

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. They say Colombia is a great place to work,
despite being at war.

"Angola, Sierra Leone, Ethiopia, Sudan, Congo. Africa's got some
really bad places," said one transport pilot, listing a few of the
countries where he has flown. "I haven't had any problems in Colombia.
If you don't go trolling for trouble, you don't find it."

Other Americans used to fly crop dusters or crisscrossed the U.S.
dropping retardant on major forest fires. They say they're used to
working long hours - "dark to dark," as one pilot described it - in
stifling heat and dangerous conditions.

Some say they hooked up with DynCorp, the main U.S. anti-narcotics
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. The
same U.S. official quipped that the presence of all the old American
pilots at Larandia makes it look less like a military base than an
"old folks home."

"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 the leftist Revolutionary
Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, an 18,000-strong rebel group that
earns millions of dollars a year taxing and protecting coca fields.

But the trees are the real danger. Flying at 200 mph just above the
jungle canopy, pilots say it's difficult to make out a single thin
tree sticking up 50 or 60 feet from a field of light-green coca bushes.

Three Americans have been killed in crashes in recent
years.

"Most of the people who shoot at us miss," said one 53-year-old pilot
as he rested in the cockpit of his aircraft. "I've had a bunch of
close calls (with trees) where I've had to duck the plane. You've got
to be extremely careful."

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 along with the area
surrounding the Larandia base.

The FARC has never attacked the base, but some Americans working here
believe that construction workers, maids and other Colombian civilians
working at Larandia are keeping tabs on the Americans for the rebels.

"I don't know anybody that wants to go off base," said one American
logistical expert. "It's there - the sense that the bad guys are
surrounding us."