See here. No, not the crappy film, not even the excellent book by Christopher Robbins that got perverted into the crappy film, but rather the organization itself.
My favorite coffee mug is an oversized Air America mug that my cousin brought back from SE Asia.
When I think of Air America the first name that comes to mind is James B. McGovern Jr. ‘Earthquake McGoon’, as he was called, was a fighter pilot in WWII with the 14th Air Force (CBI). In 1954 he was flying a C-119 on a mission in Laos for Civil Air Transport, the forerunner of Air America, when his plane was shot down.
EDIT: Photo
I was just gonna post about the jones I have for Rachel Maddow, but not only is she not that kind of girl, this is not that kind of thread.
It says “Access Forbidden” when I click on the photo link.
They found his remains in 2002, but they weren’t positively identified until last year. See here and here, and also here from the Air America website. The first link mentions: “Captured by [Chinese] communist troops after a forced landing, ‘McGoon’ was freed six months later. Colleagues joked that his captors simply got tired of feeding him.” My understanding is he really did raise so much hell with them, and he was so big they found it hard to handle him, that that really was why they let him go. It’s a wonder they did not execute him.
How fitting! 
OK, I found the page where the photo came from: http://www.talkingproud.us/HistoryEarthquakeMcGoonA.html
Ah yes. There’s the dear boy. Thanks. 