In the book "Air America", many companies were described, all of which had certain connections with the US government, at least in retrospect. The author had initially heard of the smuggling of animals and stumbled onto a much larger situation, which he was slow to grasp. One Flight Attendant stated in an airline brochure that she once worked a flight during which they carried "dead bodies... better not talk about that".
Civil Air Transport and Air Asia might have started in the 40's, if not the 50's. Was 'Bird Air' started in the 50's?
Evergreen Helicopters was mentioned several times along with Intermountain Aviation, based at Marana, Arizona (the windows were still painted over in '84 when another pilot and I were on a guided tour of several airplanes). Southern Air Transport. The "Caramar" Corp. The Delaware Corp (many companies are incorporated there), and the "Doublecheck Corp". The CIA supposedly operated the largest group of aircraft in the world, more than Aeroflot. A guy who was current in four-engined planes and joined with this expectation, might be assigned to fly a Helio-courier (maybe later a Pilatus Porter, reportedly much more forgiving) as a bush pilot in Laos. At the airport in Vientiane, Laos, guys would taxi out with bags of rice to drop to (Hmong?) villagers, as some Russian pilots taxied out from another airport location for a totally different mission..."soft rice"...."hard rice". I don't know if these guys dealt with the "Ravens'. But the author seemed a bit confused about whether US Marine aviators were part of the US military. Long ago I flew with a guy who might have instructed in the Laotian AT-28, but can't recall his name. He said that while flying a DC-3, he was spit out of a thunderstorm, upside down. Another guy who was an IP over here in '79 flew as that "other guy's" DC-6 FO somewhere in southeast Asia and later the C-9 at Andrews. Forgot his name too
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As for Air Force guys who were shot down over Laos, especially over the lethal Plain of Jars, only about 5-10% were rescued. If you were not in uniform, but dressed as a civilian, it is likely that the odds against you if captured might be much worse.
