The type also served under a U.S. civilian agency, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The C-46 played a supporting role in many clandestine operations during the late 1940s and early 1950s, including resupply efforts to Chiang Kai-Shek's troops battling Mao's Communists in China as well as flying cargoes of military and medical supplies to French forces via Gialam Airfield in Hanoi and other bases in French Indochina. The CIA operated its own "airline" for these operations, Civil Air Transport (CAT), which was eventually renamed Air America in 1959. An Air America C-46 was the last fixed-wing aircraft flown out of Vietnam at the close of hostilities there. On 29 April 1975, Capt. E. G. Adams flew a 52-seat version, with 152 people on board, to Bangkok, Thailand.