Editing Evergreen International Aviation (section)

==CIA==
By 1978, Evergreen established a holding company, Evergreen Air, Inc., renamed Evergreen International Aviation, Inc. in 1980, and purchased 1,000 acres in McMinnville to create Evergreen Farms. The company ventured into passenger charters to Hawaii and the Caribbean but shifted to cargo operations after deregulation allowed major airlines to outprice Evergreen in passenger markets. In the 1970s, Evergreen acquired CIA-linked assets, including the agency’s aviation “skunk works” at Pinal Airpark, Arizona, where it performed specialized aircraft modifications, such as building Boeing Dreamlifters and servicing NASA’s Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft. Evergreen provided aviation services for the CIA, including transporting the Shah of Iran from Egypt to Panama and then to the U.S. in 1980, and conducted missions in El Salvador and Nicaragua. The company’s ties to the CIA were strengthened by senior executives with agency connections, though founder Smith publicly downplayed these links.