ARMED FORCES: Anywhere, Any Time

• Share

Back to the U.S. in a hospital plane last week came seven of the eight U.S. airmen who had been brutally attacked by Congolese soldiers a few weeks ago (TIME, Sept. 5). Like the thousands of Americans who man the ramparts of the world on ordinary duty, the G.I.s had come off one mission of mercy—flying supplies to Chilean earthquake victims—only to be assigned to another: delivering men and materiel into the Congo on U.N. duty. No sooner had they debarked in Stanleyville than they were pummeled and beaten by a howling mob.

Victims not so much of any enemy except wild chaos and disorder, the returning chipper and cheerful airmen were a welcome sample of American mission in a week when the U.S. was humiliated by the defection to Moscow of two trusted security employees (see below). Said Lieut. Kenneth E. Stickevers, his right hand in a splint and his left bandaged: "We do this for a living. We'll go anywhere, any time."