[104-10182-10052.pdf — page 123]
#Subject: Trip to CongoDear Stan,Just a brief rundown on the Congo business. I arrived on time following Foarer and of course it was a holiday so did not and was not contacted until the following day (Tuesday). By that I had an agreement ready and in one hands on the Congolese. I met with the minister of him and he indicated all was in order and that the papers would be signed the following day (Friday). On Friday nothing happened so we created out Saturday, again nothing happened so there was nothing to do but wait until Monday. By this time I had talked with Sabena and got a free ticket on them from Leopoldville to Brussels so that I'd have more flexibility. On Monday there was still no action and again gave them the benefit of the doubt by remaining until Tuesday when I could have gotten a 707 flight on Monday night direct to Brussels. On Tuesday I left Leopoldville in the afternoon, proceeded to Brazzaville and that waited 10 hours for the delayed KLM flight (00-7), finally leaving at 3 AM and arriving in Frankfurt at 1900 that night.As I told you, Major Reiner is an Austrian who acts as an adviser to the Congolese Air Force. Major Pierrott, commander of the air force is young and ambitious. At the present time there is nothing but a shell and instructors are badly needed. There are, according to Pierrott, 4 AT-6's and 2 Tiger Moths on order which will give them a total strength of 9 of each aircraft. They expect to put a total of 120 cadets into training. I talked along the lines of a package deal on training but this didn't sink in. They just want to get started and go in to detail later. As you can well imagine, the government structure in the Congo is very shaky and it will be a long time before the U.N. forces leave and things settle in a normal manner. For example, there could be a change in the govt., including Pierrott, any day and this could be followed by any number of changes in the weeks following. Any contract we sign could be thrown out by a new government. In addition there is also one possibility of renewed violence which might throw everything in a turmoil.Without going in to detail, following are the more important points of the agreement:1. Air Force retain us for purpose of hiring personnel for purpose of training mechanic and pilot personnel.2. Air Force have transportation of personnel from point of hire to Leopoldville and return plus air travel done in the Congo.3. Air Force pays (to the bank in Ely) $1,000.00 for my expenses such payment to made within 20 days after signing agreement.4. Initially, 3 mechanic and 3 pilot instructors will be hired and Air Force will accept persons of German, Swiss, French or English nationality.5. Pay of personnel will be responsibility of Air Force and mechanics will receive $770.00 or $650.00 plus room. Pilots will receive $870.00 or plus flying pay which is figured at $50.00 for each 25 hours flown (they anticipate pilots will fly 75 hours per month) or $750 plus room plus flying pay. In addition, all personnel will be furnished their noon meal except on weekends when they are not working.6. Personnel will be able to transfer one half of their pay to country of residence---this figures out at $385.00 and $435.00 re-