Evening star., 1951-04-08

gums main air force base at
Beauvechain ~ not very far from
the fated field of Waterloo-and
zoomed into the sunlit air.
THAT lads flying blind on in
strumentS," the captain told me
checking out for his green card
Wen have plenty green card pilots
by the time your F-84s really be-
gin coming in
His eyes shone. Those F-84S-
the first three have already ar
rived-are the biggest shot in the
arm the Belgian air force has had
since the war.
You'll need those green card
boys" the American lieutenant
colonel remarked. eff you can't
fly 'em in the soup you might as
well burn 'em up. Especially in
this part of the world, where it's
soupy half the time"
Air Field Is Enormous.
7 looked out over the really
enormous expanse of the air field.
You've certainly widely dis
persed here" I observed. Air
craft were dotted all round the
huge perimeter. several hundred
yards apart.
"You really should have given
us those Buses" the Belgian cap
tain said, very seriously.
"Buses?". I asked, not quite sure
I'd heard him correctly.
"Sure-buses. to get the pilots
to their aircraft quickly in case
of an alert" he replied. Here in
Belgium we're only minutes away
from the enemy bases. AS you say
we're dispersed. We have to dis
perse-we don't dare line our air.
craft up in nice neat rows in front
Of the hangers as you do in the
States. But also, we have to get
the pilots out to the dispersed
aircraft very fast when an alert
comes. So we asked for buses
Your people here said okay, but
back in Washington somebody was
quite shocked, said it was a luxury
item and turned the request down
cold. You shouldn't have done
that. We needed those buses
After all, you can't run very fast
or very far with a Chute strapped
on you."
Trucks Wouldn't Do.
I asked whether trucks-which
could be used for other things too
wouldn't have done as well. No,
said the captain, that was just
the trouble; trucks could, and
would, be used for other things
and would never be on hand when
needed.
A small matter-but a good ex-
ample Of how hard 1t is to make
decisions three thousand miles
away that will f1t a particular
local situation.
These misunderstanding aren't
the fault Of the energetic group
of United States officers and
civilian officials who are working
here in Brussels to build up the
Belgian fighting power. AS fal
as the air force is concerned, il
isn't too much to say that the
American officers have rescued il
from almost complete stagnatior
and have it well on the way tc
becoming a very useful, if moi
very large element in the Western
European air forces of which 1t
Gen. Lauris Norstad, USAF, will
assume overall command or
April 2.
For one thing. the United States
Air Force officers have revolution
lied Belgian basic air policy from
one of static air defense to one
in which close support of ground
troops has priority-even though
not on Belgian soil. This is an
immense step forward. BY next
year, the Belgian Air Force will
have full group-225 aircraft
plus spares-of F-84s, with an
other group to follow in 1853 and
possibly more later. There will
also be group of Meteor inter-
ceptors for local air defense.
I wouldn't want you to think
that all the credit is due to Amer
ican leadership and energy-the
Belgians are working hard, very