23rd Company and the youngest sergeant chef ever of the Force Publique. He received his sergeant major’s chevrons at the same parade that honored Sergeant Major Mobutu on his retirement from the Army, and they saw one another frequently after that, when Mobutu was working as a journalist on the L’Avenir in Léopoldville.
When, after Independence, the Force Publique had mutinied against its Belgian officers, and Secretary of State for National Defense Mobutu had to find officers for the Force from the black ranks of the Force, the first colonel named was Sergeant Major Jean-Baptiste Supo.
Mobutu had placed him in charge of dealing with the Belgians who had returned to the Congo to stop the Simbas from massacring the people (white and black) at Stanleyville, mainly because the senior Belgian officer was Colonel Van de Waele, the same man who had given him his second chance after he’d beaten up the corporal for insulting his mother. He had been their captain in the 23rd Company, and was one of the very few Belgians they knew they could trust.
When he had been at the Kamina Air Base with Colonel Van de Waele, before and after the Belgians had dropped parachutists on Stanleyville—which was now officially Kisangani, although few people used the new name—his mother had come to see him, and he had introduced her to Colonel Van de Waele and she told him that she now knew she was wrong about not wanting him to go off and be a soldier and that she was very proud of him. And Colonel Van de Waele had kissed his mother and said he was very proud of him too, and this time he could not keep the tears from running down his cheeks.
Colonel Supo had traveled from Costersmanville in a six-vehicle convoy, because there were still some Simbas in the bush, and sometimes they ambushed single cars and trucks on Route National Number Three. The convoy consisted of an ex-Royal British Army “Ferret” reconnaissance car, armed with one .30-caliber Browning machine gun; two Swedish Scania-Vabis armored cars, each armed with three Browning .30-caliber machine guns—a dual mount in front and a single machine gun firing toward the rear; two Ford ton-and-a-half trucks, holding between them a platoon of paratroopers; and a GMC carryall. The Fords and the GMC still bore the logotype of Mobil Oil Congo. He knew he would have to give them back, but right now he needed them.
The Ferret and one Scania-Vabis led the convoy, followed by the GMC and the two Ford trucks. The second Scania-Vabis was at the tail. Colonel Supo had ridden in the carryall, most of the way driving it himself, as his driver, Sergeant Paul Wotto, while enthusiastic and a good man to have around, was not a very good driver. And neither were the four officers of his personal staff in the back of the carryall.
Route National Number Three took them along the north bank of the Congo past the airport, and Colonel Supo was very surprised to see a small twin-engine airplane with US ARMY lettered on its fuselage parked in front of the terminal building. He decided it was worth a look, and turned out of the convoy onto the airport access road.
The two Ford trucks and the Scania-Vabis bringing up the rear followed him. The Ferret and the leading Scania-Vabis were almost a mile down the road before someone realized they had lost the tail of the convoy and hastily turned around to look for it.
By the time they reached the airport, Colonel Supo had spoken with the officer guarding the airfield and learned that there had been four people on the airplane: the two American pilots, both of them Swahili speaking, one of them a noir; Assistant Secretary of State for Defense for Provincial Affairs, M’sieu Hakino; and a second blanc, who the lieutenant believed had been referred to as “Doctor.” The lieutenant said they had requested quarters, and he had taken them to the Immoquateur, where one of the Americans had insisted on being taken to the tenth floor, where they entered the apartment formerly occupied by Air Simba and insisted on staying there.
As an afterthought, the lieutenant reported that the Assistant Secretary of State for Defense for Provincial Affairs had said he was in Stanleyville to see Colonel Supo, and that the black American had told him to tell Colonel Supo where they were.
Colonel Supo was back behind the wheel of his carryall when the lead elements of his