Two sailors, a chief petty officer and a seaman first class, quickly replaced the maps of the Dominican Republic and Santo Domingo on a very elegant polished-wood, tripod-mounted map board with a map of the Republic of the Congo and its environs, then lowered a sheet of acetate over it.
Felter saw that the map board was equipped with grease pencils in four colors and a pointer. As he picked up the pointer, he saw that it bore an engraved plaque: PROPERTY OF THE OFFICE OF THE CHIEF OF NAVAL OPERATIONS.
He guessed, correctly, that the CNO had planned to use the map to describe how the Marines would go into the Dominican Republic. And he guessed, again correctly, that the Chief of Naval Operations did not particularly like a lowly colonel in civilian clothing using his map board.
“The insurrectionist forces,” Felter began, “known as the Simbas, are commanded by a self-appointed Lieutenant General Olenga. The Communists—not the Simbas themselves—refer to them as the Lumumbist Forces, after the late Patrice Lumumba, who, it is alleged, was assassinated in 1961 at the orders of Mobutu. So far as I know, Lumumba never laid eyes on Olenga.
"Following the Belgian jump on Stanleyville, and the roughly simultaneous military actions by the Belgians and the mercenaries of Major Michael Hoare, the Simbas were pretty well scattered all over these four provinces—Equatorial, Oriental, Kivu, and Kasai.”
He used the pointer to indicate the locations of the several provinces.
“About the only effective Congolese officer dealing with the problem has been Colonel Jean-Baptiste Supo, like Mobutu a former sergeant major in the Belgian Force Publique. As of about ten days ago, Supo has been given responsibility for all the provinces, and our augmented Special Forces team is attached to his headquarters in Costermansville, which is over here near Tanzania.
“Colonel Supo believes that the bulk of the on-the-run Simbas are in the vicinity of Luluabourg, in Kasai Province. Even these people are not well armed, as the Belgian jump and the Belgian/Mercenary advance took place before the Soviets could organize a supply operation.
“Colonel Supo believes that the Cubans, when they arrive in Africa, will join the Simbas in the Luluabourg area, and that their first priority will be to first better arm, and then train, the Simbas.
“There are two possible routes for the passage of arms and men into the ex-Belgian Congo. One is through the ex-French Congo, Congo Brazzaville, and the other is from Tanzania.
“Colonel Supo believes that by concentrating his forces against the Simbas around Luluabourg, it will make supplying the Simbas from Congo Brazzaville very expensive, and that they will therefore use Tanzania.
“Using what frankly slender forces he has in Oriental, Equatorial, and Kivu Provinces, Colonel Supo plans to reduce or eliminate the pockets of Simbas, and interdict the supply of men and matériel from Tanzania with the assistance of Special Forces Detachment 17, as follows:
"There are at present in the Congo a Beaver, two L-19s, and an H-13, and Major Lunsford, as you just heard, has requested two, preferably four, more L-19s. The aircraft are available, but we’re having trouble finding enough black pilots and maintenance personnel. I gave General Mobutu my word that I would see that as many of our people as possible would be black.”
“You’re telling me, Colonel,” the CNO said, “that you think you can patrol—and interdict men and matériel—in an area that huge with half a dozen spotter planes and what, forty men?”
“Yes, sir. Both Colonel Supo and Major Lunsford believe this can be done. With some help from the black B-26s and T-28s presently under the control of the company. We have no choice. President Kasavubu has publicly stated he will not have an American military presence in the Congo.”
“I’d love to know how,” CNO said.
“We are going to establish small outposts at dirt strip airfields at roughly fifty-mile intervals, from Basoko, west of Stanleyville, through Stanleyville, down to Costermansville, and then down Lake Tanganyika past Albertville to the Rhodesian border. There are apparently a large number of primitive airfields in the area, built by farmers and mercenaries, and not shown on aerial charts.”
“How do you know this?” the Chief asked.
“One of the officers was formerly a pilot in the area, sir.”
“A Congolese, you mean?”
“No, sir. An American officer. One of the two white Special Forces pilots. He was recently married to General Bellmon’s daughter.”
“I’ll be damned,” the Chief said.
“At each airstrip there will be a small detachment of Congolese soldiers, a supply of avgas and lubricants,