Stan and Tom:

I lost this thread and only now just found it again.

I've flown into Kamina Base twice in the last two years. The swimming pools are gone as is all the furniture and almost all of the people. The few people who are there just wander about the place with burdens on their heads like any other village. Most of the glass is still in the windows. (I've noticed the Congolese don't intentionally trash things like they do in poor neighborhoods in the US.)

The tower operator works with a handheld VHF comm and clears you to takeoff and land, if he has been able to charge his battery. The runways and the big hangers and what appear to be all the larger buildings are still there; all empty.

You two guys know this happens but for those who don't, I've heard of soldiers starving to death in various re-integration centers or in transit. One group got posted at Goma airport for weeks and weeks with 0, zero provisions. One general took the trains to be used for moving provisions to his troops and used them to start a railroad business to his hometown. Some of his guys starved.

Speaking of the LRA; one of our employees fought in the Ugandan wars for 3 years and operated against the LRA. He says they are VERY proficient in small unit infantry work.

Which reminds me; last year the UN brought in a Gueatemalan (sic) special forces unit to hunt down the LRA. They fought them once and got thumped. The UN has been very coy about providing details of that fight. Do you guys know anything about it? The most I could get from a UN guy was that "there are special forces, and then there are special forces."