Africom Stands Up 2006-2017

[Tom Odom]

What did LTC Babbit say in one of his profound reports on the Congo civil war ? Wait for it !

Yep!

Also I remember the "nixon" routine when he flew back in from Bukavu--"I was not spying"--as we steered him onto the plane out of Goma.

Then again he ended up advising VP Al Gore on Africa

After I was over in Rwanda and went back to the States for a couple of weeks with VP Kagame's visit to see the SecDef, I ran into one of my classmates from French in 1983, Gus Lorenz He was working OSD-ISA-Africa and we of course worked on Kagame's visit as ISA was the action office. Gus had gone to ZAMISH (for the uninitiated that was the US security assistance offcice in Zaire); you probably knew him.

Anyway he was somewhat upset because I had over the past year--as you know--hammered the point that the FAZ (Zairian military) was broken. He felt that I was too harsh; I suspect because he wrongly felt it reflected on ZAMISH personnel. Of course, my replacement in Zaire did her best to rebuild the FAZ's reputation in the next 2 years; 1996 thru 1998 proved just how correct we were and how wrong they were.

But again on Brazza, I often wondered as they were our escape hatch and we were their escape hatch, what would have happened had the two Congo's gotten their rhythm of discontent in synch. I guess we could have hijacked the ferry and hid in the middle of the river.


Best

Tom

[Stan]

Tom,

You recall, that ferry nearly sank leaving her passengers in the prop wash as the ship's Captain gunned the motors in a feeble attempt at escaping the onslaught of passengers. I had the APO mail from Brazza and decided to fly that morning.

Yes, I know Gus. He was there when things were smokin' to the tune of 7 million. We even had our very own English language teacher under contract from CONUS. Gus was optimistic, even when our boss, an AF O-6 was not ! We would settle disagreements with a weekend party Sam, the English teacher would get drunk, cry and, consistent with his *African-American spirit would sing "Swing low, Sweet Chariot, Coming for to carry me home" and I would fall over from laughing as the Army Admin Officer (a huge Ranger) would perform bodily gestures as if we were all deaf.

Also I remember the "nixon" routine when he flew back in from Bukavu--"I was not spying"--as we steered him onto the plane out of Goma.

This reminds me of the current thread RE DIA and her personnel. We did our job, got slammed and he moves on to create the acronym UXO with Gore and party. Truely, a sad state of affairs.

Regards, Stan