Word: airstrips
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1960-1969
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...trouble goes back to 1959, when the British finished a jet airstrip on the southern island of Gan to link their Middle Eastern bases with Singapore and Australia. In the process, they accidentally subsidized an uprising; most of Can's labor force came from Addu Atoll, which had rebelled against the islands' central government at Male, 300 miles to the north. To protest taxation and "other repressive measures," the rebels had even formed an independent "Republic" on their little atoll...
...jungle airstrip was hardly big enough, but a Colombian air force DC-4 touched down to unload a most unmilitary cargo: beds, trunks, dogs, chickens and 64 stony-faced peasants who had been strapped in the bucket seats. The peasants were homesteaders arriving at the outpost town of Florencia to start a new life in Colombia's rich but remote southwest. By sunset, the air force plane was back in Bogota, 240 miles away, with a load of hardwood...
...commandos, had piled up 500 rebel dead, but was unable to break the siege. At Gungu, another government outfit mowed down 100 guerrillas who staged a suicide charge with bows and arrows, spears and pangas. But the troops were cut off when rebels dug trenches across the local airstrip. Hardly had the commandos ar rived at Kikwit when one of their top officers, Army Chief of Staff Lieut...
There was a dirt airstrip but no commercial service. Fishermen caught mackerel and bonito from dugout canoes; farmers marketed vegetables in the central plaza. A couple of temperamental diesel engines generated electricity to light the four-block bay-front promenade, and the townsfolk got along fine without a proper bridge across the Cuale River that split the town. Pedestrians took a swinging footbridge, and Vallarta's five taxis just sloshed across the shallow stream...
...twin-engine Caribou Army transport swooped in for a landing at a dirt airstrip 110 miles northwest of Saigon, General Paul Harkins, 59, U.S. military commander in Viet Nam, noticed a small problem. Hey, wait! Look! Too late. And the plane touched down with its landing gear firmly up and locked. Harkins and all aboard emerged unhurt. But definitely unhappy. "That's one hell of a way to come down," roared the general. "Well sir," explained the pilot helpfully, "I forgot to put the wheels down...