AFRICOM take note

This is a photo of the field as it appeared in March of 2006. The recent improvements should have included the entire field as illustrated and maybe more.

I was talking to a guy I know the other day and he told me the airfield at Kole (in the Dem. Republic of the Congo, the DRC, Congo Kinshasa) has been improved. 30 guys with handtools worked for two weeks to resurface it with ground up termite mounds and lengthen it to about a mile in length. Now it should be capable of landing a C-130.

There is a USAAMRID project in Kole studying monkey pox. They are gathering unique and very valuable data about the disease. The runway was improved to support their operation in case there was a need for an emergency evacuation.

I have written about this before but throughout the Congo there are many airfields like Kole, old strips from the Belgian days. They drain well, have adequate subsurfaces and are generally long enough (or can easily be made enough) for medium size airplanes. And there are almost always termite mounds around that can be used to make a very fine surface, not as good as pavement but better than laterite. Just remember to incorporate turn around pads reinforced with river rock embedded in the surface.

This would make a fine foreign aid project (something I have also written about before). Airfields throughout the country could be upgraded with local labor and materials for not much money. Laborers cost $2 a day. The local economies would benefit greatly because AN-26s could land. The image of the US would be enhanced and if there ever was a need to put a Herc into Dekese...