The Foreign Service Journal, March 2014

32 MARCH 2014 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL runway was in such bad condition that when it landed it broke a strut. So we got the inspection team sent off, and we started to figure out what to do with the plane. And as fast as we can try and get it repaired, the plane starts to freeze. There were no hangars. It was totally out in the open, in Siberia, in the winter. Every systemon the plane that had any type of fluid started to freeze and break. So the air crew realized the only thing they could do is open every system, just drain everything before it could freeze and rupture. We had to order another plane out of Yokota, and it took two days to get it there with a repair crew. Sandy and I both speak Russian, but my Foreign Service lan- guage instruction did not include aeronautic engineering terms. We spent two days standing outside, unprotected on the tarmac in Siberia, trying to help the air crew negotiate with the airport authorities. I ended up with frostbite across my cheeks. There are some great pictures of us desperately trying to keep warm in all this. We actually got to be pretty good buddies with the airport people through all of this. We spent two days standing outside, unprotected on the tarmac in Siberia, trying to help the air crew negotiate with the airport authorities. –Eileen Malloy The thing that I was most pleased with was the U.S. crew of the plane. They were trapped in Siberia unexpectedly for two days without as much as a change of clothes. We made arrangements for them to get hotel rooms, to be fed, but after that they were bored and wanted to go for a walk. They had not planned even to get off the plane. So they did not have winter gear or parkas to walk around. … There was a winter ice festival going on with what seemed like the whole town out building ice castles and sliding down these enormous runs of ice on rugs and stuff. The flight crew got into it and they started playing with the local people. They had a great time. I think that little interaction didmore for Soviet-American relations than anything else because they actually got to talk to people. People could see that the U.S. military men were not monsters. It was a really hard two days, but it was interesting. v The treaty called for each side to pay for services. For instance when our plane came in, we had a payment that we wouldmake toMoscow for the airport services that we were provided. But that would not actually get to the people running the airport at Ulan Ude. They toldme they never saw any of that money. So they had to provide the support, but they did not have enough funding to sustain the services. I suggested to them that rather than paying a cash amount, why not have the U.S. government send them a used de-icing truck from some airport in the United States?They thought that would be absolutely wonderful. When I got back and recounted this con- versation, the Washington policy group slappedme on the hand. I had no authorization tomake any such offer, to have any such dis- cussion with the Soviets. We were not here to help them. Tome it was the most logical thing. It would have made our operation safer. It was the only way we would know that the money we were paying them for services was actually getting to them. But there was still this reflexive, “We’re not helping the bad guys” kind of thing. I think in hindsight people realize now that had we started on a more cooperative relationship back then, it might have been easier tomount some of the national security programs that we did after the breakup of the Soviet Union. n Eileen Malloy in sub-zero weather with the inspection team’s plane. Photo courtesy of Eileen Malloy.