CHAPTER 10SEPTRO
When I got to Spriggs-Payne, Mike had a surprise for me. He had, without anyone’s knowledge, agreed by contract to train selected Liberian candidates to fly. Since I was the only one of his pilots with a US government-issued flight instructor’s certificate, the task was given to me. The program was funded by USAID, as were a great many programs in Liberia at the time. The Cold War was raging, and both the Mali and Guinea governments were known to have strong communist leanings. Through USAID, the US was able to pour a huge amount of money into Liberia in the belief that it would establish a US democratic stronghold in Africa.
It was an interesting concept to take someone who had probably grown up with little knowledge of machinery and teach him how to handle something as
