An advance party of 38 Americans connected with the U.S. early warning surveillance station to be installed between Israeli and Egyptian lines in Sinai arrived here last night. A chartered plane with the first consignment of equipment for the listening post landed at Ben Gurion Airport at about the same time.
The Americans include nine State Department officials headed by Nicholas G.W. Thorne, field director of the Sinai mission, and 21 technicians who will install and help operate the advance warning post. The technicians are employed by the Systems Inc. of Dallas, Tex., the private contractor selected by the State Department to install, operate and maintain the electronic station. About 200 Americans, all civilians, will man the surveillance post once it is installed.
The equipment landed here last night included tractors, generators and mobile homes. It was loaded on trucks that drove off immediately for Sinai. Several more planeloads of electric and electronic devices and other equipment are due here tomorrow and Saturday. The Israeli army is assisting in setting up the American listening post that was provided for in the Israeli-Egyptian Sinai accord signed last September. Units of the army corps of engineers have been preparing ground for the construction of prefabricated houses.
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