Government sources confirmed reports here today that United States Air Force personnel, including flying officers and maintenance crews, will soon arrive in Jordan to train Jordanian pilots in the use of American supersonic F-104 Starfighters which the United States agreed to supply to the Amman Government after Israel’s retaliatory raid last November on the Jordanian village of Es Samu.
Report of the imminent arrival in Jordan of American military personnel was contained in a dispatch by Joe Alex Morris of the Los Angeles Times, which also described the unloading of military equipment for the Jordanian Army from U.S. C-130 cargo planes now in progress.
The United States agreed to provide the Starfighters to Jordan to relieve pressure on King Hussein from the Arab states to accept fighter planes from the Soviet Union. The imminent departure of the American training crews for Jordan indicates that the first deliveries of the aircraft will be well ahead of schedule.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.