Out from a month behind the U.S. Air Force secrecy curtain came the two RB-47 airmen who were released by the Russians shortly after John Kennedy's inauguration. In a prepared joint statement, followed by a question-and-answer session at Forbes Air Force Base, near Topeka,Kans., Captains Freeman B. Olmstead and John McKone (TIME cover, Feb. 3) told newsmen what happened to them after their RB-47 was shot down over the Barents Sea last July while flying a "ferret" mission to test Russian radar defenses. Their story of personal bravery under intense cold war pressures left unanswered the question of why the...
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