The two United States airmen in the RB-47 incident arrived at Andrews Air Force base, near Washington, USA, Jan 27, after being released from prison by the Soviet Union. They were not by President Kennedy and their families. Later, the airmen - Captain Freeman Olmstead, aged 34, and Captain John McKone, aged 38 - went to the White House for ten.

Both were accompanied by their wives ... and there to make the party complete was Mrs. Kennedy. The two airmen had not seen their wives since last July, when they took off in their reconnaissance jet from Brizo Norton, UK, base. The plane was shot down over the Barents Sea by a Soviet fighter. Four other crewmen died, and Captains Olmstead and McKone were arrested and held as "spies" in Moscow, USSR.

The Soviet Union said the plane had violated its air-space; and the U.S. replied that the plane was 30 miles from Soviet borders. Six other U.S. airmen are currently held by the Communists : Francis Gary Powers (U-2 incident) in the Soviet Union; and five others in the Chinese People's Republic.