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From the first day of Operation Frantic Joe until its end, Soviet counter-intelligence and the military’s Chief Political Administration ordered military interpreters to be present at breakfast, lunch, and dinner in case the USSR’s allies decided to chat with the Soviet personnel serving them. An interpreter was to report every word to the higher-ups, as well as what the Americans were saying among themselves.
The crews were assigned to mess halls by squadron. Each crew had its own table, and three tables represented, just as in the sky, one wing. Even the commander of the air group, Lieutenant General Ira C. Eaker, would come in from a sortie and eat breakfast with a crew in which the gunner or radio operator was a mere sergeant. To the complete astonishment of their hosts, general an
