The following was posted yesterday as NEWS-850.  There was a very
 important mistake in the article. Jim
         Retired Air Force Gen. Leon Williams Johnson dies
     WASHINGTON -- November 13, 1997 07:29 a.m. EST -- Leon Williams
 Johnson, a retired Air Force general who won the Medal of Honor for
 a critical low-level raid on oil refineries in Romania during World
 War II, died Monday in Fairfax, Va. He was 93.
     A West Point graduate who retired from the Air Force in 1965,
 Johnson led a June 1942 raid on the Ploesti oil refineries, describ-
  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
 ed then by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill as "the taproot
 of German mechanized power."
     The June 11, 1942 raid on Ploesti was lead by Colonel Harry A.
 Halverson with 12 or 13 B-24s that were on the way to China and
 diverted for the mission. This was the FIRST American raid on
 Europe though the 8th bombed on July 4th, 1942. The raid was called
 Project No. 63.
     Johnson's mission was flown on August 1, 1943 and was called
 Operation Soapsuds. The name was later changed to "Tidal Wave",
 the code name for Ploesti.  This mission was a fiasco from the
 beginning to the end.
 Jim
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                  Aviation scandal in Romania
    BUCHAREST - November 14, 1997 12:35 p.m. EST - Romanian President
 Emil Constantinescu had a close call when an overloaded plane set to
 fly him to Hanoi aborted its takeoff at the last minute, Tarom air-
 lines officials said Friday.
     The officials said that excess baggage and negligence by ground
 staff were to blame for Thursday's aborted flight that delayed Ro-
 mania's delegation to Francophone summit in Hanoi.
     "At the moment of takeoff, because of the excessive and badly
 packed luggage, the center of gravity of the aircraft shifted to the
 tail, something that the pilot immediately noticed," an official at
 the Romanian national carrier said.
     Prosecutor-General Sorin Moisescu on Friday ordered a team of
 prosecutors, police and aeronautical specialists to investigate as
 the local press assailed conditions at the airport.
     After five tons of fuel were removed from the aircraft tanks,
 the plane was allowed to take off for the Vietnamese capital,
 according to Tarom and Romanian journalists on board.
     The plane was heading down the runway when the pilot hit the
 brakes.
     Airline officials attributed the problem to a faulty calculation
 of fuel and baggage load, which could make the aircraft dangerously
 hard to maneuver when it takes to the air.
     "If there is chaos at the national airport for a presidential
 flight, one wonders what happens for ordinary flights," the
 influential daily Adevarul commented.
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