1964 — The Stanleyville Hostage Rescue

On November 24, 1964, 350 Belgian paratroopers dropped from American C-130s onto Stanleyville, today Kisangani, in Operation Dragon Rouge. Simba rebels were holding more than 1,600 foreign hostages as the Congo Crisis raged. The paratroopers seized the airfield within 45 minutes and raced to the Victoria Hotel, where the captives' fate would be decided. It was a rescue flown in from another continent, against a clock no one on the ground could see or stop.

Over two days, more than 1,800 civilians were evacuated. But 24 hostages were executed before rescuers arrived — a somber note in an otherwise daring Cold War rescue, and the names behind the numbers.