Caldara decided to judge the situation for himself. On April 4, 1954, in the dead of the night, he flew his B-17 with an American crew over the valley of Dien Bien Phu, repeated the mission later with a French C-47 Dakota; and then once more with the B-17. The overall plan was simple enough; the two wings of B-29s from Okinawa and the one from Clark Air Base would rendezvous east of the Laotian capital of Vientiane, head for their target; and exit from Indochina via the Gulf of Tonkin. The French at the highest levels seemed to have no idea of the awful destructive power of the 98 Superfortresses. This bombing mission died a slow death as Winston Churchill was against it, but LBJ was Called Scuttler of this 1954 Bombing. Late that month on 29 April 1954 C-124 Globemasters from the 322nd Air Division were in the process of air-lifting into Indochina the brand-new 7th BPC (Bataillon de Parachutistes Coloniaux), en route from Europe to Vietnam via Colombo, Ceylon. Thus U. S. Air Force aircraft and personnel were actively involved in Vietnam in 1954.