WHERE WERE YOU
DURING THE CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS?

THE QUESTION: What were you doing at the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis? Whether it was standing alert in Spain or sitting in a classroom in Kansas, provide at least a sentence or two on what you were doing during the period of the crisis -- if you can give more details or a larger story, it'll all help. And if you can fill in something from that time period for those who are no longer with us, that will also help.

THE ANSWERS: Here's what some of the class had to say. We'll add more as class members send us the information. Also, see the attached maps ...

#1 - MacArthur on Football

We 59ers entered the Air Force Academy in June 1955. On the first day of the first year of the first class to be selected, we didn't know what to expect. There were no upper classes , so it was that on that first day in 1955 we new cadets began learning - memorizing - bits of military knowledge that had originated in other schools for other purposes. One example I can still recite by heart is MacArthur's words on football:

"On the fields of friendly strife are sown the seeds that on other days and other fields will bear the fruits of victory."

Whether those particular words are still memorized by incoming cadets in Colorado Springs, I do not know. But it helped explain the importance of competition and sports as our first class and those that immediately followed it began a tradition of excellence on the "fields of friendly strife".

In 1959 207 of us graduated and went on into the "real" Air Force and "real" life. Three years later I was a pilot in Strategic Air Command, with a strategic mission. With pilot training behind me, combat-crew qualified and gathering experience in the ways of strategic air operations, I and my young family took a couple of weeks vacation, timed to coincide with the football homecoming game in Colorado Springs. On a sunny afternoon in October 1962 I rejoined many of my classmates who had spread out across the Air Force and the world, as fighter pilots, instructors - even a Rhodes scholar was in the group. In the stands just a few feet from my seat were the most senior officers in the Air Force, including General Curtis LeMay, the father of strategic bombardment concepts and Strategic Air Command. As football games do, halftime came around and in between halftime shows I got up and went to the men's room. I had been standing in line for a moment when I realized that I was surrounded by more general officers than I had ever seen. There was little banter and no talk except an occasional comment about the game. I remember using the facilities and thinking, "Gee - right on top of General LeMay's." Then it was back to the seats at the football game to tell my wife about my close encounter with one of the icons of the Air Force. Partway through the third quarter I noticed that the VIP section which General LeMay had dominated was now completely empty. All of the stars were gone. Disappointed that they hadn't remained for the full four quarters, apparently the generals had gotten a call to return to Washington before the game was over.

It was about four days later that President Kennedy made his short talk about finding missiles in Cuba, the Cuban missile crisis began and I hurried back to combat alert. Only then did I link the generals' return to Washington with the planning for that critical moment of our history.

It was perhaps then that the class of '59 began in earnest to use those lessons learned on General MacArthur's fields of friendly strife, to sow the seeds of victory.

Anonymous

#2 - Air Defense Patrols

In the fall of '62 I talked our wing commander into getting an aircraft for an Academy game if I got us tickets. Don't remember which game - perhaps CSU or Army? We were sitting in the stands on Sat. afternoon when they began paging general officers early in the game. Shortly after half-time my wing cc was paged and we headed for Pete Field. Twenty four hours later I was at McCoy AFB, Florida. As a sidelight, Orlando International still carries the call letters "MCO". We flew off the coast of Cuba for the next 3 - 4 weeks. The most exciting times were provided by airliners with no known flight plans coming across the Caribbean - fortunate that none were shot down! Had one day off and went to see Tom Chase at MacDill, but of course, SAC and Tom's B-47s had departed to inland bases. When things quieted down we went back to Otis AFB, Mass and the routine of Air Defense Command flying.

Dick Carr

#3 - TDY To Greenland

I've pondered this a bit and this is how it went with me.

In October 1962, I was stationed at Otis AFB, Massachusetts, assigned to the 19 Air Refueling Squadron, flying the KC-97. I was a copilot assigned to standboard. When the thing kicked off I was on a VC-121 from the AEW&C Wing there at Otis along with Mike Reardon (Mike at the time was a General's Aide which is probably how he got the airplane for the "cross-country"), Al Waters and Steve Hamer plus a host of other Otis troops headed to the Air Force Academy to attend a football game. As I remember it was the "new" Stadium dedication where Oregon State whupped us. I haven't forgiven them since! Anyway, when we landed at Pete Field I remember Reardon got involved in a high level pilot conference at base ops with the crux being that the aircraft had to go right back to Otis. We passengers could return or stay as we desired and some other transportation might be arranged after the game.

Sometime following the game the group of us from Otis boarded a C-54 and headed east. I remember the trip well because I had a whopper of a runny nose cold which closed my Eustachian tube and I over-stressed an ear drum on descent. It didn't burst but bled internally. The Flight Surgeon at Otis promptly grounded me and I reported to my Squadron DNIF.

The 19th had been pulling satellite alert at Sondrestrom AB, Greenland as well as at Otis during that period of time. I kinda enjoyed Sondy probably because the Squadron staff, CEG or any of the rest of SAC never came around. It seemed that the normal schedule was to fly up two tankers with six crews. We'd go on alert the next morning and the crews getting off alert would take two aircraft and return to Otis. That way all the crews and aircraft got rotated regularly. On the trips up to Greenland one of the tankers would have a pallet of food and supplies for the O Club up there. It was a good club, even had slot machines but the big attraction was the SAS airline stewardesses who would come over from the airline terminal on the other side of the runway. SAS didn't choose homely stewardesses nor were they old like we and they are now.

On our return to Otis from the AFA things were in a hub-bub. Every available aircraft and aircrew was going on alert and we might even have been in DEFCON 2. I remember that it wasn't long and I found myself on another C-54, this one from Headquarters 8th Air Force at Westover, along with some of our other crews on the way to Sondrestrom. At Sondy we were constantly on alert, but things weren't bad because we weren't over-crowded on alert like they were back home. Also being a long ways from Cuba, and the lack of input from the US news media, we didn't feel the tense times that was evident at home. Greenland being a possession of Denmark was a good TDY station. The Air Force had contract mess facilities run by the Danes and the food was superb. The only Closed Officers Mess that I ever was in was there and they did feed us well. A tradition was a genuine Danish roll and coffee every morning following the trip to the aircraft for preflight. It was also the only place that I ever looked to the south to see the Northern Lights. The sight of the ice pack above the base will always remain in my mind.

Majestic!  I don't remember how long we were at Sondy but would guess at least a month during the Cuban Crisis. The return trip to Otis was probably dead-heading on a Tanker. I do remember that my ear was all cleared up for a long time and I was getting concerned that I would miss a month's flight pay ($110) before I could get back to Otis to see our flight surgeon to clear me back to flying status and I could actually go fly to earn my flight pay.

One funny story to come out of the alert facility at Otis during the whole crisis was that having everyone in the Squadron on alert there was no change over or chance to do any personal business or just get away from the crush of green suited humanity. Sac being a tenant on Otis which was an Air Defense Command Base, our alert facility was around on the other side of the runway from the main base facilities and we had no alert vehicles as we just ran to our aircraft. Somehow the Squadron commander arranged it so in rotation crews were able to get about four hours off to do whatever personal business needed to be done. One of our copilots managed to sleep clear through the few hours his crew was allotted off, his buddies didn't awaken him. so he spent the entire Cuban Crisis on alert.

I visited with my wife about what she remembers doing during that time and she drew a blank. She would have been pregnant with our second child at the time and we had a little girl already so it must have been business as usual for her. She was probably relieved that she didn't have to pack up the kid and go visit dad on alert.

Dusty Trail

AT THE NORTHEASTERN BASES

#4 - Getting Lots of Flying Time

I'll answer this before I forget!!

I was busy flying RC121s out of Otis. A goodly bunch of our wing were deployed to FL. I think they were at Homestead, but I'm not sure of that. Our flying schedule didn't change as a result of the crisis since our normal schedule was around the clock coverage of the Atlantic orbit points. Our individual flying did pick up due to the deployment of the aircraft and crews to FL.

Wish I could add something exciting, but I was mainly pushing throttles. I flew about 2000 hours in about 30 months.

Al Waters

#5 - Home (Away From Home) Alert

At the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis I was a Co-Pilot of a KC-97G Tanker stationed at Westover AFB, MA. When the S__t hit the fan we were called in to ready and man our aircraft for an "Alert" launch. We normally had no "Home Alert". We normally pulled all our alert out of far northern bases such as Harmon, Newfoundland or Sondrestrom, Greenland, so we were unprepared for home alert. Anyway we spent seven days "living" aboard our aircraft taking turns on the headset, 24 hrs a day, awaiting launch orders. We were not allowed to leave the aircraft for any reason. They even brought a "Roach Coach" around to feed us at the aircraft.

Finally, after the seventh day, they launched us with orders to go to Harmon, Newfoundland to pull alert there. We normally had six crews on alert at Harmon, but when we got there we had a force of ninety tankers on alert, there. I thought we were going to sink the island, or at least relocate it by sheer force if we ever started all our engines at once. We were told there would be absolutely no practice alpha or bravo alerts while we were there and that if the klaxon went off, it would be the "Real Thing". There was barely room to move an aircraft on the ramp anyway. As the alert facility was obviously overflowing, our crew was housed on the second floor of an old barracks on the west end of the field (opposite end from the alert facility).

On the second morning we were there I had just gotten up and was looking out the window when I saw an Airman open one of the fuel pit control buildings and the building suddenly blew up. I called the rest of the crew to get dressed, they were already bolt upright in bed, and said we better get ready for the klaxon as several of our aircraft were sitting on the fuel pits hooked to, and beside, the building which had just blown and was now fully engulfed in flames. Sure enough, the klaxon went off and ninety crews were shortly racing all over the base in an attempt to get to their respective aircraft and get them started. It was quite a site to behold, specially for the crews housed in the "Mole Hole" (alert facility). As they came running out they saw this huge cloud of black smoke rising from the far end of the base and considering their previous instructions regarding the use of the klaxon they were sure we had been attacked. When everyone got engines started and were on the radio, those next to the burning building immediately started taxiing to get away from the area of the fire. This almost started a massive launch as the airways were so crowded and garbled no one was sure what was happening except they were sure this must be the "real thing". The Command Post had one hell of a time convincing them that this wasn't a launch. There was no way to control the force except to finally send a coded message outlining a bravo practice alert. Anyway, they finally got the tankers away from the burning building and got everyone else settled back down. It was quite a nerve racking day for many.

Jim Brown

#6 - Operational, Heavyweight KC-135 Missions - The "Thrill" of a Lifetime

I was in SAC flying KC-135s at Loring AFB, Limestone, Maine, during the Cuban Missile Crisis. I was a copilot in the 42nd ARF, part of the 42nd BW. Our squadron was a 20 UE squadron, so we were issued about 23 birds. That allowed us to have 20 on hand all the time--some were down at Tinker getting overhauled and refurbished once in a while. The 135 was fairly new in the inventory, and some squadrons had a few birds and no combat ready crews, so the unready crews flew their birds to Loring where we manned them on alert. I think we had 36 birds, almost an airplane per crew. Oh yes, we did get some of the visiting crews combat ready, about three or four, so they could help in that department.

Our alert schedule was seven days on and three off, then back on for seven, and on and on and on. On the three days off, we flew either two or four sorties to refuel B-52s, which were on airborne alert. That meant that we flew either one or two of the three days off alert. Kept us kind of busy. Those missions were short, but really tiring. We would take off with two KCs at 8 in the evening, landing at 11. Then off again at 2 in the morning, landing at 5. We'd fly formation to a rendezvous point south of Nova Scotia and meet two 52s. We'd offload 120 thousand pounds of JP4 each then turn around and head for Loring. If we were unlucky, we'd do that two nights in a row and finally have a day off. It was really exhausting, flying those two missions so close together and over the darkest part of the night.

To show you how exhausting it was, I'll tell you about one mission. We were headed back to Loring after the second mission, at roughly 4 am. We were number 2, flying 500 feet above and a mile behind lead. I awoke with a start, my chin bouncing off my chest. I was startled and knew my AC would give me a ration for sleeping. I looked over to see if he'd caught me, but he was sound asleep. I turned around to look at the boomer--asleep. The navigator--asleep. All four of us asleep.

I just let everyone sleep and kept an eye on the bird and the radar to station keep on lead. About 10 minutes later the AC woke up, also with a start. I told him that we'd all been asleep, and I hadn't the foggiest idea for how long. He was kind of groggy for a few minutes and then glanced at lead and said, "I wonder if they are awake?" He keyed the radio and called. No answer. He called again, and again no answer. On the third try, there was a startled response, and we laughed knowing they'd also all been asleep. Two KC-135s with both crews sound asleep.

I have no idea how many other crews had the same experience. We were pretty ratty after a week on alert. Having to fly two or four short but in-the-dead- of-night missions on the three days off didn't shine us up much. We sure were glad when that whole exercise was over.

Of course, there was the added stress of knowing that Loring and our families were going to be incinerated less than half an hour after we got scrambled if the balloon went up. Most wives and families stayed on base. Where in hell else was there to go. Everything on the east coast was going to be incinerated and then irradiated anyway.

I personally found the Cuban Missile Crisis more stressful than flying as a forward air controller in the O-1 and O-2 in Nam. At least there my family wasn't in danger. And the whole of civilization as we knew it wasn't going to come to a horrific and sudden end.

Art Elser

TRAINING OTHERS

#7 - The Jet Instructor Pilot

Flying as an IP in T-33's at Webb AFB, TX

Walter Schmidt

#8 - Needs of the Service

During those tough days I was still training others to go forth (Instructor pilot training) at Randolph AFB. My memory of that time was of one group of instructor pilot trainees who had just recently reentered the Air Force, because of the missile crisis of course. The Air Force in its wisdom did not send these folks to the front lines as they had dreamed when they rejoined, instead these old heads filled a need of instructors at the UPT bases. With that as a memory I never forgot that the needs of the service came first and some volunteers did not know where their destination was when they came back in. at least it was a learning situation for some of us.

Skip Smothermon

ATLANTIC OPERATIONS

#9 - Buzzing The Enemy

I was stationed in Bermuda as a KC-97 navigator. I recall being on vacation in the US, being "ordered" back to Kindley(?) AFB ... to fly search patterns looking for Russian shipping. When we spotted any ship we buzzed them (yes, a KC-97 can buzz) and took pictures with our personal 35 mm cameras. The idea was to get pictures of missile containers on deck. My mother in Fort Collins stock piled canned goods in the basement -- that were still there when I got back from Viet Nam in 1970. In any case I did get the expeditionary force ribbon for this heroic effort.

John M. Howell

#10 - Keeping the Records Right

I was assigned at Kindley Air Force Base in Bermuda, technically in the theater of operations. This was a big base, with air refueling, weather and rescue wings, as well as all of the support for Military Air Transport Service, which owned the base.

I was in the Civil Engineering Squadron, and my alert duty was to draw a weapon, proceed to accounting and finance to draw a sum of money for use if we were to deploy, and launch a paperwork project for people in the squadron to allot or forward pay to dependents. We also were to dust off the (nonexistent) evacuation plan for dependents. I did all of that, over a short space of time, and spent the remainder of the crisis waiting for something to happen. I do not recall that anyone from Kindley actually deployed. But the air refueling folks, in particular, had an exciting time.

All of us at the base did get the Cuban Crisis service ribbon, which I think was later reconfigured with a different name to cover several such salient events of the Cold War.

Curt Cook

#11 - 72 F-100s Airborne at the Same Time?? Really??

I was Squadron Mobility Officer for the 429th Air Refueling Squadron at Langley AFB, VA. On the actual weekend of deployment, I was on home alert, as I lived only 5 miles from the base. On Sunday afternoon I was playing with my infant son in the backyard when I noticed a lot of tankers taking off. Odd, I thought, but I guessed it was the other squadron's activity (the 427th, Jimmie Jay's squadron).

Monday morning when I went into work I found out that the squadron had been tasked to send six tankers south to MacDill AFB, FL, and all of the mobility planning and organization got thrown out of the window. They didn't activate the alert chain, nor, of course, did they even notify me, the Squadron Mobility Officer. So much for military efficiency. Anyway, by Thursday I was put on a throw-together crew and we were flying missions. The one I remember the clearest was when we were refueling a flight of 72 F-100s---that was impressive.

Fred Wynn

AIRLIFTERS AT WORK

#12 - Moving The Marines

I was flying the C-124 on a shuttle moving Marines from El Toro to Cherry Point. The most interesting aspect was that we heard the President's address over New Mexico enroute to Cherry Point. The interesting part is it was the third or fourth trip; we had started the effort prior to the time the White House said it learned of the missiles in Cuba. The first trip was Charleston- El Toro and crew rest. Subsequent trips were El Toro-Cherry Point-El Toro and crew rest. I think we did the round trip five times in all. This is from memory. I can look up my flight logs if you need confirmation or further detail.

Ed Josephson

#13 - A Different Operational Mission

I was flying C-118s out of McGuire then with MATS. Had a scheduled mission to Dhahran, S.A. I remember going into Charleston for our onload, and everywhere I looked, all I saw were the APs guarding a lot of B-47s. It was an eerie, ominous feeling. Probably as close as we ever got to pressing the button.

Joe DeSantis

#14 - Ready - To Make A Political Statement

My first duty station after pilot training was a C-130 assignment in France. When the Cuban Missile broke, I was on a crew sent TDY to Rhein-Main to sit on a 15-minute runway alert. The East German government had threatened to close the Berlin Corridor and since our unit was tasked to maintain the Berlin Corridor capability stemming from the Berlin Airlift in 1948 we were supposed to fly the Corridor to assert our rights if the commies closed the corridor. Since the East Germans had previously shot down a B-66 and a T-39 I had some reservations about the ability of a C-130 to survive that route under hostile conditions. However, we were briefed that F-104's would be orbiting just outside the corridor to protect us in case of any "aggressive air operations". Having survived a course in Aeronautics at the AFA, I computed the relative velocities of the F-104 versus whatever SAM version was operative at the time and decided that Lockheed's technology wouldn't help much. Fortunately, we were not called upon to go. Hope this provided a minute frag for your history. Thanks for taking this on this task.

John Gulledge

#15 - Ready - For What?

I have some vivid recollections about the CMC. I was stationed at Travis AFB in the 84th ATS. Our SAC support mission was to take supplies to a desert airport so the B52s that got back could refuel and resupply. When we went on red alert for CMC it was discovered that no one was sure just where we were supposed to go. We sat out the red alert trying to find out. Also the base commissary was mysteriously filled with 60 day packages of food and instructions were handed out or families to evacuate taking he food supply along. Outside the base the civilians didn't have a clue.

Several years after the CMC, about 1966 I think, I was directed to study the CMC command and control while with the Center for Naval Analysis. A story I found out about summed up the whole situation: The Army was instructed to set up Hawk missiles along the southern coast of Florida to try to stop Cuban air attacks flying in low. In Virginia a convoy of trucks was formed to carry these Hawks to Florida using the new Eisenhower military highway route. When the convoy pulled out of the gate and turned onto the highway a state trooper stopped it. The OIC was asked what the weight of the vehicles carrying the Hawks was. It turned out the vehicles were overweight and the convoy did not move for four hours while the Pentagon sent messages to the Governor to get the patrolman to let the convoy proceed!

Any way these are some quick memories.

Wiley Burch

#16 - Family To The Rescue

At the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis I was stationed at Mountain Home AFB as a missile support helicopter pilot and also flew the base support C-123. My wife was in the hospital giving birth to our first child. At this time we were scheduled to be moved from one base house to another and I had made arrangements with the base to take leave and move while my wife was in the hospital. The day of the crisis my daughter had just been born, the movers had just loaded up the moving van and my father was arriving on the train after a trip from New York to see his first grandchild. Needless to say , I was ordered back from leave and told to launch ASAP with the C-123. Unfortunately, one of the very first things the movers had packed was my flying gear. As a result, they had to unload virtually the entire moving van to recover my gear. While the moving van was being unloaded I made a mad dash to the train train station, picked up my Dad, drove him to the base and pointed out the old and new quarters and told him "You've got it", dropped him off, made another mad dash to the hospital to say goodbye to my wife and new daughter and was off. I'll never forget that day.

Ken Thompson

AMERICA'S HEARTLAND

#17 - Missiles At The Ready

At the time the Cuban Missile Crisis broke, I was in the process of being reassigned from a navigator slot with the 431st Air Refueling Squadron at Biggs AFB, Texas to the first Minuteman wing to become operational, the 341st Strategic Missile Wing at Malmstrom AFB, Montana. The Crisis prompted the wing to achieve a much earlier alert-ready status than originally planned. That was the beginning of the Minuteman Missile force's participation in the Triad concept which, as you know, lasted for decades during the Cold War and beyond. (I later became the Squadron Commander of the 67th Strategic Missile Squadron, 44th SMW, at Ellsworth AFB, South Dakota in the late 1970s.)

Jerry Garber

#18 - First The Real Test, Then a Practice Test

I was on alert with SAC (KC-135 tankers) at Blytheville Arkansas when we saw the President on TV and heard about the threat. The squadron sent several crews to Spain. We got off on Thursday and on Friday got sent to Bunker Hill, Indiana (now Grissom AFB) for the duration. My crew pulled a primary alert mission (one of 8) while Bunker Hill sent their crews to overseas alert. There were 20 B-58s and over 50 tankers on alert there. A lot of the crews stayed in BOQ barracks and used rental cars as alert vehicles.

At the end of the crisis we were getting ready to be relieved when the SAC IG arrived and pulled a no-notice ORI. We had to take all the tests and undergo the interview with the IG team (but avoided having to fly the missions). Our crew got the top grade of all 8 crews on alert. Doris and I talked it over before I left and she loaded the station wagon with emergency supplies like powdered milk and motor oil. We planned to meet in her great-grandparents home town in Illinois if the worst happened (read Alas Babylon). She (and 2 children) ended up going to stay with her parents in Denver and flying back to Kansas City to stay with my folks until we could rendezvous.

Jim Carpenter

#19 - A Different Kind of Test

I was testing gyroscopes at Holloman AFB, New Mexico. Even we were on alert to fly to Florida or California and fly over water to supposedly keep the Russian Submarines from surfacing. I don't know what we would have done if one had because we would be in a T-29 which couldn't do a thing.

Brock Strom

EUROPEAN DUTY

#20 - Ready with a Thud

I was assigned to the 7th TFS, 49thTFW, Spangdahlem AB, West Germany. Our primary duty was Victor Alert (Nuclear) and flying the great F-105D [THUD]! Classmates assigned to the 49th TFW [all Thud Drivers] at the same time were Hank Canterbury, Bob Beckel and Tom Derrickson. When things got tight in Europe, e.g., Berlin Wall, we often sat conventional alert.

Jim Rhodes

#21 - The Fog of War

I was flying F-100's at Spangdahlem Germany during the time--my first operational tour. As was our routine at the time, we were sitting 48 hours of alert with the really big ones in the cantonment area each week, which was located up at the east end near the housing area. As the tensions began to build, some East German and Soviet buzz jobs of west block and American aircraft were occurring in the three Berlin corridors. Lots of E-W border tensions, with aircraft paralleling the border on both sides.

When we got real serious, all of the 3 squadrons began to sit 24 hour "conventional" munitions alert with cocked and ready airplanes. So, it was 48 hours on nuc, then 5 days of conventional alert. Not a lot of training time in between. It sure got old quick. Over the days and weeks, we were all tired and getting pretty edgy.

Then, one dark German night, a puzzling message came into the command post, that got interpreted as a launch for the alert forces. Sirens and bells started going off up in the cantonment alert aircraft area next to housing. Besides scaring the bejeebers out of all of us, the dependents (as they were known then) knew what it all meant too, and a stampede nearly occurred when they heard all our engines starting. Fortunately, after the command post folks got more info and cleared up the confusion, we were stood down for lack of further orders to go in the message, but after we had fired up the engines. And by the way, to make it more exciting, back then we used the "cartridge" starters on the hun, which made lots of noise and thick black smoke.

It was quite a scare in those days, as the primary fighter alert forces were never scrambled to the point of starting engines. We regularly had simulated scrambles, but never to that point.

Hank Canterbury

#22 - Deployed, Ole!

During the Cuban Missile Crisis, C-130s from the 322nd ADIV at Evreau-Fauville AB, France were deployed to air bases throughout Europe and put on alert. I was on alert at Moron AB, Spain, which was a SAC base. While the bombers and tankers were apparently on airborne alert - they were frequently taking off and landing - I can't recall being told what our C-130 role was to have been.

Jim Blackwell

STRATEGIC AIR COMMAND ALERT

#23 - Airborne, And Ready

I was flying 24 hour airborne alert in B-52s loaded with 4 nuclear weapons out of Beale Air Force Base. I was an electronic warfare officer on the crew.

Norm Quigley

#23A - The Crew That Made Milwaukee Famous

In October of1962, I was a B-47 copilot at Lincoln AFB, Nebraska, a huge SAC base with TWO B-47 wings and a tanker squadron. I had just finished a week on alert and was enjoying a weekend at home. I think it was early on a Sunday afternoon when I received a cryptic call from my aircraft commander telling me to pack enough underwear and flight suits for an extended absence and report immediately to the squadron.

Pete Todd

#24 - No More Practice Alerts

During the "crisis" we had B-52 H models which, at the time, were the longest legged aircraft. I was either sitting alert, flying airborne alert (24 hour) or on crew rest at Minot AFB, N.D. They had canceled all training missions, so it was all the "real thing".. The incident which I will never forget, though, occurred right when the Russian cargo ships were approaching our picket line of Navy ships. As you undoubtedly remember, things were pretty touchy at that time, and no one knew who was going to blink first- or if someone would blink! At any rate, SAC sent down the word that there would be no more practice alerts. The word was that if the claxon sounded, we would launch. In all my years in SAC, that's the only time I heard that pronouncement. We were on ground alert and were sitting in the dining room having lunch . The claxon sounded! There was a look of shock on everyone's face and then we all started running for the aircraft. (You know that SAC never makes a mistake.) We got strapped in and waited for the launch code. It was a practice alert! A command post weenie at SAC Hqs sent out a message that had been previously scheduled, but had apparently not gotten the word. He was subsequently "transferred". It was the scariest moment of my entire Air Force career-Vietnam included.

Bill Telford

#25 - I Said, No More Practice Alerts

Of course I remember it well. It's like people who can say exactly what they were doing when they heard President Kennedy had been assassinated and other riveting experiences like that. I was a B-47 copilot then. 33rd Bomb Squadron, 22nd Bomb Wing March AFB, Riverside CA.

The entire Wing was generated to full alert status in about 2 days and every able-bodied crew was on alert in the Alert Facility or at one of several dispersal bases. Some were out in the middle of the Mojave desert at Bicycle Lake AF Station, others were at Mather and some as I recall were at civilian airfields living in the hangers near the aircraft. "Clutch Pedal", that was called.

My crew got the word to return to base during a routine training mission. We were actually at low level - La Junta it was. The penetration point was down by Taos or Santa Fe and we had an hour or an hour and a half of low level navigation before attacking a target scored by the RBS site at La Junta. One of the copilot's jobs during such missions was to monitor the HF radio and in the middle of the low level route we received an encoded message which told us to abort our mission and head back to March.

After we got back we were sent home for crew rest and after about 8 hours (as I recall) we returned to "cock" a newly generated aircraft. We were part of the "Charlie" force. In the aircraft generation parlance there was the "Alfa" Force (always on alert - about 25% of the Wing's aircraft), the "Charlie" Force - the first group of additional aircraft to be added to the alert force when a state of increased readiness was required; and the "Foxtrot" Force - the final group of aircraft to be generated and placed on alert. The 22nd BW was proud to have generated its entire force in about 24 hours. It was completed before the message for full generation was sent out from SAC headquarters and as I recall, the wing commander got into a little trouble for exceeding his authority.

After we cocked the aircraft we went in for some detailed mission/target study and we got the Intel briefing about what was going on. We then went out to the alert facility and settled down to wait and hope. The atmosphere was tense. We were told that there would be no practice alerts during this period. If the klaxon horn blew, it was to be a "real" message, not a practice message. A real message could have been to start, taxi and wait at the end of the runway for a further message; it could have been a message that launched us but did not execute the mission; or it could be an execution message which authorized us to strike our targets. In a strange way, the "no practice alerts" information was comforting news. Several of us had been on alert in November of the previous year, when the Klaxon blew at 0300 and we went racing to the aircraft, started our engines and got a "Blue Dot" message which told us to taxi to the end of the runway and wait. This came out of the blue and at the time seemed like the real thing. We sat there for about 30 minutes, burning up fuel with no further message. Finally another came telling us to taxi back and refuel. My Aircraft Commander at the time was Don Kutyna who was to go on to become CINCNORAD and Commander of US Space Command. We were later to learn that the new Ballistic Missile Early Warning System radar at Thule, which had just recently be brought on line, had picked up the rising moon and couldn't distinguish it from the ballistic profile of inbound missiles. Thule showed the launch trajectory but couldn't predict impacts. The confusion in Omaha must have been huge, and in thinking about it from a command perspective there later, I think they did a good job in only taking 30 minutes to sort it out. During Cuba, no one wanted a repeat of that deal.

We got most of our useful day-to-day intelligence (even then) from TV. Channel 9 in LA was important in my life. They played movies all night long for those of us who couldn't sleep and they kept a fairly current picture of what was happening with the quarantine line and the Soviet ships which were approaching it. When finally those ships halted and then turned around, I remember thinking that the concept of nuclear deterrence had been validated. We had a credible force and command control system behind it and we were seen to have a credible will to use them. I also remember thinking that unless a new player (such as China) came on the scene and had to relearn the lesson afresh, that the likelihood there would ever actually be an intercontinental nuclear war was much reduced as a result of the Cuban Crisis. Remember, at the time, there was some true bomb-shelter kind of thinking and survival in a post-nuclear environment.

I stayed in SAC for 5 more years changing bases as the bomber force downsized and I think I was the first in our class to get a crew of my own - a B52 crew - 2 years later at Walker AFB. I spend those years in the crew end of nuclear deterrence and later at SAC headquarters in the SAC Command Post as both a controller and as a Department Chief, I always thought back to the lesson learned during the Cuban Crisis: Nuclear Deterrence was an all-the-time thing. It required a credible force and credible command control system to exercise the force, and a credible will to use the force. Cuba taught me that if those three legs remained sound, our deterrent would be effective and the force would never have to be used.

Didn't mean to get off onto a strategic nuclear deterrence policy/planning diatribe, but the events of the Cuban Crisis energized my memory.

Tom Stack

#26 - Time-Hog - Even A Blind Hog Sometimes Finds An Acorn

I was one of those on leave at the football game in Colorado Springs. When I heard the President's TV speech I packed the car and headed back to my KC-135 squadron, even before getting a call. Once at Wurtsmith AFB I went on alert; the family quarters were sandbagged and the Capehart basements were outfitted as "temporary" bomb shelters. Shortly thereafter my crew deployed to Torrejon, Spain where we flew night missions refueling B-52s that were on round-the-clock airborne. Although times were tense, career-wise this gave me a lot of experience in operational missions, including heavy-weight takeoffs.

As I recall, later on during the Spanish deployments we would get a week off when others were flying our aircraft. That gave us a chance to take a courier flight for a week's vacation in Majorca. Such a deal!

Once I got back to my home base, there was a requirement for spare pilots to support the B-52 missions and I was able to log pilot time on the B-52 missions. By making myself available, I was able to get 200 hours of B-52 time in one week's flying (four 25 hour missions, each separated by a "down" day). I'm convinced that it was that B-52 time which was key in getting selected to the Edwards test pilot school, because I could show flying time in several different aircraft types.

Jim Reed

#27 - On Alert With The Civvies

John Reeves was standing alert in a fully loaded B-47 at Lambert Field in St. Louis. The 340th Bomb Wing (Whiteman AFB) had dispersed. Lambert, a very busy commercial field was distressed because every time a rotating B-47 approached for landing they had to clear all traffic from the airspace. The alert force was headquartered in the Missouri National Guard facility. The alert force commander was an O-5 who ousted the Guard BG from his office. (The General took it like a good sport.)

John Reeves

MEANWHILE, IN THE PACIFIC

#28 - A Tin-Roofed, Screen Windowed Fall-Out Shelter

Larry Jolly was in the 509 FIS with Jon Gallo in the Philippines, but in a different flight. He was at Clark AB during the crisis (while Jon was deployed on a normal rotation to Bangkok). Larry and his wife, Anne, lived on base 100 ft down and across the street from the Gallos and they socialized a fair amount. As far as Jon recalls, the Cuban Missile Crisis was no more a special event for him than it was for Jon--the squadron took no special measures that are remembered. It was not an item of discussion when they socialized although they did joke about the houses on base being designated as fallout shelters.

Larry Jolly, as told by Jon Gallo

#29 - Cuban Missile Crisis in Bangkok (Lucky Fellow!)

What was I (Jon Gallo) doing in the Cuban Mx Crisis?

I was a buck pilot in the 509th Fighter Interceptor Squadron, flying the F-102, at Clark Air Base in the Philippine Islands. Our squadron had a permanent deployment to Don Muang Air Base in Bangkok, Thailand. Every 2 1/2 months, my flight would deploy to Bangkok for two weeks. It was a continuous rotation. We sat five minute alert with two unarmed F-102's at the end of Don Muang's west runway. The other two F-102's there as part of the deployment would fly a sortie each day to help train the Thai Air Force's F-86 interceptors and ground radar units in air defense.

I was on a normal deployment to Bangkok during the Cuban Missile Crisis. We were given a bare minimum of information re the crisis. One source of information was the International Herald Tribune newspaper which we sometimes read. We were told that missiles for our F-102 aircraft were somewhere in country under lock and key, with the Thai Defense Minister having the key. Our alert aircraft were never armed. We continued our normal operation of two aircraft on alert and two aircraft flying daily sorties. We did brief the possibility of the type of Russian aircraft we might expect to see if there were a problem.

When I returned home to Clark Air Base, I learned that maybe the situation was a little more serious than I had known. My wife, Jacquie, (we were living on base with our two year old daughter and four month old son) told me that a Filipino civilian from Civil Engineering came by the house and posted on it a "fallout shelter" sign--with shelter number and allowable roentgen exposure. You must realize here, that our on-base house, although concrete, was one level and had a screen porch on two sides separated from the rest of the house only by louvered doors and windows--it was not much of a fallout shelter as the sign did correctly indicate. My wife had been much more aware of the seriousness of the situation than I, although there was no briefing of dependents on the crisis. (Sometime later the fallout shelter signs mysteriously disappeared from base housing.)

It was only after receiving, much later, a letter from my parents that we began to realize just how serious the Cuban Missile Crisis had been. My father was the Civil Defense Chief for Franklin County, Ohio. He told us of many measures taken there in the civil defense community, including making, stocking and almost living in a bomb shelter in his house basement--filling bathtubs with water and sealing them with candle wax, getting extra communications, buy canned foods, etc.

We never realized the seriousness of the crisis until it was well over--after talking to other Air Force families more involved as well as talking to my father and mother after our return to the United States in September, 1963.

Jon Gallo

90 MILES FROM THE TARGET

#30 - Watching The Preparations - And Waiting

Your query about the Cuban missile crisis revives some very vivid memories. I was a copilot in B-47's stationed at MacDill AFB. I was on "Home Alert" , spending a week in our alert facility right on the approach end of the huge runway at MacDill that was built for the MITO takeoffs of B-47's.

On the normally balmy evenings in Tampa, many of us would sit out on the top of the alert facility, studying our dash ones and going over our E&E plans.(Yeah, right) On the first of what became many days of activity, we witnessed several large cargo aircraft arriving, followed by flights of fighters. This went on all of the first night and on into day 2.(Don't remember just what days of the week it was, but think it started on Saturday night.) Since this was the era of Ed Sullivan, the favorite comment became, "Riiiight here on this stage, World War III". In typical SAC fashion, no information was forthcoming as to what was happening.

On day 2 or 3, our non alert bombers started departing the base. It was quite a sight, as the transports and fighters would land to the north, passing the alert shack on their approach, and as soon as they cleared the runway, a B-47 would take off in the opposite direction, lifting off just before passing the alert shack. By this time our quips about WW III were being replaced with real concern about what this was all about. Even the veteran AC's who had been around since WW II had never seen anything like this. By day 4, all the non alert bombers were gone and our ramp was packed full of fighter aircraft. The Wing Commander finally came to the alert shack to address the assembled crews. While he still didn't say what was happening, he asked the senior AC how soon everyone could be in their aircraft with the few belonging we brought with us for the home alert tour. The AC said 20 minutes, the WC said make it 15. We were to taxi to the fuel pits and download enough fuel to make a non JATO take off, disconnect, but retain our bombs, and fly to Hunter AFB, GA. We could call our families to tell them we were leaving, but not where we were going.

Turns out we had plenty of time to call the family since no one had figured out how long it would take to download the 12 alert aircraft. It took most of the day. Being on a junior crew, we were one of the last to be downloaded and didn't take off until around 1800, after hustling to our plane about 0900. While the flight to Hunter was fairly short, we managed to lose an engine shortly after take off. There we were, flying over populated areas like Orlando and Jacksonville with 3 one megaton plus bombs onboard, one engine out and not knowing when the next would quit. The nav didn't have anything to do on the flight, so he was playing with the ADF when he heard Kennedy was addressing the nation. We all listened and that was the first we knew anything about Cuba and their Soviet missiles.

Hunter was a real zoo. I think there were close to 100 B-47's on the ramp, all loaded and ready for their EWO mission. We preflighted the planes twice a day and were never allowed to be more than a few minutes away from them. This went on for a month and it was six weeks before we could get back to MacDill, because it took that long after the crisis was over to get all the fighters off our base.

One memorable event occurred after about 3 weeks of this stringent alert status. Everyone was getting a bit up tight about the whole situation and the bitching was getting notched up everyday. Jack Catton was the Air Division commander, headquartered at Homestead, and a BG at the time. He arrived at Hunter one day, called all the crews together in the base auditorium and gave the most stirring speech I ever heard. By the time he finished, he had every one of those crews ready, and anxious, to go out and bomb anyone. That guy was really good.

Another event was Kennedy coming to Hunter after the crisis, but we were still there. Air Force One arrived, Kennedy jumped into a limo, went to Ft. Stewart to give the grunts some medals for being on standby for Cuba, then left without saying shit to the aircrews assembled on the ramp. He was about as popular as Clinton, that day.

On a personal note, while we downloaded our fuel at MacDill, I called home and told Lois to take our two boys, 22 months and 4 months old, and fly to my folks in Wisconsin. Figured we would be gone for a while and had no idea what was going to be happening in Tampa. (Lois has her own missile crisis war story about diverted flights and winter weather on that trip.)

There has never been any doubt in my ex-military mind why the Soviets backed down in Cuba. Those few missiles in Cuba weren't going to save the Soviet Union with all the nuclear weapons we had aimed at them. There never was a thought of SAC planes going to Cuba, they were all going to Russia, and were there a lot of them. Even the training birds had been loaded with bombs and were on alert. Don't remember how many bombers we had then, but it had to be several hundred. The Soviet Union would have been obliterated and they knew it. Airpower wins again.

Tom Chase

#31 - Ready and Willing

I was in the 31st Fighter Wing, flying the F-100, at Homestead AFB at the time. I have several recollections of that Cuban Missile Crisis period which I can share with you (mission planning, practice alerts...thinking we had been executed, up to taxiing onto the runway...then told to taxi back, receiving the other squadrons from around TAC that augmented us). Also, toward the end of the crisis I was sent to Ft Bragg as a Forward Air Controller for the upcoming events...i.e, the 82d Airborne Div arrival in Cuba. As it turned out, I spent a cold, wet November sitting alert with the grunts at Eglin AFB preparing to jump in. In the end, we flew an "equivalent" mission in C-124s to the Sicily drop zone at Ft Bragg...bummer. We were ready, and willing, to stick it to Fidel in a big way. Maybe we should have. Regards from Va Beach....

John Davey

#32 - At The Sharp End

I appreciate the chance to just reflect on things like the Cuban Missile crisis and my involvement in it. At the time it kicked off I was stationed at Cannon AFB flying F-100's. Gloria had just got home from the hospital where she had given birth to our second son, Bart. who incidentally is just now checking out in the B-2 up at Whitman AFB. We got called into the Squadron late in the afternoon, and we were told that we were deploying to McDill AFB to go fight Fidel. We launched in flights of 6 and it really was go to your aircraft and get ready to go. Jack Chain was my flight leader and I had never seen some of the other flight members. We had minimum time to brief and I was very thankful for standardized procedures. We flew across the gulf due to gas problems, encountering thunderstorms along the way. Penetrating thunderstorms at night in a 6 ship is exciting to contemplate, but fortunately the storms were not as bad as they looked from a distance and we made it through them without mishap. When we got to McDill it seemed like the whole Tactical Air Force was filled into that particular base that night. And every one was short on fuel. Fortunately the Weather was about 2,000 overcast and people just descended in the clouds to VFR underneath and landed as they could catch an opening. No one got violated that I ever heard of, but we were lucky to all make it safely.

The next morning all of the planes on the ramp were loaded up with bombs and we were ready to attack Cuba or any other place directed. We sat alert for about 6 weeks, ready to go and preserve freedom for our families. I don't think any of us knew at that time how close we were to a very big war. But I will admit that when we climbed into the cockpits on cockpit alert I thought we were going to launch and drop some bombs on Fidel. Probably the most exciting thing that happened to me was on about the second morning another Lt. and I were launched over a black, black Tampa Bay on an air defense mission and told that we were responsible for the air defense of all of Florida. But that was no problem, we had two AIM-9's and our true shooting 20mm's. I guess I would call that the epitome of "token effort". But at the time I felt quite important. After all we had over 300 aircraft on the ramp at MacDill alone. And I think Homestead had a like number. Well, we obviously never flew, but we were ready. It was quite exciting for a new first Lt. who was just Combat Ready. Thanks for asking.

Bob Oaks

MEANWHILE, IN CUBA

#33 - No Wonder He Wasn't At The Football Game!

I deployed with a Marine HQ group to the Caribbean area a few days prior to the crisis going public. On the night Kennedy addresses the nation I flew into Guantanamo Naval base in Cuba as part of Marine Corps defense of the base and a possible Eastern flank attack force. We lived in foxholes and concrete bunkers for then next 7 or 8 weeks. For the first week or so we thought we were going, but never went beyond the fence line. One night, long after the "crisis" part was over, I got drunk with Perry Como...not a proud moment but memorable.

Bob Lowe

LOCATIONS OF THE AUTHORS DURING THE CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS

Compiled by Jim Reed