Cuban missile crisis

[The emperor has no clothes]

Very interesting story.
https://news.yahoo.com/operation-cobra-untold-story-cia-officer-trained-network-agents-found-soviet-missiles-cuba-100005794.html;_ylt=Awr9KRETiUhcFrIAGl5x.9w4;_ylu=X3oDMTEyZnExZW5sBGNvbG8DZ3ExBHBvcwM2BHZ0aWQDQjYwODdfMQRzZWMDc3I-

[Wizzard]

I remember this. Very vividly.

[Serk]

I remember this. Very vividly.

I remember learning about this in history class. 

(But seriously, I really do, the topic has always fascinated me, thanks for the link Mr. Head!)

[The emperor has no clothes]

I remember this. Very vividly.

This story or the crisis itself ? I don’t remember hearing this story before.

[solo1]

Very interesting story.

I was in quality control at the time. We were asked to increase the manufacturer of sonobuoys, used to detect submarines.  On short notice (with no contract) my company, Magnavox, was making over 800 sonobuoys/day.  They were badly needed. When the missile crisis was resolved, that stopped abruptly.

Working under those conditions reminded me of WWII factories. Everyone did the max effort.

[Jess from VA]

It is an interesting article.

It makes complete sense that the U2, rather than covert on-the-ground HUMINT, would be credited with the discovery of Russian missiles in Cuba.  And that this would continue in history.

It also makes eminently clear that upper eschelons of the CIA were stupid and trusted their own beliefs over what HUMINT was telling them.  They have dropped the ball on so many things over the years.

Relying on technology to the exclusion of HUMINT was a huge mistake (by CIA).... and why the Soviets and Chinese so often did/do better than us.  

It is nice that he was recognized... reluctantly, and long after he was dead.

The man on the ground, in the thick of things, is often never promoted to become a peer of his Ivy League superiors.  

There is probably enough material to write 20 books on CIA involvement in Cuba (much of it in the nature of the Keystone Cops).  But, to their credit, Soviet trained Cuban security forces were efficient, ruthless and murderous and anyone operating down there had to have balls and nerves of steel.  

Maybe we should send our new radical socialist Congress persons down there for a few months training in the beauty and magnificence of communism/socialism.  

[RP#62]

Wow, that was very interesting.  I was in 2nd grade when this was happening, but I started 9th grade in Key West.  Even though that was 7 years later, there were still Hawk missile sites in the keys.  One was on the other side of the salt pond from the high school track.  We could see it when we were running.  The locals told me there were missile sites set up on the beach in '62. 

-RP

[..]

Our photography lecturer at college told us that at the peak of the crisis his boss at the company he then worked for told everyone to go home and be prepared.

[Pappy!]

And I lived through it.......
Born and raised in the Keys, I remember convoy after convoy of military vehicles rolling South through the keys, day after day after day.
Tourism business dried up and stopped as if a switch was thrown. Tourism was the Keys main business.
Businesses went out and business owners went broke.
Local families suffered.
My family suffered financially while this was taking place.
Some folks never made it back after it was over.
Back then there was no assistance.

[Oss]

Now that they are all dead,
 My first secretary's husband was in the coast guard and was a photographer  His unit flew seaplanes out of Biscayne Bay and sometime Key West.  Altho he could fly what they would do is they would hang Bill on a leather strap contraption under the plane fly south of Cuba and cross the island very low altitude and he would take pics, including those credited to U2's  The thinking correctly that the radar was not exactly pointing at Jamaica and if and by the time they were picked up they were already on a heading north (not to the US)
He and his late wife developed the film (security being lax in coast guard photoshops in those days and young marrieds being young and in love)  and once some of them were declassified she told me the story.  
They were very proud of their small contribution but bitter that we never took out Castro  Bill also became a NYC photog and every year the Yankees had a parade I got a bunch of 8x11 color shots that I treasure to this day. RIP to both Bill and Marsha

All those brave people who died because our gov did not have the balls to do a job right.  Not much has changes unfortunately
Thank you for the link Rob.  good but sad reading

[John Schmidt]

I remember it well. I was stationed at Loring AFB in northern Maine at the time, having been transferred there from Pease AFB in Portsmouth, NH to work in a new missile program....the GAM-77 Houndog carried by the B-52. The day before the crisis broke out, my wife and three girls left for Chicago, wanting to travel before the snow storms hit Maine....of which we had plenty. I moved back into the barracks and looked forward to discharge the following January 6, 1963. My wife stopped in Porstmouth to visit some AF friends we had made from our previous station, and in the middle of the night her husband was called out on an alert. My wife tried to call me but wasn't put through so after a couple days headed for Chicago, her home town being a western suburb where we lived for a while following my discharge.

When the alert went down, we were immediately restricted to the barracks, had to sign in/out and only allowed out for necessary stuff like our duty shift, hospital, etc., nobody was allowed off base. If it took more than 30 min. to reach your duty station, you'd best have a good reason. We got daily briefings on what was going on and included film and photos. Attendance required. At one point all the B-52's on alert status were launched which scared the crap out of all of us....especially me. My last job was in our missile squadron Job Control and I worked alone in a darkened room about 15' square with three radios and three phones....one was red(prayed it would never ring while I was on duty). The radios allowed me to talk to anybody on base; i.e., other maint. outfits, talk to security(Air Police), and talk to a/c commanders during flights. I worked from 3/4" thick plexiglass 4x8 sheets that were end lit via fluorescent lamps that would illuminate writings made with various color grease pencils. At times the a/c commander would leave the channel open and some of the conversations overheard would raise the hair on the back of your neck. In short....we were a lot closer to conflict than the general public ever knew.

The Houndog missile referred to above could be nuclear tipped or just regular explosives. I had to schedule and coordinate the transfer of the nuke warhead from an adjacent bomb dump to our shop and schedule the loading onto the missile. In this situation, all missisles were loaded with nukes. The shop and work area in the hanger was extremely quiet....almost eerie, this was serious business and the work went like clockwork.