The Missiles of October

October 16, 2006
By Chris Pocock
Special to LIVE!

(Intro by Joe Hyde)

In October of 1962, the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics stood on the brink of nuclear war. Disturbed by a previous deployment of U.S. nuclear-tipped missiles in Turkey, and buoyed by the failed attempt of the John F. Kennedy administration to overthrow the Communist government of Castro’s Cuba two years prior in a proxy, covert operation called the Bay of Pigs, Soviet Premier Nikita Kruschev gambled by placing nuclear missiles in Cuba.

With the missiles only 90 miles away from Miami, the U.S.S.R. could annihilate not only all Florida cities, but other U.S. cities such as Washington DC or Atlanta, Ga. with a push of a button and no warning to the U.S. military. Kruschev then shipped more missiles with longer range, capable of destroying the U.S. missile fields in the Midwest. By destroying those missile fields, the U.S.S.R. could end the ability of the U.S. to deter a Soviet sneak attack with retaliation, thus subjecting the United States to the whims of Soviet aggression.

Based at Laughlin Air Force Base near Del Rio at that time were the “eyes” of the Strategic Air Command (SAC), a squadron of U-2 Dragon Lady spyplanes. The pilots, ground crews and U-2s based at Laughlin, all part of the 4080th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing (SRW), were quickly called into action when rumors of these missiles being deployed in Cuba reached Washington, on October 14, 1962.

Over the next 13 days, using sophisticated cameras mounted near the nose of the U-2, pilots would crisscross the Island of Cuba taking photographs while dodging Soviet surface-to-air missiles. Laughlin’s crews gathered proof the missiles were there and critical targeting information about the missile launchers’ whereabouts should the U.S. attempt a pre-emptive air strike or ground invasion.

U.K. author Chris Pocock, who has spent a lifetime researching and interviewing key players in the U-2 project, wrote a definitive book on the subject, Dragon Lady: The History of the U-2 Spyplane in 1989.

With his permission, LIVE! has excerpted a portion of Chapter 5 titled “The Missiles of October” that reels you into the excitement of that time.

The excerpt begins the first day of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Officials in Washington are attempting to determine that the the photos Laughlin U-2 pilot Steve Heyser had taken in a Cuba overflight definitely confirm there are nuclear-tipped missiles deployed in Cuba. Once confirmed, they inform the White House.

Pocock’s account begins:

Excerpted from Dragon Lady: The History of the U-2 Spyplane, Chapter 5.

At 5.30 p.m. CIA headquarters was informed that a Laughlin AFB U-2 had photographed missiles in Cuba, and the CIA asked the analysts to go back over the film and double-check the conclusions. But there was no mistake, although a layman would have been hard put to identify anything sinister in the pictures. As the evening wore on, news of the find was spread through the appropriate channels. At Laughlin, plans to launch three U-2As on further overflights went ahead despite deteriorating weather, and three pilots prepared themselves for the mission. At 4 a.m. on Tuesday 16 October, they taxied out and took off in a blinding rainstorm. Visibility was so poor that they only found the end of the runway thanks to the lights on the mobile van which led them out!

The three aircraft were still airborne when the news that offensive missiles had been confirmed in Cuba reached President Kennedy at his breakfast table in Washington. By lunchtime, [Director of the Photographic Interpretation Center] Art Lundahl was in the White House with blow-ups, maps and charts to brief the President and the Executive Committee (EXCOM) of the National Security Council.

Offensive missiles in Cuba! The SS-4 had a known range of 1,100 nautical miles, enough to reach well into the American heartland, not to mention Washington. There were also now intelligence indications that SS-5 “Skean” IRBMs with a 2,200 nautical mile range were being deployed as well, and these would threaten the ICBM bases in the northern United States. By Wednesday, U-2 photographs revealed preparations to install IRBMs at Guanajay and Remedios, Cuba, as well as two more MRBM sites at Sagua La Grande, Cuba. The pilots of the 4080th also discovered crates containing Ilyushin Il-28 bombers at San Julian airfield. On Wednesday, a flight over Santa Clara airfield photographed no fewer than 39 MiG-21s spotted in various stages of assembly. The next day, one of these MiGs was actually captured taking off on film by a U-2 flying directly overhead.

Chris Pocock’s latest book is a treasure. 50 Years of the U-2: The Complete Illustrated History of the “Dragon Lady” contains over 450 color and b/w photographs in a large 8.5 x 11” coffee table book format. When the U-2 first took off in 1955, no one involved in its top-secret project dreamt that this unique reconnaissance aircraft would still be flying today. The long story of the Dragon Lady is amazing, and complex; this book tells it all, in unprecedented detail, from the early days overflying the Soviet Union under CIA sponsorship, to the Cuban Missile Crisis, and on to the Vietnam War. The epic missions over Communist China were flown by nationalist pilots from Taiwan. How the U-2 was improved, enlarged and put back into production – twice. It led the real-time recce revolution with data links and high-tech sensors. Then it played a key role in Desert Storm, over Bosnia and Kosovo, and most recently over Afghanistan and Iraq. According to the CIA’s own historian, Chris Pocock is the foremost authority on the U-2. To write this book, he flew in the aircraft, conducted 250 interviews, and analysed more than 1,000 declassified documents. The book at available at http://www.schifferbooks.com/ or at the Laughlin Heritage Museum, 309 S. Main St., Del Rio. Open Saturdays from 1-4 p.m.

Meeting with his senior advisors once or twice a day from now on, Kennedy ordered the U-2 flights stepped up. The CIA’s best instructor pilot, Jim Barnes, was drafted in to check out more of the 4080th pilots in the C-model U-2. Between the Sunday when [Steve] Heyser and [Rudy] Anderson had flown the first Air Force missions, and Monday 22 October, when the US went public with news of the missile build-up, 4080th pilots flew some 20 times over Cuba. It was an increasingly dangerous enterprise; no fewer than 24 SAM sites had now been established the length and breadth of the Cuba. Given that the SA-2 was thought to have a lethal range of 25 miles, this meant that virtually the entire island was covered.

The 4080th mission planners at the forward-deployed base at McCoy AFB, Ga. did their best to counter this formidable SAM threat. Flight tracks across the island were drawn so that no U-2 would fly straight and level for longer than 30 seconds before making a turn of at least 60 degrees. The pilot needed those 30 seconds to acquire the photo-target through the driftsight and line up correctly, but the missile operators on the ground were thought to need at least as long to track, acquire, and fire their SAMs at the overflying aircraft. Where possible, missions were flown offshore parallel to the coast, in an attempt to avoid the SAM rings.

Over the weekend of 20-21 October, the US administration considered its options. Some senior military men were in favor of immediate attacks on the missile sites before they could become fully operational. This was ruled out for the time being when the Air Force confirmed that it could not guarantee total success on a first strike. Since intelligence believed that four of the MRBM sites were already operational, with four launchers on each site, the chance of one launcher escaping an attack and then firing a missile against an American city in retaliation was not worth taking. Another option was an invasion to take out the sites (and maybe topple Fidel Castro at the same time), but the Bay of Pigs still rankled in the government’s collective memory. The President and his advisors chose the option of a naval blockade of Cuba, to be imposed from 10:00 a.m. on Wednesday, and this was announced to the world on Monday 22 October by the young President: “Let no one doubt that this is a difficult and dangerous effort on which we have set out. No one can foresee precisely what course it will take...but the greatest danger of all will be to do nothing.”

Now that the crisis was out in the open, low-level photo sorties were approved, and these commenced on Tuesday 23 October with RF-101s bringing back further evidence of the startling pace at which the Soviets were progressing. From now on, the overhead reconnaissance effort would be shared between the 4080th and the 363rd Tactical Reconnaissance Wing’s Voodoos, along with RF-8 Crusaders flown by Navy and Marine pilots. The next day, more low-level flights revealed the presence of four 1,200-man Soviet Army battle groups complete with tanks and battlefield missiles. As tension mounted, the Soviet Ambassador to the United Nations was challenged on the floor of the UN debating chamber to deny the existence of the offensive missiles. When he demurred, US Ambassador Adlai Stevenson produced the U-2 photographs for all to see.

The first sign of a break in the crisis came on Wednesday 24 October, when Soviet freighter ships en route to Cuba were seen to stop in mid-Atlantic. Late in the week, Moscow began to indicate a compromise; it seemed that they might agree to withdraw the missiles if the US would dismantle its Jupiter IRBMs in Turkey. For its part, the US pledged that it would not invade Cuba if the missiles were removed.

Early on Saturday morning, 27 October, Rudy Anderson took off from McCoy AFB in a U-2 for yet another U-2 overflight. He did not return. His route was designed to remain clear of the known SAM sites by flying along the northern coast of Cuba. But although he was flying one of the agency’s C-models equipped with the SAM warner, he was apparently taken by surprise by a barrage of SA-2s which were fired at him from the Banes naval base at the eastern end of the island. One exploded above and behind his aircraft, and fragments from the blast penetrated the cockpit and Anderson’s pressure suit at shoulder level. He was presumed to have died as the cockpit depressurized and his suit failed to inflate.

Less than 24 hours after Anderson was shot down, Premier Nikita Kruschev announced on Moscow Radio that the Cuban missiles would be withdrawn. The previous evening, the US had called up reservists and delivered a note to the Soviet Ambassador in Washington threatening to “remove the bases.” The U-2 pilot proved to be the only man lost to enemy action during the crisis.

On 26 November, President Kennedy flew to Homestead AFB, Florida where he presented the 4080th SRW and the 363rd TRW with outstanding unit awards. Addressing the men of the U-2 and RF-101 squadrons drawn up in front of him on the apron, he said they had “contributed as much to the security of the United States as any unit in our history, and any group of men in our history.”

Rudy Anderson’s body was returned by the Cubans, and was buried at his hometown of Greenville, S.C. on 6 November. Commander-in-Chief of the Strategic Air Command (CINCSAC) General Thomas Power led the eulogies. “It is because of men like Major Anderson that this country has been able to act with determination during these fateful days,” he told Jane Anderson as he handed over her husband’s Distinguished Service Medal, the nation’s highest peacetime decoration, which he had been awarded posthumously.