Comments on: Serving During the Cuban Missile Crisis /serving-during-the-cuban-missile-crisis/ Honoring the men and women who served so bravely in our Armed Forces Sun, 30 Nov 2025 23:46:55 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 By: Jeanne /serving-during-the-cuban-missile-crisis/#comment-37789 Sun, 30 Nov 2025 23:46:55 +0000 /?p=6977#comment-37789 In reply to John Des Portes.

My father was a B-52 pilot during this time from Eglin AFB at this time. According to him, it was a one-way mission. They were to drop bombs and fly until their fuel ran out. Luckily they received the “no go” code an hour away from his destination in Russia. All the B-52s went to Spain and stayed overnight. Needless to say they, they had a hell of a time there in Spain. People I have talked to told me it’s not in any history books so I guess they think it didn’t happen! Well I lived with a father til he died who lived the truth. These guys were the real heroes of that incident.

]]> By: Harold Mark Helfer /serving-during-the-cuban-missile-crisis/#comment-33392 Tue, 16 Sep 2025 15:09:28 +0000 /?p=6977#comment-33392 I was a Navy PH3 at that time and stationed at NAS Norfolk Photo Lab at the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Our Photo Lab process film taken over Cuba show the missile bases. After we processed the film and made prints, the finished work was flown up to Washington, DC. I also volunteered to fly out on a helicopter the photograph a Russian War Ship was in our territorial waters, but when the helicopter arrived out in the ocean where it was supposed to to be it had left our territorial waters, so the pilot flew us back to base.

]]> By: Mary Anne Groen /serving-during-the-cuban-missile-crisis/#comment-23267 Fri, 30 May 2025 22:51:18 +0000 /?p=6977#comment-23267 My father, Major Lyle Don Clawson, was one of those B52 pilots on airborne alert. The impact of this event affected him throughout his life. He went on to write a book about his Air Force career called, “Is That Something the Crew Should Know?”. His chapter on the Cuban Missile crisis emphasized the fact that there were no fail safes and it was only the integrity of the US crews that kept us from going to WWIII. He felt that the crews were never given the amount of credit that they deserved.

]]> By: John Des Portes /serving-during-the-cuban-missile-crisis/#comment-14147 Sat, 05 Oct 2024 14:59:34 +0000 /?p=6977#comment-14147 Nice to see these men not forgotten all of these decades later. I remember the time very well. My father was the U-2 wing commander during the Cuban Missile Crisis. I was 8 then. Ten days ago I turned 70.

Thank you,

John Des Portes
Mesa, Arizona

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