A scary point in the Military

My career from 1962 through 1964 was pretty much nondescript except for a brief period during late 1962. I had been trained by the Army Signal Corp for a variety of military radio communications. Once my training was completed, the graduating class was transferred to their respective permanent duty stations. I received orders to report to a Division in Fort Carson. CO.

I was really enjoying military life in the Rocky Mountains when President Kennedy made the TV announcement that he was taking military action to force the Russians to pull missals out of Cuba. In a day or two I received orders to report to Fort Campbell, KY. The home of the 101st Airborne Division.

Once at Fort Campbell, I realized I was part of a Spanish speaking unit. I was sure this had something to do with Cuba and the missiles. It wasn’t until weeks after the missiles were pulled out of Cuba that I learned the Army planned on parachuting us into Cuba to monitor Castro’s radio communications and to transmit this back to American and Anti-Castro Cuban forces. The most interesting part was most of us were not paratroopers. The plan was to fly to southern Florida, load parachutes onto the plane and explain to us how to parachute out while flying to Cuba. Isn’t that exciting?

Needless to say, I have been grateful for a good number of years that this never came to pass. Fortunately for us and the World, the missiles were pulled out of Cuba.