Posted on 10/22/2009 3:31:52 AM PDT by WVKayaker
... For the public, the President's address was the first alarm bell of danger. But for many days the Commander-in-Chief Atlantic (CINCLANT) had been preparing to counter this newest aspect of the Russian buildup in Cuba.
On October 18th, the prepositioning of forces to reduce reaction time in the event of action against Cuba continued. A reinforced infantry battalion, 2nd Battalion, 1st Marines and Bravo Battery, 11th Marines from the Pacific Command's 5th MEB was ordered transferred to the operational control of CINCLANT and a light antiaircraft-missile battalion (Hawk) was ordered to Guantanamoto augment forces there.
On October 22, 1962, 2nd Battalion, 1st Marines and Bravo Battery, 11th Marines arrived in Cuba by MATS, Boeing 707 Jets, to establish a defensive zone for a possible Cuban assault into the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, all U.S. dependents evacuated. Within the next couple of days additional Marine forces landed on both the windward and leeward sides of the base.
We were dug in behind Main-side Guantanamo by the beach, on the hill top to our right front about 2 O' Clock from the business end of Bravos 105MM Howitzers the Army had two Nike's. I do not know if they were Nike-Ajax for anti-aircraft or Nike-Hercules (below) that had nuclear war heads! ~ Go figure...
(Excerpt) Read more at leatherneck.com ...
Semper fi from a Navy guy!
I remember the day very well. I’d just gotten out of boot camp and gotten an assignement to a destroyer out of the Philadelphia Naval Yards. I reported aboard in the morning and we got underweigh for the coast of Cuba in the afternoon.
I was in high school at Wm T Sherman on the friday before (10/18) and we could only speculate about why 707’s were landing and taking off on a regular basis. We went to school Monday morning, only to be told to prepare to go home and pack a bag. Mom was ready when we got home, and they piled us into “cattle cars”, headed for the dock, and we quickly sailed. Some took flights back, but most dependents were onboard Upshur.
I heard the mention of Guantanamo on the news this morn, and it struck a memory chord!
Some things about this story dont sound right, though
He called the deployed 11th Marines from a MEB. Back then, it was a MAB, and why on Earth would it come from the Pacific when Camp Lejuene was right up the road?
Bad memories? I trust the magazine it was writte in but if I heard this on the street said this way, I’d call a poser alert!
Marines were putting up camps on the golf course, and anywhere else they found open space for assembly. I was only a watcher, and have no idea about from where and why?
I had old Marines tell me they drove all night to Florida, too
LOTS of them
The Army took quite a few truckload and buses too, I heard
Also, that some naval vessels DID exchange fire and took the bridge off a Russian destroyer
President Kennedy’s show of weakness while debating Krushev and the Bay of Pigs disaster prompted the Soviets to be bolder and build missle bases in Cuba.
The liberals that write the history books show Kennedy as a hero instead of his shown weakness being the cause. This often happens, liberal history teaches FDR’s policies led the nation out of the great depression which lasted 11 years right up to WW II war production, liberal history teaches Reagan’s economic policies only benefited the wealthy, liberal history teaches Clinton was impeached over a sexual matter.
To resolve the Cuban Missle crisis Kennedy caved in and made great concessions to the Soviets such as removing missles from Turkey.
Why is the USA having missles in Turkey different than the Soviets having missles in Cuba? It’s simple, though liberals would quickly disagree, Americans are the good guys.
And Italy.
This didn't come from the magazine.
I was in high school and Kennedy drove by our school on his way to a speaking engagement. He cut the visit short due to a “bad cold” and went back to DC. The “cold” was Cuban missiles.
A family friend was in the navy during the crisis on the USS Independence aircraft carrier. He said for nearly three weeks straight he stayed at his battle station on the Indy.
My Dad tells of how he started driving home from his construction job and wondered if there would be a job or anything else in three or four days.
I was with VMF(AW)-122 at Beaufort, SC when the mobilzation was ordered. I came back from a weekend pass to find the whole base lit up like high noon. That was Monday at 0400. I got to sleep 42 hours later, staying behind to coordinate avionics spare parts inventory and resupply. In the meantime, anything that wasn’t a part of the buildings went out on R4Qs(Flying Boxcars), R4Ds(DC-3) and R5Ds.
The squadron had gotten brand new F8U-2NEs in August and was scheduled for a shakedown mission to Rota, Spain when the manure hit the ventilators. Those brand new planes came back from Key West with holes; blackened gun ports and greased rocket racks. When we asked how come, the answer was “photographic missions”. Right!
I was discharged on schedule on 31 December 1962.
I've never heard about that part!
Why is the USA having missles in Turkey different than the Soviets having missles in Cuba? It’s simple, though liberals would quickly disagree, Americans are the good guys.
///////////////////////
and THAT is the problem today. Americans have been educated into thinking that Americans are not the good guys, just some ordinary no better and no worse than anyone else guys.
Yet we are trying to rebuild countries.....no wonder we allow them to have constitutions that state NO LAW SHALL CONTRADICT ISLAM.
And your right about Kennedy. In fact, he was told by Republicans months before that missiles were being put in Cuba but he didn’t listen.
Eyes of an Eagle. I don’t know RB. Perhaps some of our Marines that participated in that mission can shed some further light on the articles accuracy.
I was ten years old at the time, living in Clewiston FL on (approx) U.S. 27. Convoys all day and night for three days. Mainly Army bivouacking on every piece of free space. Very little armor, heavy Nike missile, lot's of water, fuel trucks, etc..
Some thought the world (as we know it), was going to end.
Halloween was good that year.
5.56mm
B-47’s lined the runways in my home town, ready to take off
My dad was afraid to take me to the airport, thinking it was a target
I was 3 years old and told him since we lived 1 mile away from the airport, we’d die anyways, so lets go see the air planes
He was stunned a 3 year old was so non-chalant
I never did get to see the airplanes.
[QUOTE RaceBannon]”Some things about this story dont sound right, though
He called the deployed 11th Marines from a MEB. Back then, it was a MAB, and why on Earth would it come from the Pacific when Camp Lejuene was right up the road?
Bad memories? I trust the magazine it was writte in but if I heard this on the street said this way, I’d call a poser alert!”[UN-QUOTE]
REPLY: FYI it was MEB (google), but I actually didn’t know or cared what we were called back then, MEB or MAB, I was a naive 19 y/o corporal.
As Camp LeJeune being right up the road, in hindsight I wish they would of sent them instead of us, but it wasn’t mine to question, just do and die.
The only memory inaccuracy in my sea story was the Nike missiles, they were Hawks.
“... In modern war, there is nothing sweet nor fitting in your dying. You will die like a dog for no good reason.” — Ernest Hemingway
In order to soundly defeat your statement, I searched diligently...and found out they used BOTH terms back then, and I owe you an apology!!
When I was in, the term MEB was not used at all, MAB was, MAU, MAB, MAF. That was changed to MEU, MEB, and MEF just before Deset One
I owe you a beer! :)
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