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Cuban Crisis
This Story is an excerpt from a H. S. project by my daughter Jess.
MY DAD WAS A SAILOR IN CUBA DURING THE MISSILE CRISIS
When this project was assigned to me I was almost excited. I knew that my dad was in Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis. I was going to interview him. I started by updating myself with the events of that time. I wished to be knowledgeable and be able to ask significant questions.
I then asked what he remembered about this time in history and the following is the results of that interview.
Dad remembered he was there during the crisis. When he first heard scuttlebutt (rumors) about what was going on he was at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. GITMO as the servicemen called it was a U.S. Naval base where Navy and Coast Guard ships stayed while conducting ASW training maneuvers. He elaborated by explaining that he was a Sonarman and that Anti Submarine Warfare maneuvers were where he could “strut his stuff.” (Prove his abilities as a Sonarman.). He was proud that the long hours of competition with other vessels (mostly Navy) were justified as the little Coast Guard Cutter walked away with the best of marks due to real sonarmen with antique equipment which in close quarters had the advantage. He told me that “little” was 327 feet long and carried over one hundred people aboard.
I asked what else he remembered. He told me of having to carry a loaded 45-caliber service revolver while on gangway watch. (People that stood gangway watches were like guards that kept track of everyone and everything that left or came on the ship) Carrying the “loaded” gun was significant because he had never been authorized to do that before. While on Shore Patrol he never carried a pistol. Even when carrying payroll or accompanying prisoners, live ammo clips were on the belt and not in the pistol.
Next he told me that people on the base were worried that the Cubans may cut off their water supply. He was not worried as his ship was normally out to sea thirty to forty days at a time and it was normal at sea to use fresh water for cooking and drinking only. (Salt water was used for everything else including showers)
Next he told of the Russian fighter planes that flew low over the Bay as they were entering Cuba. When I asked if he was afraid, he said “No”.
I then asked if the Crisis worried him at all. His response was that he had heard a rumor that people whose enlistments were almost ended may be “held over” if it lasted. This bothered him because he was due to be discharged in early 1963.
I began to wonder about Dad. A threat of nuclear war, him located in the most dangerous of places, and only worried about having to stay in the Coast Guard for a few extra months. I asked him why he wasn’t worried.
This was his answer:
He remembered as a small boy hearing about the devastation caused by the “Atom Bomb” during World War II. He saw the pictures in the newsreels in the movies of the people and the destruction in Japan. Then he was afraid. He was afraid every time an airplane went overhead. Eventually that passed.
He remembered The Rosenbergs and the Russians stealing our secrets to producing the bomb. He saw pictures of the results of the Hydrogen Bomb and the additional power of that. Then he remembered the Cobalt bomb. He remember Air Raid drills, Civil Defense, and most of all movies of those few people remaining after a nuclear wars. During this part of the Cold War he was again afraid. He guessed it started when he was about 11 years old.
When he was in high school fear of nuclear war was “Old Hat”. (Almost forgotten about) During that time, movies portrayed the US’s superior strength. Planes in the air around the clock, better and longer range missiles. Too many other problems were there for teenage boys of the time. Girls, Rock and Roll, Girls, Fast Cars, Girls, Long Hair, Girls, Acne, Girls, Sports, and of course Homework. (In that order according to Dad.) During this interview Dad also managed to go on a tangent about walking miles to school and working two jobs. He told me that his biggest fear during those years was taking a shortcut through a large cemetery on short winter nights.
Dad joined the Coast Guard not long after High School. I know it was an important time of his life. In
his Coast Guard Album he recorded the most important events. It featured his marriage, the birth of his first daughter, the many pictures of his
shipmates, and objects of his abilities with the sonar and radar equipment. It also included notes of his weather and oceanographic work, his promotions and
his demotions, notes of saving a small yacht during the Bermuda Yacht Race, and his discharge papers.
There were other pictures of Bermuda, a Russian trawler on a collision course (Playing “chicken”), slides
of two UFO’s, a picture of him and a friend in Times Square during New Years Eve, and a Military Air Transport aircraft that he had talked the pilot into
dropping thousands of feet to “Buzz” the ship’s mast. It had sharks teeth and a fin from one of the sharks
he caught and medical information about his time in the hospital suspected of having Leukemia.
In short, with the exceptions of the promotions he received as a result of GITMO, and a picture of the ships crew playing softball there, Cuba and the Missile Crisis was not even mentioned.
Dad wasn’t afraid. He wasn’t brave. He just didn’t believe anything would happen. He didn’t realize how close we came. The Missile Crisis to him compared to his other experiences in the Coast Guard wasn’t worth a mention in his album. The following is how really close we came to war. Dad should know. | |
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