The Crusader and the Cuban missile crisis (and golf)

[bigmtnman]

The "Flying over Cuba" thread reminded me of a very memorable encounter some years ago. I was at a local golf course here in Colorado and took note of something a bit unusual. It was an older golfer wearing a nose cannula and using bottled oxygen. He was sitting by himself in his cart in front of the clubhouse. He wore a hat and jacket (red with gold) that identified him as a veteran. Looking closer, I saw his hat also identified him as a Marine aviator. I could not pass up striking up a conversation. When I expressed my interest in (and appreciation for) what his service had been, he asked me a question. "Do you remember the Cuban missle crisis" ? I told him I certainly did. It was just days before my 16th birthday and I lived in the D.C. suburbs. I thought there was a good chance I'd be "nuked" without ever having had a real "love life" (what else do teenage boys think about ?)...... Oh yeah, I REMEMBER IT WELL !! He then asked if me if I knew what kind of plane the "Crusader" was. I said I sure did. I had been a warplane nut as a kid (still am) and had bulit many a plastic model including a Crusader. Once he knew that I would know what he was talking about, he told me about his low level photo-recon run over Cuba during the crisis. HOLY COW !! .... I saw him a few more times at that course and we always had some conversation. He was around his late 70s or even early 80's. He liked his golf and no darn O2 stuff was going to keep a Marine from what he liked. Here is a link about those runs .....

The True Story Behind the Famous Sequence of Thirteen Days Movie featuring the RF-8 Crusader Low-Level High Speed Run Over Cuba during the Missile Crisis - The Aviation Geek Club

 

[old bear]

I was 14 at the time and just remember that mess. Everyone was scared to death. As I remember the Russians had Tactical nuclear weapons based in Cuba and had been authorized to use them if necessary. Thank God the Russians blinked first. The world came very close to changing for ever.

 

[H Richard]

I was in the USAF stationed in France at the time. We went on 24/7 alert and 30 of us were told to stand by for immediate transp to a base just outside Berlin. They thought just possibly something may pop up there if anything came of the Cuban crisis. Thank God we never left France, but the aircraft readiness alert stayed on for several weeks after things cooled down.

 

[STCM(SW)]

I was on a DD for the blockade.......

 

[Rudi]

My folks had the good sense to not tell a very young kid about it. I learned of it later. Brinksmanship.

 

[MRB1]

I was a senior in High School, and my parents filled the trunk of my car with survival gear, with instructions that at the first sign of a attack of any kind, not to go home, and not to try to locate each other. Everyone was to meet at our farm property about 150 miles west of the city, and we'd see everybody there. Those instructions are still in place today.

 

[mattallamerican]

kennedy was in way over his head one of the worst presidents

 

[JohnRippert]

That was just weeks after I was born. I have wondered at times about the stress levels my parents had to have been going through when I was hatching.

 

[lkabug]

Age 16 at the time, deep in the hills of West Virginia Appalachia. The folks back there developed a plan to form a resistance in the mountains and old coal mines. I remember moving food, and ammo into our "safe place". Those coal miners were serious. We could roam those mountains blindfolded.

 

[tlawler]

That was just weeks after I was born. I have wondered at times about the stress levels my parents had to have been going through when I was hatching.

I was too young also, not quite a year old. It was talked about a lot as I was growing up. We lived just a few miles from Homestead Air Force Base and all the adults usually agreed that we would have been the first on the mainland to be hit.

 

[Grayfox]

I was 9 years old. I remember hearing about Cuba and missiles, but didn't really understand what was going on. What I do remember clearly was all the adults were very nervous and upset. I was scared because they were.

 

[Model 19 6"]

In Catholic school at the time.I remember the Nuns making us sit beneath our desks. Michigan was considered a target, with auto plants and the Soo locks between the U.S. and Canada.

 

[DWalt]

I was in college at the time, and I remember there was considerable consternation and panic around the campus over what might happen. I was living in a dorm and I had my 1911 with several hundred rounds and some extra magazines with me, thought I might need it. There were no regulations prohibiting guns in the dorms, and I know of other guys living there who were also armed. The first photo recon of Cuba that showed what the Russians were up to there was done by a U-2 flying out of Laughlin AFB in Del Rio TX. I have spent a lot of time at Laughlin back in my USAF days, and have a second home nearby. For a long time it has been an undergraduate pilot training base, but it wasn't back then. There is still a U-2 on static display there, but I don't know if it was the one that overflew Cuba.

 

[Rustyt1953]

In Catholic school at the time.I remember the Nuns making us sit beneath our desks. Michigan was considered a target, with auto plants and the Soo locks between the U.S. and Canada.

I had the same fallout shelter.

 

[Beemerguy53]

In Catholic school at the time.I remember the Nuns making us sit beneath our desks. Michigan was considered a target, with auto plants and the Soo locks between the U.S. and Canada.

Another Catholic school veteran (or is it "survivor"? ) here...nine years old in the fall of '62. The School Sisters of Notre Dame had us praying non-stop, but what I remember most is the somber mood of my parents...that's when I realized that there was something very serious going on.

 

[fordson]

I was a sophomore in High School at the time. Remember we practiced “duck and cover”.