When the Missiles Left Cuba
A Navy aircrew got it on film.
- By Paul F. Stiller
- Air & Space magazine, November 2012
The Pollysboy 11 crew: Author Paul F. Stiller, standing, third from left; Bruce McCormick to his left; George Fabik, far right; Eric Neptune, front row, far right.
Courtesy Paul F. Stiller
(Page 3 of 3)
I hadn’t pressed the trigger. I had not turned our searchlight on.
It had to be another patrol aircraft, at our altitude, flying directly at us. Perhaps it had just started a searchlight run. Its crew had no idea we were there. We were closing at 300 mph. In 30 seconds we would collide.
McCormick yanked the airplane into a 90-degree right bank. We both pulled hard on our yokes, trying to swerve out of the way. I tried blind-calling the other airplane, going from frequency to frequency. “Break off! Turn right! Turn right!” There was no answer.
Seconds later, we heard propellers thrash under the belly of our airplane. We later learned that another squadron’s airplane had wandered into our area to check out the ship, not realizing we were there. We had missed each other by feet.
We landed at Boca Chica air base, Naval Air Station Key West, around 1 a.m. on October 24. The airfield was darkened by the national emergency: a war that might begin at any minute. The crew tied down the airplane while I was driven across town to the photo lab. We passed the silhouettes of countless Marines in foxholes, rifle bayonets protruding, dug into boulevard medians.
After technicians made a print of each shot of the Soviet ship with missiles on its decks, I annotated the back of every one. Around 3 a.m. a courier appeared. “Give me your six best pictures for the president,” he said. I made my selection and he scooped the photos into a briefcase, handcuffed the case to his wrist, and left to fly back to Washington. The photos would be at the Pentagon by dawn on the 24th.
We flew back to Guantanamo Bay, by then having logged 20 flight hours on two hours of sleep in the last 38 hours, with one inflight dinner the evening before. Thank God for coffee.
The official announcement and photos of Soviet ships with missile cargo first appeared on October 28. As far as I can tell, our images never became part of the official documentation of the Soviet pullout. But we knew that on October 23, we photographed the first Soviet missiles coming out of Cuba.
A 1958 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, Paul Stiller received his Navy wings in 1959, and flew with Patrol Squadron 56 until 1963. Since then he has designed medical instruments, zoo and museum exhibits, and theater scenery.
Comments (7)
Hi Paul,
Great job and extremely interesting article.
Best regards,
John
Posted by John Jacobson on September 22,2012 | 11:41 AM
I was less than a day old when Pollysboy 11 overflew that ship. This was global stuff, and really scary. Who knows what could have transpired if that deck was empty? Kinda glad the pullout was confirmed; otherwise I doubt I would have made it if the worst happened.
Posted by Mark Diggle on September 25,2012 | 09:51 AM
Pete,
Even after 50 years it's still good to revisit a Pollysboy adventure memory.
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Posted by Carp on September 26,2012 | 08:24 PM
I never knew that the searchlight couldn't be on for more than thirty seconds.
Posted by Bob Neu on September 27,2012 | 06:49 PM
(These comments are being made by a Naval Aviator who flew Neptunes (5's and 7's) in the mid 1950s, as well as H-3 helicopters embarked on the USS WASP right in the middle of the quarantine.)
Very, very interesting account and helps provide a clearer picture of all that took place. It raises some questions, however. One is tempted to speculate on why there were missiles photographed leaving Cuba five days before the Soviets agreed to remove them. Robert Kennedy's book, "Thirteen Days", gives almost an hour-by-hour account of the difficulty John Kennedy had in making the decisions that led to a peaceful resolution of this adventure. R. Kennedy makes no mention of any missile withdrawals that they were aware of during the tense period just prior to the Soviet "Blink". It certainly appears that the photos taken by Pollysboy 11 never reached the Kennedys, else they would have been mentioned in the book because R. Kennedy laid out very clearly all the relevant factors they had to consider while making their decisions. This October 23 withdrawal of missiles, had they known about them, would have been of considerable import thus unquestionably worth mentioning. Rather puzzling.
It's worth noting that R. Kennedy's book contains a picture captioned "October 24, Soviet ship laden with jet-bomber crates photographed by U. S. reconnaissance aircraft." Significantly, there are eight long massive crates on the vessel's deck. I would not describe them as appearing to be "cigar shaped", however.
Regarding another commenter's note about the thirty second limitation on the use of the searchlight, my recollection of that searchlight was that it was prone to malfunction, even when limitations were observed. However, on occasions when you needed to illuminate a surface contact the radio circuits would almost instantly be filled with profanity coming from the guy on the bridge of the ship that you just temporarily blinded. They were not at all understanding or charitable.
Posted by Kelsey Goodman on October 20,2012 | 08:31 PM
I was there, flew a P2V from Jacksonville, FL. Several yrs ago I visited the bone yard in Tucson, AZ, and swear I saw my old plane there.
Posted by Raymond Narug on October 22,2012 | 05:50 PM
I was A Radioman with Air Crew Wings, which means I was qualified to fly three different positions on the P2V Neptune. My primary position was Radioman. One of the other various duties was to photograph ships when required. Before my discharge in March of 1962, my crew LF 1 out of Jacksonville, Fl with Commander Bishop as Squadron Commander and Lt.Kraft as Captain and Lt. Nelson as Co-Pilot, flew recon flights rigging ships coming out of Cuba. On one occasion I remember photographing, with a movie camera, some ships having long tube shaped containers on their decks. As we flew over them, at a very low altitude, the crewmen on the ships pulled canvases off the tubes so we could see the tubes. Weather there was anything in those tubes or not we didn't know but we photographed what we saw. The particular flight I am referencing was a daytime flight.
Posted by Ken Wilhelm on November 8,2012 | 11:30 AM