SASL scenario Coastal Artillery Battery,

 Great solitaire ASL scenario.  This can be turned into a battle for any rules set.  Everyone loves Commando actions.

Cuban Missile Crisis Part 3

 How close was the US and Russia to a Nuclear Holocaust?  16 years later I learned from my military service friends.   As my Navy friend 5 minutes to launch.  And USAF buddies a horn blast.  A chief in my Patrol Squadron ( P-3's) told me this.

    He was a weapon specialist.  His work center on the Aircraft carrier was order to pull out all the Nukes for action.  They job was to make ready and arm the bombs.  They carrier was stationed just out the Dardanelle Straights in the Aegean Sea.   They where called to general quarters.  Any aircraft that was nuclear capable was armed.  The pilots had been placed on alert in their aircraft.  Next everyone was mustered on desk. At this point each men was given a life vest. Next the Senior Chief informed them the plan.  The course of action was to launch all the aircraft at the Soviet Union.  Once the deck where cleared of action. The Carrier was going to narrowest spot in the Dardanelle Straight.   There it would be turned sideways.  As scuttled to block the black seas fleet from leaving into the Mediterranean sea.   They would have 10 minutes to abandon ship.  The swim to shore or boat to Turkey.  To form up.   As the Chief told it was a one way ticket for the aircrews.  Where the aircraft was going to land was a mystery.

  Next my Aircraft Maintenance Skip Kimberly.

    I was a snort nose 1st Lt as Skip would said. That was assigned to a F-104C squadron.  The Squadron got the call to deploy immediately to Key West.  The airfield was crammed full of every type of aircraft.  Because of the short range on his F-104C is why we where stationed.  They flew combat patrols around Key West.  After a few day. His Unit got the brief.  You job to protect the fighter bombers.  Even if you have to ram an enemy aircraft.  As Skip said it sucked standing alert in you aircraft in the Caribbean heat. To him if he did make back his hope is that Key West would still be there.   It was a relief when they where notified the Russian ships had changed course away from Cuba.   Skip would later end up flying T-28 and other aircraft over Laos and the Ho Chin Min trail.  Night interdiction and spotting missions for the fast mover.  Skip was a great guy who respected.

 This my story of the madness if the Cuba Crisis.  Let us hope the Mad man in Russia comes to his senses.

Cuban Missile crisis Part 2

  It this point I hope you had read part 1 the background.   Now for me and my thoughts.  I was young and had faith in my nation. Special John Kennedy who was my hero.  I even started combing my hair is his style.  I wish I had this hair today as head to bald.  

   Junior High events that shaped my generation.  Several of our male teachers where WW2 veterans.  Who quietly  talked among themselves about the possibility of be called up.    Mr Kraft (history teacher) Mr Edwards (Science teacher) and Mr Gilles ( Math teacher).    Kraft and Gilles both served in the infantry in Europe.  Edwards was a Navigator on B-25s.   He didn't talk about it much.  I believe he flew in the Pacific theater.    Kraft along with Gilles taught us the brutally of war.   I remember Kraft who had few issues, would drink a little cough medicine during the class.   In later year I found out it was Jack Daniels variety.   In every class one would have the smart ass boys that pull crap it the class.  During the period we where studying WW2.   The class clown challenge Mr Kraft  " What do you know old man".  His respond was I watched by Captain get his head cutoff by tank shell.  That brought silence to the class. His next remark was we the younger generation in this class could wiped out by a H-bomb.  As Detroit is a major part of the defense system the supplies parts and equipment for the military.

  Later in the day the same smart ass challenge Mr Edwards.  If you know so much how big of blast from H-bomb.  He removed his glasses to speak.  " Well Mr Crabtree.   The crater would be a bout a mile across.  It the blast didn't kill you.  The fire storm will melt you as you sit here in class.  If not the fallout will kill you in a week if you are lucky."   That shook pretty will everyone up. But back in the 60's you bucked up to that thought.

      Mr Gilles was the claiming voice out of all the teachers.  He said live your life, respect your friends and neighbors.  Enjoy your freedom that my generation sacrificed for you.  This crisis will pass and make you stronger.

    The day of Halloween the school had its first duck and cover exercise.  It was in Mr Edwards class.  When the alarm bell sounded. The was instructed to duck under our desk look away from the window. Using our hand to cover our heads.   After that someone asked how long before the blast.  5 to 10 minutes from the missiles in Cuba. After which he said not to worry as President Kennedy was a good leader.  As President he would keep us safe.

     A week later we had another drill. This time we all went into the wall way.  The veteran teachers had talked to the Principal  about the danger of flying glass. Each class room had massive glass windows.  At a later date the plan was to go into the basement of the school.  This was after the maintenance men cleared up the area. Along with cleaning.   By this time the basement had filled with food and emergency medical supplies.  The verbal sparing between Kennedy and Khurchev was at an all time high.

  The home front.

      My mother was German war bride.  She survived the massive bombing of Berlin. Plus other parts of Germany.  So the war was still fresh in her mind.  My father at this was to old for military service.

 The one neighbor who was married to Cuban lady was in the naval reserve. He was a X-ray specialist. For the life of me can't recall his name.  Some how he had gotten his future wife out of Cuban shortly after Castro took over.   Her name was Josephine, a very sweet and kind woman.   Some she got her younger brother out in 1960.   The neighbor was called up and shipped to Florida.

 My Dentist who also was in the Naval reserve had been called up.  I believe he worked in intelligence.  Dr Schimidt will only say in was classified after he returned.  

 Back to my father, he had just been hired into Ford Motor in Sterling Heights.  From 1958 to 1962 my family life was rough.  Why my father helped founding the UAW in the early 40's.  Because of this he was blacked balled in Detroit because of his union activates.   This is where our neighbor the was the X-ray specialist got my father in Ford's.  Part of the deal was the he would have to stay out of UAW activates and leadership.   For first time in my life things got better.    Next what I learned years later form veterans of the Cuban Crisis.

1962 Cuban Missile crisis 60 years about me growing up under the fear of a Nuclear holocaust Part 1 the background.

  I was only 14 years old that the time. Last year of Junior high before graduating to high school.  Today all people remember is what they watched on TV from the Happy days town with the Fonzie. 

  The crisis ran for 16 October to 20 November 1962.  Pretty scary time for a teenager who would in 6yrs be in the Jungles of Vietnam getting a college education in the school of jungle warfare.  The photo that started the crisis from life magazine. 

The background:

On October 28, 1962—that dramatic day exactly 60 years ago when Nikita Khrushchev publicly ordered the removal of nuclear ballistic missiles his forces had just installed on the island of Cuba—the Soviet premier sent a private letter to President John F. Kennedy regarding the resolution of the most dangerous superpower confrontation in modern history. Officially, the USSR withdrew the missiles in return for a vague US non-invasion-of-Cuba guarantee. Secretly, however, the crisis was resolved when President Kennedy dispatched his brother Robert to meet with Soviet Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin on the evening of October 27 and agree to a top-secret deal: US missiles in Turkey for Soviet missiles in Cuba.

“I feel I must state to you that I do understand the delicacy involved for you in an open consideration of the issue of eliminating the US missile bases in Turkey,” Khrushchev wrote to Kennedy in his private note, seeking to confirm the arrangement in writing. “I take into account the complexity of this issue and I believe you are right about not wishing to publicly discuss it.”

Dobrynin gave the confidential letter to Attorney General Robert Kennedy on October 29. But instead of passing it on to the president, the next day Kennedy returned the letter to the Soviet ambassador. The United States would “live up to our promise, even if it is given in this oral form,” Kennedy told him, but there would be no written record. “I myself, for example, do not want to risk getting involved in the transmission of this sort of letter, since who knows where and when such letters can surface or be somehow published,” Dobrynin’s detailed report to the Kremlin quoted Kennedy as saying. “The appearance of such a document could cause irreparable harm to my political career in the future. This is why we request that you take this letter back.”

So began the epic cover-up of how the crisis actually ended and nuclear war was averted. President Kennedy was determined to keep the missile swap secret—to safeguard US leadership of the NATO alliance of which Turkey was a member, as well as to protect his political reputation, which, like his brother’s, would suffer if it became known that he had actually negotiated with the USSR in order save the world from self-destruction. To hide the quid pro quo, the president took a number of active measures: among them lying to his White House predecessors, misleading the media, and orchestrating a political hatchet job on his own UN Ambassador, Adlai Stevenson—the first, and virtually the only, adviser to urge Kennedy to consider a missile exchange to resolve the crisis diplomatically, without the use of force. After JFK’s assassination, a handful of his former White House aides sustained the cover-up. They would maintain a wall of silence that endured for more than 25 years, obfuscating the true history, and real lessons, of the Cold War crisis that brought the world to the brink of nuclear Armageddon.

Simon Walker The Maori Wars

 Always had an intersted in this period. But too old to start another project. As I have piles of unpainted or unfinished miniatures.

 The Maori Wars, New Zealand 1840's - a montage of photos from our recent game at Partisan...

Kelly's Heroes village

 One of the all time great movies.  Loved Oddball and his tank crew.  The movie reminded my of it a Mad, mad world.  Just pure fun to watch.