Travis pushed to brink in Cuban Missle Crisis

  • Published
  • By Mark Wilderman
  • 60th Air Mobility Wing History Office
TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  Fifty years ago this month, men and women stationed at Travis played an important role in the Cuban missile crisis, one of the pivotal events of the decades-long Cold War. Never before or since has the world come closer to global nuclear war.

In the fall of 1962, the United States monitored the buildup of Soviet military forces on the Communist island of Cuba, which was in progress since the failed U.S.-backed Bay of Pigs invasion of 1961.

U.S. intelligence aircraft, such as the U-2 Dragon Lady, observed the presence of defensive Russian-built MiG-21 fighters and SA-2 "Guideline" surface-to-air missiles on the island. Intelligence analysts assumed the buildup of Soviet defensive weaponry in Cuba was designed to prevent another attempted invasion of Cuba by anti-Fidel Castro forces.

Missiles discovered.

Despite an elaborate and effective Soviet deception to hide the deployment of offensive weapons to Cuba earlier in 1962, a U.S. U-2 reconnaissance plane brought back new aerial photographs from Cuba, Oct. 14, 1962.

The following day, the aerial photographs were analyzed and determined to be of Soviet offensive SS-4 (R-12) Sandal medium-range ballistic missiles, SS-5 (R-14) Skean intermediate-range ballistic missiles IRBMs and still-crated Ilyushin Il-28 Beagle jet bombers, each weapon system capable of threatening most U.S. cities and military installations.

On Oct. 16, 1962, President John F. Kennedy and his advisors were notified of the presence of the Soviet offensive missiles and bombers in Cuba, a mere 90 miles from the U.S. mainland and capable of threatening most of the U.S. population. Thus, the Cuban missile crisis began.

On Oct. 19, more U-2 flights revealed four operational Soviet offensive missile bases in Cuba.

On Oct. 22nd, after weighing his options with his closest advisors, Kennedy announced to the nation, in a live 4 p.m. nationwide television broadcast, the discovery of a series of Soviet offensive missile sites in Cuba, an obvious nuclear threat to the U.S. mainland.

Kennedy vowed retaliation for any actions by the Soviet Union upon the United States.

"As a necessary military precaution, I have reinforced our base at Guantanamo, evacuated today the dependents of our personnel there and ordered additional military units to be on a standby alert basis," Kennedy said. "I call upon Chairman (Nikita) Khrushchev to halt and eliminate this clandestine, reckless and provocative threat to world peace and to stable relations between our two nations."

Kennedy warned Soviet leaders that any missile launched from Cuba at the U.S. would be regarded as an attack by the Soviet Union on the U.S. Further, he demanded that the Soviet Union dismantle and remove its offensive nuclear missiles and bombers from Cuba and return them to the Soviet Union.

To prevent additional Soviet offensive nuclear weapons from reaching Cuba, Kennedy announced a strict naval blockade of Cuba. During the next month, as military tensions between the U.S. and the Soviet mounted, the world was brought to the brink of global nuclear war, closer than at any time during the entire history of the Cold War.
Travis in October 1962.

In October 1962, the host unit at Travis was the 1501st Air Transport Wing of the Western Transport Air Force of the Military Air Transport Service.
The 1501st ATW accomplished its strategic airlift mission with three squadrons of the Douglas C-124C Globemaster IIs, one squadron of Douglas C-133B Cargomasters and one squadron of then-new Boeing jet-powered C-135B Stratolifters.

The 75th and 85th Air Transport Squadrons were based at Travis, with 16 C-124Bs apiece. The 84th ATS operated 16 C-133Bs, while the recently-arrived 44th operating 17 of the C-135Bs, the first jet transport based at Travis.

The second Travis flying wing in October 1962 was a tenant unit, the 5th Bombardment Wing (Heavy) of the Strategic Air Command. The 5th BW consisted of the 23rd Bombardment Squadron, equipped with 15 Boeing B-52G Stratofortress strategic bombers.

During the previous year, the B-52Gs were equipped with the GAM-77 Hound Dog supersonic cruise missile, named after a popular song by Elvis Presley, to increase the survivability of the aircraft when conducting strategic attacks on the Soviet Union.

The B-52Gs of the 5th BW were supported by SAC's 916th Air Refueling Squadron, equipped with 15 Boeing KC-135A Stratotanker aircraft, the first air refueling aircraft based at Travis.

Travis defense.

In October 1962, the base could rightfully be called "Fortress Travis" as it was protected from Soviet air attack by two batteries of Nike Hercules surface-to-air missile batteries of the U.S. Army's 1st Battalion, 61st Defense Artillery located at Cement Hill in Fairfield and near Elmira.

The missile defenses were supplemented by a squadron of the supersonic Convair F-102A Delta Dagger interceptors from the 82nd Interceptor Squadron of the Air Defense Command, which were dispersed to Siskiyou Airport in Northern California for enhanced survivability during the crisis.

Lastly, Travis was defended by several hundred members of the air police, armed with light infantry weapons.

During the crisis, each Travis-based flying, maintenance and support squadron would play an important role in supporting Kennedy's strategy against the Soviet Union and its Cuban allies.