Cuban Missile Crisis: Through the Eyes of a Veteran

The following blog post is the true story as it was written by Veteran Lonnie Hollback, honored with his Honor Flight on Mission 150.

"IN A TIME OF CRISIS THE UNITED STATES AND THE SOVIET UNION (RUSSIA) WOULD HAVE LIKELY BEEN IN A NUCLEAR WAR IF NOT FOR ONE SOVIET CAPTAIN

In 1962, while I was doing my stint in the U.S. Navy (1960-1964), the nation was involved in what has become known as the Cuban Missile Crisis. Our country's routine observation of U-2 aircraft detected and took pictures of a massive buildup of nuclear war materials on the island of Cuba. Little did I know that I would personally be standing some 100 feet from those very same nuclear missiles and taking pictures of my own. I wasn't overly concerned when President John F. Kennedy was making his infamous declaration on national television that the United States had discovered that the Soviet Union (Russia) had amassed a collection of these materials just ninety miles off the coast of Florida. The pictures revealed that the materials were nuclear missile silos that were capable of hitting the eastern part of the U.S. in about twelve minutes.

I was stationed on the USS BLANDY (DD-943) at the time and over the ship's office. Blandy was an Anti-submarine Destroyer Class warship and one of the newer ones equipped with the latest hardware of the day. We were moored at the pier in Newport, Rhode Island, our home port. While the president was speaking, it had been broadcast over our PA system that Blandy would be getting underway very soon. The president's speech took on a whole new meaning even to me. I can remember, like it was only recently, the president's words that should the USSR use a first strike anywhere in the Western Hemisphere that a full retaliatory response would be forthcoming. I'm not certain if the words "nuclear response" were used but the insinuation was crystal clear. Every department of the ship was pretty much operating on a dead run as we all knew that the ship would move at the designated time.

We got underway by late evening with orders from Naval Headquarters in Washington to rendezvous with other Destroyers like ours along with an aircraft carrier. All ship's diaries were accurately completed and off the ship assuring an accounting of everyone on board. We were anything but fully staffed in all departments but the torpedo crews were in good shape. They were probably the most important because by now we knew we were heading toward Cuba to participate in some way with the nuclear war materials problem in that country.

The critical dates involved in the crisis were Oct. 22, 1962 for the following 13 days. During that span of time, the U.S was flying U2 observation aircraft over Cuba to keep abreast of all activities at the site. If an attack on Cuba was going to be an option then it would need to be done before the completion of the nuclear setup. Otherwise, it would be much harder to deal with the Soviet Union if that would be held over our heads. At that point, and probably the point when it became more of a reality that war was imminent, one of our U2 aircraft was shot out of the sky over Cuba, killing the pilot. Cuba was responsible for that shooting.

That brought on a heightened war atmosphere in the area, so the U.S. launched their warplanes out of Turkey and circling the Soviet Union non-stop. I don't know if the warplanes were carrying a nuclear bomb or not, but I would assume they were. All of this undoubtedly had a positive influence on the Soviet Union agreeing to abort the buildup of a nuclear force in Cuba. A circling aircraft above the Soviet Union (Russia) was probably one of the safest places at that time as the Soviet Union likely wouldn't risk shooting one of our planes out of the air for fear of it carrying a nuclear bomb and exploding over their land. Kennedy was continually rejecting his military Generals' insistence on attacking Cuba in order to exhaust all diplomatic efforts of avoiding war, especially a nuclear one. The date at that point was Oct.29th. Kennedy was agreeing to a possible attack on the site in Cuba three days later if the Soviet Union president Nikita Khrushchev didn't cave on his position. He did before the three days expired.

By now, Blandy had been informed of its mission. The Soviet Union's president had blinked after hearing Kennedy's statement and had agreed to remove all nuclear war materials out of Cuba. The agreement wasn't perfect though as the U.S. had to remove its nukes out of Turkey. A small price to pay given the location of Cuba. The Kennedy's (John & Robert) had considered an aggressive attack, destroying the nukes, removing all doubt about the USSR's having nukes in Cuba. (or, as Kennedy would say, Cuber). The plan then was to build a blockade around Cuba to prevent any other war materials to enter Cuba and to monitor all cargo ships leaving Cuba to ensure that the nuke silos were indeed coming out of Cuba.

We took our position with the aircraft carrier along with four other destroyers like ours surrounding the aircraft carrier to intercept any possibility of a torpedo getting to the aircraft carrier. That situation started to get closer to reality when a reconnaissance aircraft got a contact that an adversary submarine was detected. The aircraft would drop an electronic seeker into the ocean water, sending contact signals back to the aircraft. They knew that the sub was of foreign design, but had no way of knowing the actual power that the submarine possessed. Three of the five destroyers, Blandy included, left the carrier to investigate the contact, and sure enough, it was a Soviet (Russian) Foxtrot Class sub. We had been all but certain that there would be subs in the area but this was the first to be found. We three ships got to it, circling above it and pinging our sonar off of it.

While circling above the submarine, we dropped three hand grenade-sized explosives down near the sub. It was known internationally that three small explosives meant only to speak to the sub that we knew they were there. One ship sending sonar waves would have driven their crew crazy but three was surely driving them stark raving mad. Sonar pinging a ship sends electronic waves throughout the sub; you would be hearing the pinging throughout the ship. Remembering that this was before nuclear-powered subs, their sub was running short on oxygen, and we knew they would have to eventually surface to charge their batteries. We three ships followed the sub for some four days and then..... sure enough.....up he came. I just happen to be outside at that moment, looking over the horizon. At that moment I saw the sub's nose break the surface and then level off We immediately tried to communicate with the sub. Their captain would only say "good day, we require no assistance". We made sure he continued his northerly course eventually exiting the mission and going back to the carrier for badly needed refueling. Dealing with the Soviet Russian sub would prove to be a valuable experience even though a war with that nation was avoided.

That account of the first submarine contact on the blockade was the way it was known in

1962. In the year 2004, however, 42 years after the crisis and all information had been declassified long ago, it became known that the Soviet Union had sent four submarines to the blockade area and they had sent them there while the terms of the agreements between the two countries were ongoing. The four subs were indeed non-nuclear subs, however, it became known in 2004 that the four subs were carrying torpedos that had been altered and were equipped with nuclear warheads. A single hit from one of those torpedoes would have actually splintered any ship, blowing it completely to pieces. Even the aircraft carrier would have been blown apart and sunk immediately. For that matter, the other destroyers would have undoubtedly suffered irreparable damage as it became known that the nuke was as powerful as the one that was dropped on Hiroshima scariest part, it became known, is that the four submarine captains were given sole discretion to fire the nuclear torpedoes if their sub or the soviet homeland was under attack.

FROM A SOVIET PERSPECTIVE

(The following is an excerpt from a story written concerning one Soviet Captain on board the submarine, Capt. Vasili Arkhipov, who quite possibly singlehandedly prevented an all-out nuclear war between the two countries.)

'President Kennedy decided against a direct attack on Cuba, opting instead for a blockade around the island to prevent Soviet ships from accessing it, which he announced on Oct 22. He then presented the Soviets with an ultimatum, demanding that they remove the nuclear missiles from Cuba.

Through a series of tense negotiations over the coming days, the Americans and Soviets worked out a deal to end the conflict. By Oct. 29, the Americans had agreed to remove their missiles from Turkey and the Soviets had agreed to remove their missiles from Cuba.

But while the two countries' leaders were handling the negotiations, they were largely unaware of a much more precarious situation that was going on below the surface in the Caribbean. Soviet Naval Officer Vasili Arkhipov, 34, was one of the three commanders aboard the submarine. They had received an order from the Soviet leadership to stop in the Caribbean short of the American blockade around Cuba. They then dove deep to conceal their presence after being spotted by the Americans and were thus cut off from communication with the surface. What the U.S. Navy didn't realize was that the sub was armed with a nuclear torpedo, one they had been instructed to use without waiting for approval if their submarine or their Soviet homeland was under fire.

Cut off from communication with the outside world, the panicked Soviet sailors feared that they were now under attack. From what little they knew of what was happening above the surface, it seemed possible that nuclear war had already broken out.

With tensions running high and the air conditioning out, the conditions inside the sub had begun to deteriorate quickly as the crew grew ever more fearful. As one man on board, Anotoly Andreev, wrote in his journal: 'For the last four days, they didn't even let us come up to the periscope depth...my head is bursting from the stuffy air, and today three sailors fainted from overheating again. The regeneration of air works poorly, the carbon dioxide content is rising, and the electric power reserves are dropping. Those who are free from their shifts are sitting immobile, staring at one spot...the temperature in the sections is above 122 degrees,'

As the situation grew more tense, one of the three captains, Valentin Savitsky, decided that they had no choice but to launch their nuclear torpedo. Savitsky had his men ready the onboard missile, as strong as the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, planning to aim it at one of the ships on the surface. "We're gonna blast them now", Savitsky reportedly said. "We will die, but we will sink them all - we will not become the shame of the fleet". However, Savitsky needed the approval of both of the sub's other two captains before launching the weapon. The second captain, Ivan Masiennikov, approved the strike. But Vasili Arkhipov said no. Somehow keeping a level head in the midst of chaos, Arkhipov reportedly managed to convince Savitsky that the Americans were not actually attacking them and that they were only firing depth charges in order to get the Soviets' attention and merely draw them to the surface. Arkhipov was right. The submarine surfaced and, satisfied that all-out war had not actually been taking place above, turned around and went on its way. The Americans wouldn't find out until decades later that the submarine had been carrying a nuclear missile.

Had Vasili Arkhipov not been there to prevent the torpedo launch, historians agree that nuclear war would likely have begun.'

Orders then came that a Russian Merchant ship was in our vicinity with possible war materials coming out of Cuba. Our orders were to overtake the ship and photograph everything on board. As part of the mission, a party of six would remove personal ID from clothing and prepare to board their ship to personally remove tarps to photograph everything. I was one of the six. The Commanding Officer called a meeting on the mess deck to brief everyone. He explained what to do and that their tarps would need to be rolled back to be photographed. Someone asked what we would do if they refused. While gritting his teeth he said: "I'd love to shoot the screws off that sons-a-b****. Wow! There was not a doubter on board. We knew he would do it. If we had to be at sea in a war situation, we would want it to be with him.

We overtook the merchant ship, and sure enough, the tarps had everything covered up. Through a bullhorn we used several languages, but they answered up in Spanish. After that, it was all in Russian. They were told to roll the tarps back so we could photograph their cargo. No response! Repeat. Still no response! Our Captain ordered the forward five-inch mount to rotate to the merchant ship's screws. Wow, I thought, they don't know who they are dealing with. Within four minutes, the first tarp was pulled off the first missile launcher. There were several on board. Many pictures were taken and forwarded to Dept of Defense. They all became very friendly. Whew!

We overtook yet another merchant ship with about the same response. Lots of pictures. I think they had been talking to each other. The tarps were practically rolled back by the time we were alongside. Comical. There was only about 100 feet separating the two ships.

All personnel on the ship were somewhat on edge during the crisis, but comedy wasn't totally absent. We picked up a sonar contact that was not far from our ship. At 3am the

officer of the deck called "General Quarters, all hands man your battle stations, this is NOT a drill." It had to be a record time to the battle stations. Some in underwear! Fortunately, it was a friendly contact, marine life. Whew!

There were many other incidents that took place during the blockade but they progressed without a lot of problems. I shudder to think what would have taken place if a single Commanding Officer had fired a shot, either on purpose or by mistake. Especially since that sub could certainly have sunk at least one of our ships, probably more. Surely to goodness, our commanding officer would have had to receive authority from the flotilla commander or even further up to be able to fire on that merchant ship's screws.

With the two most powerful nations on the planet coming so close, I do believe there were positive adjustments made on both parts. Following the Cuban blockade, the two presidents (Kennedy & Khrushchev) came to an agreement concerning the nukes. It was called the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. The agreement called for both countries to discontinue doing nuclear tests and thereby discontinuing producing more nuclear weapons. The United States had 35000 weapons, and Russia had 25000, for a total of 60000 total nuclear weapons. And then during the presidents Reagan & Gorvachov years, both countries agreed to another treaty that would reduce the number of nuclear weapons that each country would have. Since then, the two countries have agreed to a number somewhere in the hundreds instead of thousands. So I guess the Cuban Missile Crisis did spark some sense in the two countries' heads.

With this Cuban Missile Crisis now slowing and requiring less attention, our squadron was released to make its way back to Newport. A much-welcomed decision considering that we were out to sea for 23 days. Another obstacle was looming, though that we couldn't have seen coming. For those of you who have seen the movie "Perfect Storm," then you have an idea of what was brewing. Before we could vacate the southern Atlantic and Caribbean Sea a massive hurricane enveloped the entire operating area. Even the aircraft carrier was taking waves over its flight deck, severely damaging its mast. I wouldn't have believed that if I hadn't seen it for myself. With seas like that, all hatches were secured, and our ship's bow was underwater with every gigantic wave. The half-inch steel railing that lines the exterior of the ship was bent down to deck level. Just to walk inside the vessel, you find yourself walking at about a 35 percent lean one way, then the other. Even the old salts sailors on the ship had never seen anything like it. I was just glad to have finally mastered the seasickness that had plagued me when I first went to sea.

Hope you enjoyed reading my memories of the Cuban Missile Crisis."

Lonnie Hollback

HFC Mission 150