Page 8 - Gobierno ivisible

Date: 4/5/2011 Page: 8 of 237

of the CIA in San Juan, rather than in Washington, might divert any suspicion that the CIA was directing the
drama which was now unfolding.

Partly for similar reasons, President John F. Kennedy had decided to spend the weekend as usual at Glen Ora, his
rented estate in Middleburg, Virginia. At 11: 37 A.M. he spoke at an African Freedom Day celebration at the
State Department. Early in the afternoon he got into a helicopter and flew to Middleburg.

The largest secret operation in American history was already beginning. But neither the President of the
United States nor the director of the Central Intelligence Agency was in Washington.

***

At 6:00 A.M. in Havana, it sounded at first like thunder. But then anti-aircraft guns opened up and the sleepy
residents of the Cuban capital realized that an air raid was in progress. From their windows and balconies,
Cubans could see tracers from the anti-aircraft shells shooting in great arcs across the sky. In Miramar, a suburb
near Camp Libertad, early risers watched as the three B-26s in Jose Crespo's "Puma" wing attacked with bombs,
machine guns and rockets. Some of the bombs struck an ammunition dump and flames leaped skyward. A series
of explosions followed and continued intermittently for forty minutes. Bomb fragments hit the administration
building and gouged huge holes in the airport runways. The attack lasted only fifteen minutes, but the guns kept
firing for an hour.

Simultaneously, Luis Cosme's "Linda" flight of three B-26s was bombing San Antonio de los Banos. One
of Castro's T-33 American-made jet trainers sitting on the end of Runway 11 blew up and some Castro B-26s
were caught on the ground.

At Antonio Maceo Airport in Santiago de Cuba, on the eastern end of the island, the "Gorilla" wing destroyed
a hangar containing one British-built Sea Fury and two smaller planes. A Cubana Airlines C-47 parked in front of
the administration building was also demolished.

Less actual damage to aircraft was inflicted at Camp Libertad by the "Puma" flight. And the exile air force lost its
first plane. The B-26 piloted by Daniel Fernandez Mon, mortally crippled in the raid over Havana, wheeled out
to sea north of the city and burst into flames. It crashed into the ocean within sight of Havana's Commodoro
Hotel. The red-haired bachelor pilot had pleaded for five days to be allowed to take part in the first raid. He was
twenty-nine when he died. His co-pilot, Gaston Perez, perished with him. Perez would have celebrated his
twenty-sixth birthday in thirteen days.

Now a tiny crack, the first of several things that went wrong, appeared in the carefully polished CIA plans. Jose
Crespo, leader of the "Puma" wing, developed engine trouble. He decided he could not make it back to Happy
Valley, and nosed his bomber north to Key West.

At 7:00 A.M. Crespo and his co-pilot, Lorenzo Perez, made an emergency landing at the Boca Chica Naval Air
Station in Key West, to the consternation of Navy officials there. Key West high schools were to have held an
Olympics Day at Boca Chica, with track events, bands and parades, and the public invited. The Navy hastily
closed the field without explanation. Olympics Day was canceled. In "Linda" flight, Alfredo Caballero
discovered, after dropping his bombs on San Antonio de los Banos, that one fuel tank was not feeding. He headed
south and landed on Grand Cayman Island with his co-pilot, Alfredo Maza. It caused another small complication
for the CIA. Grand Cayman was British territory.

***