L to R: ARV Zulia D-21, USS Mullinnix DD-944, ARA Rosales D-22 (ex-Stembel DD-644),
ARA Espora D-21 (ex-Dortch DD-670), ARV Nueva Esparta D-11
Pictured above are the warships of the U.S., Argentine, and Venezuelan Navies leave Trinidad on the combined Latin American-United States Quarantine Task Force, 12 Nov, 1962.
During the Cuban Blockade the Mux patrolled the Anegada Passage, which is between the British Virgin Islands and the island of Angilla. The Mux contacted 55 ships during the 9 days she was on station. Also Task Force 137, of which the Mux was flagship for Admiral Tyree, included 11 ships from 6 OAS nations (including the US), many of these ship/subs we had exercised with during Unitas III. The total ship contacts for TF 137 was 153. Also, the reason Mux went to Callao, (Lima) Peru was to drop off Tyree so he could fly back to Trinidad to establish TF 137 and make quarantine plans. That is why the ship was only there a day. The Mullinnix headed towards the Panama Canal the following day. (from Navy scrapbook at the Submarine Museum Library in Groton CT – Ken Robarge (June 2008)).
The USS Mullinnix saw action in the Cuban Missile Crisis from 24 October (the day after President Kennedy announced the Naval Blockage) to 5 Dec 1962. Between 24 October and 19 November, Mullinnix was flagship of Task Force (TF) 137, composed of American Argentine, Venezuelan, and Dominican warships, took part in the Cuban quarantine, which brought about the removal of Russian missiles threatening the security of the entire Western Hemisphere.
USS Mullinnix was the first American ship to be a Flagship of an inter-American Naval Force opposing a foreign enemy
Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal
For participating in designated expeditions after 1 July 1958
24 October - 5 December 1962
As defined in the Navy and Marine Corps Awards Manual, service for this award was performed in the water area from 12 degrees to 28 degrees North latitude, and from 66 degrees to 84 degrees West longitude.
RM2 Jim McGilvray (July 62 - Jan 66) remembers, "We were on the west side of South America when we got the call for the blockade, we stopped in Panama City for fuel and supplies, then through the canal to Trinidad to drop off ComSoLant. From there we were on the blockade and quarantine, as far as I know there were no boardings. We had a mustang for captain at the time and he and the rest of the crew were very angry about not being allowed to sink one of the Ruskies or even fire a warning shot. So on one occasion we were trying to get one of the commercial ships to turn around and it wouldn't, so we asked for permission to fire on her and once again got a rejection. The old man was so angry that he ordered maximum speed and headed for the Russian fan tail, (I was watching from the port side of the torpedo deck), we kept up speed and turned just at the last minute, I swear the Mux was humming like a speedboat. The Russians were running forward, men and women both, scared s---less. We may not have fired a shot but that one incident was very satisfying.
Ken Fogarty (1962-4) from the USS Lester (DE-1022) remembers, "As a 19 year old SMSN, Unitis III was an experience of a lifetime. It was my first cruise and the first time away from the USA. While in Lima Peru on our Unitis III Cruise, the Lester and USS Mullinnix DD944 were ordered to get underway in the middle of the night and as we passed through the Panama Canal we were told of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Lester participated in the blockade until boiler trouble forced us to return to Newport. The boilers also caused problems early on in the cruise when we were dead in the water for 4 days off the coast of Recife Brazil."
USS Charles P Cecil DD-835 leaves Norfolk D&S Piers
Cuban Missile Crisis Brief Overview
During the missile crisis, U.S. naval officers did not know about Soviet plans for a submarine base (at Mariel Bay, Cuba) or that the Foxtrot submarines were nuclear-armed. Nevertheless, the Navy high command worried that the submarines, which had already been detected in the north Atlantic, could endanger enforcement of the blockade. Therefore, under orders from the Pentagon, U.S. Naval forces carried out systematic efforts to track Soviet submarines in tandem with the plans to blockade, and possibly invade, Cuba.
Of the four submarines that secretly left for Cuba on 1 October, the U.S. Navy detected and closely tracked three: B-36, commanded by Aleksei Dubivko, and identified by the U.S. Navy as C-26 (and later found to be identical with another identified submarine C-20); B-59, commanded by Valentin Savitsky, and identified as C-19, and B-130, commanded by Nikolai Shumkov, and identified as C-18. Only submarine B-4, commanded by Captain Rurik Ketov, escaped intensive U.S. monitoring (although U.S. patrol aircraft may have spotted it). In a major defeat of the Soviet mission, these three submarines came to the surface under thorough U.S. Navy scrutiny.
Some Soviet submarines may have escaped U.S. detection altogether. While the four Soviet Foxtrot submarines did not have combat orders, the Soviet Navy sent two submarines, B-75 and B-88, to the Caribbean and the Pacific respectively, with specific combat orders. B-75, a "Zulu" class diesel submarine, commanded by Captain Nikolai Natnenkov, carried two nuclear torpedoes. It left Russian waters at the end of September with instructions to defend Soviet transport ships en route to Cuba with any weapons if the ships came under attack. Although the Soviets originally intended to send a nuclear-powered submarine for transport ship defense (see document 2), only a diesel submarine was available. Once President Kennedy announced the quarantine, the Soviet navy recalled B-75 and it returned to the Soviet Union by 10 November, if not earlier. Another submarine, B-88, left a base at Kamchatka peninsula, on 28 October, with orders to sail to Pearl Harbor and attack the base if the crisis over Cuba escalated into U.S.-Soviet war. Commanded by Captain Konstatine Kireev, B-88 arrived near Pearl Harbor on 10 November and patrolled the area until 14 November when it received orders to return to base, orders that were rescinded that same day, a sign that Moscow believed that the crisis was not over. B-88 did not return to Kamchatka under the very end of December. While the U.S. Navy detected and surfaced most of the submarines en route to Cuba, it remains to be seen whether it detected any traces of submarines B-75 or B-88.
U.S. aircraft carriers had nuclear depth charges on board, while non-nuclear components (all but the fissile material pit) for more depth charges were stored at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Fortunately, the U.S. and Soviet leadership, from heads of state to naval commanders wanted to avoid open conflict; cool heads, professionalism, and some amount of luck, kept the crisis under control.
Excerpt from "The Last Gun Ship - History of USS Mullinnix DD-944"
A Historical Novel By Frank A. Wood
1 October: 1 Oct
Four Soviet submarines secretly leave for Cuba.
2 October: U.S. Atlantic Fleet Amphibious Command conduct a multiple Marine Battalion Team amphibious landing exercise with Amphibious Squadrons 8 and 12 at Vieques Island, just off Puerto Rico. The objective of the exercise was to oust the Orange dictator Ortsac (Castro spelled backwards) from power.
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On the evening of 3 October, the #1 ship’s service generator went out due to a pinhole in the reduction gear casing. One shipmate that would have an opportunity to help the snipes in repairs was SA “Randy” Evangelista, as the CO sentenced him to 20 days of confinement at hard labor. At 1700 on 4 October, the ship’s clocks were set back one hour to conform to +4 Q time.
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4 October: The SGA meets to discuss the progress of Operation Mongoose. Robert Kennedy states that the president is “concerned about progress on the Mongoose program” and believes that “more priority should be given to trying to mount sabotage operations.” The attorney general also expresses the president’s "concern over the developing situation," and urges that "massive activity" be undertaken within the Mongoose framework. The group agrees that plans for the mining of Cuban habors and for capturing Cuban forces for interrogation should be considered.
5 October: Another U2 mission over Cuba reveals the nature and pace of the Soviet military buildup. Following the mission, a policy-level decision limits future US missions because of the administration’s concerns that a SA-2 might shoot down a U2, thereby escalating the crisis.
Dr. No, the first James Bond film, premiers in United Kingdom cinemas. The Beatles released their first single, 'Love Me Do'.
6 October: CINCLANT directs increased readiness to execute an invasion of Cuba. On 1 October, CINCLANT had ordered military units to increase their readiness posture to execute Oplan 312, the airstrike on Cuba. With the new orders, the prepositioning of troops, aircraft, ships, and other equipment and supplies are directed to increase readiness to follow an airstrike with a full invasion of the island using one of two US invasion plans known as Oplan 314 and Oplan 316.
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When the first Spanish conquerors reached the storm beaten southern extremity of South America, they saw hundreds of campfires of the Native Americans burning on the coast. They gave the land around Cape Horn the name Tierra del Fuego - Land of Fire. To day, the large campfires burn once again where ancient myths are brought to life in dances and stories. In the background, beacons dance in the sky - the flares of Tierra del Fuego´s oil drilling platforms.
At 0801 on 6 October, the ship fired a 21 gun salute followed by a 13 gun salute while standing out in the harbor at Punta Arenas, Chile. After putting the Admirals barge in the water, the ship moored port side of Chilean tanker Montt AO-52 to take on fuel. The Admiral left the ship to call officially on RADM Balaresque, CINC Operations Forces, Chilean Navy and RADM Solar, Commandant Third Naval Zone, Chilean Navy and Intendente of Punta Arenas.
Finished refueling, she moored portside to the pier in Punta Arenas. At 1100 Commander Chilean Fifth Army Division came on board to officially call on COMSOLANT.
From Punta Arenas the combined U.S.-Chilean task force headed north through the Inland Passage and along the Pacific coast toward Talcahuano and Valparaiso. The Chilean Units which joined the force in Punta Arenas included the recently acquired British-built destroyers Williams and Riveros, and the French-built oiler Almirante Montt. Riveros had arrived in Chile from England only a month before the start of Unitas, and her presence in the task force pointed out the Chilean navy’s deep interest in the operation.
On the Pacific side, Mullinnix was making 20 knots through a shining surface which gave seafaring its traditional aspect of a perfect existence. The sea was a mirror. It was brighter than the sky. There was nothing to reflex. The lone exception was dolphins frolicking in the ship’s bow wave.
Clusters of the crew gathered on the fantail to gaze in wonder at the majestic Andes with their mantle of snow. One shipmate spotted a plume of spray from a sounding whale and within minutes others were pointing to another, and another, and another. The ship was in the midst of whale pod stretching from horizon to horizon.
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7 October: The Soviet Union armed forces are put on strategic alert.
8 October: Cuban President Dorticos, addresses the UN General Assembly, and calls upon the United Nations to condemn the US trade embargo against Cuba. Near the end of his address, Dorticos declares: "If...we are attacked, we will defend ourselves. I repeat, we have sufficient means with which to defend ourselves; we have indeed our inevitable weapons, that weapons which we would have preferred not to acquire and which we do not wish to employ."
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Early morning 8 October: Mullinnix was underway for Valparaiso, Chile. The stormy waters south of Tierra del Fuego (close to Antarctica) make the Strait of Magellan, to the north, more attractive. Although the landmasses protect the strait from harsh Antarctic weather, the Strait of Magellan is still difficult to navigate. It is narrow and the islands of Tierra del Fuego can lead to confusion in stormy weather. The temperatures can reach freezing. Strong wind and waves make visibility and steering complex.
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9 October: USS Oxford AG-159, fitted with listening devices, patrolled the Cuban zone in order to intercept radio communications, detected the presence of air traffic controllers speaking Spanish with strong Slavic accents.
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Morning 10 October: Mullinnix stationed the Special Sea and Anchor details for transiting the English Narrows. At 0958 she fired a 1 round from saluting gun as signal prior to entry into the narrows. Averaging 12 knots, she completed the transit at 1025.
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10 October: CIA receives Navy photographs taken of the Soviet ship "Kasmimov" off Cuba, showing clearly identifiable IL-28 crates (which later show up in U-2 photography of 17 October at San Julian airfield).
11 October: Atlantic Fleet Command deploys the attack aircraft carrier USS Independence CV-62 with the aircraft of Air Wing 7 aboard from Norfolk with destroyers USS English DD-696, USS Hank DD-792, USS O'Hare DD-889, and Corry DD-817 as escorts.
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12 October: Mullinnix is steaming at 12 knots with Task Group 86.8 composed of USS Lester DE-1022, Williams DD-19, Riveros DD-18, and USS Picuda SS-382 in route from Punta Arenas to Valparaiso, Chile in accordance with CTF 86 Op Order 5-62. What was more than just normal protocol, during the daily inspection of magazines samples were taken of the smokeless powder and the magazine sprinkling and flooding systems were also inspected to satisfaction. At 1300 the ship went to GQ, setting material condition ZEBRA and commenced Damage Control exercise.
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13 October: State Department Ambassador-at-Large Chester Bowles has a long conversation with Soviet Ambassador Dobrynin. Bowles, after having been briefed by Thomas Hughes of the State Department Bureau of Intelligence and Research, tells Dobrynin that the United States “had some evidence” indicating that Soviet nuclear missiles were in Cuba. Dobrynin, who had not been told of the missile deployment by the Kremlin, repeatedly denies that the Soviet Union harbored any intention of placing such weapons in Cuba.
1205 13 October: Mullinnix anchored in Concepcion Bay, Chile in 33 fathoms of water. After shipmate R.G. Torns, Jr returned to the ship after being AWOL for 2 ½ hours, the ship pulled up anchor and continued steaming towards Valparaiso, Chile.
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13 October: The Second Marine Air Wing deployed elements of Air Groups 14 and 32 to the naval air station at Key West. The U.S. Army and Air Force pre-positioned supplies to bases and ports in the southern states. The Air Force moved selected squadrons and consumables to Florida bases.
14 October: In the early morning, a U-2 aircraft flies over western Cuba from south to north. The reconnaissance mission, piloted by Major Richard Heyser, is the first Strategic Air Command (SAC) mission after authority for the flights is transferred from the CIA to the air force. The photographs obtained by the mission provide the first hard evidence of MRBM sites in Cuba.
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Mid watch 14 October: Mullinnix is steaming from Concepcion Bay, Chile to Valparaiso. At 0745 the ship commenced ASW operations with Lester, Riveros, Williams, and Picuda. The majority of the day was spent in two ship search lines, stationing the ASW attack team, and conducting ASW exercises.
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15 October: All six U.S. Polaris ballistic missile submarines based in Holy Loch, Scotland, deploy to wartime stations. The Polaris boat USS Abraham Lincoln shortened her overhaul and deployed from Holy Loch along with two others from New London.
In the morning, quick readout teams at the National Photographic Interpretation Center (NPIC) in Washington analyze photos taken by Richard Heyser’s U-2 mission. Late in the afternoon, one of the teams finds pictures showing the main components of a Soviet MRBM in a field at San Cristobal. Analysis of reconnaissance photos during the day also identifies all but one of the remaining twenty-four SAM sites in Cuba. Other photographs of San Julian airfield show that IL-28 light bombers are being uncrated.
That evening, key Kennedy administration officials are tracked down in Washington and briefed about the discovery of the missiles. National Security Advisor McGeorge Bundy, who is given the news by Ray Cline, decides to wait until morning to alert President Kennedy.
Meanwhile, the SGA orders the acceleration of covert activities against Cuba. In particular, the group agrees that "considerably more sabotage should be undertaken" and that "all efforts should be made to develop new and imaginative approaches with the possibility of getting rid of the Castro regime."
A major US military exercise named PHIBRIGLEX-62 is scheduled to begin. The two-week long maneuver was to have employed twenty thousand Navy personnel and four thousand Marines in an amphibious assault on Puerto Rico's Vieques Island and the overthrow of its imaginary tyrant, "Ortsac" - "Castro" spelled backwards. However, because of the impending crisis, PHIBRIGLEX-62 is used primarily as cover for troop and equipment deployments aimed at increasing military readiness for a strike on Cuba.
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0837 15 October: Mullinnix arrives at Valparaiso, Chile, mooring port side to Berth A.
Valparaiso's harbor was lined with a breakwater. The stevedores all wore a wide variety of berets, suit coats and pants but no tie. Awaiting their next ship they tended fires in upended drums heating water for mate', a kind of green tea popular in Argentina as well as Chile.
Some of the crew rode the funicular (a sideways railcar) up the hills to other parts of town. Occasionally, a communista would dash up and a crew member a crudely drawn poster of "Yankee Go Home!"
On the streets vendors were selling a savory pastry (empanada) stuffed with ground meat, vegetables and peppers. The papas fritas of Chile were delicious. Bars offered 'tapas' or appetizers: mariscos or shellfish ranging from baby abalone, clams, and mussels and for the meat eaters a spicy sausage served on toast. Even cahuama (sea turtle stew).
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0845, 16 October: McGeorge Bundy informs President Kennedy that "hard photographic evidence" has been obtained showing Soviet MRBMs in Cuba.
1150, 16 October: President Kennedy calls together a group of his closest advisers (the group that becomes known as the "ExComm" - the Executive Committee of the National Security Council) at the White House. They are informed of the detailed photo intelligence identifying Soviet nuclear missile installations under construction on the island of Cuba. The president and his men discuss the dangerous decision of how the United States should respond.
In the afternoon, the missiles are identified as long range SS-4s. No nuclear warheads are reported seen in the area. CIA photo analyst Sidney Graybeal informs the group that "we do not believe the missiles are ready to fire." Six additional U-2 missions are ordered and flown over Cuba later in the afternoon.
As discussions continue on proposals to destroy the missiles by airstrike, Robert Kennedy passes a note to the president: "I now know how Tojo felt when he was planning Pearl Harbor."
1630 16 October: At the second ExComm meeting, Marshall Carter states that the missiles could be "fully operational within two weeks," although a single missile might achieve operational capability "much sooner."
Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara outlines three possible courses of action for the president: "the political course of action" of openly approaching Castro, Khrushchev, and U.S. allies in a gambit to resolve the crisis diplomatically, an option that McNamara and others considered unlikely to succeed; "a course of action that would involve declaration of open surveillance" coupled with "a blockade against offensive weapons entering Cuba"; and "military action directed against Cuba, starting with an air attack against the missiles." Much of the conversation centers on the military option and the hazardous unknowns of Soviet retaliation, including the possibility of nuclear escalation. "I don't believe we have considered the consequences," McNamara tells the president. "I don't know quite what kind of a world we live in after we've struck Cuba, and we, we've started it.... How, how do we stop at that point?"
In Moscow, Premier Khrushchev receives US Ambassador to the Soviet Union Foy Kohler for a three-hour conversation in a variety of subjects. Khrushchev reassures Kohler that the Cuban fishing port that the Soviet Union has recently agreed to help build will remain entirely nonmilitary. Once again, Khrushchev insists that all Soviet activity in Cuba was defensive and sharply criticizes US bases in Turkey and Italy.
17 October: In the morning, Adlai Stevenson writes to President Kennedy that world opinion would equate the US missiles staioned in Turkey with Soviet bases in Cuba. Warning that US officials could not "negotiate with a gun at our head," he states, "I feel you should have made it clear that the existence of nuclear missile bases anywhere is negotiable before we start anyting." Stevenson suggests that personal emissaries should be sent to both Fidel Castro and Premier Khrushchev.
At about the same time, Georgi Bolshakov, a Soviet embassy official who served as an authoratitative back channel for communications between Soviet and US leaders, relays a message from Premier Khruskchev to Attorney General Robert Kennedy that the arms being sent to Cuba are intended only for defensive purposes. Bolshakov had not been told by Khrushchev that the Soviet Union is actually in the process of installing MRBMs and IRBMs in Cuba. By the time Bolshakov’s message reaches President Kennedy, he has already been fully briefed on the Soviet missile deployment. An SS-5 IRBM is detected. The SS-5s have ranges of up to 2,200 nautical miles, more than twice the range of the SS-4 MRBMs. The GMAIC estimates that the IRBM sites would not beomce operational before December but that sixteen and possibly as many as thirty-two MRBMs would b e operational in about a week.
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17 October: Mullinnix conducts general visiting for the local population in Valpariso. At 2245 she completed taking on 42,294 gallons of NSFO.
18 October: A Chilean boy scout, Hugo San Marteen, receives a contusion aboard Mullinnix of his right lower leg and foot, when his foot became pinned under the outboard end of the ship’s brow, which was surging considerably. HMC Freeman examined him and sent him to the local hospital for x-rays.
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18 October: United States conducts a 1.59 Megaton yield Hydrogen bomb test, code name "CHAMA Dominic Airdrop test" over Johnston Island area
1100 18 October: The ExComm convenes for further discussions. The JCS, attending part of the meeting, recommends that President Kennedy order an airstrike on the missiles and other key Cuban military installations. Robert Kennedy responds by asking whether a surprise air attack would be a morally acceptable course of action.
1430 18 October: More discussions take place in Dan Rusk's conference room at the State Department. President Kennedy, who does not attend the talks, confers privately with Dean Rusk and Robert McNamara at 1530. Kennedy also meets privately with Dean Acheson for over an hour. The president raises his brother's concern over the moraility of a "Pearl Harbor in reverse." Acheson tells Kennedy that he was being "silly" and that it was "unworthy of him to talk that way."
This discussion was persuasive to some, as with Secretary of the Treasury Douglas Dillion. It becomes the deciding factor behind the support for a blockade.
1700 18 October: Andrei Gromyko meets with President Kennedy at the White House. Gromyko charges that the United States is "pestering" a small country. Gromyko states that "he was instructed to make it clear...that Soviet military assistance, was pursued solely for the prupose of contribuint to the defense of Cuba...If it were otherwise, the Soviet Government would never had become involved in rendering such assistance."
Kennedy decides not to discuss US awareness of the missiles to Gromyko.
2100 18 October: ExComm presents its recommendations to the president. By this time most members of the committee support the blockade option. As the meeting progresses however, individual opinions begin to shift and the consensus behind the blockage breaks down. Kennedy directs the group to continue its deliberations.
The first of a series of daily "Joint Evaluation" reports is released. The evaluation, the product of collaboration between the Joint Atomic Energy Intelligence Committee (JAEIC) and the Guided Missile and Astronautics Intelligence Committee (GMAIC), states that the MRBMs in Cuba could probably be launched within eighteen hours.
1100 19 October: ExComm decides to break into sepearte working groups to develop the blockade and airstrike options, drafting speeches for each plan. The groups exchange and critique each others speeches. Support for the airstrike begins to shift towards the blockade and the airstrike speech is abandoned. Theodore Sorensen works on the president’s speech until 0300.
2040 19 October: A specific timetable is developed to carry out all diplomatic and military actions required. The schedule includes raising military alert levels (for all forces around the world including Mullinnix), reinforcing Guantanamo naval base and briefing NATO allies. All timing revolves around the “P Hour” - the time when President Kennedy would address the nation to inform Americans of the crisis.
That evening, a Defense Department spokesperson has to respond to an article dealing with Soviet missiles in Cuba. His reply is that the Pentagon has no information indication that there are missiles in Cuba and denies that emergency military measures are being implemented
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0434 19 October: Mullinnix liberty was officially over at 0300. However, YN3 Alton Keith staggered on board at 0434. But, he beat BM3 John Burden by 30 minutes. Not to be out done by his shipmates, SK2 Elbert Cunningham waltz onboard at 0530. Cunningham could always hold his liquor.
Task Force 86 left Valparaiso at 0855, in route to Mejillones Bay (Del Sun), just north of Antofagasta, on the edge of Chile's immense northern desert. At the same time, units of the Peruvian fleet left El Callao for Mejillones Bay.
In route to Mejillones, Presidente Pinto (ex-USS Zenobia) served as a simulated convoy while Picuda, Simpson and Thomson skillfully tried to penetrate the destroyer screen around her. Chilean Air Force aviators joined the exercise, cooperating with the surface units in their relentless hunt for the 'attacking' submarines. Later that day, the ship refueled from the anchored ship MONTT, taking on 49,492 gallons of NSFO, then anchored out in Mejillones Bay.
At Mejillones three Peruvian destroyers joined the task force. They were the BAP Villar DD-71 (ex-USS Benham DD-796), BAP Guise DD-72 (ex-USS Isherwood DD-520) and BAP Castillas DE-61 (ex-USS Bangust, DE-739). The submarines, BAP Dos De Mayo SS-41, BAP Abtao SS-42, BAP Angamos SS-43 and BAP Iquique SS-44, which joined en route, were Abtao class (initially known as the Lobo class), modified US Mackerel class, 825 tons standard, 1,400 tons submerged.
The submarines attempted to bottle up the task force in Mejillones Bay, but the surface unites succeeded in evading the subs' surveillance, heading for the calm waters of the open Pacific.
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20 October: US conducts a Low kiloton yield text, code name CHECKMATE Dominic High Altitude test on Missile test over Johnston Island Area.
0900 20 October: ExComm finalizes the planning for the implementation of a naval blockade. Sorensen’s draft speech for the president is amended and approved. As McNamara leaves the room, he phones the Pentagon and orders four tactical squadrons to be readied for a possible airstrike on Cuba. He explains, "If the president doesn’t accept our recommendation, there won’t be time to do it later."
1430 20 October: The president meets with the full group of planners. He notes that the airstrike plan is not a "surgical" strike but a massive military commitment that could involve heavy casualties on all sides. As if to underscore the scale of the proposed US military attack on Cuba, one member of the JCS suggests the use of nuclear weapons, saying that the Soviet Union would use its nuclear weapons in an attack. President Kennedy focuses on implementing the blockade option, callint it the only course of action compatible with American principles. Kennedy's address to the nation is set for 1900 on 22 October. Kennedy cancels the remainder of his midterm election campaign trip. Kennedy instructs Sorensen to redraft the quarantine speech, although he notes that he would not make a final decision on whether to opt for the quarantine or an airstrike until he has consulted one last time with air force officials the next morning.
Later than night, James Reston, Washington Bureau Chief for the New York Times is given a partial briefing on the situation but is requested to hold the story in the interests of national security. In addition, a nuclear warhead storage bunker is identified at one of the Cuban MRBM sites.
20 October: The Navy activates Task Force 135, consisting of the attack carriers Enterprise and Independence. The Atlantic Fleet Commander ordered A-3J heavy attack squadrons from Air Wing 6 to be replaced by Marine Corps A-4D Skyhawk Squadron 225, a light attack unit. The Air Force's Defense Command deployed several of F-104 fighters to Key West.
The USS Charles P. Cecil DDR-835 receives word to get underway in the afternoon. The Cecil had two of three duty sections on liberty, causing the ship to be shorthanded. The Norfolk shore patrol locate Cecil's CO Rozier having lunch with his family at Fat Boy's North Carolina Pit Barbecue, notifying him to report to the squadron commodore at D&S Piers. Commander Destroyer Squadron 26, Captain William Hunnicutt, after discussion with the commanding officers, agreed that USS Charles P. Cecil DDR-835 and USS Stickell DDR-888, should sail for combat operations with no fewer than 225 men on board. The Stickell departs at 8:30 P.M. with only 150 of her crew aboard. Cecil gets underway shortly after with 200 and a mixed group of 100 men borrowed from other ships, 25 for the Cecil and 75 to be transferred to the Stickell upon rendezvous later.
21 October: USS Cecil gets underway at 0200. The crew has no idea where they are headed (the oral orders were turn south and sail...).
The president convenes a formal meeting of the National Security Council. Admiral George Anderson briefs the gathering on the quarantine plans and procedures. Anderson explains that each ship approaching the quarantine line will be signaled to stop for boarding and inspection. If the ship does not respond, a shot will be fired across the bow. If there is still no response, a shot will be fired into the rudder to cripple the vessel.
Kennedy decides that Adlai Stevenson cannot handle the negotiations at the United Nations alone. He orders John McCloy flown from Germany to the United States.
Despite all precautions, several newspapers have pieced together most of the details of the crisis. The president is notified that security is crumbling. Kennedy contats the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the New York Herald Tribune, all agree to hold their stories.
1100 21 October: Cecil overtakes Stickell and two underway replenishment ships, ammunition ship USS Wrangell AE-12 and oiler USS Chikaskia AO-54.
22 October: The 75 men borrowed for Stickell are transferred rapidly across two highlines from Cecil (Cecil would find no opportunity to exchange the 25 borrowed men for her own crew members until November 7th).
1055 22 October: The State Department transmits a special "go" message to most US diplomatic posts abroad instructing envoys to brief foreign heads of government or foreign ministers.
1100 22 October: Dean Acheson briefs Charles de Gaulle. De Gaulle declares, "it is exactly what I would have done...You may tell your President that France will support him." At about the same time, US Ambassador to Great Britain David Bruce briefs Prime Minster Harold Macmillan and Lord Home, the British foreign minister. Macmillan's initial reaction is, "Now the Americans will realize what we here in England have lived through for the past many years." He hastens to assure Bruce that he will assist and support the United States in any way possible.
1200 22 October: SAC initiates a massive alert of its B-52 nuclear bomber force, guaranteeing that one-eighth of the force is airborne at any given time. B-52 flights begin around the clock, with a new bomber taking off each time another bomber lands. SAC also begins dispersing 183 B-47 nuclear bombers to thirty-three civilian and military airfields. The Air Defense Command (ADC) also disperses 161 aircraft to sixteen bases in nine hours. For the first time in ADC history, all aircraft are armed with nuclear weapons.
1414 22 October: The JCS notifies the State Department that US military forces worldwide would go to DEFCON 3 - an increased alert posture - effective at 1900.
1700 22 October: 17 congressional leaders from both parties assemble at the White House for a briefing with President Kennedy. Some, led by Senators Richard B. Russell and J. William Fulbright, argue that the quarantine will not compel the Soviet Union to remove the missiles and that an airstrike or invasion should be employed.
1800 22 October: Secretary of State Rusk meets with Anatoly Dobrynin. Calling the Soviet missile deployment "a gross error," Rusk hands the Soviet ambassador an advance copy of President Kennedy's speech. Dobrynin had never been told by Soviet leaders of the Cuban missile deployment. Rusk later states, "he aged ten years right in front of my eyes."
At about the same time, US Ambassador to the Soviet Union Foy Kohler calls the Kremlin to deliver a letter from President Kennedy and the text of the speech. "I must tell you that the United States is determined that this threat to the security of this hemisphere be removed," read the president's letter.
22 October: The Soviet Union conducts a 300 Kiloton High Altitude Nuclear Test at Kapustin Yar Hydrogen Bomb on a rocket.
