DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Operation Brass Knob, out of Val Verde County. Now, if you ever wondered what it looked like when the world held its breath, let me tell you about eleven pilots, a handful of cameras pointed at the sky from the wrong side, and thirteen days in October that nobody who lived through them ever quite forgot. It starts at Laughlin Air Force Base, right here in Val Verde County, where pilots were already flying secret.
The Strategic Air Command had formed the 4080th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing in 1956, and they weren't flying milk runs. They were putting high-altitude aircraft — the Martin RB-57D and the Lockheed U-2 — over the Soviet Union, covert surveillance at altitudes where the air is so thin it barely qualifies as air. The Central Intelligence Agency was using those same U-2s, most of them staged right out of Laughlin, to keep an eye on the Caribbean after the Cuban Revolution.
Then comes the intelligence that changes everything. Reports started coming in about a suspected buildup of Soviet-supplied missiles in Cuba — missiles with nuclear warheads, close enough to American soil to make a man's coffee go cold just thinking about it. President John Kennedy ordered military flights over Cuba to investigate.
On October 14, 1962, the first flight crossed into Cuban airspace. Reconnaissance photography. Cameras running, film turning, a U-2 threading across the island.
What came back wasn't nothing. It was evidence — evidence of medium range ballistic missiles in Cuba. The U.S.
Navy processed the film. The CIA confirmed it through photo interpretation: launch sites, right there in the photographs. October 16, the CIA briefed Kennedy.
And then, quietly, with the kind of calm that conceals urgency, a maximum aerial photographic reconnaissance effort began. They gave it a name: Operation Brass Knob. Subsequent U-2 flights — those eleven pilots, working that narrow window between October 14 and October 27 — produced photographs covering ninety-five percent of Cuba's territory.
Let that land. Ninety-five percent of the island, eyes in the sky, all of it staged through Laughlin. Kennedy announced a naval quarantine of Cuba on October 22.
Military action increased. Naval maneuvers. The tension coiling tighter every day.
And then came the 27th. October 27, 1962. A surface-to-air missile found the U-2 of Rudolf Anderson, Jr.
Shot it down. Major Anderson became the only combat casualty of the Cuban Missile Crisis. The other pilots — those surviving men — later revealed something that had been kept quiet: all eleven of them had received enemy fire.
Every single one. They were flying through fire, quite literally, and the world didn't know. The eleven pilots who flew October 14 through the 27th were Majors Rudolf Anderson, Jr., Buddy L.
Brown, Edwin G. Emerling, Richard S. Heyser, and James A.
Qualls, and Captains George M. Bull, Roger H. Herman, Charles W.
Kern, Gerald E. McIlmoyle, Robert L. Primrose, and Daniel W.
Schmarr. When it was over — when the crisis had passed and the world had exhaled — President Kennedy presented the 4080th with an Outstanding Unit Award. And what he said when he handed it over, well, I'll let the man speak for himself.
He said, quote, "The work of these units has contributed as much to the security of the United States as any unit in our history, and any group of men in our history." Any unit. Any group of men. In all of American history.
Eleven pilots. Cameras. Ninety-five percent of Cuba.
And one man who didn't come home. That's Operation Brass Knob.
What the marker says
Laughlin Air Force Base pilots flew secret surveillance missions during the height of the Cold War. The Strategic Air Command formed the 4080th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing in 1956, utilizing high altitude Martin RB-57D and Lockheed U-2 aircraft for covert surveillance of the Soviet Union. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) used U-2s, most staged from Laughlin AFB, to monitor activities in the Caribbean following the Cuban Revolution. Based on intelligence reports, President John Kennedy ordered military flights over Cuba to investigate a suspected buildup of Soviet-supplied missiles with nuclear warheads close to American soil. The first flight over Cuban airspace, on October 14, 1962, used reconnaissance photography to find evidence of medium range ballistic missiles in Cuba. The U.S. Navy processed and the CIA confirmed the presence of launch sites through photo interpretation. On October 16, the CIA briefed Kennedy, and a maximum aerial photographic reconnaissance effort commenced, codenamed "Operation Brass Knob." Subsequent U-2 flights produced photographs of 95 percent of Cuba's territory. Kennedy announced a naval quarantine of Cuba on October 22. Military action, including naval maneuvers, increased, and the Cuban Missile Crisis peaked on the 27th, when a surface to air missile shot down the U-2 of Rudolf Anderson, Jr., the only combat casualty of the conflict. Surviving U-2 pilots later revealed all eleven U-2 pilots received enemy fire. When Kennedy presented the 4080th with an Outstanding Unit Award, he noted, "The work of these units has contributed as much to the security of the United States as any unit in our history, and any group of men in our history." (2007) SUPPLEMENTAL PLAQUE 1: October 14-27, 1962 pilots: Majors Rudolf Anderson, Jr., Buddy L. Brown, Edwin G. Emerling, Richard S. Heyser and James A. Qualls. SUPPLEMENTAL PLAQUE 2: October 14-27, 1962 pilots: Captains George M. Bull, Roger H. Herman, Charles W. Kern, Gerald E. McIlmoyle, Robert L. Primrose and Daniel W. Schmarr.