Blog for Cuba

April 17, 1961

 Fifty-two years and the wound in my heart still has not healed.  On board the U.S.S. Conway DDE-507.  We  recruited  members of the Brigade 2506, we trained , armed and transported them with promise of Air Support. We escorted them to Big of Pigs.  The shooting started....they fought until the last bullet, while we on orders from our Commander in Chief, JFK, were forced to turn and run.    Fifty-two years....and that wound in my heart still does not heal.

 

Don Able Perez: 1926-2013

The Bay of Pigs Betrayal

This week marks the 51st* anniversary of the Bay of Pigs.  The photo above shows part of the wall of martyrs inside the Bay of Pigs Museum and Library located in a humble building in the Little Havana section of Miami. Inside this humble building are the artifacts of the Bay of Pigs.  The room is a library and a memorial to those brave Cubans and the loyal American advisers who made the ultimate sacrifice, giving their lives to free Cuba. Many of them died heroically fighting knowing that their effort was futile because the support they depended upon for victory, the support they were promised, was withdrawn after they were sent into harms way, and with no warning. Read Humberto Fontova’s moving account of the Brigada's heroic bravery in the face of unsurmountable odds by clicking here.

Fifty-one years later, Cubans are still suffering the consequences of that betrayal by the Kennedy administration.

Former political prisoners whose scars will never heal; the broken families, generations of Cubans who never again saw loved ones murdered by the castro regime, or forced into exile, and the millions of Cubans who are forced to live as slaves to the whims of a psychopathic dictator.

There is an official Kennedy version of those events,and here is an overview of the facts.  Mr. Resillez will gladly expand on this list if you would like to contact him.  

49 years ago: The Bay of Pigs Invasion
by Frank Resillez fresillez@terranova .net

My sad claim to fame is being the guy who has read all the books ever written about the Bay of Pigs Invasion; in English and in Spanish, from Cuba and from Exile.

The Bay of Pigs Invasion was deliberately sabotaged by the Kennedy Administration.

For a simple overview:

1. The U.S. delayed the recruiting of men because they were on an election year.

2. The U.S. delayed the invasion because a new administration had been elected.

3. The U.S. did not want men with military experience; only 50 out of almost 3,000 were career military men, (1,500 land troops, 200 aviation, 400 navy, the rest support).

4. The U.S. delayed the date of the invasion from 3/10/61 to 4/17/61 because President Kennedy wanted it suspended and the Cuban Exiles left in Central America with a severance check.

5. President Kennedy changed the invasion point at the last week; from Trinidad (an ideal place), to Bay of Pigs (a swamp behind a reef), because: "he did not want the invasion to be too visible".

6. President Kennedy insisted that the invasion be done at night even though the U.S. itself had never conducted a night invasion even during W.W. II.

7. President Kennedy suspended the flights of the 24 airplanes (18 bombers and 6 transport), that it had lent to the Cuban Exile force, because he did not want to be seen as "too involved".

8. The U.S. government said that it would give some planes back if the Cuban Exile force could set-up an airfield once they landed in Cuba. The exiles extended an airfield in Giron Beach in 8 hours, but the planes were never given back.

9. The exiles invaded with 6 Cuban ships. There were 22 American Navy ships just over the horizon "watching the show".

10. All the ships managed to land their men with no air support.

11. Only 2 ships (the "Blagar" and the "Barbara J"), were able to land all of their weapons and ammunitions.

12. One ship, the "Rio Escondido", (carrying the mother load of weapons, ammunitions, and fuel), was hit directly by the Communist air force and exploded with such force (mushroom cloud), that the U.S. Navy ships watching the show thought that the Communists had an atomic bomb and had just dropped it over the Bay of Pigs.

13. Another ship, the "Houston", had to be run-aground onto a beach in order to try to unload its weapons and ammunitions.

14. The other two ships: the "Atlantico" and the "Caribe", were never able to land their weapons and ammunitions.

15. The exiles fought for three days non-stop, with only a day's worth of ammunitions.

16. They were supposed to have a kill-ratio of 15 to 1 in order to succeed. They had a kill-ratio of 30 to 1.

17. They lost 99 men in three days of constant fighting, the enemy lost approximately 3,100.

18. The enemy sent two waves of 15,000 militia-men each against the exiles. The first wave suffered over 50% desertion rate. The second wave almost 0% after the word got around that the U.S. was not helping the exiles.

19. After they had run out of ammunition, 1,113 men were captured and jailed, 10 were executed, 10 were asphyxiated in a sealed truck, and 12 more died in a boat from dehydration as they escaped in a small boat.

20. Months later (January 31, 1962), at the Organization of American States meeting in Punta del Este, Uruguay; Che Guevara thanked the U.S. Ambassador for the "American help" given to the Cuban Exiles.

This information has been collected from all the books ever written about the Bay of Pigs Invasion. I recommend as the best books:

"Decision for Disaster" by Graystone Lynch, 1998.
"Operation Puma" (in English) by Eduardo Ferrer, 1975.
"The Bay of Pigs" by Alejandro de Quesada, 2009.

Frank Resillez

Key Largo, FL.

Published with the permission  of the author.  Muchas gracias Frank!

*Updated version of the 2010 post.

Castros Mentirosos

 
 
Gracias al periodico 20 de Mayo.

Playa Girón

 

April 17,1961

El Homenaje Ayer a Los Pilotos de la Brigada

An Anniversary of Heroism and Shame-The Bay of Pigs at Fifty