Name:   Buteye - Subject:   Last ride in to the sunset Date:   12/5/2016 7:12:26 PM

Apparently there are not a large number people today who have a first hand knowledge of the Cuban Missile crisis. I, for one, was a brand new Air Force 2ndLt. who was on a Missile Launch Crew at Walker AFB, in Roswell, New Mexico on October 1962. The Air Force had just activated the 579th Stratgic Missile Squadron with twelve Atlas F Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles in underground silos. It would be hard to describe the state of mind among military personnel at that time, particularly if you and one other officer on the crew were in possession of codes to be used upon declaration of war. It was through the strategic negotiations of President John F. Kennedy that a nuclear exchange was prevented. I think that many people today don't realize that we were on the verge of a nuclear war upon finding out that Russia had placed nuclear missiles in Cuba, only 50 miles from our border.