Without A Warning: - The Avoidable Shootdown of a U-2 Spyplane During the Cuban Missile Crisis - Softcover

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

A Florida native and 1963 graduate of the University of Florida, the author was a senior awaiting commissioning as a second lieutenant in the Marine Corps during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Two years later he joined Marine Composite Reconnais¬sance Squadron-1 in Vietnam as a Naval Flight Officer flying the EF-10B Sky Knight electronic warfare aircraft. During a 13-month tour, he flew nearly 200 combat missions providing threat warning and air defense radar jamming support for USAF and Navy strike and reconnaissance aircraft. Afterwards, he was a plank-owner and action officer in the PACOM Joint Reconnaissance Center, before transitioning to the EA-6A Electric Intruder. In 1970 while on an electronic reconnaissance mission around Cuba, his aircraft was aggressively pursued by Cuban MiG-21 fighters, but an engagement was avoided by a timely threat warning. The author retired in 1988 after a 25-year career in operations, requirements and systems acquisition. He later spent 15 years in the defense industry, retiring from Northrop Grumman in 2004. He is a past president of the Marine Corps Aviation Reconnaissance Association and continues as director, historian and contributor to its website www.MCARA.us. He is the author of two books, SILENT HEROES – U. S. Marines and Airborne Electronic Warfare 1950-2012 and COUNTDOWN TO 13 DAYS AND BEYOND – U.S. Marine Aerial Reconnaissance Operations Against Castro’s Cuba 1960-1962, published in 2011 and 2012.