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

Whitten (Ret.), Col. H. Wayne

ISBN 10: 1986237648 / ISBN 13: 9781986237642

Published by CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2018

About this Item

paperback 100% of proceeds go to charity! May have signs of use, wear and minor cosmetic defects.

Seller Inventory # I-01-5039

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Without A Warning: - The Avoidable Shootdown of a U-2 Spyplane During the Cuban Missile Crisis
• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Publication Date: 2018
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1986237648
• ISBN 13: 9781986237642
• Binding: Soft cover
• Illustrator: Blyden, Eli (The Book Guy)
• Condition: Very Good

About this title

Synopsis

The only casualty of the Cuban Missile Crisis, his shoot-down led to ending a 13-day crisis that threatened to turn the Cold War red hot. Now, after 55 years we learn his loss was avoidable! He was posthumously awarded the first Air Force Cross for flying his U-2 spyplane into a man-made “Perfect Storm” and no one had his back!

About the Author

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.