Twelfth Day — Build Up Begins

One such potential hot spot was Cuba since Fidel Castro had assumed power and aligned Cuba with the Soviet Union. After a failed U.S. attempt to overthrow him at the Bay of Pigs in 1961, Castro announced "defensive" measures against the United States by his Soviet allies.

Over the next year the Cuban buildup of armaments began — as did close monitoring by the CIA.

President Kennedy ordered a reconnaissance flight over western Cuba in early October 1962. Photographs from that flight revealed what appeared to be Soviet medium-range ballistic missiles (MRBMs).

The CIA had handled the flights up until that discovery but then called on the Air Force for its best pilots. On Oct. 14 and 15, the Air Force's top U-2 pilots Heyser and Anderson flew consecutive photographic reconnaissance missions out of McCoy AFB, Florida, over Cuba.

Imagery shot during Heyser's and Anderson's flights showed missile "hold tents" at a third MRBM site that had been bare only days before. Pads and missile emplacements were emerging along with concrete arches for a bunkered nuclear storage facility. The evidence was also clear at other sites.

Most threatening were two sites at Guanajay, with four pads each and a bunker in between, apparently for the SS-5, one of the Soviet's most advanced missile systems at that time.

Based on the latest discoveries, U.S. officials ordered an increase in aerial photographic reconnaissance over Cuba, bringing in six more U-2 aircraft and nine more pilots.