Cuban Missile Crisis

Cuban Missile Crisis. Key West — Florida Keys Historical Military Memorial. , Cuban Missile Crisis , Following the discovery of Russian nuclear missile installations in Cuba on October 15, 1962, large numbers of military troops and aircraft began arriving in Key West while destroyers and submarines in the harbor went to sea. In a matter of days, the military population of Key West grew from about 3,000 personnel to 12,000. On October 22, the President declared a naval and air "quarantine" of Cuba. , , To defend the Key West base, Army troops constructed barbed-wire and sandbag barricades with machine gun emplacements along the shoreline and set up six Hawk missile antiaircraft batteries. Marines patrolled the perimeters of the base. Troops guarded Keys bridges and the pipeline to prevent sabotage. The Casa Marina hotel served as an Army command post and barracks for about 500 troops. , , Air Force, Navy, and Marine aircraft flew hundreds of sorties out of the Navy’s Boca Chica airfield and later the Key West International Airport. The quarantine was lifted on November 20 and, six days later, President Kennedy and the Joint Chiefs of Staff met at the Naval Station, the first time such a meeting had taken place outside of Washington. The availability of the facilities and personnel of the Key West naval base was a key element in preventing nuclear war. , , The Mariel Boat Lift , The first boatloads of Cuban refugees from Mariel arrived in Key West on April 21,1980. , , Concerned for the safety of the hundreds of overcrowded, unseaworthy small craft crossing the ninety-mile wide Straits of Florida, the Coast Guard took immediate measures to prevent loss of life. , , When the boat lift began, there were only 140 Coast Guard personnel and one small cutter in Key West. , , Two weeks later, there were 600 personnel, nine small cutters, numerous forty-foot utility boats, and several helicopters. Key West-based Coast Guard forces conducted search and rescue operations out to thirty miles offshore. , , Beyond that, larger Coast Guard cutters and aircraft, later augmented by Navy ships and aircraft, conducted patrols. , , Florida National Guardsmen assisted in processing refugees arriving in Key West until a detachment of U.S. Marines arrived in early May to relieve them. , , When the boat lift ended in September, more than 125,000 Cubans had reached the U.S., and only 27 had perished at sea. Coast Guard and Navy ships, aircraft, personnel and facilities in Key West had played an important role in saving hundreds of lives. , (Captions) , November 2, 1962, President Kennedy reviews Hawk Missiles while inspecting Key West defenses. , , The first boatloads of Cuban. refugees from Mariel arrived in Key West on April 21,1980. Concerned for the safety of the hundreds of overcrowded, unseaworthy craft, the Coast Guard took immediate measures to prevent loss of life.