50 Years Ago Today – “The Most Dangerous Two Weeks in History”
Excerpt from “The Last Gun Ship - History of USS Mullinnix DD-944” - A Historical Novel by Frank A. Wood
0900 20 October: ExComm finalizes the planning for the implementation of a naval blockade. Sorensen’s draft speech for the president is amended and approved. As McNamara leaves the room, he phones the Pentagon and orders four tactical squadrons to be readied for a possible airstrike on Cuba. He explains, “If the president doesn’t accept our recommendation, there won’t be time to do it later.”
20 October: The USS Charles P. Cecil DDR-835 receives word to get underway in the afternoon. The Cecil had two of three duty sections on liberty, causing the ship to be shorthanded. The Norfolk shore patrol locate Cecil’s CO Rozier having lunch with his family at Fat Boy's North Carolina Pit Barbecue, notifying him to report to the squadron commodore at D&S Piers. Commander Destroyer Squadron 26, Captain William Hunnicutt, after discussion with the commanding officers, agreed that USS Charles P. Cecil DDR-835 and USS Stickell DDR-888, should sail for combat operations with no fewer than 225 men on board. The Stickell departs at 8:30 P.M. with only 150 of her crew aboard. Cecil gets underway shortly after with 200 and a mixed group of 100 men borrowed from other ships, 25 for the Cecil and 75 to be transferred to the Stickell upon rendezvous later.
21 October: USS Cecil gets underway at 0200. The crew has no idea where they are headed (the oral orders were turn south and sail…).
21 October: Despite all precautions, several newspapers have pieced together most of the details of the crisis. The president is notified that security is crumbling. Kennedy contacts the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the New York Herald Tribune, all agree to hold their stories.
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1900 22 October: The DEFCON 3 notice is sent to US forces worldwide. Admiral Tyree detaches Mullinnix for El Callao, leaving Captain R. Maza, Peruvian Task Force Commander, in charge of the remaining ships. Within a few hours the COMSOLANT staff was en route to its shore-based headquarters in Trinidad in planes from the Unitas air detachment.
Mullinnix sights Pta Arvejas Light bearing 041, distance 23 miles at 2330.
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ICBM missile crews are alerted and Polaris nuclear submarines in port are dispatched to pre-assigned stations at sea.
1900 22 October: In a 17-minute televised speech of extraordinary gravity, President John F. Kennedy announced that U.S. spy planes have discovered Soviet missile bases in Cuba. These missile sites—under construction but nearing completion—housed medium-range missiles capable of striking a number of major cities in the United States, including Washington, D.C. Kennedy announced that he was ordering a naval "quarantine" (choosing not to use the word ‘blockade’) of Cuba to prevent Soviet ships from transporting any more offensive weapons to the island and explained that the United States would not tolerate the existence of the missile sites currently in place.
USS Cecil is east-northeast of the Bahamas, all hands listen to President Kennedy's speech over the 1MC.
Kennedy states, “The United States will regard any nuclear missile launched from Cuba against any nation in the Western Hemisphere as an attack by the Soviet Union on the United States, requiring a full retaliatory response against the Soviet Union.”
Khrushchev responds to the speech by “issuing orders to the captains of Soviet ships…approaching the blockade zone to ignore it and to hold course for the Cuban ports.” (Note: Khrushchev’s order was reversed at the prompting of Anastas Mikoyan as the Soviet ships approached the quarantine line on the morning of 24 October)
During the president’s speech, twenty-two interceptor aircraft go airborne in the event the Cuban government reacts militarily.
2000 22 October: Secretary Rusk speaks to a meeting of all other ambassadors in Washington. Rusk tells the group, “I would not be candid and I would not be fair with you if I did not say that we are in as grave a crisis as mankind has been in.”
To be continued... Woody
0900 20 October: ExComm finalizes the planning for the implementation of a naval blockade. Sorensen’s draft speech for the president is amended and approved. As McNamara leaves the room, he phones the Pentagon and orders four tactical squadrons to be readied for a possible airstrike on Cuba. He explains, “If the president doesn’t accept our recommendation, there won’t be time to do it later.”
20 October: The USS Charles P. Cecil DDR-835 receives word to get underway in the afternoon. The Cecil had two of three duty sections on liberty, causing the ship to be shorthanded. The Norfolk shore patrol locate Cecil’s CO Rozier having lunch with his family at Fat Boy's North Carolina Pit Barbecue, notifying him to report to the squadron commodore at D&S Piers. Commander Destroyer Squadron 26, Captain William Hunnicutt, after discussion with the commanding officers, agreed that USS Charles P. Cecil DDR-835 and USS Stickell DDR-888, should sail for combat operations with no fewer than 225 men on board. The Stickell departs at 8:30 P.M. with only 150 of her crew aboard. Cecil gets underway shortly after with 200 and a mixed group of 100 men borrowed from other ships, 25 for the Cecil and 75 to be transferred to the Stickell upon rendezvous later.
21 October: USS Cecil gets underway at 0200. The crew has no idea where they are headed (the oral orders were turn south and sail…).
21 October: Despite all precautions, several newspapers have pieced together most of the details of the crisis. The president is notified that security is crumbling. Kennedy contacts the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the New York Herald Tribune, all agree to hold their stories.
Mullinnix sights Pta Arvejas Light bearing 041, distance 23 miles at 2330.
1900 22 October: In a 17-minute televised speech of extraordinary gravity, President John F. Kennedy announced that U.S. spy planes have discovered Soviet missile bases in Cuba. These missile sites—under construction but nearing completion—housed medium-range missiles capable of striking a number of major cities in the United States, including Washington, D.C. Kennedy announced that he was ordering a naval "quarantine" (choosing not to use the word ‘blockade’) of Cuba to prevent Soviet ships from transporting any more offensive weapons to the island and explained that the United States would not tolerate the existence of the missile sites currently in place.
USS Cecil is east-northeast of the Bahamas, all hands listen to President Kennedy's speech over the 1MC.
Kennedy states, “The United States will regard any nuclear missile launched from Cuba against any nation in the Western Hemisphere as an attack by the Soviet Union on the United States, requiring a full retaliatory response against the Soviet Union.”
Khrushchev responds to the speech by “issuing orders to the captains of Soviet ships…approaching the blockade zone to ignore it and to hold course for the Cuban ports.” (Note: Khrushchev’s order was reversed at the prompting of Anastas Mikoyan as the Soviet ships approached the quarantine line on the morning of 24 October)
During the president’s speech, twenty-two interceptor aircraft go airborne in the event the Cuban government reacts militarily.
2000 22 October: Secretary Rusk speaks to a meeting of all other ambassadors in Washington. Rusk tells the group, “I would not be candid and I would not be fair with you if I did not say that we are in as grave a crisis as mankind has been in.”
To be continued... Woody
posted by Frank A. Wood at 09:37
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