1962 - The Cuban Missile Crisis

Some of you remember (and others of you have read or seen movies about) the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Like Forrest Gump, who seemed to be everywhere, so was Lt. Hughie Don Sheffield. Hughie was at the Pentagon during the whole crisis. 

A quick, simple background - The US discovered that the USSR (cue Darth Vader music) had placed missiles and were placing more missiles in Cuba - missiles that could have nuclear (not nucular) warheads on them. President Kennedy drew a line in the sand and told Khrushchev, the Soviet Premier, to remove the missile silos on Cuba and recall the ships with more missiles and support equipment that were enroute to Cuba or we would be at war. The 13 days in October, 1962, were defining moments where the Cold War almost became a hot war. We were as close to nuclear war as we have ever been.

A detail most people don't know is that when a major crisis occured, such as this one, the Pentagon closed down - no one in and no one out. Lt. Sheffield was on duty at the time the crisis began and stayed at the Pentagon for the full 13 days. 

Hughie's job was to be on the staff that monitored where our nuclear missile submarines were at all times. That regularly updating information was kept in the office he and the other Naval personnel worked in the Pentagon. As you can imagine, this would be of extreme importance during the crisis.

Side Note: Hughie was pretty proud of the fact that there were a small number of military personnel who were allowed to have the submarine information, and when admirals and generals who were not on the need-to-know list came and commanded him to give them the information, Lt. Sheffield was able to tell Admiral BusyBody and General WannaKnowItAll, NO! He liked that. End Side Note.

As you may have guessed, the Soviets backed down, the ships went home, and war was averted.

Hughie got to go home and live to a ripe old age. Hundreds, thousands, hundred thousands of lives were saved. The Evil Empire has been relegated to the trash heap of history. God bless our troops and God bless America.

End Note: Another fact - that when emergencies happen and the Pentagon is shut down, there is to be no communication from the Pentagon out. I was told many, many years ago by Hughie Don, he had set up a warning system for my mom to let her know he would not be coming home. If he sent flowers to her with no note, he was stuck at the Pentagon. 

I tried to verify this last part of the story with my mom a few years ago, but she did not remember it.