THE CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS WAS JUST ABOUT AT ITS PEAK ON OCTOBER 23, 1962, AND WESTOVER AIR FORCE BASE IN CHICOPEE, MASS., WAS ON ALERT.
Access to the base was more restricted than usual, but not completely locked down. That evening, the Civil Air Patrol’s Westover Squadron held its usual Tuesday night meeting in Building S-6, directly across from the base water tower, and close to the fence line, behind which ran Westover’s line of massive hangars. That night seemed far darker than usual, although the base was not quite totally blacked out.
Everyone knew what was going on, with fully armed B-52s sitting on alert at the end of the runway and the crews billeted close by. Yet almost everyone came to the CAP squadron meeting that night. About half the cadets were Air Force brats and the rest of us were local kids from the area. Many of the squadron’s senior members were active Air Force as well, yet most of them were there that night too. The ones who didn’t make it were on alert. Some of the senior members who did show up were wearing flight suits. There was very little discussion about the situation, yet the tension was thick in the air. The following day, Strategic Air Command went to DEFCON 2 for the first time in American history, and the B-52s went from ground alert to airborne alert status.
That Tuesday had been a strange, strange night. A week later, our normal squadron meeting on October 30 was business as usual—almost as if nothing had happened. Nonetheless, there had never been any doubt about what was at stake among the base personnel and the civilian populations of the
