Havana Moon

I watched as we began our approach into Cuba. I could see land, green jungle and mountains. I was still on Raul’s right side as we came in over Matanzas low, hugging the hills to avoid detection. We were on course for Bejucal, seconds away from the bomb drop. I looked over at Raul’s MIG and could see Manuel’s head down looking at his screen, knowing he was turning on his laser designator getting ready to paint the target for his laser guided bombs to follow. My heart was pounding, knowing we were seconds away from the target. I was hoping with all I had that there hadn’t been any warnings to the meeting, informing them an air action had taken place. I was hoping it had happened too quickly for their ground controllers to send any messages.

I recognized the target as we approached it from the aerial photos Raul had shown us over and over again. Manuel would be painting the big white building with his laser designator now. The laser beam would be reflecting back off the walls of the building, the Point Target. Manuel would need 20 seconds of laser designation, it would be LASER ON, SPOT then TERMINATE. The same code would be in the laser designator as in the seeker heads of the bombs. The seeker heads on the bombs would track all the way down to the reflecting point of the laser on the building, the adjustable fins on the bombs would steer the bombs right to the target.

Raul adjusted our altitude to protect us from any blast damage from the explosions. We climbed and I looked to my left, watching as the bombs separated clean from Raul’s fighter and began their drop to the target. Raul kept his fighter steady as Manuel continued painting the target with the designator. I lowered my left wing so I could watch the bombs hit. There was a massive fiery explosion as all four bombs hit the roof of the white building. I knew in a flash it had been a good drop and right on target. Our mission had been a complete success. The target had been eliminated. I looked over my right shoulder and was surprised to see Boner still flying with me, a little to my rear as he had always done when we flew together. I guess he had decided for whatever reason to become my wingman. I was sure after he witnessed the explosion, he must have figured out what was going on and what we were trying to do. For a split second I wondered about his future in the Navy, I knew it was finished.

I didn’t have much time to ponder that thought, as the threat warning went off in my ears. There had been a SAM launch at us from Bejucal. Someone down there must have been on high alert to be able to launch at us so quickly. Raul changed altitude as we flew low to the mountains to avoid the SAMs. I knew that Manuel would be jamming the Russian built ZSUs with their radar guided guns. I watched over my head as the SAMs flew above us in search of targets that were too low for their ground radar to detect.  It gave me a thrill to know we had completed the mission and were now avoiding the SAMs successfully.