Am I just an idiot, or what?

[WheelWalker]

So.... I spent the the past day in a rural community in the Republic of Cascadia-Pacific. Small town, population under 20,000, but it does have an airbase that trains fighter pilots. The community just dedicated a veterans' memorial, and I thought I'd pay my respects this Veterans' Day. They've installed these large plaques all around the memorial, honoring veterans from just about every American military engagement you can imagine, from the Indian Wars (hereabouts, the Modoc War against Captain Jack)to Kosovo, Bosnia, Afganistan and Iraq. Sandwiched in between is the plaque honoring American veterans from the Bay of Pigs. Is it just me? Or, in the midst of boundless "strangeness" is that not the "strangest" of all? Did I just happen to miss the part where our government admitted to American veterans of the Bay of Pigs?

[Blashyrkh]

1. The American Military wasn't involved in the Bay of Pigs incident?

You make no specific mention that the plaques are honouring the dead, merely "veterans". Status of existence is not clear.

[WheelWalker]

3. The plaques were honoring American military personnel who

have served in the respective theaters. I certainly understand America's involvement, viz. the CIA. I was 11 years old when it took place. I simply have been unaware of any general acceptance and understanding of direct GI participation in the air, on land or on sea.

[Whoa_Nelly]

2. From this site (info and the CIA art gallery)

Info


http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-BayPigsI.html

Bay of Pigs Invasion
From: The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition | Date: 2007
The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition


Bay of Pigs Invasion 1961, an unsuccessful invasion of Cuba by Cuban exiles, supported by the U.S. government. On Apr. 17, 1961, an armed force of about 1,500 Cuban exiles landed in the Bahía de Cochinos (Bay of Pigs) on the south coast of Cuba. Trained since May, 1960, in Guatemala by members of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) with the approval of the Eisenhower administration, and supplied with arms by the U.S. government, the rebels intended to foment an insurrection in Cuba and overthrow the Communist regime of Fidel Castro. The Cuban army easily defeated the rebels and by Apr. 20, most were either killed or captured. The invasion provoked anti-U.S. demonstrations in Latin America and Europe and further embittered U.S.-Cuban relations. Poorly planned and executed, the invasion subjected President Kennedy to severe criticism at home. Cuban exile leader José Miró Cardona, president of the U.S.-based National Revolutionary Council, blamed the failure on the CIA and the refusal of Kennedy to authorize air cover for the invasion force, but perhaps more crucial was the fact that the uprising the exiles hoped and needed to spark did not happened. Much later it was revealed that the CIA task force planning the invasion had predicted that the invasion's goals unachievable without U.S. military involvement; it is unclear whether Kennedy or CIA chief Allen Dulles knew of the assessment. In Dec., 1962, Castro released 1,113 captured rebels in exchange for $53 million in food and medicine raised by private donations in the United States.

Bibliography: See K. E. Meyer and T. Szulc, The Cuban Invasion (1962); H. B. Johnson, The Bay of Pigs (1964).


And, CIA art gallery:

http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1Y1-111329859.html

CIA Art Gallery Honors Bay of Pigs Veterans
From: The Miami Herald | Date: 10/17/2007
The Miami Herald

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WASHINGTON _ The Bay of Pigs invasion has been a low point for the U.S. government since its failure more than four decades ago. Now, the men who volunteered for the mission are being remembered at an art gallery at _ of all places _ the CIA, which plotted the clandestine operation.

Veterans of the ill-fated attempt to topple Fidel Castro _ Cuban exiles, CIA contract pilots and the families of four Alabama Air National Guardsmen who died in Cuba _ will gather Thursday at the Southern Museum of Flight in Birmingham, Ala. There, an oil painting will be unveiled that depicts one of the successes of the covert operation: an April 1961 aerial attack on Castro's forces that took out an estimated 900 soldiers.

"It's been viewed as an embarrassment, but the modern world is recognizing it's part of our history. That's all there is to it," said Jorge Del Valle, 63, who was 15 when he walked into a CIA recruiting office in Miami to sign up for the venture. "We have gained acknowledgment worldwide."

The painting, commissioned by a North Carolina man with an interest in honoring the lost-to-history covert operators who were trained by the CIA, will be donated to the Central Intelligence Agency. It will go on permanent display at agency headquarters in Langley, Va., in a new art gallery that gives a tip of the hat to the secret agents who worked for the agency and its predecessor, the Office of Strategic Services.

The gallery is not open to the public, but visitors to the CIA building are allowed to visit the art gallery and a museum, which contains artifacts of CIA missions, including a matchbox camera.

<more at link>

[WheelWalker]

4. If there was DIRECT U.S. military participation in the Bay of Pigs which the

veterans of this community recall with honor, it would have to involve the fighter wing which has been stationed here since before World War II.

[eppur_se_muova]

5. "Alabama Air National Guardsmen"? Oh, what might have been ...

(I know, wrong time frame, but still ...)