April 17, 1961

At dawn, some 1,200 Cuban exiles, using U.S.-supplied weapons and landing craft, stormed ashore at the Bay of Pigs in Cuba in a doomed attempt to overthrow the government of Fidel Castro. Secretly supporting the ill-fated operation were members of the Alabama Air National Guard, contracted to the CIA. They had trained the exiles and later volunteered to fly bombing missions on the final, futile day of the attack. Four of the Guardsmen would not survive. President John F. Kennedy later admitted U.S. involvement, but denied that U.S. military personnel had entered Cuban territory. Years later, the CIA declassified documents that confirmed the fatal mission. The four Guardsmen who lost their lives, Leo Baker, Wade Gray, Thomas “Pete” Ray and Riley Shamberger, were posthumously awarded the Distinguished Intelligence Cross, the CIA’s highest award for bravery.

Read more at Encyclopedia of Alabama.

Robert F. Kennedy’s comments on the neutrality laws and the struggle for freedom in Cuba, April 20, 1961. (U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Wikipedia)

Four Douglas A4D-2 Skyhawk Attack Squadron 34 “Blue Blasters” in flight. The aircraft flew sorties over combat areas during the Bay of Pigs Invasion, Cuba, on April 17-19, 1961. (U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian, Robert L. Lawson, Wikipedia)

Flight engineer Leo F. Baker was one of eight Alabama Air National Guard members who volunteered to fly a covert bombing mission during the Bay of Pigs assault on Cuba in April 1961. Baker and pilot Thomas “Pete” Ray were shot down and killed in a firefight on Cuban soil. (From Encyclopedia of Alabama, courtesy of Southern Museum of Flight)

Jefferson County native and pilot Riley Shamburger was one of eight Alabama Air National Guard members who volunteered to fly a covert bombing mission during the Bay of Pigs assault on Cuba in April 1961. His plane crashed into the water near Cuba and his body was not recovered. (From Encyclopedia of Alabama, courtesy of Southern Museum of Flight)

Jefferson County native and pilot Thomas “Pete” Ray was one of eight Alabama Air National Guard members who volunteered to fly a covert bombing mission during the Bay of Pigs assault on Cuba in April 1961. Ray was killed in a gunfight after his plane was shot down and his body was preserved as evidence of U.S. involvement in the attack until 1979, when he was returned to the U.S. for burial. (From Encyclopedia of Alabama, courtesy of Southern Museum of Flight)

Douglas B-26C Invaders were flown by eight Alabama Air National Guard members and their Cuban exile allies during the covert assault on the Bay of Pigs in Cuba in April 1961. (From Encyclopedia of Alabama, courtesy of U.S. Air Force)

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