The U-2 and the Cuban Missile Crisis
Developed in total secrecy by Kelly Johnson and Lockheed’s Skunk Works, the first U-2A made its maiden flight in August 1955. Missions over the Soviet Union during the late 1950s gave the president and other U.S. leaders crucial intelligence about Soviet military strength.
In October 1962, the U-2 captured images of Soviet offensive nuclear missiles being assembled in Cuba, helping to trigger the Cuban Missile Crisis.
U-2 pilot Captain Robert Hickman suffers from hypoxia
According to Krzysztof Dabrowski’s book Hunt for the U-2: Interceptions of Lockheed U-2 Reconnaissance Aircraft over the USSR, Cuba and the People’s Republic of China, 1959–1968, U-2 reconnaissance missions continued at least near Cuba even after the Cuban Missile Crisis ended with the removal of Soviet nuclear missiles from the island. In return, the United States agreed to withdraw similar missiles stationed in Turkey and Italy.
Although the aircraft avoided a direct clash with the Soviet-designed S-75 surface-to-air missile system and its variants, it was later involved in another deadly episode in the region.
On July 28, 1966, Captain Robert Hickman departed from Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana on what was meant to be a routine mission near Cuba. Unlike earlier operations, he had been specifically instructed not to enter Cuban airspace. However, investigators later concluded that a failure in the aircraft’s oxygen system caused him to suffer hypoxia, and his U-2 continued flying straight toward Cuba.
F-4s scrambled to shoot down Hickam’s U-2
To prevent an international incident, the U.S. Navy launched two McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II interceptors from NAS Key West in Florida with orders to bring the aircraft down. Surprisingly, even the high-powered Phantoms were unable to do so. As a result, the U-2 passed over Cuba without triggering any response from Cuban forces, then continued flying until it ran out of fuel and crashed in Bolivia, where Captain Hickman’s body was later recovered from the wreckage.
Found by farmers
Farmers in a remote part of Bolivia discovered Hickman after the crash. The following day, they reached the town of Oruro after making their way through difficult terrain, carrying his Air Force identification card and reporting that an aircraft had gone down.
Officials from the American Embassy were then sent to the crash site to verify that the wrecked plane was Hickman’s, while a Bolivian honor guard stood watch over his body.
Members of Hickman’s entire squadron were present at his funeral, which was held at St. Francis Xavier Cathedral in Alexandria, Virginia.
Hickman had served in the Air Force for 10 years, but he was preparing to leave the military and had already passed the examinations required to become a commercial airline pilot. According to his widow, Pauline, he learned on the very day of his death that his request for release had been approved.
Hunt for the U-2: Interceptions of Lockheed U-2 reconnaissance aircraft over the USSR, Cuba, and People’s Republic of China, 1959-1968, is published by Helion & Company and is available to order here.
Photo by U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy
