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From: John Lehman
Date: December 15, 2015
Subject: Nuclear War Came Close?
WWIII came very close on Okinawa during the Cuban Missile Crisis, but it didn’t start with a nuke. The Cuban Crisis broke on the newswires at 0525 Okinawa time. I had been called in to work at AFRT early to host the Country Show, from 5 to 6AM in addition to my own shift that began with the news at 6AM. About 530, I was on the phone with Air Defense Combat Control at Naha AFB when a L/Cpl from the News Bureau came into the AM control “all shook up”over the Cuban story. I tried to ignore his outburst until I had finished with ADCC at Naha. Then I told him to SHUT UP. With my left hand, Istopped the record that was playing; opened the mike with my right and said, “We interrupt this program to bring you the following OFFICIAL Announcement. All personnel assigned or attached to the 51st Fighter Interceptor Wing at Naha Air Force Base, report to duty stations…THIS IS A RED ALERT, THIS IS NO DRILL, THIS IS A RED ALERT. In addition, this is a RED ALERT for all personnel assigned or attached to the following units, US Fleet Activity, Ryukyu Islands, 1st Marine Aircraft Wing, 3rd Marine Division, 313th Air Division, 1ST Special Forces Group, US Army Ryukyu Islands, IX Corps, 498th Tactical Missile Group, and 30th Artillery Group,this is a RED ALERT, I REPEAT THIS IN NOT A DRILL, THIS IS A RED ALERT.
By 1030hrs, all TAC Air, the Marines, Special Forces, IX Corps, etc had departed Okinawa; the 498th Missile Group was ready to launch its ground to ground missiles when commanded. The 30th Artillery Group’s Nikes had changed over from conventional to nuclear warheads and all military personnel still on the island had been issued weapons and 3 days of rations. I was still on the Air and started airing instructions for ALL DEPENDENTS WISHING IMMEDIATE AIR EVACUATION TO THE CONTINENTAL US MAINLAND.
The Nationalist Chinese Generalissimo had decided that the signs were right and it was time to retake mainland China from the Communists. Under the terms of SEATO THE US had to go with him. It took three very tense days to talk him out of the invasion by our State Department.
SFC Jay Lehman,
US Army Retired
From: John Lehman
Date: December 26, 2015
Subject: Additional Info on the Cuban Crisis in the Far East
Years after I retired from active service, while attending college in Tampa, FL…..a classmate told me that he had been on duty with the Navy’s Shore Patrol in Yokohama at the time we had been put on Red Alert on Okinawa. He said, “Think the dockside scene on Mr. Roberts and multiply it by about 25,000. Shear chaos…..The 7th Fleet had gone to GENERAL QUARTERS and was proceeding down Tokyo Bay at Flank Speed. Unfortunately the most manned ship in the fleet was the carrier and she only had 35% of her crew aboard. Everyone was on liberty…..the SP’s were rounding up sailors all over the place driving them to the piers, putting them on helicopters and flying them out to their ships. He said, one sailor, they picked up was clad in his black shoes, his black socks, and his little white hat…….and that’s all he had on when he was dropped on the fantail of his assigned cruiser.
Another classmate, a retired USAF LTC spent those hectic three days in the cockpit of his KC-135 jet tanker at the head of the main runway at the USAF Base in Macon, GA WITH THE “WAR ORDERS” IN HIS HANDS. He said that if he got the “GO” WORD, he was to fly due West and refuel the B52’s enroute to their targets. THE B52’s from Okinawa, had redeployed to a base 50 miles south of Taipei, Taiwan.
Sorry that I forgot to include PsyOps unit. Also the 498th Group was USAF. Their missiles were truck mounted with a maximum range of 500 plus miles……the distance from Okinawa to the Chinese mainland.
53 years ago, during my first tour on Okinawa, liked the place so much….I spent a 2nd tour there with AFRT from 1968-71
Jay Lehman
From: Steve Sevits
Date: December 25, 2015
Subject: Nuclear War Came Close?
I was on Okinawa at the time and nobody issued me a weapon or rations. Assigned to 14th Psy War up country (north of Koza - could the local village have been called something like Teragawa?), nobody told us anything. Guess they figured we weren't worth telling. The biggest news I ever got during that time period was a letter a few days later from my mother on the east coast in Upstate NY that everybody stateside was frightened of nuclear war.
Steve
AFVN Group Conversations
(The) Cuban Crisis of October 1962
December 2015