Cold War in South Florida

And

Homestead Air Force Base

Written by Steve Hach, Edited by Jennifer Dickey - October, 2004, National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, Southeast Regional Office, page 55.

The B-47 was SAC's first nuclear- capable jet bomber, and it served as the backbone of the U.S. Strategic bomber force until the B- 52 entered into service. The B- 47 had an intermediate range, and many of them served with SAC all over the world.

A reminder that even though the Cold War never went "hot," many military personnel lost their lives ensuring that the concept of deterrence was not hollow. SAC's motto, "Peace is our Profession," meant extraordinary sacrifices had to be made in providing a combat - ready nuclear force capable of responding to a Soviet attack in a credible and effective manner. Military planners believed that the U.S. could deter Soviet aggression only by possessing a credible threat. SAC, under the direction of General Curtis LeMay, developed much of the USAF's strategic bombing theory and many hallmarks of nuclear deterrence strategy. One of LeMay's innovations was the practice of airborne alert. With airborne alert, SAC kept fully loaded nuclear bombers airborne and ready to attack targets in the Soviet Union if given the order.
During SAC exercises and crisis periods, the entire bomber fleet could be placed on airborne alert.(60)

Homestead AFB was a SAC facility and a Tactical Air Command (TAC) facility for many years, supporting B- 47s and B- 52 nuclear bombers as well as fighter interceptor/attack aircraft. It was home to air defense fighters and provided strip alert aircraft to defend against Cuban attacks as part of the overall air defense package for south Florida. The base served as one of the critical staging points for the military buildup associated with the Cuban missile crisis and provided support facilities for many of the air defense missile units deployed to the region during the Cold War. John F. Kennedy toured Homestead AFB during the missile crisis and reviewed some missile troops deployed there.(104)

Homestead AFB served as the headquarters for the U.S. Army forces associated with the Cuban missile crisis”known as the U.S. Army Forces Atlantic (USARLANT)”and provided command and control capability for the more than 100,000 Army personnel assigned to Cuban missile crisis operations.(105)

Homestead AFB also provided facilities and support to the massive numbers of fighter aircraft deployed to the region during the Cuban missile crisis.(106)

Homestead AFB was the location of the HHB units for the 2/52 ADA and the headquarters location for all of the missile forces deployed to south Florida during the Cuban missile crisis”the 13th Artillery Group, the 47th Artillery Brigade, and the 31st ADA.(56)

Cold War in South Florida Historic Resource Study Brigade.(107)

The base provided the lion's share of support facilities and recreational opportunities for the many Army missile troops deployed to the region. Homestead AFB also played a role in some of the more controversial Cold War activities of the Reagan Administration during the Contra war against the Nicaraguan Sandinistas.(108)

Homestead AFB suffered severe damage from Hurricane Andrew in 1992 and has largely ceased operations. It now functions as a reserve USAF base. Recent proposals to replace the facility with a large commercial airport are extremely controversial due to the facility's location in the environmentally sensitive region between Everglades NP and Biscayne NP. Throughout the Cold War, Everglades NP staff interacted with the personnel and leadership of Homestead AFB on numerous occasions.(109)

Highranking SAC officials were frequent visitors to the park in the early 1960s. Homestead AFB escape and evasion (E&E) staff utilized the park as a survival training location. As mentioned previously, Homestead AFB staff located a auxiliary hospital within the park in case an attack destroyed facilities at the AFB itself. Close cooperation with SAC personnel at Homestead helped Everglades NP in countless ways. Cooperation could be as simple as AFB personnel providing charts for ranger pilots, assisting in the digging of alligator survival holes or involving the superintendent in important Cold War milestones achieved by the base.(110)

For example, park staff were present when the Boeing Corporation delivered the first B- 52H model strategic bomber to Homestead AFB. The B- 52H was a mainstay of the Cold War nuclear deterrence triad and they still serve with the USAF today. B-52H models played a key role in the Persian Gulf war and in the Kosovo crisis. Everglades NP staff flew to SAC headquarters at Offutt AFB, Nebraska, for a tour of the nation's Cold War nuclear command post at the height of Cold War tensions in 1962.

Sources:

55. See James William Gibson's The Perfect War: Technowar in Vietnam (Boston: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1986) for a discussion of technology and the U.S. reliance on it in Vietnam.
56. Superintendent's Monthly Narrative Reports (Everglades NP: Department of the Interior, March 1963).
57. Evans, Time for Florida, 107-109.
58. "Major catastrophe" refers to the possibility of a large scale conventional battle for the island or a nuclear exchange.
59. Superintendent's Monthly Narrative Reports (Everglades NP: Department of the Interior, March 1958, November 1959); Ranger's Monthly Narrative Reports (Everglades NP: Department of the Interior, March 1958, November 1959).
60. During the Cuban missile crisis CINCSAC General Thomas S. Power placed 1/8 of the SAC B-52 fleet on airborne alert. Utz, Cordon of Steel, 32.101. Crispell, Testing the Limits, 168-175.
102. Ibid., 175.
103. See Morgan and Berhow, Rings of Supersonic Steel, 79-83; Osato and Straup, ARADCOM'S Florida Defenses; and the still classified ARADCOM reports on the Air Defenses of south Florida by Jean Martin and Geraldine Rice. There are also numerous articles on south Florida HAWK sites in contemporary issues of the ARADCOM Argus newspaper, as well as the locally published Defender newspaper of the south Florida missile units.
104. NARA II Signal Corps photo archives has pictures of JFK reviewing the troops at Homestead AFB.
105. U.S. DOD press release Actions of Military Services in Cuban Crisis Outlined, 29 November 1962, 1; Jean R. Moenk, USCONARC Participation in the Cuban Crisis 1962 (Ft. Monroe: Headquarters U.S. Continental Army Command, 1964), 1-10.
106. McMullen, The Fighter Interceptor Force, 8-16.
107. Morgan and Berhow, Rings of Supersonic Steel, 79-83.
108. Cockburn, Out of Control, details the use of Homestead AFB by the CIA, the Contras, and other clandestine operators involved in what would come to be known as the Iran-Contra scandal. One of the more serious allegations is that covert operatives associated with Reagan's efforts to continue Contra support after the Congress ordered it stopped with the Boland Amendment smuggled drugs into the U.S. using their CIA-supplied immunity from custom's scrutiny. The CIA denies that this type of activity ever occurred.
109. Contemporary Everglades NP superintendent and ranger monthly narrative reports document numerous instances where AFB staff and Everglades NP staff coordinated activities.
110. Base explosives personnel would help provide survival holes for alligators threatened by the severe water shortages the park suffered in the late 1960s. Explosives were used to "dig" holes which would then fill with water/mud. Alligators would enter these holes in an attempt to survive the severe drought.
111. Kelly, "The Fidel Fixation," 1; contemporary newspapers also discussed this incident.
112. Branch, "The Kennedy Vendetta," 53, discusses the enormous liaison effort the CIA instituted with local authorities to cover its Cold War activities in the region.
113. Ayers, The War that Never Was, 39.
114. Ibid., 44-45.


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