◆ SpookStack

that surfaced as early as October 1960 concerned the color, identification, and insignia of the Castro B-26 aircraft. The availability of oil paint was noted in the early weeks of air training operations, and it continued to present difficulties in the final weeks of JMATE. As the time to move the B-26's from MAnD to TIDE approached, there were two problems -- one being painting the B-26's identically to the B-26'sof Castro's Air Force, and the other being the question of painting B-26's for the transfer to TIDE so that they would appear to be part of the Nicaraguan Air Force. In the operations out of both JMADD and ~TIDE, the hope of maintaining plausible deniability for the B-26's lay in the possibility of disguising the B-26's as aircraft of either the Guatemalan or Nicaraguan Air Force. It is difficult to understand, therefore, why on 22 March 1961, Headquarters was raising questions about the availability of painting matQrials for putting Cuban markings on the B-26's still stationed at JMADD. Headquarters also recommended to both MADD and TIDE that the specific marking which would identify Brigade aircraft from Castro's FAR aircraft -- the painting of a three foot wide light blue stripe around the - 160 -