◆ SpookStack

As of 16-17 April, the ~list of 11 targets -- which had been pared down from well over 20 targets -- represented the maximum which Headquarters author- ized for the available aircraft and crews. Destruction of the targets on the list would do much to insure the success of the planned operation. This list of D-Day targets came to be the focus of one' of the major dis- putes concerning the Bay of Pigs -- "The Second Strike Controversy." This section of the history of JMATE air operations will attempt to put that controversy in perspective. The cancellation of the second strike -- for on 16 April all of the targets, including restrikes at the D-2 airfields, were cancelled -- turned a long planned, much discussed, tactical air operation into a 100 percent ground support mission for the invasion troops. By denying the requests from the field for a strike to eliminate (or at least reduce even further) Castro's fighters, it forced the Brigade B-26's into an unplanned and unwanted air combat role. Many of those who were most heavily involved in the JMATE operation and much that has been printed lays the blame for the cancellation of the second strike - 235 -