◆ SpookStack

This was the guerrilla warfare plan which Jake Esterline thought might be mounted against Castro's forces. Had this plan been followed, air operations could have been launched only from the Yucatan peninsula or the Continental United States. The only other Caribbean areas that would fit within the air range indicated in the referenced memorandum would have been the Bahama Islands and the Cayman Islands; and Montego Bay in Jamaica would have been at the extreme range for attacks on Havana. Eglin Air Force Base, too, would have been ruled out as the site for a launch from the Continental united States. Also, in terms of the air operation, the extension of the distance between the operational base and the target country ruled out the possibility of using light aircraft for reconnaissance between the ground forces and the air force, and it also eliminated the possibility of using the light aircraft to spot targets so that guerrilla units could take out such targets themselves. Through early September at least, a 500 mile maximum radius between operational base and target was still apparently the rule. Similarly, the use of USAF/USN airfields and Caribbean possessions of the - 83 -