◆ SpookStack

It might be emphasized, too, that from the initial Agency contact with Gen. Wilson in Washington the Agency's contacts with the state ANG units were main- tained with CO's of General rank. Once having insured that adequate trainers and senior maintenance personnel would be available, the next step for JMATE was to recruit Cubans for potential service as pilots and air crewmen. One of the first suggestions for a cadre of Cuban pilots originated with Adm. Arleigh Burke, Chief of Naval Operations and a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. By mid- August Burke raised the question of whether the dozen Cubans who had recently completed flight training at Pensacola had been considered as candidates for the anti-Castro movement air force. Burke was of the opinion that these pilot trainees were still in the us. Unfortunately, however, all of. the pilots had completed their training before,30 June 1960, and all of them had returned to Cuba -- where they were all deprived of their commissions in the Cuban Armed Forces and grounded! Their training in bhe United States, of course, being the reason for considering them to be of doubtful loyalty. 11/ -, 103 -