◆ SpookStack

changing the markings. Then we got into a problem -- that you were on a USmili- tary installation and you couldn't do that. Then we had the problem where if you'd fly them anywhere else in the United States and try to reconfigure, then you've got another problem because you would have to do it at night, ••. So the planes were flown in, if I recall correctly, from Eglin as Air Force air- craft and flown down to Guatemala un- marked ..• and reconfigured and flown from there on into Puerto Cabezas, un- marked. Then, at Puerto Cabezas, the Cuban markings were put on them, and this is where we needed the paint. 94/ Even as the discussions were being held concern- ing the painting of air strips and the aircraft, prog- ress was being made toward assembling the necessary aircraft -- 10 C-54's and 4 C-46's to provide the airlift from Retalhuleu, Guatemala to Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua. The movement of aircraft involved not only flights from Guatemala to Nicaragua and return, but also flights of aircraft from Eglin Air Force Base to Roosevelt Roads (Puerto Rico) qnd thence to TIDE, or from Eglin Air Force Base directly to TIDE. Inas- much as the transfers were going to be made after dark, the problems were made even more difficult. Although TIDE was scheduled to become operational on 1 April 1961, the airlift of the ground forces =rom JMTRAV was not to begin until 0-8 and was to - 162 -