We used a dozen of these B-26's in preparation for the Bay of Pigs:
SPECIFICATIONS (Typical for late block A-26B)
Span: 70 ft. 0 in.
Length: 50 ft. 8 in.
Height: 18 ft. 6 in.
Weight: approximately 41,800 lbs. gross take off weight
Armament: Two .50-cal. machine guns in a dorsal barbette, two .50-cal. machine guns in a ventral barbette (sometimes omitted in favor of an extra fuel cell), eight forward firing .50-cal. machine guns in the nose and six .50-cal. machine guns in the wings plus provisions for 6,000 lbs. Of bombs (4,000 lbs. internal and 2,000 lbs. external on wing racks). Fourteen 5 in. rockets could be carried in place of the wing-mounted bombs.
Engines: Two Pratt & Whitney R-2800-27 (or -71 or -79) radials of 2,000 hp. ea.
Crew: Three - Pilot, navigator, gunner
Had Kennedy approved Gen. Cabell's request to make one final attack with these on Castro's three .50 cal.-armed T-33's on the ground prior to the invasion, it would have succeeded in establishing a base and provisional government, giving the requisite cover for U.S. assistance when requested.
Kennedy's failure here led to the "missile crisis" which he "solved" by promising not to invade Cuba, and by removing U.S. Pershing missiles from Turkey.
The invaders were cut to ribbons and to secure the release of the captured survivors Kennedy gave Castro an ungodly amount of jeeps and yankee dollars.
Sensing weakness, Khruschev built the Berlin Wall.
My dad finished his WWII service on USS Saratoga (CV-3) and came back to run the press clipping business his father established.
He hired as his mailroom man an Army veteran of Italy service who had cartooned for Army publications.
Harry Heidinger was never too busy to draw me in a tank or halftrack when Mom would bring me by.
And he gave me a USA hand grenade which fascinated me with its simplicity.
They all went down and enlisted after Pearl, and they all came back to work afterwards, except of course the one's God volunteered.
MAULDIN, left, beside a German tank in Italy.
Let's head over to the Foxhole and quaff a few root beers.