The Bay of Pigs Invasion John F. Kennedy A TOTAL FAILURE. Many
of the men of Brigade 2506 believed fervently that they were the
first wave of Cuban freedom fighters who would liberate their
homeland from Castro. They were convinced as they storrned
ashore that they would be supported overhead by some of the
finest fighter pilots of the U.S. Air Force, and they thought
that as they advanced into Cuba, the U.S. Marines would be right
behind them. Whether the insurgents had talked themselves into
this conviction or the trainers from the United States had made
such a promise is still a subject of debate. The air support
promised by the CIA consisted of sixteen B-26 twin-engine light
attack bombers. From an airstrip in Nicaragua to the Bay of Pigs
was a journey of 1,000 miles, round-trip, which left a B-26 with
enough fuel to provide less than forty minutes of air cover for
the Brigade. Anything longer than forty minutes and the pilots
risked running out of gas somewhere over the Caribbean. On April
14, 1961, just