At 7 p.m. ET, October 22, President John F. Kennedy announced to the nation the discovery of Soviet nuclear medium-range ballistic missile sites in Cuba, ninety miles off Florida's southern tip. A face-off with Soviet Russia ensued with the United States Navy implementing a quarantine of Cuba to halt missile deliveries and all U.S. Armed Forces coming to a highest state of readiness.
On October 27, Anderson, a Greenville, South Carolina native and 1948 graduate from Clemson's cadet corps and pilot with the 4080th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing was tasked with an overflight mission of Cuba in a Lockheed U-2 spyplane to take photos of the Soviet SS-N-4 medium-range ballistic missiles (MRBMs) and SS-N-5 intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBMs) build-ups. Anderson had first qualified on the U-2 type on September 3, 1957.
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