A One-Way Trip to Death: A Survivor's View of Cruise Missiles in the Cuban Missile Crisis

Cruise missiles of past wars have meant the death of the delivery pilot. Recent technology today has replaced the pilot, but we speak very little of the history of how this lethal assault weapon came about, or how it played such an impressive role in the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962.

Richard F. Kaufman, a chase pilot for the Navy's Regulus missile, recalls the birth and development of the cruise missile in World War II and how it became an American weapon of immense destruction. It came along at a critical time to become our primary weapon in the Pacific.

He shares the experiences of a navy missile chase pilot with mixed emotion. On the one hand, living a life of luxury with his family in a tropical Hawaiian paradise far away from the troubles of the real world, while on the other hand, preparing for his death as a Regulus missile delivery pilot in the event of war.

Join the author as he traces the development of cruise missiles, the role they played in the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the rigors of the Cold War.