The article by a Jorge Dávila Miguel published in the Miami Herald’s Nuevo Herald "Donald Trump needs the Bay of Pigs award", written mainly as an attack on the current President aspiring to continue his mandate, mentions data on the Bay of Pigs Brigade 2506, to which I belong, and of the Bay of Pigs invasion that does not fit the truth. A short search on the writer discloses he is a CNN and the Nuevo Herald commentator and has produced recent reports on the pandemic, medicine and defects in the economy in Cuba which leads to me to believe that the good Mister has drank the Castro's Kool Aid. It does not matter, here in this country, unlike the other, all ideas are accepted until, as Antolín Scalia once wrote about Pastor Jones, "he is an idiot and his idea is very bad, but even stupid things are constitutional!" Whatever plaque the Bay of Pigs Veterans Association has given the then-candidate Trump, be it an award, an honor, or a gift, the majority of voters and myself can give “a hoot”. It is only a reflection of the pathology exhibited by those who hate the President. What does hurt me, is how this false information (possibly read by an Ecu-Red and Castro spokesmen) affects the memory of our dead and prisoners. The first falsehood is that we had the support of the United States. We only counted on the promises given by then-President Kennedy and his advisers which ended in betrayal. If we had the promised air support we would be in Cuba. Also the number of Castro casualties of 156 is pure propaganda of the tyrannical regime not to demonstrate how an outnumbered group of patriots with little training, without air support and without having been able to disembark all the weapons, tanks and ammunition, caused thousands of casualties and deaths on a militia who attacked them with heavy weapons, artillery and tanks. The fact that we could not reestablish democracy in our country does not make us, nor do we feel, part of a "failure." On the contrary, we had the courage to fight for our principles and morals, attributes that we maintain and aspire to teach our young descendants. This legacy is far superior to that of all the “Fidelistas without Fidel” who take advantage of the freedoms this country offers to establish another form of government. It is obvious that they consider Trump, despite or because of his non-political personality and unbridled verb, a major obstacle to their ambitions. Time will tell! Fernando J. Milanés, MD Brigada 2506 # 3610
Bay of Pigs Military Synopsis:
Castro Forces: 51,000; Invading Forces: 1,500
Estimated Casualties:
Castro Forces: 1,600 + dead (per Triay p. 81), 5,000 casualties (per Grayston Lynch)
Invading Forces 115 dead, 1,189 captured
Casualty Breakdown of Castro Forces during 4/17/1961 - 4/18/1961:
Playa Larga : 2,880
Palmite, Yaguaramas and San Blás: 500
Girón to Playa Larga: 2,000
Total Castro troops deployed to Bay of Pigs: 62,000
* data provided by Brigadier Mario A. Martinez-Malo