Episode #42 – A Father Lost in the Invasion of the Bay of Pigs with Janet Ray
Alabama National Guard bomber pilot Thomas “Pete” Ray and other members of the ANG’s 117th Tactical Reconnaissance Group volunteered to support the invasion in Cuba after ANG General Reid Doster was approached by the CIA. The CIA had a number of B-26 bombers available for air support, and the 117th was one of the only military units still flying and maintaining those aircraft.
Around eighty men traveled to Central America to train the Cuban pilots and crew who would fly the actual missions. But by the third day of the invasion, things were going very wrong at the beachhead, and the surviving Cuban pilots were exhausted after five straight days of combat sorties. The National Guard pilots stepped up to take over and fly missions into Cuba themselves.
On April 19th, 1961, two of the B-26s were shot down over southern Cuba. One plane flown by Wade Gray and Riley Shamberger crashed into the sea. Their bodies were never recovered. The other, piloted by Pete Ray and Leo Baker, crashed on land. Ray survived the crash and exchanged fire with Cuban troops before he was captured. He was executed with a bullet to the head shortly thereafter.
For the next 18 years, his widow and children fought both the US and Cuban governments for more information on Pete’s last mission, and to recover his remains. Fidel Castro kept Ray in a Havana morgue and demanded concessions the US government was unwilling to give before turning over the body. It wasn’t until 1979 that Pete Ray returned home to be buried in a cemetery in Birmingham, AL.
For episode 42 of the Spycraft 101 podcast, I spoke with @janet.ray.miami, Pete’s daughter. Janet was just six years old when she watched her father drive away for a mysterious assignment. She was 24 when she finally laid eyes on his remains and realized he’d been executed on the ground, and had not died in the crash. We discussed one of the often overlooked costs of covert operations: the trials and tribulations of the families left behind, and left in the dark. The episode is available now on nearly all podcasting platforms.
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