Soldier of Fortune Magazine The Journal of Professional Adventurers
by Susan Katz Keating
New training images from GTMO appear alongside resurfaced historic footage from the Cuban Missile Crisis, when the U.S. base stood on alert during one of the Cold War’s most dangerous moments.
Marines conducted fast-rope and sling load training at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay this month, adding new images from one of America’s most unusual military outposts as Pentagon archives revisited Cuba’s Cold War past.
The training and archive releases are separate, but together they highlight the enduring military significance of the island — from the Cuban Missile Crisis to current operations. The timing and location nevertheless stand out because few American military sites carry the same Cold War memory as Guantanamo Bay, known in military parlance as GTMO.
The images appear amid renewed tension between Cuba and the United States.
The USS Nimitz Carrier Strike Group recently entered the Caribbean Sea, bringing a major U.S. naval presence into the region. The deployment coincided with the Justice Department unsealing charges against 94-year-old former Cuban President Raúl Castro over the 1996 shootdown of two Brothers to the Rescue aircraft. The attack killed four men, including three U.S. citizens.
Images from the June 4 training exercise at GTMO show Marines conducting a long-range fast-rope rehearsal from a UH-1Y Venom. The Marines are deployed as part of Operation SOUTHERN SPEAR, a mission whose objectives include disrupting illicit drug trafficking.
The Cuban Missile Crisis video clips were freshly posted on the Pentagon’s Defense Visual Information Distribution Service site, appearing in eight segments. The final segment appeared on May 1.
No explanation was given for why the segments were being reposted from 1962, other than to identify them. Each segment carries the notation: “A visual production from the Defense Intelligence Agency.”
In segment six, an unidentified speaker talks about Soviet IL-28 Beagle aircraft that were dismantled and removed from Cuba as part of resolving the missile crisis.
Naval Station Guantanamo Bay was established in 1903 after the Spanish–American War. It has occupied a unique place in U.S. military history for more than a century. The station remained an American foothold through revolution, broken diplomatic relations, and decades of tension between Washington and Havana.
During the Cuban Missile Crisis, the base was caught inside the standoff between the United States and Soviet Union. Marines reinforced the installation, dependents were evacuated, and American forces prepared for the possibility that the standoff could turn into open conflict.
The crisis ended after tense negotiations, but Guantanamo Bay remained a continuing U.S. military presence on the island. More than six decades later, Marines are training on the same ground — under different circumstances, but in a location shaped by generations of military history.
Susan Katz Keating is the publisher and editor in chief at Soldier of Fortune.
