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Listed below are links to reconnaissance photos and other images from the November crisis, 29 October - November 9, 1962. The photographs that make up the vast majority of this section come from the Dino A. Brugioni collection at the National Security Archive. Brugioni was a career CIA officer in charge of "all-source" intelligence and briefing preparation at the National Photographic Interpretation Center in 1962. He later authored Eyeball to Eyeball: The Inside Story of the Cuban Missile Crisis, (New York: Random House, 1990).

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36. October 29, 1962:  Low-level photography reveals Soviet removal of missile erectors and transporters at San Cristobal.

37. October 29, 1962:  Low-level photography reveals Soviet removal of missiles and tents at San Cristobal.

38. November 5, 1962: Low-level photography documents loading of Soviet missiles at the main Mariel port facility for return to the USSR.  On the dock are vehicles later identified by NPIC as nuclear warhead vans.

39. Early November 1962: Low-level photography captures convoy of Soviet trucks driving onto dock at north Mariel port to begin loading process.

40. Early November 1962:  Low-level photography reveals 17 missile erectors at north Mariel port awaiting return to the USSR.

41. November 6, 1962: Soviet personnel and six missile transporters loading onto ship transport at Casilda port.  (Note shadow at lower right of RF-101 reconnaissance jet taking the photograph.)

42. NPIC diagrams and photograph of Soviet nuclear warhead vans, determined afterwards to have been present at San Cristobal MRBM site no. 1 as early as October 23.

43. October 23, 1962: Low-level photograph of Komar guided-missile patrol boats at Mariel port.  Post-crisis review by NPIC revealed the Soviet nuclear warhead processing base at the end of the runway to the left.

44. Close-up of the Soviet nuclear warhead processing base at the Mariel runway, onto which the 101^st Airborne was scheduled to parachute if a U.S. invasion took place.

45. Graphic from Military History Quarterly of the U.S. invasion plan, 1962.

46. November 9, 1962: Low-level photograph of 6 Frog (Luna) missile transporters under a tree at a military camp near Remedios.  U.S. photo analysts first spotted these tactical nuclear-capable missiles on October 25, but only in 1992 did U.S. policymakers learn that nuclear warheads for the Lunas were already in Cuba in October 1962.

Return to Press Release, 12 October 2002, 1:00 PM