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The sixteenth meeting of the Taylor Committee was held on 17 May 1961 and was devoted exclusively to the testimony of five CUban~ who had escaped from the invasion beach following the collapse of organized resistence by the Brigade on 19 April 1961. The common thread of the testimony of all five witnesses who had been engaged in the action from Red beach down to Blue beach was that they had lost because they did not receive the air support which they had been promised. They were particularly critical of the failure of the United States Government to respond to their calls for air support when it became apparent that the invasion was not going to succeed as long as Castro's jets controlled the air. Contrary to the testimony of some earlier witnesses who had suggested that an attempt to call off the invasion when it was learned that the D-Day air strike had been cancelled would have been forcibly resisted by the Cuban trainees, the opinion of the escapees who expressed themselves on this sUbject was that it was unlikely that the Cubans would have attempted to take over the vessels and continue the invasion themselves. The escapees also were particularly critical of the aluminum boats-- a subject which had been discussed with Captain Scapa at the previous day's meeting. With the exception of one of the witnesses who indicated considerable reluctance about being able to depend on the United States, the others agreed that 132 I