◆ SpookStack

Cuba on 19 April 1961 were all members of the Alabama ANG contingent. 88/ Major Billy B. Campbell, who was initially put in charge of the B-26 air training program down in Guatemala, also played a key role with Sid Stembridge in obtaining support from the ANG. In an interview with the author, Campbell made the following remarks: We borrowed General Wilson's two National Guard airplanes out of Andrews AFB to do the initial training in. These aircraft were much lighter and much faster than the airplanes we finally received, which were the ones from the Far East. Flown back to Kelly Air Force Base and refitted, we flew them all down to Guat City. Getting back to the qualifications and the train- ing, and the people we were training ••• among the areas that I was really worried about was the maintenance of the airplanes, the maintenance of the guns on the B-26's, and making sure that we had the proper people to l~ad the cargo aircraft for paradrops. This is why we initially went back and started asking for Americans to come on down and help, and I was the one that proposed to get people out of the National Guard. They had B-26's in Georgia, in Alabama, and in Arkansas at the time. Sid [Stembridge] was well aware of this. In fact, we flew together with Gen. [Reid] Doster on his airplane back in the fall of 1960 to Birmingham; and Doster said you can have all my people who want to volunteer, as long as I go myself. We pointed out to him that we couldn't take a two-star General and