◆ SpookStack

until 5 December. By that time, however, the combat role had been eliminated -- again for unknown reasons -- and the mission became strictly a resupply drop for Manolo Ray's MRR. After an apparently exact job of navigation and identification of the drop zone lights, the pilot failed to open the bomb bay doors on his first pass over the drop zone; and after making second and third passes without any sign of drop zone lights, he returned to Puerto Barrios to refuel en route back to Retalhuleu. Billy Campbell's comment to Headquarters, with regard to the mission put things in proper perspec- tive: "Pilot head up and locked." Headquarters felt it necessary to cable apologies to Havana for the failure of the drop plan for the MRR group, and also to raise the question of whether that drop zone had been so badly blown by the three aircraft passes above it that it should no longer be considered for use. 64/* Of the other B-26's which had been declared , ready for operations in November, two flew a propaganda drop on 12 December 1960. They worked the western * The US had not yet broken diplomatic relations with Cuba, and Havana Station was still in operation. - 141 -