April 19, 2011 marks the 50th anniversary of the Bay of Pigs invasion. In connection with the anniversary, NewSouth Books has reissued Wings of Denial: The Alabama Air National Guard’s Covert Role at the Bay of Pigs by Warren Trest and Don Dodd.
Told within the larger story of bureaucratic bungling and indecision at the highest levels in Washington, Wings of Denial is a tribute to a group of unsung Alabama heroes — Air National Guard volunteers who trained the Cuban freedom fighters and then flew into combat in a desperate attempt to save them when the CIA-backed invasion failed. Four of the guardsmen made the ultimate sacrifice, a closely guarded secret these many years. This is their story.
Colonel Haas, a retired US Air Force colonial, calls Wings of Denial “a superb account of one of the darkest tragedies of the Cold War era” that “describes in chilling detail the bloody impact of JFK’s personal intervention . . .”
Says author Trest, “Wings of Denial is a favorite book of mine. I am glad to see it back in print because it honors a valiant group of Alabama warriors at a critical time in our nation’s history.”
Warren Trest and former Alabama Governor John Patterson, who was governor at the time of the Bay of Pigs incident, will be speaking throughout the year commemorating the events of April 1961. Among other engagements, they are the guest speakers at the Alabama Department of Archives and History ArchiTreats lunchtime program on April 19th.
Wings of Denial is available from NewSouth Books, Amazon.com or your favorite online or retail bookseller.