THE HEROIC EAGLES AND THE WHITE DOVE OF HOPE

      Many visitors to CAMCO’s website have asked us  why our heading shows a picture of  two bold eagles and a white dove flying over territories considered amongst the most politically volatile in the world.  The use of these symbols  came from the personal experience of our Chairman, Major General (DCNG-Ret.) Erneido Oliva, during and after the Bay of Pigs invasion. He said that two ”eagles,” human eagles, saved his life and the lives of his courageous compatriots during the most furious battle at Playa Larga and he credits a white dove with providing him the necessary mental and spiritual strength to go through two years of isolation in Cuban communist prisons.

     On the afternoon of April 17, 1961, the Second Infantry Battalion of the Brigade 2506 (reinforced with troops and two heavy trucks from the 4th Armored Battalion), commanded by the brave and intrepid Hugo Sueiros, was engaged in a fierce battle against Fidel Castro’s troops. While Oliva, as the invasion second-in-command, with Sueiros at his side, was directing the fight, two B-26 bombers piloted by brigade members flew at high speed over their heads. The pilots immediately made radio contact with Oliva: "Puma One" calling "Maceo," Oliva’s code name. Puma One was piloted by Jose Alberto Crespo and his copilot, Lorenzo Pérez Lorenzo. The crew of the other B-26, Puma Two,  had pilot Osvaldo “Chirrino” Piedra and copilot José Fernández. Oliva asked Puma One what they were seeing and Crespo reported back that there were approximately fifteen hundred well-armed troops near Central Australia and about 500  infantrymen were on their way to attack Oliva’s  300 men. Hearing this, Oliva ordered the air attack and the planes made four passes dropping with precision their rockets and high explosive and napalm bombs only 200 meters in front of Máximo Cruz company's forward defensive positions.  The enemy attack was successfully repelled and their positions completely destroyed.

     Shortly afterwards, Oliva’s radio blared with the pilots communicating to each other. "Puma one this is Puma Two, over." "Let's go now, Puma One, I have finished my ammunition...I don't have too much gasoline either." "No," Puma Two replied. "There's someone  in a sugar mill who has shot at me three times and I'm going after him." Oliva watched as Puma One circled over Playa Larga while Puma Two made a last pass over their heads and dived toward Central Australia to destroy the guns in the mill. "I hit him, I hit him," came the Chirino’s cry. Suddlenly, two of Castro’s few planes, a T-33 Jet and a Sea Fury, appeared in the sky. Puma Two’s crew yelled for help but unfortunately Puma One had no ammunition left. "They hit me, they hit me…" Those were the last words Oliva heard from Crespo as both Brigade planes fell into the Playa Larga sea.  Every brigadista felt a heavy heart knowing that those heroes had given their lives providing the only direct air support the Brigade received during the invasion Thus, the first Brigadistas to die in that afternoon were not infantrymen but four pilots. Since that military operation, Oliva has always referred to the crew of the two Brigade bombers who lost their lives at Playa Larga as “MY HEROIC EAGLES.” 

      Later, as a prisoner of war in solitary confinement at the Havana Prince Castle prison, Oliva saw through a tiny window a white dove circling the castle towers and finally coming to rest at the ledge of a tower window facing his dungeon. Oliva recalls the dove perching there motionless for what seemed to be an eternity looking directly at him.  Oliva felt as if that white dove instilled in him hope of freedom and that it gave him the necessary mental and physical strength to survive the next two years of captivity before he was allowed to be reunited again with his wife and young daughter.  This is why CAMCOCUBA uses both the eagles and the white dove to represent freedom and hope.