Captain Fernández was a Cuban officer who seemed to be there just because we happened to have an unfilled Captain position, and he was available. He was assigned as Executive Officer, but he was pretty much just a body holding the position. He was not much on military protocol and seemed more at ease with us enlisted men than with officers.
CPT Fernández was an older captain for his rank but had a colorful history. He supposedly had been involved in the Bay of Pigs invasion1 during the early 1960's and recounted the story how his invading CIA-trained unit had been assured they would have air support provided by American planes timed to their invasion at the Bay of Pigs. President Kennedy had been in office less than a year by then but had pledged air cover to the CIA invasion army. The invasion began without the air cover. They had faith in President Kennedy, and they just knew they would get the air cover any moment now.
The air cover never took place. Supposedly, President Kennedy got cold feet and called back the planes already en route to provide the air cover for the Bay of Pigs invasion. The CIA trained-army was annihilated with hundreds of them taken prisoners by the Cuban forces. With the help of the CIA, CPT Fernández was able to escape. Since he had worked directly with the CIA and had specialized undercover training and experience, the US Government offered him and many other Cubans in his group the option of joining the US Army in one of several ranks according to their education and contribution to the invasion attempt. CPT Fernández was made a first lieutenant and made captain by the time he joined us at the 101st Airborne Division.
Being Cuban, CPT Fernández loved his alcohol. His favorite hangout was at the Officers' Club at Camp Eagle. He was a regular customer there and got involved in several brawls with other officers. I recall two or three times when it would be dark already and probably closer to midnight. Someone would come through our hooches asking for volunteers to go help CPT Fernández at the officers' club. He'd just gotten into another brawl and was again outnumbered. He needed help and called our Orderly Room to find and send him some men. I never helped.
I would see CPT Fernández the day after one of these incidents, and it was clearly evident he'd been in another fistfight and had gotten the worse end of the fight. The fact that he had a thick Cuban accent difficult to understand just made matters worse. Add to that the effect of several hours of alcohol. CPT Fernández loved his alcohol, and he loved the Officers' Club. Perhaps even more so, he loved the brawls but only after many shots of cheap rum. Perhaps that helped deaden the pain.
Major General Charles J. Denholm was the longest-serving commander of the Army Security Agency. He was a casual, informal general who always wore longer hair than authorized. He was affectionately known as Charlie-two-Stars within the Army Security Agency.
In May 1943 during World War II, Charlie-two-Stars was a 1st Lieutenant among 464 US and British prisoners of war captured following the fierce fighting against German forces in northern Tunisia. Along with 150 of his Soldiers, he was marched through Tunisia and loaded onto a freighter bound for Italian stockades; however, the POW ship was attacked by allied planes. With the ship slowly sinking, the ship's captain freed the prisoners. Charlie-two-Stars was repatriated and returned to the fight.
Charlie-two-Stars found a solid path to his two stars with the Army Security Agency, a somewhat hidden Army within the US Army. Everyone in the Army Security Agency held a Top Secret clearance with a classified mission but integrated inconspicuously well as a regular US Army member.
CPT Fernández was not well trained in official military protocol. When Charlie-two-Stars came to visit our 265th Radio Research Company, our company commander was out of the country, so it fell on CPT Fernández to provide an itinerary and escort Charlie-two-Stars to the different points of interest within the 265th and within 101st Airborne Division. Military protocol requires the senior person to ride on the front passenger side of a military vehicle. CPT Fernández put Charlie-two-Stars in the back seat of the jeep and positioned himself in the front passenger seat. Charlie-two-Stars was such a cool and accommodating general that he never made an issue of this; however, CPT Fernández was unkindly ridiculed by unit members for having breached a fundamental part of military protocol.
I was once sitting atop our assigned bunker nursing a beer while waiting for my friend Gonzales to return from his hooch with a case of beer. Captain Fernández was walking past and noticed me. I greeted him and jumped down offering him a warm beer. "Capitan, quiere una cerveza?"
He refused. "I don't drink beer, sergeant," he said. "But if you have some rum, I'll join you later." I only briefly thought of offering him a joint, but I never really knew just how casual he was about dope.
Captain Fernández was still there when I left the 101st Airborne. I went to his office to say goodbye to him, but he was out of his office. When I inquired of the orderly room clerk where I might find the good captain, he replied sarcastically, "Just go on down to the Officers' Club. You'll probably find him in a corner all alone sipping on his rum."
I've spent several hours searching online to find Captain Fernández. He is nowhere to be found and remains an unsolved mystery - What became of Captain Fernández?
The good captain loved his rum.
1 According to CIA News & Information paper, "Fifty-five years ago, more than a thousand Cuban exiles stormed the beaches at the Bay of Pigs, Cuba, intending to ignite an uprising that would overthrow the government of Fidel Castro." (They failed primarily because a weak President Kennedy called off the support airstrikes at the very last minute leaving the CIA-trained Cubans with no air support. Hundreds wound up prisoners of the Cuban government.)
Copyright texan@atudemi.com - January 2022