body-of-secrets-anatomy-of-the-ultra-secret-national-security-agency-2002

suspected. Again and again they measured the width of the pulses—thesize of the spikes on the scope. Holding on to stopwatches that dangledfrom their necks, they clicked them on and off to time the intervalbetween the woop sounds, giving them the radar's scan rate. Once theywere sure of the signal's makeup, they checked the NSA's highlyclassified TEXTA (Technical Extracts of Traffic Analysis) Manual andconfirmed its identity."One of our T Branchers [Elint operators] intercepted one of theradars going on line for the first time," said Max Buscher. "And theycould tell by the parameters that it was a radar associated with anoffensive missile system. This was flashed to NSA. Six hours later, a jethelicopter came down and lowered a rope and they wanted the tape—they didn't just take our word for it, the NSA wanted the tape."Early the next day, October 22, NSA had more bad news: at least fiveSoviet missile regiments would soon become operational in Cuba. Eachregiment would have eight missile launchers and sixteen missiles. Thus,Cuba would have the potential to launch a first salvo of forty missiles,and a refire capability of another forty.Later that morning, at a National Security Council meeting, McConediscussed the Terek and other up-to-the-minute intelligence on Sovietshipping. The Poltava, he said, was due to arrive in Cuba in about fivedays, and its cargo was so arranged as to make it clear that longcylinders were on board.At 1:00 P.M. the Strategic Air Command began to initiate "quietly andgradually" a partial airborne alert and the dispersal of bombers to airbases around the country. At the same time, the Navy began to quietlyevacuate dependents, by ship and air, from the American base atGuantanamo Bay in Cuba. Within nine hours, all 2,810 people had beensafely removed.That evening at seven, President Kennedy addressed the nation,announcing that "unmistakable evidence" had established the presenceof Soviet MRBM and ICBM sites and nuclear-capable bombers in Cuba.He then said that he was ordering imposed on Cuba a "strict quarantineon all offensive military equipment." Finally, he warned the Sovietgovernment that the United States will "regard any nuclear missilelaunched from Cuba against any nation in the Western Hemisphere asan attack by the Soviet Union on the United States, requiring a fullretaliatory response against the Soviet Union."As the president spoke, U.S. military forces in much of the world wereput on alert. Polaris nuclear submarines sailed to preassigned stations atsea. Twenty-two interceptor aircraft went airborne in the event of militaryaction from Cuba. "I had the first watch when Kennedy made hisspeech," said Hal Parish. "I was briefed to expect the possibility of a very102