Official History of the Bay of Pigs Operation- Volume 2- Part 1

I personally flew a total of around 15
hours on the ·four sorties. This covered
a two day period. My last sortie in the
late afternoon on the coast of the second
day [15 Nov 60] ended at MADD. I was in-
formed that the revolt was over. I heard
that Col. Batres had flown to Puerto Barrios
and was negotiating with the ones in charge
of the revolt. I was not privileged to
find out the results of the revolt, but it
was over. I believe the Guatemalan Air
Force cancelled our flights when they
informed us of Col. Batres' actions ... I
did accept my orders at the time and did
support Col. Batres' command, but my bosses
were Americans; and I would have responded
to their orders. None were given after
their first permission for me to follow
Col. Batres. !±i/
Jacob D. Esterline, Chief of J~ARC project had
some subsequent conversation with the Americans who
were mentioned in Seigrist's report. In discussions
where he had suggested that the B-26's operating
Inasmuch as Egan did not give any specifics about de-
planing his troops, both he and-Seigrist could be
technically correct.
The Deputy Chi~f of DPD claimed that 216 Cuban
troops "were committed to Puerto Barrios airstrip at
0600 hours on 14 November. If it is possible, these
troops will have to be evacuated if the situation
worsens." Once again, however, the language is vague
enough to be true, since the referenced evacuation of
the Cuban troops does not specify that they were to
be evacuated from Puerto Barrios. There is no argu-
ment, of course, that they "were committed to Puerto
Barrios airstrip," but only in what amounted to a
touch-and-go landing. 45a/