BAY OF PIGS
LA CABANA
Operation Water Buffalo: Concealed in water holding tanks, Smith supplied Fidel Castro with arms while Castro was hiding in the Escombray Mountains. Castro overthrows Ferdinand Batista in 1959.
In 1961 Smith was assigned to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, United States military outpost, where he was under the control of Howard Hunt, code name Edwardo, and Frank Sturgis and Roland Martinez, all of Watergate fame. Smith ran armed speedboats called moppies along the coast of Cuba, creating so called dog and pony shows allowing refugees to enter and leave Cuba.
This same year Smith was assigned to the ill-fated operation known as the Bay of Pigs invasion, Blue Beach and Brigade 2506. The operation failed, Smith was captured and held at "La Cabana," Cuba's prison famed for its firing wall. Smith was later released in exchange for medical supplies. Operation was called "THE FISH IS RED" because on a map Cuba looks like a fish.
Playa Giron, Bay of Pigs: Fourteen hundred CIA-trained Cuban exiles invaded Cuba on April 17, 1961 to overthrow Castro. The force surrendered within 72 hours, overwhelmed by Castro's army.
La Cabana: The Castle of San Carlos de la Cabana, well known as La Cabaña, was a stone fortress used to defend the entrance channel to the bay of Havana against English pirates in the eighteenth century. Later it became military barracks and after that Cuba's prison famed for its firing wall. It was there where they held the Bay of Pigs prisoners until they were bailed out with trading medical supplies for men.