Looks like DPAA is on hold with respect to accounting for US personnel MIA due to the government shutdown. So this article will have to do this weekend in place of the usual “No Longer Missing” feature. Hopefully we’ll get back to normal and see more MIAs accounted for soon.<\/p>\n
. . . <\/b><\/p>\n
What follows actually happened. It is not a parable, a tall tale, or fiction.<\/p>\n
Before reading it \u2013 or following the links \u2013 it might not be a bad idea to grab a tissue or three.<\/p>\n
. . .<\/strong><\/p>\n During the Cold War, a boy was born. He was born in a third-world nation.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, he was born in a nation ruled by a corrupt tyrant. That corrupt tyrant was in turn overthrown by a Communist tyrant while he was still very young.<\/p>\n As a young child, he had few toys. But while very young, a relative who was living abroad sent him a toy airplane.<\/p>\n It was a life-changing moment for the lad. From that day onwards, his dream was to be a pilot.<\/p>\n . . .<\/b><\/p>\n The boy grew up under Communism. He was indoctrinated by his dictatorship\u2019s educational system.<\/p>\n Initially, the Communist regime was good to him. It allowed him to fulfil his boyhood dream. He became an officer in his country\u2019s air force. The Communist regime sent him to the locus of world Communism \u2013 the Soviet Union \u2013 to receive training as a combat pilot.<\/p>\n This good treatment, coupled with his educational indoctrination, made him an ardent Communist. For a while, anyway.<\/p>\n But while in the Soviet Union, the boy \u2013 now a young man \u2013 began to see the same things that others from his country had seen years before. While the Soviets were ruthless, and were good at creating weapons, their standard of living was abysmal. And their claims of having created \u201cCommunist utiopia, where all were equal\u201d . . . well, those claims were obviously bullsh!t.<\/p>\n Institutionalized prejudice was rampant, as was inequality. He saw that further when his homeland sent him to a third country to support Communist revolutionaries there.<\/p>\n He also heard the stories of how ruthless his homeland’s Communist regime had been when it took over. And the young man’s views . . . began to change.<\/p>\n By his late 20s or early 30s, the young man had become thoroughly disillusioned. Once an ardent Communist, he now saw he\u2019d followed a lie.<\/p>\n In the meantime, he\u2019d married. His wife was a successful healthcare professional. They had two children.<\/p>\n He indicated to his wife how badly disillusioned he\u2019d become. He could no longer stomach parroting the “party line” lies to his troops.<\/p>\n His wife \u2013 knowing full well the impact what she was about to say would have on both her and their children \u2013 nonetheless told him, \u201cYou have to leave.\u201d<\/p>\n No, she wasn\u2019t throwing him out of the house because he was disillusioned. She was telling him to defect.<\/p>\n So he did.<\/p>\n During a military training flight, he defected. He flew to a US base, and safely landed. He asked for political asylum. His request was granted.<\/p>\n But his family remained behind, under Communist rule.<\/p>\n . . .<\/b><\/p>\n Being a military professional, the man knew about working through channels. For over a year, he worked \u2013 with both US government agencies and private concerns, both privately and publicly \u2013 to convince the Communist regime of his former homeland to release his family.<\/p>\n Nothing happened. And after a year, it was fairly clear that nothing was going to happen any time soon.<\/p>\n So the man went back. No, he did not redefect.<\/p>\n He went back to get his family.<\/p>\n . . .<\/b><\/p>\n He managed to send a message to his wife through a third party, telling her where he would meet her and his children. At a later time, he also managed to send a second message to her specifying the date and time.<\/p>\n He obtained his private pilot\u2019s license in the US. He secured backers, one of whom was wealthy. This backer bought an aircraft for a sympathetic private concern. He obtained access to and permission to use that aircraft – a Cessna.<\/p>\n He kept his plans secret from all but a very few others. He especially did not tell anyone in the US government what he planned \u2013 lest they stop him to prevent an international incident.<\/p>\n He then went back to his homeland. He landed the Cessna on a busy highway in his homeland, just missing a car and a truck. Traffic stopped.<\/p>\n His family had gotten his messages; they were there. They got in.<\/p>\n He took off. He flew low to evade radar.<\/p>\n He again returned to freedom. And this time, his wife and children were with him.<\/p>\n . . .<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n As I said above, the story is not fiction. The man who did this was Major Orestes Lorenzo-P\u00e9rez, formerly of the Cuban Air Force. His original defection on 20 March 1991 caused great embarrassment for the US Department of Defense because he\u2019d managed to fly a MIG-23BN from Cuba to NAS Key West completely undetected<\/i>.<\/p>\n His second trip \u2013 on 19 December 1992 \u2013 received more publicity. And it also caused Cuba even more embarrassment than his defection had caused the US. It seems that Lorenzo-P\u00e9rez made his second trip during what Cuba\u2019s Communist dictator Fidel Castro had called Cuba\u2019s \u201cmost intensive military exercise in its history.\u201d Or, as Lorenzo-P\u00e9rez himself put it when asked his opinion of the Cuban military: \u201cI went into Cuba and brought them [his family] back during their biggest military exercises . . . . And I did it in a Cessna.\u201d (smile)<\/p>\n His daring rescue flight had one other collateral benefit. Publicity about that flight raised the level of international pressure on Castro’s regime enough that later additional members of the families of both Lorenzo-P\u00e9rez and his wife Victoria were allowed to emigrate.<\/p>\n Orestes Lorenzo-P\u00e9rez wrote a book about his two flights to freedom for himself and his family; it’s titled Wings of the Morning<\/u>. It\u2019s on my list to acquire and read.<\/p>\n You\u2019ll have to ask Hollywood why the book hasn\u2019t been made into a motion picture. I\u2019d guess I know at least part of the reason. But I suppose I could be wrong.<\/p>\n Orestes Lorenzo-P\u00e9rez is today an American citizen. The title of this article is a quotation from one of his remarks at a 21 December 1992 news conference held after the flight rescuing his family.<\/p>\n Bien hecho, Se\u00f1or. Maldita sea, bien hecho.<\/p>\n Me enorgullece llamarte uno de mis compatriotas.<\/i><\/p>\n —–<\/p>\n Sources:<\/u><\/p>\n https:\/\/militaryaviationchronicles.com\/cold-war\/former-mig-pilot-orestes-lorenzo-recounts-his-daring-defection-flights\/<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/archive\/local\/1992\/12\/22\/a-cuban-pilots-triumph-of-love\/a48fbe25-7f4a-4727-8f6a-33d90dd11c0d\/?utm_term=.43e1c88a6552<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/1992\/12\/21\/us\/cuban-pilot-who-defected-flies-back-for-family.html<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n