About Don

Don Hubbard – Bio Information

Born Bronx, NY, 15 January 1926
Enlisted in the Navy 9 November 1943 during World War II to enter flight training
Received wings 15 April 1947
Retired from the Navy 30 June 1967 after 24 years as a Commander.

Flying information: Served in three combat squadrons:

1947-50: Flying four engine bombers engaged in top-secret ELINT .(electronic intercept) missions in Europc. ELINT flights arc referred to as “Ferret Missions”. We flew as close to the
communist countries as we could legally go so that they would sight us visually and then turn on
their radars. We then back-plotted the Radar beams to find the exact location of the radar for the
intelligence services. Dangerous work. On 12 April 1950 one of our unarmed planes was shot down (over the Baltic near Latvia) by the Russians with the loss of all hands. This was the first aircraft casualty of the Cold War. I became a designated Plane Commander during this three year
period..

1953-56:1 was selected to become one of the Navy’s pilots to drop atomic weapons during the
Korean war if the Koreans or Chinese initiated the action. Flying the AJ-2 “Savage” a carrier based
nuclear bomber with three engines, (two reciprocating and one jet back aft). The aircraft could
climb to 45,000 feet (very high then) and had pressure breathing through the oxygen mask at
altitude. Had to go to nuclear weapons school and re-learn carrier operations on this tour. The AJ-2 was a big plane for an aircraft carrier. Two West-pac deployments. Japan would not permit nuclear weapons sothese were stored on the carriers. I was assigned three targets which I had to plan for. One in China climb to 45,000 feet (very high then) and had pressure breathing through the oxygen mask at altitude. Had to go to nuclear weapons school and rc-leara carrier operations on this tour. Big planefor an aircraft carrier. Two West-pac deployments. Japan would not permit nuclear weapons so
these were stored on the carriers. I was assigned three targets which I had to plan for. One in China
and two in North Korea. Nice to think about killing 10,000 people with one bomb!
1959-61: Again flying the AJ but this time in photo configuration. We photographed most of the
beaches in Cuba in preparation for the Bay of Pigs operation and took the first pictures of the actual
invasion landing on 17 April 1961.1 flew these top secret invasion negatives in a fighter jet to
Washington D.C. area to be used in briefing President Kennedy who was very worried about his
first war-like operation, one that failed!.

1961 to 1963:I served as the Air Officer on Admiral H. J. O’Donnelfs staff at Naval Base,
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as the Air Operations Officer during the Cuban Missile Crisis (see
below). We came very close to being a nuclear casualty when Khrushchev had his mobile rocket
forces station a nuclear tipped cruise missile in the hills fifteen mile northeast of the base targeting
us. It was to be fired if the United Sates invaded Cuba. Phew! This information has just recently
been discovered. Fortunately our wives and children were evacuated by navy ships with only four
hours warning on October 22nd, 1962. the day that l*resident Kennedy announced the beginning ofthe naval quarantine of Soviet ships.
1966-67:1 volunteered to go to Vietnam for a year. I was a commander then and assigned to
General Westmoreland’s staff in Saigon. I was still required to fly a certain number of hours every
month so to fulfill the requirement I flew a small transport on free days carrying passengers, mail
and cargo to airfields all over South Vietnam. Most of the airfields were in the combat zones and
we received several bullet holes in the aircraft as we came in low over the jungle for landing on the
short mililary fields. Almost all the hits were in the tail area because the Viet Cong gunners did not
know how to “lead” a moving target It was very interesting to see all the combat operations. Many
times 1 flew over military actions taking place in the forests below me and watched the Air Force
spraying Agent Orange (a defoliant chemical sprayed or dusted on plants to cause the leaves to fall
off.) along the many rivers.
Total flight time: 4,500 hours and qualified in multi-engine land and seaplanes and single engine
reciprocating and jet aircraft.

On retirement in 1967 1 opened a scuba school which in the end trained 5000 students employing
eight instructors and two truck-loads of underwater diving equipment. We also ran scuba and
kayaking tours down into Baja California in Mexico. I accumulated perhaps 2,000 underwater
hours conducting training dives and leading underwater exploration and photo tours.

Concurrently I opened a small-boat business selling the then new, inflatable boats. This mophed
into the largest inflatable store on the West Coast and carried seven different lines of inflatables.
Sold this business in 1978.

Wrote three books:
1971: Ships-in-bottle: A step-by-Step Guide to a venerable Nautical Craft, which was published
by McGraw-Hill and translated into German by the German publishing house Dclius Klasing in
Berlin and published in England by David & Charles. I4d . 60,000 English and German copies in
print world-wide.
Two Ship-In-Bottle TV Appearances with Huell Houser (California’s Gold) and What’s My
Hobby.

1980: The Complete Book of Inflatable Boats his book was based on my several years of
experience selling and using inflatables.

1997: Neptune ‘s Table: Cooking The Seafood Exotics (A shellfish cookbook) This book is
available from Don for $9.99 plus $2.00 postage. P.O. Box 180550, Coronado. CA 92178

In August 2009. after three years of writing, I completed my 131,000 word fact-based historical
novel revolving around my Guantanamo experiences entitled: GITMO The Missile Crisis. It is
available on-line on Amazon.com

In 1982 I co-founded The Ships-In-Bottles Association of America. This outfit is still very active
and has members from around the world. I am a regular quarterly contributor to their full-color
newsletter, The Bottle Shipwright and the Membership Chairman. If interested membership is
$28.00. P.O. Box 180550, Coronado, CA 92178