Cuban Missile Crisis U2 Squadron Commander (80)

Cold War Conversations - "vivid & compelling" The NY Times

Ian Sanders

Society & Culture, Documentary, History

4.8 • 863 Ratings

🗓️ 13 September 2019

⏱️ 38 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Col. William "Greg" Gregory served in the U.S. Army Air Corps and saw extensive combat over North Africa and Europe during World War 2. When the Air Force was created he continued his role as a pilot and eventually became part of the clandestine U-2 spy plane program, rising to the position of squadron commander. It was his squadron that flew many of the spy missions over Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis. He was later awarded a medal by the CIA for his service, as well as a letter of appreciation by President Kennedy. However…before we start I have to thank our fans who are helping the podcast financially. So how do you join this select band? Well sign up to Patreon for the price of a couple of coffees a month you help to cover the show’s increasing costs and keep us on the air, plus you get the sought after CWC coaster too. Just go to Patreon.com/coldwarpod Today’s episode is brought in conjunction with The Cold War Museum and I’m delighted to welcome Col William Gregory to Cold War Conversations. It was such an honour to speak to Greg and hear first-hand from someone so deeply involved in the Cuban Missile Crisis. Thanks again to the Cold War Museum for arranging the conversation. If you’d like to learn more then head over to our show notes which are at coldwarconversations.com/episode80 or will show as a link in some podcast apps. The show notes also have some videos relating to this Support the project! https://coldwarconversations.com/donate/ Follow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/ColdWarPod Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/coldwarpod/ Instagram https://www.instagram.com/coldwarconversations/ Youtube https://youtube.com/@ColdWarConversations Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Welcome to Cold War Conversations, the home of real stories of the Cold War.
0:05.8	And so then it really heated up. I thought every day we're going to go to war.
0:12.9	This is Cold War Conversations. If you're new here, you've come to the right place to listen to
0:19.8	first-hand Cold War
0:21.0	history accounts.
0:22.8	Do make sure you follow us in your podcast app or join our emailing list at coldwarconversations.com.
0:31.9	Colonel William Gregory served in the US Army Air Corps and saw extensive combat over North Africa and Europe during World War II,
0:41.6	rising to the position of Squadron Commander.
0:44.4	It was his squadron that flew many of the spy missions over Cuba during the Cuban missile crisis.
0:51.2	He was later awarded a medal by the CIA for his service as well as a letter of
0:55.9	appreciation by President Kennedy. Now, some of our fans are helping the podcast financially,
1:02.8	so if you'd like to join this select band, then you can sign up to Patreon for the price
1:08.7	of a couple of coffees a month. You really help us cover the
1:12.1	show's increasing costs and keep us on the air, plus you get that sought-after Cold War
1:17.5	Conversations coaster too. Just go to patreon.com slash cold war pod. That's p-a-t-r-e-o-n.com slash Cold War Pod.
1:30.9	Today's episode is brought in conjunction with the Cold War Museum, and I'm delighted to welcome Colonel William Gregory to Cold War Conversations.
1:46.4	Well, by that time, I was flying bombers, and Korea was not a good...
1:53.0	I think we had very limited bombers used in Korea.
2:00.0	In fact, I was flying the B-29 at that time,
2:04.6	so we had several wings of B-29s at that time,
2:08.7	and they were one or two wings over there,
2:11.4	but I did not engage in flying in Korea.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Ian Sanders, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Ian Sanders and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.