Navy pilot proved Soviets had missiles in Cuba

CAPT. WILLIAM B. ECKER, 85
Navy pilot proved Soviets had missiles in Cuba
By Adam Bernstein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, November 13, 2009

Retired Navy Capt. William B. Ecker, 85, who led low-level sorties over
Cuba in October 1962 and provided photographic evidence of Russian
missile installations that almost led to a nuclear confrontation between
the Soviets and the United States, died Nov. 5 at a hospital near his
home in Punta Gorda, Fla. He had coronary artery disease.

By the time the fighter pilot commanded an aerial reconnaissance
squadron over Cuba on Oct. 23, U-2 spy planes had started to document
Soviet attempts to ship missile parts to the island nation. But the
images were taken from too great an altitude to prove definitively the
Soviets' intentions in the communist country.

Capt. Ecker's close-up pictures, taken over a site near the town of San
Cristóbal in western Cuba, were credited with showing beyond a doubt the
existence of the missiles. The black-and-white images captured missile
equipment, fueling vehicles and other related materials.

The evidence, combined with a U.S. naval blockade of Cuba, worsened a
nuclear standoff between the United States and the Soviet Union. On Oct.
25, Adlai Stevenson, then U.S. ambassador to the United Nations,
reportedly displayed some of Capt. Ecker's aerial photographs at a
meeting of the U.N. Security Council and demanded an answer from the
Russian ambassador about placing missiles on Cuban soil.

When Soviet delegate Valerian Zorin demurred, saying he would respond
"in due course," Stevenson replied in a rage, "I am prepared to wait for
my answer until hell freezes over, if that's your decision."
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The crisis deepened before a resolution days later, when the Soviet
Union agreed to remove the missiles, and President John F. Kennedy said
the United States would remove missiles from Turkey.

Capt. Ecker went on to direct Naval photography and reconnaissance in
the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations. He retired in 1974 after 32
years of service, which included combat missions in the Pacific during
World War II. He received the Distinguished Flying Cross in 1962 for his
quick but risky flight over Cuba.

William Boyce Ecker was born in Omaha and received a bachelor's degree
from the University of Maryland in 1961. He received a master's degree
in international affairs from George Washington University in 1967.

From 1988 to 1998, he was a docent at the Smithsonian National Air and
Space Museum's facility in Suitland for the preservation, restoration
and storage of aircraft, spacecraft and other artifacts. Capt. Ecker was
portrayed by actor Christopher Lawford in the 2000 Hollywood film
"Thirteen Days," starring Kevin Costner as an aide to Kennedy during the
Cuban missile crisis.

Survivors include his wife of 62 years, H. Kathryn "Kit" Daley Ecker of
Punta Gorda; and two sons, Richard Ecker and David Ecker, both of
Fairfax County. A son, Michael Ecker, died in 1996.

In 2001, Capt. Ecker moved to Punta Gorda from the Alexandria part of
Fairfax County. The next year, he traveled to Cuba as part of a U.S.
delegation commemorating the missile crisis. He expressed little regard
for Cuban leader Fidel Castro -- "just kind of a four-flusher," he said
-- but admired the country's skill at making cigars. He accepted a
souvenir box of Cohiba Coronas Especiales, despite the U.S. prohibition
on goods from the communist nation.

"I went out on the porch with one the other day," he told the Tampa
Tribune with a shrug. "It is a very good cigar."

Capt. William B. Ecker; proved Soviets had missiles in Cuba -
washingtonpost.com (13 November 2009)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/12/AR2009111210881.html