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Cuban Missile Crisis

#HistoryTuesday - Tuesday February 24TH 2026

This Thursday afternoon at 4 PM at the Jack Stroup Civic Center - New York Times best-selling author Michael Tougias will be our special guest speaker at our next "Florida Talks" by Florida Humanities event. He will be talking about those 13 scary days and nights from 16 to 28 October of 1962 of the Cuban Missile Crisis.

His presentation is titled "Florida And The Untold Story Of The Cuban Missile Crisis".

South Florida was at the center of it all with a massive military build-up of personnel, aircraft, equipment, and weapons - especially at Homestead Air Force Base and Naval Air Station Key West. Some of our residents here in Sebring were there when it occurred.

Several Nike Missile Sites were reactively built by the United States Army Corps Of Engineers after the crisis to protect us from any future occurrences. One such site - HM-69 - was open and active from 1964 to 1979 - in the heart of Everglades National Park - about 20 miles west of Homestead. Remarkably preserved in time (and protected by the surrounding National Park) - it remains pretty much the same today as it did in 1979 when the last active-duty military personnel left the site behind.

You can actually walk inside 1 of the 3 original missile launch barns. It is hosted by docents giving tours of the exhibits during the day (from 10 AM to 2 PM) in an "open house" setting. Guided tours led by Park Rangers begin daily at 2 PM, and they generally last about 90 minutes. These tours are seasonal during the wintertime - generally from the start of December to the end of March.

Nike Missile Site HM-69 was added to the National Register Of Historic Places in 2004. Park Ranger tours began 5 years later in 2009.

The volunteer-run "open house" program began during the winter season of 2015-2016, and one of our Sebring Historical Society Board Of Directors was one of the original docents of that program - opening, serving, and closing every Saturday for the first two winter seasons (2015-2016 & 2016-2017).

The photo above is from one of those first Saturdays of 2015 that he was giving tours of the missile launch barn - with a Nike Missile on display front-and-center.

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Featured Article: Cuban Missile Crisis