On the day of what would become the Bay of Pigs invasion, Armando Gutierrez said his confidence was high.
Brigade 2506, a group of about 1,400 Cuban exiles, had spent a year of hard training at a remote mountainous base in Guatemala. Backed by the United States, they were to land at Bahiá de Cochinos, a bay on the island's southwest side, in hopes of toppling Fidel Castro.
What could go wrong?
“We were absolutely sure we were going to win,” he said.
Gutierrez said many of the brigade's troops were lawyers, dentists, engineers and architects exiled after Castro's rise to power. They knew little about war but believed in the cause, their trainers and the country organizing the operation.
Now, 51 years after the battle, an embarrassing defeat for the United States, they continue to believe. They praise the Americans who prepared them, one a longtime San Antonian who was their chief trainer, and think of how things had been.
Gutierrez, 77, of Coral Gables, Fla., vividly remembers jumping at the chance to join the unit when he was recruited.
“Let's go!” he said, laughing. “I was happy. I was happy because I knew that we couldn't lose. I knew with American backing we would get rid of the communists. Big mistake.”