The Last American Rebel in Cuba

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© 2012 by Terry K. Sanderlin, Ed.D. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 03/30/2015

ISBN: 978-1-4685-9431-7 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4685-9429-4 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4685-9430-0 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2012906973

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CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Preface

Introduction

A Brief History of Cuban Revolution

Growing Up Richard

Norfolk to Inchon

Pocket full of Promises

The Incident at Santiago

Richard Trains the Barbudos

Love and Bullets in Oriente

Havana Recovery

Lies, Spies, and Betrayal

Red Storm in Cuba

From Cueto to Havana

Time Passes By

Epilogue

Book Blurbs for Last American Rebel In Cuba

Bibliography

For Richard

Son, Brother, Soldier, Husband, Father,

Warrior, and History Maker

1936-1964

Acknowledgments

The beginning of this project was many years in the making, as life simply kept getting in the way of writing it. However, once I began the research process and obtaining releases of classified government documents it took another ten years before I had an understanding of what likely occurred during my brother’s life, and death in Cuba.

It is impossible to thank all the people that have been involved in providing me with information concerning my brother’s involvement in the Cuban Revolution. I can only hope to acknowledge those people who have been instrumental in me getting to this point.

To my wife, Maggie for her infinite patience and tolerance of my mood changes, and frustrations, while researching and writing this book.

I would like to thank Hank Albarelli Jr., an investigative reporter and author, for his assistance in following the trail of mystery surrounding my brother’s participation in the Cuban Revolution.

I want to thank my sisters, Geraldine and Joyce for being the family historians of our brother’s early life. They both showed an amazing tolerance of my incessant and repeated questions concerning Richard.

I want to thank my friend Millie Sanchez for her years of encouragement that I write this book.

I want to thank Bruce Parsons, fellow veteran, educator, and author, for his encouragement, advice, and friendship.

To my late friend David Bear, for his insistence that I write the story of my brother.

To my friend Don Hargas, for his encouragement to complete this book.

My friend Brennan Mahoney introduced me to Hank Albarelli Jr., which led to contacts and interviews I would otherwise never have obtained.

To David Hernandez Rivero, for his assistance in securing hard to obtain historical documents in Cuba.

I would like to thank the entire historical staff of the Second Front Memorial, in Holguin Province, Cuba, for their kindness, respect, and assistance in securing information on my brother’s participation in the Cuban Revolution.

To Lt. Colonel Miguel Sanchez Leiva, Municipal Authority in Cueto, Cuba, for sharing memories of my brother during the time he spent as a trainer and guerrilla leader in the Second Front.

I would like to thank Senior Historian Marthe Hernandez, of the Santa Ifigenia Cemetery Archives, for her tireless contacts, and document research on my brother.

A thank you for Historical Guide and Researcher Danelis Rodriquez, of the Santa Ifgenia Cemetery, for her many contacts on my behalf, and her efforts in obtaining documents.

I would also like to thank Rueben for the stimulating conversations about Cuba during my time in Santiago.

A thank you goes to Alejandro for his interpretative services, and keen insight into today’s Cuba.

I want to thank Benito Urra Rodriguez, Consular Assistant, American Citizens Services, Havana, Cuba, for his help in locating my brother’s family in Cuba.

Thank you Carlos Puig Batlle for his letter, concerning my brother’s burial place, and the location of his children.

I want to thank my niece’s Nancy and Geraldine Batlle Sanderlin, for sharing some of their stories of my brother’s life in Cuba.

Thank you Sara Batlle Condeaux, for your letters about my brother’s death in Cuba.

To Martin Michelet, Economic and Political Affairs Consular, Swiss Embassy, for his efforts and attempts, to obtain documents on my brother.

A thank you to Sherry Sullivan for sharing her father’s Cuban saga, and her own search for information, through government records. Ms. Sullivan has also been instrumental in bringing together relatives of Americans who disappeared, or were killed in Cuba, through her web-site, forgotten families.

I would like to thank Wayne Smith for his correspondence concerning the interview he conducted with my brother as the Embassy Political Officer in Havana, Cuba, in January 1959.

A thank you to the late Patrick Gerald Hemming for his reflections on his time in Cuba.

I would like to thank Kathryn Dyer, for her assistance in obtaining records from the Central Intelligence Agency, under the Freedom of Information Act.

I would like to thank Section Chief David Hardy and the United States Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation for their assistance in obtaining records under the Freedom of Information Act.

I would like to thank Margaret P. Grafeld, Director Office of Information Programs and Services, United States Department of State, for her assistance in obtaining State Department Documents.

I would also like to thank Nieva M. S. Brock of the Judge Advocate General’s Corps, for assistance in obtaining records from the Department of the Navy, under the Freedom of Information Act.

I would like to thank all the contributors of information on Richard within the United States and Cuba that have decided to remain anonymous.

I would like to thank my friend Michael Mangan for his efforts in reading and offering comments on my manuscript.

I also want to thank my friends Robert and Kristen Bierer for their comments on my manuscript.

Finally, I would like to thank my friend Margaret Lopez for her assistance in interpreting book passages from Spanish to English.

Preface

It was June 1955, and my big brother was back home from Korea. The entire family was filled with joy to see him after an almost two-year absence.

Richard was six feet-three inches tall, and had filled out while in the Marine Corps, putting on about twenty pounds of muscle. I remember him looking down at me and smiling that beaming smile he had. He then patted me on the shoulder. To me at four-years-old he looked like a giant, more like my father than an older brother. My family stood on the porch of our Norfolk, Virginia home, and posed for a photograph with Richard, who was decked-out in his Marine Corps uniform, with two stripes on his sleeve. That was a happy time for the family. We were altogether and could celebrate that Richard was on leave, and would not be going back to Korea, although, a month later he returned to his base in California.

I did not see my brother again until I was eight years old. Our mother and I then lived in Miami, Florida, and Richard came to visit us in March of 1959. When he entered the front door, he still wore a uniform but this time, he had Captain bars on his shoulder, and the uniform was from Fidel Castro’s Revolutionary Army. That was the last time I ever saw my brother. We did receive letters from him regularly, until September 1964. That was the last time we ever heard from Richard. In November 1964, the family received a Western Union Telegram. The telegram only said: Dear Richard Sanderlin died November 10, 1964, while medical intervention left arm. My family was devastated by his death, so much so that one day I no longer heard his name spoken again. There were the pictures and the near silent sighs of grief, but no conversation about Richard.

Soon after Richard was lost to us his wife wrote us a letter and said he had died from an anesthesia error, by an operating room nurse during his final surgery. That news seemed to cause mother even more grief. She believed if he had undergone the surgery in the United States, he would have survived the medical procedure. Almost another year went by when we heard another story of Richard’s death. This time even more disturbing, he had been murdered the letter claimed. The news compounded our family’s grief, and we were at a loss to find the truth. Letters to the Cuban government went unanswered. The United States Department of State did not have much information to offer us, and worst of all he could not be returned to the United States for burial. We were told that his remains were buried in Cuba, but the location of his grave was unknown to us until much later.

Growing up without my big brother was a huge loss. I had two older sisters, but after all they were girls, and certainly not interested in the really important things in life, like sailing, fishing, skin diving, and flying kites over the Miami River, or that cool Tarzan call I developed. Like the rest of my family, I grieved due to the loss of my brother. When we heard of his death, we called anyone who we hoped could tell us that Richard’s death was really not true, but a cruel hoax. Letters to his wife hoping she would tell us it was a mistake, and he was really fine. Then the anger set in, and the bargaining began over his loss in a foreign land. Why did he go to Cuba anyway? It was not his war. If only he had not gone to Cuba, and had not married a Cuban national he would be here today. These feelings slowly turned to sorrow, despair, and finally acceptance that Richard would never return to us. We had not been present during his passing, and without his remains returned to the United States for burial, it was hard to accept his demise. Then, there were the stories, of how he died, which made it all the more difficult for my family to put Richard’s dissolution to rest.

In my own thoughts, there was always the slender hope that somewhere Richard was alive and well, fishing from a boat in a secluded cove of some tropical island. Over the years when I thought about my brother I imagined what he might be doing if he was living. At those times, I could almost see him in my mind’s eye trying to catch that elusive big fish from the deck of a small boat gently rolling on the waves. I could fantasize that he had caught that fish, the one that stories are told about on the docks of every fishing village in the islands. In those moments, a smile comes across my face, and I recall thoughts of happier times, when my brother was among us.

Introduction

Czar and Richard

What follows in the pages ahead is the untold story of the life of Richard Meredith Sanderlin. Richard Sanderlin is not a well-known name in the United States, nor is his name now well known across the island nation where he once gained fame as a warrior, and a military expert in the art of warfare. However, in the late 1950s Richard Sanderlin was an integral player during those violent days of the Cuban revolution.

Richard was born and raised in a financially well to do household in Norfolk, and Lynnhaven, Virginia. At age seventeen he dropped out of high school, and enlisted in the United States Marine Corps. After his Marine Corps basic, and advanced training, he received orders to be sent to Korea, during the turbulent armistice, and aftermath of the Korean conflict. After his military tour of duty in Korea Richard received a secret security clearance from U. S. Naval Intelligence, and was then assigned to serve at Astugie Air Base in Japan. Astugie was the covert site of the U-2 spy plane and had long been rumored to be a CIA training facility. During his assignment at Astugie Air Station, Richard underwent additional weapons training before being reassigned to military police duties at the Norfolk, Virginia Naval Base.

After Richard was honorably discharged from the United States Marine Corps in Norfolk, Virginia, he developed a relationship with Frank Sturgis, who was also known as Frank Fiorini, and would later come to the public’s attention for his involvement in the Watergate burglary during the dark days of the Nixon Administration. Frank Sturgis was an adventurer, and soldier of fortune. He was also a former Marine Corps veteran, and had served as a United States Army Military Intelligence Officer, who tagged Richard to apply his skills as a Marine in assisting the 26 of July Movement in securing arms, munitions, and training Fidel Castro’s rebels in the art of war.

At the time of his honorable Marine Corps discharge Richard Sanderlin had just turned twenty-one years old, and had no idea what direction his life would take. Korea had left him a little edgy, and he was not ready to settle down into a nine to five job routine. He was also reluctant to take direction from some college egghead, who had never seen the grimy part of life up close and personal. On the other hand, helping the Cuban people break free of a dictator like Batista, and being on the front lines of developing a democracy was both a sexy and thrilling prospect for a gung ho anti communist. It was a whole lot more appealing than working for our father on the docks, selling clothes in a department store, or some other clock punching job. The last thing Richard wanted after Korea was some mind-numbing job, that would beat him into the complacency of social life, in 1950s America.

At twenty-one, Richard had seen the world, defended United Nations positions in Korea, and had been slightly wounded during an exchange of gunfire. While recovering from his wound he had also read about the history, and plight of the Cuban people in American news accounts and was sympathetic to their desire for freedom.

Richard thought he was ready for what Sturgis was selling. Richard was tough, well trained, and full of youthful vigor. Besides, Richard believed strongly in the idea of democracy, and individual freedom from the tyranny of dictatorships, and if this is what was pulling Sturgis’s train up the Cuban hill, Richard would jump on board for the ride, and what a ride it would be. Richard’s journey took him far from Norfolk, and the Virginia Beach community he had known growing up as a child, and into a world filled with international intrigue, war, and danger.

Soon after Richard met Frank Sturgis the pair relocated to Miami, Florida, and began a smuggling operation to supply arms to Fidel Castro’s rebels in the Sierra Maestra Mountains of Cuba. In July 1958, the FBI conducted a raid on the Miami arm’s operation that Richard and Frank had set up. After the raid, Richard Sanderlin traveled to Havana, Cuba, Santiago, de Cuba, and then to the rebel headquarters in the Sierra Maestra Mountains. After arriving at the guerrilla base, he was tagged to train the rebel forces, of Fidel Castro, and Raul Castro’s Second Front rebels, in combat tactics, weapons use, and Judo. He also led his assault force into ten separate combat operations, earning fame among the rebels as a fearless warrior. On his tenth combat mission, he was shot at a range of five yards by a Browning machine gun, sustaining and surviving at least five bullet wounds.

Richard Sanderlin only lived to be twenty-eight years old, chronologically not very long as human life goes, but his footprint on Cuban history far overreached the short time he spent on earth. To understand his motivations and actions to involve himself in the Cuban Revolution this story must start at the beginning, and reach out to his life before and after his military service in the Marine Corps. Richard would likely have never gone to Cuba if he had not meant Frank Sturgis, and under his influence decided to join the 26 of July Movement in Miami to smuggle arms to Cuba, and later relocate from Miami to the Sierra Maestra Mountains to train the Cuban rebels. The battles he fought while leading a guerrilla group in the Cuban revolution are still talked about by the old rebels who knew him, and now gather around town halls in the area once known as Oriente Province. Richards praises are sung by historians in Cuba, who write about his training of the rebels and his valiant charge against insurmountable odds during the battle of Cueto. However, Richard’s life dramatically changed in Cuba once the fighting against Batista was over. Most of the patriots in Cuba who fought in the revolution to restore a democratic society had their dream of freedom betrayed by Fidel Castro. Castro had promised the Cuban people freedom from tyranny but only gave them another dictatorship.

The Cuban saga is a story of rebellion against the brutality, and tyranny of totalitarian rule. The people from that island nation have longed for and the few have died for a less corrupt, and a more participatory democratic system of government, that allowed for a bottom to top equality. The yearning to be free people was a passion that ran red, with the blood of Cuba’s patriots. Unfortunately, most of Cuba’s history has been filled with promises of freedom, and liberty, only to be betrayed by dictators who sought power and fortune for themselves. Cuba had fought hard to develop the traditions of a democratic society, and even developed a social-democratic constitution in 1940, that had the promise of a fair and equal system of democracy for all Cubans to live by. However, the Cuban Constitution was betrayed by administrative corruption, violence in the streets, and by dictatorial rule through a military coup de tat, led by Fulgencio Batista. Batista’s overthrow of the constitutionally elected administration ultimately led to the communist seizure of Cuba by Fidel Castro.

To understand how Cuba went from an economic bright star of democracy to a poverty stricken totalitarian ruled society in 1959, it is necessary to understand the Cuban struggle for liberty. Their struggle to be free people is what moved Richard Sanderlin to fight in their revolution in an attempt to create a Democratic Republic, where all Cubans could breathe the air of