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We were the only Nike Hercules missile unit in the U.S. We had fired a lot of missiles in training. Without goggles. Without ear plugs. Once, just to show the Russians what we could do, we

fired a 10-kiloton nuclear warhead into the ocean. The sound was terrifying. I can still hear it today. I remember when, on Oct. 28, the Russians started shipping their nukes back to Russia.

And when the sun rose the next morning, it seemed like there was finally some sanity in the world. First thing I did was call my parents and wife. And when my unit finally did move to the

Everglades base a few months later, we no longer feared the end of the world. What lessons did I learn? To appreciate our way of life and the wonderful things we have here in the United

States that no one in the world has. Appreciation of my country is part of me. It’s what I am. I also learned how insignificant we all are. Tiny specks in this world of so many gigantic

things. But collectively, you trust the people you’re working with, and they trust you. Sixty years later, the Cuban Missile Crisis is still with me. I think about it, at some point, every

day. I’ve been lucky to have had a great life since then — a wonderful business career, a wonderful family. But it saddens me that they don’t teach about the Cuban Missile Crisis in schools

today. My middle son would say he spent almost a month in history talking about Watergate and not one minute on the Cuban Missile Crisis. That’s how skewed things were. Generations are

growing up without ever realizing how close to the edge we came. _— As told to Steve Winston_ _After his service as a U.S. Army officer, Jim Whitaker, now 81, spent 25 years as a banking

executive and then 30 years as a safety consultant. He first retired when he was 40 and spent a decade traveling with his family, visiting 55 countries._ _Do you have a potential story that

might make a THEN & NOW article in AARP Veteran Report? If so, please contact our editors here._ _You can _subscribe here_ to _AARP Veteran Report_, a free e-newsletter published every

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