Thursday, January 18, 2001

Cuban crisis movie stirs memories

One of Nat Qualia's most memorable days as a shop teacher at Flour Bluff High School was the day in October 1962 that he was given command of a 2¤ -ton Army surplus truck.
   "We were told we had 15 minutes to load up and go," said Qualia, recalling how the Cuban missile crisis turned Flour Bluff Independent School District into ground zero for evacuation readiness.
   With Naval Air Station Corpus Christi a possible target, arrangements were made that if the base went on secure lockdown, Flour Bluff teachers would care for students whose parents worked at the base.
   "Everything that had wheels on it that would run was involved in the procession," Qualia recalled. "Although it was only a brief period of time, we were always in a state of alert."
   As "Thirteen Days," a movie based on this harrowing chapter in U.S. history, plays in theaters, Qualia recalled the confrontation that led the United States and the Soviet Union to the brink of nuclear war over Soviet missiles in Cuba.
   Planned evacuations
   "All I could do was pray," recalled Qualia's wife, Kathleen, as she drove off in her yellow Chevrolet sedan to the safety of her parent's home in Freer with her three children in tow, worrying about the husband she left behind.
   "We had more information than the surrounding general public," she said, referring to the evacuation plans the school district, which neighbors the base, had devised in case of war.
   At the time, nearly 50 percent of Flour Bluff's student population were military dependents, said retired Flour Bluff High School teacher B.J. Howard.
   The district planned to evacuate students and personnel if necessary to any number of destinations, among them the Knolle Jersey Farms of Sandia.
   Emotions still raw
   Jeanette Gordon, then a third-grade Flour Bluff teacher, remembers the fleet of school buses loaded with blankets, food and water lining up behind their buildings for practice runs.
   As the bus drivers timed their runs, rumors circulated, "including one of a submarine that had been spotted in the bay," Gordon recalled.
   While teachers prepared to become temporary guardians of their students, they formulated safety plans for their own families.
   "As I was driving to Freer, I was thinking of more than just my husband, but the whole of the country," Kathleen Qualia said. "We all just held our breath and watched what the president, who'd drawn a line in the sand, would do."
   Thirty-eight years later, Kathleen Qualia isn't buying a ticket to see "Thirteen Days" just yet.
   "It'll be like going back in time and I'll walk out of there feeling like I have to go pack now. The memories, the emotions are still so strong and real."