A One-Way Trip to Death
A Survivor’s View of Cruise Missiles in the Cuban Missile Crisis
Richard F. Kaufman, a retired Navy commander, examines the development of cruise missiles, the role they played in the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the rigors of the Cold War.
Book Reviews
A One-Way Trip to Death: A Survivor’s View of Cruise Missiles in the Cuban Missile Crisis Hardcover – March 17, 2021
by Richard F Kaufman Ph D (Author)
4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 4 ratings
Cruise missiles of past wars have meant the death of the delivery pilot. Recent technology today has replaced the pilot, but we speak very little of the history of how this lethal assault weapon came about, or how it played such an impressive role in the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962.
Richard F. Kaufman, a chase pilot for the Navy’s Regulus missile, recalls the birth and development of the cruise missile in World War II and how it became an American weapon of immense destruction. It came along at a critical time to become our primary weapon in the Pacific.
He shares the experiences of a navy missile chase pilot with mixed emotion. On the one hand, living a life of luxury with his family in a tropical Hawaiian paradise far away from the troubles of the real world, while on the other hand, preparing for his death as a Regulus missile delivery pilot in the event of war.
Join the author as he traces the development of cruise missiles, the role they played in the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the rigors of the Cold War.
Rick Tubbs
Great book by a pilot who is a patriot extrordenair
Reviewed in the United States on August 6, 2022
The book takes you on a journey 60 years ago.
A One-Way Trip to Death: A Survivor’s View of Cruise Missiles in the Cuban Missile Crisis
Title: A One-Way Trip to Death: A Survivor’s View of Cruise Missiles in the Cuban Missile Crisis
Author: Richard F. Kaufman Ph.D.
Publisher: Archway Publishing
Pages: 148
Genre: Military History
Reviewer: Dan MacIntosh
Pacific Book Review
For those of us old enough to recall the Cold War, Richard F. Kaufman’s first-person recollection of the cruise missile program, and ultimately, the center of the Cuban Missile Crisis, will put some of the pieces from that historic event together for us all. Yes, we recall when the threat of a nuclear war came knocking at our doorstep in the form of Russia colluding with Cuba, not far from the United States’ coast. It was just a little too close to home, though. However, what was it like to be inside one of the planes carrying these missiles? Kaufman’s book gives us an interior perspective on the missile program and what it meant to be a pilot during this critical period in world history.
One of this book’s best chapters is titled “The Kamikaze.” It is exactly what the title says it is. In it, Kaufman details his friendship with Kozo Kagawa, an ex-Kamikaze pilot from World War II. Not long after that horrible war, in 1950, Kaufman attended a lecture given by Kagawa. Not only did Kaufman hear Kagawa speak, but he also befriended the fellow pilot and also visited his home. This was before Kaufman’s experience as a sort of an American Kamikaze pilot, trained to fly missions where there was always a good chance he wouldn’t come back alive. In Kagawa, he found a truly kindred soul.
The chapters that explore the Cuban Missile Crisis are also gripping. We are flies on the wall inside the base where Kaufman awaited his turn to fly a deadly mission. Here, Kaufmann must call his wife and advise her to move to a safer Hawaiian island, away from the potential Soviet target where he’s stationed. As he’s speaking to her, he knows this could possibly be the last time he ever speaks with her. How difficult this must have been! Good thing he didn’t have to fly THAT mission.
Other sections of the book are not quite so emotionally charged. There are lighter moments, such as whenever he and his fellow pilots visited a bar packed with live monkeys — just for the entertainment of its patrons. That’s certainly the kind of bar one would never forget.
There are also chapters dedicated to the nuts and bolts of war programs in which Kaufman participated. Sometimes these included collaborations with submarine fleets. Many times, there were also rivalries between these various branches of the military, which is only natural.
As a writer, Kaufman is a straight-shooting kind of detailer. He doesn’t use a lot of flowery language, nor does he take a poetic tone. Nevertheless, he also avoids using military jargon. This latter approach is especially appreciated by those of us that have never been in the military. Such language might have gotten us really lost, really quickly.
Yes, it is apt to describe this book as a military history work. It looks at history through the lens of a military pilot. However, it is also so much more than just that. Everyone who was alive during the Cold War experienced the doubts and fears associated with the possibility of a nuclear war which had the potential to kill us all. That was a troubling period in world history. Yet, we made it through, only to be replaced by different catastrophic possibilities, including a worldwide pandemic. Thus, this is primarily a history book – and quite a good one at that. We can only hope pilots like Kaufman won’t be necessary in the future. Just don’t hold your breath on that one. For now, though, let’s all hope we can learn a few lessons from Kaufman’s experience.
Title: A One-Way Trip to Death: A Survivor’s View of Cruise Missiles in the Cuban
Missile Crisis
Author: Richard F. Kaufman, Ph.D Publisher: Archway Publishing ISBN: 978-6657-0245-4
Genre: Memoir
Review by: Barbara Bamberger Scott
Hollywood Book Review
Author Richard F. Kaufman, Ph.D, now retired from the US Navy, recalls in vivid personal and professional detail his experience of piloting cruise missiles, poised in
1962 to sacrifice his life as part of America’s response to Russian aggression.
In the wake of World War II and the rigors of The Cold War, the US military tasked itself to develop missiles capable of carrying and deploying large nuclear bombs. Kaufman was an observer and participant in these complex technological advances. The irony of this critical aspect of the weapons race was that such planes would require that, as Kaufman states, “pilots were inherently expendable…” Kaufman amply demonstrates his
technical and pragmatic grasp of the facts regarding these machines, and proves his personal attachment to the subject, as he was assigned to fly a Regulus model in the few grim days of 1962 known as the Cuban Missile Crisis. Had the tension escalated beyond those momentous 12 days, Kaufman would not have lived to write, as he has, his vivid tales of warfare from the viewpoint of those who carry it out. Kaufman and his fellow missile pilots banded together in solemn lockdown awaiting their orders, their spirits briefly lifted by the seemingly last-minute visit of a Catholic priest. Then the mission was suddenly called off, perhaps, Kaufman suggests, through “the prayers of the good Father or the good judgment of President Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev.”
In addition to Kaufman’s intricately drawn portrait of missile design and purpose, he paints a poignant portrait of the lives of Japan’s kamikaze crews, one of whom he met and escorted as part of his US Naval duties during his service in Yokosuka, Japan. Kozo Kagawa came to recount his military experience mere days before the end of World War II, when he believed he would soon commit physical suicide but attain, he was told, spiritual rewards in Shinto heaven. These eerie recollections, shared with Kaufman who befriended him, comprise a repeated theme in this dynamic memoir.
Kaufman, a retired Naval Commander and full professor who holds the Distinguished Flying Cross along with seven Air Medals, concludes with an exploration of further missile development, including the Tomahawk that requires no human piloting. The Tomahawk’s potential became reality during the Gulf War, when, Kaufman reports, “not one that got through missed its target.” Kaufman’s sound and profound composition will attract all those who study warfare, or who have soldered or contemplate doing so, along with their families and fellow patriots.
