Gerald Patrick Hemming

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Gerald "Gerry" Patrick Hemming Jr. (born March 1, 1937 in Los Angeles , California ; † January 28, 2008 , Fayetteville , North Carolina ) was an American soldier who, after serving in the United States Marine Corps in 1959/1960 worked in Cuba as a trainer for the armed forces of the revolutionary government led by Fidel Castro . After turning away from Castro, between 1961 and 1963, as the leader of a paramilitary group in the USA, he made unsuccessful preparations to fight against Castro's regime, which had meanwhile switched to a Marxist-Leninist course.

Life

Gerry Hemming had eight siblings. His father of the same name later ran a television business . In April 1954, he joined the United States Marine Corps (USMC), where he received special training in air surveillance . Around the summer of 1958, while he was still doing military service, he began to deal seriously with the civil war in Cuba, after having been intensely interested in the subject of guerrilla warfare for a long time and having briefly visited Cuba for the first time in 1954. In the course of several short trips to Cuba, he met several Cubans who belonged to the July 26th Movement and who took part in the armed revolutionary struggle against the Fulgencio Batista government . Hemming supported them in the United States in obtaining weapons, which they then smuggled into Cuba. He came under observation of the Federal FBI , from whom he received a warning. After his honorable discharge in October 1958, he first returned to his parents in Alhambra , California .

In February 1959, a few weeks after Batista had fled and Fidel Castro came to power, he himself traveled to Cuba and got a job in the armed forces. He trained Nicaraguan and other foreign underground fighters to become parachutists at the San Julián air force base in the western Cuban province of Pinar del Río , with whom Castro planned to bring about a violent overthrow of the Nicaraguan government under Anastasio Somoza . In 1959, in Cuba, Hemming met William Morgan , the American who had fought as a comandante in the victorious rebel army . For a while, Hemming was under Morgan's command and served as an assistant on an agricultural project. Morgan had open differences with Castro's pro-communist government policy from the spring of 1960, was arrested several times in October 1960, and finally executed in March 1961 for conspiracy against Castro. Hemming was also arrested repeatedly, but was able to leave Cuba via Mexico for California in August 1960.

In 1962, Hemming applied to the CIA without success.

Intercontinental Penetration Force

On December 4, 1962 Hemming was leading a group of 13 Interpen - mercenaries from the US Customs Service near - and border guards at Sombrero Key Marathon (Florida) - arrested. A number of rifles , about 10 handguns , plastic explosives , two vehicles and a ship were seized from the mercenaries .

Those arrested were reported to have carried out an asymmetrical attack on Cuba on No Name Key for the previous six months , that they were independent and had no connection with any Cuban exile organization.

Hemming was interned. The accusation against Interpen was a conspiracy against the Neutrality Act ('"Conspiracy to violate the Neutrality Act") and the illegal carrying of weapons. Hemming said Interpen only did exercises. After his release, Hemming went to Los Angeles, where his father had died in the meantime.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hemming Deposition in the History Matters Archive , p. 17
  2. ^ Hemming Deposition in the History Matters Archive , p. 26
  3. ↑ Hemming Deposition in the History Matters Archive , p. 27
  4. ↑ Hemming Deposition in the History Matters Archive , p. 29
  5. ↑ Hemming Deposition in the History Matters Archive , pp. 20 f.
  6. ^ Hemming Deposition in the History Matters Archive , p. 22
  7. ^ A b Terry K. Sanderlin: The Last American Rebel in Cuba. P. 43
  8. ^ Terry K. Sanderlin: The Last American Rebel in Cuba. P. 43 f.
  9. ↑ Hemming Deposition in the History Matters Archive , p. 4
  10. ↑ 13 Uniform Men sized in Florida, accused of planning attack in Cuba. The Miami Herald , December 4, 1962, according to FOIA
personal data
SURNAME Hemming, Gerald Patrick
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hemming, Patrick Gerald Jr .; Hemming, Patrick Gerry
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Employee of a US federal agency
DATE OF BIRTH March 1, 1937
PLACE OF BIRTH Los Angeles , California
DATE OF DEATH January 28, 2008
Place of death Fayetteville , North Carolina