Turn & Burn
How Far Would You Go To Save Your Family?
Familial ties are most curious things. They are at once ethereal and diaphanous while yet remaining incalculably strong. We want what is best for our families even when they might not deserve it. There is literally no limit to what some might do when loved ones are involved.
Kidnappers weaponize this curious power to extort tribute or favors. In North Korea, the alpha dictator Kim Il-Sun started a communist dynasty back in 1948 that has since morphed into a proper kingdom. Now with three generations of rotund Korean god-kings having occupied the throne, they have enough momentum built up to sustain their bizarre little fiefdom indefinitely.
Those incomprehensible family ties transcend circumstances, politics and war. Back in 1991, the dichotomy between freedom and tyranny drove one desperate Cuban Air Force pilot to do something truly drastic. What happened later might be enough to restore your faith in humanity.
Major Perez later penned this book on his exploits getting
himself and his family into the United States.
The Defection
On March 20, 1991, Cuban Major Orestes Lorenzo Perez took off on a routine training mission in his swing-wing MiG-23BN attack jet. Where previously he had flown MiG-21s for his native country, this was to be his first flight in the more advanced MiG-23. His plane was fresh out of overhaul and sported brand-new paint.
He had planned this operation out months in advance. There could be no evidence regarding his intentions, so the two alternate routes to his final objective were committed to memory. In addition to his standard flight gear, he carried a pack of cigarettes, a cigarette lighter, his wallet and a pair of photographs of his family carefully cropped to ride surreptitiously in the pocket of his flight suit.
Takeoff and climbout were uneventful. When the moment was right, Perez firewalled his Tumansky turbofan engine, dove for the deck and rocketed north toward Key West. In a matter of minutes he was in American airspace. At that point he climbed to 7,000 feet, throttled back to 240 knots and tried to look friendly.
Perez had successfully penetrated sovereign American territory without being shot down, which was his first objective. His plane came equipped with 20 preset radio frequencies, none of which would communicate with the American military. Once over the military airfield at Boca Chica, he waved his wings to signal his friendly intentions, circled the airfield to burn off enough fuel to land safely, and lined up on the main 070 runway at the Naval Air Station. At 11:18 in the morning, Major Orestes Lorenzo Perez touched down on American soil.
After an uneventful landing, Major Perez, who did not speak English, pulled his big fighter onto the first available taxiway and just waited. Eventually a yellow U.S. Air Force pickup truck trundled out to meet him and guided him into a parking spot where he shut down his plane. Moments later a car containing the base commander and a Spanish interpreter pulled up alongside. Speaking through the intermediary, Major Perez attempted to convey his desire to seek asylum. The bewildered American officer broke into a broad smile, took his hand, and said, “Welcome to the United States.”
The Berlin Wall had fallen 17 months before, but the Cubans — then as now still — clung to their doomed communist ideology. As a result, they got a serious case of chapped shorts over Major Perez’s airborne shenanigans. President H.W. Bush and Fidel Castro discussed having the disaffected Major’s wife and kids join him in the U.S., but the Cubans were not in a bargaining mood. The Cuban security services placed the man’s family under constant surveillance. We already had plenty of MiG-23s, so we returned Major Perez’s airplane to Cuba with our compliments.
Cuban Major Orestes Lorenzo Perez flew a MiG-23 like this one into the Naval Air Station at Key West in 1991 in search of a better life. His subsequent mission to rescue his family is the stuff of which movies are made. Photo: Public Domain
The Mission
Nine months after having been granted asylum, Major Perez was getting frustrated. Realizing high-level talks were not getting him any closer to his family, the enterprising Cuban pilot decided to take matters into his own hands. Using a pair of Mexican women as go-betweens, Perez got a message to his 34-year-old wife Maria Victoria to prep their two boys and be ready to meet him on the coastal highway of El Mamey beach in Varadero, Matanzas Province, Cuba, at a predetermined time. The meeting spot was 93 miles from Havana.
Perez procured a 30-year-old twin-engine Cessna 310 and launched toward Cuba. Despite having minimal experience with the airplane, he made the transit to the small island nation at 100 feet off the water, effectively avoiding Cuban radar coverage. He set up an approach and landed on the rural highway after sunset, picking up his wife along with their two boys, Reyneil, age 11, and Alejandro who was 6. With his wife and kids safely onboard, Perez reversed the airplane, gunned the engines and blasted off from the makeshift airstrip, miraculously taking off without running afoul of either nearby trees or traffic. He made the short hop back to Marathon, Fla., without incident.
Major Perez and his family have made a successful life for themselves in the U.S. He published a book of his adventures titled Wings of the Morning. He and his wife subsequently had a third son in the U.S. Sometimes it is simply incredible the lengths people will go for those they love.
