Editing Laughlin Air Force Base (section)

==== Strategic Air Command ====
The U.S. Air Force transferred jurisdiction of the base to the [[Strategic Air Command]] on April 1, 1957, and the [[4080th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing]] (Light) moved there from [[Turner Air Force Base]], [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]]. Following the graduation of the last class in March 1957, ATC inactivated the 3645th FTW. The 4080th Wing provided high-altitude reconnaissance and air sampling using the [[Lockheed U-2|Lockheed U-2A]] and the [[B-57 Canberra|RB-57D Canberra]]. The 4080th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing was redesignated as the 4080th Strategic Wing on June 15, 1960, and the RB-57 mission was phased out.

Laughlin U-2s were among the first to provide photographic evidence of [[Soviet]] missile installations in [[Cuba]] in 1962 when 4080th U-2 pilot major [[Richard S. Heyser|Steve Heyser]] flew his U-2C over Cuba after taking off from [[Edwards AFB]], California. Heyser landed at [[McCoy AFB]], Florida, following the mission, with McCoy becoming a U-2 operating location for the duration of the [[Cuban Missile Crisis]]. The film from Major Heyser's mission was developed, analyzed and the photos were shown to the [[United Nations Security Council]] on October 22, 1962, proving to the world, that offensive missiles were on the island of Cuba.
Another 4080th pilot, Major [[Rudolf Anderson, Jr.]], perished when his U-2 was hit by shrapnel from a Soviet-made [[SA-2 Guideline|SA-2]] [[surface-to-air missile]] on October 22, 1962, while overflying Cuba from McCoy AFB. While the U-2 did not suffer a direct hit, Anderson was struck by fragments from the [[proximity fuse]]d warhead's explosion which penetrated and compromised his pressure suit (at altitude, unconsciousness and death came very quickly). His body was returned to the U.S. following the crisis, still clad in its pressure suit.  Major Anderson posthumously became the first recipient of the [[Air Force Cross (United States)|Air Force Cross]].  Laughlin's primary operations training complex, Anderson Hall, is named in his honor.[[File:Laughlin Air Force Base - Main Gate.jpg|alt=United States Air Force / Public domain|left|thumb|1972, Main Gate]]