The thawing relationship between Cuba and the United States has left a Jefferson City native who scooped ice cream at Central Dairy as a teen and later helped uncover hidden Russian missiles in Cuba more than a little circumspect.
Dino Brugioni, who was born in Bevier, went to Jefferson City High School and Junior College. He is the son of an Italian immigrant, and he worked his way through college by working at Central Dairy and running elevators in various buildings in the capital.
After that, he joined the U.S. Army Air Corps in 1941 and flew in 66 bombing missions and several reconnaissance missions. He was a recipient of a Purple Heart and several other medals. After serving, he went to George Washington University and later got a job at the Central Intelligence Agency.
While with the CIA, he set up the National Photographic Interpretation Center with the help of 11 other men. This group has done several things to bolster American intelligence against its enemies, including flying over Moscow during the Cold War and counting bombers and missiles to discover there was no gap between United States' and Russian bombing capabilities. But possibly the most notable thing they did was find Russian nuclear missiles in Cuba aimed at the United States.
"I was in charge of the information section, and the photo interpretation center called me," Brugioni said. "When they called me up, they didn't know what they had. ... My boss said we were onto the greatest secret that has ever been kept."
Brugioni was in charge of researching Russian industry and developing the information briefs presented to the president. The center reported its findings to President John Kennedy. After a mission was flown to confirm the CIA's findings, Kennedy notified the nation that they were possibly in great danger, Brugioni said.
"Oct. 27 was the day I will never forget," he explained, "because that morning I told my boss that each site had four pads with a total of 24 pads and they are operational, meaning that there could be 24 missiles coming into the U.S. within 24 hours. ... The president was very concerned. I called my wife and told her that if I call her again, be ready to put the kids in the car and get to Jeff City because we would be at war and it would be a nuclear war."
After that incident, the United States had sent around 50 B-52 bombers carrying nuclear weapons to the North Pole to destroy 70 Soviet cities. Luckily, the Russians backed down. The Cold War ended, and the Soviet Union was dismantled.
Later, in 2002, Brugioni returned to Cuba for the 40th anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis. He sat at a table he described as having Cuba on one side, Russia on another and America on the other.
He described Cuba as being a very poor place, stating there was very little food in his hotel and no soap. He said everyone there was still driving cars from the 1950s and there were guards on every street corner who spied on the people. When he reflected on President Barack Obama's recent order to restore full diplomatic relations with the island, he said sending them any money would strengthen the Castro dictatorship.
"You can make an argument about helping them out," Brugioni said. "But at the same time ... I am for holding the embargo until they hold some elections and have some more freedom for their people. They have a large spying system on their people, and it is terrible."
Brugioni has authored two books on his work with the CIA, "Eyeball to Eyeball" and "Eyes in the Sky." He is also author of the book "Photo Fakery," which is about determining the validity of photographs, something Brugioni said he has become an expert at because of his years with the CIA.