History books will always credit President John F. Kennedy and Soviet Premier Nikita Kruschev as the chief players in the Cuban Missile Crisis nearly 50 years ago.
Don Crouch also played a role.
As Washington and the Kremlin were in a stare-down that almost thrust the super powers into nuclear war, Crouch was hundreds of feet below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean with 79 other sailors.
Their orders were to keep Russian ships -- war ships and cargo vessels -- from making their way to the island nation, which had nuclear weapons pointed at scores of American cities.
"It was tense because you didn't know what was going to happen," recalled Crouch, now 74.
The sub was the USS Requin, the same one that now sits on the banks of the Ohio River next to the Carnegie Science Center. It often is the backdrop for Memorial Day ceremonies, but this weekend, it served as a reunion hall for roughly 35 of the Requin's shipmates.
Graying eyebrows rose and grins spread across aged, wrinkled faces Saturday as former sailors, many wearing the familiar blue hats of submarine veterans, squeezed through a metal maze of tight-fitting rooms and chambers.
Working conditions aboard the Requin would make the claustrophobic nervous. Showers are no wider than a phone booth. In some spots, sleeping quarters are stacked three bunks high. And the mess hall where Ronnie Lowe worked had barely enough elbow room for him assist the ship's cook open bulk cans of food.
"It brings back a lot of memories,"said Lowe, of Greer, S.C. He also worked as an engine oiler and deck hand on the Requin in 1967 and 1968, its last two years of active duty. "You had to get real comfortable with everybody real quick."
The sailors on Saturday were given a U.S. submarine flag that was signed by troops in Afghanistan.
Decades before it became one of the museum's most popular walk-through exhibits, the Requin was among the dozens of war ships Kennedy dispatched to the Atlantic to enforce a "quarantine" to bar Russian ships from entering Cuba in October 1962. The United States worried the ships contained weapons that would add to the cache already in Cuba.
The Requin and its crew remained between Florida and Cuba for several weeks with their fingers on the trigger in case a ship didn't stop or turn around.
"We were loaded with torpedoes, ready to go," said Crouch, an engine man who lives in Benton, Ky. "We were set to shoot them right out of the water if we had to."
Crouch served on the Requin from 1960-66, but spent a total of 18 years on subs.
Nearly 1,200 men served on the Requin during its 23 years in service. In that time one man, John Graylock, died on the ship when he became overcome with fumes from cleaning solutions. As a permanent memorial, his clothes are laid out on his bunk.
U.S. Submarine Veterans Inc., a nonprofit group for sub veterans, has more than 15,000 members nationwide and says about 300 former Requin sailors are alive throughout the country. Roughly a dozen live in Pennsylvania.
"Reunions like this are important," said Hubert "Huey" Dietrich, base commander of Submarine Veterans' Southwestern Pennsylvania chapter. "Every year, these reunions get smaller and smaller. Sharing their history and all their stories is vital."
Requin reunions are every three years. This year, 39 men attended. The 2007 reunion drew 60.
Fifty-two American subs were lost in enemy action from 1941-45, leaving 3,044 seamen dead and 190 prisoners of war, according to the Navy. Another 34 subs were lost through accidents or damage from enemy action, resulting in 797 deaths and nine Americans held as POWs.
A memorial service is scheduled for 9 a.m. today.
Length : 311 feet, 7 inches
Crew : 71 enlisted men, 10 officers
Armaments : Six 21-inch torpedo tubes
Pronounced : "RAY-kwin;" the word is French for "shark"
April 28, 1945 : Commissioned as a Standard Fleet Submarine, one of only 25 Tench-class submarines ever made; made its first journey to Hawaii to join the Pacific Fleet
January 1946 : Assigned to Submarine Squadron 4 for anti-submarine training; in August of that year, it underwent its first of three conversions to become the first Navy Radar Picket Submarine
Sept. 20, 1963 : Completed its 5,000th dive
April 4, 1967 : Began its final deployment with the Sixth Fleet searching for a lost nuclear submarine
June 29, 1968 : Reclassified for noncombat duties
October 1968 : Became inactive at Norfolk, Va.
Dec. 3, 1968 : Decommissioned
