Richard S . Heyser Richard S . Heyser ( 3 April 1927 – 6 October 2008 ) , Lieutenant Colonel , USAF ( Retired ) , was a pilot in the United States Air Force whose photographs taken in a Lockheed U - 2 revealed Soviet medium - range ballistic missile s in Cuba , precipitating the Cuban missile crisis in October 1962 . Heyser , a native of Apalachicola , Florida , joined the United States Army Air Forces in 1944 , after watching World War II pilots training at nearby Tyndall Field . His father was a U . S . Coast Guard Auxiliary aviator . Following the war , Heyser graduated from what would become Florida State University . He began pilot training in 1952 , flying combat missions during both the Korean War and two combat deployments during the Vietnam War . In the late 1950s into the 1960s , he flew U - 2s with the 4080th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing , first qualifying on the U - 2 on 19 February 1957 , the 50th pilot to check - out on the spy plane . He retired from the Air Force in 1974 after 30 years of service and returned to Apalachicola . He died at a nursing home in Port St . Joe , Florida , near his home in Apalachicola , on 6 October 2008 at age 81 . He had suffered a series of strokes in recent years before his death . He was survived by his wife of fifty - four years , Jacquelyn ; three sons ; eight grandchildren ; and a sister . Cuban Missile Crisis . Early Sunday morning , 14 October 1962 , then - Major Heyser climbed into CIA U - 2F , Article 342 , ( the second U - 2 , modified for in - flight refueling ) , hastily repainted as ' USAF 66675 ' , at Edwards AFB , California , where he had just undergone qualification on the type , and departed on a Cuban overflight , Mission 3101 , dubbed BRASS KNOB . " He met the sun over the Gulf of Mexico , and flew over the Yucatan Channel before turning north to penetrate denied territory . The weather was roughly as forecast : 25 % cloud cover . He was flying the maximum altitude profile , and by this time the U - 2F had reached 72 , 500 feet . There was no contrail . Heyser switched on the camera and did his stuff . He was over the island for less than seven minutes , but his potential exposure to the two SAM sites was over 12 minutes . Heyser had been briefed to scan the driftsight for Cuban fighters or , worse still . an SA - 2 heading his way . If so , he was briefed to turn sharply towards it , and then away from it , in an S - pattern that would hopefully break the missile radar ' s lock . But there was no opposition from Cuba ' s air defenses . Heyser coasted - out and headed for McCoy AFB , Florida . He landed there at 0920 EST after exactly seven hours in the air . " The film was immediately flown to Washington , D . C . to the National Photographic Intelligence Center for processing , and the first images trucked under armed guard where analysts at NPIC identified SS - 4 missile transporters by noon . This , and other evidence on the films , set in motion the Cuban Missile Crisis . On 22 October , President John F . Kennedy announced that Colonel Heyser ’ s photographs proved the Soviet Union was building secret sites for nuclear missiles only 90 miles from Key West . The crisis ended after Soviet Premier Nikita Krushchev ordered the missiles withdrawn from Cuba . " Lieutenant Colonel Heyser said , in a 2005 interview [ with the Associated Press ] , that nobody was more relieved than he that the crisis ended peacefully . He said he had no desire to go down in history as the man who started World War III . " " I kind of felt like I was going to be looked at as the one who started the whole thing , " Col . Heyser said . " I wasn ' t anxious to have that reputation . "