Rudolph Anderson
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Major Rudolph Anderson, Jr. (September 15, 1927 – October 27, 1962) was a pilot and officer in the United States Air Force, and the first recipient of the Air Force Cross. Anderson was born in Greenville, South Carolina and graduated from Clemson University in 1948.On October 14, flying a U-2 reconnaissance airplane of the Strategic Air Command's 4080th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing from Laughlin Air Force Base (Del Rio, Texas). Major Anderson returned from a high-altitude reconnaissance flight over Cuba with pictures of ballistic missile sites and nuclear storage facilities under construction. These pictures triggered the Cuban Missile Crisis. All the U-2 reconnaissance flights above Cuba close before and during the Cuban Missile Crisis, were made by Major Anderson and Major Richard S. Heyser. On one of these missions, on October 27, Major Anderson was shot down by a Soviet-supplied SA-2 Guideline surface-to-air missile (SAM Site). He was the only direct human casualty of the conflict.
By order of President John F. Kennedy Major Anderson was posthumously awarded the first Air Force Cross as well as the Distinguished Service Medal, Purple Heart and the Cheney Award. As a side note, Anderson was a member of Boy Scout Troop 19 of Greenville, South Carolina. Furthermore, every year a memorial service is held in his honor.
An example of a plane similar to one he might have flown during more routine Air Force service rests in Cleveland Park in Greenville, South Carolina. A portion of a turbine claimed to be from the U-2 that he was piloting when shot down over Cuba is on display at the Museum of the Revolution in Havana, Cuba.
