The photographs of airplanes appearing as banner images throughout this website are of the abandoned Cubana and Aeroflot planes on the old airfield at Pearls. The planes have been there since the time of the Revolution. Seeing the abandoned planes, which embody the traces of a history that is present but largely ignored, inspired the approach the author took in the book. Most photographs of the planes on this website were taken by the author over a period of several years.
Photo courtesy Department of Defense October 1983
A US serviceman stands in front of a Soviet An-2 aircraft seized at Pearls Airport during the multiservice, multinational Operation URGENT FURY.
Below: the same plane in 2009 and 2015.
Photo by Puri 2009
Photo by Puri 2015
Photo by Puri 2015
Photo by Puri 2013
Cubana Plane at Pearls Airport
Photo by Elwin James 2015
The author holds a piece of disintegrating wing that was lying on the grass.
Operation Urgent Memory 