Ed Bales was a top-secret crypto officer aboard the USS Beale, patrolling the Caribbean in the early 1960s. Not only did his ship serve as an escort for the merchant freighter Houston during the Bay of Pigs invasion, the Beale also participated in the Cuban Missile Crisis blockade. In one particular incident during that blockage, the Beale dropped a depth charge on a Russian submarine that brought the world as close to nuclear war as it has ever been. Bales tells the story in this must-listen episode!