WINGS OF VALOR BORN FROM THE TRAGEDY KNOWN AS THE BAY OF PIGS INVASION

by Janet Ray Weininger

No one will escape the tragedy known as the Bay of Pigs Invasion or the loss of Cuba's freedom without scars, but the difference is how one chooses to live their life. The decision to turn tragedy into a pathway of blessings is the true Memorial to those who have gone before us. Wings of Valor was formally founded in 1968, but was born from tragedy in 1961.

A Delta Air Lines and United States Air Force Reserve F-16 pilot's wife founded Wings of Valor, Inc., a humanitarian organization that is dedicated to rebuilding lives torn apart by war, poverty, and disaster. Tragedy led Janet Ray Weininger on a mission to be a voice for the forgotten people in the remote northern mountains of Nicaragua.

When Janet Ray Weininger was six-years-old, she lost her father, Thomas "Pete" Ray, in an attempt to liberate Cuban during the 1961 Bay of Pigs Invasion. Her love of her father, patriotism, and deep code of loyalty led her on an eighteen-year search to find him when the United States Government chose to disavow him. In 1979, she was able to recover his remains from a Havana morgue where he had been kept on exhibition. Her search for the truth led the Central Intelligence Agency to publicly acknowledge Ray for his "selfless devotion to duty and dedication to the national interests of the United States" and award him its highest medals, the Distinguished Intelligence Cross and The Exceptional Service Medallion.

In 1993, Janet joined the families of two pilots who perished on a return flight to the base in Nicaragua during the Invasion. She knocked on every door in Washington, repeatedly traveled across the United States, and led several missions into the remote mountains of northern Nicaragua to bring home the Brigade 2506 pilots to their loved ones with honor and dignity. In 1998, the Central Intelligence Agency went beyond the call and funded the mission conducted by the United States Army and Janet to recover the remains near the village of San Jose de Bocay in the Department of Jinotega.

When the mission was completed, Janet's heart was broken with grief. She knew that she had to say good-bye to those local people who had lived and fought a war and now were forgotten. Forgotten because of the extreme poverty, the remoteness and harsh terrain, the lack of education, the lack of the means to communicate, the class difference, and dangers left behind in the form of mines. Siete Mares, a former Nicaraguan resistance commander who had assisted her since 1995, told her to have valor, but now it was time to take the pilot's home on the Blackhawk. His last words were, "You will come back because we need you; God sent you to us."

When Hurricane Mitch devastated Central America, she called on the Delta Airlines for help. Delta Airlines provided a Good Samaritan flight to bring the first full planeload of privately collected aid to Nicaragua. Janet personally distributed the lifesaving aid, traveling by 4-wheel drive and mules into an area where survival is formidable, where children lose their eyesight because of lack of medicine, and where the infant mortality rates are the highest.

In January 2000, Wings of Valor made its 18th humanitarian mission to Nicaragua when a USAF Reserve C-5 landed full of donations packed with the support of the USAF Reserve 482nd Fighter Wing and distributed with the support of the Organization of American States' office in Nicaragua. This flight was made possible from donations to several developmental projects: Operation Tambourine, a music relief project; Operation Team Spirit, a sports relief project: Operation Medic, a medicine/medical supply relief project; Operation Needle and Thread, a sewing relief project; Operation Tool and Hammer, a construction/farm relief project; and Operation Backpack, a school relief project which is our main focus at this time, since many schools throw away items at the end of the year.

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Janet Ray Weininger, President,
Wings of Valor
Phone 305-255-0606 Fax 305-232-9933
PO Box 56-2801, Miami, FL 33256-2801
17901 SW 84th Avenue, Miami, FL 33157
E-mail WingsValor@aol.com, Website www.wingsofvalor.org
A 501(c)(3) Tax Exempt Humanitarian Organization
"Dedicated to Rebuilding Lives Torn Apart By War, Poverty And Disaster"

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