The initial indication was that 16 of the small two-engine jet bombers were circling out about 42 miles off the coast of Cape Canaveral. Their speed was pegged by KSC radar at about 110 knots, dangerously slow for the usually speedy airplane, and a clue that the potential attackers might actually be loitering, possibly in wait of a second force. Discovering the flight of Beagles was a stroke of luck for the UAAF commanders. An ancient C-119 Flying Boxcar, serving as a radar picket aircraft, had first gained the Beagles on its radar scope just as it was returning from a routine patrol around the Keys. Once the bombers were bumped up to the main tactical situation screen in the VAB bunker, the C-119 was told to back off and continue monitoring the bombers for as long as possible. Then all UA radar units up and down the eastern Florida coast were made aware of the situation. What the UAAF command staff was looking at now was a bomber force that could seriously damage, if not outright destroy, the Kennedy Space Center—and take only a minute or two to do so.
