Brigade 2506 Brigade 2506 Brigade 2506 (Brigada Asalto 2506) was the name given to a CIA-sponsored group of Cuban exiles formed in 1960 to attempt the military overthrow of the Cuban government headed by Fidel Castro. It carried out the abortive Bay of Pigs Invasion landings in Cuba on 17 April 1961. In May 1960, the CIA began to recruit anti-Castro Cuban exiles in the Miami area. For most recruits, infantry training was carried out at a CIA-run base code-named "JMTrax" near Retalhuleu in the Sierra Madre on the Pacific coast of Guatemala. In November 1960, with Gregorio Aguilar Matteo spearheading training
USS Invade (AM-254) by Savannah Machine & Foundry Co., Savannah, Georgia; launched 6 February 1944; sponsored by Miss Thayer C. Allen; and commissioned 18 September 1944, Lt. H. H. Silliman in command. After shakedown in Chesapeake Bay, "Invade" steamed to Casco Bay, Maine, for training 24 November 1944. Following these operations and additional drills out of Norfolk, Virginia, the minecraft assumed duties there as towing ship for aircraft targets and as an experimental minesweeper. She remained on this important duty through the end of the war and reported 21 September 1945 to the Mine Warfare School at Yorktown, Virginia, as a training ship.