JSAR, CIA and Bay of Pigs Query?

[wheelin 0]

This may be a bit off the wall but hey. 

It's said that some JSARs were given to rebels for the Bay of Pigs fiasco. Has any documentation surfaced on SNs given to rebels? Has anyone ever claimed to have a Bay of Pigs JSAR? If there was documented rifles, what would be their value? As high as a documented WWII rifle? Just an interesting discussion topic. 

 

[Brian Alpert 0]

The rebels were apparently recruited, equipped and trained by the CIA.  The arms were not, for obvious reasons, supplied by the US government but obtained from commercial surplus dealers, many of which were said to be CIA fronts which would supply arms to any anticommunist group throughout the world.  Since Winfield had most of the JSARs, I suspect this is where they came from.  Here is a picture (from Life magazine) of the rebels in training with scoped JSARs

 

The JSARs are obviously in Cuba where they were captured.  Incidentally, when Fidel Castro was a revolutionary overthrowing Batista, many of his followers were armed with JSARs

[eb in oregon 0]

1 hour ago, wheelin said:

This may be a bit off the wall but hey. 

It's said that some JSARs were given to rebels for the Bay of Pigs fiasco. Has any documentation surfaced on SNs given to rebels? Has anyone ever claimed to have a Bay of Pigs JSAR? If there was documented rifles, what would be their value? As high as a documented WWII rifle? Just an interesting discussion topic. 

 

I imagine there are no records of what rifles went to Cuba. It was the CIA, right? I also think that one of those rifles returning from Cuba would be a miracle.

[ArtR 0]

If it was the CIA, (probably no doubt there), but they would deny all accountability, and definitely would not have kept any written record of SN's, as that would have been crazy.

[wheelin 0]

Thanks everyone! Those photos help make a bit more sense of 'My JSAR Story'. My grandmother said that the rifle was a WWII sniper rifle. Seeing the scope mounted to the JSAR, it seems plausible that it might have been used that way circa WWII. Maybe? 

 

[Bruce Canfield 0]

Nope, no "Johnson sniper rifles" in WWII.  The ones observed in the CIA/Bay of Pigs era photos were cobbled together.