Imagine getting a knock on your door this morning. You open the door, and a military official tells you that you have only a few hours to pack all of your clothes and important documents before heading to the airport to catch a flight to a new life.

Pretty daunting, right? That describes the story of many Cubans who left the island prison in a rush, often leaving relatives behind.

The Miami Herald has a nice story today on the passengers of the first freedom flight on December 1st, 1965.

Whatever became of people on the first Freedom Flight?

Over 40 years later, Cuban migrants remember the first Freedom Flights.

BY LUISA YANEZ
lyanez@MiamiHerald.com

The first flight to a new life in America began with only a few hours' notice. Seventy-five frightened Cubans hurriedly left behind everything -- their homes, their careers, their way of life.

Some of them even left some of their children behind in Cuba.

They landed in Miami on Dec. 1, 1965, as pioneers in a U.S. sponsored airlift -- dubbed the Freedom Flights -- that would eventually bring 260,000 Cubans to the United States over seven years.

Some new refugees resettled in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and elsewhere, but many eventually returned to Miami.

More than 40 years later, The Miami Herald set out to find out what became of those who traveled on that very first flight to freedom.

The newspaper traced 32 people listed on the first flight's original manifest, which was recently donated to the Historical Museum of Southern Florida.

Here are some of their stories:

Continue reading Flights to Freedom