August 18, 2008 Miami Herald TAMPA, Fla. -- Grayston L. Lynch, a hero of the anti-Castro movement for his leadership in the Bay of Pigs invasion, where fired the first shot of the battle, died at 85 on Aug. 10. Lynch, a wounded combat veteran of World War II and Korea who suffered multiple health problems, was hospitalized for foot surgery when he had a heart attack at the James A. Haley Veterans Hospital, near his Tampa home, said Karen Lynch, his wife of 18 years. In his 1998 book, Decision for Disaster: Betrayal at the Bay of Pigs, Lynch detailed his role as CIA case officer in charge of the April 16, 1961, operation. He fired the first shot of the three-day assault -- at a Jeep shining its headlights on Brigade 2506 frogmen landing at Playa Giron -- then returned to his ship and shot down two Cuban fighter planes. CIA Agent, Bay of Pigs Hero, Dies
