Next month in Miami, a handful of Cuban exile veterans of an undeclared war 50 years ago — in all places the former Belgian Congo — will gather to remember and piece together the fantastic history of their second most important secret mission.

The first had been the failed 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion, a CIA-sponsored effort to overthrown Fidel Castro.

But the spotlight now is on the little-known campaign by 100 Cuban exile pilots recruited by the CIA, including veterans of the invasion, to enter the Congo and stop leftist Simba warriors being reinforced by Castro troops, the Soviet Union and the Chinese.

Castro had even sent Ernesto “Che” Guevara to help the rebels.

This time, the Cuban exiles defeated the communist threat, but with little fanfare or reward. Dubbed the Makasi unit, they became pioneers in the Congo wars that raged from 1962 to 1965. Makasi means powerful and strong in Swahili.

“What these men did was incredible and their history has never been told,” said Janet Ray of Miami-Dade, whose pilot father, Thomas “Pete” Ray, was shot down during the Bay of Pigs invasion. Ray has dedicated her life to preserving he history of the men who took part in the invasion and now she is focusing on the Cuban exile pilots who served in the Congo.

The recruited men numbered about 120 to 100 pilots to fly missions over the jungle, a ground crew and naval force.

If the Bay of Pigs invasion failed 50 year ago this year due to lack of U.S. air support, in the Congo the Cuban exile pilots stymied the rebel forces and even forced Guevara out. He headed instead for the Bolivian jungles, where he was captured and killed.

During their three-year stint, the pilots carried out hundreds of missions. Two died when their planes were shot down; lore has it they were eaten by cannibals.

“Many Cuban exiles have absolutely no idea that this took place,” writer Frank Villafana, author of Cold War in the Congo, recently told WTVJ-NBC 6 reporter Hank Tester, who has launched a multi-part project on the pilots. It is well known that Cuban forces were sent to the Congo by Castro, but not that Cuban exiles were also sent clandestinely by the United States.

Ray wants to bring to light the history of the Makasi unit. She has personally tracked down the names of many of the men who served and located some of their children on Facebook. In many cases, she has told them for the first time details of their fathers’ mission, which they had been told to keep secret.

Ray has also created a private Facebook page dedicated to the: “The Makasi Legacy Cuban Exile Veterans of the Congo,” where she has culled new photographs and 8mm film of the men in action. The page has received hundreds of hits.

And she had tracked down those rescued in one of the unit’s greatest mission: the daring rescue in the jungle of 14 missionaries taken hostage by rebels.

Ray, along with the Cuban Pilots Association, is planning a Makasi reunion Dec. 3 in the hopes of finding more pilots or their children.

“Our goal now is to preserve the history of what these men did,’’ Ray said.

For details of the time and place for the reunion, call Ray at 305-255-5994 or email her at WingsValor@aol.com.