As a Maintenance Instructor for Eastern Air Lines at JFK, I got a pleasant duty to run some DC-8-63 training in SJU. They put me up in a pleasant hotel that ovewrloked a runway. Nice balcony on the room. I was pretty amazed when, with huge noise, a F-104 Starfighter went down the runway followed by another. The mechanics I was training told me the Puerto Rican Air National Guard (PRANG) was flying them and providing air defense against any possible Cuban adventures. A bit later I saw them back landing on the same runway trailing a drag chute. It must have been in 1968 that I saw them.
Now many years later, having outlived Eastern Air Lines and living in Ft Collins in Colorado, I had an opportunity to visit the Wings over the Rockies Air Museum in Denver. They have an interesting collection including a pedestal mounted B-52 outside. Inside the old hangar from Lowry AFB, they have a Douglas B-18 Bolo, a North American B-1 Lancer (I believe a prototype) and, pointy nose and thin sharp winged F-104. A volunteer was working on her and I engaged him in some conversation. I mentioned that the only time I had ever seen an F-104 outside of in a museum was in Puerto Rico. Turned out that was one of the PRANG (unfortunate combination that) aircraft. Clean, polished and dentless, she still looks to be one of the wickedest fighters ever. I have read however that they didn't do well in the Pakistan - India dustup years back. Suspect that the turning radius and limited fuel load may have contributed. Any truth in that?