Forty-five years after the Nike Hercules missiles were hoisted into firing position along Columbia Avenue in Munster, Fidel Castro announced Tuesday he will leave political office in Cuba.

But what is the future of Cuban communism? How will U.S-Cuba relations change?

A veteran of the Munster missile site told his story Tuesday, while two local Cuba experts voiced clashing theories on Cuba's future.

In 1962, First Lt. Gerald Schloetter was stationed at the Nike Missile Defense System site along Columbia during repairs to his home site near Portage. Schloetter, a Chicago native, was charged with bringing the ground-to-air missiles from their underground resting place, and making sure they were powered up for launch at intruding airplanes. The men were supposed to be able to prepare to fire in less than 15 minutes. The men trained often for an air assault that never even seemed imminent.

Things changed that October.

"I still remember that day," said Schloetter, now 70.

"All of a sudden the word came down, 'Get four missiles down out of the pits, into firing position, but do not plug them in.'"

Schloetter, now of Vista, Calif., downplays the drama surrounding the Soviet missiles and communist Cuba.

Things were "tense," but no enemy plane was likely to approach Chicago unless that plane was part of an "all out war," Schloetter said. War never came. The crisis cooled and the missiles grew obsolete. The Munster missile site is now rubble surrounded by a barbed wire fence.

Schloetter didn't have much to say about Castro's move Tuesday.

But two local academics have strong opinions on Cuba's future.

Val Martinez, a political science and history professor at Purdue University Calumet, worked as a diplomat for the U.S. State Department just after the Soviet Union disintegrated. He tried to sway Russia to end their support to Cuba.

Martinez believes that within a year, U.S. relations with Cuba will change significantly. He predicted the enfeebled Castro will soon die, and that his death will doom communism in Cuba. Martinez thinks the Cuban military will take power and force democratic elections. He does not believe a military ascension will lead to corruption, oppression or violence. Martinez opposes the embargo as inhumane, and he believes Castro's exit - combined with upcoming elections - will lead to major change.

"It will be quite important and quite interesting," he said.

Kathleen Tobin, a PUC professor of Latin American studies, disagrees. She is teaching a Cuban history class, and has been to Cuba three times.

"Unless it would come to a conflict between the United States and Cuba, I don't think that there will be substantial changes in the short term," Tobin said.

She thinks the Cuban people will sustain communism after Castro's departure. She thinks people in the U.S. see Cuba through a distorted anti-communist lens. She thinks Cubans value their nationalized systems, and that they will not let them crumble. She also opposes the embargo.

Power now rests with a generation of younger people who don't hold Cold War grudges, Tobin said.

"I think that the future is really in their hands," she said.