MIAMI (AP) — Veterans from the failed Bay of Pigs invasion are celebrating 50 years since their release from Cuba.

The first planeload of prisoners arrived at Homestead Air Force Base on Dec. 23, 1962. Some survivors from those flights planned a reunion Saturday at the Bay of Pigs Museum in Miami's Little Havana.

More than a 1,100 Bay of Pigs fighters were held for 20 months following the disastrous April 1961 invasion to overthrow Fidel Castro's government. They were eventually released under an agreement in which Cuba would receive more than $50 million worth of food and medical supplies.

Veteran Jose Andreu tells The Miami Herald (http://hrld.us/Vck7Jz ) that he remembers "a lot of hugging and crying" when his sister, father and fiancée welcomed him back to Miami.