Documents / FOIA release
This is a CIA History Staff monograph by Gregory W. Pedlow and Donald E. Welzenbach, written in 1992 and approved for release in 2011. It covers the CIA's manned overhead reconnaissance program from 1954 to 1974 and its two aircraft, the U-2 and the A-12 OXCART. It follows their development, the overflights of the Soviet Union, the downing of Francis Gary Powers in 1960, and later operations. One section is titled "U-2s, UFOs, and Operation BLUE BOOK."
“Mission Control”17 pages
Chapter 6 301 OSA History. chap. 20, pp. 90-91 (TS Codeword). "OXCART Story," p. 21 (S). E0 12958 1.6191111>1045Yrs Is] 005653421 UNCLASSIFIED growing hazards confronting aerial reconnaissance of the n three years and the Air Force had lost numerous reconnaissance drones. ree men agreed to go ahead with all the preparatory steps needed for the OXCART to operate over o that it would be ready in case the President decided to authorize such missions. Project BLACK SHIELD, the plan for Far East operations. called for OXCART aircraft to be based at Kadena airbase on Okinawa. In the first phase, three planes would be flown to Okinawa for 60-day periods, twice a year, an operation which would involve about 225 personnel. Later there would be a permanent detachment at Kadena. In preparation for the possibility of such operations, the Defense Department spent $3.7 million to provide support facilities and real-time secure communications on the island by early autumn [0 12958 1.61M11>1045Yrs [012950 1.6191161>101010<25Yrs OXCART to Okinawa to overfly Southeast Asia and Although develop- Is) the committee did not approve deployment, it ordeieu we ment and maintenance of a quick-reaction capability, ready to deploy to Okinawa within 21 days after notification. There the matter remained for more than a year. During the first half of 1966, DCI Raborn raised the issue of deploying the OXCART to Okinawa at five separate 303 Committee meetings but failed to win ret UNCLASSIFIED
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FOIA release, from the cia-readingroom collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is under it. 406 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.