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."
“Sea”17 pages
CO5653421 UNCLASSIFIED .--niSeCrrf.e Ver■Qa.PL Chapter 2 74 [012958 1.6(dlil)>10101010<25Yrs IS] *See I.e4. arranged for an Air Force officer of to stay wan t e group during a preliminary training I The plan to use foreign )ilots soon ran into tro we wnen only school and reported iney male only a iew ni ghts in the U-2, and by the autumn or IVDD they were out of the program.' Even before the elimination of thel lit was clear that there would not be enough trained foreign pilots available in time for de- ployment. Bissell therefore had to start the search for U-2 pilots all over again. Lt. Gen. Emmett (Rosy) O'Donnell, the Air Force's Deputy Chief of Staff for Personnel, authorized the use of Air Force pilots and provided considerable assistance in the search for pilots who met the high standards established by the Agency and the Air Force. The search included only SAC fighter pilots who held reserve commissions. The use of regular Air Force pilots was not considered because of the complexities involved in having them resign from the Air Force, a procedure that was necessary in order to hire them as ci- vilians for the AQUATONE project. SAC pilots interested in the U-2 project had to be willing to re- sign from the Air Force and assume civilian status—a process known as sheep-dipping—in order to conduct the overflights. Although Air Force pilots were attracted by the challenge of flying U-2s over hos- tile territory, they were reluctant to leave the service and give up their seniority. To overcome pilots' reluctance, the Agency offered hand- some salaries, and the Air Force promised each pilot that, upon satis- factory conclusion of his employment with the Agency, he could return to his unit. In the meantime, he would be considered for pro- motion along with his contemporaries who had continued their Air Force careers.5' The selection process for Agency U-2 pilots was very rigorous. Because of the strain involved in flying at extreme altitudes for long periods of time, painstaking efforts were made to exclude all pilots who might be nervous or unstable in any way. The physical and psy- chological screening of potential U-2 pilots was conducted by the Lovelace Foundation for Medical Education and Research in Albuquerque, New Mexico, under a contract signed with the CIA on OSA History, chap. 10, pp. 1-10 (TS Codeword): Geary interview (S). " OSA History, chap. 10, pp. 5-6 (TS Codeword), Geary interview (S): Francis Gary Powers with Curt Gentry, Operation Overflight (New York: Holt. Rinehart. and Wilson, 1970), pp. 25-27. program at L passed the 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.