Documents / Official release
This is a Secret History Staff monograph by Gregory W. Pedlow and Donald E. Welzenbach of the Central Intelligence Agency, published in 1992. It gives a history of the CIA's manned overhead reconnaissance program from 1954 to 1974, covering the development and operation of the U-2 and the A-12 OXCART aircraft. It covers overflights of the Soviet Union, the 1960 downing of Francis Gary Powers, and later operations. One section is titled "U-2s, UFOs, and Operation BLUE BOOK."
From the source:Release of 2026-06-12 This CIA History Staff document chronicles the complete history of the U-2 and OXCART (A-12) high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft programs from 1954 to 1974, detailing their development, operations over the Soviet Union and other targets worldwide, the famous downing of Francis Gary Powers in 1960, organizational reforms following that incident, and the eventual transfer of operations from CIA to Air Force control. A more redacted version of this document has been available on CIA's public website.
“Mission Control”27 pages
116 Secret NOPOAN Chapter 3 October 1956. This unit's timely and accurate information enabled the PARAMOUNT Committee to predict the j oint Israeli-Bri tish-French attack on Egypt three days before it took place. On I I September, Detachment A pilot Jacob Kratt overflew the French Mediterranean naval base at Toulon. He brought back imagery revealing that France was loading troopships at Toulon. During the rest of the month, Detachment A pilots flew another eight missions over the Middle East. By this time, the new Detachment B in Turkey was ready for operations, and it was better positioned to provide cov erage of the Middle East. Detachment B began flying missions in September and soon became the primary detachment for Middle East overflights, conducting nine out of the IO such missions flown in October...s Detachment B's first U-2 flight, on 11 September 1956, made passes over Turkey, Cyprus, and Rhodes. The next flight, more than two weeks later, covered much the same ground but flew as far west as Malta, Sicily, and Crete. Both were "special" missions aimed at maintaining surveillance of the British and French fleets and forces as they prepared for the attack on Egypt. Meanwhile, Detachment A pi lots flew four missions in the Western Mediterranean. During this period, the PARAMOUNT Committee's photo interpreters developed the new science of "tent-ology"-counting the tents of British forces on the islands of Cyprus and Malta to deter mine the number of troops deployed. The photointerpreters used changes in the number of tents to determine that the British forces were beginning to move toward the beaches, where they were eventu ally lightered to offshore troopships." Noting the U-2 activity in the Middle East, President Eisenhower wrote in his diary on 15 October 1956: "Our high-flying reconnais sance planes have shown that Israel has obtained some 60 of the French Mystere pursuit planes, when there had been reported the transfer of only 24... 50 Other U-2 photographs revealed the presence "' OSA History. chap. 19. annex 120. "CIA U-2 Missions Flown. 1956-1968." pp. 1-2 (TS Codeword). " Lundahl and Brugioni interview (TS Codeword). '" Dwight D. Eisenhower Diary. 15 October 1956. DDEL.
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Official release, from the pursue collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 406 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.