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.
“Donald A. Johnson”17 pages
178 Secret l'JOFORl'J Chapter 4 that the Soviets had discontinued radar tracking of the flight 's pro gress two hours earlier (0529Z), southwest of Sverdlovsk. Although there was no word from the Soviet Union concerning the mi:ssing U-2. key project personnel assembled in the Agency control center that morning (with the exception of Bissell. who was out of town and did not arrive until 1530) to analyze the latest information and discuss courses of action. They quickly established a new project. known as Operation MUDLARK. co gather and evaluate all available informa tion about the downed U-2." Bissell and the other project officials did not know wh,ether Powers was dead or if the plane and camera had been destroyed', but they believed chat there was no way that a pilot could survive a crash from an altitude above 70,000 feet. They. therefore, decided to stick with the standard cover story for U-2 fl ights: that they were we:acher flights staged by the National Aeronautics and Space Administr:ation (NASA)-originally the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics. renamed in 1958. This cover story had been approve:d by the President in 1956. By the end of the day, the Operation MUDLARK officials had prepared a statement based on the standard cover story but modified to fie the available information on Powers· flight and to show Adana as the aircraft's base in order to conceal Pakistan's role in the mission. This revised cover story, along with a mission flight plan consistent with it, was sent to the field commander at Adana, co Air Force Europe headquarters. and co the Chief of Station at Ankara to replace the cover story that had been prepared and distributed in advance of the mission. The first announcement of the new cover story came, late on 2 May by the Adana base commander, but it did not appear in print until the following day. On Tuesday, 3 May, NASA released a state ment about a high-altitude weather plane that was missing on a flight inside Turkey. The statement had been designed to provide an e>epla nation for the presence of wreckage inside the Soviet Union by noting that "the pilot reported over the emergency frequency that he was ex periencing oxygen difficulties.,. .,: Thus. if the Soviets protested and pointed to wreckage inside their borders, NASA could claim that the pilot had lost consciousness and the aircraft had then flown into the Soviet Union before crashing. '' Geary incerview (S). '' Beschloss. Mayday. p. 39.
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Official release, from the pursue 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.