Area 51_ An Uncensored History of America's Top Secret Military Base - Annie Jacobsen [208]
73. stay at Wright-Patterson for approximately four years: Interview with EG&G engineer.
Chapter Three: The Secret Base
Interviews: Colonel Leghorn, T. D. Barnes, Lieutenant Colonel Roger Andersen, Millie Meierdierck, Bob Murphy, Ray Goudey, Edward Lovick
1. was sitting in his parlor: Bissell, Reflections of a Cold Warrior, 68.
2. paramour of Princess Caradja: Thomas, The Very Best Men, 103.
3. As for the mysterious office called OPC: CIA History Staff, “Office of Policy Coordination 1948–1952,” 57 pages. Approved for release March 1997.
4. “funds generated by the Marshall Plan”: Bissell, Reflections of a Cold Warrior, 68.
5. Leghorn went back to Washington: Interview with Colonel Leghorn.
6. as part of Operation Lusty: Samuel, American Raiders. Operation Lusty (Luftwaffe Secret Technology) was the U.S. Army Air Forces’ effort to capture and evaluate German aeronautical technology beginning at the end of World War II.
7. Putt listened: Pedlow and Welzenbach, Central Intelligence Agency, 35.
8. Whereas Putt was uninterested: P. Taubman, Secret Empire, 105.
9. Killian and Land reasoned: Pedlow and Welzenbach, Central Intelligence Agency, 27–37.
10. “impression of World War I as a cataclysm”: Bissell, Reflections of a Cold Warrior, 4.
11. James Killian, who recruited Bissell: Pedlow and Welzenbach, Central Intelligence Agency, 16. Bissell joined the Agency in late January 1954; however, his first association with the Agency came in 1953 when he worked as a contractor. On July 26, 1954, Eisenhower authorized Killian to recruit a panel of experts to study what a U-2-type aircraft might accomplish. The group was called the Technological Capabilities Panel. In August, the idea was formally presented to Bissell. Ibid., 30.
12. a secret CIA test facility: There are several accounts of who went to Groom Lake with Bissell on that historic first trip. I compile mine from Bissell’s memoir and my interviews with Lockheed test pilot Ray Goudey.
13. Goudey had shuttled atomic scientists: Interview with Ray Goudey.
14. “I recommended to Eisenhower”: Bissell, Reflections of a Cold Warrior, 102–3.
15. the tents would blow away: Interview with Ray Goudey.
16. to defend against rattlesnakes: Interview with Edward Lovick.
17. The same variable occurred: Interview with Tony Bevacqua.
18. a lot of time in a recliner: Interview with Ray Goudey.
19. Bob Murphy’s job: Interviews with Bob Murphy. The U-2 engine was a P-37 specially designed by Connecticut engine maker Pratt and Whitney.
20. Mr. B., as he was known to the men: Interview with Edward Lovick.
21. Hank Meierdierck: The stories of Hank Meierdierck, the man who trained the U-2 pilots at Area 51, were relayed to me by his friends from the old days at the Ranch as well as from his personal papers, which were made available to me by his wife, Millie Meierdierck.
22. “unconventional way”: Killian, Sputnik, Scientists and Eisenhower, 82. Killian wrote, “Eisenhower approved the development of the U-2 system, but he stipulated that it should be handled in an unconditional way so that it would not become entangled in the bureaucracy of the Defense Department or troubled by rivalries among the services.” Also see Bissell, Reflections of a Cold Warrior, 95.
23. hidden from Congress: Top Secret Memorandum of Conference with the President 0810, 24 November 1954. “Authorization was sought from the President to go ahead on a program to produce thirty, special high performance aircraft at a cost of about $35 million. The President approved this action. Mr. Allen Dulles indicated that his organization could not finance this whole sum without drawing attention to it, and it was agreed that Defense would seek to carry a substantial part of the financing.” From the Eisenhower Archives, DDE’s Papers as President, Ann Whitman Diary Series, Box 3, ACW Diary, November 1954.
24. stand-alone organization: Bissell, Reflections of a Cold Warrior, 105. Bissell wrote, “To preserve the secrecy and expeditiousness that Eisenhower and Allen Dulles insisted on, I argued