Area 51_ An Uncensored History of America's Top Secret Military Base - Annie Jacobsen [214]
39. EG&G agreed to set up a radar range: Pedlow and Welzenbach, Central Intelligence Agency, 130. It is also interesting to note that in the footnotes in this CIA monograph, the source for information regarding the location of EG&G’s radar range is redacted, only that they are from Office of Special Activity (OSA) records. Written requests to the CIA were denied.
40. Lockheed test pilot Robert Sieker: Among pilots living at Area 51, a debate ensued about the cause of Sieker’s crash. U-2 pilots Tony Bevacqua and Ray Goudey told me they believe pilot error caused Sieker’s crash. According to them, he was known to open up his faceplate and take bites of candy bars during flight. Bevacqua himself flew a U-2 dirty bird and lived to tell the tale. Many of these mission flights were made over Asia. Lovick maintains it was the Boston Group’s paint that caused the aircraft to overheat.
41. “As it beeped in the sky”: Killian, Sputnik, Scientists and Eisenhower, 7.
42. Killian and Bissell found themselves: Welzenbach, “Science and Technology,” 18. “Killian had confidence in Bissell. A special relationship existed between Killian and Bissell going back to 1942.”
43. formidable top secret billion-dollar spy plane: Top Secret Memorandum of Conference with the President, July 20, 1959. “It will have a radar cross section so low that the probability of hostile detection and successful tracking would be very low. It would have a 4000-mile range at mach 4, with 90,000 feet altitude.” Office of the Staff Secretary, Subject Series, Alphabetical Subseries, Box 15, Intelligence Matters.
44. Advancing science and technology for military purposes: The Advanced Research Projects Agency was Eisenhower’s response to Sputnik, “a high-level defense organization to formulate and execute R&D projects that would expand the frontiers of technology beyond the immediate and specific requirements of the Military Services and their laboratories.” In 1972, ARPA became DARPA. The D denotes Defense.
Chapter Six: Atomic Accidents
Interviews with Richard Mingus, Al O’Donnell, Jim Freedman, Dr. Wheelon, Troy Wade, Darwin Morgan, Stephen M. Younger
1. involved thirty consecutive nuclear explosions: Defense Threat Reduction Agency, fact sheet, Operation Plumbbob: “Operation Plumbbob, the sixth series of atmospheric nuclear tests conducted within the continental United States, consisted of 24 nuclear detonations and six safety tests. The Plumbbob series lasted from April 24 to Oct. 7, 1957, and involved about 14,000 Department of Defense (DoD) personnel.”
2. airplane transporting an atomic bomb would crash: Atomic Energy Commission, Summary of Project 57, the First Safety Test of Operation Plumbbob, report to the General Manager by the Director, Division of Military Application, 24.
3. the perfect place to do this was Area 51: Ref. Sym 5112-(127), Appendix A, Administrative Committee Report, J. D. Shreve Jr., Sandia Corporation (seven pages, no date). “B. Area Chosen (clockwise perimeter) (Groom Mine Map) Start at intersection of 89 with north NTS boundary; follow 89 north to 51 (off map); 90 east on 51 to 04, south on 04 to Watertown (north) boundary, thence west to 95, south to NTS line, and finally west along NTS line to 89. More simply, it is the rectangle of land (1) bounded north and south by grids 51 and an extension of the north NTS edge respectively, (2) bounded east and west by grids 04 and 89 respectively, (3) excluding all area assigned to Watertown,” 5.
4. “relinquished for 20,000 years”: Operation Plumbbob, Summary Report, Test Group 57, Nevada Test Site, Extracted Version, May–October 1957, ITR-1515 (Extracted Version), 17.
5. “no preexisting contamination”: Minutes, First General Meeting, the 57 Project, January 18, 1957, at Sandia Corporation, Red. Sym 5112-(127), declassified 8/9/83.
6. “a safety test”: Memo dated April 2, 1957, LAV-57-33 Atomic Energy Commission, Las Vegas Branch, Office of the Branch Chief; also see Safety