Area 51_ An Uncensored History of America's Top Secret Military Base - Annie Jacobsen [221]
47. if LeMay had provided adequate air cover: Ibid., 175. “Curtis LeMay (who was sitting in for the absent commandant of the Marines) and several of the chiefs admitted their doubt about the absolute essentiality of air cover… I was shocked. We all knew only too well that without air support, the project would fail.”
48. “time zone confusion”: Ibid., 189. Bissell wrote, “When the B-26s lumbered into the air the next day, however, no navy cover appeared. It seemed that a misunderstanding about the correct time standard had prevented the air support from being at the target area when expected. As a result, the B-26s were either forced from the field of battle or shot down, the final tragic blow.” From the National Security Archive: “The unmarked jets failed to rendezvous with the bombers, however, because the CIA and the Pentagon were unaware of a time zone difference between Nicaragua and Cuba.”
49. Lyman B. Kirkpatrick Jr.: Interviews with Jim Freedman.
50. Lyman Kirkpatrick contracted polio: Biography of Lyman B. Kirkpatrick, Princeton University Library, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library, Public Policy Papers. Lyman B. Kirkpatrick Papers, circa 1933–2000, Call Number MC209.
51. relegated to the role of second-tier bureaucrat: In his memoir, Bissell does not mince words. He calls Kirkpatrick “an ambitious man who, in spite of paralysis from polio, aspired to position of director of central intelligence. His illness necessitated a move from the exciting and challenging directorate of plans to the more mundane, bureaucratic position of inspector general, a shift he always resented.” Bissell, Reflections of a Cold Warrior, 193.
Chapter Nine: The Base Builds Back Up
Interviews with Harry Martin, Jim Freedman, T. D. Barnes, Al O’Donnell, Peter Merlin, Millie Meierdierck
1. the man in charge of property control at Area 51: Interviews with Jim Freedman, T. D. Barnes, Al O’Donnell.
2. “The high and rugged northeast perimeter”: Interview with Peter Merlin, who obtained copies (largely redacted) of Kirkpatrick’s visit to Area 51 from the CIA’s online reading room (CIA.gov). These documents appear to have since been removed.
3. “Bay of Pigs will embolden the Soviets”: Absher, Mind-Sets and Missiles, 10.
4. Area 51 was a target: Interviews with Peter Merlin, Jim Freedman.
5. decided to make a hunting trip: Interview with Jim Freedman; Hank Meierdierck’s personal papers.
6. Richard Bissell resigned: Oral history interview with Richard M. Bissell Jr. by Theodore A. Wilson and Richard D. McKinzie, East Hartford, Connecticut, July 9, 1971 (Harry S. Truman Library and Museum), http://www.trumanlibrary.org/oralhist/bissellr.htm.
7. keep the CIA in the spy plane business: Welzenbach, “Science and Technology,” 23.
8. Richard Bissell alone, had gone rogue: Ibid., 22.
9. CIA might work in better partnership: Richelson, Wizards of Langley, 58–60.
10. “Wayne Pendleton was the head of the radar group”: Interview with Wayne Pendleton.
11. “and ‘dirty tricks’ of Dick Bissell’s”: Welzenbach, “Science and Technology,” 22. The full passage reads: “However, a note of discord crept into Bissell’s relations with Land and Killian… both Land and Killian looked upon science and technology almost as a religion, something sacred to be kept from contamination by those who would misuse it for unwholesome ends. Into this category fit the covert operations and dirty tricks of Dick Bissell’s Directorate of Plans.”
12. called Teak and Orange: Film footage viewed at the Atomic Testing Museum, Las Vegas.
13. which is exactly where the ozone layer lies: Hoerlin, “United States High-Altitude Test,” 43.
14. “The impetus for these tests”: Ibid., 47.
15. his rationale: Ground stations were supposed to measure acoustic waves that would happen as a result of the blast but Teak detonated seven miles laterally off course to the