In 1964 I was honorably discharged from the Army and immediately hired by Unitec to work at the Beatty station of the NASA High Range for flight testing of the X-15, XB-70, the LLRV (Lunar Lander prototypes), the lifting bodies, occasional CIA A-12, Air Force YF-12, and SR 71 Blackbird flights.

The X-15 and Lifting Body projects developed the Space Shuttle. The LLRV project developed the lunar lander. The XB-70 project paved the way for the future development of supersonic transports. The CIA A-12 developed into the Air Force SR-71 Blackbird.

On May 1, 1965, I participated in establishing four world speed and altitude records in the YF-12A, the Air Force's secret titanium-skinned interceptor. The flight averaged 2,070 miles per hour over a 17- kilometer straight away course, then held 80,257 feet to establish a world record for sustained horizontal flight.


When the Oxcart flights started at Groom Lake, I often fired up our radar and scanned for something to track. One day I obtained skin track of a high and fast moving target in the direction of Groom Lake. Thereafter, I sneaked a track at every change. My commo tech scanned the radio frequencies until we located the channel being used during these mysterious flight. We didn’t learn what we were tracking until we were officially invited to participate in the May 1965 speed record flight of the YF-12.

My uninvited tracking went on for a couple years. My interest became official when we suddenly started getting cross talk on the HF radio channel we used while talking to the pilot of the X-15. I notified NASA who investigated the source. About a month later NASA told us that the source had higher priority and that we were not to mention it again. Shortly thereafter I was recruited for a highly classified special project of the CIA by a Mr. John Grace with EG&G in Las Vegas. I was not told what or where. Nonetheless, I associated my tracking of the fast targets and the UHF interference to my being invited to join that project, whatever it was. After the speed record run, I of course knew about the Blackbird and assumed that was the project to which I was being recruited.

Following the links below you will find a brief story about each project accompanied with photos and film clips. As you tour the site, think of the heroic men and women who played such a vital part in our winning the Cold War.

Click on images to enlarge

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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