Groom Lake 1968
Normal recruitment for duty at Area 51 commenced with the CIA
scouring the military and corporate establishments for men of certain
qualifications. Unlike the early U-2 program, married men were preferred, as
they were considered more mature. Those selected for further evaluation were
flown to Washington, D.C. for interviews and psychological evaluation. The wife
was also interviewed and evaluated, but not told what her husband would be
doing. The candidate was sent back to his employer not knowing what the job was
or if he had passed or failed. As the selection field narrowed, those still
being considered were called back to Washington, D.C. for more intense
evaluations. Even then, the candidate or volunteer still thought he was being
interviewed for astronaut service or something similar and equally special.
In my case, I had previously worked with the Agency while stationed at Fort
Bliss, Texas with a Hawk air defense surface to air missile unit. Having become
a specialist in ADA missile ECM and ECCM, I participated in the top-secret
Project Palladium where we prodded the Soviets into activating their radar
systems being placed in Cuba. Under the guidance of Bud Wheelon of the CIA, the
covert objective was to test our missile ECM and ECCM capabilities against
those of the Soviet SA-2 missile radar and the ECM and ECCM defenses of their
aircraft.
When the Oxcart flights started at Groom Lake, I was working at the Beatty
radar site of the NASA High Range, tracking the X-15, XB-70, Lifting Bodies,
Lunar Landers, etc.
During idle times 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 and
monitored the radio frequencies these mysterious missions were using. A few
months later I was briefed by NASA that I would be instructed to provide
tracking from time to time of an unidentified aircraft of which I was report
only to this one contact at NASA. No one at the tracking station was allowed to
monitor the tracking of this mysterious plane except me. I didn?t learn what I
was tracking until my tracking station was officially invited to participate in
the May 1965 speed record flight of the YF-12.
My secret tracking had continued for a couple years when we suddenly started
getting cross talk on the HF radio channel we used while talking to the pilot
of the X-15. Not realizing the source was the Area 51 facility from which my
mysterious planes were originating, I complained to 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. I was wrong. There were 3 separate Mach 3 projects at the time, the
XB-70, the Air Force YF-12 project that I knew about, and the CIA's ultrasecret
A-12 surveillance plane that I had been tracking and wrongfully assuming to be
the YF-12.
At the time I was working under the security classification level of Secret. I
could not be told anything about the job until my previous military Top Secret
clearance could be reinstated. While waiting for this to occur I was "loaned"
to various projects in the area: the NERVA project, 4 or 5 atomic shots, even
the Air Force Flight Dynamics Laboratory in Wright Patterson to run tests on
the Apollo One space capsule that eventually ignited and killed 3 of our
astronauts. Ironically, I received a "Q" security clearance for the AEC side
before completion of my Top Secret reinstatement on the DOD side.
I didn't receive reinstatement of
my Top Secret clearance until towards the end of the Oxcart program. It wasn't
until later that I realized the Agency was gathering qualified
contract cadre for follow on projects to Oxcart. Concurrent to my arrival at
Groom Lake was the arrival of one of my X-band Nike Hercules radar systems from
Fort Bliss for which I'd spent a year in formal training while in the Army. I
think it is significant to add that two of us were considered so mission
essential in our radar and missile ECM/ECCM specialty that we were forbidden to
travel together in the same common carrier, be it by plane or simply the same
vehicle headed to the mess hall.
Prior to being accepted, my wife was evaluated almost as much as was I. Once I
arrived at Area 51, I learned that each of my fellow special projects team of
30 specialists and their families had undergone the same evaluations. Besides
each of us having a specialty needed for Oxcart and the upcoming projects, most
of us were married with two children. Another thing we all had in common were
our hobbies. About half of us had boats moored on Lake Mead and the other half
had cabins on Mt. Charleston. Our common interests created the necessary
bonding for what was to come. Our national security concerns created a
cohesiveness where we worked together all week and then played together on at
the lake or mountain during the weekends. Anyone outside our group was not
invited. Even under these conditions, we never talked shop if any of the wives
or children were present. We never snooped into what the other had done or was
doing. A need to know criteria existed and was adhered to even within our
special projects group.
The CIA's special projects cadre at Area 51 was virtually
nonexistent, unlike the temporary projects such as the Air Force's 4080th SAS
U-2 Project Idealist, the Air Force's 4070th SAS and CIA's early U-2 Project
Aquatone at Groom Lake, or the 1129th SAS for the agency's A-12 Oxcart Project
at Area 51 and Kadena during Operation Black Shield.
We seldom knew for sure how we were to be transported from Las Vegas to Groom
Lake. EG&G Special Projects had a Beechcraft Queen Aire (N932T) that some of us
utilized at times. We housed he Queen Aire in a small, obscure hangar located
towards the end of a McCarran International Airport runway in Las Vegas. Other sources of
transportation Included a Twin Otter and a Martin 202 that we boarded and deplaned
at Nellis AFB. At Nellis our plane took off from the most secure area of the
base.
To access our transportation, we had to enter a secured and heavily guarded
area along the runway. We often wondered what the Air Force personnel were told
about us, a group of civilians driven into the most secure area of the base by
our wives and then boarding an unmarked plane for destination unknown. Anytime
we approached any Air Force personnel, they immediately dispersed and went to
great lengths to not encounter us. Speaking to us or showing any interest in us
whatsoever was unheard of.
Soviet satellite coverage of the Groom Lake area was very intense during this
period of the Cold War. Somehow the Soviets always knew the day we were to
conduct activities outdoors and would launch a barrage of satellites the night
before, which prevented our conducting outdoor activities until one of the
satellites dropped from orbit, thus providing us with a window of opportunity
to conduct whatever we needed to do without being seen by the Soviets.
Consequently, we had to be available at all hours should such a window of
opportunity afford itself. As we had in Project Oxcart, we stayed at Groom Lake
the entire week, going home on Friday evening. After the first 8 hours we would
go on time and a half for 4 hours and then on double time pay straight through
until we arrived back in Las Vegas on Friday evening.
To accommodate us, the base had a small combination BX containing snacks and
various personal hygiene items, swimming pool, exercise room, softball diamond,
putting green, and poolroom. This facility was called "Sam?s Place." Some of
the CIA pilots and members of the 1129th SAS took up flying model airplanes.
For some, that remains their hobby today. We were each assigned a room in a row
of duplexes. Each duplex had a small living room where we played poker and
watched 8mm movies played on a movie projector. Our special projects group
usually banded in two groups even for our housing. One group was the boating
enthusiasts, and the other being the Mt. Charleston cabin dwellers. Other
personnel staying at Groom Lake, such as Air Force, Lockheed, Hughes, Pratt and
Whitney, and our customer the CIA were all housed in similar duplexes, but
clustered apart from the others. Very little association existed outside your
group.
Ask anyone who worked at Groom Lake during the CIA era of the 1960s what he or
she remembers most about their time at Area 51 they will tell you it was the
quality of the food served at the mess hall. There's not a hotel in Las Vegas
whose food quality even comes close to matching that we enjoyed at Groom Lake
while the CIA was running the show.
We referred to those for whom we conducted any type of service
as the customer. We all knew we were working for the CIA, but that didn't mean
that the guy evaluating our data wasn't from Lockheed, Pratt and Whitney, or
some other contractor of the CIA doing so as part of their assignment. Since we
didn't ask questions, anyone with authority and clearance to watch or evaluate
our work was the customer as far as we were concerned. In a security
departmentalization sense, we embraced a "don't ask, don't tell" policy.
Director Michael Hayden | Toni Hiley- Museum Director |
TD and Doris Barnes |
After the departure of the last A-12 in June 1968, we
concentrated on special projects of the Foreign Technology Division of Air
Force Systems Command (AFSC) who led the exploitation utilizing expertise from
U.S. Air Force Flight Test Center (AFFTC), Air Defense Command (ADC), National
Air & Space Intelligence Center (NASIC), Strategic Air Command (SAC),
Aeronautical Systems Division (ASD), Tactical Air Command (TAC), Navy Weapons
Center (NWC). The scope of our exploitation projection included Radar Cross
Sections (RCS) evaluations and other technical evaluations of the Soviet
MiG-17F FRESCO C fighter-interceptor code-named: Have Drill. Tactical
evaluations of the MiG-17 were code-named: Have Ferry. We conducted similar
evaluations on the MiG-21F-13 Fishbed E fighter-interceptor code-named: Have
Doughnut.
Projects Idealist, Oxcart, Have Drill, Have Ferry, and Have Doughnut are the
only programs in which I participated that have been declassified. Though there
are some that I can name without violating my security oath, I cannot discuss
any technical aspects of any other programs within Area 51.
A comment about security. From the onset, I was given two contacts for
emergencies. One was a resident CIA employee and the other a lieutenant based
at Nellis AFB. The latter was in the event of an emergency at home; my family
could get word to me through this lieutenant. We could call home from Groom
Lake any time we desired, but could not reveal where we were calling from.
One day I called my wife and could instantly tell she was extremely upset.
It seems my call was made immediately following her getting an obscene phone call
from someone who knew her name. She had hung up and feared it was the caller
calling back. I immediately informed security at Groom. Within minutes my home,
my wife and both our daughters were under protective surveillance. This
continued for about two weeks until all were comfortable that the call was not
intended as a threat aimed at me because of where I worked. We never learned
who made the call.
Have Drill MiG-17 | Have Ferry MiG-17 | Have Ferry MiG-17 | Have Ferry MiG-17 |
Have Doughnut MiG-21 | Have Doughnut MiG-21 |
I left Area 51 in the early 1970s to form a business in
Oklahoma. For five years after leaving Area 51 and Nevada, the FBI routinely
visited the town in which we resided where they
inquired of local businesses as to our business and personal status. The focus
of these FBI visits were to determine if my family and I were experiencing any
problems, financial or otherwise that would make us a target for blackmail or
extortion aimed at learning what I had done while at Area 51. After a week or
so, the investigator will schedule an interview with me and my wife to
determine if anyone had contacted us seeking such information.
Follow the links on the
area51specialprojects.com site to learn what has been declassified about
these projects. You will find a brief story about each project accompanied by
photos and film clips. As you tour the site, think of and join me in a salute
to the heroic men and women who maintained the front lines on the battlefields
of the Cold War.
Ralph "Jim" Freedman | T.D. Barnes |
Babjack, R.J. | Dockter, Marvin R. | Heaps, Kenneth L. | Luker, Bobby V. | Thomas, Jeff D. |
Barnes, Thornton D. | Evans, Paul M. | Hunt, Lee D. | McGlothen, Willie | Vittetoe, Dennis E. |
Beahm, Glen M. | Freedman, Ralph J. | Jenkins, Wesley G. | McLeod, William F. | Washam, Charley P. |
Becherer, Charles B. | Gamble, Sammie L. | Kirchhoff, Robert T. | Owens, Elridge W. | Watson, Galen E. |
Christensen, Calvin D | Haen, David B. | Leonardi, John | Starry, Clifford E. | Weed, James F. |
Dawson, Cowan F. | Hardy, Leroy C. | Long, James E. | Swenson, Marvin L. |
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