Approved for Release: 2013/06/25
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Secret NOFORN
Chapter 3
125
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warnings to all pilots about the danger of opening the helmet faceplate at high altitudes, several pilots were known to do so. Some ate candy bars; Vito favored lemon drops. On the morning of 10 December, while Vito was undergoing prebreathing, the Air Force enlisted man who oversaw his preflight regimen placed an L-pill in the righthand knee pocket of Vito’s flight suit, unaware that this pocket also contained Vito’s supply of lemon drops. After he took off, Vito began indulging in his habit of sucking lemon drops. About midway into the mission, he opened his faceplate and popped into his mouth what he thought was another lemon drop. After closing the faceplate, he began sucking on the object and thought it strange that it had no flavor and was much smoother than the previous lemon drops. Although tempted to bite down, Vito decided instead to reopen his faceplate and see what it was he had in his mouth. Spitting the object into his hand, he saw that he had been sucking on the L-pill with its lethal contents of potassium cyanide. Just a thin layer of glass had stood between him and death. The loss of his aircraft over Bulgaria would have exposed the U-2 program to worldwide publicity and would probably have resulted in an early end to overflights.⁶⁴
Detachment A’s security officer overheard Vito relating the L-pill story to a fellow pilot several days later and promptly reported the conversation to headquarters. When details of Vito’s close call reached Washington, James Cunningham immediately ordered L-pills placed in boxes so that there would be no chance of mistaking them for anything else. The L-pill continued to be available for another three years. Then in January 1960, the commander of Detachment B, Col. William Shelton, raised an important question that had never been considered: what would happen if an L-pill with its volatile contents accidentally broke inside the cockpit of a U-2? Realizing that such an accident would result in the death of the pilot, James Cunningham ordered the destruction of all L-pills and then turned to the Technical Services Division (TSD) for a better idea. By this time the state of the art in lethal devices was a needle poisoned with algal, an extremely deadly shellfish toxin. The needle was hidden in a tiny hole in a silver dollar supplied by Cunningham. Only one poison-needle coin was made because Cunningham decided that, if any pilot had to use it because of capture, there would probably not be any more overflights.⁶⁵
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⁶⁴ Cunningham interview (TS Codeword); Carmine Vito, interview by Donald E. Welzenbach, Washington, DC, 7 May 1986 (S).
⁶⁵ Cable from Detachment B to Development Projects Division (DPD), 4 January 1960; cable from DPD to Detachment B, 7 January 1960, OSA records, job 67-B-972, box 18, “Operation KNIFE EDGE” (TS Codeword).
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Secret
Approved for Release: 2013/06/25