Approved for Release: 2013/06/25
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Secret NOFORN
Chapter 2
73
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Not only did the airline pilots report their sightings to air-traffic controllers, but they and ground-based observers also wrote letters to the Air Force unit at Wright Air Development Command in Dayton charged with investigating such phenomena. This, in turn, led to the Air Force’s Operation BLUE BOOK. Based at Wright-Patterson, the operation collected all reports of UFO sightings. Air Force investigators then attempted to explain such sightings by linking them to natural phenomena. BLUE BOOK investigators regularly called on the Agency’s Project Staff in Washington to check reported UFO sightings against U-2 flight logs. This enabled the investigators to eliminate the majority of the UFO reports, although they could not reveal to the letter writers the true cause of the UFO sightings. U-2 and later OXCART flights accounted for more than one-half of all UFO reports during the late 1950s and most of the 1960s.⁴⁹
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HIRING U-2 PILOTS
In authorizing the U-2 project, President Eisenhower told DCI Dulles that he wanted the pilots of these planes to be non-US citizens. It was his belief that, should a U-2 come down in hostile territory, it would be much easier for the United States to deny any responsibility for the activity if the pilot was not an American.
The initial effort to find U-2 pilots was assigned to the Directorate of Plans Air/Maritime Division (AMD). The DDP had excellent contacts [redacted] AMD operatives [redacted] asked that discreet inquiries be made to see if any [redacted] fliers were interested in a high-paying covert project. [redacted] brought to the United States for training. Meanwhile, AMD hired an [redacted] flier residing in England, and he also came to the United States for training.
In theory the use of foreign pilots seemed quite logical; in practice it did not work out. The [redacted] and could only fly light aircraft. Language was also a barrier for the [redacted] although several were good fliers. Because Lieutenant Colonel Geary had taken a class of [redacted] through flying school at Randolph AFB in 1950, he got the job of training the [redacted]
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⁴⁹ Information supplied by James Cunningham to Donald E. Welzenbach (U).
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Approved for Release: 2013/06/25