PROFESSOR MOORE - 6/8/94
Q: we have tried to reach Colonel Trakowski, and he has
not returned our calls. We'~e left messages on his answering
machine, and there's been no response.
A: He may be out of town. I did visit him last October,
and he made the point that ..• He was our project officer. He
and I served together under Colonel Duffy in the Air Force
Liaison Office in 1943 to ..• Well, I went overseas in 1 44 but
Trakowski stayed and took a commission in the Air Force when it
was offered and was the project officer on Mogul. I have some
paperwork here from General LeMay's files in which after the war
a number of people were to be sent overseas because they had not
had overseas duty. There is a history of Colonel Trakowski.
Perhaps you have it from the Pentagon files already, from the AG
files.
Q: We have some records, yes.
4
A: Anyway, Albert Trakowski was the Watson Laboratory
project officer on this. When I raised this question to him he
said he had talked to John Peterson, one of Colonel Duffy's
procurement men, and they were joking about these markings on the
tape. I have a letter that I can give you a copy of in which I
quote Trakowski in saying, "What do you expect when you have your
targets made by a toy factory in Manhattan?"
Q: So essentially, the original targets were made by a toy
company?
A: Well, it's either a toy company or a garment
manufacturer in the garment district in Manhattan, or it was by a
novelty company. I talked to Ed Istvan who was another one of
the Air Force liaison office people who stayed in. Istvan lives
in your area. I can give you documentation on these things.
Istvan says that it was some outfit that extruded toothpaste
tubes and he got involved with them because they made radar
chaff. In the early days of this effort, there were a number of
different targets made. I don't have them here, I have them
· downstairs, there were a number of different forms the targets
were made. One idea was just the inside of a meteorological
balloon, to put radar chaff and adhere it with glycerine. Just
wet the inside of the balloon with glycerine and then shake in
dipoles cut to the proper half wave length. When the balloons
were inflated, these would be all on the inside, coating the
inside of the balloon. This didn't give nearly the sort of
target that the corner reflector gave.
But anyway, Istvan initially went to New York hunting for a
source of supply and came across a company.
(Pause)