intelligence operations. On December 2, the 303 Committee received a formal request that the A-12 be deployed to Kadena.
The committee refused but ordered that a quick-reaction capability be established. This would allow the A- 12s to deploy within twenty-one days of an order, any time after January 1, 1966.
The year ended on a sour note. On December 28, 1965, Vojvodich took off in Article 126 to make a check flight after major maintenance. Seven seconds after he left the ground, the plane went out of control. Vojvodich had no chance to deal with the problem and ejected at an altitude of 150 feet. He narrowly missed the fireball as Article 126 exploded, but he survived unharmed.[184]
The accident investigation board found that a flight-line electrician had reversed the connections of the yaw and pitch gyros, which reversed the controls. CIA Director McCone ordered the Office of Security to investigate the possibility that it had been sabotage. No evidence was found, but they discovered the gyro manufacturer had earlier warned such an accident was possible. No action (such as color-coding the connections) had been taken on the warning. As with Park's crash the year before, no word leaked out about the accident.[185]
Throughout 1966, there were frequent requests to the 303 Committee to allow the A-12 to be deployed. The CIA, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board all favored the move, while the State and Defense Departments opposed it. The A-12's supporters argued that there was an urgent need for intelligence data on any possible Chinese moves to enter the Vietnam War. Those opposed to deployment felt the need was not sufficient to justify the risks to the aircraft, and the political risks of basing it on Okinawa. Japan had powerful left-wing groups who were protest-ing U.S. involvement in Vietnam. On August 12, 1966, the disagreement was brought to President Johnson, who refused to approve deployment.
As the 303 Committee debated, the Black Shield plan was further refined. The new plan cut the original twenty-one-day deployment time nearly in half. The first loads of personnel and equipment would leave Groom Lake for Kadena on the day deployment was approved. On the fifth day, the first A-12 would takeoff on the five-hour- and-thirty-four-minute, 6,673-mile flight. The second A-12 would follow on the seventh day, and the third on the ninth day. Two A-12s would be ready for an emergency overflight eleven days after approval was given. A normal mission could be flown after fifteen days. A Skylark mission over Cuba could be flown seven days after the go- ahead.
The A-12 also showed what it could do. On the morning of December 21, 1966, Park took off from Groom Lake. He flew north to Yellowstone National Park; turned east to Bismark, North Dakota, and Duluth, Minnesota; then flew south to Atlanta, Georgia, and on to Tampa, Florida. He turned west, flying across the country to Portland, Oregon, then south to Nevada.
He again turned east, flying to Denver, Colorado; St. Louis, Missouri; and Knoxville, Tennessee. He turned west, passing Memphis before finally landing back at Groom Lake. The flight covered 10,198 miles, involved four flights across the United States, several in-flight refuelings, and still had taken only six hours.[186]
But following this success, the Oxcart program had its first fatal accident. On January 5, 1967, Walter Ray was flying a training mission in Article 125. As he descended, a fuel gauge malfunctioned, and the plane ran out of fuel about seventy miles from Groom Lake.[187] Ray ejected, but the seat separation device failed when his parachute pack became wedged against the head rest. He died when the seat hit the ground.[188]
The air force made an announcement that an SR-71 on a routine test flight out of Edwards Air Force Base was missing and presumed down in Nevada. The pilot was described as a civilian test pilot, and newspapers assumed he was with Lockheed.[189] The wreckage was found on January 6, and Ray's body was recovered the next day. The A-12s were grounded pending an investigation of the fuel gauge and ejector seat failures.
The third and final group of CIA A-12 pilots began training at Groom Lake in the spring of 1967. They were David P. Young, Francis J. Murray, and Russell J. Scott. Scott was an Air Force Test Pilot School graduate (Class 62C and ARPS IV) while the others came from operational backgrounds.[190]
In May of 1967, the roadblock to the Black Shield deployment finally ended. Fears began to grow that surface-to-surface missiles might be introduced into North Vietnam. Aggravating matters were concerns that conventional reconnaissance aircraft lacked the capability to detect such weapons.
President Johnson requested a study of the matter. When told that the A-12's camera was far superior to those on the U-2, and that the plane was less vulnerable, State and Defense representatives who had opposed deployment began to reconsider. CIA Director Richard Helms submitted another proposal to the 303 Committee for A-12 deployment. He also raised the issue at President Johnson's 'Tuesday lunch' on May 16. Johnson finally agreed to the deployment. The formal approval was made later that day. Black Shield was under way.[191]
The airlift to Kadena began the next day. On May 22, the first A-12, Article 131, was flown by Vojvodich from Groom Lake to Kadena in six hours and six minutes. Layton piloted Article 127 to Kadena on May 24, while Article 129 with Weeks as pilot, left on May 26. Following a precau-tionary landing at Wake Island, it continued on the following day. By May 29, 1967, the A-12 Oxcarts were ready to make their first overflight. After ten years of work, it was time.
Project Headquarters in Washington, D.C., had been monitoring the weather over North Vietnam. At the May 30 mission alert briefing, the weather was judged favorable, and the A-12 unit was ordered to make an overflight the next day. The alert message also contained the specific route it was to take. At Kadena, the message set events in motion. Vojvodich was selected as the primary A-12 pilot with Layton as the backup pilot. The two planes, a primary and backup A-12, were inspected, the systems were checked, and the camera was loaded with film. Like the CIA U-2s, these planes carried no national markings, only a black paint finish and a small five-digit serial number on the tail fins.
Twelve hours before the planned takeoff time (H minus twelve), a second review of the weather was made. The forecast continued favorable, and the two pilots were given a detailed route briefing during the early evening. On the morning of May 31, the pilots received a final preflight briefing — the condition of the two aircraft was covered, last-minute weather and intelligence reviewed, and any changes in the flight plan gone over. At H minus two hours, a final 'go-no-go' review of weather was made by headquarters.
This covered not only North Vietnam, but the refueling areas and the take-off and landing sites. The only problem was at Kadena — it was raining heavily. Ironically, after all its testing, the A-12 had never flown in the rain.
The target area weather was clear, however, and the decision was made to carry out the flight. A 'go' message was sent to Kadena.
With the final authorization, Vojvodich underwent a medical examination, got into his pressure suit, and was taken out to the primary aircraft, Article 131. If any problem appeared in the preflight checkout, the backup plane could be ready to make the overflight one hour later. Finally, with rain still falling, the A-12 taxied out, ignited its afterburner, and took off into the threatening skies.
The first Black Shield mission made two passes. The first went over Haiphong and Hanoi and left North Vietnam's airspace near Dien Bien Phu.
Vojvodich refueled over Thailand, then made a second pass over the Demilitarized Zone. The route covered 70 of the 190 known SAM sites, as well as 9 other primary targets. The photos were judged 'satisfactory.' The runs had been made at a speed of Mach 3.1 and an altitude of 80,000 feet.
No radar signals were detected; the mission had gone unnoticed by the North Vietnamese and Chinese. The total flight time was three hours and forty minutes. Vojvodich needed three instrument approaches amid driving rain before landing back at Kadena.
Between May 31 and July 15, a total of fifteen Black Shield missions were alerted. Of these, seven were flown. Four of the overflights detected radar-tracking signals, but none of the A-12s were fired on. By mid-July it was clear there were no surface-to-surface missiles in North Vietnam. The early overflights showed how good the A-12 was, and the hesitation to use it ended.
Between August 16 and the end of the year, twenty-six missions were alerted and fifteen were flown. A
