The Central Intelligence Agency and Overhead Reconnaissance; The U-2 and OXCART Programs, 1954-1974

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307
Sec, et NOFOAN
Chapter 6
The only time the enemy came close to downing an OXCART
was on 30 October 1967. During his first pass over North Vietnam,
pilot Dennis Sullivan detected radar tracking. Two SAM sites pre­
pared to launch missiles but neither did. During Sullivan's second
pass the North Vietnamese fired at least six missiles at the OXCART,
each confirmed by vapor trails on mission photography. The pilot saw
these vapor trails and witnessed three missile detonations near but be­
hind the A-12, which was traveling at Mach 3. l at about 84,000 feet.
Postflight inspection of the aircraft revealed that a piece of metal had
penetrated the underside of the right wing, passed through three lay­
ers of titanium, and lodged against a support structure of the wing
tank. The fragment was not a warhead pellet but probably debris from
one of the missile detonations that the pilot observed. 61
BLACK SHIELD missions continued during the first three
months of 1968, with four missions flown over North Vietnam out of
14 alerts. The last OXCART overflight of Vietnam took place on 8
March 1968. During this same three-month period, the OXCART
made its first overflight of North Korea after the USS Pueblo was
seized on 23 January 1968. The goal of this mission was to discover
wh_ether the North Koreans were preparing any large-scale hostile
•move in the wake of this incident. When NPIC photointerpreters ex­
amined OXCART photography taken onf 26 January, they found the
missing USS Pueblo in Wonsan harbor.
Secretary of State Dean Rusk was reluctant to endorse a second
mission over North Korea for fear of diplomatic repercussions should
the aircraft come down in hostile territory. The Secretary was assured
that the plane could transit North Korea in seven minutes and was un­
likely to land in either North Korea or China. The 303 Committee
then endorsed a second mission over North Korea, which was flown
on 19 February. A third and final overflight of North Korea on 8 May
1968 proved to be the last operational deployment of the OXCART
aircraft.6·'
THE END OF THE OXCART PROGRAM
Almost a decade had elapsed between the time when the concept for
the OXCART aircraft was first examined and the first A-12 was oper­
ationally deployed. Now after only 29 operational missions, the most
'' Minnich. "OXCART Story," p. 28 (S).
'·' Ibid .. pp. 28-29 (S).
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