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

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Chapter 2
To prevent pilots from becoming dessicated during the long
missions-a condition aggravated by their having to breathe pure
oxygen-provision was made for them to drink sweetened water. This
was accomplished by providing a small self-sealing hole in the face
mask through which the pilot could push a strawlike tube attached to
the water supply. Project personnel also pioneered in the development
of ready-to-eat foods in squeezable containers. These were primarily
bacon- or cheese-flavored mixtures that the pilot could squeeze into
his mouth using the self-sealing hole in the face mask. Despite all
these precautions. U-2 pilots normally lost 3 to 6 pounds of body
weight during an eight-hour mission:"'
Food and water were not the only items provided to pilots on
overflight missions: they also received a suicide pill. During the early
l950s, tales of Soviet secret police torture of captured foreign agents
Pilot undergoing prebreathing
•• lnforma1ion supplied by fames Cunningham and former U-2 pilots Carmine Vi10.
Hervey Stockman. Jacob Krall. and Gkndon Dunaway 10 Donald E. Wel1.cnbach. May
1986.
•
Seccet