2RHPZ
09-12-2005, 12:32 PM
Revealed: secrets of the spies in our skies
The truth behind secret US missions over Victoria in the '60s is stranger than fiction, writes Brendan Nicholson.
IT WAS one of the best-kept secrets of the Cold War. A clandestine operation, with overtones of Dr Strangelove, was played out against the backdrop of superpower paranoia in — of all the surreal settings — rural Victoria.
Only now, more than 40 years later, and still shrouded in official secrecy, are details of the United States' operations on Australian soil beginning to emerge.
In May 1961 a group of distinctively shaped, oddly named US spy planes began flying a series of top secret missions from East Sale RAAF base.
Their role — the Australian government said at the time — was to take part in a global survey of radiation levels to gauge the impact of nuclear bomb testing. Later the government said the planes were engaged in weather reconnaissance.
Forty years on, the Australian government documents that could reveal what those aircraft really did on "Operation Crowflight" are still classified. But US documents, unearthed from military archives by Australian historian and author Dr Philip Dorling, show that it had nothing to do with the weather.
The Age (http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/revealed-secrets-of-the-spies-in-our-skies/2005/09/09/1125772695364.html?oneclick=true)
The truth behind secret US missions over Victoria in the '60s is stranger than fiction, writes Brendan Nicholson.
IT WAS one of the best-kept secrets of the Cold War. A clandestine operation, with overtones of Dr Strangelove, was played out against the backdrop of superpower paranoia in — of all the surreal settings — rural Victoria.
Only now, more than 40 years later, and still shrouded in official secrecy, are details of the United States' operations on Australian soil beginning to emerge.
In May 1961 a group of distinctively shaped, oddly named US spy planes began flying a series of top secret missions from East Sale RAAF base.
Their role — the Australian government said at the time — was to take part in a global survey of radiation levels to gauge the impact of nuclear bomb testing. Later the government said the planes were engaged in weather reconnaissance.
Forty years on, the Australian government documents that could reveal what those aircraft really did on "Operation Crowflight" are still classified. But US documents, unearthed from military archives by Australian historian and author Dr Philip Dorling, show that it had nothing to do with the weather.
The Age (http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/revealed-secrets-of-the-spies-in-our-skies/2005/09/09/1125772695364.html?oneclick=true)