CIA PILOT FRANK MURRAY

September 21, 1930 - March 26, 2023

A-12 Missions

Missions flown by Frank Murray

Frank Murray and his fellow CIA OXCART pilots displaying Blackbird Laurels medallions after being inducted into the Blackbird Laurels Fraternity, an elite honor society founded by the Flight Historical Foundation

Left to Right
Frank Murray, Dennis Sullivan, Ken Collins, Mele Vojvodich, Jack Layton

Frank Murray was born 21 September 1930, an Army brat of William and Agnes Murray. Raised in San Diego, California, Frank graduated from St. Augustine High School class of 1948. In August 1948, he enlisted in the USAF, the military branch in which his two older brothers were serving. Advanced to the rank of corporal after attending A&E Mechanics School, Murray was later promoted to sergeant and subsequently accepted in the Aviation Cadet Flying Training Program. In April 1952, he commenced training at Columbus AFB, Mississippi and Laredo AFB, Texas. Graduating with Class 53-C, Murray was commissioned a second lieutenant and transferred to Laughlin AFB and Luke AFB for Gunnery School in the T-33 and F-84B. Murray's first fighter plane assignment was the F-84G and F-86-F at Chaumont, France. Assigned to Bergstrom AFB, Texas, Murray flew the F-84F and F-101A/C. From there, Murray was assigned to Otis AFB, Mass to fly the F-94C and F-101B. In 1963, Murray was selected for the 1129th Special Activity Squadron at Groom Lake where he flew the F-101, T-33, and Cessna 180/210. At Groom Lake, Murray was later selected by the CIA to be a Project Pilot flying the A-12. Resigning his USAF commission to take this new assignment, Murray stayed with the OXCART Project until it shutdown in 1968. Rejoining the USAF, Murray was assigned to Tyndall AFB, Florida where he flew the F-101 and T-33 until his volunteering for training in the A-1 Skyraider at the 56th Special Operations Wing, 1st Special Operations Squadron (Hobos) at Nakhon Phanom RTAFB, Thailand. Murray flew 67 combat missions in the A-1 before being reassigned to Tyndall, AFB to continue flying the F-101. During his flying career, Murray accumulated 6,000 hours of flying military aircraft and another 1,000 hours flying civilian planes.

Murray retired from the USAF a Lt. Col. with 29 years combined service in the U.S. Air Force and CIA. Murray is retired in Gardnerville, Nevada with Stella Jane, his spouse and companion for the last 50 years as of 18 October 2003. Frank and Stella are blessed with three children: Joe, Diane, and Janice.

 

By Former Agency Pilot: Frank Murray, Lt. Col. USAF, Retired

Background:

The USS Pueblo, a U.S. Navy reconnaissance vessel, came under attack and was ultimately captured while performing its mission of electronic intelligence gathering off the East coast of North Korea on January 23, 1968.

In response to this capture, the A-12 Detachment at Kadena AB, Okinawa was alerted for an overflight mission to North Korea to be flown on 26 January. Jack Weeks and I were the Mission pilots on station at the Detachment. The first flight was flown by Jack Weeks. Weeks encountered engine problems on the last leg of the mission and returned to Kadena in an abort condition. Until declassification by the CIA in 2007, it was believed that Weeks had aborted his mission, thus crediting me with flying the mission that located the USS Pueblo. The 2007 declassification by the CIA revealed that the mission I flew two weeks after Week's flight was still classified and would probably remain so for many years to come.

I believe the CIA would have pursued previous overflights if allowed by higher authority. Previous to this action, U.S. State Department restriction had prevented flying the A-12 over North Korea. The Pueblo Incident, however, spurred action by the White House and the restriction was lifted for at least this Priority Mission. For reasons unknown by me, the Pueblo Mission Recon was not using the spare or backup aircraft and pilot normally used during missions to Southeast Asia. Regardless the reason, the second attempt was set up with clearance to do several passes to not only locate the Pueblo, but to also use the A-12's systems to visibly assess overall responses to the increased tension of the moment. It was unknown until the 2007 release of information that the Pueblo had been moved when I made my photographic pass over Wonson Harbor in North Korea.

The Detachment was ready and certainly willing to get this mission. The following is my recollection of the details of what went on to get the mission underway and the way the mission was flown.

***Blackshield Mission BX6853***

The second mission to overfly North Korea in response to the capture of USS Pueblo was made at the urgent request of NRO by Secretary of State Rusk for launch on February 19, 1968. As was usual for any A-12 mission, the alert for the mission came down from CIA headquarters 24 hours or more in advance of the launch. With the failure of the first attempt to obtain sufficient coverage of any covert military movement, little was changed in the profile or tactics. Everything was ready since the entire Detachment was already on alert for the expected mission.

The basic approach was to use a single top-off tanker to refuel the A-12 North of Kadena with flight paths designed to avoid overflying any part of China or Japan. During my mission briefing, I was advised of numerous SAM sites in the country and the probable response if the A-12 was detected. Unknown to me at the time, Jack's flight had been tracked by the Chinese who alerted North Korea of same.

The first of three passes started with entry of denied territory about the center of the West coast of North Korea with a flight path basically to the East - Northeast. This pass ended when the A-12 flew over the Harbor at Wonsan, where the Pueblo was estimated to be located. "Camera-on" was initiated just before my crossing the coast inbound and was deactivated as the A-12 departed the outbound coastline. The second pass was made after a turnaround over the Sea of Japan and as I commenced another run south of the first pass track. The third and final pass was again on a Northeast, north of the first pass. Cameras on and off sequences were prompted by the data on the filmstrip and by pilot judgment using the viewscope images.

From a pilot's standpoint, this mission was very "busy" since there were multiple passes done in close quarters with many turns after relatively short camera runs. The pictorial from the mission plan (attachment #1) illustrates the flight spent about seventeen minutes over "denied territory." Bear in mind that most Southeast Asia missions had one camera run on a single heading, followed by another pass later after refueling on another single heading/pass.

The Pueblo mission called for repeated passes after rather quick turnarounds. The onboard Electronic Warfare System (Jammers) never indicated North Korean detection or reaction to the Overflights. I was told later that the Chinese had warned the North Koreans that they were being overflown.

The overflight tactics called for flight above 80,000 feet and cruise Mach number in excess of 3.1 (2,100 MPH). All three passes were flown at or above these numbers. The A-12 flew this sortie flawlessly. It was a fine mission, demonstrating the agility of the A-12 and the high quality imagery available from the cameras and on-board recorders.

The recovery into Kadena was without incident. Though most never knew where the A-12 flew, I think the whole Detachment knew that we had done a good job. With the second mission still being highly classified, we may never know the results of this flight.

A final overflight of North Korea was flown on May 1968 by Jack Layton. This was also the final operational mission for the Detachment.

The A-12 I flew on the Pueblo mission was Article #127. Of the three A-12s flown by the Detachment, Articles 127, 129, 131, Article 131 with Mele Vojvodich in command holds the record as being the first to fly an overflight. Article 127, flown by Denny Sullivan, made the fastest flight home after the Detachment folded in June 1968. Sadly, we lost Jack Weeks in Article 129 while on a Functional Test Flight just before the Detachment closed down in June 1968. Poor old Article 131 limped home with two guys trying to row the boat. Ken Collins and me, the author of these few pages, Frank Murray. I flew the final leg from Hicham to Area 51 and the final hop to the Bone Yard in Palmdale. The last A-12 to fly was Article 131. It now rests in a museum setting in Birmingham, Alabama.

****FINUS****

Maybe, just maybe, the other OXCART Mission Pilots will share a story about what happened to them along the way. I can think of several notable incidents, but I can't author them for my fellow Roadrunners.

DUTCH 20

Aka Frank Murray

 

November 2011 enshrinement into the Nevada Aerospace Hall of Fame

2 December 2009 - CIA A-12 Project OXCART pilot Frank Murray welcomed back to his high school in San Diego where he addressed the Saints Scholars with a Power Point presentation of the OXCART Story. Murray described the occasion as a honor and treat to address students at his school where he graduated sixty years ago in the class of 48. The Scholars are the top grade point average students of the Senior/Junior classes at St Austustine. This was the youngest group Murray has addressed with his presentation normally given to AF ROTC cadets, Daedalians, Lions Club, etc. Murray was treated to a luncheon following the presentation. In the photo below are: top left Murray, Ed Hearn, the Saints' President/Principal. Bottom left are Ed Hearn, Frank Murray, and former class mate Fred Rios. The rest of the photos were taken during the presentation or on the school grounds.