Carl E. Duckett
Encyclopedia
Carl Ernest Duckett was the founding father and visionary leader of the Central Intelligence Agency
's science and technology operations. Those who knew him as a guitar-playing youth in the Blue Ridge Mountains would have never have guessed that this man with only a mill-town high-school education would eventually oversee the development and operation of some of the most sophisticated intelligence-gathering endeavors in the world.
, an unincorporated community a few miles east of Asheville
. He attended the Buncombe County
schools in Swannanoa, graduating from high school in 1940. His father was a construction laborer at the Beacon Blanket Manufacturing Company, the epicenter of the Swannanoa community, and he wanted his son to start a career at the mill. Carl’s ambition, however, was to work in radio broadcasting, and he left Swannanoa to search for work in this field.
With a good speaking voice, some musical talent, and a very persuasive nature, Duckett eventually found beginner employment at WMVA
, a small station being established in Martinsville, Virginia
. While there, he married Nannie Jane Law in 1941, and started a family. He also gained an elementary knowledge of radio electronics
, and, to prepare for a better job, attended part time for six months a course in this field at the nearby Danville Technical Institute
.
In early 1943, Duckett was employed as a technician
by Westinghouse Electric
in Baltimore, Maryland. Apparently a fast learner, he was soon assigned to work on Army radars for anti-aircraft
fire control. During this period, he also attended courses in radio engineering under the Government-sponsored Engineering, Science, and Management War Training
(ESMWT) Program at Johns Hopkins University
. In 1944, he was a member of a team sent to England to advise on the use of Westinghouse SCR-584 radar
equipment for V-1 ‘buzz bomb’ defense, and stayed as a field engineer during the Normandy invasion.
Drafted into the U.S. Army in October 1944, Duckett served in the Signal Corps until July 1946. As a radar specialist, he rapidly advanced from Private
to Master Sergeant
, with assignments that included the Radiation Laboratory
(Rad Lab) at MIT, the Pacific Theater of Operations
, and the White Sands Proving Grounds
(WSPG) in New Mexico
. While at White Sands, he participated in the first launch in the U.S. of a captured German V-2 rocket and gained knowledge of the telementry
equipment used in this testing.
Following his discharge from the Army, Duckett returned to radio broadcasting in Martinsville. He also received a First-Class Commercial Radiotelephone License
from the Federal Communications Commission
, making him eligible for higher positions in this field, and joined in establishing radio station WBOB
in Galax, Virginia
. After the station went on the air in April 1947, he was not only the chief engineer but also served as the station manager and an announcer/disk jockey. Highly aggressive in these activities, he was one of the founders of a Virginia-wide association of news broadcasters (1949) and represented Virginia radio stations in a meeting with President Harry S. Truman
(1950). He also promoted a bluegrass music
group that made hit records and, later, performed before Elizabeth II, the Queen of England.
. As the Korean War
started, he was called back to active duty in October 1950, and soon received a direct commission
as a Second Lieutenant
. After completing the Signal Officer’s School at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, he was again assigned to White Sands. There his progressive duties included Commander of a remotely located radar station, Chief of the Radar Instrumentation Division, and Project Manager of the first test-range microwave communication system. He was promoted to First Lieutenant
and remained at White Sands until reverting to Retired Reserves status in June 1953. Three years later, he received the rank of Captain in the Reserves.
Upon leaving Army active duty, Duckett remained at White Sands as a civil-service
employee. During a three-year tenure at WSPG, he progressed from General Schedule
(GS) Grade 12 to Grade 15 in positions that included Deputy Assistant for Engineering; Chief, Plans and Programs Office; and Scientific Advisor to the Signal Officer.
The team of German scientists and engineers under Wernher von Braun
, initially brought to the U.S. under Operation Paperclip
, had worked at Fort Bliss, Texas, and tested their missiles at nearby WSPG. After being moved to Redstone Arsenal
, Huntsville, Alabama
, in 1950, they continued to use the ranges at White Sands. While in the Army and in civil service positions, Duckett worked closely with this team and others from Redstone Arsenal, and became intimately familiar with the telemetry systems that were originally developed in Germany at the Peenemünde Army Research Center, as well as the newer Anerican derivative systems.
Activities at Redstone Arsenal evolved from the small Ordnance Guided Missile Center in 1950, through the development of the Redstone Rocket, and the opening of the Army Ballistic Missile Agency
(ABMA) in 1956. The ABMA was responsible for a wide variety of missiles, includimg Jupiter, the Army’s first medium-range ballistic missile
. In July 1956, Duckett accepted a civil service position with the ABMA, joining the Guidance and Control Laboraory as a telemetry specialist and serving as a Scientific Advisor to the Commanding Officer, Major General John B. Medaris.
In the mid 1950s, the National Security Agency
(NSA) set up a listening station near the coastal town of Sinop, Turkey
, directly across the Black Sea
from the Kapustin Yar
range in Ukraine
, where the Soviets were testing medium-range missiles. In early 1957, it became known that the Soviet Union
was testing an intercontinental ballistic missile
(ICBM) at their Tyuratam range and soon a listening station was opened by the Central Intelligence Agency
(CIA) at Behshahr
in northeast Iran
, some 1000 miles (1,609.3 km) across the Caspian Sea
. Tapes were made of signals obtained by these listening post, and an ad hoc activity called Jam Session was started by the CIA for their interpretation; Duckett was a Jam Session participant. They soon recognized that the Russians were using the same telemetry frequencies and formats originally developed by the Germans during World War II.
On October 4, 1957, America was shaken by the launch by the Soviet Union of the first artificial satellite, Sputnik I. The U.S. Air Force and the CIA assembled a highly secret Telemetry and Beacon Analysis Committee (TABAC) to analyze the signals recorded from the launch at Tyuratam and those heard all over the world from Sputnik. From his work in Jam Session, Duckett was asked to be a leader in the TABAC effort. It required about 18 months to calibrate the signals and understand how they related to the launch vehicle characteristics. The payoff, however, was significant; for the next two decades this provided the U.S a major window into the operation of Soviet missiles.
In mid-1958, the ABMA was absorbed into the newly formed Army Ordnance Missile Command (AOMC), headquartered on Redstone Arsenal. At that time, a small Signals Intelligence Group, led by Duckett, was established as a separate unit. In early 1961, the Department of Defense
(DoD) formed the Defense Intelligence Agency
(DIA), integrating all of the defense intelligence in the DoD. The AOMC had the DoD’s most extensive capability for analyzing missiles; thus, to support the DIA, in December the Missile Intelligence Office (MIO) was made an official organization on the AOMC Commanding General’s Staff; Duckett was named Chief of the MIO.
From the start, one of the most significant activities of the MIO was the analysis of public and clandestine photographs of Soviet missiles and their launch sites, and from these and telemetry signals, estimating the missile capabilities. Sometimes models of the pictured missiles were built and tested in the AOMC wind tunnel
s for determining their aerodynamic
characteristics.
Starting in mid-1956, the CIA began U-2
aircraft flights over the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
(USSR) and the People’s Republic of China (PRC). These carried cameras that provided pictures with a resolution of 2.5 foot (0.762 m) from an altitude of 60000 feet (18,288 m) and higher; they were of great value in identifying missiles being manufactured and on the launch sites. In mid-1959, the CIA initiated CORONA
, the program name for a series of satellites with increasingly more accurate cameras. The exposed film was ejected in a capsule with a parachute and then caught in the air by aircraft. The first successful mission, designated Keyhole 1 (KH-1), took place in August 1960. Some 1,400 photos were taken, covering more of the Soviet Union than all of the prior U-2 overflights combined. The resolution, however, was nowhere close to that obtained from U-2 cameras.,
In August 1962, the AOMC was expanded to become the Army Missile Command (AMC) and the MIO became the Missile Intelligence Directorate (MID), with Duckett as the Director. Duckett and others from the MID participated in the CORONA photo interpretation. The Committee on Overhead Reconnaissance (COR) was formed by the CIA to select areas for imaging; Duckett was a COR member. As the Cold War
between America and the Soviet Union intensified, the COR selected Cuba
as an imaging target.
The Cuban Missile Crisis
began in September 1962, when CORONA imagery indicated likely missile launch sites being surreptitiously built at several sites across the insland. On October 14, to obtain clearer images, U-2 reconnaissance aircraft flew over the suspected areas, each flight obtaining about 4,000 pictures. A joint CIA and DoD activity called Photographic Interpretation Center (PGIC) was responsible for interpretsting such data. Led by Duckett, a team of image interpreters from the MID assembled at the PGIC and quickly released its top secret report identifying the sites as those for Soviet R-12 Dvina (NATO designation SS-4 Sandal) medium-range ballistic missiles, and Soviet R-14 Usovaya
(NATO designation SS-5 Skean) intermediate-range ballistic missile
s. President John F. Kennedy
imposed a military blockade of Cuba, and the confrontation ended on October 28, 1962, when Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev
agreed to dismantle the offensive missiles and return them to the USSR.
. The CIA would be headed by a Director of Central Intelligence
(DCI), reporting directly to the President. From the start, and for several following years, it was not widely accepted that the CIA was responsible for producing scientific intelligence.
The great importance of science and technology in intelligence was clearly shown in the Cuban Missile Crisis. Thus, in August 1963, a number of technical operations in the three existing directorates of the CIA were consolidated to form the Deputy Directorate of Science and Technology (DDS&T) with Albert D. Wheelon as the leader. In November, a Foreign Missile and Space Analysis Center (FMSAC) was formed in the DDS&T. Having worked with him on Jam Session and TABAC, Wheelon was well aware of Duckett’s capabilities, and enticed him to leave the MID in Huntsville and head the FMSAC.
During the next several years, Duckett and the FMSAC were kept busy with Soviet accomplishments: Cosmos reconnaissance and Molniya communication spacecraft; Voshkov and the first spacewalk and Venera missions past Venus in 1965; and the Luna soft landing on the moon and the transmission of surface images in 1966 that put the Soviets ahead in the moon race. Of perhaps greater concern were Soviet ballistic missiles: third-generation ICBMs (NATO designations SS-9, SS-11, and SS-13), as well as submarine-launched intermediate-range ballistic missiles (IRBMs) that could easily reach U.S. territory.
In addition to telemetry, Duckett and the FMSAC analyzed radar, optical, and photographic information. For collection, the electronic intelligence receiving station in Iran continued, and other stations were established in Norway
and on ships. A 150 feet (45.7 m) dish antenna at Stanford University
was used to monitor Soviet radar signals after they bounced off the Moon. Chinese missile and nuclear programs were also monitored; for much of this the U-2 spy-plane was employed, including the ability to determine operating facilities by measuring their heat using infrared cameras
, and to collect high-altitude gas samples from nuclear facility emissions. CORONA missions also continued, primarily using the KH-4A (1963–1964) and KH-4B (1967) satellites. These had resolutions of about 10 feet (3 m) and 6 feet (1.8 m), respectively, and carried two reentry vehicles, allowing each mission to cover some 18 million square miles.
While the activities of Duckett and the FMSAC were of great value to the CIA, they mainly involved analyses of existing events. Some of the Agency’s strategic consultants strongly suggested that more capability was needed in advancing the basic science and technology used both in collecting information and in predicting future actions of adversaries. This would involve increasing the size and capabilities of not just the FMSAC but those of Wheelon’s overall organization.
In May 1966, the organization became a much enlarged Directorate of Science & Technology
(DS&T), and Duckett replaced Wheelon as leader. With this went the position of Deputy Director of the CIA. While Wheelon held a Ph.D. in physics from MIT and had earlier been a senior scientist at TRW, Duckett had no formal higher education and his only non-government experience was in small-town radio broadcasting. Nevertheless, he was accepted as a leader by scientists and engineers; he was an excellent briefer, “turning technical data into laymanese,” and was considered by many to be the Agency’s best “marketeer” in selling CIA programs to Congress. Because of his ability to explain technical matters in understandable terms, National Security Advisor
Henry Kissinger
often referred to him as “Professor.”
For the next ten years, Duckett served the Nation in this capacity. In addition to the FMSAC, Offices reporting directly to Duckett included Computer Services, Electronic Intelligence, Scientfifc Intelligence, Special Activities, Special Projects, and Research and Development. In 1973, several organizational changes were made: the FMSAC was enlarged to become the Office of Weapons Intelligence, and the Office of Technical Services (OTS) was formed by consolidating activities from other directorates. The OSP became the Office of Development and Engineering, charged with serving the entire CIA. Also, the National Photographic Interpretation Center was placed under the DS&T.
The new OTS was charged with moving research and development technologies into operations. Included were ‘James Bond’ devices such as guns desguised as pens and cigarettes; clandestine listening, recording, and transitting devices; special envelopes and other holders of microfilm for dead-drop use; and materials for destroying equipment and incapacitating vehicles. Duckett took a personal interest in many of these projects.
Duckett’s DS&T was then a complete intelligence service; it established requirements, developed and operated collection systems, and analyzed the data. For his last three years with the CIA, Duckett also served on the Executive Management Committee. In this position, he was the Number Three executive of the Agency, with broad management and fiscal responsibilities for all CIA programs and activities.
Starting in January 1967, Duckett was also the Director of Program B of the National Reconnaissance Office
(NRO). Upon the recommendation of President Dwight D. Eisenhower
, the NRO had been established by the Department of Defense in 1960, primarily because of problems in space-reconnaissance management within the Air Force. The existence and operation of the highly secret NRO was divulged by the New York Times in 1985. For 10 years, Duckett held this NRO position in parallel with his position in the CIA.
In June 1976, after 13 years in senior positions and serving under nine DCIs, Duckett retired from the CIA. His request for retirement officially cited health reasons, but privately he said that it was because the new DCI, George H. W. Bush
, would not promote him to Deputy DCI. Both reasons were likely true; he had a problem with alcoholism
(later overcome), and for some time had been disappointed in not being further promoted to either of the top two positions.
. China’s first nuclear fusion
(hydrogen) bomb had been detonated on June 17, 1967, and the test site was thoroughly photographed just days earlier. The planes, cameras, and signals intelligence (SIGINT) equipment were continually improved. A typical flight carrying a payload of 3,000 pounds could last seven or more hours, mainly at an altitude of over 70000 feet (21,336 m). The last U-2 flights were in mid-1974, surveying the results of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Even before the 1960 U-2 incident involving a plane shot down over Russia and ending such photo-reconnaissance of that country, the CIA was having developed a successor aircraft, the A-12 Oxcart. With greater “sprint” speed (Mach 3.1), reduced radar cross-section, and capable of higher altitude (about 84,000 feet), the A-12 become operational in May 1967; at that time. reconnaissance flights over North Vietnam
were conducted out of Okinawa Island
. Early the next year, flights were also made in support of the Pueblo Crisis
with North Korea
.
Another reconnaissance aircraft had been developed for the Air Force; the R-12, later designated the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird. With operational characteristics similar to those of the A-12, the SR-71 had an advantage in also carrying infrared detectors, side-looking radar, and ELINT gear. The CIA adopted the SR-71 in 1968, and this remained the standard high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft until 1998, without a single loss to enemy action.
Filming through CORONA missions was still important, and a new satellite system was placed into development. Commonly called “Big Bird” but officially designated KH-9 HEXAGON, each satellite involved a 30,000-pound cylinder 40 feet (12.2 m) long and 10 feet (3 m) in diameter, carrying four reentry capsule
s. There were two KH-9 cameras capable of independent operation and with a resolution of two feet. In addition, each HEXAGON carried SIGNIT electronics, collecting Soviet transmissions and also relaying messages sent by cover agents. The first HEXAGON satellite was launchd by a Titan 3D in June 1971. Duckett considered the Big Bird one of his most important accomplishments.
The time lag involved in overhead-photography imaging systems and the advances being made in electro-optical imaging devices led to a detailed examination of real-time reconnaissance technologies starting in 1969. Duckett tasked Leslie C. Dirks, one of his most capable researchers, with assessing the present and projected technologies, and, with Edwin H. Land
(inventor of the Polaroid
Instant Camera
and senior advisor to the CIA), preparing a plan for the replacement of CORONA. The resulting plan was strongly opposed by the Air Force, but, after personally hearing arguments from both sides in 1971, President Richard Nixon approved Duckett’s approach.
After the President’s approval, the KH-11 KENNAN
Program was started, with Lockheed selected as the prime contractor and Perkin-Elmer grinding the very important collecting mirror. Likely the most secret of all CIA reconnaissance sysems, each KH-11 had a charge-coupled device
(CCD) electro-optical sensor
and an 8.7 feet (2.7 m) collecting mirror. The digital images were transmitted as real-time signals via a relay satellite to a ground station at Fort Belvoir
, Virginia. The first KENNAN launch, by a Titan 3D rocket, took place in 1976, shortly after Dirks had replaced Duckett as the DS&T Director.
As previously noted, the CIA had a receiving station in Iran to intercept telemetry signals coming from the Tyuratam test range. In 1965, this was augmented by two stations operated by the DS&T in the high mountains of northeastern Iran and nearer to Tyuratam; at their peak, these stations (designated TACKSMAN I and II) provided the bulk of information on Soviet ICBM development. The CIA also funded ELINT operations in Norway
, both at a ground station in the far northeast near Kirkenes
and on a converted whaling boat in the Barents Sea
; these monitored Soviet radio communications and telemetry originating in northwest USSR.
Direct reception of radar signals is limited to line-of-sight distances – approximately to the horizon. However, by operating in the high-frequency (HF) band (3-30 MHz), the signals can be “bounced” along a path between the ionosphere and ground, allowing an “over-the-horizon
” (OTH) operation. In early 1961, an OTH radar facility, designated EARTHLING, was set up in Pakistan to track missile and spacecraft launches from the Tyuratam test range. Through 1965, when the facility was closed by Pakistan, over 80 percent of the missile launches had been detected. EARTHLING also provided information on the Soviet's nuclear tests at high altitudes. An OTH radar, designated CHECKROTE, was opened on Taiwan in 1966; this was primarily to monitor missile launches from the Shuangchengzi test range in China. Greatly upgraded in 1969, CHECKROTE was a highly successful project.
A very important intelligence item in the 1960-70s was the characteristics of Soviet radars, particularly those systems associated with their defense systems against bombers and ballistic missiles. U-2 and A-12 aircraft flew special missions to gather this information. The most novel collection means was through signals from Soviet radars reflected by the moon; a facility for such collection was set up by the CIA at Stanford University in 1966.
Shortly after he became the Director of the DS&T, Wheelon had proposed using a geosynchronous satellite
to relay very-high and ultra-high frequency (VHF and UHF) telemetry signals from Soviet test sites to CIA control stations. (VHF and UHF signals cannot be directly received beyond the horizon because they are passed through, not reflected by, the ionosphere.) At the start of 1966, development of such a monitoring system, designated RHYOLITE, got underway. In a few months, Duckett took over the DS&T and implementation of the RHYOLITE program. A receiving/control site was selected in the Australian Outback
, safe from eavesdropping and signal interference by Soviet spy ships.
The first RHYOLITE satellite was launched into its 22300 miles (35,888.3 km) high, geostationary orbit
by a Atlas-Agena D rocket in June 1969. The primary mission was to monitor Soviet missile tests, but it was also capable of intercepting VHF and UHF communications; it found great usefulness in the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971
, and later in the Vietnam War
.
announced to the public that he was authorizing the implementation of an anti-ballistic missile
system, called Safeguard
, to counter a potentially devastating Soviet threat. At that time, there was a balance between the United States and the Soviet Union based on Mutual Assured Destruction
; this assumed that a first strike
could not eliminate the capability for retaliation.
Some studies had shown that Soviet ICBMs carrying multiple independently targetable reentry vehicle
s (MIRVs) – several nuclear warheads aimed at different targets – could destroy a large part of U.S. ICBMs then emplaced in silos. In the fall of 1968, tests of SS-9 Mod 4 ICBMs had been monitored in which three warheads were dispensed, each supposedly capable of carrying up to five megaton-size nuclear bombs. The data, however, were not sufficient for the FMSAC to firmly determine if these were MIRVs or simply three warheads reentering in a row; this difference would have a major impact on their threat to the U.S. defense.
This was a subject of great debate for several months, and critical for Congress to reach a decision on President Nixon’s authorization for Safeguard. Although he had personally concluded that the Soviets did not have MIRV capability, Duckett prepared a paper objectively presenting both sides of the technical debate. On July 17, 1969, with only senators present, Duckett’s paper was read to the Senate. In the final vote on August 6, Vice President Spiro Agnew
broke an even split in Congress by favoring the program. Although the effort was still shrouded in top secrecy, there were sufficient “leaks” to allow the news media to call attention to the role of the CIA in such matters.
imploded – generally believed to be while on the surface recharging its batteries – and sank in about 17000 feet (5,181.6 m) of ocean some 1700 miles (2,735.9 km) northwest of Hawaii
. The Soviet Fleet immediately started a major effort to locate the sub, but gave up in a few weeks, The U.S. Navy’s Sound Surveillance System (SOSUS) – a network of hydrophone
arrays – had initially tracked the sub, and triangulation
had been used to identify the general location where the accident occurred. The Office of Naval Intelligence
(ONI) then arranged for a spy submarine, the USS Halibut
, to search for the missing sub. During the summer of 1968, long cables lowered lights and cameras, and in August found the sub broken into several large pieces. The forward 200 feet (61 m) section contained the sub’s three missile launch tubes, one with an apparently intact nuclear-tipped missile.
There was great interest in attempting a recovery of items such as cipher machines, code manuals, communications equipment, and possibly a torpedo or even a nuclear warhead. Both the Navy and the CIA started plans for a major salvage effort. The Navy proposed cutting into the sub’s hull and recovering whatever items could be reached. In a joint meeting, the Navy presented its recommended plan. They were staggered, however, when Duckett and the CIA team recommended a gigantic effort to recover an entire 200 feet (61 m) intact section, raising it the three miles (5 km) to the surface.
After an intense debate at all levels, Duckett’s proposal was eventually approved by President Richard Nixon. Howard Hughes
agreed for his firm, Summa Corporation
, to build a 618 feet (188.4 m) long ship (the Glomar Explorer, ostensibly a deep-water, manganese-mining vessel). This had a companion football-field-sized barge (the Hughes Marine Barge-1) that was carried below the ship and thus hidden from overhead observation. Eight giant claws operating from the barge would lift the intact section of the Golf sub from the ocean floor and into an opening on the bottom of the ship. The activity was code-name Project AZORIAN (sometimes JENNIFER), and publicly justified as a means of rescuing or recovering future U.S. vessels.
It was July 1974 before the Glomar and the Barge began the raising attempt. When the section was lifted about 3000 feet (914.4 m) off the seabed, one of the claws broke, followed by a collapse and shattering of the entire section. All but a small portion – some 10 percent of the original sub – fell back to the ocean floor. The lost portions included the items most desired by the intelligence community. Six bodies were in the recovered section, and were given a formal burial at sea.
(SRI) began research in parapsychology
. In a meeting with representatives of the DS&T, they claimed to have found witnesses of Soviet successes in psychokinetics – use of the mind for moving physical objects – and had themselves conducted positive research in mentally viewing remote objects and scenes – astral projection
.
The CIA had long conducted research in the area of behavioral control. Throughout the 1950s and into the 1960s, there was extensive testing of the effects of hypnosis and drugs, particularly lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) on human subjects. The bulk of these activities were conducted by the Technical Services Staff, forerunner of the Technical Services Department (TSD). Thus, when the SRI scientists presented their information on mind control, Duckett assigned this to the TSD.
In October 1972, the TSD initiated the Biofield Measurements Program, to be conducted jointly with SRI, to determine whether participants (the viewers or percipients) could reliably identify and accurately describe salient features of remote locations or targets. This was in part justified by attempts to find what progress the Soviets were making in parapsychology and how it might be used against the United States. Two test subjects (persons claiming paranormal abilities) were provided by the SRI. Early in the following year, reported successes in “remote viewing” by the percipients were such that other units of the DS&T joined in the effort. A management review of the program was made in the summer of 1973, and both Duckett and the CIA Executive Director William Colby
allowed the activity to continue.
A carefully planned experiment was conducted in July 1974. Duckett asked that this center on a description made by remote viewing of a target area in the Soviet Union that had been recently imaged by a satellite and suspected to be a nuclear test site. In sessions over a four-day period, the test subjects gave mentally derived descriptions of the site; these descriptions were then independently evaluated by a scientist from the Los Alamos National Laboratory
The overall judgement of the evaluator was that the remote viewing appeared to be a failure; nevertheless, continued low-level research in parapsychology intelligence was allowed by Duckett until he retired in June 1976.
, as Chairman of the Board and President. He had retained top levels of security clearance and, through Intec, provided a number of aerospace industries with consulting services and analytical studies in technical intelligence and electronic warfare. He also served on advisory panels for the Senate Select Committee for Intelligence and the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board. Having earlier been divorced, he married Ann Marie Bell in 1978.
In 1985, Duckett opened an Intec office at Mathews Court House, Virginia, and moved his residence to a bay-side farm near Hudgins, Virginia
. For a period of time, he also served as the Magistrate of Mathews County, Virginia
. He continued working for Intec until early 1992, but died of lung cancer in a medical center at Newport News, Virginia
, on April 1, 1992, and was buried in the Gwynn’s Island Cemetery near his farm. He was survived by his wife, Ann Marie, and, from his first marriage, Nannie Jane; two sons, Ernest Pannell (1942) and Arthur Lee (1946); and a daughter, Ruth Eleanor (1948).
In his professional career, Carl Duckett received the following special awards and decorations:
As a part of its 50th anniversary celebration in 1997, the Central Intelligence Agency gave Trailblazer Awards to 50 Agency officers, “from our earliest days to the present, who by their actions, example, innovations, or initiative, have taken the CIA in important new directions and helped shape our history.” Carl E. Duckett was one of the honored recipients of a Trailblazer Award.
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
's science and technology operations. Those who knew him as a guitar-playing youth in the Blue Ridge Mountains would have never have guessed that this man with only a mill-town high-school education would eventually oversee the development and operation of some of the most sophisticated intelligence-gathering endeavors in the world.
Background
Carl Duckett was born and raised in Swannanoa, North CarolinaSwannanoa, North Carolina
Swannanoa is a census-designated place in Buncombe County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 4,526 in 2007. The community is named for the Swannanoa River, which flows through the settlement. It is part of the Asheville Metropolitan Statistical Area.Swannanoa is located between...
, an unincorporated community a few miles east of Asheville
Asheville, North Carolina
Asheville is a city in and the county seat of Buncombe County, North Carolina, United States. It is the largest city in Western North Carolina, and the 11th largest city in North Carolina. The City is home to the United States National Climatic Data Center , which is the world's largest active...
. He attended the Buncombe County
Buncombe County, North Carolina
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 206,330 people, 85,776 households, and 55,668 families residing in the county. The population density was 314 people per square mile . There were 93,973 housing units at an average density of 143 per square mile...
schools in Swannanoa, graduating from high school in 1940. His father was a construction laborer at the Beacon Blanket Manufacturing Company, the epicenter of the Swannanoa community, and he wanted his son to start a career at the mill. Carl’s ambition, however, was to work in radio broadcasting, and he left Swannanoa to search for work in this field.
With a good speaking voice, some musical talent, and a very persuasive nature, Duckett eventually found beginner employment at WMVA
WMVA
WMVA is a News/Talk formatted broadcast radio station licensed to Martinsville, Virginia, serving Martinsville and Henry County, Virginia. WMVA is owned and operated by Martinsville Media, Inc.-History:...
, a small station being established in Martinsville, Virginia
Martinsville, Virginia
Martinsville is an independent city which is surrounded by Henry County, Virginia, United States. The population was 13,821 in 2010. The Bureau of Economic Analysis combines the city of Martinsville with Henry County for statistical purposes...
. While there, he married Nannie Jane Law in 1941, and started a family. He also gained an elementary knowledge of radio electronics
Radio electronics
*For the magazine, see Radio-ElectronicsRadio electronics is the sub-field of electrical engineering concerning itself with the class of electronic circuits which receive or transmit radio signals....
, and, to prepare for a better job, attended part time for six months a course in this field at the nearby Danville Technical Institute
Danville Community College
Danville Community College is one of the twenty-three two year colleges in the Virginia Community College System. It is located in Danville, Virginia. Unlike many of the other VCCS schools, it predates the formation of a statewide body for junior colleges. Its roots began in 1936 as Danville...
.
In early 1943, Duckett was employed as a technician
Technician
A technician is a worker in a field of technology who is proficient in the relevant skills and techniques, with a relatively practical understanding of the theoretical principles. Experienced technicians in a specific tool domain typically have intermediate understanding of theory and expert...
by Westinghouse Electric
Westinghouse Electric (1886)
Westinghouse Electric was an American manufacturing company. It was founded in 1886 as Westinghouse Electric Company and later renamed Westinghouse Electric Corporation by George Westinghouse. The company purchased CBS in 1995 and became CBS Corporation in 1997...
in Baltimore, Maryland. Apparently a fast learner, he was soon assigned to work on Army radars for anti-aircraft
Anti-aircraft warfare
NATO defines air defence as "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action." They include ground and air based weapon systems, associated sensor systems, command and control arrangements and passive measures. It may be to protect naval, ground and air forces...
fire control. During this period, he also attended courses in radio engineering under the Government-sponsored Engineering, Science, and Management War Training
Engineering, Science, and Management War Training
The Engineering, Science, and Management War Training program was one of the largest and most productive educational activities in America's history. It was perhaps only second to the G.I...
(ESMWT) Program at Johns Hopkins University
Johns Hopkins University
The Johns Hopkins University, commonly referred to as Johns Hopkins, JHU, or simply Hopkins, is a private research university based in Baltimore, Maryland, United States...
. In 1944, he was a member of a team sent to England to advise on the use of Westinghouse SCR-584 radar
SCR-584 radar
The SCR-584 was a microwave radar developed by the MIT Radiation Laboratory during World War II. It replaced the earlier and much more complex SCR-268 as the US Army's primary anti-aircraft gun laying system as quickly as they could be produced...
equipment for V-1 ‘buzz bomb’ defense, and stayed as a field engineer during the Normandy invasion.
Drafted into the U.S. Army in October 1944, Duckett served in the Signal Corps until July 1946. As a radar specialist, he rapidly advanced from Private
Private (rank)
A Private is a soldier of the lowest military rank .In modern military parlance, 'Private' is shortened to 'Pte' in the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth countries and to 'Pvt.' in the United States.Notably both Sir Fitzroy MacLean and Enoch Powell are examples of, rare, rapid career...
to Master Sergeant
Master Sergeant
A master sergeant is the military rank for a senior non-commissioned officer in some armed forces.-Israel Defense Forces:Rav samal rishoninsignia IDF...
, with assignments that included the Radiation Laboratory
Radiation Laboratory
The Radiation Laboratory, commonly called the Rad Lab, was located at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts and functioned from October 1940 until December 31, 1945...
(Rad Lab) at MIT, the Pacific Theater of Operations
Pacific Theater of Operations
The Pacific Theater of Operations was the World War II area of military activity in the Pacific Ocean and the countries bordering it, a geographic scope that reflected the operational and administrative command structures of the American forces during that period...
, and the White Sands Proving Grounds
White Sands Missile Range
White Sands Missile Range is a rocket range of almost in parts of five counties in southern New Mexico. The largest military installation in the United States, WSMR includes the and the WSMR Otera Mesa bombing range...
(WSPG) in New Mexico
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...
. While at White Sands, he participated in the first launch in the U.S. of a captured German V-2 rocket and gained knowledge of the telementry
Telemetry
Telemetry is a technology that allows measurements to be made at a distance, usually via radio wave transmission and reception of the information. The word is derived from Greek roots: tele = remote, and metron = measure...
equipment used in this testing.
Following his discharge from the Army, Duckett returned to radio broadcasting in Martinsville. He also received a First-Class Commercial Radiotelephone License
General radiotelephone operator license
The General Radiotelephone Operator License is a United States commercial license, as opposed to an amateur radio license. It allows the holder to operate, maintain or install certain classes of United States licensed radio and television transmitters under the authority of the Federal...
from the Federal Communications Commission
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...
, making him eligible for higher positions in this field, and joined in establishing radio station WBOB
WWWJ
WWWJ is a Southern Gospel formatted broadcast radio station licensed to Galax, Virginia, serving Carroll and Grayson counties in Virginia. WWWJ is owned and operated by Twin County Broadcasting Corporation.-History:...
in Galax, Virginia
Galax, Virginia
Galax is an independent city in the southwestern part of the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is bounded to the northeast by Carroll County and to the southwest by Grayson County. The population was 7,042 as of 2010...
. After the station went on the air in April 1947, he was not only the chief engineer but also served as the station manager and an announcer/disk jockey. Highly aggressive in these activities, he was one of the founders of a Virginia-wide association of news broadcasters (1949) and represented Virginia radio stations in a meeting with President Harry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman was the 33rd President of the United States . As President Franklin D. Roosevelt's third vice president and the 34th Vice President of the United States , he succeeded to the presidency on April 12, 1945, when President Roosevelt died less than three months after beginning his...
(1950). He also promoted a bluegrass music
Bluegrass music
Bluegrass music is a form of American roots music, and a sub-genre of country music. It has mixed roots in Scottish, English, Welsh and Irish traditional music...
group that made hit records and, later, performed before Elizabeth II, the Queen of England.
Telemetry and intelligence
At the end of World War II when Duckett was discharged from the Army, he had remained in the ReservesUnited States Army Reserve
The United States Army Reserve is the federal reserve force of the United States Army. Together, the Army Reserve and the Army National Guard constitute the reserve components of the United States Army....
. As the Korean War
Korean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...
started, he was called back to active duty in October 1950, and soon received a direct commission
Direct commission officer
A direct commission officer is a uniformed officer who has received a commission without the typical prerequisites for achieving a commission, such as a four year service academy, a four year or two year college ROTC program, or one of the officer candidate school or officer training school...
as a Second Lieutenant
Second Lieutenant
Second lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces.- United Kingdom and Commonwealth :The rank second lieutenant was introduced throughout the British Army in 1871 to replace the rank of ensign , although it had long been used in the Royal Artillery, Royal...
. After completing the Signal Officer’s School at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, he was again assigned to White Sands. There his progressive duties included Commander of a remotely located radar station, Chief of the Radar Instrumentation Division, and Project Manager of the first test-range microwave communication system. He was promoted to First Lieutenant
First Lieutenant
First lieutenant is a military rank and, in some forces, an appointment.The rank of lieutenant has different meanings in different military formations , but the majority of cases it is common for it to be sub-divided into a senior and junior rank...
and remained at White Sands until reverting to Retired Reserves status in June 1953. Three years later, he received the rank of Captain in the Reserves.
Upon leaving Army active duty, Duckett remained at White Sands as a civil-service
Civil service
The term civil service has two distinct meanings:* A branch of governmental service in which individuals are employed on the basis of professional merit as proven by competitive examinations....
employee. During a three-year tenure at WSPG, he progressed from General Schedule
General Schedule
The General Schedule is the predominant pay scale within the United States civil service. The GS includes the majority of white collar personnel positions...
(GS) Grade 12 to Grade 15 in positions that included Deputy Assistant for Engineering; Chief, Plans and Programs Office; and Scientific Advisor to the Signal Officer.
The team of German scientists and engineers under Wernher von Braun
Wernher von Braun
Wernher Magnus Maximilian, Freiherr von Braun was a German rocket scientist, aerospace engineer, space architect, and one of the leading figures in the development of rocket technology in Nazi Germany during World War II and in the United States after that.A former member of the Nazi party,...
, initially brought to the U.S. under Operation Paperclip
Operation Paperclip
Operation Paperclip was the Office of Strategic Services program used to recruit the scientists of Nazi Germany for employment by the United States in the aftermath of World War II...
, had worked at Fort Bliss, Texas, and tested their missiles at nearby WSPG. After being moved to Redstone Arsenal
Redstone Arsenal
Redstone Arsenal is a United States Army base and a census-designated place adjacent to Huntsville in Madison County, Alabama, United States and is part of the Huntsville-Decatur Combined Statistical Area...
, Huntsville, Alabama
Huntsville, Alabama
Huntsville is a city located primarily in Madison County in the central part of the far northern region of the U.S. state of Alabama. Huntsville is the county seat of Madison County. The city extends west into neighboring Limestone County. Huntsville's population was 180,105 as of the 2010 Census....
, in 1950, they continued to use the ranges at White Sands. While in the Army and in civil service positions, Duckett worked closely with this team and others from Redstone Arsenal, and became intimately familiar with the telemetry systems that were originally developed in Germany at the Peenemünde Army Research Center, as well as the newer Anerican derivative systems.
Activities at Redstone Arsenal evolved from the small Ordnance Guided Missile Center in 1950, through the development of the Redstone Rocket, and the opening of the Army Ballistic Missile Agency
Army Ballistic Missile Agency
The Army Ballistic Missile Agency was the agency formed to develop the US Army's first intermediate range ballistic missile. It was established at Redstone Arsenal on February 1, 1956 and commanded by Major General John B...
(ABMA) in 1956. The ABMA was responsible for a wide variety of missiles, includimg Jupiter, the Army’s first medium-range ballistic missile
Medium-range ballistic missile
A medium-range ballistic missile , is a type of ballistic missile with medium range, this last classification depending on the standards of certain organizations. Within the U.S. Department of Defense, a medium range missile is defined by having a maximum range of between 1,000 and 3,000 km1...
. In July 1956, Duckett accepted a civil service position with the ABMA, joining the Guidance and Control Laboraory as a telemetry specialist and serving as a Scientific Advisor to the Commanding Officer, Major General John B. Medaris.
In the mid 1950s, the National Security Agency
National Security Agency
The National Security Agency/Central Security Service is a cryptologic intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the collection and analysis of foreign communications and foreign signals intelligence, as well as protecting U.S...
(NSA) set up a listening station near the coastal town of Sinop, Turkey
Sinop, Turkey
Sinop is a city with a population of 36,734 on İnce Burun , by its Cape Sinop which is situated on the most northern edge of the Turkish side of Black Sea coast, in the ancient region of Paphlagonia, in modern-day northern Turkey, historically known as Sinope...
, directly across the Black Sea
Black Sea
The Black Sea is bounded by Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean and the Aegean seas and various straits. The Bosphorus strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and the strait of the Dardanelles connects that sea to the Aegean...
from the Kapustin Yar
Kapustin Yar
Kapustin Yar is a Russian rocket launch and development site in Astrakhan Oblast, between Volgograd and Astrakhan. Known today as Znamensk , it was established 13 May 1946 and in the beginning used technology, material, and scientific support from defeated Germany...
range in Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
, where the Soviets were testing medium-range missiles. In early 1957, it became known that the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
was testing an intercontinental ballistic missile
Intercontinental ballistic missile
An intercontinental ballistic missile is a ballistic missile with a long range typically designed for nuclear weapons delivery...
(ICBM) at their Tyuratam range and soon a listening station was opened by the Central Intelligence Agency
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
(CIA) at Behshahr
Behshahr
Behshahr is a city in and the capital of Behshahr County, Mazandaran Province, Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 83,537, in 22,034 families.It is approximately forty kilometers from Sari. The name Behshahr literally means The Best city...
in northeast Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
, some 1000 miles (1,609.3 km) across the Caspian Sea
Caspian Sea
The Caspian Sea is the largest enclosed body of water on Earth by area, variously classed as the world's largest lake or a full-fledged sea. The sea has a surface area of and a volume of...
. Tapes were made of signals obtained by these listening post, and an ad hoc activity called Jam Session was started by the CIA for their interpretation; Duckett was a Jam Session participant. They soon recognized that the Russians were using the same telemetry frequencies and formats originally developed by the Germans during World War II.
On October 4, 1957, America was shaken by the launch by the Soviet Union of the first artificial satellite, Sputnik I. The U.S. Air Force and the CIA assembled a highly secret Telemetry and Beacon Analysis Committee (TABAC) to analyze the signals recorded from the launch at Tyuratam and those heard all over the world from Sputnik. From his work in Jam Session, Duckett was asked to be a leader in the TABAC effort. It required about 18 months to calibrate the signals and understand how they related to the launch vehicle characteristics. The payoff, however, was significant; for the next two decades this provided the U.S a major window into the operation of Soviet missiles.
In mid-1958, the ABMA was absorbed into the newly formed Army Ordnance Missile Command (AOMC), headquartered on Redstone Arsenal. At that time, a small Signals Intelligence Group, led by Duckett, was established as a separate unit. In early 1961, the Department of Defense
United States Department of Defense
The United States Department of Defense is the U.S...
(DoD) formed the Defense Intelligence Agency
Defense Intelligence Agency
The Defense Intelligence Agency is a member of the Intelligence Community of the United States, and is the central producer and manager of military intelligence for the United States Department of Defense, employing over 16,500 U.S. military and civilian employees worldwide...
(DIA), integrating all of the defense intelligence in the DoD. The AOMC had the DoD’s most extensive capability for analyzing missiles; thus, to support the DIA, in December the Missile Intelligence Office (MIO) was made an official organization on the AOMC Commanding General’s Staff; Duckett was named Chief of the MIO.
From the start, one of the most significant activities of the MIO was the analysis of public and clandestine photographs of Soviet missiles and their launch sites, and from these and telemetry signals, estimating the missile capabilities. Sometimes models of the pictured missiles were built and tested in the AOMC wind tunnel
Wind tunnel
A wind tunnel is a research tool used in aerodynamic research to study the effects of air moving past solid objects.-Theory of operation:Wind tunnels were first proposed as a means of studying vehicles in free flight...
s for determining their aerodynamic
Aerodynamics
Aerodynamics is a branch of dynamics concerned with studying the motion of air, particularly when it interacts with a moving object. Aerodynamics is a subfield of fluid dynamics and gas dynamics, with much theory shared between them. Aerodynamics is often used synonymously with gas dynamics, with...
characteristics.
Starting in mid-1956, the CIA began U-2
Lockheed U-2
The Lockheed U-2, nicknamed "Dragon Lady", is a single-engine, very high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft operated by the United States Air Force and previously flown by the Central Intelligence Agency . It provides day and night, very high-altitude , all-weather intelligence gathering...
aircraft flights over the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
(USSR) and the People’s Republic of China (PRC). These carried cameras that provided pictures with a resolution of 2.5 foot (0.762 m) from an altitude of 60000 feet (18,288 m) and higher; they were of great value in identifying missiles being manufactured and on the launch sites. In mid-1959, the CIA initiated CORONA
Corona (satellite)
The Corona program was a series of American strategic reconnaissance satellites produced and operated by the Central Intelligence Agency Directorate of Science & Technology with substantial assistance from the U.S. Air Force...
, the program name for a series of satellites with increasingly more accurate cameras. The exposed film was ejected in a capsule with a parachute and then caught in the air by aircraft. The first successful mission, designated Keyhole 1 (KH-1), took place in August 1960. Some 1,400 photos were taken, covering more of the Soviet Union than all of the prior U-2 overflights combined. The resolution, however, was nowhere close to that obtained from U-2 cameras.,
In August 1962, the AOMC was expanded to become the Army Missile Command (AMC) and the MIO became the Missile Intelligence Directorate (MID), with Duckett as the Director. Duckett and others from the MID participated in the CORONA photo interpretation. The Committee on Overhead Reconnaissance (COR) was formed by the CIA to select areas for imaging; Duckett was a COR member. As the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
between America and the Soviet Union intensified, the COR selected Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
as an imaging target.
The Cuban Missile Crisis
Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cuban Missile Crisis was a confrontation among the Soviet Union, Cuba and the United States in October 1962, during the Cold War...
began in September 1962, when CORONA imagery indicated likely missile launch sites being surreptitiously built at several sites across the insland. On October 14, to obtain clearer images, U-2 reconnaissance aircraft flew over the suspected areas, each flight obtaining about 4,000 pictures. A joint CIA and DoD activity called Photographic Interpretation Center (PGIC) was responsible for interpretsting such data. Led by Duckett, a team of image interpreters from the MID assembled at the PGIC and quickly released its top secret report identifying the sites as those for Soviet R-12 Dvina (NATO designation SS-4 Sandal) medium-range ballistic missiles, and Soviet R-14 Usovaya
R-14 Usovaya
The R-14 Chusovaya was a theatre ballistic missile developed by the Soviet Union during the Cold War. It was given the NATO reporting name SS-5 Skean and was known by GRAU index 8K65. It was designed by Mikhail Kuzmich Yangel. Chusovaya is the name of a river in Russia...
(NATO designation SS-5 Skean) intermediate-range ballistic missile
Intermediate-range ballistic missile
An intermediate-range ballistic missile is a ballistic missile with a range of 3,000–5,500 km , between a medium-range ballistic missile and an intercontinental ballistic missile...
s. President John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
imposed a military blockade of Cuba, and the confrontation ended on October 28, 1962, when Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev led the Soviet Union during part of the Cold War. He served as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, and as Chairman of the Council of Ministers, or Premier, from 1958 to 1964...
agreed to dismantle the offensive missiles and return them to the USSR.
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency was formed in July 1947, at the direction of President Harry S. TrumanHarry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman was the 33rd President of the United States . As President Franklin D. Roosevelt's third vice president and the 34th Vice President of the United States , he succeeded to the presidency on April 12, 1945, when President Roosevelt died less than three months after beginning his...
. The CIA would be headed by a Director of Central Intelligence
Director of Central Intelligence
The Office of United States Director of Central Intelligence was the head of the United States Central Intelligence Agency, the principal intelligence advisor to the President and the National Security Council, and the coordinator of intelligence activities among and between the various United...
(DCI), reporting directly to the President. From the start, and for several following years, it was not widely accepted that the CIA was responsible for producing scientific intelligence.
The great importance of science and technology in intelligence was clearly shown in the Cuban Missile Crisis. Thus, in August 1963, a number of technical operations in the three existing directorates of the CIA were consolidated to form the Deputy Directorate of Science and Technology (DDS&T) with Albert D. Wheelon as the leader. In November, a Foreign Missile and Space Analysis Center (FMSAC) was formed in the DDS&T. Having worked with him on Jam Session and TABAC, Wheelon was well aware of Duckett’s capabilities, and enticed him to leave the MID in Huntsville and head the FMSAC.
During the next several years, Duckett and the FMSAC were kept busy with Soviet accomplishments: Cosmos reconnaissance and Molniya communication spacecraft; Voshkov and the first spacewalk and Venera missions past Venus in 1965; and the Luna soft landing on the moon and the transmission of surface images in 1966 that put the Soviets ahead in the moon race. Of perhaps greater concern were Soviet ballistic missiles: third-generation ICBMs (NATO designations SS-9, SS-11, and SS-13), as well as submarine-launched intermediate-range ballistic missiles (IRBMs) that could easily reach U.S. territory.
In addition to telemetry, Duckett and the FMSAC analyzed radar, optical, and photographic information. For collection, the electronic intelligence receiving station in Iran continued, and other stations were established in Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
and on ships. A 150 feet (45.7 m) dish antenna at Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
was used to monitor Soviet radar signals after they bounced off the Moon. Chinese missile and nuclear programs were also monitored; for much of this the U-2 spy-plane was employed, including the ability to determine operating facilities by measuring their heat using infrared cameras
Thermographic camera
A thermographic camera or infrared camera is a device that forms an image using infrared radiation, similar to a common camera that forms an image using visible light...
, and to collect high-altitude gas samples from nuclear facility emissions. CORONA missions also continued, primarily using the KH-4A (1963–1964) and KH-4B (1967) satellites. These had resolutions of about 10 feet (3 m) and 6 feet (1.8 m), respectively, and carried two reentry vehicles, allowing each mission to cover some 18 million square miles.
While the activities of Duckett and the FMSAC were of great value to the CIA, they mainly involved analyses of existing events. Some of the Agency’s strategic consultants strongly suggested that more capability was needed in advancing the basic science and technology used both in collecting information and in predicting future actions of adversaries. This would involve increasing the size and capabilities of not just the FMSAC but those of Wheelon’s overall organization.
In May 1966, the organization became a much enlarged Directorate of Science & Technology
Central Intelligence Agency Directorate of Science & Technology
The Directorate of Science and Technology is the branch of the United States Central Intelligence Agency charged with developing and applying technology to advance the United States intelligence gathering.-Origins:...
(DS&T), and Duckett replaced Wheelon as leader. With this went the position of Deputy Director of the CIA. While Wheelon held a Ph.D. in physics from MIT and had earlier been a senior scientist at TRW, Duckett had no formal higher education and his only non-government experience was in small-town radio broadcasting. Nevertheless, he was accepted as a leader by scientists and engineers; he was an excellent briefer, “turning technical data into laymanese,” and was considered by many to be the Agency’s best “marketeer” in selling CIA programs to Congress. Because of his ability to explain technical matters in understandable terms, National Security Advisor
National Security Advisor (United States)
The Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, commonly referred to as the National Security Advisor , serves as the chief advisor to the President of the United States on national security issues...
Henry Kissinger
Henry Kissinger
Heinz Alfred "Henry" Kissinger is a German-born American academic, political scientist, diplomat, and businessman. He is a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. He served as National Security Advisor and later concurrently as Secretary of State in the administrations of Presidents Richard Nixon and...
often referred to him as “Professor.”
For the next ten years, Duckett served the Nation in this capacity. In addition to the FMSAC, Offices reporting directly to Duckett included Computer Services, Electronic Intelligence, Scientfifc Intelligence, Special Activities, Special Projects, and Research and Development. In 1973, several organizational changes were made: the FMSAC was enlarged to become the Office of Weapons Intelligence, and the Office of Technical Services (OTS) was formed by consolidating activities from other directorates. The OSP became the Office of Development and Engineering, charged with serving the entire CIA. Also, the National Photographic Interpretation Center was placed under the DS&T.
The new OTS was charged with moving research and development technologies into operations. Included were ‘James Bond’ devices such as guns desguised as pens and cigarettes; clandestine listening, recording, and transitting devices; special envelopes and other holders of microfilm for dead-drop use; and materials for destroying equipment and incapacitating vehicles. Duckett took a personal interest in many of these projects.
Duckett’s DS&T was then a complete intelligence service; it established requirements, developed and operated collection systems, and analyzed the data. For his last three years with the CIA, Duckett also served on the Executive Management Committee. In this position, he was the Number Three executive of the Agency, with broad management and fiscal responsibilities for all CIA programs and activities.
Starting in January 1967, Duckett was also the Director of Program B of the National Reconnaissance Office
National Reconnaissance Office
The National Reconnaissance Office , located in Chantilly, Virginia, is one of the 16 U.S. intelligence agencies. It designs, builds, and operates the spy satellites of the United States government.-Mission:...
(NRO). Upon the recommendation of President Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower was the 34th President of the United States, from 1953 until 1961. He was a five-star general in the United States Army...
, the NRO had been established by the Department of Defense in 1960, primarily because of problems in space-reconnaissance management within the Air Force. The existence and operation of the highly secret NRO was divulged by the New York Times in 1985. For 10 years, Duckett held this NRO position in parallel with his position in the CIA.
In June 1976, after 13 years in senior positions and serving under nine DCIs, Duckett retired from the CIA. His request for retirement officially cited health reasons, but privately he said that it was because the new DCI, George H. W. Bush
George H. W. Bush
George Herbert Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 41st President of the United States . He had previously served as the 43rd Vice President of the United States , a congressman, an ambassador, and Director of Central Intelligence.Bush was born in Milton, Massachusetts, to...
, would not promote him to Deputy DCI. Both reasons were likely true; he had a problem with alcoholism
Alcoholism
Alcoholism is a broad term for problems with alcohol, and is generally used to mean compulsive and uncontrolled consumption of alcoholic beverages, usually to the detriment of the drinker's health, personal relationships, and social standing...
(later overcome), and for some time had been disappointed in not being further promoted to either of the top two positions.
Achievements at the CIA
While many science and technology advancements were made in intelligence under Duckett’s leadership, only a few of the better known will be mentioned; these are described in great detail in Jeffrey Richelson’s book, The Wizards of Langley. Inside the CIA’s Directorare of Science and Technology.Overhead reconnaissance
During Duckett’s tenure as Director of the DS&T, overhead reconnaissance for gathering intelligence was a major activity. The U-2 spy planes were still active, particularly in flights over China operating from TaiwanTaiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
. China’s first nuclear fusion
Nuclear fusion
Nuclear fusion is the process by which two or more atomic nuclei join together, or "fuse", to form a single heavier nucleus. This is usually accompanied by the release or absorption of large quantities of energy...
(hydrogen) bomb had been detonated on June 17, 1967, and the test site was thoroughly photographed just days earlier. The planes, cameras, and signals intelligence (SIGINT) equipment were continually improved. A typical flight carrying a payload of 3,000 pounds could last seven or more hours, mainly at an altitude of over 70000 feet (21,336 m). The last U-2 flights were in mid-1974, surveying the results of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Even before the 1960 U-2 incident involving a plane shot down over Russia and ending such photo-reconnaissance of that country, the CIA was having developed a successor aircraft, the A-12 Oxcart. With greater “sprint” speed (Mach 3.1), reduced radar cross-section, and capable of higher altitude (about 84,000 feet), the A-12 become operational in May 1967; at that time. reconnaissance flights over North Vietnam
North Vietnam
The Democratic Republic of Vietnam , was a communist state that ruled the northern half of Vietnam from 1954 until 1976 following the Geneva Conference and laid claim to all of Vietnam from 1945 to 1954 during the First Indochina War, during which they controlled pockets of territory throughout...
were conducted out of Okinawa Island
Okinawa Island
Okinawa Island is the largest of the Okinawa Islands and the Ryukyu Islands of Japan, and is home to Naha, the capital of Okinawa Prefecture. The island has an area of...
. Early the next year, flights were also made in support of the Pueblo Crisis
USS Pueblo (AGER-2)
USS Pueblo is an American ELINT and SIGINT Banner-class technical research ship which was boarded and captured by North Korean forces on January 23, 1968, in what is known as the Pueblo incident or alternatively as the Pueblo crisis or the Pueblo affair. Occurring less than a week after President...
with North Korea
North Korea
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea , , is a country in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer zone between North Korea and South Korea...
.
Another reconnaissance aircraft had been developed for the Air Force; the R-12, later designated the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird. With operational characteristics similar to those of the A-12, the SR-71 had an advantage in also carrying infrared detectors, side-looking radar, and ELINT gear. The CIA adopted the SR-71 in 1968, and this remained the standard high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft until 1998, without a single loss to enemy action.
Filming through CORONA missions was still important, and a new satellite system was placed into development. Commonly called “Big Bird” but officially designated KH-9 HEXAGON, each satellite involved a 30,000-pound cylinder 40 feet (12.2 m) long and 10 feet (3 m) in diameter, carrying four reentry capsule
Reentry capsule
A reentry capsule is the portion of a spacecraft which returns to Earth following a space flight. The shape is determined partly by aerodynamics; a capsule is aerodynamically stable falling blunt end first, which allows only the blunt end to require a heat shield for atmospheric reentry. Its shape...
s. There were two KH-9 cameras capable of independent operation and with a resolution of two feet. In addition, each HEXAGON carried SIGNIT electronics, collecting Soviet transmissions and also relaying messages sent by cover agents. The first HEXAGON satellite was launchd by a Titan 3D in June 1971. Duckett considered the Big Bird one of his most important accomplishments.
The time lag involved in overhead-photography imaging systems and the advances being made in electro-optical imaging devices led to a detailed examination of real-time reconnaissance technologies starting in 1969. Duckett tasked Leslie C. Dirks, one of his most capable researchers, with assessing the present and projected technologies, and, with Edwin H. Land
Edwin H. Land
Edwin Herbert Land was an American scientist and inventor, best known as the co-founder of the Polaroid Corporation. Among other things, he invented inexpensive filters for polarizing light, a practical system of in-camera instant photography, and his retinex theory of color vision...
(inventor of the Polaroid
Polaroid Corporation
Polaroid Corporation is an American-based international consumer electronics and eyewear company, originally founded in 1937 by Edwin H. Land. It is most famous for its instant film cameras, which reached the market in 1948, and continued to be the company's flagship product line until the February...
Instant Camera
Instant camera
The instant camera is a type of camera that generates a developed film image. The most popular types to use self-developing film were formerly made by Polaroid Corporation....
and senior advisor to the CIA), preparing a plan for the replacement of CORONA. The resulting plan was strongly opposed by the Air Force, but, after personally hearing arguments from both sides in 1971, President Richard Nixon approved Duckett’s approach.
After the President’s approval, the KH-11 KENNAN
KH-11 Kennan
The KH-11 KENNAN, renamed CRYSTAL in 1982 and also referenced by the codenames 1010, and "Key Hole", is a type of reconnaissance satellite launched by the American National Reconnaissance Office since December 1976...
Program was started, with Lockheed selected as the prime contractor and Perkin-Elmer grinding the very important collecting mirror. Likely the most secret of all CIA reconnaissance sysems, each KH-11 had a charge-coupled device
Charge-coupled device
A charge-coupled device is a device for the movement of electrical charge, usually from within the device to an area where the charge can be manipulated, for example conversion into a digital value. This is achieved by "shifting" the signals between stages within the device one at a time...
(CCD) electro-optical sensor
Electro-optical sensor
Electro-optical sensors are electronic detectors that convert light, or a change in light, into an electronic signal. They are used in many industrial and consumer applications, for example:* Lamps that turn on automatically in response to darkness...
and an 8.7 feet (2.7 m) collecting mirror. The digital images were transmitted as real-time signals via a relay satellite to a ground station at Fort Belvoir
Fort Belvoir
Fort Belvoir is a United States Army installation and a census-designated place in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States. Originally, it was the site of the Belvoir plantation. Today, Fort Belvoir is home to a number of important United States military organizations...
, Virginia. The first KENNAN launch, by a Titan 3D rocket, took place in 1976, shortly after Dirks had replaced Duckett as the DS&T Director.
Electronic intelligence
With an early background in radio and radar, Duckett had a great personal interest in CIA activities in these fields. Also, Duckett’s FMASC depended strongly on information gained through electronic intelligence (ELINT).As previously noted, the CIA had a receiving station in Iran to intercept telemetry signals coming from the Tyuratam test range. In 1965, this was augmented by two stations operated by the DS&T in the high mountains of northeastern Iran and nearer to Tyuratam; at their peak, these stations (designated TACKSMAN I and II) provided the bulk of information on Soviet ICBM development. The CIA also funded ELINT operations in Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
, both at a ground station in the far northeast near Kirkenes
Kirkenes
is a town in the municipality of Sør-Varanger in the county of Finnmark in the far northeast of Norway...
and on a converted whaling boat in the Barents Sea
Barents Sea
The Barents Sea is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean, located north of Norway and Russia. Known in the Middle Ages as the Murman Sea, the sea takes its current name from the Dutch navigator Willem Barents...
; these monitored Soviet radio communications and telemetry originating in northwest USSR.
Direct reception of radar signals is limited to line-of-sight distances – approximately to the horizon. However, by operating in the high-frequency (HF) band (3-30 MHz), the signals can be “bounced” along a path between the ionosphere and ground, allowing an “over-the-horizon
Over-the-horizon radar
Over-the-horizon radar, or OTH , is a design concept for radar systems to allow them to detect targets at very long ranges, typically up to thousands of kilometers...
” (OTH) operation. In early 1961, an OTH radar facility, designated EARTHLING, was set up in Pakistan to track missile and spacecraft launches from the Tyuratam test range. Through 1965, when the facility was closed by Pakistan, over 80 percent of the missile launches had been detected. EARTHLING also provided information on the Soviet's nuclear tests at high altitudes. An OTH radar, designated CHECKROTE, was opened on Taiwan in 1966; this was primarily to monitor missile launches from the Shuangchengzi test range in China. Greatly upgraded in 1969, CHECKROTE was a highly successful project.
A very important intelligence item in the 1960-70s was the characteristics of Soviet radars, particularly those systems associated with their defense systems against bombers and ballistic missiles. U-2 and A-12 aircraft flew special missions to gather this information. The most novel collection means was through signals from Soviet radars reflected by the moon; a facility for such collection was set up by the CIA at Stanford University in 1966.
Shortly after he became the Director of the DS&T, Wheelon had proposed using a geosynchronous satellite
Geosynchronous satellite
A geosynchronous Satellite is a satellite whose orbit on the Earth repeats regularly over points on the Earth over time. If such a satellite's orbit lies over the equator, the orbit is circular and its angular velocity is the same as the earth's, then it is called a geostationary satellite...
to relay very-high and ultra-high frequency (VHF and UHF) telemetry signals from Soviet test sites to CIA control stations. (VHF and UHF signals cannot be directly received beyond the horizon because they are passed through, not reflected by, the ionosphere.) At the start of 1966, development of such a monitoring system, designated RHYOLITE, got underway. In a few months, Duckett took over the DS&T and implementation of the RHYOLITE program. A receiving/control site was selected in the Australian Outback
Outback
The Outback is the vast, remote, arid area of Australia, term colloquially can refer to any lands outside the main urban areas. The term "the outback" is generally used to refer to locations that are comparatively more remote than those areas named "the bush".-Overview:The outback is home to a...
, safe from eavesdropping and signal interference by Soviet spy ships.
The first RHYOLITE satellite was launched into its 22300 miles (35,888.3 km) high, geostationary orbit
Geostationary orbit
A geostationary orbit is a geosynchronous orbit directly above the Earth's equator , with a period equal to the Earth's rotational period and an orbital eccentricity of approximately zero. An object in a geostationary orbit appears motionless, at a fixed position in the sky, to ground observers...
by a Atlas-Agena D rocket in June 1969. The primary mission was to monitor Soviet missile tests, but it was also capable of intercepting VHF and UHF communications; it found great usefulness in the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971
Indo-Pakistani War of 1971
The Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 was a military conflict between India and Pakistan. Indian, Bangladeshi and international sources consider the beginning of the war to be Operation Chengiz Khan, Pakistan's December 3, 1971 pre-emptive strike on 11 Indian airbases...
, and later in the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
.
Missile intelligence and Safeguard
In March 1969, newly elected President Richard NixonRichard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
announced to the public that he was authorizing the implementation of an anti-ballistic missile
Anti-ballistic missile
An anti-ballistic missile is a missile designed to counter ballistic missiles .A ballistic missile is used to deliver nuclear, chemical, biological or conventional warheads in a ballistic flight trajectory. The term "anti-ballistic missile" describes any antimissile system designed to counter...
system, called Safeguard
Safeguard Program
The Safeguard Program was a United States Army anti-ballistic missile system developed during the late 1960s. Safeguard was designed to protect U.S. ICBM missile sites from counterforce attack, thus preserving the option of an unimpeded retaliatory strike. Safeguard used much of the same technology...
, to counter a potentially devastating Soviet threat. At that time, there was a balance between the United States and the Soviet Union based on Mutual Assured Destruction
Mutual assured destruction
Mutual Assured Destruction, or mutually assured destruction , is a doctrine of military strategy and national security policy in which a full-scale use of high-yield weapons of mass destruction by two opposing sides would effectively result in the complete, utter and irrevocable annihilation of...
; this assumed that a first strike
First strike
In nuclear strategy, a first strike is a preemptive surprise attack employing overwhelming force. First strike capability is a country's ability to defeat another nuclear power by destroying its arsenal to the point where the attacking country can survive the weakened retaliation while the opposing...
could not eliminate the capability for retaliation.
Some studies had shown that Soviet ICBMs carrying multiple independently targetable reentry vehicle
Multiple independently targetable reentry vehicle
A multiple independently targetable reentry vehicle warhead is a collection of nuclear weapons carried on a single intercontinental ballistic missile or a submarine-launched ballistic missile . Using a MIRV warhead, a single launched missile can strike several targets, or fewer targets redundantly...
s (MIRVs) – several nuclear warheads aimed at different targets – could destroy a large part of U.S. ICBMs then emplaced in silos. In the fall of 1968, tests of SS-9 Mod 4 ICBMs had been monitored in which three warheads were dispensed, each supposedly capable of carrying up to five megaton-size nuclear bombs. The data, however, were not sufficient for the FMSAC to firmly determine if these were MIRVs or simply three warheads reentering in a row; this difference would have a major impact on their threat to the U.S. defense.
This was a subject of great debate for several months, and critical for Congress to reach a decision on President Nixon’s authorization for Safeguard. Although he had personally concluded that the Soviets did not have MIRV capability, Duckett prepared a paper objectively presenting both sides of the technical debate. On July 17, 1969, with only senators present, Duckett’s paper was read to the Senate. In the final vote on August 6, Vice President Spiro Agnew
Spiro Agnew
Spiro Theodore Agnew was the 39th Vice President of the United States , serving under President Richard Nixon, and the 55th Governor of Maryland...
broke an even split in Congress by favoring the program. Although the effort was still shrouded in top secrecy, there were sufficient “leaks” to allow the news media to call attention to the role of the CIA in such matters.
Submarine espionage
In March 1968, a Soviet Golf class submarineGolf class submarine
Project 629, also known by the NATO reporting name of Golf class, were diesel electric ballistic missile submarines of the Soviet Navy. They were designed after six Zulu class submarines were successfully modified to carry and launch Scud missiles...
imploded – generally believed to be while on the surface recharging its batteries – and sank in about 17000 feet (5,181.6 m) of ocean some 1700 miles (2,735.9 km) northwest of Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
. The Soviet Fleet immediately started a major effort to locate the sub, but gave up in a few weeks, The U.S. Navy’s Sound Surveillance System (SOSUS) – a network of hydrophone
Hydrophone
A hydrophone is a microphone designed to be used underwater for recording or listening to underwater sound. Most hydrophones are based on a piezoelectric transducer that generates electricity when subjected to a pressure change...
arrays – had initially tracked the sub, and triangulation
Triangulation
In trigonometry and geometry, triangulation is the process of determining the location of a point by measuring angles to it from known points at either end of a fixed baseline, rather than measuring distances to the point directly...
had been used to identify the general location where the accident occurred. The Office of Naval Intelligence
Office of Naval Intelligence
The Office of Naval Intelligence was established in the United States Navy in 1882. ONI was established to "seek out and report" on the advancements in other nations' navies. Its headquarters are at the National Maritime Intelligence Center in Suitland, Maryland...
(ONI) then arranged for a spy submarine, the USS Halibut
USS Halibut (SSGN-587)
USS Halibut , a unique guided missile submarine turned special operations platform, later redesignated as an attack submarine SSN-587, was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named for the halibut.-Operational history:...
, to search for the missing sub. During the summer of 1968, long cables lowered lights and cameras, and in August found the sub broken into several large pieces. The forward 200 feet (61 m) section contained the sub’s three missile launch tubes, one with an apparently intact nuclear-tipped missile.
There was great interest in attempting a recovery of items such as cipher machines, code manuals, communications equipment, and possibly a torpedo or even a nuclear warhead. Both the Navy and the CIA started plans for a major salvage effort. The Navy proposed cutting into the sub’s hull and recovering whatever items could be reached. In a joint meeting, the Navy presented its recommended plan. They were staggered, however, when Duckett and the CIA team recommended a gigantic effort to recover an entire 200 feet (61 m) intact section, raising it the three miles (5 km) to the surface.
After an intense debate at all levels, Duckett’s proposal was eventually approved by President Richard Nixon. Howard Hughes
Howard Hughes
Howard Robard Hughes, Jr. was an American business magnate, investor, aviator, engineer, film producer, director, and philanthropist. He was one of the wealthiest people in the world...
agreed for his firm, Summa Corporation
Summa Corporation
Summa Corporation was the name adopted for the business interests of Howard Hughes after he sold the tool division of Hughes Tool Company in 1972. The tool division would merge with Baker International in 1987 to form Baker Hughes, the world's third-largest oil-services company...
, to build a 618 feet (188.4 m) long ship (the Glomar Explorer, ostensibly a deep-water, manganese-mining vessel). This had a companion football-field-sized barge (the Hughes Marine Barge-1) that was carried below the ship and thus hidden from overhead observation. Eight giant claws operating from the barge would lift the intact section of the Golf sub from the ocean floor and into an opening on the bottom of the ship. The activity was code-name Project AZORIAN (sometimes JENNIFER), and publicly justified as a means of rescuing or recovering future U.S. vessels.
It was July 1974 before the Glomar and the Barge began the raising attempt. When the section was lifted about 3000 feet (914.4 m) off the seabed, one of the claws broke, followed by a collapse and shattering of the entire section. All but a small portion – some 10 percent of the original sub – fell back to the ocean floor. The lost portions included the items most desired by the intelligence community. Six bodies were in the recovered section, and were given a formal burial at sea.
Parapsychology intelligence
In the early 1970s, two laser scientists at the Stanford Research InstituteSRI International
SRI International , founded as Stanford Research Institute, is one of the world's largest contract research institutes. Based in Menlo Park, California, the trustees of Stanford University established it in 1946 as a center of innovation to support economic development in the region. It was later...
(SRI) began research in parapsychology
Parapsychology
The term parapsychology was coined in or around 1889 by philosopher Max Dessoir, and originates from para meaning "alongside", and psychology. The term was adopted by J.B. Rhine in the 1930s as a replacement for the term psychical research...
. In a meeting with representatives of the DS&T, they claimed to have found witnesses of Soviet successes in psychokinetics – use of the mind for moving physical objects – and had themselves conducted positive research in mentally viewing remote objects and scenes – astral projection
Astral projection
Astral projection is an interpretation of out-of-body experience that assumes the existence of an "astral body" separate from the physical body and capable of traveling outside it...
.
The CIA had long conducted research in the area of behavioral control. Throughout the 1950s and into the 1960s, there was extensive testing of the effects of hypnosis and drugs, particularly lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) on human subjects. The bulk of these activities were conducted by the Technical Services Staff, forerunner of the Technical Services Department (TSD). Thus, when the SRI scientists presented their information on mind control, Duckett assigned this to the TSD.
In October 1972, the TSD initiated the Biofield Measurements Program, to be conducted jointly with SRI, to determine whether participants (the viewers or percipients) could reliably identify and accurately describe salient features of remote locations or targets. This was in part justified by attempts to find what progress the Soviets were making in parapsychology and how it might be used against the United States. Two test subjects (persons claiming paranormal abilities) were provided by the SRI. Early in the following year, reported successes in “remote viewing” by the percipients were such that other units of the DS&T joined in the effort. A management review of the program was made in the summer of 1973, and both Duckett and the CIA Executive Director William Colby
William Colby
William Egan Colby spent a career in intelligence for the United States, culminating in holding the post of Director of Central Intelligence from September 1973, to January 1976....
allowed the activity to continue.
A carefully planned experiment was conducted in July 1974. Duckett asked that this center on a description made by remote viewing of a target area in the Soviet Union that had been recently imaged by a satellite and suspected to be a nuclear test site. In sessions over a four-day period, the test subjects gave mentally derived descriptions of the site; these descriptions were then independently evaluated by a scientist from the Los Alamos National Laboratory
Los Alamos National Laboratory
Los Alamos National Laboratory is a United States Department of Energy national laboratory, managed and operated by Los Alamos National Security , located in Los Alamos, New Mexico...
The overall judgement of the evaluator was that the remote viewing appeared to be a failure; nevertheless, continued low-level research in parapsychology intelligence was allowed by Duckett until he retired in June 1976.
Post CIA and miscellaneous
After retiring from the CIA in 1976, Carl Duckett joined the firm Intec, Inc., of McLean, VirginiaMcLean, Virginia
McLean is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in Fairfax County in Northern Virginia. The community had a total population of 48,115 as of the 2010 census....
, as Chairman of the Board and President. He had retained top levels of security clearance and, through Intec, provided a number of aerospace industries with consulting services and analytical studies in technical intelligence and electronic warfare. He also served on advisory panels for the Senate Select Committee for Intelligence and the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board. Having earlier been divorced, he married Ann Marie Bell in 1978.
In 1985, Duckett opened an Intec office at Mathews Court House, Virginia, and moved his residence to a bay-side farm near Hudgins, Virginia
Hudgins, Virginia
Hudgins is an unincorporated community in northern Mathews County, Virginia, United States. It lies north of the community of Mathews, the county seat of Mathews County. Its elevation is 10 feet...
. For a period of time, he also served as the Magistrate of Mathews County, Virginia
Mathews County, Virginia
As of the census of 2010, there were 8,978 people, 3,932 households, and 2,823 families residing in the county. The population density was 108 people per square mile . There were 5,333 housing units at an average density of 62 per square mile...
. He continued working for Intec until early 1992, but died of lung cancer in a medical center at Newport News, Virginia
Newport News, Virginia
Newport News is an independent city located in the Hampton Roads metropolitan area of Virginia. It is at the southeastern end of the Virginia Peninsula, on the north shore of the James River extending southeast from Skiffe's Creek along many miles of waterfront to the river's mouth at Newport News...
, on April 1, 1992, and was buried in the Gwynn’s Island Cemetery near his farm. He was survived by his wife, Ann Marie, and, from his first marriage, Nannie Jane; two sons, Ernest Pannell (1942) and Arthur Lee (1946); and a daughter, Ruth Eleanor (1948).
In his professional career, Carl Duckett received the following special awards and decorations:
- Distinguished Intelligence MedalDistinguished Intelligence MedalThe Distinguished Intelligence Medal is awarded by the Central Intelligence Agency for performance of outstanding services or for achievement of a distinctly exceptional nature in a duty or responsibility.-Notable Recipients:Robert G. Brewster...
(CIA—twice received) - Commendation MedalCommendation MedalThe Commendation Medal is a mid-level United States military decoration which is presented for sustained acts of heroism or meritorious service. For valorous actions in direct contact with an enemy force, but of a lesser degree than required for the award of the Bronze Star, the Valor device may...
(U. S. Army) - Leadership Award National Civil Service Reform League
- George Goddard Award (SPIE, Soc. of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engrs.)
- Control, Communications, and Intelligence Award (Association of Old CrowsAssociation of Old CrowsThe Association of Old Crows is an international professional organization specializing in electronic warfare, tactical information operations, and associated disciplines headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia...
).
As a part of its 50th anniversary celebration in 1997, the Central Intelligence Agency gave Trailblazer Awards to 50 Agency officers, “from our earliest days to the present, who by their actions, example, innovations, or initiative, have taken the CIA in important new directions and helped shape our history.” Carl E. Duckett was one of the honored recipients of a Trailblazer Award.
General
- Day, Dwayne A.; et al (eds.); Eye in the Sky: The Story of CORONA Spy Satellites, Smithsonian Institution Press, 1998, pp. 48–85
- Killian, James R., Jr.; Sputniks, Scientists, and Eisenhower, MIT Press, 1982
- Kress, Kenneth A.; “Parapsychology in Intelligence: A Personal Review and Conclusions,” Studies in Intelligence, vol. 21, no. 4 (Winter 1977) pp. 7–17
- Pedlow, Gregory W., and Donald W. Welzenbach; The Central Intelligence Agency and Overhead Reconnasiiance: The U-2 and Oxcard Programs, 1954-1974, CIA/Gov. Printing Office, 1992
- Peebles, Curtis; The Corona Project: America’s First Spy Satellites, Naval Inst. Press, 1997
- Reed, Thomas C.; At The Abyss: An insider’s history of the Cold War; Random House, 2005, pp. 85–86
External links
- History of the CIA; https://www.cia.gov/about-cia/history-of-the-cia/index.html
- Records of the CIA: http://www.archives.gov/research/guide-fed-records/groups/263.html
- Redstone Arsenal Complex Chronology, Part II, Section B: The ABMA/AOMC Era, 1956–62; http://www.redstone.army.mil/history/chron2b/welcome.html
- Welzenbach, David E.; “Science and Technology: Origins of a Directorate”; http://www.foia.cia.gov/wisards/osi_pdf/science_and_tech_orig.pdf