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Silent heros of the Cold War declassified
Kyril D. Plaskon

Silent heros of the Cold War declassified

the mysterious military plane crash on a Nevada mountain peak-- and the families who endured an abyss of silence for generation

Stephens Press (Nov 01, 2009)
9781932173604
203 pages
LC Classification UG1242.R4 .P55 2009

Subject

  • Airplanes, Military - Accidents - Nevada
  • Airplanes, Military - Accidents - United States
  • Cold War
  • Defense Information, Classified - United States
  • U-2 (Reconnaissance Aircraft) - History

Plot

From Las Vegas, Mount Charleston looks like little more than a giant gravel mound in the distance, towering 11,916 feet above the neon lights of the entertainment capital of the world. Only a fraction of the nearly 40 million people who visit this 24-hour city ever bother to look west and skyward toward the mountain. The truth is that this very mountain is a silent memorial to fourteen men who died there in a plane crash on November 17, 1955; men who were part of the secret development of the U-2 spy plane, integral to America's success in the Cold War. The United States government was so determined to keep their mission a secret that it lied to the families of the victims, sealed the crash records and even rigged the site with explosives in an effort to obliterate any remnants of their existence. If it weren't for the curiosity of one visitor, the national secret that haunted the mountainside might never have been revealed. In these pages, finally, the story is told.