Nevada Aerospace Hall of Fame

Declaration of Enshrinement

November 17, 2012

Francis J. Murray

In 1963, the US Air Force assigned selected Murray to the 1129th Special Activities Squadron at Groom Lake, Nevada, where he flew the F-101, T-33, and Cessna 180 and 210 aircraft. When the Central Intelligence Agency selected him to fly the Top Secret A-12 Mach 3 reconnaissance plane, he resigned his USAF commission to join fly for Project OXCART at Groom Lake. From 1963 to 1968, for security reasons, Murray endured the necessary participated in a hardship of remaining assignment where he remained at Groom Lake each Monday through Friday, unable for security reasons to tell his family where he worked or what he was doing.

Although based Based at Groom Lake, Murray frequently traveled and rotating to Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, Japan, Murray where he flew numerous reconnaissance missions over North Vietnam for the CIA to locate enemy missile sites for the CIA. On 19 February 1968, When the North Korean navy seized the USS Pueblo and took its crew hostage., Murray flew a mission codenamed Operation BLACKSHIELD, Mission BX6853 making on multiple passes at speeds of Mach 3.1 (1,900 mph) and altitudes over 80,000 feet passes over North Korea on 19 February 1968 to locate the ship and its crew, and for other purposes that remain classified today. For his participation in Operation BLACKSHIELD missions, the Central Intelligence Agency awarded Murray the Intelligence Star for Valor.

For his participation in the Central Intelligence Agency’s Project OXCART and Project Operation BLACKSHIELD at Area 51, Francis J. Murray earned his place in the Nevada Aerospace Hall of Fame .

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TD BARNES, Executive Director

Nevada Aerospace Hall of Fame