Pilots of the CIA and U.S. Air Force flying the U-2 high over hostile territories not only had to worry about missiles being fired at them, but often found that their biggest problems came from claustrophobia induced by the aircraft’s tiny cockpit and very tight pressure suits that often left their bodies cramped and bruised.

Retired USAF Maj. Gen. Pat Halloran, who spent 16 years flying and commanding the Air Force’s fleet of Lockheed-built U-2 and SR-71 reconnaissance jets, gave SCAA members and guests a fascinating, insider’s account of what it was like to fly secret and dangerous missions high in the stratosphere. He spoke at a dinner meeting Sept. 20 on the occasion of the Air Force’s 60th anniversary.

He said the early-model U-2s, which he began flying in 1956, had very small, cramped cockpits and pilots had to wear a tight “partial pressure” suit in case of loss of cockpit pressure. After suiting up, “We had to sit and breathe pure oxygen for two hours and then get into the airplane and fly missions of eight or nine hours,” he said.

Later models of the U-2 had a somewhat roomier cockpit, but carried more fuel which enabled even longer flights, he said. “Much to the chagrin of the pilots, there was 15 or 16 hours of fuel on board and the poor guys had to sit there (that long) and fly the airplane.” By the early 1960s, surface-to-air missiles could reach the U-2’s altitude and several were shot down over China and Cuba, in addition to the famous 1960 shootdown of CIA pilot Francis Gary Powers over Russia.

Gen. Halloran said that after eight years of flying the “jet powered glider” that was the U-2, he was assigned to fly the Mach 3 SR-71, which like the U-2 was designed by Kelly Johnson, founder of Lockheed’s Skunk Works development center. It flew so high and fast that none was ever hit by enemy fire. Eventually he was made commander of the 9th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing, based in northern California, which made him chief of the U-2 and SR-71 fleets.

The SCAA audience was treated to many rarely-seen photographs from Gen. Halloran’s years of service, including some shots of the mysterious base called “Area 51” at Groom Lake, Nevada which has a runway 17,000 feet long.

He said the SR-71 fleet was retired from service in the 1990s and the remaining aircraft given to museums around the nation. Later models of the U-2 still fly today over such hotspots as Afghanistan and Iraq, gathering pictures and electronic intelligence data to assist air and ground forces down below.