I have been carrying on a love affair with the SR-71 and A-12, forever. I started collecting pictures of the birds by tail number years ago. My son fell into it also. About 20 years ago, I had just got an 8X10 from Robbins AFB museum, of a SR-71, when my son asked what was with the A-12's, that the CIA had in storage. I explained that the birds were in storage, and the CIA wasn't real big on displaying them. Well I was wrong about that, but that's another story. I explained to my son that any American was allowed to ask the CIA for information under the F.O.I. act, (Freedom Of Information act.) and that if the CIA could release information on your subject, they would. My son wrote a very "basic" letter that a 10 year old would send off. Including a hand drawn picture of his interpretation of what an A-12 looked like. Months passed, and it was forgotten. On fine day I looked in the mail box, and found a huge brown paper envelope. Addressed to my son. I jokingly said, "It from the CIA, no return address, When my son came home, he opened it, and lo and behold, it was indeed from the CIA! The cover sheet explained that the CIA could not provide pictures of the A-12's', but would include the compleat history of the A-12 Ox Cart and SR-71 development and deployment. Complete with "Top Secret" stamps on the top of every page, crossed through with a magic marker! AND redacted portions! Simply incredible!! Fantastic reading. Since then we have seen the SR-71C, (Junk Yard Dog) in the ROY, UTAH air museum, and received other 8X10 from other sources. The SR-71C model is a combination of a wrecked SR-71, and a static display/non flight test example of a A-12. The Air Force hated this plane due to its "Mongrel" background and the fact that it seemed to ALWAYS have some kind of problem, making it Non-Op. It was mostly used as a hanger queen/repair parts source. SR-71, what an incredible bird.
