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CRAWFORD, Douglas R. “Roy” (b. 1929)

Military ServiceU.S. Air Force Veteran

Oral Histories

OH 1557

His experiences as a radar technician in the U.S. Air Force during the Cold War years. Early family life; decision to join the U.S. Army Air Forces, 1946; training as a bulldozer operator; removal of radioactive debris from Hiroshima, 1946-47; training as a radar operator at Edwards Air Force Base, California; his work as the radar tracker when Major Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier in the Bell X-1 on October 14, 1947; assignment to Clark Air Force Base, Philippines, 1949; assignment to Korea, 1952, as a forward air observer; his role as an airborne radar operator during the Bay of Pigs invasion and the Cuban Missile Crisis; his various activities with the NASA Space Program; clandestine missions with the CIA and Air America over Cambodia during the Vietnam War.