August 8, 2012 at 11:20am 22 notes
column onefamily
Source: Los Angeles Times
Unraveling her father’s Cold War secrets: Hugh Cart couldn’t tell his family what he did. Then a phone call from the past opened the door to his work on a top-secret spy mission. Times’ staffer Julie Cart on her father: Growing up, we never knew exactly what my father did when he left for work. All we knew was that he worked long hours and was sometimes gone for days, leaving my mother with the cryptic salutation: I can’t tell you where I’m going, what I will be doing, who I’ll be with or when I’ll be back. Love you. … Though they were Cold War heroes who never got parades or medals, they said, without exception, that their work on Corona was the highlight of their lives. “I’ve pinched myself many, many times,” said Bill Bridwell, my father’s best friend who also worked in the program. “I come from the potash mines in Carlsbad, New Mexico. All the guys at Vandenberg, they were all the same way. They come from dairy farms and ranches. It was just a fairy tale.” Photo: Hugh Cart, top left, at missile head, works on a missile with other members of the project’s team. Credit: Cart family

Unraveling her father’s Cold War secrets: Hugh Cart couldn’t tell his family what he did. Then a phone call from the past opened the door to his work on a top-secret spy mission.

Times’ staffer Julie Cart on her father:

Growing up, we never knew exactly what my father did when he left for work. All we knew was that he worked long hours and was sometimes gone for days, leaving my mother with the cryptic salutation: I can’t tell you where I’m going, what I will be doing, who I’ll be with or when I’ll be back. Love you.

… Though they were Cold War heroes who never got parades or medals, they said, without exception, that their work on Corona was the highlight of their lives.

“I’ve pinched myself many, many times,” said Bill Bridwell, my father’s best friend who also worked in the program. “I come from the potash mines in Carlsbad, New Mexico. All the guys at Vandenberg, they were all the same way. They come from dairy farms and ranches. It was just a fairy tale.”

Photo: Hugh Cart, top left, at missile head, works on a missile with other members of the project’s team. Credit: Cart family

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    How coolll.. wonder if my dad is a spy?
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