Reconnaissance: Cameras Aloft: No Secrets Below

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Skilled Pis. The best pictures taken during the Cuban crisis showed missiles and launching devices that even laymen could recognize, but most information is extracted from films by an elaborate system of analysis. Military Pis (photo interpreters) are carefully trained to look for hints that point to important hidden information—a picture showing tracks leading into an apparently impenetrable thicket, perhaps a truck parked near no visible road, or a large rectangular object showing vaguely through foliage. Only after careful study can the Pis turn such clues into knowledge of a carefully camouflaged strongpoint.

As they pry and peer to penetrate concealment, the interpreters often depend on infra-red light. When fresh green foliage is cut and used to hide something, the chlorophyll in the leaves changes quickly into a substance that is easily recognizable if illuminated by infrared. Such so-called "black" light can even show dying leaves where men have hacked their way through jungle only hours before. Another kind of infra-red photography reveals warm objects, such as heated underground chambers or recently used trucks parked under trees.

The most intricate photo systems may not be needed in Cuba, but the PIs will still use all their skills to keep tab on military activity there. Missiles can be hidden in caves, for example, and Cuba has more than its share. But caves seldom have roads leading to their mouths. If a PI spots the track of a heavy vehicle leading to a mountainside, he will refer to earlier pictures of the same area to find how long ago the tracks were made. Fresh tracks may point to a cave-dwelling missile that calls for that necessary next step after photography: on-site inspection.

Seldom is the PI's work so dramatic. Mostly they check photos of Cuba's monotonous plains and cane fields, looking for signs of new activity. A car parked near by a peasant's thatched shack is the sort of thing that will attract their attention. So is an oil slick on a lagoon. They will strain to spot all major movements of men. Every acre of Cuba has long since become familiar to the PIs. If any acre changes in the slightest, it will come under suspicion.

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