My Odyssey To Area 51: Autobiography of Thornton D. "TD" Barnes
Thornton D. "TD" Barnes was born on his parent's ranch at Dalhart, Texas in 1937. He graduated from High School at Mountain View, Oklahoma and immediately joined the Army where he served in Intelligence in Korea. Thereafter, Barnes attended numerous electronics schools in Army air defense missiles and radar at Fort Bliss, Texas. He served in Germany and then attended OCS at Fort Sill, Oklahoma where he sustained career ending injuries during survival training. He participated as a field engineer on the NASA High Range in Nevada during the test flights of the X-15, XB-70, Lifting Bodies, and Lunar landing Vehicles. He participated in the NERVA project at Jackass Flats in Nevada developing a nuclear rocket engine for manned flight to Mars. From there he was recruited by the CIA for special projects at Area 51 in Nevada where he participated in CIA Project Oxcart developing the A-12 Blackbird planes for surveillance flights over Russia. At Area 51, Barnes participated in exploitation of Russian MiG aircraft and radar that is the genesis of the Navy's Top Gun and the USAF Red Flag exercises that continue today. He also participated in the early development of stealth technology at Area 51. Barnes left government service to form an Oil and Gas Exploration company. He was successful in business and expanded into the mining of uranium and gold. Since retirement, Barnes has worked with the CIA, various universities, and the Library of Congress to record the history of the classified projects in which he worked. Barnes is the president of Roadrunners Internationale, a social organization of the men who worked for the CIA at Area 51. He co-founded and served as first executive director of the Nevada Aerospace Hall of Fame where he focuses on educating the youth of Nevada and honoring the legends of aerospace and aviation in that state. In 2007, the CIA brought Barnes back to CIA during declassification of some of the projects in which he worked at Area 51. In 2010, the CIA declassified Barnes' personal participation in these projects at Area 51. Since then, Barnes has been extensively identified in the documentary "Area 51 Declassified" by the National Geographic Channel. He has also been filmed in numerous documentaries by the History Channel, the Discovery Channel, the Travel Channel and others. The best selling book by author Annie Jacobsen focused around the declassified history of Barnes' activities at Area 51.