Johnny Shen’s Eighteen U-2 Missions

Locus Publishing Company (大塊文化) will publish the book 《黑貓中隊：七萬呎飛行紀事》 (The Black Cat Squadron: Stories about Flying at 70000 Feet, in Chinese, ISBN：9789862131633), authored by the former U-2 pilot Johnny Shen’s (沈宗李) daughter, 沈麗文. A book release press conference will be held in Taipei World Trade Center, Hall 1, at 7:00pm, Jan 29, during the Taipei International Book Exhibition.

Johnny Shen had flown a total of 18 U-2 operational missions during his stint with the Black Cat Sq. The following is a listing of his missions, including the dates, mission numbers, target areas, and mission types.

1. May 28, 1969: C119C, Southeast China Coast, Photo “H”.
2. Oct 16, 1969: C259C, North China Coast, Photo “H”.
3. Apr 4, 1970: C060C, South China Coast, Photo “H”.
4. Jul 24, 1970: C100C, Taiwan Straits, Photo “H”.
5. Oct 21, 1970: C180C, North China Coast, Photo “B”.
6. Dec 14, 1970: C220C, North China Coast, Photo “H”.
7. Feb 24, 1971: C061C, North China Coast, Photo “H”.
8. Apr 29, 1971: C111C, North China Coast, Photo “H”.
9. Jun 15, 1971: C201C, South China/Hainan Coast, Photo “H”.
10. Jul 14, 1971: C261C, North Central China Coast, Photo “H”.
11. Oct 14, 1971: C321C, Central China Coast, Photo “H”.
12. Nov 16, 1971: C341C, North China Coast, Photo “H”.
13. Dec 8, 1971: C361C, North China Coast, Photo “H”.
14. Jan 11/12, 1972: C022C, South China Coast.
15. Jan 17, 1972: C052C, North China Coast.
16. Apr 26, 1972: C102C, Long Shaft.
17. Sep 7, 1972: C312C, Long Shaft (?).
18. Oct 5, 1972: C342C, Central China Coast, Photo.

Johnny flew “an extremely fine sortie” on his first operational mission, as described by the mission resume:

I am not sure if CIA paid any attention to the fact that Shanghai was Johnnny’s hometown when they assigned him to this mission. The Photo Technical Sq. later sent him an overhead photo of Shanghai taken by the U-2. I wonder if it was from this mission.

Johnny’s last mission in the U-2 also covered Shanghai. Was it purely coincidental?