16. Recruiting the Right Bats
Dr. Adams gathered together a coterie of supportive scientists, and took a team of naturalists from the University of California on a bat-collecting expedition. Their studies and observations confirmed Adams’ hunch that the Mexican Free-Tailed Bat was the best candidate for the project. So Adams’ team netted hundreds of Free-tails, placed them in refrigerated trucks to induce hibernation, and sent them to Washington for further research. There, Adams conducted an experiment in front of military brass with some Free-tails and dummy bombs. The results impressed his audience, and convinced them that the plan, which was designated Project X-Ray, warranted serious research. The US Army Air Force was put in charge of the project, whose subject matter was described as a “Test of Methods of Scattering Incendiaries“.
Research and tests were ordered, so as to “[d]etermine the feasibility of using bats to carry small incendiary bombs into enemy targets“. Work on Project X-Ray picked up the pace in 1942. First, was confirmation that bats could actually carry the weight of small incendiary bombs. Female bats routinely carry their young, so load tests were conducted at Moffet Field Naval Air Station in Sunnyvale, California. They confirmed that the species can, indeed, carry its body weight or more in sustained flight. It was now time for the next step, so teams were sent to delve into caverns throughout the American southwest, to drum up bat recruits for large scale testing. The critters were captured by the thousands, and transported to research centers, where they were placed in specially constructed “bat houses”.