Tina writes:

The following text is from Brian Shul's Sled Driver, his memoir of
flying the SR-71. It's a great read, and most of us has seen parts of
it before.

It's protected by copyright, too, which you might try to keep in mind.

Shul is an excellent writer, an excellent pilot, and not incidentally, an
excellent photographer. His book is well worth paying for.

how is it such an airplane had been resticted to recon? Had any
been configured as a first strike weapon? I suppose some may have and
we'd never know.

SAC wanted to use it as a bomber, but that didn't work out. Ultimately it was
used only for reconnaissance, unarmed. It flew so high and fast that nobody
ever managed to shoot it down.