On October 27, 1975, security personnel assigned to the 42nd Security Police Squadron, Loring Air Force Base, Maine, were on duty in the munitions storage area, positioned on the northern perimeter of the flight line. Nuclear weapons were stored there in igloo-type huts covered with dirt to camouflage them from aircraft flying in the air corridors above. The dump is more than a half mile long and is surrounded by a twelve-foot-high chain-link fence with barbed wire on top. The area in and around the dump is patrolled day and night by the 42nd Police with K-9 patrols and manned vehicles. It is a highly restricted location, both on the ground and in the air.

At 7:45 P.M., Staff Sgt. Danny K. Lewis of the 42nd Police was on duty at the dump when he spotted what he thought was an aircraft flying at low altitude along the northern perimeter of Loring. Lewis watched as the unknown aircraft penetrated the perimeter at an altitude of approximately 300 feet. From his location, Lewis could see a red navigation light and a white strobe light on the craft.

At about the same time, Staff Sgt. James P. Sampley of the 2192nd Communications Squadron, who was on duty in the control tower, observed the unknown aircraft on the tower radar screen. Its position was approximately ten to thirteen miles east-northeast of the base. Numerous attempts were made to radio the aircraft for identification and to advise it that it was entering a restricted area over the base. All communication bands, military and civilian, were used in an attempt to contact the unknown aircraft, but without results. The unknown aircraft began to circle, and at one point

16

it came to within 300 yards of the nuclear storage area at an altitude of 150 feet.

At the storage area, Lewis notified the Command Post of the 42nd Bomb Wing that an unknown aircraft had penetrated the base and was within 300 yards of the weapons area. The commander of the 42nd Bomb Wing implemented a Security Option 3 alert, which brought the base up to major alert status. The Command Post called the tower and requested a radar tract on the unknown. At 8:45 P.M., Sgt. Grover K. Eggleston of the 2192nd Communications Squadron was on duty at the tower when the call from the Command Post came. He began observing the unknown aircraft. Six minutes later, while watching the radar screen, Eggleston noted that the unknown craft appeared to be circling approximately ten miles east-northeast of the base. This action lasted for forty minutes when, suddenly, it disappeared from the screen. Either the object had landed, or it had dropped below the radar coverage.

The Wing Commander arrived at the weapons storage area seven minutes after the initial sighting was made. Immediately, other units of the 42nd Police began pouring into the area. Security vehicles with blue flashing lights were converging from all over the base. Through the Loring Command Post, the Wing Commander requested fighter coverage from the 21st NORAD Region at Hancock Field, New York, and the 22nd NORAD Region at North Bay, Ontario, Canada. However, fighter support was denied by both regions. The Wing Commander then increased local security posture and requested assistance from the Maine State Police in trying to identify the unknown craft, which they presumed was a helicopter. A call was made to local flight services for possible identification, without results.

The 42nd Security Police conducted a sweep of the weapons storage perimeter inside and out. An additional sweep was made of the areas that the craft had flown over. All actions produced no results. The craft broke the circling pattern and began flying toward Grand Falls, New Brunswick, Canada. Radar contact was lost in the vicinity of Grand Falls bearing 065 degrees, twelve miles from Loring. Canadian authorities were not notified.

No further unusual events occurred throughout that night. Priority messages were sent to the National Military Command Center in Washington, D.C., the Chief of Staff" of the U.S. Air Force, the USAF Forward Operations Division at Fort Ritchie, Maryland, and Strategic Air Command headquarters at the 8th Air Force and the 45th Division informing them of what had taken place. The base remained on a high state of alert for the rest of the night and into the early morning hours of October 28.

Could the unknown have been an aircraft that had strayed off course? Then why, when it was challenged by the tower, was there no response? Most pilots carry charts that show the restricted areas they cannot fly over. Why did the unknown circle at low altitude over the weapons storage area? Was this a one-time incident? Would it happen again? Probably all these

18      Intrusions at Loring

questions were pondered while teletypes were sent, briefings were held, and phone calls were made.

The unknown craft was thought to be a helicopter because of its flight characteristics. It hovered at times and dropped straight down below radar sweeps, and its size was similar to that of a helicopter. Little did the baffled observers know that this was only the beginning of a series of events that would take place over the next few nights, not only at Loring, but at other SAC installations along the northern tier bases and surrounding area.

On October 28, 1975, at 7:45 P.M., Sgt. Clifton W. Blakeslee and Staff Sgt. William J. Long, both assigned to the 42nd Security Police Squadron, were on duty at the munitions storage area. Along with Sgt. Danny Lewis, both Sgts. Blakeslee and Long spotted what appeared to be the running lights of an aircraft approaching Loring Air Force Base from the north at 3,000 feet. The aircraft did not come closer to Loring than about three miles at this time, and it was observed intermittently for the next hour. On first spotting the craft, Sgt. Lewis called the Command Post and advised it that the unknown craft had returned to Loring. Lewis reported that he could see a white flashing light and an amber or orange light. Once again, the Commander, 42nd Bomb Wing responded. Rushing to the area of the storage dump, he observed the unknown craft. He reported seeing a flashing white light and an amber-colored light on the object also. The speed and movement in the air suggested that the craft was a helicopter. From 7:45 P.M. to 8:20 P.M., it was under constant observation, both visually by the personnel in the storage area and electronically by the control tower radar, which showed the craft at a position three miles north of the Loring perimeter.

The unknown craft would appear and disappear from view, and, at one point, appeared over the end of the runway at an altitude of 150 feet. The object subsequently shut off its lights and reappeared over the weapons storage area, maintaining an altitude of 150 feet.

At this time, Sgt. Steven Eichner, a crew chief on a B-52 bomber, was working out of a launch truck along with Sgt. R. Jones and other members of the crew. Jones spotted a red and orange object over the flight line. It seemed to be on the other side of the flight line from where the weapons storage area was located. To Eichner and Jones, the object looked like a stretched-out football. It hovered in midair as everyone in the crew stared in awe. As they watched, the object put out its lights and disappeared, but it soon reappeared again over the north end of the runway, moving in jerky motions. It stopped and hovered. Eichner and the rest of the crew jumped into the truck and started to drive toward the object. Proceeding down Oklahoma Avenue (which borders the runway), they turned left onto the road that led to the weapons storage area. As they made the turn, they spotted the object about 300 feet in front of them. It seemed to be about five feet in the air and hovered without movement or noise. Exhibiting a reddish-orange color, the object was about four car lengths long. Eichner described what he saw next:

Intrusions at Loring    19

They could not see any doors or windows on the object nor any propellers or engines which would keep the object in the air. Suddenly, the base came alive. Sirens began screaming. Eichner could see numerous blue lights on police vehicles coming down the flight line and runway toward the weapons storage area at high speed. Jones turned and said to the crew, "We better get out of here!" They immediately did. The Security Police did not try to stop them. Their interest was in the object over the storage dump, not in the truck which was in a restricted area. The crew drove the truck back to its original location and watched from there. The scene at the weapons storage area was chaotic, with blue lights rotating around, and the vehicles' searchlight beams shining in all directions.

The men in the crew decided not to report what they had seen, because they had entered a restricted area and could have been arrested for the violation.

The object shut off its lights and disappeared, not to be seen again that night. The 42nd Police conducted a security sweep of the weapons storage area inside and out, with no results. Radar had once again briefly tracked the object heading for Grand Falls, New Brunswick, finally losing the unknown at Grand Falls itself.

Priority messages were sent to the National Military Command Center in Washington, the Chief of Staff of the Air Force, the Air Force Forward Operations Division at Fort Ritchie, Maryland, SAC Headquarters, and the 9th Air Force, 45th Division, advising them that an unknown object had penetrated the base and had been in the nuclear storage area.

Because of the activity of the previous two days, Col. Richard E. Chapman, Commander of the 42nd Bomb Wing, had requested air support in the form of a National Guard helicopter and crew that was currently located at Loring. He wanted to be ready in case the intruder returned on the night of the twenty-ninth. This request was sent through military channels and was approved with the following constraints: The helicopter was to be used for tracking and identification only; apprehension by U.S. personnel was not authorized. There was to be no crossing of international borders, and only U.S. personnel, preferably military, but including the FBI, FAA, and Border Patrol representatives, if necessary, could be on board the National Guard helicopter.

Orders were given to place the helicopter and crew on "Full Time Training Duty." This, in essence, federalized the National Guard helicopter.

Brig. Gen. C. D. Roberts, USMC, Deputy Director for Operations, National Military Command Center, established a conference call with Major General Burkhart at SAC and Chapman, informing them of their approval

20      Intrusions at Loring

to use the helicopter. With the constraints, Chapman stated that there was no point in using the helicopter if it couldn't cross the border. Brig. Gen. Roberts notified Major General Sniffin, Director of Operations, DCSOPS (Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations and Plans) of the border-crossing issue. Permission to cross was requested of Canadian officials and subsequently was granted.

Sniffin called Roberts to inform him that permission had been granted to cross the border. This, in turn, was relayed to Col. Chapman at Loring. At 7:00 A.M., Col. Al White of the 112th Army National Guard Medical Company (Air Ambulance) in Bangor, Maine, ordered one UH 1 (Huey helicopter) to Loring with Chief Warrant Officer Bernard Poulin and Chief Warrant Officer Eugene E. Herrin aboard. After being told that their mission was secret, they were ordered to report to Col. Chapman.

On August 27, 1982, Bernard Poulin was interviewed by Larry Fawcett. His recollection of his mission was as follows:

Upon our arrival at Loring AFB, we were briefed by the Wing Commander, Col. Richard Chapman. We were informed that all the sightings of this craft or whatever you want to call it had been late night or early morning. We launched the next morning. Aboard my helicopter were one member of the Canadian Royal Mounted Police, one member of the Maine State Police, and several Air Security police officers. The Air Police had a radio in the back of the helicopter and when the reports of the intruder started to come in, they would direct me to the location in which the object was seen. The reason the Maine State Police and the Canadian Police were aboard was that there had been a lot of drug operations going on in the area, and the powers to be thought that this is what was occurring at the base, but this never panned out, to the best of my recollection.

Well, we were launched on the first search mission after ground personnel started to see or hear the, quote, if you will, "UFO" go by. So, we would launch, and I believe that we were in the air for around 40 minutes looking for this thing, with the idea that it was a rotary-type craft we were searching for. We were vectored in by ground personnel to different spots on the base where the ground personnel were seeing or hearing it. All this time we were being tracked by base radar [traffic control radar which is designed to pick up aircraft], and radar was not painting the object that was being reported. Ground personnel would call and say the object is at this location, but radar would not pick it up.

Well, anyway, we hunted around, and we didn't see anything. Again they would call and say they could hear it at a location, and we would go there, but could not see it. We would then shut down and wait for the next call. And that went on for a couple of nights. This, again, was early evening or early in the morning. I can recall on the second night of the mission radar picked up a return, but it turned out to be a KC-135 tanker returning from overseas.

Poulin was asked: "According to some of the documents, personnel on the ground were reporting that at times you would bring your craft within 100 feet of the intruder, yet you could not see it?" He answered:

Intrusions at Loring    21

When they arrived at the base, the security lid was on so tightly that both pilots were permitted to call their wives only once to say that they were on a mission. In a meeting with Chapman, Poulin recalled the Commander saying, "We've got to keep the lid on the fact that someone has been able to penetrate in and around the bomb dump, and we don't know what's going on. We've got to find out what is going on and prevent it from happening again."

At Loring, additional manpower was armed and ready for deployment. The Security Police Battle Staff was to be manned at Central Security Control. An additional two-man mobile patrol was assigned to the weapons storage area during the hours of darkness, while a ten-man reserve force was standing by, ready for deployment. A two-man patrol would be positioned at key vantage points about one mile north of the base for added surveillance. An SAC/SP message informed northern tier bases of the situation and recommended a "Security Option Three" alert all along the U.S.-Canadian border.

The message went to Pease AFB in New Hampshire, Plattsburgh AFB in New York, Wurtsmith AFB in Michigan, Kinchloe AFB in Michigan, Sawyer AFB in Michigan, Grand Forks AFB in North Dakota, Minot AFB in North Dakota, Malmstrom AFB in Montana, Fairchild AFB in Washington, and Barksdale AFB in Iowa. The subject-identifying line of the message was "Defense Against Helicopter Assault," and it read:

On October 30, the Maine National Guard helicopter was replaced by a USAF helicopter and crew from Plattsburgh Air Force Base.

The following evening there were several reports of unknown objects suspected to be helicopters, at distances varying from directly over the base to 10 nautical miles northeast of the base. Some reports were confirmed on RAPCON radar with altitudes between 300 and 5,000 feet.

22      Intrusions at Loring

Additional, sporadic reports of helicopters continued well into December, though many of these were subsequently identified as normal helicopter traffic. In these reports, however, a distinction was drawn between the October sightings and later reports: Robert Fauk, Deputy Chief Patrol Agent with the U.S. Border Patrol, said he felt that an alleged helicopter report of November 18 was not the "Midnight Skulker of Loring." He added, "This craft was too slow and too small to be the craft they had problems with at Loring."

Two days before, Caribou police received telephone calls at 1:30 A.M. and 2:00 A.M. from an unnamed woman reporting bright, glowing lights that changed colors. Before long, reports came in from, among others, four Caribou police officers, one state Civil Defense officer, three Aroostook County deputy sheriffs, on-duty personnel at Loring, and several police officers from the communities of Limestone and Fort Fairchild. Descriptions were vague, but involved mainly blinking green and red lights and, in at least one instance, an exhaust or smoke emission.

After the woman's 2:00 A.M. call had come in, Officer Paul B. Michaud was on duty at the Caribou police station desk. He said, "When she first called, I thought she was seeing things or looking at the moon, but when I went out and looked, it was there."

"There was a real bright light. It hovered for a long time," Michaud said. He monitored the object for some time after. Referring to the original woman caller, Michaud said, "She called back about a half hour later and wanted to know what we were doing about it. She called back again. She probably stayed up all night."

Michaud was quite emphatic about his opinion of the object. "I'm twenty-eight years old, and I never saw anything like it. I don't believe in flying saucers or anything like that, but I don't know what that was."

An interesting addendum to this report is the fact that an airman at Loring told Caribou police that an unidentified object had briefly appeared on a radar screen and was located about fifteen miles across the border into Canada. Yet several days later, Lt. Robert Barca, Loring's Assistant Information Officer, said that his office was not too sure where the information came from, but a recheck showed Loring's radar screen did not track "the thing," according to reporter Christopher Spruce of the Bangor Daily News.

On October 12, 1982, Larry Fawcett interviewed Dean Rhodes, who, at the time of the overflights at Loring, was the reporter for the Bangor Daily News covering the story. During his investigation of the overflights, Rhodes traveled into Canada to check the possibility that the objects seen had originated from the Canadian side of the border.

He went to the airport in Grand Falls, New Brunswick, and spoke to pilots who were familiar with helicopters. No one there could shed any light on who or what had flown over Loring. A friend of Rhodes in the town of Van Buren, Maine, near the border, seemed convinced that this "helicopter" had come from a construction site located in the St. Johns Valley. Rhodes

Intrusions at Loring    23

questioned people at that site, including workers who would have known about the usage of a helicopter. They stated that no helicopter flights went into Maine at any time and no one knew of anyone owning such a vehicle in the area.

When Rhodes checked with the FBI in Boston, he was told that the aerial intrusions over Loring remained under investigation and that they had no idea as to who was responsible. A later Freedom of Information request was filed by the authors with the Boston FBI office, asking for documents concerning the identity of the object. The FBI completely denied any knowledge of the craft or who may have been responsible for the flights.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) also responded similarly to inquiries about the object.

Rhodes checked with the U.S. Customs office at the Limestone border station and learned that a Customs officer, John J. Stedman, saw a light to the east around 1:30 A.M. Its maneuvering caused Stedman to tentatively identify it as an aircraft, probably a helicopter. Stedman saw what appeared to be a single white landing light and noted "vertical and horizontal movement." He estimated the altitude at about 5,000 feet. Rhodes learned that an RCMP officer who viewed the object from Stedman's border point said he didn't think the object was moving. "It was more than a mile and a half inside Canada, because from the TransCanada Highway, it still was quite a distance away. The TransCanada Highway lies more than a mile and a half inside the border. The officer said he had thought the object was more like a heavenly body than an aircraft."

According to confidential RCMP reports, the object was spotted over Grand Falls, New Brunswick, each time it was seen at Loring. When asked how the object was detected, RCMP Superintendent G. E. Reid said he would just "like to leave it as it is." An RCMP investigation of the Grand Falls incident was conducted, but no details were ever released.

On October 31, 1977, The National Enquirer sent a series of questions to the Secretary of the Air Force about the Loring incident, among other events. The questions, with the Air Force's answers are as follows.

1.  Were they identified or traced?

A.  No, the overflights were not identified as helicopters. Unsuccessful attempts were made to trace the sighted craft.

2.   Was it ever definitely established that they were helicopters, or was this

an assumption made based on sound, light, etc? A.  No. The helicopter assumption was based on the sound and light perceptions

of the eyewitnesses.

3.  Were there any markings on any of the aircraft? A.  No markings were identified.

24      Intrusions at Loring

4.   Did they appear to be any known type of helicopter?

A.  Type of aircraft could not be identified due to limited visibility.

J.   How is it possible that any unidentified craft can get inside an AFB without

being detected? A.  On the dates in question the unidentified aircraft entered the airspace of

each base at night and were detected.

6.   Is there any explanation why OSI agents and others aboard could not see the intruding copter when people on the ground could see both the chase copter and the intruder?

A. No explanation of this occurrence has been postulated.

7.   Why was no attempt made to contact the copter by radio? A. Unknown.

Note the comments here. While the former public stance had been "helicopters," (as was also stated to Loring base personnel), suddenly the objects "were not identified as helicopters." No markings were identified nor could the type of aircraft be identified. And the objects could not be tracked with any certainty. Then, what was seen? Answer: Unknown!

According to an Air Force Office of Special Investigations (OSI) teletype dated October 29, 1975, Loring had been through this experience before. The teletype says briefly, "This incident closely parallels a similar helicopter sighting earlier this year." However, in a letter dated April 21, 1977, titled "Overflight of USAF Installations by Unidentified Aircraft," OSI states: "AFOSI files revealed no record of the overflight of Loring AFB, ME (LAFB) in Jan. 1975 as reported in referenced letter." The referenced letter is one written on March 31, 1977, by Col. Richard Chapman, Commander of the 42nd Bomb Wing at Loring, certainly one source who would know about the earlier incident. What was so sensitive about the January 1975 overflight that OSI denied any knowledge of it, even in the face of the Loring Commander's statement? The authors have been unable to obtain further details about this affair, but it adds one more piece to a puzzle of mystery.

Yet more evidence of the strange nature of the Loring intruder followed. A paralegal aide in Washington, D.C., Robert Kinn, responded to a story about the Loring sightings in the Washington Post of January 18, 1979. Kinn said that he and another student attended Bowdoin College during 1975. One night in October, when all the activity occurred at Loring, Kinn and his friend were near the Brunswick, Maine, Naval Air Station. According to Kinn, "It came in very low, at treetop level from the ocean. It was like a helicopter, but different. More than twice the size of a normal helicopter. It had red lights and a white light. It would make ninety-degree turns and fly very fast."

"The base lighted up like a Christmas tree. There were trucks going every which way. It stayed over the base for five or ten minutes and then scooted over the Atlantic."

"We thought it might have been a vertical takeoff plane. We could tell it was not a normal helicopter," Kinn said. He added, "Both of us associ-

Intrusions at Loring    25

ated the sighting with a UFO activity; the excitement on the base was way out of the usual."

Could the Brunswick Naval Air Station UFO be the same object as that which was seen at Loring? According to a spokesman for the station, there had been no UFO sightings at the base for eight years. A vertical takeoff plane was stationed at Brunswick at the time, but there was no evidence linking it to the UFO sighting.

Occurring on the same day as the first Loring report (October 27) was the experience of David Stephens. We present this case, with little comment, as possibly having some relation to the other sightings. We find no evidence that the witnesses knew anything about the intense activity in Maine at the time. Indeed, the story was reported in the Lewiston Daily Sun on October 28, only a day after the first Loring report and fully two days before the first Loring press notices.

During the morning of October 27, Stephens, twenty-one years old, and a roommate, Glen Gray, eighteen, were listening to records in their trailer in Norway, Maine. Suddenly, a loud bang was heard. Both men went out to see what happened, but found nothing.

Later, Stephens and Gray decided to go for a ride in their 1968 Plymouth to kill time. They headed south on Route 26 toward Lake Thompson in Oxford, Maine. After traveling a quarter of a mile, they claimed that an "unknown force" wrenched the wheel of the car away from them. According to Stephens, "The car automatically turned. From then on, we couldn't control it."

As it developed, the car traveled well over a hundred miles per hour, over a distance of eleven miles to a field at Poland, Maine. It was here that they noticed two bright lights in a field. They thought that these were the lights on a truck, but shortly after they saw them, the lights began to rise, giving the impression of a helicopter.

Whatever it was, it rose above the trees adjoining the field and swerved silently in front of their car. The object was cigar-shaped, with red, green, and blue lights on the side, and about the size of a football field. The men, very frightened, drove away. After going a quarter of a mile, they noticed that the two bright lights on the object went out and another very bright light suddenly struck their car, causing Stephens and Gray to black out. They woke up after what they supposed was five minutes. It turned out that hours had apparently passed.

They started driving, only to lose control again and unwillingly drive to Tripp Pond. The huge UFO was there waiting. Two other domed, saucer-shaped objects were seen cavorting in the sky above the pond. The two saucers then skimmed low over the pond and released a gray smoke which surrounded the car. The men saw the large UFO high in the air through the smoke. Suddenly, all of the objects and the smoke disappeared. Dawn broke shortly after.

2C      Intrusions at Loring

Both men drove home and discovered a variety of physiological effects. Their hands and feet were swollen. Teeth were loose. Red rings had appeared around their necks, and they had severe chills. The next night they phoned the sheriff, who turned out to be very skeptical of the report when he came out to visit the men. Who could blame him!

Later, during December and January, Stephens met with Dr. Herbert Hopkins of Old Orchard Beach, Maine, who put him through eight sessions of hypnotic regression to discover details of the missing time. An even more unusual story came out.

Stephens recalled his car moving sideways, and the next thing he knew, he was inside the large UFO, standing in a dome-shaped room. A humanoid creature entered the room. According to Stephens, "He was four and a half feet tall, dressed in a dark robe. His head was shaped like a big light bulb. He had slanted eyes, no hair, and no mouth." Stephens was told he wouldn't be harmed.

He entered another room with five other entities standing around a long table. They asked Stephens to get up on the table and prepare for an examination. Stephens resisted and struck one of the creatures, without effect.

Stephens next found himself on the table being examined with a small, square machine with an extension arm and a probe on the end. The machine had many dials and lights on it. With it, the entities took skin and nail samples, hair and blood, and a button off Stephens' jacket. He was injected with a brown fluid which acted like a sedative. They said it wouldn't hurt him.

Stephens woke up after an undetermined time in his car next to Gray. The car was facing an oak tree. At might be expected, no one believed Stephens' extraordinary story, but he was fully convinced, along with Glen Gray, that it did happen.

We should add that while no solid evidence exists to substantiate the story by itself, several curious factors appear. First, the account coincided with the first outburst of sightings at Loring. Second, the Stephens' sighting location was less than forty miles from the Brunswick Naval Air Station, scene of the Kinn report. Third, Stephens and Gray described their UFO at first as looking like a helicopter, again like the Loring and Brunswick reports.

This string of events in Maine turned out to be merely the tip of the iceberg in a nationwide UFO blitz which received remarkably little media attention at the time.