Subject: UFO Circles Weapons
Storage Area
Loring AFB, ME
October 27, 1975
NMCC
Documents (6) (Fran
Ridge files)
Although it is no longer an active Air Force Base today, in
1975 Loring AFB was a Strategic Air Command Base and a storage site for
nuclear weapons. The nukes were stored in a fenced weapons dump
consisting of small huts covered with dirt for camouflage from the air.
It was patrolled day and night by the 42nd Security Police Squadron.
At 7:45 p.m. on 27 October, 1975, Staff Sgt. Danny K. Lewis was
patrolling the weapons dump when he saw an unidentified aircraft
nearing the north perimeter of Loring at a low altitude of about
300
feet. Lewis noticed what appeared to be a red navigation light
and a
white strobe light on the aircraft. As Lewis watched, the craft
entered the perimeter of Loring. Meanwhile, in the control tower
of
the air base, Staff Sgt. James P. Sampley of the 2192nd Communications
Squadron was on duty at the radar screen. He got a radar return from an
unknown aircraft ten to thirteen miles east-northeast of Loring.
Sampley made numerous attempts by radio on all available communications
bands, civilian and military, to contact the craft, but he got no
response. The unidentified craft began to circle, and came to within
300 yards of the restricted nuclear storage area at a low
altitude of
150 feet.
Back at the nuclear weapons dump, Lewis notified his Command Post
that
an unknown aircraft had penetrated the base perimeter and was within
300 yards of the nuclear weapons area. The base was immediately put on
a Security Option 3 alert and Security contacted the tower regarding
radar tracking of the aircraft. At 8:45 P.M., Sgt. Grover K. Eggleston
began observing the craft on radar from the tower as it began circling
ten miles east-northeast of the base. The Wing Commander ordered a
ground search and requested air support from Hancock Field, New York
and North Bay, Ontario, Canada. Both bases refused to send air support.
The Maine State Police and local airport flight services were contacted
to attempt to identify the unknown craft, but without results. Intense
ground searches produced no results.
The craft continued circling for approximately forty
minutes, at which time it broke the pattern and headed toward Grand
Falls, New Brunswick, Canada. In the vicinity of Grand Falls, twelve
miles from Loring, it vanished from the radar screen. There was no
further activity that night, although the base remained on high alert
into the next morning. SAC Headquarters was notified.
(Aadapted from "CLEAR INTENT", Lawrence Fawcett and Barry Greenwood,
page 16-26)
Francis Ridge
NCP Coordinator