Wurtsmith Air Force Base and the KC-135 chase
At about 10:10 p.m. on October 30, 1975, guards at Wurtsmith, a Strategic Air Command base on Lake Huron, saw an object with a white light pointing downward and two red lights at the rear. Minutes later security police reported an “unidentified helicopter” hovering low over the weapons storage area, and the base radar approach control picked up a target about 35 miles to the south-east. A KC-135 tanker flying nearby was asked to look. Its six-man crew, among them Maj. Frederick Pappas, saw lights and painted the object on their radar for about ten seconds, and followed it at about 2,000 feet north over Lake Huron and then south toward Saginaw Bay; each time they closed in it sped away, and Capt. Myron Taylor put its final speed at about 1,000 knots. Low on fuel, they broke off. The NORAD log recorded that the tanker “made both visual sighting and radar skin paint” and that contact was lost 25 nautical miles south-east over Lake Huron.
Explanation
The NORAD log called it a helicopter over the weapons storage area, but no helicopter was identified, and the tanker crew described an object that pulled away each time they closed on it. It is one of a series of intrusions at northern Strategic Air Command bases that autumn, including Loring and Malmstrom.
What was seen
Shape: One white light pointing down and two red lights at the rear
Witnesses: Base security police and the six-man crew of a KC-135 tanker
Duration: About an hour
Sources
Browse
- United States
- 1970s
- Unresolved
- Military encounters
- Official government documents
- Military witnesses
- Pilot and aircrew witnesses
- Radar tracking
- Lights and fireballs