United States · 27 October 1975
Loring AFB, 1975
ReportedSAC issued a real-world defensive directive across its northern-tier nuclear bases because something was hovering over a live weapons storage area, while later Air Force statements walk back the word helicopter entirely.
- Where
- Loring AFB, Limestone, Maine - weapons storage area and flight line
- When
- 27 October 1975
- Who reported it
- Multiple USAF security police, SAC personnel and base command staff
- Entities described
- None reported
- Handled as
- INVESTIGATED / UNRESOLVED
- Evidence class
- GOV-1
The record
An official file preserves that a report was made and examined. It does not, by itself, establish what was seen.
- USAF AFOSI; Strategic Air Command; 42nd Bombardment Wing; NORAD AFOSI teletype 29 Oct 1975; SAC/SP message Defense Against Helicopter Assault; AFOSI letter 21 April 1977 (opens in a new tab)
Part of the chain is attached. The rest is still being retrieved.
What is not settled
The Air Force's own position drifted, which cuts both ways: the SAC message records an unidentified helicopter hovering over the weapons storage area, but the 1977 AFOSI letter states files revealed no record of the overflight. Most probable mundane explanation remains a covert conventional helicopter incursion. No page scans online - a NARA RG 341 / AFOSI FOIA request.