Abduction of Scorpion 6 (eBook)

Chapter 2

20 June 1955

45,000 feet above Lake Superior

Captain Glen Casper had a lot on his mind. Just before takeoff, his wife Becca informed him that they were expecting their first child. The couple had been trying to conceive, unsuccessfully, since his return from the Korean War three years earlier. While the news was an answer to his prayers, he now faced the difficult decision of continuing his military career or transitioning to civilian life.

He loved serving in the Air Force and his well-deserved promotion to the rank of major was only weeks away. If he accepted the promotion, he would incur an additional service commitment and would likely be reassigned to a base in Europe. While his wife was supportive of his service, he knew she preferred to return to civilian life and move back home to Alabama to be near their families. He would need to make a decision, and soon.

His thought process was interrupted by the sound of his radar operator calling over the intercom from the back seat.

“Ghost from Legend. You awake up there?”

“Ghost here. Yeah, I’m awake.”

“We are drifting off course a bit. I thought maybe you were napping.”

“No, I just have a lot on my mind. I’ll correct course.”

“Everything OK? I saw Becca stopped in to see you just before the mission briefing.”

“It’s good news, but it’s not public just yet. Becca is expecting.”

“Congratulations old man! If I got a girl pregnant, I suppose I would be flying off course too. Probably all the way to Canada,” the confirmed bachelor said with a laugh.

“I’m sure you would,” laughed Ghost.

“You thinking about punching out of the best job in the world to fly drunk tourists on Pan American Airways?”

“I’m considering all my options,” he replied.

“Well think a little longer old buddy. You are about to pin on major and will have your own squadron soon enough. I think you would regret leaving the service at this point. You survived Korea. The rest is all downhill.”

“I’ll think about it. Ghost out.”

“Roger that. Legend out.”

A newer practice with fighter pilots was to assign a nickname or “callsign”. This served two purposes. It provided a new layer of anonymity over radio communications as well as filled the need for comradery in the service. While some callsigns were innocent enough, others were based on mistakes or incidents during training. Glen was assigned the callsign “Ghost” simply because his last name was Casper like the cartoon character. His younger backseater, First Lieutenant Kelly Jensen, earned the callsign “Legend” because he was able to land a date with an attractive young woman who had a reputation for rejecting the advances of several other pilots.

Once back on course for their patrol, Casper tried to keep his mind focused on the mission. Protecting the nation’s northern border from the growing Soviet aggression was about as important a job as one could have. Russia was rapidly increasing its iron grip on the globe and just a few weeks earlier established the Warsaw Pact in response to the allies’ North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). This new pact aligned East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Albania, and Bulgaria with the growing Soviet Union.

With both sides possessing nuclear weapons, the world feared the escalating Cold War would soon turn hot…very hot. With the United States being geographically separated from Europe, the most likely means of a nuclear attack would be a Soviet long-range Tupolev bomber coming over the top of the globe and passing over Canada. To defend against this, the US and Canada established a defensive shield known as the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD).

The American portion of NORAD was called the Air Defense Command (ADC). Capt. Casper and his aircraft were part of this elaborate team. The defensive trip wire consisted of various ground radar posts positioned across the northern border of the US. When an unidentified aircraft was detected, an Air Force fighter was dispatched to investigate and defend the nation against a nuclear attack.

Night patrols were always a little more mundane as visibility was limited. Tonight was especially dark with bad weather and storm clouds blocking the light of the moon. It was hard not to let your mind wander while sitting in the cockpit looking out into the dark abyss.

“Ghost from Legend,” came his partner’s voice once again over the intercom system.

“Go ahead.”

“I heard the commander talking in the hallway this morning. He was telling someone that NORAD will now be tracking Santa Clause as he leaves the North Pole with our advanced early warning radar system. What is that all about?”

Laughing, Casper said, “Yeah, I know all about that. The Air Force is trying to make the best of an embarrassing situation.

“What embarrassing situation?”

“Sears put out a Christmas advertising gimmick telling kids to call Santa directly on the telephone. The advertisement had a typo and the phone number listed accidentally went to the NORAD watch desk. Kids kept calling wanting to tell Santa what they wanted for Christmas. The officer working the desk pretended to be Santa a couple of times. It grew out of hand as the calls kept coming in so the Air Force had to act like it was intentional to save embarrassment.”

“Ha, that’s a pretty good public relations stunt. That desk officer will probably end up getting himself a medal rather than a court martial.”

“We should be back on course now,” said Casper.

“Roger that. We are looking good from back here.”

“Scorpion 6 from ADC,” came over the radio as their aircraft was being contacted.

“Go for Scorpion 6,” replied Casper.

“Scorpion 6, the ground intercept radar at Sault St. Marie, Michigan has identified an unusual target over Lake Superior, near the Soo Locks. It’s about one hundred and twelve miles from your current location. Please proceed in that direction and see if you can see anything.”

“Roger that ADC, we will adjust course to that heading and investigate. Please update as the location changes.”

Casper adjusted their heading and the Wisconsin-based fighter jet was now on course for the upper peninsula of Michigan. With a cruising speed of six hundred miles per hour, it would only take about eleven minutes to be in the vicinity of the unidentified flying object. The highly advanced F-89C Scorpion was an all-weather, twin-engine interceptor aircraft and the backbone of the Air Defense Command. It was the nation’s best hope of stopping the feared long-range Soviet bomber. The Scorpion carried new air-to-air missiles capable of shooting down sizable aircraft and had a radar capable of scanning targets up to fifty miles away.

“Ghost from Legend.”

“Go ahead.”

“Not to be superstitious, but this feels eerily similar to the situation where Felix and Robby went missing.”

While Casper, as the ranking officer, didn’t want to feed into his partner’s paranoia, it did seem very familiar. On November 23rd, 1953 First Lieutenant Felix Moncla and Second Lieutenant Robert Wilson were on the same mission patrolling the northern border in a P-89C Scorpion. It was also a dark and stormy night when they were sent to respond to a UFO in restricted airspace near the Soo Locks, the Great Lakes’ most vital commercial gateway. Those men would not return from their intercept mission.

While the official finding indicated they had responded to a Canadian Air Force C-47 that had flown thirty miles off course, there was widespread skepticism in the report. The investigation stated that the likely cause of the plane’s disappearance was that the pilot experienced a case of vertigo and crashed into Lake Superior. The wreckage was never found. The official report was refuted by a former Marine aviator who published his book The Flying Saucer Conspiracy, just weeks earlier.

“I told you not to read that stupid book Legend. Let’s just focus on our mission.”

“Roger that.”

As the two aviators closed in on Michigan air space, Legend was having a difficult time tracking the object on the Scorpion’s short-range radar.

“ADC from Scorpion 6. I am having a very difficult time tracking the target. Can you vector us in with the ground radar?”

“Roger that Scorpion 6. The target is now over land just west of Marinette, Wisconsin. Adjust your heading to the west and you should have visibility very soon.”

“Copy that ADC. I will advise when I have visual.”

After three more minutes, ADC contacted them again, “You should be right on top of the object now Scorpion 6. Do you have a visual?”

“Negative ADC. We have no visual at this time. What altitude are you showing the object at?”

“I think we have a bad radar reading. Our radar is showing the object at an altitude of 60,000 feet.”

Casper assumed the radar ping was not working properly as commercial airliners flew between 10,000 and 20,000 feet. Even his state-of-the-art P-89 Scorpion had a maximum ceiling of only 49,000 feet under the best of conditions. Nothing could be...