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| US Honors Swedish Pilots For Escorting Stricken SR-71 To Safety During Cold War |
| 2018-11-30 |
| [TheDrive] Declassified: The Blackbird had suffered an engine failure during a mission over the Baltic Sea and its crew feared that Soviet jets might be hunting for them. Just the other day, four Swedish Air Force officers received Air Medals from the U.S. Air Force for a Cold War mission that had remained classified until just last year. On what might have been just any other day in 1987, they had helped escort a stricken SR-71 Blackbird spy plane through Sweden’s airspace and on its way to safety, potentially shielding it from any marauding Soviet aircraft. Swedish Air Force Colonel Lars-Eric Blad, Major Roger Moller, Major Krister Sjoberg, and Lieutenant Bo Ignell got their medals during a ceremony at the U.S. Embassy in Stockholm, Sweden on Nov. 28, 2018. The U.S. military as a whole awards Air Medals for singular acts of heroism or other particular meritorious achievements during a flight. Retired U.S. Air Force Lieutenant Colonels Duane Noll and Tom Veltri, the pilots aboard the SR-71 during the Cold War incident, were also present. |
| Posted by:DarthVader |
| #2 That's cool...very cool. Neutrality be damned. |
| Posted by: DooDahMan 2018-11-30 22:29 |
| #1 ...These guys deserve a little bit of space beside the SR-71 at the NASM or USAFM. They didn't HAVE to do what they did, and there's the distinct possibility that their civilian superiors were displeased. But they realized something was terribly wrong, and they assisted their fellow pilots. Mike |
| Posted by: Mike Kozlowski 2018-11-30 17:55 |