Message posted by Chris Bowman on September 25, 2010 at 2:22:11 PST:
This is more of a story about the possible opperations of the SR-71 Blackbird during its testing, which I thought might be of interest to you. I have a work colleague whom is a ex Royal Marine. Durring the early 60s (possibly 70s, can't quite remember) he was stationed at RAF Mildenhall in Suffolk England, which is part of the United States Air Forces In Europe unified command with England. My colleague was telling me of how during his free time he and his fellow servicemen used to drink in one of the pubs around Mildenhall to which an American pilot used to come in, along with another gentlemen with all sorts of beers and alcohol from around the World to which he shared with my colleague etc. Anyway my colleague asked him once where he used to get the beer from. The subsequent reply was one that my colleague thought was absolute rubbish in which the American pilot stated that, "He was in New Zealand at lunch time", (this meeting being in the evening) and had "just got back from a flight." My work collegue subsequently did not believe this story (due to the shortest flight time from London to New Zealand in todays modern planes being 24 hours, no doubt being longer back then) and in a sarcastic manner continued drinking with the American pilot until he and the myterious gentleman left. After the pilot and his friend had left my work colleague was further warned by other servicemen in the pub to be careful around this pilot, as the gentleman with him was his bodyguard and you had to be careful what you said around him. Again my colleague thought it was just rumour and/or joking around but to cut a long story short, when my colleague was back on the base, he witnessed the same pilot preparing to fly a black plane back to whether it was off to. (possibly Groom Lake). He later identified the black plane as the SR-71 Blackbird which was being prepped for take off. Mildenhall airbase staff had failed to clear the base of servicemen who didn't have to be there and subsquently my colleague (and one presumes everyone else) was forced to sign the Official Secrets Act again (Royal Marines have to sign when they join) to keep what he saw to himself. Thought this story might be of interest to you all. It certainly was for me. Demonstrates that the SR-71 testing wasn't just limited to testing at Groom Lake but apparantly operational in a number of other places.
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