The US Air Force has bestowed medals to four Swedish pilots for bravery as a result of their support to a stricken SR-71 Blackbird spy-plane in 1987.
The incident happened in the skies over the Baltic Sea, when the United Kingdom flew weekly missions out over the waters toward Soviet bases in Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, and Kaliningrad, according to an article on the Swedish Forces website.
The missions followed a loop across the length of the Baltic States, then back around and in between the Swedish mainland and the island of Gotland.
Swedish pilots in Viggen fighter jets at that time regularly trained to intercept the SR-71 as a practice drill. However, one Blackbird flight, piloted by Lt. Cols. Duane Noll and Tom Veltri, experienced engine trouble, losing power in one of the enormous 15-foot turbofans.
The plane went off course and entered Swedish airspace over Gotland, descending more than ten miles to an altitude of 25,000 feet, at which point the stricken SR-71 received an escort from two Swedish Air Force pilots who were prepared to defend the fabled spy-plane from possible interception by Soviet fighter jets.
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“We were performing an ordinary peacetime operation exercise. Our fighter controller then asked me are you able to make an interception and identification of a certain interest. I thought immediately it…