Documents / Official release
This 1970 USAF Office of Information file from the 21st Air Division at Hancock Field, Syracuse, collects community relations correspondence. It includes Enrico Grimaldi's report of faint star-like objects seen over Commack, Long Island on November 21, 1970, and Major Francis C. Moriarty's reply. The reply notes that Project Blue Book ended December 17, 1969, so the Air Force would not investigate. The file also holds a draft article on NORAD and SAGE, survey requests, thank-you letters and press tour messages.
Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.
Actually, SAGE tracks many so-called iron curtain country commercial aircraft that are on authorized flight plans. Not too infrequently, these commercial flights stray off their flight plan because of navigation errors. Should a plane be an unknown, it is labeled as such. If the plane is not a friendly by any of the available data, an interceptor is sent to check it just as soon as the aircraft comes under SAGE surveillance. More specifically, when SAGE picks-up on its radar scopes an aircraft in the seaward area where identification must be made, it has only two minutes to identify him as either friendly or unknown. At the close of that two minutes, if the plane has not been identified as a friendly, SAGE scrambles a fighter. A preplanned procedure is followed to determine the aircraft's purpose. It's the mission of the interceptor to look at the plane and identify its type, markings, and number. To date, all unknowns checked by the 21St interceptors have been commercial airlines and identifiable as such. Throughout the 21ST NORAD REGION there is great emphasis on safety, including ground safety, flight safety, and missile safety. A Chief of Safety with a staff of six safety personnel, all of them well trained by the Air Force and in civilian universities, is head-quartered at SAGE. These men consider their prime duty to be the eyes and ears of the commander. They spend sixty percent of their time visiting the units with the hope of spotting a potential hazard and eliminating it before an accident occurs.
Not linked to a story yet.
Official release, from the nara collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. The text was read from the page images by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word. 95 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.