Article: COLD WAR REVISITED ONCE SOVIET UNION WAS NUKE-ARMED BULLY; NOW U.S. IS

There they were in the wee hours of the morning. Four blips in a diamond formation, still well up over Canada, but headed our way at jet-bomber speed. We had no flight plans for them, and they weren't transmitting the usual IFF (Identification Friend or Foe) signal.

We eventually made radio contact with one of the aircraft, but it was sporadic and uncooperative. Besides, radio contact alone wasn't an acceptable means of identifying unknown aircraft. That had to be done visually. So they had to be intercepted.

After making radio contact with the two interceptors scrambled from Malmstrom Air Force Base near Great Falls, Mont., some 100 miles southwest of us, the senior director of our crew (I ...

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