Ellsworth Afb

Ellsworth Air Force Base began as the Rapid City Army Air Base in January, 1942. It was primarily a training location for B-17 Flying Fortress crews. From 1942 to 1945, thousands of pilots, navigators, radio operators and gunners went through their training at the South Dakota base.

After World War II ended, the base went through several changes of name and mission. It was the Rapid City Air Force Base and the Weaver Air Force Base before being named in honor of Brigadier General Richard Ellsworth in 1953. General Ellsworth died earlier that year when a bomber crashed in Newfoundland on its way back from exercises in Europe. The entire crew of 23 men perished.

During the era of the Cold War, Ellsworth was considered the showplace of the Strategic Air Command. Titan missiles and B-52 bombers were the mainstay of the base. In 1999, Ellsworth became part of the Expeditionary Air Force, and that same year they flew 100 combat missions and dropped nearly 1,300 tons of bombs on Kosovo. They have also been the workhorses in Iran, where they have dropped nearly 4,700 tons of bombs.

The Ellsworth UFO Incident

An interesting event occurred at Ellsworth in August, 1953, when the radar station received a call about a bright light hovering at 16,000 feet. Radar showed the light to be an object, and an F-84 that was already in the air went to investigate. The pilot chased the UFO for about 120 miles before he began running low on fuel and had to turn back. He was never able to get closer than three miles to it, since whenever he approached that limit it sped up. The UFO returned, and a second plane went up in pursuit. The same thing happened, and finally pursuit was abandoned. This time the UFO didn't return, but was later spotted near Fargo, North Dakota.