“Three decades ago, a group of Swedish fighter pilots who were trained to intercept America’s high-flying SR-71 suddenly became guardian angels for the crew of one stricken Blackbird. This week, the pilots were awarded U.S. Air Medals for bravery.
The incident happened in 1987 in the skies over the Baltic Sea. Back then, SR-71 Blackbirds based at RAF Mildenhall in the United Kingdom flew weekly missions out over the Baltic Sea, toward Soviet bases in Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, and Kaliningrad. The SR-71s flew a loop that took them across the length of the Baltic States, then back around and in between the Swedish mainland and the island of Gotland….”