The U.S. Air Force wants a bit of a word with two British chaps, who " how do the Americans say it? " got the hell out of Dodge after security caught them with a telephoto lens looking at military aircraft near Enid's Vance Air Force Base.
As reported in The Enid News & Eagle, 71st Security Forces Squadron members spotted the two men parked on "one of the thoroughfares off Cleveland," according to Capt. Tony Wickman, 71st Flying Training Wing public affairs chief.
Wickman told the Eagle that the two were sighted during regular security rounds the morning of Sept. 10.
According to the story, the security officers contacted the men, identified by the Eagle as John Leslie David Green and Adrian John Railton, both of London, and asked, would they be so kind as to realize they were in a restricted area, eh, what?
Apparently, two guys from England looking at American military planes with a telephoto lens drew no further special significance to the security detail, which let them go, the story indicated. Ta-ta for now, as they say.
However, the Air Force Office of Special Investigations (notice they aren't calling it "Air Force Intelligence"?) let it be known that it would have preferred to have had another chat with the old boys.
"Our OSI people didn't get a chance to talk to them," Wickman said, according to the story.
The Eagle states that the two men are believed to be "tail spotters," hobbyists who travel and take pictures of military aircraft. Indeed, the two men both show up in photos on a Web page of such a hobby group that recently visited Albania, taking photos of derelict aircraft.
The men were last seen driving away in a four-door Chevy Impala with Texas plates, The Associated Press reported.
Cheers, fellows! It's a long way to Tipperary.
