Cash-Landrum Incident -- Ellington Air National Guard Base: The Nearest Installation
Cash-Landrum Incident -- Ellington Air National Guard Base: The Nearest Installation
History and Profile
| Feature | Detail |
|---|---|
| Full name | Ellington Air Force Base; later Ellington Field; now Ellington Airport / Ellington Field Joint Reserve Base |
| Location | Houston, Texas; approximately 15 miles southeast of downtown Houston; approximately 35-40 miles south of the Cash-Landrum encounter site |
| History | Established 1917 as a WWI training base; re-activated in WWII; retained post-war as a major Houston-area military installation |
| Mission in 1980 | Home to the 147th Fighter Interceptor Wing, Texas Air National Guard; various reserve and National Guard aviation units; also hosted NASA aircraft operations connected to Johnson Space Center |
| Aircraft in 1980 | F-4 Phantom jet fighters (147th FIW); various transport and liaison aircraft; the base did not have a significant CH-47 Chinook presence |
| Denial in Cash-Landrum | Ellington denied having any helicopters airborne in the Cash-Landrum area on December 29, 1980; further stated that CH-47 Chinooks were not normally stationed at Ellington |
The NASA Connection
Ellington Field had a significant NASA dimension in 1980: it served as a training and operations base for NASA aircraft connected to the Johnson Space Center, which was located nearby. John Schuessler worked at JSC. The proximity of Schuessler's workplace to the base that was the closest acknowledged military aviation installation to the incident site created an interesting geographic convergence:
- The closest military installation (Ellington) denied involvement
- A NASA engineer at a nearby facility (JSC) became the primary investigator
- The investigator had professional knowledge of aerospace programs that informed his analysis
The Chinook Absence at Ellington
Ellington's denial that CH-47 Chinooks were "normally stationed" at the base is specifically noteworthy. The denial acknowledges that CH-47s were not standard equipment there -- which means any CH-47 Chinooks present on December 29, 1980 would have been deployed from elsewhere. This is consistent with the operational hypothesis: a classified operation deploying CH-47s from non-standard locations, specifically to avoid creating an obvious unit-to-operation connection.
Post-1980 Ellington
Ellington Field subsequently became Ellington Airport, a civilian/military joint-use facility. NASA continues to operate aircraft from Ellington. The Texas Army National Guard maintains a presence. The facility's continued operation and evolution provide no resolution of the 1980 events, but its institutional continuity means the records that would document any 1980 helicopter operations should, in theory, still exist somewhere in the archival chain.
