Msite L-9, SD being encounter — November 16, 1977

The Lima-9 story concerns a purported incident at an Ellsworth-area missile site in South Dakota on November 16, 1977. Its circulating text describes security personnel encountering figures and a small craft, damage to a rifle, and the loss of a nuclear component. These are claims within a disputed document, not an authenticated military incident report. Journalist Bob Pratt investigated the material after an anonymous mailing reached the National Enquirer in February 1978. His account, published in the January 1984 MUFON UFO Journal and reproduced in a later source collection, details discrepancies in personnel, assignments, geography, and records. He concluded that the report was a fabrication. The Hatch reference to FOIA does not establish that the document was released through an official information request. Nor should Lima-9 be combined with later testimony about different people at the November-5 site. The illustration represents the story's setting, while this record preserves the document's provenance and the published hoax investigation.