Lori Cordini: The Only (Human) Survivor found at a 1971 Crash Retrieval

UAP crashes involving “occupancy” (Lue Elizondo’s terminology) stretch belief, but how about a 1971 UAP crash outside of Edwards Air Force Base involving a contactee survivor with at least one other witness? This case is so fantastic that I had to investigate further, to at least verify that the people mentioned actually existed and provably lived in the right locations. I found way more information than I expected.

This is the only case I’m aware of where a UAP Crash Retrieval (C/R) was reported to investigators, then years later in 1997 a contactee gets her first personal computer and asks for help by posting on Glenn Campbell’s website on UFO crashes, then MUFON and CSETI.

Lori Cordini was not someone who made up a fantastic story of surviving a UAP crash one day and then forgot it. She believed what she said, and she lived as someone trying to find the truth about what had been happening to her since childhood.

The Core Story

This case has been copied & pasted, with minor changes, all over the web and into books. I tracked down the original printed story of the crash and its retrieval in Leonard Stringfield’s book “UFO Crash Retrievals: The Complete Investigation — Status Reports I-VII (1978–1994)”, page 229 (start near the bottom of the page):

The second description of the event I could find is the condensed report in the 1995 book “History of UFO Crashes” by Kevin Randle (see “Summer 1971”) — he credited Stringfield’s book above(as reference 101):

Neither of these reports mention any survivors or bodies at the crash site. Those details get added around 6–7 years later, once Lori Cordini gets her first personal computer and finds this crash report on the web in the mid 90's. If you’re not aware of this case I suggest you read an account from at least one of these websites before going further:

1971-Abductee Involved in UFO Crash near Edwards AFB

The Time a UFO Crashed With a Human Abductee Aboard

The core story is all over the web so I’m not going to describe it yet again here. Instead, let’s see who Lori Cordini and the other known crash witness, Debby (or Debbie) Clayton, were. The other named witness, “Dalton”, is unlikely to be locatable unless more information can be found.

Lori Cordini — Crash Survivor (and Contactee)

The basics: her other names were Lori J. Cordini, Lorraine Jean Dvorak Cordini, Lorraine Dvorak Cordini, Lori Dvorak Cordini, or “The Watana”. She was born in 1942 and passed away in 2015. Here’s her obituary, her LinkedIn, and her Twitter. She worked in the medical field as a mental health worker. She absolutely existed and is a rock solid hit — this is definitely the right person.

In 2009 she Tweeted that she was writing her autobiography:

I was unable to find her autobiography, and I believe she passed away before she could publish it. She was very public about her story, so I don’t believe she would mind me tracking down and showing the world this information (most of which is 50+ years old).

Here’s her partial ancestry.com timeline, up until 1980. All of this information is from official public records and newspaper articles. (Note there’s nothing here that she hadn’t said in public on the web, or from her obituary.)

Crucially, she provably lived in California, in San Francisco, on the right year (1971), according to public marriage/divorce records. Her first marriage (which she spoke of on the web) was on Nov. 24, 1968, and she divorced on November, 1971. Notice her divorce was only a few months after her traumatic event in 1971.

Here’s her Junior High School yearbook photo from 1959 (from ancestry.com’s database):

It looks like she first gave feedback on the UAP crash report to Glenn Campbell in Las Vegas, who then contacted CSETI. Here’s her 1997 report to CSETI and MUFON. This was in the same year she got her first personal computer. I’ve also snapshotted it here:

Date: Saturday, August 02, 1997 12:47:29
From: cordini
To: MUFONHQ@aol.com
Subject: CRASH SITE

August 2, 1997

Dear Friends at MUFON

First let me begin by saying I have been a member of Mufon, Lorraine Dvorak Cordini, *** ***** ****, Boone, NC. I discontinued simply because of funds not being available If it were not for the support of my North Carolina MUFON family I would have had a greater struggle with my “awakening” in June 1995. I have had contact beginning as a child…I feel I am human with an ET spirit/soul. So much has happened in these past two years…it is remarkable, wonderful, positive and again, I say thank you for MUFON for being there when I could turn to no where else…the name was prominent, the availability for support accessible and the members, like family…

I began to have agitation, nervousness and an emotional barrage of tears at a meeting in June 1995 while a contactee was explaining her experiences. Needless to say, I did not know what had come over me…I had memory of only one mysterious occurrence in my childhood, that was, “the night the sky lit up.” I began to develop a “compulsion” to find out what happened that night in May 1995, which led me to MUFON and my mother for answers…my mother told me “you will soon have the answers”. The lady who was “witnessing” gave me her phone number. As the month went by I was able to reach her only once..and her experiences were limited…she could notanswer all the many questions that were coming to my mind. She recommended a hypno therapist…who was also a member of MUFON. I did not know until just last summer that he too was an experiencer…and had many similar experiences to mine.

July 1995 I engaged his expertise and during the session encountered three incidents. The first was of the “night the sky lit up.” It brought forth a vivid memory of the events of that night. Later I would ask my mother to tell me her story…I did not tell her what took place in the hypnosis session. THE STORIES WERE THE SAME! I had verification of contact….and much more …she revealed things to me that “blew my mind.” If you knew my mother you would understand. But we don’t need to go into that for purposes of this letter.

More memories have surfaced, more verification surfaced and needless to say…I BELIEVE all this happened… I have no doubt.

It is because of this total belief in my memory and what took place in hypnosis that I come to MUFON for assistance. I have mulled this over and over in mind wondering if I should pursue the search or “let it go.” I let it go…had a flashback memory of additional information in October 1996, began to wonder if I should investigate the memory that came forth in hypnosis or not….again I mulled it over and over until we purchased a computer July 1997 and began to connect and research the events under question….now I am developing a compulsion to find out more…to put the pieces of the puzzle together……

Now, I come to MUFON for assistance….for support…for ANY EXPERTISE available.

I will tell the story from beginning, even though the incident’s beginning was the October 1996 memory and the ending of the incident surfaced in the hypnosis session in July 1995.

This is the memory….I was on board a large Mother Ship spacecraft. I was dressed in a tight fitting pink body suit. Three ET crewmen were returning me to earth in a pod (small run-about craft). We either crashed or were shot down. I am standing amid the wreckage. One dead ET far to my left, barely visible from where I stood. Another dead ET was about 20 feet in front of me. A military person was kicking his dead body. My heart hurts just to think of the inhuman, disgusting way they treated my comrade’s bodies…A third ET was alive and standing about another 20 feet to my left, dazed, confused and disoriented. I, too, felt this way. Suddenly I felt a jerk, a military person grabbed my arms, brought them around my back and handcuffed me. As they were hauling me off my mind received the image of the “captain” of the Mother Ship. A tall, about 6' humanoid, in a long white gown, short brown hair, female, thinking to me how sorry she was for not being able to help us, for if they did they would be detected. Her sorrow was apparent. Other ETs were around her and the same feelings of helplessness and frustration were felt. The ETs had the appearance s those on Close Encounters of the Third Kind movie.

They threw me into the backseat of a black limousine. The next memory was what surfaced in the hypnosis session. I am laying on a cold metal table in a hanger. Two military persons are to the left of the table. One may have been an officer because I believe he had a different cap then the fatigue uniforms of the other two military. Another fatigued military man was at my head and to the right, To his left was an ET whom I describe as “Pumpkin Head Man” He appeared in a childhood experience that previously surfaced during the same hypnosis session. In the childhood experience he was in a space suit…I think. My child’s mind saw him dangling outside my window in a deep sea diver’s suit. Back to the military abduction and crash site. The Pumpkin Head Man is about 4' his body is bulbous and brown. His head is bulbous. A great drawing of him appeared at a conference I subsequently attended in August 1995 where drawings by artist and experiencer, Kathy FerDon. Back to the incident at hand! I am laying on the table. I am feeling drunk…drugged…I can’t lift my arms…I struggle to get up but cannot. I hear the Pumpkin Head Man thinking how great he feels about himself and how proud that he was to be of service to these earth military men…he is smug….the military man next to him is thinking, “what an asshole.” I only remember feelings of the unkindness towards me by the military. They must have interrogated me with drugs…I am very confused…not only because of my suddenly remembering I was on a space craft, but suddenly in a crash…then in a military installation being mistreated. I don’t know why I have this pink body suit on….now they have drugged me, cursing at me. The next thing I remember they yank me off the table. Two military men each put an arm under each of my arms and yank me off the table and drag me to the opening of the hanger. There are so many red flashing lights, I scream (on the tape) “My God, that isn’t a space ship that is the police, my God it is the police.”

After the hypnosis session my family and I go out to lunch (this is in Lincolnton, North Carolina). I feel like we are back in California. (I lived in San Francisco from 1966 to 1983). A few days later I hear that there was a large number of UFO sightings around Edwards Air Force base in the early 1970s. I began to wonder. I see the sign to the entrance to Edwards, and I get goosebumps and become agitated…for several months whenever I see red flashing lights I become agitated. I wonder what is happening tome…I try to remember any missing time…when I was away from work…what my life was like….

The body I see on the table looks like the body I had when I was 30…I was single and away from my job for a short period of time after a divorce. I took some time off from my job. This was in 1970 or 1971. However, 1972–73 gives me more feelings of when the event took place. So we are looking at a time period of somewhere between 1970–1973. Location, more than likely Edwards. Crash site could have been somewhere else and we were taken to Edwards.

In trying to find other memories and pieces of the puzzle I come up with a vague event. Prior to the divorce, I left the relationship by taking up temporary housing with some friends in Marin County. A married couple. Tom’s brother Pat was also temporarily staying there. He was AWOL from the Air Force. He was stationed at Travis. In the few weeks I was with Tom and Carol Pat said he wanted to go to Edwards…maybe he would turn himself in. I asked why not Travis, it was closer and that was where he was based. No, he wanted to go to Edwards, he had friends there. We borrow an old Spitfire sports car from Tom and without a top drive to Edwards in the rain…..we arrive, get a motel and change and go to the officer’s club. I don’t remember anything else until I am thinking I am bored, I want to go home…I take a bus back to San Francisco.

Several months later, I now have my own apartment. Pat shows up. Says he never did turn himself in and has decided to turn himself in could he call the MPs from my place. I wonder why he won’t call from his brothers. He says he doesn’t want them involved. I figure what the heck and let him call. The calls the MPs, they come and get him, handcuff him and with flashing lights take him away. A few months later he appears at my door, bottle of wine in hand, drunk. Asks to come in. Says he is sorry. I am angry, I don’t want him drunk in my place. I ask why he isn’t in jail. He did turn himself in, didn’t he. Yes, he didn’t stay long. They let him go.

End of incident.

Why do I tell you this? I need your assistance in whatever way possible to verify the crash and the military abduction. I have nightmares about being on a bus in San Francisco trying to find my way to my apartment. I am always confused, disoriented and lost. Can’t seem to find my apartment…wandering around through the city…sometimes I see the city from the distance…sometimes I am walking through the streets lost….but generally on a bus trying to get home…from somewhere.

I am beginning to think that lost feeling and the nightmares are caused from the time I was “put on a bus” in a drugged state and sent back to San Francisco…not on my on volition like I thought, but the military didn’t know what else to do with me….

I would like to know if someone could do some research into the crash, into files at Edwards…whatever possible to substantiate the incident and to help me find the truth…..

Any help would be appreciated.

Sincerely,

Lorraine Dvorak Cordini

PS I have pictures of myself at that period of time. I can be contacted by e-mail or snail mail at the above address. My phone number is *** *** ****.

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!

Here she is in a local 1996 newspaper article: “Group prepares for first contact as UFO’s gain more credibility”. In light of current events, these were prophetic words.

Her story was covered in June 1999 by Scott Nicholson, in “True UFO accounts: from the vaults of Fate magazine: 60 years of close encounters”:

Here’s a short 2001 article she wrote called “Intergalactic Awareness -
Tales of a Wanderer”:

Intergalactic Awareness
Tales of a Wanderer
by Lori Cordini
~ Watana ~
February 9, 2001

My human journey began in 1942. My Light Being journey began at the time of the original separation from the Source that began at the time of “creation”.

My human self has been educated in graduate studies of Sociology, religion,
literature and Psychology. My post graduate studies were in theology and
education. In an effort to support myself after graduate school I “posed” as a
secretary and found I liked that profession very much and it evolved into the
career that I use to sustain myself and my family. I am joyfully married, have
two children and live in Boone, North Carolina.

Intergalactic connections have always been part of my existence. First, I will
share of my human origins. My first memory as a human began at the age of 5 when in 1947 (July interestingly enough) when I was pulled through the wall of our home by a beam of light. My mother tugged to keep me from leaving. She would later tell me that there were many such “visits with family from out there”
during my childhood. I would remember many in a period which I call my
“awakening” or “remembering” in 1994.

Secondly, my Light Being origins have always been present in my memories, but
not so fully as they have since the time of awakening in 1994. Both of my
“selves” continue to evolve at higher vibrational level which brings evolution
and higher understanding on an intergalactic/cosmic level.

My light being self is called “Watana”. There is harmony in this duality and I
find great joy in being able to live and interact in this duality. Early in my
“awakening” I used the term “Living in Two Worlds.” However, I am now aware that “two worlds” may well describe the duality Humans live in on this blue marble called earth, but it is not an adequate description of the intergalactic
existence of which I am a part.

My past lives interact openly and clearly. They have been involved in government
projects involving remote viewing, they have walked the tightrope existence with
“the company” and they have had human experiences that have assisted in a
broader understanding of the human journey. My lives have drifted through the
“cosmic soup” as a micro-organism. I have assisted in the birthing a “mantis”
baby. I have walked the paths in the crystal city. I have fought and laughed in
games on the cloud-castle city. I live in a human world with non-Human memories.
I live in the Cosmos with Human memories.

The never-ending story is an abundance of tales that slip into a place where
time no longer exists and where adventures abound.

She posted another more detailed account of her 1971 experience here.

“TALES OF A WANDERER
Trying to Understand the Past: A Search for Identity

Conscious memory of what I then called “The Night the Sky Lit Up” never ended since that July 1947 night when I was 5. I never thought much about it. I lived my human life in an environment of unconditional love, respect and self-awareness. I attended high school, college, and graduate school. I discovered I enjoyed secretarial work and stayed in that profession all my years. I married in 1980, gave human birth to daughter in 1982. Eventually we found our way to North Carolina in 1985. Memories started coming to me in dreams and flashbacks in May 1995 when I literally became obsessed to find out what happened that night in 1947.

I had “hypnosis” and my memories of what happened that night opened. I telephoned my mother in Nebraska several weeks later and asked her to tell me what she remembered. She shared exactly what I had remembered during hypnosis. It should be noted that I did not tell her what I remembered until she shared her memories. I was stunned. She told me that more events like this had taken place during my childhood. My brother and I were laying on the floor listening to the radio when a beam of light pulled me through the wall. My mother grabbed my legs and was tugging at me and my arms were being pulled by the light. There is a greater description but I won’t go into that now. It was a positive and wonderful encounter. One of many, states my mother.

It was like going home to family. Like I had two families and now I was with my earth family and my family from elsewhere had “visiting rights!” In that same hypnosis session another incident was remembered that surprised the therapist as well as myself. I had no idea these memories lay in my subconscious and as they poured out I discovered, with each new day after the session, memories and flashbacks that shattered my reality and opened wide a whole new world, a new adventure. None of the memories and events that would surface of ET contact could match the pain and horror offered by those encountered with the military. I will summarize the event. The memories came back out of chronological order, however, I will put them in order so it will read smooth and be easier to understand. From my perspective it was like trying to see the picture without all the pieces of the puzzle turned over.

I was physically on board a mother spacecraft working. When it was time to return to earth three “ETs” (short, thin, rather translucent in appearance like in Close Encounters of the Third Kind), one female essence and two of male essence were the crew. We were either shot down or crashed near Edwards Air Force Base in California. I remember standing in the wreckage, suddenly in conscious memory, confused, disoriented and filled with sorrow as military personnel kicked the bodies of the two dead ETs. I remember hearing in my mind the captain of the mother ship saying how sorry she was that they could not help us for fear of being detected. Interestingly the same thoughts, the same feelings, the same voice sounds were so similar to those I heard in my mind when as a child I heard my mother’s feelings of how she could not help me as I was being pulled through the wall. The female crewman was standing to my left.. I had on a pink body suit. I cried as the military cursed my dead comrades. I don’t yet remember what the parts of the ship looked like.

Mostly we experience through with feelings (emotion?) rather than 3-D physical senses and communication with the mouth. At first I think they (military) might have thought I was a local witness who would not leave and so they arrested me. They handcuffed me and threw me in the backseat of a black limousine. I was taken to an empty hanger. I remember it was cold and had a hollow sound to the noise. I was placed on a cold metal table. Two military to my left, one military to my head along with an ET whom I call Mr. Pumpkin Head Man. The military were dressed in fatigue uniforms and the ET had on a blue kind of two-piece jogging suit with a thin red and white stripe going around the chest area and then another set of two thin lines going up and down on the jacket. At the intersection right above where the human heart would be was either a brooch or insignia. My first thoughts were “brooch”. They drugged me. I was so confused and disoriented. I struggled to lift my arms and to get up, but I couldn’t, my speech was slurred. I tried to scream but could not. I felt drunk. I heard in my mind Pumpkin Head thinking how great he was and how important he was to these military men. The military man next to him was thinking “What an asshole.” They treated me with great disrespect.

Eventually two of them grabbed me under the arms and yanked, pulled and tugged me off the table. They dragged me to the opening of the hanger. The light hurt my eyes. There were cars with flashing red lights. All I could think of was, “That’s not a space ship!” I was very disoriented. I was put on a bus and sent back to San Francisco (where I lived). I remember when I arrived it was night. It was in the downtown area. People were mingling on the streets. I was in front of an adult book shop. I think I might have gone in, I am not sure. I was really confused and still felt drugged and disoriented. I was trying desperately to find my way home. I tried to tell people what had happened. I pointed up to the three stars of Orion and said that was home and cried out in anguish why they left me, why won’t they come and take me home. Everyone thought I was a druggy and pushed me aside.

I struggled through the streets and eventually exhausted collapsed on the street in sleep. I awoke to a bright clear morning sky. A bag man was standing beside me. The day was beautiful. My head clear. I remember smiling at him as he took my hand to help me up and said, “You know not too many make it through the night down here.” Those words were carved in my mind….I did indeed make it through the night. I survived. Each time I become frustrated by human betrayal and human stuff, I remember those words. “I made it through the night.” In addition to that, as I grow and become more awakened I find the words from the play “Cats” uplifting, “A new day has begun!” The memories of that night on the streets, riding buses, trying to find my way home first appeared as nightmares for many years, long before they were assimilated into the remembered events.

Later I would have flashbacks of being in an ambulance. A military man to my right, two men in white jackets, one at my left and another at my feet. I remember passing in and out of consciousness. The man at my feet applying oxygen. The military man cursing me and saying things like “Hey, sweet sexy thing, want some more?” The man at my feet saying, “Had a little too much to drink sweety?” I remember passing out again and the man on the left saying, “Knock it off. Leave her alone.” The guy at my feet saying, “We’re losing her again.” While laying what seemed to be on the floor of the ambulance I lapsed into unconsciousness and was dreaming about somebody sticking a slimy snake down my throat, it was sticky like scraped off corn on the cob. It was yellow and white and I coughed as I tried to stop them from forcing it down my throat. Then I regained consciousness back in the ambulance again. It is not too hard to figure out what kind of incident that memory really is all about!

As background information that somehow seems to fit, but where and why I don’t yet know. I separated from a relationship and was divorced in the early 70s. After I left the relationship I stayed with some friends for a few days until I could get my own apartment. The brother (an Air Force Staff Sgt.) of the couple I stayed with was on medical leave from the Air Force, stationed out of Travis. After I found my own place he would occasionally come by. At one time he told me he was actually AWOL and never returned after the medical leave. He wanted to go to Edwards and turn himself in. He would drive his brother’s blue little Spitfire (sports car) down there and turn himself in. Would I come along? I did. It never occurred to me how I was going to get home! I did wonder why he would turn himself in at Edwards instead of Travis. He simply said he had friends there and the brig was much nicer at Edwards. I thought the diversion from all the changes and divorce would do me good. I remember very little about the trip.

It started to rain as we neared Edwards, We got a motel. Went on base to the he officer’s club. I remember his buddies slapping him on the back. He introduced me and then ignored me. I remember sitting at a small “table for two” in the club next to the bar where he and his buddies were drinking. I remember a hazy figure of a guy in a white T-shirt, khaki colored pants that ballooned kind of at the ankles and black boots that I remember as thinking “paratrooper” boots. He had a round white face, blond crew cut and a smirk I will never forget. He had a cigarette in his mouth and I remember the glow and he puffed on it. I think that this might have been the guy who “raped” me. Then I remember being back in the motel with the Sgt. and I remember telling him I was terribly bored and was going to take a bus back to San Francisco. I remember nothing else of that time.

Later, several months perhaps, the Sgt. came to my door. I was shocked to see him because I thought he was in the brig. He said, he decided not to turn himself in. He now planned to do that. He asked if he could call the MPs from my place. I was mad, I asked why he couldn’t do it from his brother’s place. He said he didn’t want to get them in trouble. I gave in. While he waited for the MPs, he asked if he could borrow the suitcase I had used when we went down there. It was a blue small weekender. I was confused. He had his belongings in an old grocery sack. He insisted. I gave it to him. He also asked and I gave him the watch I was wearing on that trip. Why he wanted it and why I gave it to him, I will never know! The MPs arrived, handcuffed and hauled him away.

Several more months go by and again he is at my door, this time with a bottle of wine. He asked to come in. I said no. He started to cry and say “I am so sorry. I am so sorry.” I asked why he was out of the brig. He said that they decided not to press charges. I shut the door. I never saw him again. My telephone was “bugged” for some time. I don’t have any memories of anything else at this time. I did find myself in employment for one month in a very strange company. As I put those memories into place with my now ET memories I get the feeling that these folks were in human illusion and possibly not of human origin. They did not like black-skinned people, which I now know shapeshifters detest. There is much about that month that is vague, and quite strange. More on that another time! The memories of the crash and the involvement of the Sgt. and the AWOL issue is confusing. It seems that the military tried to stage an event (with the Sgt./ brother) to bring about confusion should I ever remember the UFO crash. However, there are too many loopholes and all it does is give me more verification that all this did indeed happen.

I know now what my heritage is. Who I am, why I am here. I have tried many times to put the crash event and following interrogation to rest in the past, but it comes up over and over again, lurking in my mind as unfinished business. The past I had remembered, a past once idealistic and beautiful has suddenly brought memories of confusion, disorientation, rape, drugging and deceit. My whole past seems to not be what I thought it was. Often I become confused about who I really am. Then I see what a beautiful family I have, my current life is filled with love, caring and acceptance. It is difficult to sometimes understand the reality of all of the memories. I had such a wonderfully content life, the memories were idealistic, very idealistic, perhaps that is a clue that the real memories of my past have been altered. How much? I don’t know. But I doubt that it is very much. Perhaps I am a walk-in remembering another human life time? Questions, always more questions. Where are the answers.

I am still searching, still praying to see the whole picture. I MADE IT THROUGH THE NIGHT and now with my loving family A NEW DAY HAS BEGUN.

A few aspects of Lori’s story (such as feeling her phone was bugged, and other odd occurrences) remind me of Dr. Shirley Jean Wright’s experiences, who claimed to be a witness to the Roswell event. Lori Cordini appeared to be in what Leonard Stringfield called “The Hall of Mirrors”, just like Dr. Wright apparently was according to Stringfield.

Here are some of Lori’s Amazon and thriftbook book reviews, which are most interesting:

Hidden Truth: Forbidden Knowledge by Steven Greer — she even quotes Philip J. Corso:

Voyagers: The Sleeping Abductees by Anna Hayes

Voyagers: The Secrets of Amenti: (Volume II)

She also mentioned a book named “A Nation Betrayed: Secret Cold War Experiments Performed on our Children and Other Innocent People” by Carol Rutz:

Lori was mentioned in the book “Awakening” (her correct name is mentioned in the ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS section):

Lori was also mentioned in “The Wanderers Handbook”, and wrote several articles trying to find someone to help track down her 1970’s experience at Edwards AFB in the Star Beacon newsletter. One of her articles (“Living in Two Worlds: A Journey into Harmony”) was published in “Contact Forum: The Round Table of Universal Communication, vol. 5, no. 3 (May/June 1997) (UFO contactee newsletter)”.

The other UAP Crash Witness: Debby Clayton

I had a harder time tracking down the other witness Debbie or Debby Clayton, who lived north of Edwards AFB when she heard the crash and then saw the wreckage. There’s not much to go by, unfortunately. We don’t have a middle name, but we do have an age (14) and the location (California City).

Amazingly, I was able to find a “Debby Lee Clayton” (also known as Debralee H. Clayton) living very close and directly north of Edwards AFB, in California City, CA (and also Mojave, CA). Here is her obituary, which stated she lived in California City.

Her other possible names appeared to be: Debbie Clayton, Debralee Clayton.

This person is the best candidate I’ve found in the public records. Unfortunately, this public address record is dated 1989 — which doesn’t quite prove she was living there in 1971. One database said she was born on Sep. 12, 1956 and died on Aug. 24, 1999. If you calculate the number of years/days between 9/12/56 and 7/1/71, you get 14 years, 9 months, 19 days. Debby said she was 14 years old in her letter to Stringfield, so this is likely the right person.

Here’s California City relative to Edwards AFB. It’s around 14.3 miles from Edwards AFB. It’s roughly a 24 minute drive according to Google Maps, or 15–20 minutes speeding, or probably 5-10 minutes by air:

I found more evidence that a Debby Clayton lived in California City online, at Catalpa Ave. She also lived nearby in Mojave, CA, at one time.

Re: MAJIC