Wyoming Guard says lasers are targeting military aircraft over Guernsey

The Wyoming Army National Guard issued a public alert this week after what it described as a recent increase in dangerous laser pointing incidents involving military aircraft operating in the vicinity of Camp Guernsey Training Center. Two incidents have been reported in the Camp Guernsey area since January, and three since March 2025, according to the Guard. Each involved someone on the ground “directing high-powered lasers” at aircraft during flight operations.

“The safety of our pilots and the residents of Platte County is our paramount concern,” Lt. Col. La’Quendin Counts, Camp Guernsey’s base operations manager, said in the alert. “Pointing a laser at an aircraft is not a harmless prank — it is a reckless, illegal act that creates a severe risk of a catastrophic accident.” Aiming a laser at an aircraft is a federal offense punishable by up to five years in federal prison, fines up to $250,000, and additional state or local charges.

The Guernsey cluster is a small slice of a much larger problem. Pilots have reported nearly 150,000 laser strikes worldwide since record-keeping began in 2004. Patrick Murphy, who runs LaserPointerSafety.com from Orlando, Florida, said a cluster of strikes around a single military training facility is unusual. While laser strikes are common, they aren’t “specifically at military training facilities,” he told Cowboy State Daily. “I think people are just aiming at aircraft and helicopters in general, and if they happen to be military helicopters, they happen to be military helicopters.”

Murphy’s background is in laser light shows. He’s the executive director of the International Laser Display Association, which does shows for events like the Paris Olympics and Super Bowl. The aviation question came out of Las Vegas in the 1990s when the airport’s proximity to the casinos started causing problems. Clark County eventually shut the displays down, and an industry-government working group wrote new outdoor laser rules. The system held until cheap handheld laser pointers reached the consumer market around 2004. “People started aiming at aircraft for various reasons,” Murphy said.

In Murphy’s experience, the people doing the lasing fall into two camps. There are ordinary people who get a hold of a laser and don’t really know about the hazards, and there are antisocial people, criminals or people with a grudge who are deliberately targeting aircraft. Those offenders tend to give themselves away. “When they get caught, it’s so easy to catch them, because the laser beam is like a beacon that points right back down to their location,” Murphy said. “Usually they’re doing something else illegal, drugs, probation violations and things like that. And they get caught and often go to jail.”

Even with stiff penalties on the books, most offenders never face them. In 2017, researchers estimated that less than 1% of laser strike perpetrators are ever caught. However, a detection system called the Laser Aircraft Strike Suppression Optical System (LASSOS) uses high-sensitivity cameras to capture light scattered by the beam in midair, then traces the streak back to its point of origin. Within 30 seconds, it can deliver GPS coordinates to local law enforcement.

The Guard’s statement warns that laser strikes can temporarily blind or disorient pilots. “There’s practically no possibility of actually harming a pilot’s eyes permanently,” Murphy said. “What we all are worried about, though, is temporary flash blindness.” A 2015 study reviewing 64 laser strikes found no definite cases of ocular damage. Even with nearly 150,000 reported strikes worldwide since 2004, no aircraft has gone down because of one. “There’s never been a case of an accident or a crash or anything like that,” Murphy said. “A few aborted landings or go-arounds where they had to come in and then not land, but try it again.”

The Federal Aviation Administration logged 12,840 laser strikes in 2024 and 10,993 in 2025, with 2,210 already reported in 2026. Wyoming does not crack the FAA’s top 10, but strikes were reported in Casper and Cheyenne in 2024. A federal case in Kalispell, Montana, last year showed how offenders end up in court. A flight instructor was hit several times by a green laser while training student pilots. She spotted the beam shooting from a white pickup truck and called 911 from the air, guiding deputies to the driver. Nolan Wayne Hamman, 32, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 2.5 years in federal prison, telling investigators his methamphetamine use made him paranoid and he believed low-flying aircraft were tracking him. The Guard is working with the Platte County Sheriff’s Office and county commissioners on the Guernsey investigations. People are asked to report suspected laser activity to the Platte County Sheriff’s Office at 307-322-2331 or the Guernsey Police Department at 307-836-2111.