Milo, I was going over the thread again and spotted this in your summary :-
My view is that it did happen, but somewhere else and the site has been misidentified by the pilot. After 40 years, to a American one bit of Scots bog will look much like any other.
Bear this in mnid however from my initial post :-
He was given a lift to Selkirk where he had a beer in the County Hotel after which he made his way to the railway station. He boarded a train to Edinburgh where he eventually reported at RAF Turnhouse.
Too much detail methinks for a "Scots bog" type error, you think ?