The last time such a large, white object wrecked havoc in the northern U.S., the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man bumbled his way through New York City. On Wednesday, an Army surveillance blimp broke free from Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland and floated 150 miles north, into Pennsylvania, dragging its tethering cable across the ground, knocking out power for 27,000 people.

The blimp was probably part of the military’s newest air defense system. In 2012, the Army tested sending radar systems high in the air with blimps the size of football fields in order to peer over wrinkles in the terrain. Whatever “very sensitive electronics” (per The New York Times) were onboard the gas bag, they were safely returned to the military as Pennsylvania state police shot the ship down with shotguns.

For former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, it was the perfect object lesson for government. He told viewers during Wednesday’s GOP debate, “I mean, what we had was something the government made — basically a bag of gas — that cut loose, destroyed everything in its path, left thousands of people powerless,” Huckabee said, “but they couldn’t get rid of it because we had too much money invested in it, so we had to keep it. That is our government today. We saw it in the blimp.”