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Military Sightings Of UFOs
Military Sightings Of UFOs
1. Mexican Air Force Pilots Film 11 UFOs
Date: March, 2004
Location: Over Campeche state, Mexico
Mexican Air Force pilots filmed 11 unidentified flying objects in the skies over southern Campeche state in Mexico, a Mexican Defense Department spokesman confirmed. A videotape was made widely available to the news media. The lights were filmed using infrared equipment. They appeared to be flying at an altitude of about 3,500 meters (11,480 feet), and allegedly surrounded the Air Force jet.
MEXICO CITY (AP) - Mexican Air Force pilots filmed 11 unidentified flying objects in the skies over southern Campeche state, a Defense Department spokesman confirmed Tuesday.
A videotape made widely available to the news media on Tuesday shows the bright objects, some sharp points of light and others like large headlights, moving rapidly in what appears to be a late-evening sky.
"Mexican Air Force Pilots Film 11 UFOs"
Associated Press 5/11/04MEXICO CITY (AP) - Mexican Air Force pilots filmed 11 unidentified flying objects in the skies over southern Campeche state, a Defense Department spokesman confirmed Tuesday.
A videotape made widely available to the news media on Tuesday shows the bright objects, some sharp points of light and others like large headlights, moving rapidly in what appears to be a late-evening sky.
The lights were filmed on March 5 by pilots using infrared equipment. They appeared to be flying at an altitude of about 3,500 meters (11,480 feet), and allegedly surrounded the Air Force jet as it conducted routine anti-drug trafficking vigilance in Campeche. Only three of the objects showed up on the plane's radar.
``Was I afraid? Yes. A little afraid because we were facing something that had never happened before,'' said radar operator Lt. German Marin in a taped interview made public Tuesday.
``I couldn't say what it was ... but I think they're completely real,'' added Lt. Mario Adrian Vazquez, the infrared equipment operator. Vazquez insisted that there was no way to alter the recorded images.
The plane's captain, Maj. Magdaleno Castanon, said the military jets chased the lights ``and I believe they could feel we were pursuing them.''
When the jets stopped following the objects, they disappeared, he said.
A Defense Department spokesman confirmed Tuesday that the videotape was filmed by members of the Mexican Air Force. The spokesman declined to comment further and spoke on customary condition of anonymity.
The video was first aired on national television Monday night then again at a news conference Tuesday by Jaime Maussan, a Mexican investigator who has dedicated the past 10 years to studying UFOs.
``This is historic news,'' Maussan told reporters. ``Hundreds of videos (of UFOs) exist, but none had the backing of the armed forces of any country. ... The armed forces don't perpetuate frauds.''
Maussan said Secretary of Defense Gen. Ricardo Vega Garcia gave him the video on April 22.
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MEXICAN RESEARCHER AND JOURNALIST JAIME MAUSSAN'S PRESS BRIEFING, MEXICO CITY, 5/12/2004:
Following yesterday’s news story about the sighting of eleven UFOs by a Mexican Military aircraft, the Mexican Department of Defense - under Secretary of Defense General Clemente Vega Garcia, commander of all armed forces in the country – have taken the unprecedented step of publically confirming the incident. The press conference took place at the Hotel Sevilla Palace in Mexico city and international media representatives were invited.
JAIME MAUSSAN'S PRESS BRIEFING DOCUMENT:
THE FACTS: On April 20, 2004 Jaime Maussan was contacted by a high officer of the Department of Defense to have a private meeting and discuss a subject of a high relevant matter. The next day Maussan met General Clemente Vega Garcia, Secretary of Defense and his major staff and was informed about an incident that took place on March 5, 2004 on the aerial space of Ciudad del Carmen, Campeche where an Air Force Merlín C26A Bimotor airplane was doing a routine flight to detect a smuggling drug airplane during an ant-narcotics operation.
The Merlin C26A was equipped with a high tech advanced digital equipment to register and record all the activities during the operation. Powerful sensor detectors like a FLIR STAR ZAPPHIR II and a RADAR AN/PS 143 BRAVO VICTOR 3 were being used by qualified personal aboard the airplane and all the operation was being recorded both in normal and infrared mode. The airplane was under the command of Mayor Magdaleno Jasso Núñez.
The FLIR operator was Lt. Mario Adrián Vázquez and the RADAR operator Lt. German Ramirez, all of them members of the 501 Aerial Squadron. This airplane is programmed only for surveillance and detection procedures, not for interception or combat manouvres. Their duty is to detect and identify drug dealers flights and then immediately report them to the base where combat planes are scrambled to intercept those narcotics smugglers. At approximately 17:00 PM the Merlin C26A detected an unknown traffic at 10,500 feet over Ciudad del Carmen, Campeche airspace and according to the protocol and suspecting a drug dealer airplane Mayor Magdaleno Jasso made a maneuver to approach the unidentified traffic at certain range to get a close look and record the target with their equipment.
At the same time Mayor Jasso reported by radio to the base that a possible suspect was detected requesting the interceptor planes to be in alert condition. The RADAR AN/PS 143 BRAVO VICTOR 3 was detecting the unknown traffic and the FLIR STAR ZAPPHIR II was recording the object in infrared. As the Merlin C26A tried to approach the unknown traffic to make a visual identification it suddenly in a surprising maneuver escaped flying away at tremendous speed.
By this time Mayor Jasso tried to persecute the target but it was very fast. All this was being recorded by the FLAIR and also the radio conversations with the base describing the unexpected maneuver of the unknown. However the C26A still have not made visual contact with the unknown object. Just some moments passed when suddenly the unknown object returned and began following the Merlin C26A in a surprising situation.
This was detected by the RADAR and the FLIR while the personal aboard were trying to make visual contact of the unidentified traffic now following them. In seconds the equipment detected now not only one but two traffics following them. The images in both RADAR and the FLIR were clear and unmistakable. But both pilot and personal still couldn’t have visual contact with these two traffics following them adding a great suspense to this disconcerting situation. Mayor Magdaleno Jasso reported to the base the incident that was taking place giving detail of all the information registered by the equipment while keep trying to make visual contact of the unknowns. The FLIR kept recording in infrared every movement made by the two unknown objects that seemed to be keeping their distance from the C26A but still following it. The personal aboard the Merlin C26A were confused and disconcerted seeing the images on the FLIR and the RADAR asking themselves what was going on with this situation.
THE INCIDENT TURNS MORE DRAMATIC
But the stressing moment that the C26A crew were passing through was just the beginning of something more dramatic that will turn their undesirable experience into a real nightmare. Some minutes passed while the Mexican Air Force Merlin C26A crew continued making maneuvers to have a visual contact of the unknowns because despite both RADAR and FLIR were showing perfectly clear both unidentified objects for unexplained reasons there was not a visual contact even that the objects by this time were at close range. It was during this round and round maneuvers to identify these two objects that something amazing happened. In a matter of seconds more unknown objects arrived to the scene and the disconcert of the C26A crew was total.
The RADAR and the FLIR detected immediately the presence of nine new objects of the same size and characteristics, unknown objects that arrived to the scene surprisingly like coming from nowhere.
Now the situation has entered into a high level of danger so Mayor Magdaleno Jasso reported by radio to the base this new situation requesting instructions. But the most bizarre thing was that even though there were eleven unknown objects close to them, still the crew couldn’t see them, no visual contact with the unknowns was possible for some reason never experienced before by these high trained men. However the high tech sophisticated equipment and sensors were not lying, there were eleven targets outside them with unpredictable intentions.
At the middle of a complete confusion and disconcert among the C26A crew the unknown objects suddenly made a maneuver surrounding the Mexican Air Force airplane in a circle at close range. The RADAR and FLIR presented an image of an eleven objects near by in a circle formation around the Merlin C26A. The situation turned out of control. Mayor Magdaleno Jasso reported to the base that the C26A situation was now in red alert, surrounded by eleven mysterious round shaped objects camouflaged with a certain unknown advanced technology that avoid any visual contact of them.
However Mayor Jasso kept the calm as well as the crew who were working fast measuring and recording every detail of this unique incident conscientious of their duty as military and trained men. Confronting this situation surrounded by unidentified objects in an unpredictable ending Mayor Magdaleno Jasso took the decision of turning out all the airplane lights and wait to see what happened. Moments of high suspense lived by the crew while the FLIR was recording the images of those bright objects even that visual contact was not possible, moments of silence and uncertainty.
The C26A crew kept calmed doing their duty, documenting every moment of the strange incident while Mayor Jasso continued in contact with the base. After some stressing minutes the eleven objects disappeared giving an end to the strange experience that these members of the 501 Aerial Squadron just lived. The Merlin C26A returned safe to the Air Force Base and Mayor Magdaleno Jasso prepared a complete report of the incident along with the C26A crew. The Secretary of the Defense took notice of Mayor Jasso's report and began a full investigation studying and evaluating every element of the case.
Statements of the crew, images, lectures, measurements of all the equipment as well as a complete evaluation of the meteorological data . The incident was taken very seriously by the Department of Defense Staff and after several weeks of investigation they decided under the command of General Clemente Vega Garcia to contact researcher and TV journalist Jaime Maussan for a special collaboration in this investigation as an experienced researcher in these matters. On April 22, 2004 General Clemente Vega, Secretary of Defense gave Jaime Maussan a copy of all the tapes and data collected by the Merlin C26A during the incident for study, evaluation and analysis by Maussan's research team as complement of this investigation and as an external collaborating source trying to establish a definition of the possible motives and consequences of the March 5, 2004 incident.
General Vega as well as his staff were very open to discuss the subject and showed their legitimate interest in conducting this investigation in order to establish the truth of what happened. General Vega authorized the Merlin C26A crew to give Jaime Maussan the interviews needed without any censorship, giving all the facilities to present this case to the Mexican people, an historic and unprecedented decision that will open a new era of mutual collaboration among the Mexican ufologists and the military forces, a collaboration based in respect and interest to find the truth of the intense UFO activity we have been experiencing here in Mexico since the beginning of the Amazing Mexican UFO Wave back in July 11, 1991.
This new era of relationship among the Mexican UFO witnesses, skywatchers, ufologists and our military forces will try to establish and give form to a new legislation in our law system focused to be prepared for any incident involving these unidentified flying objects, our people, our commercial and military airplanes etc. for learning and understanding what are we going to do and how are we going to confront this reality.
2. Disk-Shaped Object Photographed by Military Pilot in Hungary.
Date: September 29, 2001
Location: Budapest, Hungary
"A military pilot recorded a spectacular video of a silver disk object on September 29, 2001. The craft was flying to his left side and then moved very fast past him in the clouds as can be seen in the video."
Source: Kal Korff / Rense.com
BUDAPEST, Hungary - A military pilot recorded a spectacular video of a silver disk object on September 29, 2001. The craft was flying to his left side and then moved very fast past him in the clouds as can be seen in the video.
"I was on a flight over Budapest, Hungary," said the pilot, who has requested that his name be withheld until the official inquiry by the Hungarian Ministry of Defence is complete.
"To my left I saw a bright metal aircraft that was the shape of a perfect disk. I was careful to film the object, not to try and chase it since it I could not match its speed. As I was flying a reconnaisance aircraft, I got the idea to film it and used our equipment."
Officials at the Ministry of Defence would not answer questions about the video when asked and warned that officially they have no comment. Despite the denial, when informed of the pilot's name, they did acknowledge that the he was a real air force pilot and that it was true that he flew photo reconnaisance airplanes.
The pilot considers the video he made to be his property and not the Hungarian governments as he was flying the plane while not on duty and was transporting it as a favor to save the government money. He has now hired an attorney and wants the video to be released to the public. He hopes the release of a few frames will make this happen.
[from Hungarian press news article, translated into English]
"I was on a flight over Budapest, Hungary," said the pilot, who has requested that his name be withheld until the official inquiry by the Hungarian Ministry of Defence is complete.
"To my left I saw a bright metal aircraft that was the shape of a perfect disk. I was careful to film the object, not to try and chase it since it I could not match its speed. As I was flying a reconnaisance aircraft, I got the idea to film it and used our equipment."
Officials at the Ministry of Defence would not answer questions about the video when asked and warned that officially they have no comment. Despite the denial, when informed of the pilot's name, they did acknowledge that the he was a real air force pilot and that it was true that he flew photo reconnaisance airplanes.
The pilot considers the video he made to be his property and not the Hungarian governments as he was flying the plane while not on duty and was transporting it as a favor to save the government money. He has now hired an attorney and wants the video to be released to the public. He hopes the release of a few frames will make this happen.
[from Hungarian press news article, translated into English]
3. Chinese Air Force pilot chases 'mushroom-shaped' UFO
Date: October 19, 1998
Location: Changzhou, China
Location: Changzhou, China
The [Chinese] air force had a prolonged up-close encounter with a UFO last month that one fighter pilot described as "just like ones in foreign movies," a government-controlled newspaper reported Thursday. At least 140 people on the ground also saw the object. They described an object with a mushroom-shaped dome on top and a flat bottom covered with bright, continually rotating lights.
Source: AFP (Agence France Presse) - November, 1998
Summary from UFO Roundup newsletter:
UFO Roundup, November, 1998
Chinese Jet Fighter Pursues a UFO
On Monday, October 19, 1998, four military radar stations in Hebei province, China, reported the presence of an unidentified blip hovering above a military flight training school in Changzhou. Once authorities determined that the intruder was not a military or civilian flight, Colonel Li, the base commander, ordered a Jianjiao 6 jet fighter to take off and intercept the UFO. At least 140 people on the ground saw the object. To observers at the base, the UFO first appeared to be "a small star" and then grew larger and larger, perhaps as it descended to a lower altitude, the report said. They described an object with a mushroom-shaped dome on top and a flat bottom covered with bright, continually-rotating lights.
The crew of the Jianjiao 6 interceptor consisted of a pilot and a radar officer. The two officers said "the object clearly resembled depictions they had seen in foreign science fiction films. When they got within 4,000 meters (13,200 feet) of the UFO over Qing county, it abruptly shot upward, easily evading subsequent attempts to get closer. It appeared to be toying with the fighter by repeatedly outdistancing it and then reappearing right above it, the report said. The pilot requested permission to fire on the UFO with the plane's automatic 20mm cannon. He was denied permission to shoot by ground control and was told to continue to pursue and observe the object. The pilot broke off pursuit at an altitude of 12,000 meters (39,600 feet) when the jet began running low on fuel. The UFO then disappeared before two more modern (Chinese fighter) planes could arrive in the area.
Changzhou is 150 kilometers (90 miles) northwest of Shanghai. (See the Hong Kong Standard for November 4, 1998. The story apparently first ran in the Hebei Daily around October 22 and was picked up by the Chinese weekly newsmagazine Baokhan Wenzhai. Many thanks to Errol Bruce-Knapp and Andy Denne of A.U.R.A. for forwarding the article.)
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AFP (Agence-France Presse) news article (Nov. 5, 1998):
Chinese Air Force Pilot Chases UFO
SHANGHAI -- (Agence France Presse) The air force had a prolonged up-close encounter with a UFO last month that one fighter pilot described as "just like ones in foreign movies," a government-controlled newspaper reported Thursday.
A Hebei Daily report -- carried in the news digest Baokan Wenzhai -- gave a detailed pilot's account of an aerial cat-and-mouse game played between the object and a jet fighter ordered to intercept it.
At least 140 people on the ground also saw the object, it said.
An editor with the Hebei Daily said the events took place on Oct. 19 and were still being investigated by local government departments.
The newspaper's report and military sources quoted show an openness that contrast sharply with Washington's notorious secrecy on the topic of unidentified flying objects (UFOs).
It said the encounter began when four different radar stations in northern Hebei province picked up an unknown moving target in airspace directly above a military flight training base near Changzhou city.
To observers at the base, the UFO first appeared like "a small star," and then grew larger and larger, perhaps as it descended to a lower altitude, the report said.
They described an object with a mushroom-shaped dome on top and a flat bottom covered with bright, continually rotating lights.
A base commander surnamed Li reported to his superiors, who ordered a Jianjiao-6 armed interceptor airborne to pursue the object once checks showed no other civilian or military aircraft in the area.
The two pilots aboard said the object closely resembled depictions they had seen in foreign science fiction films.
When they got within 4,000 meters (13,200 feet) of the UFO over Qing county, it abruptly shot upward, easily evading subsequent attempts to get closer.
It appeared to be toying with the fighter by repeatedly outdistancing it and then reappearing just above it, the pilots said.
The report said a request for permission to fire on the UFO with an onboard cannon was denied by ground command at one point.
The interceptor was eventually forced to return to base after it ran out of fuel at an altitude of 12,000 meters (39,600 feet). The UFO then disappeared before two newer-model planes could get airborne, the article said.
While China's racy tabloids often run stories of strange phenomena alongside celebrity-gossip and crime stories, UFO reports are seldom carried by more official papers like the Hebei Daily. (1998 Agence France Presse)
UFO Roundup, November, 1998
Chinese Jet Fighter Pursues a UFO
On Monday, October 19, 1998, four military radar stations in Hebei province, China, reported the presence of an unidentified blip hovering above a military flight training school in Changzhou. Once authorities determined that the intruder was not a military or civilian flight, Colonel Li, the base commander, ordered a Jianjiao 6 jet fighter to take off and intercept the UFO. At least 140 people on the ground saw the object. To observers at the base, the UFO first appeared to be "a small star" and then grew larger and larger, perhaps as it descended to a lower altitude, the report said. They described an object with a mushroom-shaped dome on top and a flat bottom covered with bright, continually-rotating lights.
The crew of the Jianjiao 6 interceptor consisted of a pilot and a radar officer. The two officers said "the object clearly resembled depictions they had seen in foreign science fiction films. When they got within 4,000 meters (13,200 feet) of the UFO over Qing county, it abruptly shot upward, easily evading subsequent attempts to get closer. It appeared to be toying with the fighter by repeatedly outdistancing it and then reappearing right above it, the report said. The pilot requested permission to fire on the UFO with the plane's automatic 20mm cannon. He was denied permission to shoot by ground control and was told to continue to pursue and observe the object. The pilot broke off pursuit at an altitude of 12,000 meters (39,600 feet) when the jet began running low on fuel. The UFO then disappeared before two more modern (Chinese fighter) planes could arrive in the area.
Changzhou is 150 kilometers (90 miles) northwest of Shanghai. (See the Hong Kong Standard for November 4, 1998. The story apparently first ran in the Hebei Daily around October 22 and was picked up by the Chinese weekly newsmagazine Baokhan Wenzhai. Many thanks to Errol Bruce-Knapp and Andy Denne of A.U.R.A. for forwarding the article.)
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AFP (Agence-France Presse) news article (Nov. 5, 1998):
Chinese Air Force Pilot Chases UFO
SHANGHAI -- (Agence France Presse) The air force had a prolonged up-close encounter with a UFO last month that one fighter pilot described as "just like ones in foreign movies," a government-controlled newspaper reported Thursday.
A Hebei Daily report -- carried in the news digest Baokan Wenzhai -- gave a detailed pilot's account of an aerial cat-and-mouse game played between the object and a jet fighter ordered to intercept it.
At least 140 people on the ground also saw the object, it said.
An editor with the Hebei Daily said the events took place on Oct. 19 and were still being investigated by local government departments.
The newspaper's report and military sources quoted show an openness that contrast sharply with Washington's notorious secrecy on the topic of unidentified flying objects (UFOs).
It said the encounter began when four different radar stations in northern Hebei province picked up an unknown moving target in airspace directly above a military flight training base near Changzhou city.
To observers at the base, the UFO first appeared like "a small star," and then grew larger and larger, perhaps as it descended to a lower altitude, the report said.
They described an object with a mushroom-shaped dome on top and a flat bottom covered with bright, continually rotating lights.
A base commander surnamed Li reported to his superiors, who ordered a Jianjiao-6 armed interceptor airborne to pursue the object once checks showed no other civilian or military aircraft in the area.
The two pilots aboard said the object closely resembled depictions they had seen in foreign science fiction films.
When they got within 4,000 meters (13,200 feet) of the UFO over Qing county, it abruptly shot upward, easily evading subsequent attempts to get closer.
It appeared to be toying with the fighter by repeatedly outdistancing it and then reappearing just above it, the pilots said.
The report said a request for permission to fire on the UFO with an onboard cannon was denied by ground command at one point.
The interceptor was eventually forced to return to base after it ran out of fuel at an altitude of 12,000 meters (39,600 feet). The UFO then disappeared before two newer-model planes could get airborne, the article said.
While China's racy tabloids often run stories of strange phenomena alongside celebrity-gossip and crime stories, UFO reports are seldom carried by more official papers like the Hebei Daily. (1998 Agence France Presse)
4. Large 'V'-Shaped UFO encounter with US Navy nuclear submarine; electromagnetic effects
Date: October 24, 1989
Location: Florida, United States
Location: Florida, United States
From the witness: "My ship was on patrol about 150 miles of the Florida coast. We were cruising at about 500 feet when the submarine started experiencing electronics problems.... I saw a large inverted V-shaped UFO off the port side....This huge vessel was over a half mile across. The UFO made a half circle around our ship then passed across the stern..."
Source: George Filer (MUFON Eastern Director), Filer's Files #43-1998, 10-30-98
[go to original source]
[go to original source]
A sailor reports about the UFO sighting he had while in the Navy. "I was assigned to USS Memphis (SSN-698), homeport Titusville, FL. (Cape Canaveral.) Our mission was Special Assignments which meant we protected the Space Program. We would go to sea and patrol while the shuttle was on the pad. Nine years ago, on October 24 and 25, my ship was on patrol about 150 miles of the Florida coast. We were cruising at about 500 feet when the submarine started experiencing electronics problems. The ship was malfunctioning, our tanks were blowing out of control, we were losing navigation ability and the communications area was totally lost. We went to all stop and tried to access what was happening. The controls in the reactor area started to malfunction. This presented a serious danger to our safety, so the captain ordered us to shut down the reactor, surface and go to diesel motors. When the ship surfaced I went to my watch station. The ship was still experiencing electronic difficulties but the mechanical devices such as diesel engines, cook stoves, and turbines were fine. It was raining and the entire sky was red like a red neon sign. I saw a large inverted V-shaped UFO off the port side. The executive officer told me to stand fast and he would speak to the captain. In a minute, the captain appeared on the tower and asked me for a distance to the craft. The laser range finder determined the closest point was 200 meters and the farthest point was 1,000 meters off the port. The UFO was not perpendicular to our ship but at about a 45' angle. This huge vessel was over a half mile across. The UFO made a half circle around our ship then passed across the stern causing our electronics systems to go crazy. We had permanent damage in communications and the sonar room. As the craft flew over the stern, I could see the rain stop under its red glow. The water seemed to rise almost a foot as the UFO passed over silently. When the UFO finished its swing across the stern it paused - the sky got brighter red and it simply moved off at tremendous speed inside 15 seconds. When the UFO left our boat returned to normal with the exception of the radio and sonar. We did a quick system check and the captain ordered us to return to reactor power and get underway.
The captain took two petty officers, the executive officer, and myself into the wardroom. He told us to not spread any rumors until we had a chance to talk to Commander Submarine Fleet - Atlantic. We reached port in about 7 hours where I was taken into "protective custody." Two enlisted men and myself agreed we had witnessed a real UFO. I was the one who shot it with a laser range finder so I was the only one that had its exact sizes. I shot that vessel as it hovered and I got solid readings not spotty like I would on debris. We were in holding for about three hours when an officer from the Air Force arrived and gave us a line of bull about an exploding weather satellite. The Navy then transferred virtually everyone on the crew to new assignments. This included the her captain, the executive officer and the entire crew. They were split up which almost never happens unless one of them gets a promotion or a new command, neither of which happened. The military just split up a 4 year team. I was watching a program tonight that gave me the courage to share it.
Date: October, 1989
Location: Belgium
From October 1989 throughout 1990, hundreds of reports of lighted objects, frequently described as enormous and triangular in shape were recorded in Belgium. Air Force supersonic F-16 jets chased these strange objects, which were simultaneously tracked by both airborne and ground radars. The Belgian Government cooperated fully with civilian UFO investigators, an action without precedent in the history of government involvement in this field.
Date: July 28, 1989
Location: Kapustin Yar, Russian Federation
The captain took two petty officers, the executive officer, and myself into the wardroom. He told us to not spread any rumors until we had a chance to talk to Commander Submarine Fleet - Atlantic. We reached port in about 7 hours where I was taken into "protective custody." Two enlisted men and myself agreed we had witnessed a real UFO. I was the one who shot it with a laser range finder so I was the only one that had its exact sizes. I shot that vessel as it hovered and I got solid readings not spotty like I would on debris. We were in holding for about three hours when an officer from the Air Force arrived and gave us a line of bull about an exploding weather satellite. The Navy then transferred virtually everyone on the crew to new assignments. This included the her captain, the executive officer and the entire crew. They were split up which almost never happens unless one of them gets a promotion or a new command, neither of which happened. The military just split up a 4 year team. I was watching a program tonight that gave me the courage to share it.
5. Belgium Triangle UFO Sightings
CLICK PHOTO TO ENLARGE.
Date: October, 1989
Location: Belgium
From October 1989 throughout 1990, hundreds of reports of lighted objects, frequently described as enormous and triangular in shape were recorded in Belgium. Air Force supersonic F-16 jets chased these strange objects, which were simultaneously tracked by both airborne and ground radars. The Belgian Government cooperated fully with civilian UFO investigators, an action without precedent in the history of government involvement in this field.
Source: Don Berliner
[go to original source]
[go to original source]
From October 1989 throughout 1990, hundreds of reports of lighted objects, frequently described as enormous and triangular in shape were recorded in Belgium. Air Force supersonic F-16 jets chased these strange objects, which were simultaneously tracked by both airborne and ground radars. The Belgian Government cooperated fully with civilian UFO investigators, an action without precedent in the history of government involvement in this field.
The Chief of Operations of the Royal Belgian Air Force, Colonel Wilfred De Brouwer (now Major General and Deputy Chief of the Belgian Air Force), set up a Special Task Force Unit to work closely with the Gendarmerie to investigate the sightings as soon as they were reported. Among the thousands of witnesses were many military and police officers, pilots, scientists and engineers. The wave was documented by the Belgian Society for the Study of Space Phenomena (SOBEPS), a private organization from Brussels, which published two thick volumes on the UFO wave. 133 (see montage)
The first important case was a multiple-witness observation of a strange aircraft, reported by gendarmes on patrol near the town of Eupen, not far from the German border. Auguste Meessen, professor of physics at the Catholic University in Louvain and a scientific consultant of SOBEPS, summarized the case:
"On November 29, 1989, a large craft with triangular shape flew over the town of Eupen. The gendarmes von Montigny and Nicol found it near the road linking Aix-la-Chapelle and Eupen. It was stationary in the air, above a field which it illuminated with three powerful beams. The beams emanated from large circular surfaces near the triangle's corners. In the center of the dark and flat understructure there was some kind of 'red gyrating beacon.' The object did not make any noise. When it began to move, the gendarmes headed towards a small road in the area over which they expected the object to fly. Instead, it made a half-turn and continued slowly in the direction of Eupen, following the road at low altitude. It was seen by different witnesses as it flew above houses and near City Hall."134
Sightings continued to be logged by SOBEPS and the Gendarmerie during the fall and winter of 1989-1990. Most witnesses described seeing dark, triangular objects with white lights at the corners and a red flashing light in the middle. Many of the objects were said to have hovered, with some of them then suddenly accelerating to a very high speed. Most of the objects made no sound, but some were said to have emitted a faint humming like an electric motor.
Public interest in the wave reached its peak with a radar/visual and jet scramble incident on the night of March 30-31, 1990. This scramble was seen and reported by hundreds of citizens. A preliminary report prepared by Major P. Lambrechts of the Belgian Air Force General Staff was released to SOBEPS. The "Report concerning the observation of UFOs during the night of March 30 to 31, 1990," includes a detailed chronology of events and dismisses several hypotheses such as optical illusions, balloons, meteorological inversions, military aircraft, holographic projections, etc.
The incident began at 22:50 hrs. on March 30 when the Gendarmerie telephoned the radar "master controller at Glons" to report "three unusual lights forming an equilateral triangle." More gendarmes confirmed the lights in the following minutes. When the NATO facility at Semmerzake detected an unknown target at 23:49 hrs., a decision to scramble two F-16 fighters was made. The jets took off at 0:05 hrs. from Beauvechain, the nearest air base, on March 31 and flew for just over an hour. According to Major Lambrecht's report:
"The aircraft had brief radar contacts on several occasions, [but the pilots]... at no time established visual contact with the UFOs... each time the pilots were able to secure a lock on one of the targets for a few seconds, there resulted a drastic change in the behavior of the detected targets... [During the first lock-on at 0:13 hrs.] their speed changed in a minimum of time from 150 to 970 knots [170 to 1,100 mph and 275 to 1,800 km./hr.] and from 9,000 to 5,000 feet [2,700 m. to 1,500 m.], returning then to 11,000 feet [3,300 m.] in order to change again to close to ground level."135
The Electronic War Center (EWC) of the Air Force undertook a much more detailed technical analysis of the F-16 computerized radar tapes, led by Col. Salmon and physicist M. Gilmard. Their study was completed in 1992 and was later reviewed by Professor Meessen.
Although many aspects of this case still remain unexplained, Meessen and SOBEPS have basically accepted the Gilmard-Salmon hypothesis that some of the radar contacts were really "angels" caused by a rare meteorological phenomenon. This became evident in four lock-ons, "where the object descended to the ground with calculations showing negative [emphasis added] altitude... It was evidently impossible that an object could penetrate the ground, but it was possible that the ground could act as a mirror." Meessen explained how the high velocities measured by the Doppler radar of the F-16 fighters might result from interference effects. He points out, however, that there is another radar trace for which there is no explanation to date. As for the visual sightings of this event by the gendarmes and others, Meessen suggests that they could possibly have been caused by stars seen under conditions of "exceptional atmospheric refraction."136
In a recent interview, Major General De Brouwer summarized his reflections on this complex case:
"What impressed me the most were the witnesses, some of whom I know personally and convinced me that, in fact, something was going on. These were credible people and they told clearly what they saw.
"We always look for possibilities which can cause errors in the radar systems. We can not exclude that there was electromagnetic interference, but of course we can not exclude the possibility that there were objects in the air. On at least one occasion there was a correlation between the radar contacts of one ground radar and one F-16 fighter. This weakens the theory that all radar contacts were caused by electromagnetic interference. If we add all the possibilities, the question is still open, so there is no final answer."137
The Belgian UFO wave yielded a rich volume of good quality cases and many videos and photographs. One strikingly clear photograph of a triangular-shaped craft was taken at Petit-Rechain in early April 1990. As of 1994, it remained unexplained after numerous analyses, including a thorough computerized study at the Royal Military Academy. (see below)
Although public interest in the Belgian wave reached its peak in the 1990-91 period, SOBEPS was still documenting cases in late 1993. Marc Valckenaer listed the main characteristics of the Belgian UFOs in the latest SOBEPS study. Various shapes such as round, rectangular and cigar were reported, but the wave was dominated by triangular objects. Some of their characteristics included:
"Irregular displacement (zig-zag, instantaneous change of trajectory, etc.).
"Displacement following the contours of the terrain.
"Varying speeds of displacement (including very slow motion).
"Stationary flight (hovering).
"Overflight of urban and industrial centers.
"Sound effects (faint humming... to total silence)."138
Because the bulk of the Belgian sightings described triangular-shaped objects, many European and American researchers and journalists speculated that these were caused by either F-117A stealth fighters or some other revolutionary U.S. secret military aircraft. However, the only truly unusual characteristic of the F-117 is its near-invisibility to radar and infrared detection - it looks, flies and sounds like any other sub-sonic jet airplane. Similar claims about the presence of other American advanced airplanes are even harder to substantiate: the A-12 Avenger II was never built, and the existence of the TR-3A "manta" is unconfirmed. Neither has even been rumored to be able to fly in the manner reported for the Belgian UFOs.
Despite the fact that the secret military aircraft hypothesis has been denied officially over and over again by the Belgian Ministry of Defense and Air Force, as well as by the U.S. Embassy in Brussels and the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency, some publications continue to champion the stealth fighter theory.
In a letter to French researcher Renaud Marhic, the Minister of Defense at the time of the UFO wave, Leo Delcroix, wrote:
"Unfortunately, no explanation has been found to date. The nature and origin of the phenomenon remain unknown. One theory can, however, be definitely dismissed since the Belgian Armed Forces have been positively assured by American authorities that there has never been any sort of American aerial test flight."139
The Chief of Operations of the Royal Belgian Air Force, Colonel Wilfred De Brouwer (now Major General and Deputy Chief of the Belgian Air Force), set up a Special Task Force Unit to work closely with the Gendarmerie to investigate the sightings as soon as they were reported. Among the thousands of witnesses were many military and police officers, pilots, scientists and engineers. The wave was documented by the Belgian Society for the Study of Space Phenomena (SOBEPS), a private organization from Brussels, which published two thick volumes on the UFO wave. 133 (see montage)
The first important case was a multiple-witness observation of a strange aircraft, reported by gendarmes on patrol near the town of Eupen, not far from the German border. Auguste Meessen, professor of physics at the Catholic University in Louvain and a scientific consultant of SOBEPS, summarized the case:
"On November 29, 1989, a large craft with triangular shape flew over the town of Eupen. The gendarmes von Montigny and Nicol found it near the road linking Aix-la-Chapelle and Eupen. It was stationary in the air, above a field which it illuminated with three powerful beams. The beams emanated from large circular surfaces near the triangle's corners. In the center of the dark and flat understructure there was some kind of 'red gyrating beacon.' The object did not make any noise. When it began to move, the gendarmes headed towards a small road in the area over which they expected the object to fly. Instead, it made a half-turn and continued slowly in the direction of Eupen, following the road at low altitude. It was seen by different witnesses as it flew above houses and near City Hall."134
Sightings continued to be logged by SOBEPS and the Gendarmerie during the fall and winter of 1989-1990. Most witnesses described seeing dark, triangular objects with white lights at the corners and a red flashing light in the middle. Many of the objects were said to have hovered, with some of them then suddenly accelerating to a very high speed. Most of the objects made no sound, but some were said to have emitted a faint humming like an electric motor.
Public interest in the wave reached its peak with a radar/visual and jet scramble incident on the night of March 30-31, 1990. This scramble was seen and reported by hundreds of citizens. A preliminary report prepared by Major P. Lambrechts of the Belgian Air Force General Staff was released to SOBEPS. The "Report concerning the observation of UFOs during the night of March 30 to 31, 1990," includes a detailed chronology of events and dismisses several hypotheses such as optical illusions, balloons, meteorological inversions, military aircraft, holographic projections, etc.
The incident began at 22:50 hrs. on March 30 when the Gendarmerie telephoned the radar "master controller at Glons" to report "three unusual lights forming an equilateral triangle." More gendarmes confirmed the lights in the following minutes. When the NATO facility at Semmerzake detected an unknown target at 23:49 hrs., a decision to scramble two F-16 fighters was made. The jets took off at 0:05 hrs. from Beauvechain, the nearest air base, on March 31 and flew for just over an hour. According to Major Lambrecht's report:
"The aircraft had brief radar contacts on several occasions, [but the pilots]... at no time established visual contact with the UFOs... each time the pilots were able to secure a lock on one of the targets for a few seconds, there resulted a drastic change in the behavior of the detected targets... [During the first lock-on at 0:13 hrs.] their speed changed in a minimum of time from 150 to 970 knots [170 to 1,100 mph and 275 to 1,800 km./hr.] and from 9,000 to 5,000 feet [2,700 m. to 1,500 m.], returning then to 11,000 feet [3,300 m.] in order to change again to close to ground level."135
The Electronic War Center (EWC) of the Air Force undertook a much more detailed technical analysis of the F-16 computerized radar tapes, led by Col. Salmon and physicist M. Gilmard. Their study was completed in 1992 and was later reviewed by Professor Meessen.
Although many aspects of this case still remain unexplained, Meessen and SOBEPS have basically accepted the Gilmard-Salmon hypothesis that some of the radar contacts were really "angels" caused by a rare meteorological phenomenon. This became evident in four lock-ons, "where the object descended to the ground with calculations showing negative [emphasis added] altitude... It was evidently impossible that an object could penetrate the ground, but it was possible that the ground could act as a mirror." Meessen explained how the high velocities measured by the Doppler radar of the F-16 fighters might result from interference effects. He points out, however, that there is another radar trace for which there is no explanation to date. As for the visual sightings of this event by the gendarmes and others, Meessen suggests that they could possibly have been caused by stars seen under conditions of "exceptional atmospheric refraction."136
In a recent interview, Major General De Brouwer summarized his reflections on this complex case:
"What impressed me the most were the witnesses, some of whom I know personally and convinced me that, in fact, something was going on. These were credible people and they told clearly what they saw.
"We always look for possibilities which can cause errors in the radar systems. We can not exclude that there was electromagnetic interference, but of course we can not exclude the possibility that there were objects in the air. On at least one occasion there was a correlation between the radar contacts of one ground radar and one F-16 fighter. This weakens the theory that all radar contacts were caused by electromagnetic interference. If we add all the possibilities, the question is still open, so there is no final answer."137
The Belgian UFO wave yielded a rich volume of good quality cases and many videos and photographs. One strikingly clear photograph of a triangular-shaped craft was taken at Petit-Rechain in early April 1990. As of 1994, it remained unexplained after numerous analyses, including a thorough computerized study at the Royal Military Academy. (see below)
Although public interest in the Belgian wave reached its peak in the 1990-91 period, SOBEPS was still documenting cases in late 1993. Marc Valckenaer listed the main characteristics of the Belgian UFOs in the latest SOBEPS study. Various shapes such as round, rectangular and cigar were reported, but the wave was dominated by triangular objects. Some of their characteristics included:
"Irregular displacement (zig-zag, instantaneous change of trajectory, etc.).
"Displacement following the contours of the terrain.
"Varying speeds of displacement (including very slow motion).
"Stationary flight (hovering).
"Overflight of urban and industrial centers.
"Sound effects (faint humming... to total silence)."138
Because the bulk of the Belgian sightings described triangular-shaped objects, many European and American researchers and journalists speculated that these were caused by either F-117A stealth fighters or some other revolutionary U.S. secret military aircraft. However, the only truly unusual characteristic of the F-117 is its near-invisibility to radar and infrared detection - it looks, flies and sounds like any other sub-sonic jet airplane. Similar claims about the presence of other American advanced airplanes are even harder to substantiate: the A-12 Avenger II was never built, and the existence of the TR-3A "manta" is unconfirmed. Neither has even been rumored to be able to fly in the manner reported for the Belgian UFOs.
Despite the fact that the secret military aircraft hypothesis has been denied officially over and over again by the Belgian Ministry of Defense and Air Force, as well as by the U.S. Embassy in Brussels and the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency, some publications continue to champion the stealth fighter theory.
In a letter to French researcher Renaud Marhic, the Minister of Defense at the time of the UFO wave, Leo Delcroix, wrote:
"Unfortunately, no explanation has been found to date. The nature and origin of the phenomenon remain unknown. One theory can, however, be definitely dismissed since the Belgian Armed Forces have been positively assured by American authorities that there has never been any sort of American aerial test flight."139
6. UFO hovers over Russian military base near nuclear test site of Kapustin Yar
Date: July 28, 1989
Location: Kapustin Yar, Russian Federation
In 1989, at a military base near the nuclear test site of Kapustin Yar, members of two army units noticed a UFO which hovered for hours over the arsenal of the base. The KGB files contained the handwritten reports of the sighting. It flew over the stores of the unit and moved in the direction of the missile arsenal. When it hovered over the arsenal, a bright ray appeared on its underside.
Source: Michael Hesemann, 1998
[This case] occurred on July 28, 1989, at a military base near the nuclear test site of Kapustin Yar in the Astrakhan region (Caspian lowlands).
It was about midnight when members of two army units noticed a UFO which hovered for hours over the arsenal of the base. The KGB files contained the handwritten reports of the sighting, which 4 of the witnesses wrote after being interrogated by agents of the KGB. The report does not say what kind of missiles were in the arsenal, nor whether there had been any nuclear warheads.
"I climbed up to the watchtower and watched the object at a height of 18 feet. I could clearly make out a glaring blinking signal, bright as a camera flash. The object flew over the stores of the unit and moved in the direction of the missile arsenal, about 1,000 feet away. It floated at a height of only 60 feet above the depot. The UFO glowed in a kind of phosphorescent green. It was a disc 12 to 15 feet in diameter with a semi-spherical dome on it.
While the object was hovering above the arsenal, a bright ray appeared on its underside where the light had been flashing before, and drew 2 or 3 circles. Then the object moved towards the railway station, still flashing. Soon, however, it came back to the missile depot and hovered at a height of 180-200 feet above it. Two hours after the start of the sighting, the object flew in the direction of the town Akhtubinsk and disappeared out of our sight,"
wrote the communications officer on duty, V. Voloshin.
And the soldier G. Kulik added: "Near the object in the sky I saw a fireball which arose from the earth and approached it. When the UFO moved towards me, I could physically feel its approach. Then it shot off into the sky. I saw an airplane that attempted to get close to the object, but the object accelerated so fast that it soon left the airplane behind".
It was about midnight when members of two army units noticed a UFO which hovered for hours over the arsenal of the base. The KGB files contained the handwritten reports of the sighting, which 4 of the witnesses wrote after being interrogated by agents of the KGB. The report does not say what kind of missiles were in the arsenal, nor whether there had been any nuclear warheads.
"I climbed up to the watchtower and watched the object at a height of 18 feet. I could clearly make out a glaring blinking signal, bright as a camera flash. The object flew over the stores of the unit and moved in the direction of the missile arsenal, about 1,000 feet away. It floated at a height of only 60 feet above the depot. The UFO glowed in a kind of phosphorescent green. It was a disc 12 to 15 feet in diameter with a semi-spherical dome on it.
wrote the communications officer on duty, V. Voloshin.
And the soldier G. Kulik added: "Near the object in the sky I saw a fireball which arose from the earth and approached it. When the UFO moved towards me, I could physically feel its approach. Then it shot off into the sky. I saw an airplane that attempted to get close to the object, but the object accelerated so fast that it soon left the airplane behind".
7. Jet Chase Over Brazil
Date: May 19, 1986
Location: Brazil
Location: Brazil
As many as twenty UFOs were seen and tracked by ground radar and at least six airplanes. Unidentified radar returns were tracked by airports in São Paulo and the Integrated Air Defense & Air Traffic Control Center (CINDACTA) in Brasilia. Two F-5E and three Mirage jet fighters were scrambled from Santa Cruz AFB in Sao Paulo State, and Anápolis AFB in Goias State.
Source: Don Berliner, UFO Briefing Document
As many as twenty UFOs were seen and tracked by ground radar and at least six airplanes during the night of May 19, 1986 over several states in southeastern Brazil. Unidentified radar returns were tracked by airports in São Paulo and the Integrated Air Defense & Air Traffic Control Center (CINDACTA) in Brasilia. Two F-5E and three Mirage jet fighters were scrambled from Santa Cruz AFB in Sao Paulo State, and Anápolis AFB in Goias State.
The case was discussed openly by high ranking government officials. It was first reported by Colonel (Ret.) Ozires Silva, president of the state-owned oil company Petrobrás, who was flying on an executive Xingu jet, when he and the pilot saw and pursued unidentified objects for about 25 minutes. The incident was covered widely in the Brazilian media, leading to a press conference at the Ministry of Aeronautics in Brasilia on May 23, with air traffic controllers and air force pilots involved in the scramble mission.
The Minister of Aeronautics, Brigadier General Otávio Moreira Lima, was very outspoken:
"Between 20:00 hrs. (5/19) and 01:00 hrs. (5/20) at least 20 objects were detected by Brazilian radars. They saturated the radars and interrupted traffic in the area. Each time that radar detected unidentified objects, fighters took off for intercept. Radar detects only solid metallic bodies and heavy (mass) clouds. There were no clouds nor conventional aircraft in the region. The sky was clear. Radar doesn't have optical illusions.
"We can only give technical explanations and we don't have them. It would be very difficult for us to talk about the hypothesis of an electronic war. It's very remote and it's not the case here in Brazil. It's fantastic. The signals on the radar were quite clear."112
The Minister also announced that a commission would study the incident. Air Force Major Ney Cerqueira, in charge of the Air Defense Operations Center (CODA), was equally candid:
"We don't have technical operational conditions to explain it. The appearance and disappearance of these objects on the radar screens are unexplained. They are Unidentified Aerial Movements... The technical instruments used for the identification of the lights had problems in registering them. CODA activated two F-5E and three Mirages to identify the objects. One F-5E and one Mirage remained grounded on alert. A similar case occurred four years ago [the Commander Brito VASP airliner radar-visual incident in 1982]. The lights were moving at a speed ranging between 250 and 1,500 km./hr. [150 to 1,000 mph] The Air Force has not closed the case."113
Aeronautics Commission report was not released. However, the accounts of air force pilots and radar controllers were published widely in the press and later studied by Brazilian researchers. A comprehensive report was made by Basílio Baranoff, an airline captain, member of the Aerospace Technical Center, and consultant for the Brazilian UFO organization CBPDV. Baranoff provided a chronology of events for the night of May 19, 1986:
"6:30 p.m. local time - First visual sightings by control tower personnel at the São José dos Campos airport in São Paulo State. Controllers notice two intense lights aligned with the runway axis at 330 degrees azimuth and approximately 15 km. [10 m.] distance from the tower.
"7:00 p.m. - The control towers in São Paulo and Brazilia confirm to São José that they have three primary targets on their screens, and that there are no scheduled aircraft in those areas.
"8:00 p.m. - CINDACTA (Brasilia) detects up to eight targets (echoes) on its screens.
"8:30 p.m. - A new object is observed with binoculars at the São José tower; it shows defined edges and red-orange color; it approaches the tower and then retreats.
"9:00 p.m. - The oil company Xingu executive jet with Col. Silva requests landing conditions at São José. Both Silva and Commander Alcir Pereira, the Xingu pilot, confirm visually the luminous objects at 330 degrees azimuth. The Xingu jet attempts to follow the UFOs for 10 minutes.
"9:10 p.m. - The Xingu jet returns for landing when a new, large luminous object heads toward the aircraft. The São Paulo tower confirms two echoes: the Xingu and an unknown, which disappears from the screen 15 minutes later.
"9:20 p.m. - The Air Control Center in Brasilia (ACC-BR) informs the Air Defense Command about the situation.
"9:25 p.m. - The Xingu returns for a second landing attempt when the São Paulo tower reports yet another object at 180 degrees south, which is observed and followed by Commander Pereira.
"9:30 p.m. - The Xingu returns for a third landing attempt when ACC-BR reports the appearance of new objects. The Xingu, now at 3,000 meters [10,000 ft.] of altitude, makes visual contact with three luminous objects flying low over Petrobrás refineries and heading towards Serra do Mar. The Xingu finally lands in São José dos Campos.
"9:40 p.m. - More visual sightings of a round object at 320 degrees azimuth.
"9:50 p.m. - A luminous yellow object surrounded by smaller lights is observed at 110 degrees azimuth.
"10:23 p.m. - The first F-5E jet fighter, piloted by Air Force Lt. Kleber Caldas Marinho, is scrambled from Santa Cruz AFB in Rio State.
"10:45 p.m. - The second F-5E jet, piloted by Captain Brisola Jordão, is scrambled from Santa Cruz. The first Mirage F-103, armed with Sidewinder and Matra missiles, is scrambled from Anápolis AFB in Goias State.
"10:55 p.m. - Anápolis AFB detects the objects on radar. The Mirage piloted by Captain Viriato does not make visual contact with the UFO, but a target is detected on its onboard radar... Captain Viriato later explained at the press conference in Brasilia that he was chasing the UFO 'at 1,350 km./hr. [850 mph], approaching the object up to a distance of 6 miles [9.5 km.]. The object was heading up front and moving from one side to the other (zig-zagging) on my radar scope. Suddenly, the blip disappeared from my radar scope.'
"11:00 p.m - The second Mirage F-103 is scrambled from Anápolis.
"11:15 p.m. - Lt. Kleber's F-5E makes visual contact with a ball of light and chases the UFO at Mach 1.1 (1,320 km./hr. or 850 mph)... Kleber later declared at the press conference: 'I had one visual contact and one contact with my aircraft radar of something that looked like a luminous point, which was 12 miles [19 km.] in front of me, a distance confirmed by ground radar. The object was moving from left to right and then began to climb... [it] was at 10 km [6 mi.] of altitude and flying over 1,000 km./hr. [600 mph]. I followed it up to 200 miles [320 km.] over the Atlantic Ocean [limit of Brazil's territorial waters]. I wasn't afraid because I like the unknown.'
"11:17 p.m. - The third Mirage jet is scrambled from Anápolis AFB.
"11:20 p.m. - Captain Jordão's F-5E establishes radar contact... At the press conference a few days later, he stated: 'Near to São José dos Campos, radar detected several targets, 10 to 13 targets, at a distance of 20 miles [32 km.]. The sky was clear but I didn't see anything. Ground radar informed me that the objects were closing in: 20 miles, 15, 10, 5, suddenly there were 13 objects behind my aircraft, 6 on one side and 7 on the other, during several minutes. After I maneuvered the aircraft, the objects had disappeared.' [Captain Jordão flew for 1 hour 20 minutes.]
"11:36 p.m. - The third Mirage is scrambled from Anápolis AFB.
"1:00 a.m. (May 20) - By this time all jet fighters have returned to their bases."114
These are the basic known facts surrounding the multiple UFO jet scramble incidents over southeastern Brazil on the night of May 19-20, 1986. It is noteworthy that Captain Baranoff added that "two nights after, ten to eleven unidentified luminous objects returned for a new round over São José dos Campos; they were observed visually and detected by the São Paulo, ACC-BR and by CINDACTA 1 radars." This time there was no official confirmation from Air Force authorities.115
Lacking the final Ministry Commission report with all the pertinent data, it is difficult to make a final conclusion about this case. Many hypotheses were offered in the Brazilian media by skeptical astronomers and scientists, ranging from a meteor shower, a reflection of the full moon and ball lightning, to radar malfunction, space debris and spy planes. Most of these explanations seem quite insufficient to explain the events of May 19. One of the more plausible was offered by British space researcher Geoffrey Perry. According to Perry, the Soviet space station Salyut-7 ejected several boxes of debris on that night, which re-entered the earth's atmosphere around central-western Brazil. The re-entry of NASA's Solarwind satellite was also discussed in the Brazilian press.116
However, Brigadier José Cavalcanti from Brazil's Air Defense Command, was not impressed with the Salyut-7 and Solarwind explanations. He told the weekly magazine Veja:
"It could have been space debris, but it wasn't only that. A metallic box with space debris can be detected by radar, but it will always fall in the same direction and at constant velocity. That was not the case of what was seen in Brazil, where the objects detected by radar had speeds that varied from very slow to extremely high."117
Another interesting view is the final comment in a short message from the USDAO (U.S. Defense Attaché Office) in Rio to DIA (Defense Intelligence Agency) on the subject, entitled "BAF [Brazilian Air Force] has a Close Encounter of the First Kind":
"COMMENT: [Censored] While RO [Reporting Officer] does not believe in UFO's or all the hoopla that surrounds previous reporting, there is too much here to be ignored. Three visual sightings and positive radar contact from three different types of radar systems, leads one to believe that something arrived over Brazil the night of 19 May."118
_______________________________________
FOOTNOTES
112. Covo, Claudeir, "Maio de 86 - A Mobilizaçao No Céu Brasileiro," o assunto é... UFOLOGIA, No. 14, Editora Trés, Sao Paulo, 1986; contains transcripts of all the statements by military officers at the May 23, 1986 press conference.
113. Ibid.
114. Baranoff, Basílio, "Casuistica UFO - OVNIs em Maio de 1986", PSI-UFO, No. 4, CBPDV, Campo Grande, Jan./Feb. 1987. CBPDV stands for Centro Brasileiro para Pesquisas de Discos Voadores.
115. Ibid.
116. Huneeus, Antonio, "UFO Alert in Brazil," UFO Review, New York, 1986.
117. Veja, "Lixo espacial - Surgem novas explicações para os OVNIs da FAB," September 10, 1986; English translation in Huneeus, A., ibid.
118. Department of Defense JCS [Joint Chiefs of Staff] Message Center, "Info Report" re "Subject: BAF has a Close Encounter of the First Kind," May 1986.
The case was discussed openly by high ranking government officials. It was first reported by Colonel (Ret.) Ozires Silva, president of the state-owned oil company Petrobrás, who was flying on an executive Xingu jet, when he and the pilot saw and pursued unidentified objects for about 25 minutes. The incident was covered widely in the Brazilian media, leading to a press conference at the Ministry of Aeronautics in Brasilia on May 23, with air traffic controllers and air force pilots involved in the scramble mission.
The Minister of Aeronautics, Brigadier General Otávio Moreira Lima, was very outspoken:
"Between 20:00 hrs. (5/19) and 01:00 hrs. (5/20) at least 20 objects were detected by Brazilian radars. They saturated the radars and interrupted traffic in the area. Each time that radar detected unidentified objects, fighters took off for intercept. Radar detects only solid metallic bodies and heavy (mass) clouds. There were no clouds nor conventional aircraft in the region. The sky was clear. Radar doesn't have optical illusions.
"We can only give technical explanations and we don't have them. It would be very difficult for us to talk about the hypothesis of an electronic war. It's very remote and it's not the case here in Brazil. It's fantastic. The signals on the radar were quite clear."112
The Minister also announced that a commission would study the incident. Air Force Major Ney Cerqueira, in charge of the Air Defense Operations Center (CODA), was equally candid:
"We don't have technical operational conditions to explain it. The appearance and disappearance of these objects on the radar screens are unexplained. They are Unidentified Aerial Movements... The technical instruments used for the identification of the lights had problems in registering them. CODA activated two F-5E and three Mirages to identify the objects. One F-5E and one Mirage remained grounded on alert. A similar case occurred four years ago [the Commander Brito VASP airliner radar-visual incident in 1982]. The lights were moving at a speed ranging between 250 and 1,500 km./hr. [150 to 1,000 mph] The Air Force has not closed the case."113
Aeronautics Commission report was not released. However, the accounts of air force pilots and radar controllers were published widely in the press and later studied by Brazilian researchers. A comprehensive report was made by Basílio Baranoff, an airline captain, member of the Aerospace Technical Center, and consultant for the Brazilian UFO organization CBPDV. Baranoff provided a chronology of events for the night of May 19, 1986:
"6:30 p.m. local time - First visual sightings by control tower personnel at the São José dos Campos airport in São Paulo State. Controllers notice two intense lights aligned with the runway axis at 330 degrees azimuth and approximately 15 km. [10 m.] distance from the tower.
"7:00 p.m. - The control towers in São Paulo and Brazilia confirm to São José that they have three primary targets on their screens, and that there are no scheduled aircraft in those areas.
"8:00 p.m. - CINDACTA (Brasilia) detects up to eight targets (echoes) on its screens.
"8:30 p.m. - A new object is observed with binoculars at the São José tower; it shows defined edges and red-orange color; it approaches the tower and then retreats.
"9:00 p.m. - The oil company Xingu executive jet with Col. Silva requests landing conditions at São José. Both Silva and Commander Alcir Pereira, the Xingu pilot, confirm visually the luminous objects at 330 degrees azimuth. The Xingu jet attempts to follow the UFOs for 10 minutes.
"9:10 p.m. - The Xingu jet returns for landing when a new, large luminous object heads toward the aircraft. The São Paulo tower confirms two echoes: the Xingu and an unknown, which disappears from the screen 15 minutes later.
"9:20 p.m. - The Air Control Center in Brasilia (ACC-BR) informs the Air Defense Command about the situation.
"9:25 p.m. - The Xingu returns for a second landing attempt when the São Paulo tower reports yet another object at 180 degrees south, which is observed and followed by Commander Pereira.
"9:30 p.m. - The Xingu returns for a third landing attempt when ACC-BR reports the appearance of new objects. The Xingu, now at 3,000 meters [10,000 ft.] of altitude, makes visual contact with three luminous objects flying low over Petrobrás refineries and heading towards Serra do Mar. The Xingu finally lands in São José dos Campos.
"9:40 p.m. - More visual sightings of a round object at 320 degrees azimuth.
"9:50 p.m. - A luminous yellow object surrounded by smaller lights is observed at 110 degrees azimuth.
"10:23 p.m. - The first F-5E jet fighter, piloted by Air Force Lt. Kleber Caldas Marinho, is scrambled from Santa Cruz AFB in Rio State.
"10:45 p.m. - The second F-5E jet, piloted by Captain Brisola Jordão, is scrambled from Santa Cruz. The first Mirage F-103, armed with Sidewinder and Matra missiles, is scrambled from Anápolis AFB in Goias State.
"10:55 p.m. - Anápolis AFB detects the objects on radar. The Mirage piloted by Captain Viriato does not make visual contact with the UFO, but a target is detected on its onboard radar... Captain Viriato later explained at the press conference in Brasilia that he was chasing the UFO 'at 1,350 km./hr. [850 mph], approaching the object up to a distance of 6 miles [9.5 km.]. The object was heading up front and moving from one side to the other (zig-zagging) on my radar scope. Suddenly, the blip disappeared from my radar scope.'
"11:00 p.m - The second Mirage F-103 is scrambled from Anápolis.
"11:15 p.m. - Lt. Kleber's F-5E makes visual contact with a ball of light and chases the UFO at Mach 1.1 (1,320 km./hr. or 850 mph)... Kleber later declared at the press conference: 'I had one visual contact and one contact with my aircraft radar of something that looked like a luminous point, which was 12 miles [19 km.] in front of me, a distance confirmed by ground radar. The object was moving from left to right and then began to climb... [it] was at 10 km [6 mi.] of altitude and flying over 1,000 km./hr. [600 mph]. I followed it up to 200 miles [320 km.] over the Atlantic Ocean [limit of Brazil's territorial waters]. I wasn't afraid because I like the unknown.'
"11:17 p.m. - The third Mirage jet is scrambled from Anápolis AFB.
"11:20 p.m. - Captain Jordão's F-5E establishes radar contact... At the press conference a few days later, he stated: 'Near to São José dos Campos, radar detected several targets, 10 to 13 targets, at a distance of 20 miles [32 km.]. The sky was clear but I didn't see anything. Ground radar informed me that the objects were closing in: 20 miles, 15, 10, 5, suddenly there were 13 objects behind my aircraft, 6 on one side and 7 on the other, during several minutes. After I maneuvered the aircraft, the objects had disappeared.' [Captain Jordão flew for 1 hour 20 minutes.]
"11:36 p.m. - The third Mirage is scrambled from Anápolis AFB.
"1:00 a.m. (May 20) - By this time all jet fighters have returned to their bases."114
These are the basic known facts surrounding the multiple UFO jet scramble incidents over southeastern Brazil on the night of May 19-20, 1986. It is noteworthy that Captain Baranoff added that "two nights after, ten to eleven unidentified luminous objects returned for a new round over São José dos Campos; they were observed visually and detected by the São Paulo, ACC-BR and by CINDACTA 1 radars." This time there was no official confirmation from Air Force authorities.115
Lacking the final Ministry Commission report with all the pertinent data, it is difficult to make a final conclusion about this case. Many hypotheses were offered in the Brazilian media by skeptical astronomers and scientists, ranging from a meteor shower, a reflection of the full moon and ball lightning, to radar malfunction, space debris and spy planes. Most of these explanations seem quite insufficient to explain the events of May 19. One of the more plausible was offered by British space researcher Geoffrey Perry. According to Perry, the Soviet space station Salyut-7 ejected several boxes of debris on that night, which re-entered the earth's atmosphere around central-western Brazil. The re-entry of NASA's Solarwind satellite was also discussed in the Brazilian press.116
However, Brigadier José Cavalcanti from Brazil's Air Defense Command, was not impressed with the Salyut-7 and Solarwind explanations. He told the weekly magazine Veja:
"It could have been space debris, but it wasn't only that. A metallic box with space debris can be detected by radar, but it will always fall in the same direction and at constant velocity. That was not the case of what was seen in Brazil, where the objects detected by radar had speeds that varied from very slow to extremely high."117
Another interesting view is the final comment in a short message from the USDAO (U.S. Defense Attaché Office) in Rio to DIA (Defense Intelligence Agency) on the subject, entitled "BAF [Brazilian Air Force] has a Close Encounter of the First Kind":
"COMMENT: [Censored] While RO [Reporting Officer] does not believe in UFO's or all the hoopla that surrounds previous reporting, there is too much here to be ignored. Three visual sightings and positive radar contact from three different types of radar systems, leads one to believe that something arrived over Brazil the night of 19 May."118
_______________________________________
FOOTNOTES
112. Covo, Claudeir, "Maio de 86 - A Mobilizaçao No Céu Brasileiro," o assunto é... UFOLOGIA, No. 14, Editora Trés, Sao Paulo, 1986; contains transcripts of all the statements by military officers at the May 23, 1986 press conference.
113. Ibid.
114. Baranoff, Basílio, "Casuistica UFO - OVNIs em Maio de 1986", PSI-UFO, No. 4, CBPDV, Campo Grande, Jan./Feb. 1987. CBPDV stands for Centro Brasileiro para Pesquisas de Discos Voadores.
115. Ibid.
116. Huneeus, Antonio, "UFO Alert in Brazil," UFO Review, New York, 1986.
117. Veja, "Lixo espacial - Surgem novas explicações para os OVNIs da FAB," September 10, 1986; English translation in Huneeus, A., ibid.
118. Department of Defense JCS [Joint Chiefs of Staff] Message Center, "Info Report" re "Subject: BAF has a Close Encounter of the First Kind," May 1986.
8. Unidentified maneuvering lights seen from US Navy ship; radiation detected afterwards.
Date: 1986
Location: Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, United States
Location: Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, United States
During one of my scans of the night sky, out of know where, four red circular lights appeared... The four lights, in a flash, darted towards the horizon amazingly fast... Then all four shot straight up into outer-space and out of sight, all within a split second... After a half hour had passed since the sighting, the radiation detection system on the bridge started making a loud clicking sound."
Source: UFOCasebook.com (B. J. Booth, editor), citing MUFON CMS (Case Management System)
[go to original source]
[go to original source]
While in the US Navy in the summer of 1986, I was standing lookout aboard the USS Edenton ATS 1 (currently decommissioned). The lookout watch, stood outside on top the bridge of the ship, and was responsible for reporting all contacts seen both in the water and sky. It was around eleven p.m. one clear night at sea, located about fifty miles off the coast of Cape Hatteras, NC.
During one of my scans of the night sky, out of know where, four red circular lights appeared. The lights where hundreds of yards apart from each other and formed a square. At first, I thought it was four separate air craft, such as, military helicopters because the lights were stationary; however, due to the distance from the ship, the lights where too large to be aircraft running lights.
There were also no other normal running lights like green and white, which make-up the normal outline of an aircraft seen at night. The lights where located about twenty degrees above the horizon and about a mile away from the ship. Again, these four red lights were each about the size of a small plane, which were very bright and visible in the night sky. The night sky was also clear, moon lit, and a moderate amount of stars were visible, which also aided in calculating the distance and size of these lights.
As stated, when I first saw these lights they were all stationary in the sky and appeared out of know where. Once I noticed that these were not normal lights, grouped in a square and not moving, I called down to the bridge over a salt and pepper line informing the conning officer of a possible UFO sighting. This brought laughter across the wire at first, but I relayed the contact again in a stern but excited voice, which succeeded in getting the bridge officers attention. After relaying the contact information a second time, the four lights, in a flash, darted towards the horizon amazingly fast. The lower two lights in the square went first, with the top two lights following directly behind them in a curved swooshing motion and there was no sound.
Then all four shot straight up into outer-space and out of sight, all within a split second. At this point, I felt very excited and shocked, and was personally praying someone on the bridge had seen what I just saw. Having been an avid watcher of the night sky, seen shooting stars and a believer in that life has to exist somewhere out there, I become even more excited because I knew, I just saw my first unidentified flying object(s).
To my amazement, when I returned to the bridge after my watch, I was very pleased to learn that the conning officer and everyone else on the bridge had seen this sighting and logged it into the ship’s log as a UFO sighting.
Next, after a half hour had passed since the sighting, the radiation detection system (gamma roentgen meter) on the bridge started making a loud clicking sound. At first, no one seemed to know what was making this sound then a very loud bell went off notifying us as to what was going on, we were being radiated.
When the instrument stopped clicking, it indicated we had taken a hit of 385 roentgens in the period of about one minute. At this point, the captain of the ship was awoken and called to the bridge, as well as the chief in charge of the radiation metering equipment onboard ship.
The captain was not impressed with an entry of a UFO sighting being placed in the ship’s log, and at first, took the roentgen meter as being defective. However, the chief informed the captain that the meter had been serviced and calibrated the day before and that other like meters throughout the ship had just gone off indicating the same amount of roentgens received as the bridge.
The captain stated not to log the instance concerning the radiation exposure and left the bridge. During the rest of my watch duty that night, no officer or enlisted person spoke of what happened, and also acted liked nothing happened. This experience, however, was etched into my memory as if it happened yesterday and I have told this story to only a few people, people who I thought would believe me. This is also the first time I have documented the events of this night.
In conclusion, as an indication of the strength of gamma radiation, I and others received that night; all the personnel during the Project Trinity experiments conducted in 1945 at ground zero, only received between 1 and 6 total roentgens of gamma radiation. This leads me to believe, we traveled through the wake of radiation produced by the UFOs seen thirty minutes earlier.
During one of my scans of the night sky, out of know where, four red circular lights appeared. The lights where hundreds of yards apart from each other and formed a square. At first, I thought it was four separate air craft, such as, military helicopters because the lights were stationary; however, due to the distance from the ship, the lights where too large to be aircraft running lights.
There were also no other normal running lights like green and white, which make-up the normal outline of an aircraft seen at night. The lights where located about twenty degrees above the horizon and about a mile away from the ship. Again, these four red lights were each about the size of a small plane, which were very bright and visible in the night sky. The night sky was also clear, moon lit, and a moderate amount of stars were visible, which also aided in calculating the distance and size of these lights.
As stated, when I first saw these lights they were all stationary in the sky and appeared out of know where. Once I noticed that these were not normal lights, grouped in a square and not moving, I called down to the bridge over a salt and pepper line informing the conning officer of a possible UFO sighting. This brought laughter across the wire at first, but I relayed the contact again in a stern but excited voice, which succeeded in getting the bridge officers attention. After relaying the contact information a second time, the four lights, in a flash, darted towards the horizon amazingly fast. The lower two lights in the square went first, with the top two lights following directly behind them in a curved swooshing motion and there was no sound.
Then all four shot straight up into outer-space and out of sight, all within a split second. At this point, I felt very excited and shocked, and was personally praying someone on the bridge had seen what I just saw. Having been an avid watcher of the night sky, seen shooting stars and a believer in that life has to exist somewhere out there, I become even more excited because I knew, I just saw my first unidentified flying object(s).
To my amazement, when I returned to the bridge after my watch, I was very pleased to learn that the conning officer and everyone else on the bridge had seen this sighting and logged it into the ship’s log as a UFO sighting.
Next, after a half hour had passed since the sighting, the radiation detection system (gamma roentgen meter) on the bridge started making a loud clicking sound. At first, no one seemed to know what was making this sound then a very loud bell went off notifying us as to what was going on, we were being radiated.
When the instrument stopped clicking, it indicated we had taken a hit of 385 roentgens in the period of about one minute. At this point, the captain of the ship was awoken and called to the bridge, as well as the chief in charge of the radiation metering equipment onboard ship.
The captain was not impressed with an entry of a UFO sighting being placed in the ship’s log, and at first, took the roentgen meter as being defective. However, the chief informed the captain that the meter had been serviced and calibrated the day before and that other like meters throughout the ship had just gone off indicating the same amount of roentgens received as the bridge.
The captain stated not to log the instance concerning the radiation exposure and left the bridge. During the rest of my watch duty that night, no officer or enlisted person spoke of what happened, and also acted liked nothing happened. This experience, however, was etched into my memory as if it happened yesterday and I have told this story to only a few people, people who I thought would believe me. This is also the first time I have documented the events of this night.
In conclusion, as an indication of the strength of gamma radiation, I and others received that night; all the personnel during the Project Trinity experiments conducted in 1945 at ground zero, only received between 1 and 6 total roentgens of gamma radiation. This leads me to believe, we traveled through the wake of radiation produced by the UFOs seen thirty minutes earlier.
9. The Rendlesham Forest Incident
Date: December 26, 1980
Location: Rendlesham Forest, United Kingdom
Location: Rendlesham Forest, United Kingdom
What is widely considered Britain’s most extraordinary encounter took place between 26 and 28 December 1980. It involved at least a dozen civilians from villages surrounding Rendlesham Forest, a large pine wood in south east Suffolk eight miles from the large town of Ipswich. However, it also gained a high profile because of its military witnesses, part of a huge USAF contingent at the twin bases of RAF Bentwaters and Woodbridge located beside the forest.
Source: Jenny Randles
What is widely considered Britain’s most extraordinary encounter took place between 26 and 28 December l980. It involved at least a dozen civilians from villages surrounding Rendlesham Forest, a large pine wood in south east Suffolk eight miles from the large town of Ipswich. However, it also gained a high profile because of its military witnesses, part of a huge USAF contingent at the twin bases of RAF Bentwaters and Woodbridge located beside the forest. These had been on long-term lease from the British Ministry of Defence (MoD) since World War Two.
Although the twin bases closed with the cessation of the cold war, other local facilities survive in this high security area. At RAF Bawdsey the world's first working radar was developed. And Orford Ness, a coastal spit five miles from the Woodbridge base, was for many years a secret research facility. “Over The Horizon” beam experiments (code named Cobra Mist) led to warnings that shipping coming too close to the shore might experience “interference”.
The area surrounding the forest has long been a hotbed of UFO activity, with fishermen reporting strange blisters on their skins and the sightings of green fireballs emerging from the North Sea around the Ness.
Then, at approximately 3:00 a.m. on 26 December l980, a two-man USAF security patrol near the East Gate of RAF Woodbridge observed strange coloured lights above the forest in the direction of Orford Ness. Assistance was requested and a security unit was sent out from Bentwaters. The lights were now deep inside the pine wood and three men, Sargeant Jim Penniston, his driver, Airman Ed Cabansag, and one of the two original security officers, airman (later sargeant) John Burroughs, drove down a logging track that led into the forest, proceeding the rest of the way on foot owing to the frozen terrain.
All three men closed in on an object that resembled an “aircraft on fire”, or, as Burroughs described it, a “multiple series of lights”. At closer proximity, the lights solidified. Burroughs says that no structured craft ever emerged, but Penniston claimed that he went close enough to see an actual object looming from within the glow that was “the size of a tank...It had a very smooth surface almost like glass”. Cabansag, whilst more guarded, agrees that strange lights were visible.
At close proximity Penniston says “The air was filled with electricity - like static.You could feel it on your skin as you approached the object. There was also a sense of slowness, like time itself was an effort.”
Burroughs concurred: “The nearer we got to that thing the more uneasy I felt...it was as if I was moving in slow motion. I felt really hot and as if the hair was standing up on the back of my head”.
There was then a silent explosion of light, causing the airmen to throw themselves to the ground in a defence. The object disappeared towards the coast and “was gone like a blur”. However, the three men began to follow a light that had appeared in the distance. Only after pursuing this for some minutes through the forest did they discover that they were chasing the glow from the lighthouse situated on Orford Ness. They do not believe this was what they had witnessed earlier at close quarters.
After discovering “marks” on the forest floor the airmen returned to base to be debriefed. British civilian police sent two officers to the forest and senior policeman, David King, met with Colonel Ted Conrad on the logging road at 4:11 a.m. From here they reported seeing only the Orford Ness lighthouse; although the UFO had long since disappeared.
At 10:30 a.m. police were called to the woods again to study the holes now confirmed as located in the ground at the landing site and forming a roughly triangular pattern. In the log report at the Woodbridge police station these were noted as possibly having been caused by animals.
The Suffolk police established that there were several UFO reports during the previous night, including sightings on radar screens at Heathrow Airport near London. It is likely that much of this activity referred to an incident just after 9:00 p.m. on 25 December, when the booster from a Soviet space probe had burned up on re-entry over South East England and fell into the North Sea. This trail of debris brought a flood of sightings into BUFORA (the British UFO Research Association) as well as to the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), because some witnesses thought that this was an aircraft exploding in mid-air.
Local UFOlogists, Brenda Butler and Dot Street, later found many witnesses in surrounding villages to the lights that Burroughs had reported over the forest. The Webb family, returning from a Boxing Night party on the road through the forest, observed floating lights and had time to slow their car to a stop, eliminating one theory since proposed for this UFO: a short duration meteor that astronomers had witnessed in the sky around this time.
The sighting by the USAF patrol quickly became the talk of the base, and next day (27 December) strange lights were reported again by airmen who were having an unofficial “sky watch” in the forest. Concerned about morale base security chief, Lieutenant Bruce Englund, interrupted an officers Christmas party on Woodbridge base to report the new sightings.
Base commander, Colonel Ted Conrad, who had an awards speech to give at the party, ordered his deputy, Lt Colonel Charles Halt to gather a team and sort out the matter once and for all. Halt duly collected a tape machine to take notes in the dark woods , and took a small group of men, including Englund, an officer from the disaster preparedness team and a base photographer, to prepare for a nocturnal investigation. Gas-powered “lightall” searchlights were taken with them, but these constantly malfunctioned near to the “suspected landing site”.
Halt and his team were in the forest from soon after midnight early on 28 December through to just before dawn. During this time they took samples of soil and damaged tree bark, photographed the landing marks, measured a hole in the tree canopy at the point where Burroughs, Penniston and Cabansag had seen the UFO depart 48 hours earlier and used geiger counters to take readings that they considered to be unusual radiation levels within the impact marks.
Halt intermittently recorded the team’s progress onto the tape, until at 1:48 a.m. some airmen in the party reported strange activity. This tape runs for 18 minutes and was released to British UFO investigators in July l984 by a US Major, who had held a copy for four years. On this dramatic audio account of the early hours of 28 December you can hear the following exchange:
Halt: Zero one forty eight, we’re hearing very strange sounds out of a farmer’s barnyard animals…very, very active, making an awful lot of noise.
Airman: There...look.…
Halt: You just saw a light? Where? Slow down…where?
The witnesses debate this pulsing light, and at one point (after viewing it through an optical enhancer known as a starlight scope) it seems to break apart; possibly an effect of an optical distortion. They then set off to follow the glow, much as the three airmen did at this same position two nights earlier, when misperceiving the Orford Ness lighthouse.
Halt: We are about 150 to 200 yards from the site. Everything else is just deathly calm. There’s no doubt about it, there’s some type of strange flashing red light ahead.
Airman: Sir, it’s yellow.
Halt: I saw a yellow tinge in it, too...Weird! ... it appears to be moving a little bit this way...It’s brighter than it has been. It’s definitely coming this way...Pieces of it are shooting off...There’s no doubt about it this is weird.
Further sightings continued, mostly of small star-like lights, moving in box-grid patterns and scattered about the sky. It seems hard to deny that some of these could be stars caused to move by the effects of autokinesis (an optical illusion), the clear night sky and the effects of wind. But at one point another very strange event does occur as Halt and his men report pencil-thin beams of light coming from the sky.
Halt (In clearly stunned tones): Now we observe what appears to be a beam coming down towards the ground...this is unreal.
Halt has since explained that this was like a laser and it struck the ground only feet from the men but also beamed into the weapons storage area back on base, where, unbeknownst to British citizens, nuclear weapons were then located.
With his men now tired, Halt ordered them to return to base. As the sky lightened he saw one more “UFO” still hovering over the woods, but this faded as the sun came up; behaviour that almost certainly proves this one to be a star; although it is much harder to account for the laser beam.
Again, there were civilian witnesses to events on this second night. These included local villagers familiar with Orford Ness and far less likely to be fooled by a lighthouse than would foreign airmen unused to these woods at night. Sarah Richardson, for example, observing from her bedroom in Woodbridge, saw: “three bands of star like light and they were bright, coloured red, blue and yellow.”
After taking statements from the witnesses and plaster casts of the landing marks, there was confusion on base as to what to do next. It was technically a British matter, but the Suffolk constabulary had shown no interest in the story. However, the MoD needed to be informed.
On 13 January l981 Colonel Halt officially reported the matter to London at the request of Squadron Leader Donald Moreland, who acted as liaison between the landlord MoD and their USAF tennants. Although Moreland personally saw nothing, he had every confidence in the men who did and sent a note fully endorsing Halt's memo to the MoD.
Neither Halt nor Moreland received any further contact from the British government. This memo was just a one-page summary of the events. It made no reference to the fact that soil samples, plaster casts, photographs and other evidence from the landing site had been taken, nor that a “live” audio tape existed of the second night’s sightings. Halt says that he would have made this data available had the MoD chosen to follow up the case, but they never bothered to do so.
Unfortunately, the chronology on the memo is also misleading. It was apparently put together from memory three weeks after the events.
This memo was eventually secured, using the Freedom of Information Act, by US group CAUS in June l983; this being two months after the MoD had finally written to myself and officially accepted that an unsolved incident had occurred. In this startling letter they confirm “unidentified lights” had been seen and that “no explanation was forthcoming”—an unprecedented admission by British standards.
We now know that the inaccuracy in these dates misled the British government. Whilst files regarding Rendlesham Forest were sealed from public release until 2014, in an unexpected move, following requests by folklore researcher, Dr David Clarke, the MoD agreed to release the entire case file in summer 2001.
This 150-page file paints a picture of an MoD department baffled by the events and unable to explain them, but not taking any urgent action. Although they were aware of reports of allegedly high radiation readings they merely sent letters to various government departments asking for advice and then waited weeks to get responses despite continued puzzlement from experts. Yet whilst the case was still secret, villagers in eastern Suffolk were walking dogs and picnicking freely around a forest that might have been irradiated!
It is likely that the recorded radiation levels were not dangerous, but the complacency whereby that fact was assumed certainly was potentially disasterous.
The MoD file reveals no evidence that the British government believed this case to be solved, but still regarded it as having no defence significance. The lack of any unidentified radar targets that correlated with the UFO sightings was one key reason. However, the communications between the MoD and “Eastern Radar” (RAF Watton) included with the file offer two caveats. The RAF radar was not apparently working fully at the time. More seriously, the radar coverage on the night of 26/27 December was the data being pursued when we know that the first sighting had really occurred 24 hours earlier.
Opinion within UFOlogy is seriously divided as to what really happened inside Rendlesham Forest on those two winters nights. Some researchers feel it is one of the strongest examples of a military encounter with a possibly alien craft, and the sincerity of the many independent witnesses is not in dispute.
However, it seems likely that a number of factors combined to explain parts of this case—particularly on the second night (28 December) when stars and the lighthouse do seem to have been mistaken during phases of this lengthy encounter. The lighthouse is an unexpected sight, so far inland, particularly to those not familiar with these woods at night or the effects of the undulating landscape.
Other considerations include the presence of sea mist, during the first sighting particularly, and the possibility of mirage effects; plus, of course, the covert research known to have occurred for decades in the vicinity of Orford Ness.
The radiation levels seem not to have induced any lasting ill effects and experts studying the records suggest that they were not abnormally high for within a pine forest, especially one close to a nuclear power station.
On the other hand, there are aspects to this case very difficult to explain, particularly the alleged physiological effects and distortions in time and space reported by Burroughs and Penniston in close proximity to the 26 December UFO. And, of course, the “laser beams” witnessed by Halt 48 hours later.
This case is certain to remain the source of many arguments for years to come and has already generated more books discussing the evidence than any other single case apart from Roswell.
10. Kirtland Air Force Base 1980 UFO Landing
Date: August 9, 1980
Location: Kirtland AFB, Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States
On the morning of August 9, 1980, several security guards at the Manzano Weapons Storage Area, adjacent to Kirtland AFB, saw a bright light descend in (a) restricted area. A fourth guard observed a disk shaped light in the vicinity of a bunker used to store nuclear weapons. The incident resulted in a report being filed with the Air Force Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI) at Kirtland.
Although the twin bases closed with the cessation of the cold war, other local facilities survive in this high security area. At RAF Bawdsey the world's first working radar was developed. And Orford Ness, a coastal spit five miles from the Woodbridge base, was for many years a secret research facility. “Over The Horizon” beam experiments (code named Cobra Mist) led to warnings that shipping coming too close to the shore might experience “interference”.
The area surrounding the forest has long been a hotbed of UFO activity, with fishermen reporting strange blisters on their skins and the sightings of green fireballs emerging from the North Sea around the Ness.
Then, at approximately 3:00 a.m. on 26 December l980, a two-man USAF security patrol near the East Gate of RAF Woodbridge observed strange coloured lights above the forest in the direction of Orford Ness. Assistance was requested and a security unit was sent out from Bentwaters. The lights were now deep inside the pine wood and three men, Sargeant Jim Penniston, his driver, Airman Ed Cabansag, and one of the two original security officers, airman (later sargeant) John Burroughs, drove down a logging track that led into the forest, proceeding the rest of the way on foot owing to the frozen terrain.
All three men closed in on an object that resembled an “aircraft on fire”, or, as Burroughs described it, a “multiple series of lights”. At closer proximity, the lights solidified. Burroughs says that no structured craft ever emerged, but Penniston claimed that he went close enough to see an actual object looming from within the glow that was “the size of a tank...It had a very smooth surface almost like glass”. Cabansag, whilst more guarded, agrees that strange lights were visible.
At close proximity Penniston says “The air was filled with electricity - like static.You could feel it on your skin as you approached the object. There was also a sense of slowness, like time itself was an effort.”
Burroughs concurred: “The nearer we got to that thing the more uneasy I felt...it was as if I was moving in slow motion. I felt really hot and as if the hair was standing up on the back of my head”.
There was then a silent explosion of light, causing the airmen to throw themselves to the ground in a defence. The object disappeared towards the coast and “was gone like a blur”. However, the three men began to follow a light that had appeared in the distance. Only after pursuing this for some minutes through the forest did they discover that they were chasing the glow from the lighthouse situated on Orford Ness. They do not believe this was what they had witnessed earlier at close quarters.
After discovering “marks” on the forest floor the airmen returned to base to be debriefed. British civilian police sent two officers to the forest and senior policeman, David King, met with Colonel Ted Conrad on the logging road at 4:11 a.m. From here they reported seeing only the Orford Ness lighthouse; although the UFO had long since disappeared.
At 10:30 a.m. police were called to the woods again to study the holes now confirmed as located in the ground at the landing site and forming a roughly triangular pattern. In the log report at the Woodbridge police station these were noted as possibly having been caused by animals.
The Suffolk police established that there were several UFO reports during the previous night, including sightings on radar screens at Heathrow Airport near London. It is likely that much of this activity referred to an incident just after 9:00 p.m. on 25 December, when the booster from a Soviet space probe had burned up on re-entry over South East England and fell into the North Sea. This trail of debris brought a flood of sightings into BUFORA (the British UFO Research Association) as well as to the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), because some witnesses thought that this was an aircraft exploding in mid-air.
Local UFOlogists, Brenda Butler and Dot Street, later found many witnesses in surrounding villages to the lights that Burroughs had reported over the forest. The Webb family, returning from a Boxing Night party on the road through the forest, observed floating lights and had time to slow their car to a stop, eliminating one theory since proposed for this UFO: a short duration meteor that astronomers had witnessed in the sky around this time.
The sighting by the USAF patrol quickly became the talk of the base, and next day (27 December) strange lights were reported again by airmen who were having an unofficial “sky watch” in the forest. Concerned about morale base security chief, Lieutenant Bruce Englund, interrupted an officers Christmas party on Woodbridge base to report the new sightings.
Base commander, Colonel Ted Conrad, who had an awards speech to give at the party, ordered his deputy, Lt Colonel Charles Halt to gather a team and sort out the matter once and for all. Halt duly collected a tape machine to take notes in the dark woods , and took a small group of men, including Englund, an officer from the disaster preparedness team and a base photographer, to prepare for a nocturnal investigation. Gas-powered “lightall” searchlights were taken with them, but these constantly malfunctioned near to the “suspected landing site”.
Halt and his team were in the forest from soon after midnight early on 28 December through to just before dawn. During this time they took samples of soil and damaged tree bark, photographed the landing marks, measured a hole in the tree canopy at the point where Burroughs, Penniston and Cabansag had seen the UFO depart 48 hours earlier and used geiger counters to take readings that they considered to be unusual radiation levels within the impact marks.
Halt intermittently recorded the team’s progress onto the tape, until at 1:48 a.m. some airmen in the party reported strange activity. This tape runs for 18 minutes and was released to British UFO investigators in July l984 by a US Major, who had held a copy for four years. On this dramatic audio account of the early hours of 28 December you can hear the following exchange:
Halt: Zero one forty eight, we’re hearing very strange sounds out of a farmer’s barnyard animals…very, very active, making an awful lot of noise.
Airman: There...look.…
Halt: You just saw a light? Where? Slow down…where?
The witnesses debate this pulsing light, and at one point (after viewing it through an optical enhancer known as a starlight scope) it seems to break apart; possibly an effect of an optical distortion. They then set off to follow the glow, much as the three airmen did at this same position two nights earlier, when misperceiving the Orford Ness lighthouse.
Halt: We are about 150 to 200 yards from the site. Everything else is just deathly calm. There’s no doubt about it, there’s some type of strange flashing red light ahead.
Airman: Sir, it’s yellow.
Halt: I saw a yellow tinge in it, too...Weird! ... it appears to be moving a little bit this way...It’s brighter than it has been. It’s definitely coming this way...Pieces of it are shooting off...There’s no doubt about it this is weird.
Further sightings continued, mostly of small star-like lights, moving in box-grid patterns and scattered about the sky. It seems hard to deny that some of these could be stars caused to move by the effects of autokinesis (an optical illusion), the clear night sky and the effects of wind. But at one point another very strange event does occur as Halt and his men report pencil-thin beams of light coming from the sky.
Halt (In clearly stunned tones): Now we observe what appears to be a beam coming down towards the ground...this is unreal.
Halt has since explained that this was like a laser and it struck the ground only feet from the men but also beamed into the weapons storage area back on base, where, unbeknownst to British citizens, nuclear weapons were then located.
With his men now tired, Halt ordered them to return to base. As the sky lightened he saw one more “UFO” still hovering over the woods, but this faded as the sun came up; behaviour that almost certainly proves this one to be a star; although it is much harder to account for the laser beam.
Again, there were civilian witnesses to events on this second night. These included local villagers familiar with Orford Ness and far less likely to be fooled by a lighthouse than would foreign airmen unused to these woods at night. Sarah Richardson, for example, observing from her bedroom in Woodbridge, saw: “three bands of star like light and they were bright, coloured red, blue and yellow.”
After taking statements from the witnesses and plaster casts of the landing marks, there was confusion on base as to what to do next. It was technically a British matter, but the Suffolk constabulary had shown no interest in the story. However, the MoD needed to be informed.
On 13 January l981 Colonel Halt officially reported the matter to London at the request of Squadron Leader Donald Moreland, who acted as liaison between the landlord MoD and their USAF tennants. Although Moreland personally saw nothing, he had every confidence in the men who did and sent a note fully endorsing Halt's memo to the MoD.
Neither Halt nor Moreland received any further contact from the British government. This memo was just a one-page summary of the events. It made no reference to the fact that soil samples, plaster casts, photographs and other evidence from the landing site had been taken, nor that a “live” audio tape existed of the second night’s sightings. Halt says that he would have made this data available had the MoD chosen to follow up the case, but they never bothered to do so.
Unfortunately, the chronology on the memo is also misleading. It was apparently put together from memory three weeks after the events.
This memo was eventually secured, using the Freedom of Information Act, by US group CAUS in June l983; this being two months after the MoD had finally written to myself and officially accepted that an unsolved incident had occurred. In this startling letter they confirm “unidentified lights” had been seen and that “no explanation was forthcoming”—an unprecedented admission by British standards.
We now know that the inaccuracy in these dates misled the British government. Whilst files regarding Rendlesham Forest were sealed from public release until 2014, in an unexpected move, following requests by folklore researcher, Dr David Clarke, the MoD agreed to release the entire case file in summer 2001.
This 150-page file paints a picture of an MoD department baffled by the events and unable to explain them, but not taking any urgent action. Although they were aware of reports of allegedly high radiation readings they merely sent letters to various government departments asking for advice and then waited weeks to get responses despite continued puzzlement from experts. Yet whilst the case was still secret, villagers in eastern Suffolk were walking dogs and picnicking freely around a forest that might have been irradiated!
It is likely that the recorded radiation levels were not dangerous, but the complacency whereby that fact was assumed certainly was potentially disasterous.
The MoD file reveals no evidence that the British government believed this case to be solved, but still regarded it as having no defence significance. The lack of any unidentified radar targets that correlated with the UFO sightings was one key reason. However, the communications between the MoD and “Eastern Radar” (RAF Watton) included with the file offer two caveats. The RAF radar was not apparently working fully at the time. More seriously, the radar coverage on the night of 26/27 December was the data being pursued when we know that the first sighting had really occurred 24 hours earlier.
Opinion within UFOlogy is seriously divided as to what really happened inside Rendlesham Forest on those two winters nights. Some researchers feel it is one of the strongest examples of a military encounter with a possibly alien craft, and the sincerity of the many independent witnesses is not in dispute.
However, it seems likely that a number of factors combined to explain parts of this case—particularly on the second night (28 December) when stars and the lighthouse do seem to have been mistaken during phases of this lengthy encounter. The lighthouse is an unexpected sight, so far inland, particularly to those not familiar with these woods at night or the effects of the undulating landscape.
Other considerations include the presence of sea mist, during the first sighting particularly, and the possibility of mirage effects; plus, of course, the covert research known to have occurred for decades in the vicinity of Orford Ness.
The radiation levels seem not to have induced any lasting ill effects and experts studying the records suggest that they were not abnormally high for within a pine forest, especially one close to a nuclear power station.
On the other hand, there are aspects to this case very difficult to explain, particularly the alleged physiological effects and distortions in time and space reported by Burroughs and Penniston in close proximity to the 26 December UFO. And, of course, the “laser beams” witnessed by Halt 48 hours later.
This case is certain to remain the source of many arguments for years to come and has already generated more books discussing the evidence than any other single case apart from Roswell.
10. Kirtland Air Force Base 1980 UFO Landing
Date: August 9, 1980
Location: Kirtland AFB, Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States
On the morning of August 9, 1980, several security guards at the Manzano Weapons Storage Area, adjacent to Kirtland AFB, saw a bright light descend in (a) restricted area. A fourth guard observed a disk shaped light in the vicinity of a bunker used to store nuclear weapons. The incident resulted in a report being filed with the Air Force Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI) at Kirtland.
Source: Francis Ridge, NICAP
[go to original source]
[go to original source]
[The in-depth report of this case by Dr. Bruce Maccabee] has far-reaching implications if true, especially in light of what has been reported before at and near, Kirtland AFB, a military base which is one of the most sensitive military installations in the world.
On the morning of August 9, 1980, several security guards at the Manzano Weapons Storage Area, adjacent to Kirtland AFB, saw a bright light descend in (a) restricted area. A fourth guard observed a disk shaped light in the vicinity of a bunker used to store nuclear weapons. The incident resulted in a report being filed with the Air Force Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI) at Kirtland. The incident was subsequently investigated by agent Richard Doty -- an interesting and mysterious figure who often appears in the UFO literature. Doty filed a preliminary report on the incident, which has been acknowledged and released by the Air Force. Researcher Bruce Maccabee's question is, where is the follow-up report? Surely, no such incident at an atomic facility, even if explainable by mundane causes, would not have been further investigated. Maccabee reveals strong circumstantial evidence that such a report exists but is being withheld by the Air Force.
Francis Ridge, NICAP
Date of sighting: August, 1978
Location of sighting: Phelan, California, United States
On the morning of August 9, 1980, several security guards at the Manzano Weapons Storage Area, adjacent to Kirtland AFB, saw a bright light descend in (a) restricted area. A fourth guard observed a disk shaped light in the vicinity of a bunker used to store nuclear weapons. The incident resulted in a report being filed with the Air Force Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI) at Kirtland. The incident was subsequently investigated by agent Richard Doty -- an interesting and mysterious figure who often appears in the UFO literature. Doty filed a preliminary report on the incident, which has been acknowledged and released by the Air Force. Researcher Bruce Maccabee's question is, where is the follow-up report? Surely, no such incident at an atomic facility, even if explainable by mundane causes, would not have been further investigated. Maccabee reveals strong circumstantial evidence that such a report exists but is being withheld by the Air Force.
Francis Ridge, NICAP
11. US Air Force personnel witness 3 large oval shaped craft in Mojave desert
Date of sighting: August, 1978
Location of sighting: Phelan, California, United States
Summary: US Air Force personnel witness 3 large oval shaped craft hovering and moving at incredible speed in the California Mojave desert in 1978.
Date Reported: 12/15/2005
Sighting Time: 5:30 AM
Day/Night: Dawn
No. of Witnesses: 3
Duration: About 6 to 7 minutes
Appearance / Description of Object(s)
Oval shaped with no distinctive features. The crafts emitted an extremely bright orange/yellow light evenly from their entire surface.
Size of Object(s)
About 1/2 inch between fingers at arms length. Given the distance between me and the craft I estimate that they must each have been at least the size of a very large blimp.
Description of Area / Surroundings
Very rural, high-desert area of the Mojave desert. Both George AFB (my destination and place of work) and Edwards AFB are in this area.
Full Description and Details
Driving from home in Wrightwood, CA to work at George AFB in a 2-door sedan with 2 co-workers eastbound on Hwy 18 between Sheep Creek Rd and Hwy 395 near Phelan, CA. Myself and other witnesses were F4-Phantom Weapons Control Technicians in the USAF. My eastbound view was of mountains on horizon with first glow of sunrise behind mountains.
Weather calm and completely clear. 1st large oval rises up from directly behind mountains due east from me. Motion is slow, floating like a blimp or balloon. At first I thought it was a large blimp with a mirror-like exterior reflecting the sunlight (sun was below the eastern horizon during the entire encounter), object was extremely bright, yet had a distinct oval outline. After rising a few degrees above mountains object stopped all motion. Total time to rise up was about 2 minutes. Second identical object then began to rise just to the left of the first object.
Second object moved identically to first, then stopped next to first at equal altitude. Third identical looking object then began to rise just to right of first object, at same slow rate, until it was at equal altitude with other 2 objects. All three objects remained still for about 2 more minutes. Very curious sight at this time, but all witnesses still thought objects were blimps. Right-most object then begins to rise slowly above others, stops completely, then moves from a complete stop to a point slightly above the horizon almost directly due south of us (visible out the right side of the car) in about 2 or 3 seconds then comes to a complete stop again. No acceleration or deceleration was apparent. Middle object then does exactly the same, stopping next to the other above the southern horizon. Third object then repeats the same exact moves.
When all 3 were stopped hovering next to each other then all 3 objects slowly descended towards the ground until disappearing on the southern horizon. Objects retained their extreme brightness throughout the entire encounter, even when in a position near the southern horizon where there was no sunlight to reflect in my direction. All witnesses agreed with each other not to speak of the sighting due both to fear of ridicule, and due to the fact that all of us were under orders to speak of any potential UFO sightings ONLY to our commanding officer (to my knowledge all AF personnel, including myself and the witnesses, at the time were required to sign a statement acknowledging the order upon enlisting in the AF).
Can sighting be explained as any conventional man-made or natural object?
No, not whatsoever.
Witness Background
Service in the USAF as an electronic technician. College graduate, BSCS, Summa Cum Laude, (GPA of 3.875) Senior level design engineer (electronics/software), 25 years experience. Co-patent holder (co-inventor) of an industry award winning Laser Scanning Microscope.
Views on UFOs, before and after sighting
Before the sighting I was a complete non-believer, a very scientifically-minded skeptic. I was exposed to some material about UFOs prior to this, but no more than the average person at that time - it was not a subject of interest to me prior to my sighting. Obviously, now I know they exist - which in itself implicates many in positions of authority who continue to deny this fact. I feel like someone who knows a rare truth that most are not aware of, and that I'm fighting a constant battle with those who try to keep the truth from us. I know that I'm right, and they are wrong, but how do I prove it? What do I do with this knowledge I have? It hurts me deeply as a devoted and patriotic American to know that the government that I am supposed to trust is lying and deceiving the public. It causes me to lose nearly all trust in my government, and it's not my fault - it's theirs. I feel as if I have been cursed with this first-hand knowledge, because there has never been any "closure" for me. At this point I have come to the conclusion that we must have more to fear from our own government than we do from the UFOs - and it is our own government's actions compared to those reported concerning UFOs that have led me to this conclusion. What I am supposed to teach my children concerning them trusting their government - about the rightness of truth and the evil of lies? I am very sad and angry.
Other Comments
Reported To: hbccufo.org and others
Location: Franklin, MA, USA
12. Fort Dix-McGuire AFB Case.
Date of sighting: January 18, 1978
Location of sighting: Fort Dix/McGuire AFB, New Jersey, United States
Source: NIDS, National Institute for Discovery Science
The primary eyewitness in the case, Jeffrey Morse, alleged (i) that he had been working as a security policeman at McGuire AFB at 03.00 on January 18, 1978 when he was notified about UFO activity over Fort Dix army base that adjoined McGuire AFB. (ii) Morse alleged that he heard that a non-human entity had been shot and he later saw the dead body of the entity lying on the ground on a disused runway at McGuire AFB. (iii) The scene was rapidly cordoned off and the body was crated and flown to Wright-Patterson AFB (WPAFB) for examination. (iv)Morse himself, two days after the shooting incident, was allegedly summoned to WPAFB and interrogated about the event. He was warned to keep quiet and shortly thereafter was transferred to Okinawa, Japan.
(NIDS - National Institute for Discovery Science)
----------------------------------------------
Letter from sergeant Morse summarizing his experience and the incident:
In January of 1978, I was stationed at McGuire AFB, NJ. One evening, during the time frame of 0300hrs and 0500hrs., there were a number of UFO sightings in the area over the air field and Ft. Dix Army camp. I am a security policeman and was on routine patrol at the time. N.J. State Police, and Ft. Dix MPs were running code in the direction of Brownsville, NJ. A state trooper then entered gate #5 at the rear of the base requesting assistance and permission to enter. I was dispatched and the trooper wanted access to the runway area which led to the very back of the air field and connected with a heavily wooded area which is part of the Dix training area. He informed me that a Ft. Dix MP was pursueing (sic) a low flying object which then hovered over his car. He described it as oval shaped, with no details, and glowing with a blueish (sic) green color. His radio transmission was cut off. At that time in front of his police car, appeared a thing, about 4ft tall, grayish (sic), brown, fat head, long arms, and slender body. The MP panicked and fired five rounds from his .45 Cal into the thing, and one round into the object above. The object then fled straight up and joined with eleven others high in the sky. This we all saw but didn?t know the details at the time. Anyway, the thing ran into the woods towards our fenceline and they wanted to look for it. By this time several patrols were involved.
We found the body of the thing near the runway. It had apparently climbed the fence and died while running. It was all of a sudden hush-hush and no one was allowed near the area. We roped off the area and AF OSI came out and took over. That was the last I saw of it. There was a bad stench coming from it too. Like ammonia smelling but it wasn?t constent (sic) in the air. That day, a team from Wright-Patterson AFB came in a C141 and went to the area. They crated it in a wooden box, sprayed something over it, and then put it into a bigger metal container. They loaded it in the plane and took off. That was it, nothing more was said, no report made and we were all told not to have anything to say about it or we would be court martialed.
---------------
Morse, in subsequent conversations, revealed that two days after the incident he and others on duty at the scene were summoned to Wright Patterson AFB for interrogation, and each was transferred promptly to a separate base overseas.
The Fort Dix/McGuire case was also of interest because a prominent UFO investigator, George Filer, claimed to have been present at McGuire AFB on the morning of January 18, 1978. Mr. Filer told NIDS that he witnessed a commotion with red lights on one of the disused runways at McGuire when he arrived on the base at 4:00 AM. He further claimed that he heard from a Senior Master Sergeant at McGuire command post on the same morning that (i) UFO activity had been sighted by the control tower and on radar at neighboring Fort Dix and (ii) an alien had been shot that morning and that it had been found dead on the runway at McGuire.
Date of sighting: 1978
Location of sighting: Antofagasta, Chile
(NIDS - National Institute for Discovery Science)
----------------------------------------------
Letter from sergeant Morse summarizing his experience and the incident:
In January of 1978, I was stationed at McGuire AFB, NJ. One evening, during the time frame of 0300hrs and 0500hrs., there were a number of UFO sightings in the area over the air field and Ft. Dix Army camp. I am a security policeman and was on routine patrol at the time. N.J. State Police, and Ft. Dix MPs were running code in the direction of Brownsville, NJ. A state trooper then entered gate #5 at the rear of the base requesting assistance and permission to enter. I was dispatched and the trooper wanted access to the runway area which led to the very back of the air field and connected with a heavily wooded area which is part of the Dix training area. He informed me that a Ft. Dix MP was pursueing (sic) a low flying object which then hovered over his car. He described it as oval shaped, with no details, and glowing with a blueish (sic) green color. His radio transmission was cut off. At that time in front of his police car, appeared a thing, about 4ft tall, grayish (sic), brown, fat head, long arms, and slender body. The MP panicked and fired five rounds from his .45 Cal into the thing, and one round into the object above. The object then fled straight up and joined with eleven others high in the sky. This we all saw but didn?t know the details at the time. Anyway, the thing ran into the woods towards our fenceline and they wanted to look for it. By this time several patrols were involved.
We found the body of the thing near the runway. It had apparently climbed the fence and died while running. It was all of a sudden hush-hush and no one was allowed near the area. We roped off the area and AF OSI came out and took over. That was the last I saw of it. There was a bad stench coming from it too. Like ammonia smelling but it wasn?t constent (sic) in the air. That day, a team from Wright-Patterson AFB came in a C141 and went to the area. They crated it in a wooden box, sprayed something over it, and then put it into a bigger metal container. They loaded it in the plane and took off. That was it, nothing more was said, no report made and we were all told not to have anything to say about it or we would be court martialed.
---------------
Morse, in subsequent conversations, revealed that two days after the incident he and others on duty at the scene were summoned to Wright Patterson AFB for interrogation, and each was transferred promptly to a separate base overseas.
The Fort Dix/McGuire case was also of interest because a prominent UFO investigator, George Filer, claimed to have been present at McGuire AFB on the morning of January 18, 1978. Mr. Filer told NIDS that he witnessed a commotion with red lights on one of the disused runways at McGuire when he arrived on the base at 4:00 AM. He further claimed that he heard from a Senior Master Sergeant at McGuire command post on the same morning that (i) UFO activity had been sighted by the control tower and on radar at neighboring Fort Dix and (ii) an alien had been shot that morning and that it had been found dead on the runway at McGuire.
13. Retired Chilean General in air encounter with large 'banana-shaped' UFO
Date of sighting: 1978
Location of sighting: Antofagasta, Chile
INEXPLICATA
The Journal of Hispanic Ufology
January 2, 2003
SOURCE: Ovnivisión (Chile)
DATE: December 26, 2002
RETIRED CHILEAN GENERAL DISCUSSES HIS ENCOUNTER WITH A GIANT UFO
SANTIAGO DE CHILE.- In an interview with Terra.cl., retired general Hernan Gabrielli Rojas mentioned that he had squared off against a gigantic UFO while engaging in a training flight in the skies of northern Chile.
According to the military man, the object was the size of 10 or 15 aircraft carriers, and its presence was picked up by the radars aboard two F-5 jet fighters as well as the Cerro Moreno airport in Antofagasta
.
- What do you remember about your contact with the UFO?
Over 20 years have gone by (this was in 1978). I was a captain and was flying a mission with two F-5 fighters. It was noon and I was flying with captain Danilo Catalán - we were both flight instructors. Accompanying us was Fernando Gomez, an avionics tech, and another trainee. The F-5 is radar-equipped, and a line appeared from side to side - in other words, a trace throughout the bottom side of the screen. A trace for a surface ship, a cruiser, is approximately one centimeter long, but this line went from one side [of the screen] to another. I assumed the radar scope had failed, and told Danilo Catalán, but his radar also "failed". I then advised the ground radar at Antofagasta and they also picked up the line. We were engaged with these details when we looked toward the east: we were flying from north to south in the vicinity of Mejillones, and saw a deformed cigar-shaped object. Deformed, like a plaintain banana. It was swathed in smoke.
What was the object's size?
It was large and must have been some 15 to 20 miles away. It moved in the same direction as us. We had no missiles, guns or anything. As you can imagine, the fright was more or less considerable. We could see a large thing surrounded in smoke, and from which a vapor issued. All of this situation must have lasted some five minues. We approached the UFO but it was motionless. It neither approached nor retreated - it merely sailed parallel to us. It was quite impressive, because it was truly something strange, and something could be seen in concealment behind the smoke.
What happened later?
The object then disappeared toward Easter Island at an impressive rate of speed. The sky cleared and the lines on the radar vanished. However, there had been an object physically flying there. It's not a yarn, let me tell you. It's my only experience with UFOs.
FORMER CHILEN AIR FORCE COMMANDER DISCUSSES UFOS
SOURCE: Revista TOC (http://www.revista-toc.cl.nu/)DATE: 08.31.03
FORMER AIR FORCE COMMANDER DISCUSSES UFOs
[Interview conducted by Alejandro Guillier; transcription by Rodrigo Cuadra Salazar]
Alejandro Guillier (journalist): UFOs, well...nothing better than to ask a war pilot about the experiences he's had if he's seen anything, but it turns out that I've heard talk about there being a military pilot in Antofagasta who toward the late Seventies -- '78 -- had been flying and ran into a very strange thing. It also turns out that the pilot became a general, retired general Hernan Gabrielli, and we're going to talk to him about this rather interesting experience. How do you do, general? Good morning.
Hernan Gabrielli Rojas (general-Ret.): Hello, Alejandro. Good morning to you.
Alejandro Guillier: This occurred in '78, according to one version, but what is the story about your running into a UFO while flying a warplane?
Hernan Gabrielli: We were two F-5s, dual training craft, and we were returning to base after completing our mission, Cerro Moreno, noon. From Mejillones to Antofagasta, at an altitude of some 35,000 feet - 40,000 feet. I suddenly detected a radar fault and saw a line that ran side to side on the scope, and my student, Danilo Catalán, also detected the same, and curiously enough it was the ground radar, which has a large screen, that also indicated a radar fault. At that time we looked toward [the part of the sky indicated on the radar screen] and we saw that UFO.
Alejandro Guillier: What was it exactly? What was it you managed to see? Can it be described?
Hernan Gabrielli: It was visualized as a smoke-covered, half- deformed banana, very large, in other words, very large in plain sight. We were between 15 or 20 miles away. It was tremendously large and surrounded by a fumarole which moved in our very same direction and at the same speed as our aircraft.
Hernan Gabrielli: We approached it carefully and...but those were good instructions. We were heading back from Attack 1, which is a combat tactic involving gun cameras, no cannon, missiles or anything else. So we approached it with caution. Unfortunately the UFO did not go away toward a single minute, so we arrived in an instant.
Alejandro Guillier: But I understand that you had to ascend.
Hernan Gabrielli: No...
Alejandro Guillier: In order to approach, what was your position? Going upward..
Hernan Gabrielli: No...we shared the same altitude, between 30,000 and 35,000 feet.
Alejandro Gabrielli: But F-5s are swift airplanes. When you got near it scurried way so...
Hernan Gabrielli: Of course. It's a fighter that covers 10 nautical miles a minute, in other words, 20 kilometers a minute. That is the normal speed for that aircraft.
Alejandro Guillier: And this object you saw, how soon did it vanish? At what speed?
Hernan Gabrielli: Unimaginable, in other words, thousands of nautical miles a minute, because it vanished toward the west suddenly and the screen cleared up. In other words, all three radar screens--the ground radar, mine and Danilo's -- were operating normally; it wasn't just a visual experience but a physical one as well, a material one, that materialised on the screen. Now, if you ask me what it is, where it comes from, don't ask me. I haven't the slightest idea.
Alejandro Guillier: Now...is this time of sighting customary among Chilean military pilots?
Hernan Gabrielli: No, they are not.
Alejandro Guillier: And has any other functionary remarked that he had been flying and seen strange things?
Hernan Gabrielli: Look, at that time there was also another sighting by a functionary near Calama, but no...that was the age of the Vampire aircraft.
Alejandro Guillier: What's that?
Hernan Gabrielli: Vampires were wooden aircraft, and the fighter climbed to a certain number of feet and could see from below that this UFO didn't...didn't move. However, as the pilot climbed, he said that the object or UFO's size was such that...
Alejandro Guillier:...that it didn't move and he could never reach it.
Hernan Gabrielli: He never reached it. They later sent out a pair of fighters, then an F-5 and nothing, really...
Alejandro Guillier: And they couldn't continue climbing.
Hernan Gabrielli: No, they couldn't continue their ascent.
Alejandro Guiller: It reached its maximum altitude and then...
Hernan Gabrielli: Fifty something thousand feet, and it had to turn back.
Alejandro Gabrielli: And by the descriptions you recall, general, was there any similarity with the sighting you had in Antofagasta?
Hernan Gabrielli: No, because this one had another shape, it had a shape...in other words, as though looking from below upward, the pilots flying at the time said it was triangular.
Alejandro Guillier: Triangular...it couldn't have been an American plane, one of those spy planes.
Hernan Gabrielli: I don't think so. This was 1978. The latest thing around at the time was the SR-71, which is a U.S. spy plane, but it flies at Mach 3, so there is displacement. This thing did not move.
Alejandro Guillier: Right, this thing was suspended in the air. Well, and after that you landed and must've had a shot of whisky, I imagine.
Hernan Gabrielli: No, no. There were remarks, in other words, each combat or training flight is its own story, so this was just another anecdote.
Alejandro Guillier: Now, why does the FACH [Chilean Air Force] handle all of this with such secrecy, because it has in fact appeared before Congress, before parliamentarians, and everyone was deathly silent...there were no such things. All they do is create more concern, because one says: "Well, there must be something awful that the FACH, the senators and the deputies don't want to discuss," and in this case they were all quiet.
Hernan Gabrielli: Look, it's not that there's an unwillingness to talk, but since it is an almost intangible piece of information it cannot be handled, it cannot be processed. To tell you the truth, the base commander is informed and then the page is turned and normal activity resumes.
Alejandro Guillier: Right. Well, last week in Calama, a LAN airliner was flying over the weekend with the players of the Wanderers team for the big match against Cobrelola and the pilot was forced to make a spectacular turn, diving to avoid a collision. Supposedly there was no airplane there. This would also be equivalent to a UFO.
Hernan Gabrielli: Surely. In other words, if the pilots were forced into taking an evasive maneuver, with passengers aboard, it must have been something...
Translation (C) 2003 Scott Corrales
Institute of Hispanic Ufology
Special thanks to Rodrigo Cuadra Salazar
14. Chilean soldier loses five days to UFO (The Valdes Case)
Date of sighting: April 25, 1977
Location of sighting: Pampa Lluscuma (near Putre), Chile
Location of sighting: Pampa Lluscuma (near Putre), Chile
Source: Associated Press / San Antonio News, May 23, 1977
"Soldier loses 5 days to UFO"
SANTIAGO, Chile — A Chilean soldier is still in shock after a weird, five-day ordeal with a UFO.
This is his story.
It was 4:15 a.m. in Chile's far north desert country,
Six members of an army patrol were bedded down around a campfire while two men stood guard. Suddenly, two bright objects began descending from the sky.
One dropped into the Andes foothills out of direct sight, but the men in the patrol, now fully awake, could see the glow of its light.
The second, they said, lowered almost to the ground about 500 yards away from the camp. The men said it shone with a violet light with two points of intense red.
Cpl. Armando Valdes, the patrol leader, ordered the soldiers to take up their weapons. Then he set out alone to investigate and, according to the men, simply vanished. Fifteen minutes later, they said, he reappeared, tried to speak and passed out.
They said he regained consciousness about 7 a.m. but that his watch showed only 4:30, the approximate time he reappeared. They also said the date on the watch had been advanced five days, and that Yaldes now had about a week's growth of beard.
According to his comrades, when Valdes was beginning to regain consciousness he said: "You do not know who we are, nor where we come from. But I tell you that we will soon return."
Skeptics
This purported sighting occurred April 25, and since the soldiers' tale was publicized dozens of other unidentified flying objects have been reported up and down the 2,700-mile length of Chile.
Valdes says he does not recall anything that happened during the 15 minutes he was missing-Some skeptics said the soldiers may have seen a desert mirage. But other sightings have been reported on the outskirts of this capital city, in the rainy lake region about BOO mites to the south, and over the Straits of Magellan at I he cold southern tip of the continent.
The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the University of Chile jointly operate a space tracking station a few miles north of Santiago, but officials at the station had no official comment on the reports.
A source at the station who asked not to be identified said he felt some of the previous UFO sightings in Chile were satellites or airplanes. But he said the most, recent sightings, made at relatively close distances, did not appear to be satellites.
Oscar Bravo, a radio announcer at Punta Arenas, the major town on the Straits of Magellan, said he awoke about 3 a.m. one night and went, to the kitchen for a glass of water.
Speed
"First, I noticed the sky was bright," he said.
"This caused me to open the curtains, and I could see these two things suspended in the air emitting a strong light, bright and orange.
"The light went out but returned, with a violent color. Then these two things, of oval shape, moved at a rapid speed, opening themselves like a V and closing at a higher point in the sky." They finally disappeared over the straits, he said.
A few nights later, passengers on a bus going from Puerto Monti to Puerto Varas in southern Chile said they saw something similar about. 100 yards above them in the sky.
Several people who have seen UFOs recently estimated their size at about 12 feet in diameter. Most say they are round or oval—"like a huge wagon wheel," said one woman.
SANTIAGO, Chile — A Chilean soldier is still in shock after a weird, five-day ordeal with a UFO.
This is his story.
It was 4:15 a.m. in Chile's far north desert country,
Six members of an army patrol were bedded down around a campfire while two men stood guard. Suddenly, two bright objects began descending from the sky.
One dropped into the Andes foothills out of direct sight, but the men in the patrol, now fully awake, could see the glow of its light.
The second, they said, lowered almost to the ground about 500 yards away from the camp. The men said it shone with a violet light with two points of intense red.
Cpl. Armando Valdes, the patrol leader, ordered the soldiers to take up their weapons. Then he set out alone to investigate and, according to the men, simply vanished. Fifteen minutes later, they said, he reappeared, tried to speak and passed out.
They said he regained consciousness about 7 a.m. but that his watch showed only 4:30, the approximate time he reappeared. They also said the date on the watch had been advanced five days, and that Yaldes now had about a week's growth of beard.
According to his comrades, when Valdes was beginning to regain consciousness he said: "You do not know who we are, nor where we come from. But I tell you that we will soon return."
Skeptics
This purported sighting occurred April 25, and since the soldiers' tale was publicized dozens of other unidentified flying objects have been reported up and down the 2,700-mile length of Chile.
Valdes says he does not recall anything that happened during the 15 minutes he was missing-Some skeptics said the soldiers may have seen a desert mirage. But other sightings have been reported on the outskirts of this capital city, in the rainy lake region about BOO mites to the south, and over the Straits of Magellan at I he cold southern tip of the continent.
The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the University of Chile jointly operate a space tracking station a few miles north of Santiago, but officials at the station had no official comment on the reports.
A source at the station who asked not to be identified said he felt some of the previous UFO sightings in Chile were satellites or airplanes. But he said the most, recent sightings, made at relatively close distances, did not appear to be satellites.
Oscar Bravo, a radio announcer at Punta Arenas, the major town on the Straits of Magellan, said he awoke about 3 a.m. one night and went, to the kitchen for a glass of water.
Speed
"First, I noticed the sky was bright," he said.
"This caused me to open the curtains, and I could see these two things suspended in the air emitting a strong light, bright and orange.
"The light went out but returned, with a violent color. Then these two things, of oval shape, moved at a rapid speed, opening themselves like a V and closing at a higher point in the sky." They finally disappeared over the straits, he said.
A few nights later, passengers on a bus going from Puerto Monti to Puerto Varas in southern Chile said they saw something similar about. 100 yards above them in the sky.
Several people who have seen UFOs recently estimated their size at about 12 feet in diameter. Most say they are round or oval—"like a huge wagon wheel," said one woman.
15. F-4 Jet Chase over Iran 1976
Date: September 18, 1976
Location: Tehran, Iran
Location: Tehran, Iran
One of the best documented UFO-aircraft incidents took place over the skies of Tehran, Iran, on the night of September 18-19, 1976, when a UFO was observed flying over the capital's restricted airspace.
Two U.S.-made F-4 Phantom II jet fighters of the Imperial Iranian Air Force were scrambled, but as the pilots closed in on the target, their communications and weapons systems were suddenly jammed. The incident was confirmed by high ranking officers of the Iranian Air Force and later documented by several agencies of the U.S. military.
Lt. General Azarbarzin, Deputy Commander-in-Chief of Operations of the Imperial Iranian Air Force, confirmed in a 1977 interview the strong electromagnetic effect experienced by the two F-4s:
"That is true. They both were scrambled and they locked on the target but they received a very strong jamming. And then they lost almost every avionics system they had on the airplane... The jets couldn't fire their missiles because they had very strong jamming... this technology it [UFO] was using for jamming was something we haven't had before and we don't have it. It doesn't exist because it was a very wide band and could jam different bands, different frequencies at the same time. It's very unusual."
General Nader Yousefi, Base Operations commander and the number three man in the Imperial Iranian Air Force, authorized the scramble mission and was also an eyewitness, as described in a recent TV interview:
"I put down my phone [with the Control Tower] and I ran to my balcony to see if I can see that object. I saw a big star among the other stars, which it was at least twice as large as the normal stars... It was around 12 miles [19 km.], we lost communication and I heard nothing from the pilots, so I was so scared what's going to happen and what happened to the pilots. I asked from the tower controller to tell them to continue their mission and see if they can get more information from the flying object... and it [UFO] was coming toward them, they try to shoot them down, when they squeezed the trigger it didn't work and the trigger was inoperative, they couldn't shoot the missiles."
The sequence of events can be reconstructed from both Iranian sources and declassified U.S. intelligence documents:
Between 10:30 and 11:15 p.m. on September 18, several calls were received by the Control Tower at Mehrabad Airport, reporting an unknown object hovering 1,000 feet (300 m.) above the ground in the northern section of Tehran. The night shift supervisor, Hossain Perouzi, initially didn't pay too much attention. The radar system was turned off since it was under repair. After he received the fourth telephone call at 11:15 p.m., Perouzi went to the terrace next to the tower and observed the UFO with binoculars:
"Suddenly I saw it. It was rectangular in shape, probably seven to eight meters [24 to 27 ft.] long and about two meters [7 ft.] wide. From later observations I made, I would say it was probably cylindrical. The two ends were pulsating with a whitish blue color. Around the mid-section of the cylinder there was this small red light that kept going around in a circle... I was amazed. I didn't know what to think. There definitely was a very strange object there in the sky right over Tehran."
At 12:30 a.m. on September 19, Perouzi called the Air Force Command post to report the UFO. The Base Commander, in turn, called General Yousefi, who authorized the scramble of an F-4 Phantom jet from Shahrokhi AFB to investigate. The first scramble is summarized in a "Memorandum for Record" from the U.S. Defense Attaché Office (DAO) in Tehran:
"The F-4 took off at 01:30 a.m. and proceeded to a point about 40 nm [45 statute miles or 75 km.] North of Tehran. Due to its brilliance the object was easily visible from 70 miles [110 km.] away. As the F-4 approached a range of 25 nm [29 statute miles or 46 km.], he lost all instrumentation and communications (UHF and Intercom). He broke off the intercept and headed back to Shahrokhi. When the F-4 turned away from the object and apparently was no longer a threat to it, the aircraft regained all instrumentation and communications."
At 01:40 a.m., Gen. Yousefi authorized a second F-4 scramble piloted by Lt. Jafari, who quickly established radar contact with the UFO. The DAO Memorandum describes the events of the second scramble:
"The size of the radar return was comparable to that of a [Boeing] 707 tanker. The visual size of the object was difficult to discern because of its intense brilliance. The light that it gave off was that of flashing strobe lights arranged in a rectangular pattern of alternating blue, green, red and orange, in color. The sequence of the lights was so fast that all the colors could be seen at once."
"The object and the pursuing F-4 continued a course to the south of Tehran when another brightly lighted object, estimated to be .5 to .33 the apparent size of the moon, came out of the original object. The second object headed straight toward the F-4 at a very fast rate. The pilot attempted to fire an AIM-9 missile at the object, but at that instant his weapons control panel went off and he lost all communications (UHF and Interphone). At this point, the pilot initiated a turn and negative G dive to get away."
The aircraft electric system went back to normal once the F-4 reached a certain distance from the UFO. The small object returned to the primary object, but a second one emerged and flew toward the ground. Gen. Yousefi observed the landing from the balcony of his Tehran residence:
"He went down and landed on the ground and now it is a communication between the mothership and that small flying object, and it shows the lights between those two is connected."
More strange events were still reported that night. A UFO seemed to follow the F-4 as it approached the runway, and a civil airliner experienced communications failure but did not see anything. The DAO Memorandum describes the investigation early that morning:
"During daylight, the F-4 crew was taken out to the area in a helicopter where the object apparently had landed. Nothing was noticed at the spot where they thought the object landed (a dry lake bed), but as they circled off to the West of the area they picked up a very noticeable beeper signal. At that point, where the return was the loudest was a small house with a garden. They landed and asked the people within if they had noticed anything strange last night. The people talked about a loud noise and a very bright light like lightning."
The trail ends there. Although the Attaché Office added that the area had been checked for possible radiation and that "more information will be forwarded when it becomes available," the details surrounding the beeper signal and the ground witnesses have not been released. A report published in a 1978 classified U.S. military journal, MIJI Quarterly, basically repeats the facts contained in the original DAO message, although its author begins the article with this interesting remark:
"Sometime in his career, each pilot can expect to encounter strange, unusual happenings which will never be adequately or entirely explained by logic or subsequent investigation. The following article recounts such an episode as reported by two F-4 Phantom crews of the Imperial Iranian Air Force during late 1976. No additional information or explanation of the strange events has been forthcoming; the story will be filed away and probably forgotten, but it makes interesting, and possibly disturbing, reading."
Recent taped testimonies by Iranian Air Force Generals Nader Yousefi and Mahmoud Sabahat, now retired and living in exile in the United States, reveal that Gen. John Secord, then chief of the USAF mission in Iran, attended a high level briefing with Iranian authorities and the pilots and air traffic controllers involved in the incident. A Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) "Evaluation" summarized the salient features of the Iranian incident:
"An outstanding report. This case is a classic which meets all the criteria necessary for a valid study of the UFO phenomenon:
"a) The object was seen by multiple witnesses from different locations (i.e. Shemiram, Mehrabad and the dry lake bed) and viewpoints (both airborne and from the ground).
"b) The credibility of many of the witnesses was high (an Air Force General, qualified aircrews, and experienced radar operators).
"c) Visual sightings were confirmed by radar.
"d) Similar electromagnetic effects (EME) were reported by three separate aircraft.
"e) There were physiological effects on some crew members (i.e. loss of night vision due to the brightness of the object).
"f) An inordinate amount of maneuverability was displayed by the UFOs."
16. Black sphere hovers near U.S. Naval Comm. Station at North West Cape, Australia
Date: October 25, 1973
Location: North-West Cape, Australia
Source: Bill Chalker (1996)
NORTH-WEST CAPE
On a narrow peninsula, over one thousand kilometres to the north of the main centres of population in Western Australia, stands an enigmatic monument to the military ethic. It is a remote spot even for a country as vast and thinly populated as Australia. A vast array of antennas and towers stand out in stark contrast to the harsh natural beauty of the surrounding terrain. Rising to a dizzying height of 387 metres is Tower Zero, the central structure of a vast array of satellite and radio communications equipment. Another 12 towers stand in two concentric rings around it. The towers support 'large spider webs of wire', a Very Low Frequency antenna array covering one thousand acres, the largest facility of its kind in the world. Altogether the base, which consists of three main sites, is spread over 60 kilometres. Collectively the sites function as a window into an extraordinary world that few of us are privy to, the vast and highly secretive world of military intelligence. The site is officially called US Naval Communication Station Harold E. Holt, but is more popularly known as North-West Cape.
In the vast scheme of facilities that make up the worldwide US intelligence gathering network, North-West Cape, with a reported 430 US military staff, plays an important and acutely sensitive role. During the Cold War it was used for communications with US and Australian navy ships, including US nuclear submarines, in the Indian and western Pacific Oceans. It was also used to intercept Soviet communications. It was never very far from the drama and controversy that pivoted around the fears of possible nuclear war between the superpowers.
Along with other US bases in Australia, such as Pine Gap and Nurrungar, North-West Cape has long been a matter of acute political sensitivity, specifically related to claims that such sites would be prime nuclear targets during a major outbreak of hostilities between the superpowers. On 11 October 1973, five days after the Middle East War broke out, North-West Cape along with other US bases in Australia was put on full alert. According to Richard Hall, in his book The Secret State, this alert status was to escalate dramatically due to 'an NSA misreading of Arabic in a Syrian message to the USSR which led Kissinger and Nixon to believe that Soviet troops might be sent to the Middle East1.
This fiasco climaxed early on the morning of 25 October 1973, in Washington. A full nuclear alert went out to all US forces. North-West Cape was used to communicate the alert to both conventional and nuclear forces in this region. Local time at North-West Cape was around early evening. It was then that an intruder was spotted in the airspace over the base. According to official reports, at 7.30 p.m. Lieutenant Commander M, of the US Navy, observed 'a large black, airborne object' at a distance of approximately eight kilometres to the west, at an altitude estimated at 600 metres. M was driving from the naval communication station towards the support township of Exmouth, along Murat Road. He reported that the object hovered, with no apparent noise or exhaust, then, 'After about 20-25 seconds the craft accelerated at unbelievable speed and disappeared to the north.'
Back at the base, US Navy Fire Captain L had also seen the object. At 7.20 p.m. he was driving towards the officers' club when he noticed a large black object in the sky, which he at first took to be a small cloud formation. He got out of his car and stood for several minutes watching the object, which he now saw looked like a black sphere, hovering. The sky was clear and light, and there were no clouds about. The object was about 10 metres in diameter and was about 300 metres above the ground. It was completely stationary except for a halo around its centre, which appeared to be either revolving or pulsating. It suddenly took off at tremendous speed and disappeared in a few seconds.
The Americans investigated the two sightings, naturally concerned in case the UFO was some form of new Soviet aircraft, but apparently no explanation of its true nature was ever found.
17. Coyne Helicopter Incident
Date: October 18, 1973
Location: Mansfield, Ohio, United States
Location: Mansfield, Ohio, United States
The Coyne case (or "Army helicopter incident") stands out as, perhaps the most credible (in the "high strangeness" category) of the 1973 wave. An Army Reserve helicopter crew of four men encountered a gray, metallic-looking, cigar-shaped object, with unusual lights and maneuvers, as they were airborne between Columbus and Cleveland, Ohio. The crew won the NATIONAL ENQUIRER Blue Ribbon Panel's $ 5,000 award for "the most scientifically valuable report of 1973."
On October 18, 1973, at approximately 10:30 PM a UH-1H helicopter of the United States Army Reserve left Port Columbus, Ohio, for its home base of Cleveland Hopkins airport, ninety-six nautical miles to the north-northeast. In command, in the right-front seat, was Captain Lawrence J. Coyne, thirty-six, with nineteen years of flying experience. At the controls, in the left-front seat, sat First Lieutenant Arrigo Jezzi, twenty-six, a chemical engineer. Behind Jezzi sat Sergeant John Healey, thirty-five, a Cleveland policeman who was the flight medic, and Coyne was the Crew Chief, Sergeant Robert Yanacsek, twenty-three, a computer technician. The helicopter was cruising at 2,500 feet above sea level at an indicated airspeed of ninety knots, above mixed hills, woods, and rolling farmland, averaging 1,200 elevation. The night was totally clear, calm, and starry. The last quarter moon was just rising.
About ten miles south of Mansfield, Healey noticed a single red light off to the west, flying south. It seemed brighter than a standard aircraft port-wing light, but it was not considered relevant traffic, and he does not recall mentioning it. An estimated two minutes later, at approximately 11:02 PM, Yanacsek noted a single red light on the south-east horizon. He assumed it was either a radio-tower beacon or an aircraft port-wing light - most likely an aircraft, since it was not flashing - and he watched it "for a long time, a minute to ninety seconds" before calling it to Coyne's attention. Coyne, smoking, relaxing, glanced over, noted the light, assumed it was distant traffic, and told told Yanacsek casually to "keep an eye on it."
After an estimated additional thirty seconds, Yanacsek announced that the light had turned toward the helicopter and appeared to be on a converging flight path. Coyne verified Yanacsek's assessment, grabbed the controls from Jezzi, and put the UH-1H into a powered descent of approximately 500 feet per minute. Almost simultaneously, Coyne established radio contact with Mansfield control tower, ten miles to the northwest. Coyne thought the flight was an Air National Guard F-100 from Mansfield. After an initial acknowledgment ("This is Mansfield Tower, go ahead Army 1-5-triple-4"), radio contact failed. Jezzi then attempted transmission on both UHF and VHF frequencies without success. Although the channel and keying tones were both heard, there was no response from Mansfield; and a subsequent check by Coyne revealed that Mansfield had no tape of even the initial transmission, the the last F-100 had landed at 10:47 P.M.
The red light continued its radial bearing and increased greatly in intensity. Coyne increased his rate of descent to 2,000 feet per minute and his airspeed to 100 knots. The last altitude he noted was 1,700 feet. Just as a collision appeared imminent, the unknown light halted in its westward course and assumed a hovering relationship above and in front of the helicopter. "It wasn't cruising, it was stopped. For maybe ten to twelve seconds - just stopped," Yanacsek reported. Coyne, Healey, and Yanacsek agree that a cigar-shaped, slightly domed object substended an angle of nearly the width of the front windshield. A featureless, gray, metallic-looking structure was precisely delineated against the background stars. Yanacsek reported "a suggestion of windows" along the top dome section. The red light emanated from the bow, a white light became visible at a slightly indented stern, and then, from aft/below, a green 'pyramid shaped" beam equated to a directional spotlight became visible. The green beam passed upward over the helicopter nose, swung up through the windshield, continued upward and entered the tinted upper window panels. At that point (and not before), the cockpit was enveloped in green light. Jezzi reported only a bright white light, comparable to the leading light of a small aircraft, visible through the top "greenhouse' panels of the windshield. After the estimated ten seconds of "hovering," the object began to accelerate off to the west, now with only the white "tail" light visible. The white light maintained its intensity even as its distance appeared to increase, and finally (according to Coyne and Healey), it appeared to execute a decisive 45 degree turn to the right, head out toward Lake Erie, and then "snap out" over the horizon. Healey reported that he watched the object moving westward "for a couple of minutes." Jezzi said it moved faster than the 250-knot limit for aircraft below 10,000 feet, but not as fast as the 600-knot approach speed reported by the others. There was no noise from the object or turbulence during the encounter, except for one "bump" as the object moved away to the west. After the object had broken off its hovering relationship, Jezzi and Coyne noted that the magnetic compass disk was rotating approximately four times per minute and that the altimeter read approximately 3,500 feet; a 1,000 foot-per-minute climb was in progress. Coyne insists that the collective was still bottomed from his evasive descent. Since the collective could not be lowered further, he had no alternative but to lift it, whatever the results, and after a few seconds of gingerly maneuvering controls (during which the helicopter reached nearly 3,800 feet), positive control was achieved. By that time the white light had already moved into the Mansfield area. Coyne had been subliminally aware of the climb; the others not at all, yet they had all been acutely aware of the g-forces of the dive. The helicopter was brought back to the flight plan altitude of 2,500 feet, radio contact was achieved with Canton/Akron, the night proceeded uneventfully to Cleveland.
Apparent ground witnesses to this event have been found by William E. Jones and Warren Nicholson, independent UFO researchers from Columbus, Ohio.
Mrs. E. C. and four adolescents were driving south from Mansfield to their rural home on October 18, 1973, at approximately 11 P.M., when they were attracted to a single steady bright red light. flying south "at medium altitude." They watched for perhaps half a minute until it disappeared to the south over the trees.
Approximately five minutes later, now driving east on Route 430, approaching the Charles Mill Reservoir, the family became aware of two bright lights - red and green - descending rapidly toward them from the southeast. When first seen, the angular distance between the lights was about 2 degrees; the red light appeared to be leading. Mrs. C. pulled over to the shoulder of the deserted road and kept the engine and car lights running. The lights - bigger than point sources - slowed and moved as a unit to the right of the car and the family became aware of yet another group of lights - some of these flashing - and "a beating sound, a lot of racket" approaching from the southwest. Two of the children (cousins, both age thirteen) jumped from the car and observed both a helicopter and the object, which they described as "like a blimp," "as big as a school bus," "sort of pear shaped." The object at that point subtended an angle equivalent to "a 100-mm cigarette box held at arm's length." The object assumed a hovering position over the helicopter, an estimated 500 feet back from the road and 500 feet above the trees. (The ground elevation at the site is almost exactly 1,000 feet above sea level; thus at the noted 1,700-foot altimeter reading, the helicopter was actually about 650 feet above the trees.) The object's green light then flared up. "It was like rays coming down," the witnesses said. The helicopter, the trees, the road, the car - everything turned green." The kids scrambled with fright back into the car and Mrs. C. proceeded apace. Their estimated total time outside the car was "about a minute." Neither ground witnesses nor aircrew are sure at what point the two aircraft disengaged; the ground witnesses reported that the unidentified object crossed to the north side of the road behind the car, appeared to move eastward for a few seconds, then reversed its direction and climbed toward the northwest towards Mansfield - a flight path which correlates perfectly the motion of the object established through analysis of the aircrew's report.
Any theory of the object's being a meteor (UFO skeptic Philip Klass maintains that the object was a "fireball of the Orionid meteor shower") can readily be rejected on the basis of: (1) the duration of the event (an estimated 300 seconds); (2) the marked deceleration and hard-angle maneuver of the object at closest approach; (3) the precisely defined shape of the object; and (4) the horizon-to-horizon flight path.
The possibility of a high-performance aircraft likewise is untenable when one examines the positions and colors of the lights with respect to the flight path of the object. To have presented the reported configurations, and been in accordance with FAA regulations, an aircraft would have had to be flying sideways, either standing on its tail, tail-to to the helicopter, or upside-down head-on. Other arguments against aircraft hypothesis are: (1) a fixed-wing aircraft moving across the line of sight would appear to move most rapidly when passing directly in front of the observer; (2) a fixed-wing aircraft would not have the capability of decelerating from high velocity to "hover" within a few seconds time; (3) a helicopter would have the capability of hovering, but would not be capable of the high forward speeds reported; (4) a conventional aircraft, if within 500 to 1,000 feet, would have produced noise audible inside the helicopter; (5) the FAA requires either a strobe or a rotating beacon on either the top or bottom of the fuselage, (6) FAA requires that no aircraft shall fly below 10,000 feet msl at speeds above 250 knots; (7) some of the features of a conventional aircraft would have been seen, e.g., wings, engine pods, windows, empennage, numbers, logo.
Coyne reported that the Magnaflux/Zygio method of nondestructive testing was applied to the rotors the following day and that there was no indication that they had been subjected to fatigue-producing stresses. Comparable times/distances/directions support the possibility that the red light first seen by the C. family, Healey's red light, and the object of the encounter were all one and the same. Yanacsek's red light on the eastern horizon was under continuous observation and was unequivocally the object of the encounter.
The case has maintained its high "strangeness-credibility" rating after extended investigation and analysis.
Jennie Zeidman
CUFOS
18. Large disc with light beam follows car near Nowra, Australia
Date: January, 1973
Location: Nowra, Australia
Location: Nowra, Australia
Source: Bill Chalker, (1996)
AN EXTRAORDINARY AFFAIR NEAR NOWRA
Elizabeth C and her family regularly took their Christmas holidays on the South Coast of New South Wales. One evening, Elizabeth was driving an old Valiant car carrying four other people. The encounter occurred in early January of 1973 just as the group passed the turnoff to Sussex Inlet. Elizabeth drew the attention of the others to the presence of a light ahead. To Elizabeth it looked like the light from an approaching semi-trailer. Then it seemed to move to her left and approached the car like an aircraft passing by. It was then that events took an extraordinary turn. The object, perceived as a bright light, appeared to reverse direction and began to travel alongside the car. This represented a 180 degree change in direction for the UFO. At this point the object appeared to be very large, at ground level and quite close. It maintained a parallel course with them for approximately the next 24 kilometres.
Elizabeth described the object as large, with red lights under portholes. The red lights looked like a thin ribbon of light. Elizabeth said the night was very dark. At that point the UFO was apparent as a large disc-shaped object with possible 'window' features along its length. There appeared to be a distinct 'searchlight' beam effect that rotated around the bottom of the object. At least one of the witnesses, an army officer, who was in the best position to see the extraordinary display, was certain that figures could be seen in the windows of the object.
At a point near the turnoff to HMAS Albatross Naval Base, the object seemed to suddenly vanish. It appeared to have instantly relocated to a high altitude and moved in a large arc around Nowra and then headed out to sea, where it was lost to sight.
Later that morning, one of the group saw something decidedly odd at their campsite at Shoalhaven Heads. A large number of holidaying campers were gathered at the ocean edge. They saw a number of helicopters passing low over the campsite, heading out to sea. The helicopters were flying over a fiery mass in the water. Yet the Navy later said it knew nothing of this incident. Because of their earlier experience and the campsite events, three members of the group, including Elizabeth, went to HMAS Albatross to report their experience. They feared a light-hearted or even an unwelcome reception; instead the group was the subject of a high level and detailed interview. They were told that the UFO had had numerous witnesses, and that the base radar had been affected by the UFO during the incident. The army officer in the group said that after he had returned to his unit he was interviewed about the South Coast experience by intelligence officers.
I later interviewed Elizabeth C and the army officer who was with her, and found them to be impressive and compelling witnesses. There seems little doubt that something extraordinary happened, but no official confirmation has been made. I contacted the Navy, which denied all knowledge of the incident.
19. The Isla De Lobos Case in Uruguay
Date: October 28, 1972
Location: Isla de Lobos, Uruguay
Location: Isla de Lobos, Uruguay
UFO TYPE: CE 3
DATE: October 28, 1972
TIME: 10:15 P.M.
DURATION: 1 minute
WITNESSES: 1
PLACE: Isla de Lobos, Uruguay
35 deg. 1’ S.; 54 deg. 53’ W.
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(a) The place.
Isla de Lobos is a small island a few miles off the Uruguayan coast, just where the River Plate meets the Atlantic Ocean. Its name means literally “island of the fur seals”, as these animals roam freely, and it is a lonely place where the only outstanding feature is the lighthouse.
The maintenance of this lighthouse is the responsibility of the Navy, and for that purpose a small garrison of 4 or 5 men is kept on the island. Their main task is to attend to the electric generators, as the actual operation of the beam is automatic. It is a routine and non-stressing job, and the tours of duty are 15 days in and 15 days out.
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(b) The incident.
On the night of October 28, 1972, there were five men at the house which serves as headquarters for the Navy personnel: the witness, Corporal Juan Fuentes Figueroa; two enlisted men, Jose Gomez and Hector Gimenez; a telegraph operator, Jose Lima; and the sub-officer in charge, Francisco Cascudo. After dinner, the men sat around the table for a while, talking and playing cards, until at 10:10 PM it was time for Corporal Fuentes to inspect the generators, which are located at the base of the lighthouse proper.
The lighthouse is a 66-meter-high tower sitting at the center of a large building which contains the electric generators, the telegraph office and other dependencies. The top of this building is a flat terrace, which is about 6 meters above the adjacent terrain (Fig.1). The house where the garrison lives is at a distance of 45 meters from the lighthouse.
As soon as Cpt. Fuentes started to walk toward the lighthouse, he noticed on top of the terrace some lights that shouldn’t be there. In fact, he thought first of a car, a complete impossibility, and his reaction was to return to the house and procure a pistol that he had in his room. To do this, he didn’t have to pass through the kitchen where the other men were, so he didn’t speak to them. As will be discussed later, this behavior is typical of the personality of the witness.
Carrying the pistol, he went outside again and started walking decisively but not fast toward the lighthouse, meanwhile removing the safety from the gun and cocking it. As he advanced, he noted that the object had several lights: some white, some yellowish, and a third color that he describes as violet, as in the “rainbow”. Those lights were sufficient to allow him a good view, and he saw that a figure was next to the object and that a second was in the process of descending. A third and taller figure started to descend almost at once, but at the same moment, the initial two figures noticed Fuentes progressing toward them. They had what appeared to Fuentes as a moment of communication, and all three of them faced him.
By that time, Fuentes was at about 27 meters from the object, which, we will recall, was on the top of a 6-meter terrace. Hence, the object was above him, and he started to raise his extended arm to shoot. He was never to complete his motion, as the entities prevented him, from doing so. Fuente, a man of limited education, tried in vain to explain to the investigators how this was accomplished. It was not telepathy, and he felt some physical effects, like a “vibration” and his hair standing on end; but more than anything else it was like a premonition, in his words like: “Don’t shoot because it is useless”. At any rate, he felt paralyzed and confused, and was unable to shoot.
The action continued rather fast: the entities reentered their craft, the tallest one first. Although Fuentes did not see steps or a handrail, he could see quite well the motion of the figures against the lights of the object, outlined by the light coming out through the open door. He is certain that there were steps, as while the entities were climbing up with their backs toward the witness, their motions were like those of a person pulling himself up with handrails.
The door closed sideways, and the craft started to move straight up, emitting a humming sound until it reached about 45 meters, as judged by the adjacent lighthouse tower. It then tilted, belched a blinding fireball from the bottom, and disappeared in silence at a tremendous speed toward the southeast.
The witness returned to the house, where the other men noticed him white as a paper and still with a gun in hand. When he said that he had seen a flying saucer, he was not believed, except perhaps by Sub-Officer Cascudo.
Corporal Fuentes was rather upset that his equals and his immediate superiors were dubious of his story, and was planning when he returned to Montevideo to go to one of the leading newspapers and make his experience public. However, before this was accomplished, he was ordered to report to a higher ranking officer, who carefully listened to what Fuentes had to say. He then disappeared into an office in which two members of the personnel of the American Embassy had been waiting.
According to Fuentes, they were officers of the “Spatial Affair Service”, (sic) and their presence in the Command Offices was not unusual. Fuentes was left waiting in the corridor, and after a while someone came out and offered him some drawings for inspection and asked him to select the one closest to what hi has seen. He did so and was dismissed. He never talked directly to the Americans, but from the conversation overheard through the door, he concluded that they were surprised at the short distance of Fuente’s observation. And I am amazed at the continuous interest shown by American Embassies in collecting information about a phenomenon that we have been told many times does not exist...
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(c) Craft and entities.
While the whole incident lasted about one minute, Corporal Fuentes had the object in direct view for more than about 15 seconds. It was well illuminated by its own lights, and it was fortuitous that the external lights usually illuminating the exterior of the installations were not in operation that night. If the floodlights had been on, they would have prevented a clear view by the witness, even blinding him at the location of the observation. As things turned out, he observed the entities in the background light of their own craft, and even if this prevented him from seeing facial details, for example, their outline and motions were quite evident.
When Corporal Fuentes started to walk toward the lighthouse, the first entity was already on the terrace, while the second was alighting from the craft. These two entities were about 1.50 m. (5 ft), while the third one, the last to descend, was 1.75-1.80 m. (6 ft). Thus, their heights were within the normal human limits (Fig. 2). Their silhouettes were dark, as if they were wearing heavy black rubber suits. The witness attributed their slow and deliberate motions to the weight of their suits, and thinks that his presence surprised the strangers at the beginning of an operation never to be completed. Their descent from the craft was done backwards, as if using a ladder not seen by the witness. Likewise, when they climbed back into the object, their motions were those of a person pulling himself up using handrails.
The most distinctive feature of the entities, clearly noticeable in the profile view that they offered to the witness, was the elongated shape of the back o their heads. It is not clear if this corresponds to the heads themselves, or it is was the result of some type of hood or garment.
The craft itself had the shape of an inverted bowl, with a diameter of between 4 and 5 meters. It had a dome on top and a rectangular aperture or door, used by the entities to descend (Fig. 3). It also had legs, which the witness saw clearly during the first stage of the departure. as the craft was slowly gaining altitude. Those legs did not fold like the landing gear of a plane, but retracted telescopically.
The surface of the craft was undoubtedly metallic, with a somewhat reddish color that Fuentes compared to mahogany. The most distinctive feature of the object was the antenna that topped it, shaped like a corkscrew and rotating.
The lights have already been described, and it only is necessary to add that they seemed to Fuentes like “little squares”, moving and flashing like “an advertising sign”.
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(d) The witness.
This is a single witness sighting, and yet it has become the best case coming from Uruguay due to the in-depth investigation done by the members of C.I.O.V.I.. This paper is based on the information contained in their report on this case. (Ref.1).
The first stage of the investigation consisted of two lengthy interviews with the witness in his own home. The two interviews were recorded, and the transcripts do not reveal any discrepancies in the narrative.
This was followed by an “in situ” reconstruction of the events. with the participation of the witness. Sub-officer Cascudo, present on the island that night, verified that the initial version by Corporal Fuentes was similar to the subsequent descriptions relayed later to the investigating team. Sub-officer Cascudo, as well as other superiors of Corporal Fuentes, described him as a “simple and honest man, incapable of inventing a story of this nature”.
But indeed the most fascinating part of the CIOVI investigation was to request the assistance of a professional and to submit the witness to a battery of psychological tests that extended over a total of 9 hours, and that included, among others, Raven, Bender, Rorschach and PMK.
The result of those various tests dwell on positive and negative aspects of the personality of the witness, but when analyzed in the light of the narrative presented by Corporal Fuentes, they complement each other and tend to lend credibility to the story.
In what follows, the key elements of the psychological evaluation will be indicated with quotation marks, interspace with comments on how they relate to the particular facets of the case.
First of all, the witness is described as “sincere, uncomplicated and simple”. He expresses what for him is the truth, and he does that in a straighrforward manner, with no cultural burden distiring what he has to say.
The witness “has no tendency to fabrication or fantasy”, which if existing would damage his credibility. Moreover, he has “less that average intellectual capacity”, to which the psychologist adds that he “lacks an average imagination” and “has a remarkably poor knowledge of what is going on in the social environment”. All of these are pluses from the viewpoint of the credibility of the witness, and negate the possibility of him having created the whole story. And in fact, the investigators were able to determine that the ufological knowledge of the witness was practically non-existent.
From the emotional viewpoint, the witness is typified as “insecure, prompt to react anxiously and even aggressively” to an unexpected situation. That is exactly what the witness did when confronted with the impossible presence of a car on the terrace: his first reaction was to arm himself, although he could not explain later to the investigators what he intended to do with the gun. But he was following his training, and thus bolstered his confidence.
Another result of the psychological tests is that the witness has “a balanced psychic personality”, and it is “unlikely that he would confabulate by himself, unless an external event would upset him”. To summarize, his poor intellectual capacity and lack of imagination did not allow him to reason what was best to do when confronted with the unexpected, and instead of firing his gun or alerting his companions, he failed to do either, remaining paralyzed and confused. When he returned to the house, the other men noticed his trembling voice and his pale color, so there is no question that an external stimulus affected him deeply.
The conclusion, then, is that the psychology and personality of the witness are such that his reactions and behavior under the circumstances are totally compatible. Therefore, the probability that the witness is telling the truth is very great.
Of course, there is always an uncertainty about what percentage of the description of the witness corresponds to the physical reality of the object and the entities, but we can assert that in fact that Isla de Lobos is a remote place, moreover, a restricted area with difficult access, controlled by the Uruguayan Navy, and where no conventional explanations are viable, the inescapable conclusion is that this case is, using Dr. Maccabee’s coined word, a TRUFO.
*****
REFERENCES:
(1) Hourcade, Milton. et al.; INFORME FINAL EN EL CASO DE LA ISLA DE LOBOS DEL 28 DE OCTUBRE DE 1972; C.I.O.V.I., March 1975.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Dr. Smith earned his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan, and after many years dedicated to teaching physics at universities in the United State and Europe, he now devotes most of his time to the study of the UFO phenomenon, whose reality he considers indisputable.
20. US aircraft carrier 'stopped' by large, glowing UFO; electromagnetic effects
Date: 1971
Location: Caribbean / Bermuda Triangle,
Location: Caribbean / Bermuda Triangle,
US Aircraft Carrier stopped by UFO
By Jim Kopf
This encounter occurred in 1971, while aboard the aircraft carrier, USS John F. Kennedy CVA-67 (now CV-67) in the Bermuda Triangle. I was assigned to the communications department of the Kennedy and had been in this section about a year. The ship was returning to Norfolk, VA after completing a two week operational readiness exercise (ORE) in the Caribbean. We were to stand down for 30 days, after arriving in Norfolk, Virginia, to allow the crew to take leave and visit family before deploying to the Mediterranean for six months.
I was on duty in the communications center. My task was to monitor eight teletypes printing the "Fleet Broadcasts". On the top row were four teletypes each printing messages from four different channels. On the bottom row were four more doing the exact same thing except the signal was carried on different frequencies. If one of the primary receivers started taking "hits" I would be able to retrieve the message from the bottom one. I also notified Facilities Control of any hits so they could tune the receivers. On the other side of the compartment(room) was the NAVCOMMOPNET (Naval Communications Operations Network). This was the Ship to Shore circuit with the top teletype being the receive and the bottom as the send (known as a duplex circuit). Next to this was the Task Group Circuit for ship to ship communications (task group operations or TGO).
It was in the evening, about 20:30 (8:30 PM) and the ship had just completed an eighteen hour "Flight Ops". I had just taken a message off one of the broadcasts and turned around to file it on a clip board. When I turned back to the teletypes the primaries were typing garbage. I looked down to the alternates which were doing the same. I walked a few feet to the intercom between us and the Facilities Control. I called them and informed them of the broadcasts being out. A voice replied that all communications were out. I then turned and looked in the direction of the NAVCOMMOPNET and saw that the operator was having a problem. I then heard the Task Group operator tell the watch officer that his circuit was out also. In the far corner of the compartment was the pneumatic tubes going to the Signal bridge (where the flashing light and signal flag messages are sent/receive). There is an intercom there to communicate with the Signal Bridge and over this intercom we heard someone yelling "There is something hovering over the ship!" A moment later we heard another voice yelling. "IT IS GOD! IT'S THE END OF THE WORLD!".
We all looked at each other, there were six of us in the Comm Center, and someone said, "Lets go have a look!". The Comm Center is amidships, just under the flight deck, almost in the center of the ship. We went out the door, through Facilities Control and out that door, down the passageway (corridor) about 55 feet to the hatch that goes out to the catwalk on the edge of the flight deck (oppisite from the "Island" or that part of the ship where the bridge is). If you have ever been to sea, there is a time called the time of no horizon. This happens in the morning and evening just as the sun comes up or goes down over the horizon.
During this time you cannot tell where the sea and sky meet. This is the time of evening it was. As we looked up, we saw a large, glowing sphere. Well it seemed large, however, there was no point of reference. That is to say, if the sphere were low; say 100 feet above the ship, then it would have been about two to three hundred feet in diameter. If it were say 500 feet about the ship then it would have been larger. It made no sound that I could hear. The light coming from it wasn't too bright, about half of what the sun would be. It sort of pulsated a little and was yellow to orange.
We didn't get to looked at it for more than about 20 seconds because General Quarters (Battle stations) was sounding and the Communication Officer was in the passageway telling us to get back into the Comm Center. We returned and stayed there (that was out battle station). We didn't have much to do because all the communication was still out. After about 20 minutes, the teletypes started printing correctly again. We stayed at General Quarters for about another hour, then secured. I didn't see or hear of any messages going out about the incident.
Over the next few hours, I talked to a good friend that was in CIC (combat information center) who was a radar operator. He told me that all the radar screens were just glowing during the time of the incident. I also talked to a guy I knew that worked on the Navigational Bridge. He told me that none of the compasses were working and that the medics had to sedate a boatswains mate that was a lookout on the signal bridge. I figured this was the one yelling it was God. It was ironic that of the 5,000 men on a carrier, that only a handful actually saw this phnomenon. This was due to the fact that flight Ops had just be completed a short time before this all started and all the flight deck personnel were below resting. It should be noted that there are very few places where you can go to be out in the open air aboard a carrier. From what I could learn, virtually all electronic components stopped functioning during the 20 minutes or so that what ever it was hovered over the ship. The two Ready CAPs (Combat Air Patrol), which were two F-4 Phantoms that are always ready to be launched, would not start.
I heard from the scuttlebut (slang - rumor mill) that three or four "men in trenchcoats" had landed, and were interviewing the personnel that had seen this phenomena. I was never interviewed, maybe because no one knew that I had seen it.
A few days latter, as we were approaching Norfolk, the Commanding and Executive Officers came on the closed circuit TV system that we had. They did this regularly to address the crew and pass on information. During this particular session the Captain told us how well we did on the ORE and about our upcoming deployment to the Mediterranean. At the very end of his spiel, he said "I would like to remind the crew, that certain events that take place aboard a Naval Combatant Ship, are classified and are not to be discussed with anyone without a need to know". This was all the official word I ever received or heard of the incident.
Being young and excited about my visit home and going to the Med, I completely forgot about it until years later when my wife and I went to see "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" at the movies when it first came out. In fact the friend that had been the radar operator was with his wife and went with us. As we walked across the parking lot to my car, I ask him if he remembered what We had experienced years earlier on the ship. He looked at me and said he never wanted to talk about it again. As he said it he turned a little pale. I never talked about the incident again. When I discovered "Aliens and Strange Phenomenon" on MSN and started reading the posts I started thinking about it again. Now I seem obsessed in finding out all I can about this phenomena.
Jim Kopf
Mt. Airy, Maryland
21. Military sighting of ball of opaque light started out small, grew to 5 times moon size
Date: 1970
Location: Ft. Gordon, Georgia, United States
Location: Ft. Gordon, Georgia, United States
Source: UFO Evidence
[go to original source] (Currently says 404 Error)
Date Posted: 3/28/2004 8:52:24 PM
Day/Night: DawnDusk
Duration: 20 min.
No. of Witnesses: 200+
No. of Object(s): Single
Full Description and Details:
Our company had fallen out for morning formation. we were waiting for the 1st seargent to join us when someone in our ranks started saying "what is that?" I looked down the ranks of my platoon and saw that they were pointing at a point approx. 30 degrees above the horizon. What I saw was an object that first appeared to be a full moon only larger by half than I had ever seen it. As I continued watching it, it steadily grew in size untill it was at least 5 times larger than I have ever seen the moon be. There were no light and dark areas on the surface such as the moon has, yet the surface was luminous and exactly as the moon would look if there were no other features on its face. It sat there for about 20 sec. and then a beam of light started (and I do mean started because it moved out from the object very slowly, Its width being the width of the object itself but narrowing as it moved towards the ground, it looked like the beam of a flahlight in reverse only in slow motion
it was about halfway down when 2 F-4s took off under military afterburner and banked straight for it.you could tell they were in afterburner by the length of their exhaust plume. At the same time our first seargent came out of the day room and after seeing what we were hollering about turned around and ran back into his office (apparently to notify someone}. The 2 F-4s formed up and were heading straight towards this object of which it was impossible to tell exactly how far away it was when the beam reversed direction, went back to the object and the object left moving straight awy from us so fast it looked like what happened in those old tube type tv's when you turned them off and that picture shrunk down to a dot in about 1 sec. Ever since this happened, I have been interested in ufo's. Always expecting to read an account of this particular sighting. Mainly because not only was it veiwed by my whole company, but apparently by the bases aircraft control tower and someone with the authority to scramble two military aircraft. As soldiers we never heard another word as to what we saw. I can't beleive no-one has come forward and told about this after so many years, so I am for whatever it's worth.
Personal Background
Aerospace machinist (computer numerical control).
Reported Sighting? No
Name: Lanny Ward
Location: Everett, Wash
Age: 52
Day/Night: DawnDusk
Duration: 20 min.
No. of Witnesses: 200+
No. of Object(s): Single
Full Description and Details:
Our company had fallen out for morning formation. we were waiting for the 1st seargent to join us when someone in our ranks started saying "what is that?" I looked down the ranks of my platoon and saw that they were pointing at a point approx. 30 degrees above the horizon. What I saw was an object that first appeared to be a full moon only larger by half than I had ever seen it. As I continued watching it, it steadily grew in size untill it was at least 5 times larger than I have ever seen the moon be. There were no light and dark areas on the surface such as the moon has, yet the surface was luminous and exactly as the moon would look if there were no other features on its face. It sat there for about 20 sec. and then a beam of light started (and I do mean started because it moved out from the object very slowly, Its width being the width of the object itself but narrowing as it moved towards the ground, it looked like the beam of a flahlight in reverse only in slow motion
it was about halfway down when 2 F-4s took off under military afterburner and banked straight for it.you could tell they were in afterburner by the length of their exhaust plume. At the same time our first seargent came out of the day room and after seeing what we were hollering about turned around and ran back into his office (apparently to notify someone}. The 2 F-4s formed up and were heading straight towards this object of which it was impossible to tell exactly how far away it was when the beam reversed direction, went back to the object and the object left moving straight awy from us so fast it looked like what happened in those old tube type tv's when you turned them off and that picture shrunk down to a dot in about 1 sec. Ever since this happened, I have been interested in ufo's. Always expecting to read an account of this particular sighting. Mainly because not only was it veiwed by my whole company, but apparently by the bases aircraft control tower and someone with the authority to scramble two military aircraft. As soldiers we never heard another word as to what we saw. I can't beleive no-one has come forward and told about this after so many years, so I am for whatever it's worth.
Personal Background
Aerospace machinist (computer numerical control).
Reported Sighting? No
Name: Lanny Ward
Location: Everett, Wash
Age: 52
22. Chilean Navy ship encounters large UFO; tracked on radar
Date: October 24, 1969
Location: Chile
Location: Chile
Source: Bill Chalker
[go to original source]
[go to original source]
An Extraordinary UFO Incident Off Chile
24-10-1969
by Bill Chalker
Bill Chalker, an industrial chemist by profession, is one of Australia's leading UFO investigators. He lives In New South Wales.
-----------------------------------
Editor's note: Incredible tales of military UFO encounters and cover-ups are legion in the ufological literature. Most depend on the testimony of a single informant. This one is no exception and for that reason must be viewed, unless and until verifying evidence comes forward, as no more than an interesting anecdote. We are publishing it not because we consider it "evidence" of anything -- it clearly is not --but because it resembles other such stories in a remarkable way.
That means that either the claimant is drawing on a body of widespread folklore or he, like other claimants telling like tales, is speaking the truth. Chile, a military dictatorship, does not have a Freedom of Information Act to which inquirers seeking verification can turn. Readers who might have access to information that could shed light on this claim are urged to write IUR.
Because of a series of chance events and an overseas trip, I had the opportunity to interview an alleged witness to an extraordinary event that supposedly took place in the Pacific Ocean, about 350 miles to the south of Valparaiso Port, off the coast of Chile. The incident involved a Chilean Naval destroyer and was witnessed by crew members and the commander of the vessel. Up to six UFOs, including one large object, were observed. The objects were verified on radar and observed visually. As the main object moved over the ship, the vessel's power went out.
As extraordinary as the event itself is its alarming aftermath. According to my informant, a cover-up followed and the witnesses were held in confinement in port for two days, subjected to intense psychological pressures to force them to believe they saw nothing out of the ordinary.
The name of my informant cannot be revealed. He says, however, that he was on duty during the incident and observed the whole event. The location of the interview, even the country in which it took place, also cannot be given. The witness fears that disclosure of either detail could cause him to be recalled to active service in the Chilean Navy. Although he has already served his term of service, he is concerned that enforced military service could be used as a form of punishment.
I must point out that from the very beginning I have been skeptical of many UFO cover-up claims. From my experience as the first civilian researcher to have comprehensive access to the Royal Australian Air Force UFO files, however, I have become more open-minded about such allegations. In this regard I was willing to consider the testimony of my Chilean informant, who to all appearances was sincerely frightened by the events he described to me. That does not mean I have become a 'believer,' only that I believe such claims deserve a fair hearing.
The event
Just after midnight, on or about October 24, 1969, a Chilean Navy destroyer, a week out of dry dock at Talcahuano Port (where the ship's axle had been removed and replaced), was navigating at 20 knots and heading north 20 degrees portside from NNW). The incredible events that followed took place over the next eight minutes.
At 12:43 A.M. the radar officer reported a long-range flying contact. A minute later the "contact" was at 400 miles. Because of the "object's" speed, the operator suspected a malfunction in his equipment. In the next minute the contact was approximately 150 miles away closing from 331 degrees of true north. But the operator and officer in charge during the late night duty (an officer of second-class rank) speculated that the contact was a "plane flying southeast" --but at 213 miles in a minute: 12,780 mph!
The officer in charge advised the ship's commander, who asked that an eye be kept on the object. At 12:47 the contact was only 12 miles away. Suddenly the single contact became six "targets." The "thing spread .... Little dots appeared in the fire of the light on the radar...."
The officer in charge informed the commander just as the objects making the returns came into view. Both eyewitnesses and radar were reporting six objects approaching the ship. The commander came up to the ship's bridge to see what was going on.
It was a fantastic sight. One massive object and five small objects were approaching at high speed. The "big thing looked like a big box [with] semicircles in the side" looking as if they had been scooped out. It was bathed in brilliant light. "The thing must have been metallic," my informant told me. "It was bigger than the destroyer, which was about 110 metres long." He thought it might be at least twice the length of the ship but it was difficult to tell because "the light was bright."
The five smaller objects were egg-shaped and appeared to be no bigger than eight feet long and five to six feet wide. They were bluish in color.
At about 2000 yards out from the destroyer the smaller objects left the proximity of the larger object. Three went portside and two went starboard. The smaller objects at times seemed to be flying in "elliptical circles backwards and forwards between the big one and our vessel ....
"The main thing did not change direction -- if it had been in the sea there would have been a collision."
A humming noise was audible when the large object got to within 300 yards. It was at this point that the power went out. For a couple of seconds all instruments went dead as the huge craft passed overhead.
At this point the commander came on to the bridge, asking, "What the hell is that?" My informant remarked that the commander "was very calm, because probably he knew what he saw. We didn't.
"You could see the whole thing, the light was so strong. You could see the water, the funnel head, the head of the ship, the towers, everything... Everybody on the bridge was sort of listening to the noise. I don't know how long this thing took to go across."
The bright red lights underneath the main UFO seemed to be moving back and forth inside the "box," shining through a half-circle or crescent shape on the bottom of the object. On the side were what looked like "corn cobs," with green or turquoise pulsing lights. These lights, my informant said, "went right through your head."
The large object passed over the powerless ship. When it was 200 yards away, everything returned to normal. The smaller objects, never coming closer than 500 to 1000 yards, flew around the ship and joined up with the larger object on the other side.
The main object continued on its way until it was about two miles beyond the ship. At that point, along with (we assume) the smaller-objects, it vanished. "It was like somebody opened a big door; then it closed and it was darkness. The only thing that was left behind was like floating little bits of metallic paper."(!)
At least eight minutes had passed. Three persons had tracked the UFOs on radar. Five persons saw the objects themselves. The ship's commander ordered everyone to keep silent about what they had seen.
The Cover-Up
The "cover-up" started immediately, According to my informant, the officer in charge (the second-class officer) had made several entries concerning the UFO incident in the ship's log.
The entries at midnight and on either side of the UFO entries-were routine. Duty proceeded normally for the rest of the morning.
Awakening after he had retired from his shift, the officer rechecked the log, only to find normal entries in what appeared to be his own handwriting. The UFO incident was not mentioned. The officer had been left-handed but an accident had forced him to use his right hand. Because writing was difficult for him, he had to press down hard on the paper. He had to press down so hard, in fact;-that the outline of what he wrote was always visible on the page. But when he checked, it was not. In other words, someone had forged his handwriting but neglected this telltale physical detail.
At 6:45 that morning the destroyer arrived in Valparaiso Port. After eating breakfast, the men on duty during the UFO event were asked to report to the commander. He told them that some people were coming to talk with them and that they were to go with them. The visitors turned out to be two Chilean Navy officers and four Americans in civilian clothes. The Americans, who spoke Spanish, were identified as naval attaches with the U.S. embassy.
The six witnesses were taken to a mine- or torpedo-storage area at the port. Each was taken to a separate room.
My informant was directed to explain what happened last night. When he told them, they said, "No, you didn't see that !"
"I said that's what we saw," my informant related to me. "They started getting very cranky. They said, 'No, you didn't see it. You didn't see anything. You know nothing.'
"I spoke to the highest-ranking officer there, a tactic commander in the Chilean Navy: 'Are we under arrest or what?' He said, 'No you are not.’ "
Asked why they were there, the Chilean officer replied, 'You are under orders. These people just want to talk to you, to put you on the right track."
My informant claimed, "While the men never asked us to go through the story in detail, they knew what had happened by the questions they asked. They also had the radar-plot blueprint." They were more interested in securing his silence than in getting information about the event from him.
For two days the harassment continued. "Every two hours," the informant said, "this guy would come up. 'What do you think now?' he'd say... We had arguments. They didn't have any right to do what they were doing."
My informant threatened to complain when he got out. He was told that if he did so, that would be the end of him. He did not see the other witnesses at any point during the two day interrogation. He was not allowed to sleep until he signed a document. Finally, after he had done so, he was put in a jeep and driven to another location. One week later he was transferred unexpectedly from destroyer duty. He never saw the others again.
Discussion
As I listened to this man tell his story, I was struck with the passion of his tone. If he was making this up, he was an excellent actor.
His claim that he had been placed in confinement following the sighting was especially interesting to me. In fact, the account sounds exactly like something out of the NBC-television movie The Disappearance of Flight 412, said to have been based on the real life experience of one of the scriptwriters, Neal B. Burger. Burger's experience supposedly took place in 1951. (My informant claimed not to have seen the movie.) A similar story, involving a U.S. Navy man who allegedly was subjected to similar pressures in Panama in 1973, is recounted in Fawcett and Greenwood's Clear Intent (1984).
This reference: International UFO Reporter September/October 1985, pp. 4-6
23. Navy ship HMAS Hobart hit during Vietnam UFO encounter?
Date: June 15, 1968
Location: DMZ, Viet Nam
Location: DMZ, Viet Nam
Source: AUFORN Special Report, Issue 34, April 2003
HMAS HOBART HIT DURING VIETNAM UFO ENCOUNTER?
Story by Jon Wyatt
In June 1968 Australia was dismayed by the news that the guided-missile destroyer HMAS Hobart had been badly damaged by 'friendly fire' in Vietnam: Two crew died and seven were wounded during the USAF attack.
Officially, the Hobart 'Incident' occurred during a night operation against 'enemy helicopters' - but was it in reality a UFO story?
The evidence is very intriguing, and to find out why let's go to the beginning.
On Friday, 15 June 1968, Allied forward spotters along the eastern part of the Demilitarised Zone, a 9.6km wide strip separating North and South Vietnam, reported seeing about 30 strange slow-moving 'lights' in the night sky. At the time the belief was these were lumbering North Vietnamese Russian-built M-14 'Hound' helicopters ferrying men and materiel over the border.
After the sightings, Allied Command, fearing another Tet Offensive-style build-up, rushed more anti-aircraft guns to the border, and placed Phantom fighter-bombers at Danang Air Base on standby, and it also asked available Allied warships to patrol the DMZ coast. HMAS Hobart II one of those warships that responded.
That night, the forward spotters along the eastern DMZ again reported the 'enemy helicopters' had re-appeared, and the Allied forces sprang into action.
Details of the subsequent aerial 'melee' remain sketchy, but it is known several US 7th Air Force Phantom fighter-bombers soon arrived on the scene and began firing on the intruders; and were supported by anti-aircraft ground fire. During the Allied attack the 'enemy helicopters' were seen to move down the east coast and then out to the sea - and there things went terribly wrong.
A US Navy Board of Inquiry, which investigated the Hobart 'incident' for the Australian government, found shortcomings of the Phantom's radar system were partly to blame: to stop big targets flooding the radarscope the radar had a cut-off mechanism, so the returns from a warship and a slow moving low flying helicopter could appear similar on-screen.
After the 'lights' fled seaward, the first 'friendly fire' incident occurred shortly after midnight when the US Navy swift boat PCF-19 was sunk by three air-to-air missiles while patrolling some kilometres south of the DMZ. Five of the seven crew died (more about this later).
At about 3.30am, the Hobart was patrolling (blacked-out and maintaining radio silence) near Tiger Island, about 20kms off Cap Lay, when her radar room detected a fast, in-coming aircraft. The IFF (Identication Friend of Foe) system indicated it was 'friendly' and the ship was attempting to establish further identity when a Sparrow air-to-air missile struck her amidships on the starboard (right) side. The missile penetrated the alluminum hull and exploded killing Ordinary Seaman R J Butterworth and wounding two others.
While the crew was rushing to Action Stations, two more air-to-air missiles penetrated the starboard side and killed Chief Electrician Hunt and wounded several others - and narrowly missed a magazine. Hobart fired five rounds from a deckgun, but the swept-winged attacker escaped.
During the DMZ 'lights' operation, the guided-missile destroyer USS Edson, the guided-missile cruiser USS Boston, the US Coast Guard cutter Point Dume, and the USS PCF-19 also came under 'friendly fire' , but fortunately without causing more casualties.
Eventually, the Phantom pilots involved in the operation that night and early morning, were recalled and grounded.
After daybreak, US helicopters airlifted the wounded Australian sailors to Danang and the damaged Hobart went to Subic Bay, Philippines, for repairs and was off the scene for five weeks - and that night DMZ 'lights' returned.
Whatever the 'lights' actually were remains a subject of conjecture, but it appears they were sighted for some weeks and went unchallenged. A week after the Hobart 'incident' the Melbourne Sun noted: "sightings were reported by radarmen in Quang Tri Province about five miles [eight kms] below the border zone. It was the sixth time since last Saturday that such sightings have been reported ... US command has ordered its fighter-bombers and artillery to withhold fire not wanting a repeat of the incidents in which the Allied ships were fired upon."
Also adding further to the mystery, no wreckage of downed enemy choppers was found. In August 1968 the Royal Australian Navy News confirmed: "No physical evidence of helicopters destroyed has been discovered in the area of activity nor has extensive reconnaissance produced any evidence of enemy helicopter operations in or near the DMZ".
In 1996 I interviewed the Hobart's skipper, the late Ken Shands, and he also said, "Neither before nor after the incident ... was there any report by any of the ships of a helicopter being there [around Tiger Island]. Now having said that, the captain of one of the American ships told me later at Subic Bay that he thought there were helicopters there, but the fact is he didn't report, and if he believed there was a helicopter ... it was his duty to report it at the time, but there was no report."
So what appeared over the DMZ that sparked the mission that saw Hobart hit?
The events of that night have doubtless raised much discussion - it was the RAN's costliest day of the entire war - and Australian navy history books mention 'unusual atmospheric conditions over the DMZ', 'insect swarms' or 'bird flocks' as possible sources of the sightings, but were they unidentified flying objects?
General George S Brown (1918-1978) was commander of the 7th US Air Force and deputy commander for Air Operations, Military Assistance Command Vietnam from 1968 to 1970 - and so was in command of the Phantoms involved in the snafu. In later years he rose to chair the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Washington. In 1973, he fronted a Chicago media conference held to discuss the North American UFO flap of that year, and while airing his views on UFOs at the conference he said:
"I don't know whether this story has ever been told or not [but UFOs plagued us in Vietnam]. They weren't called UFOs they were called enemy helicopters, and they were only seen at night and they were only seen in certain places. They were seen up around the DMZ in the early summer of '68, and this resulted in quite a battle. And in the course of this, an Australian destroyer [Hobart] took a hit ... there was no enemy at all involved but we always reacted. Always after dark. The same thing happened up at Pleiku at the Highlands in '69".
George Filer, today Director of the Mutual UFO Network Eastern, USA, served as a USAF intelligence officer under General Brown during the Vietnam conflict, and he has also said, "In 1968, I briefed General Brown the USAF Chief of Staff most mornings on the intelligence situation in Vietnam... a lot of times we'd get UFO reports over the DMZ".
The late Bill Cooper served as a patrol-boat captain in Vietnam from 1967 to 1969, and during a talk at the 1989 Los Angeles UFO conference he said:
"After about five months I was sent up north to the DMZ, to a place called Qua Vieaf [perhaps Qua Viet] on the Tacan [sic] river .... It was while there that I discovered that there was a tremendous amount of UFO and alien activity in Vietnam. It was always reported in official messages as 'enemy helicopters'. Now any of you who know anything about the Vietnam war know that the North Vietnamese did not have any helicopters especially after our first couple of air raids into North Vietnam [during 1965]. Even if they had, they would not have been so foolish as to bring them over the DMZ, because that would have ensured their demise."
Cooper later recanted his belief in an alien presence and instead insisted UFOs are "technology originally developed by the Germans in their secret weapons programs during WW-II, by geniuses like Nikola Tesla and many others". However the mystery of 1968 DMZ 'lights' marched on, and the following is from another American patrol boat crew member.
Jim Steffes, ENC, USN Retired, served on the patrol boat PCF-12 on the night of the Hobart 'incident', and he confirms strange goings-on in the sky. In his article 'The sinking of PCF-19 as seen from PCF-12', he states the PCF-12 met the ill-fated PCF-19 at sea that night to fix the PCF-19's radar. At approximately 0030 hours the PCF-12 received a 'flash traffic' that PCF-19, the first 'friendly fire' target, had disappeared in a flash of light. The PCF-12 reached the scene as Point Dume was pulling the two badly wounded survivors aboard. As PCF-12 searched in vain for more survivors, she found she had company.
As he and the crew peered into the darkness, the moon sometimes behind clouds, "we spotted two aircraft 'hovering' on our port and starboard beams. They were about 300 yards away and 100 feet above the water. As the boat swung around to put the aircraft ahead and astern of PCF-12, I could hear Mr. Snyder [the Officer In Charge] requesting air support and identification of these helos. The answer from the beach was 'no friendly aircraft in the area, have contacts near you on radar and starlight scope'.
Steffes says he saw one 'helo' in the moonlight and believed "It had a rounded front like an observation helo and it looked like two crewman sitting side by side". Then, "I watched as tracers began to come toward us as this helo opened fire. The guns were from the nose of the helo. Our guns opened up and I ran back to my position as the loader on the after gun. We heard a crash of glass and a splash as one of the helos hit the water, the other helo broke contact and left the area."
Steffes says for the next two and one half hours the PCF-12 played cat and mouse with one or more helos, opening fire whenever they moved in. He also observed the Point Dume firing tracers at blinking lights moving around her in the air. All the radios were crackling constantly as friendlies were checked out. "The result was no friendlies, these had to be North Vietnamese."
Then, three and a half hours later, at about 3:30am, military jets roared overhead and after they acknowledged the PCF-19's position, he soon heard explosions and gunfire to the north (the Hobart 'incident'?). "As dawn broke, we could only see the shoreline and the Point Dume."
Steffes concluded: "We continued to monitor and track these 'lights' for several weeks after this up until September ... I know what the 'official story' is, but this is mine as true and complete as I can remember."
Jim Steffes' story of course raise many fascinating questions including:
Did the PCF-12 crew fall victim to 'cultural tracking': aliens using their advanced technology to mimick our technology to interface with humans?
If the lights were North Vietnamese observer helicopters? why did they fly around for hours with their lights on, why weren't they shot down, and why was no 'helo' wreckage ever retrieved?
Many Ufologists believe alien visitors havelong been studying human wars; and this may have been the case in 1968.
Paranormal Postscript:
Hobart served out three tours of duty in Vietnam, however it seems after 1968 she had an extra crewman.
A Signalman, who served on the ship during the 1990s, says that one morning at 4am when the warship was approaching Hobart, Tas., he was climbing a flex ladder to the flag deck when he felt the ladder move below him, then felt "something actually walk past/through me on the ladder". Then, when he reached the flag deck and entered the Signalmans Shelter, he sensed "someone in there with me and could hear them breathing as though they had been running or working hard".
The Signalman later learnt from the Chief Coxswain, a 15-year veteran, that "a Leading Seaman Signalman" had been killed while scaling the ladder to action stations in 1968: "Apparently, the ship took a missile hit and a piece of shrapnel took this poor man's head clean off his shoulders".
During the late 1990s when the Signalman was re-posted to the ship, he sent a young sailor up the ladder to 'test the waters', and the bloke also came down shaking.
The "Green Ghost", as the ship was also affectionately known, was de-commissioned in May 2000, and scuttled at Yankalilla Bay, south of Adelaide, in late 2002, where she is now a scuba-dive spot.
Main Sources:
1. Sydney Morning Herald 19 June, 1968, p. 1 and Australian 19 June, 1968, p.1
2. Melbourne Sun 24 June, 1968, p.2
3. Royal Australian Navy News, 16 August, 1968
4. Navy in Vietnam: A record of the Royal Australian Navy in the Vietnam War 1965-1973 by Denis Fairfax (Australian Government Publishing Service 1980) pps.59-60
5. Interview with Ken Shands, Anzac Day 1996, Melbourne
6. General George S Brown, USAF Chief of Staff, Department of Defense transcript of press conference in Illinois, 16 October, 1973, found at: http://gamegene.com/ufo.htm
7. 'George Filer Keeps Watching The Skies' by Michael Vitez, Philadelphia Inquirer, 20 August, 2001, found at www.rense.com
7. 'George Filer Keeps Watching The Skies' by Michael Vitez, Philadelphia Inquirer, 20 August, 2001, found at www.rense.com
8. 'The Milton William Cooper Speech', 17 November, 1989, found at: http://www.the-greys.com/pirho/speech.html
9. 'MajestyTwelve' by William Cooper, 1997, found at: http://williamcooper.com
10. 'The Sinking of PCF-19 as seen from PCF-12' by Jim Steffes, ENC, USN Retired, found at www.gunplot.net/vietnam/hobartvietnamandpcf19.html
9. 'MajestyTwelve' by William Cooper, 1997, found at: http://williamcooper.com
10. 'The Sinking of PCF-19 as seen from PCF-12' by Jim Steffes, ENC, USN Retired, found at www.gunplot.net/vietnam/hobartvietnamandpcf19.html
11. Jim Steffes' Vietnam Photo Album website found at http://www.bcres.com/river/steffes.htm
12. Article 'Ghost At Sea' found at www.castleofspirits.com
12. Article 'Ghost At Sea' found at www.castleofspirits.com
Jon Wyatt is a Melbourne freelance writer and editor.
Email: jonrwyatt@hotmail.com
24. Russia UFO crash and recovery, 1968
Date: March, 1968
Location: Berezovsky , Russian Federation
Location: Berezovsky , Russian Federation
The Secret KGB UFO Files, The Russian Crash of 1969
The details of a Russian Crash on or about 1969 are sketchy and somewhat suspect. This case comes from the so-called "Secret KGB Files," which were reportedly smuggled out of the former Soviet Union. Reportedly, $10,000 was paid for the information. The details of these secret files were first offered to the general public on 9-13-98 as part of a TNT special titled "The Secret UFO Files of the KGB." The show featured extraordinary film and still photographs of the UFO recovery, and also a portion of autopsy film on part of an alien body.
The event itself, according to the files, occurred in the state of Sverdlovsky, which was formerly Yekatrinburg of the USSR. The crash story follows a familiar pattern normally associated with this type of report. The fiery crash of an unknown object occurred in March 1969. The site was secured by the Russian military, and one dead alien was found in the wreckage. The remains of the craft and alien were brought to a secure location, and the alien body was autopsied. Both still and moving pictures were taken of the craft, its retrieval, and the alien autopsy. The autopsy shows only an alien torso and arm. From the size of the body parts, the alien would have been an extremely small being.
The TNT special features Roger Moore, veteran actor and former James Bond, who discusses other UFO events, along with interviews with UFO experts, CIA agents, and other film. Probably the most notable footage is from MIG gun cameras of confrontations with UFOs. There have been only a few still frames of this footage in America, and I have not been able as of this writing, 11-01-2002, to obtain the videos. The show itself is mediocre, and its only redeeming quality is the presentation of the UFO crash story. Supposedly, the crash story was validated by secret KGB documents.
The footage at the crash site does seem to be authentic at least on several points. The truck in the film is a circa 1950 model ZIS151, which has not been used by the military for quite some time, and the truck would have been difficult to find to stage a hoax with. Other elements of the film do not exhibit any obvious signs of a hoax, as to the movement of the soldiers, the timing of the film as to shadows, and the UFO itself.
There are also several documents shown to verify the event itself, and an eyewitness to the event who swears that the recovery mission did occur. The footage of the autopsy film shows personnel without caps and gowns, which seemed odd to me at first, but after some research I found that this was commonplace for that era in Russia.
The furnishings in the room are acceptable, and in Russia have probably not changed much today. Three men in their 20's and 30's are performing the procedure, and one woman is taking notes. The note taker is identified as KGB stenographer O. A. Pshonikina. The alien's torso and arm are lying together on the table as the autopsy is performed, and there are documents shown to support the autopsy.
Although the USA-Russia relationship is much improved over a few years ago, it still lacks. Any information received is subject to translation, and often times there are problems with interpretation. It is sad there is not more cooperation between the two countries. The case of the 1969 retrieval and autopsy are difficult to assess. Until more information is uncovered, it will remain unsubstantiated.
The details of a Russian Crash on or about 1969 are sketchy and somewhat suspect. This case comes from the so-called "Secret KGB Files," which were reportedly smuggled out of the former Soviet Union. Reportedly, $10,000 was paid for the information. The details of these secret files were first offered to the general public on 9-13-98 as part of a TNT special titled "The Secret UFO Files of the KGB." The show featured extraordinary film and still photographs of the UFO recovery, and also a portion of autopsy film on part of an alien body.
The event itself, according to the files, occurred in the state of Sverdlovsky, which was formerly Yekatrinburg of the USSR. The crash story follows a familiar pattern normally associated with this type of report. The fiery crash of an unknown object occurred in March 1969. The site was secured by the Russian military, and one dead alien was found in the wreckage. The remains of the craft and alien were brought to a secure location, and the alien body was autopsied. Both still and moving pictures were taken of the craft, its retrieval, and the alien autopsy. The autopsy shows only an alien torso and arm. From the size of the body parts, the alien would have been an extremely small being.
The TNT special features Roger Moore, veteran actor and former James Bond, who discusses other UFO events, along with interviews with UFO experts, CIA agents, and other film. Probably the most notable footage is from MIG gun cameras of confrontations with UFOs. There have been only a few still frames of this footage in America, and I have not been able as of this writing, 11-01-2002, to obtain the videos. The show itself is mediocre, and its only redeeming quality is the presentation of the UFO crash story. Supposedly, the crash story was validated by secret KGB documents.
The footage at the crash site does seem to be authentic at least on several points. The truck in the film is a circa 1950 model ZIS151, which has not been used by the military for quite some time, and the truck would have been difficult to find to stage a hoax with. Other elements of the film do not exhibit any obvious signs of a hoax, as to the movement of the soldiers, the timing of the film as to shadows, and the UFO itself.
The furnishings in the room are acceptable, and in Russia have probably not changed much today. Three men in their 20's and 30's are performing the procedure, and one woman is taking notes. The note taker is identified as KGB stenographer O. A. Pshonikina. The alien's torso and arm are lying together on the table as the autopsy is performed, and there are documents shown to support the autopsy.
Although the USA-Russia relationship is much improved over a few years ago, it still lacks. Any information received is subject to translation, and often times there are problems with interpretation. It is sad there is not more cooperation between the two countries. The case of the 1969 retrieval and autopsy are difficult to assess. Until more information is uncovered, it will remain unsubstantiated.
when I came back from overseas I was in the army and came to az I Saw 8 ufo flying they said I WAS nut's yea write ...
ReplyDeleteThat Snap, Crackel, & Pop of those Russian military personel exibited in this film, also THAT INCIDENT IS LEGIT......
ReplyDeleteAnd don't forget crew that Russia recieved a bunch of german rocket scientist after WW2 also.....
On our counter piracy deployment in 2011, we chased a red light thought to be an emergency flare 30nM out from us in the Indian Ocean, after 10 mins of travel in the bearing of the "flare" we noticed it had not fallen, or burned out and was maintaining its distance from us, after we attempted to get a fix on it from the SPS-49 air RADAR all of our displays went crazy, leaving spider webbing traces on the SPA-25 electron tube Radar Repeaters and the more advanced digital repeaters did the same, we found our Receive side of the RADARs T/R card completely blown out as if full radiation was pumped into it, as an Electronics Technician i repaired the equipment and saw the extent of the damage first hand completely destroyed MOSFETs and shattered Capacitors across the entire board. In addition the red light on the horizon disappeared shortly after. 2 weeks later when in port at Karachi, Pakistan myself and 2 of the IT men were out late on the smoke deck and saw 2 red lights hanging in the sky for about 30 seconds before they took off east-ward faster than i have ever seen anything travel in my life. Then a final incident 1 week after where I had been standing gun mount watch and was staring through my night scope at the stars and spotted a mass amongst the stars that was blocking my view when I looked with my eyes at the spot I saw a red light in the sky this time my body felt completely numb as if it had fallen asleep and I fell onto my back wanging my head pretty badly apparently, I woke up in our ships med bay and was told I had a concussion. when i tried talking about the lights in the sky they dismissed it- however I was alone on watch for 5 hours, the incident occurred only 2 into my shift and was informed my watch relief found me with my head bleeding unconscious on the O2 level at normal relief time.
ReplyDelete3 hours of unaccounted for time in between sighting and someone finding me.
but that's my military UFO story
From the very top to the 4th picture those are 2 TR-3Bs
ReplyDeleteThey aren't. The formation assumed this shape while in flight. Bright points came from different directions to this triangular pattern. Watch the whole video.
Deleteboa descoberta mas os russos nao deram a explicação o que seria o real motivo pelo sobrevoo na area da queda do ufo....
ReplyDelete