real or imagined

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Kanook – Tlingit Nation

June 20th, 2010

Since man first chiseled out a picture on a rock our civilization has been filled with flying

objects, or other items that were not easily identified by the inhabitants of the day. We find

references in the rock art of North Africa, the Middle East and in a sense all over this Blue

Marble. Records are noted in books of antiquity such as “The Nuremberg Chronicle” published

in 1493 and even in the Torah and consequently in the Christian Bible, that speak to unexplained

events by the participants. To attempt to note all of these records in one publication would take

the devotion of an individual or individuals more time than I’m willing to spend – in lieu of that I

will began with the late 1940s and walk forward to today – June 20th

, 2010, highlighting a few of

them – maybe enough maybe to pull you past your mindset of disbelief or reinforce your

skepticism in Unidentified Flying Objects.

Some of you might have heard the term “Foo Fighters”, but I sort of doubt it – not that you’re

not an educated person, but that they showed up during one of the greatest wars ever to roll across

the planet back in the late 1930s and the first half of the 1940s, World War II or WWII.

While man committed atrocities against each other on the ground, aircraft came into their own

in the skies dropping massive bombs on each other up until the United States of America finally

dropped two very destructive nuclear weapons on the Islands of Japan – killing and maiminghundreds of thousands to bring the war in the Pacific to a bloody end. Mixed in amongst all this

death and destruction some pilot’s encountered objects in the sky that defied explanation, the

pilots soon labeled these strange objects, “Foo Fighters”.

Imagine, that you’re an pilot flying his bomber up around 10,000 feet on your way to drop your

payload on the enemy – in the back of your mind you know the enemy fighter planes are out there

waiting for you. Somewhere in the early morning black sky you know death might be a moments

away, you scan the black sky hoping that you see the enemy before he sees you. Suddenly you

see two large orange glowing balls approaching the plane - your radio operator shouts over theship intercom that he too sees the approaching orange balls. You notice that they do not resemble

any fighter planes, but neither do they look like anything you’d ever seen before.

The balls suddenly level off and follow your bomber. You try and lose them using evasive

maneuvers taught to you in flight school – pounded into you by your instructors. Putting the

plane into a steep dive the objects stay glued to your tail, you then jerk the yolk to the left



committing the lumbering bomber to a sharp bank – the objects are still glued to you tail, for

several minutes more you attempt every trick you know and them some you don’t. All the while

the bright orange balls duplicate every move you execute – no luck they hang to your tail like a

tail on a cat. Just when you have accepted the fact that they will be with you forever, blink,

they’re gone, shooting off into the dark sky and all the while not a single shot was fired. You’ve

just experienced what countless pilots in WWII did on some of their missions – you’ve seen your

first “Foo Fighter”.

Toward the end of WWII pilots began reporting seeing strange glowing balls flying around

their aircraft at night, in all cases the “objects” maneuvered with great speed and the Allies began

to worry that the German’s had developed a new weapon with outstanding capabilities. The

name “foo fighters” were named after a popular comic strip at the time, Smoky Stover. It seems

Smoky would utter from time –to- time “Where there’s foo there’s fire” and the objects seem to

be fiery, rounded shapes.

One documented encounter was had by Major William D Leet and his crew on a “lone wolf”

bombing mission in a Boeing B-17 “Flying

Fortress” were kept company by a small disc all

the way from Klagenfurt, Austria to the Adriatic

Sea on Nov 24th, 1944 – before they had dropped

their bombs they had experienced a bright

blinding flash lasting approximately 2-3 seconds

and felt a sensation of heat. Leet and his crew

figured if the flash was German searchlights, the light would have stayed with their bomber, it did

not so they continued on and dropped their payload and headed back to the base at Amendola,

Italy. On their return voyage is when the round disk sporting a amber light appeared of the left

wing, showing a perfectly circular outline and paced alongside the bomber for about 45-minutes

before abruptly vanishing. The B-17 fully loaded had an average cruise speed of 182 mph, a slow

rumbling beast that had a strong reputation as a survivor of many battles, bringing its crews home

time after time with no injuries.

During his debriefing by the base intelligence crew Leet was informed that there were no

searchlights known at Klagenfurt – the intelligence officer suggested that the amber disc was a

new German fighter or remote control device radioing position information to anti-aircraft

batteries – Leet replied that the object did not fire on them, nor had they encountered any flak.

Numerous encounters across the world were reported, but in all instances none of the objects

ever seemed to take any aggressive action – in this observation the belief that one’s enemy had a



new weapon soon vanished from the warring factions. Documents and testimony after the war

showed that in Europe the German pilots had experience the same situations and they too feared

that the Allies had a new secret weapon.

A sighting made the record books of an encounter in the Indian Ocean in Sept-1941, whereas a

Polish merchant vessel the S.S. Pulaski that was transporting British troops, came the account of a

seaman “Mar Doroba” taking a smoke break on deck on night saw “a strange globe glowing with

greenish light, about half the size of the full moon as it appears to us.” He called out to one of the

English gunners and the two of them watched the strange light, which they estimated to be at

approximately 4,000 to 5,000 feet – for another hour until it finally just blinked off.

On February 28th, 1942 – just prior to its participation in the Battle of the Java Sea, the USS

Houston’s crew reportedly saw a large number of strange, unexplained yellow flares and lights

which illuminated the sea for miles around.

A US Marine, Stephen J Bicker reported a sighting in the Solomon Islands in 1942, whereas

following an air raid warning he and others witnessed about 150-objects grouped in line of 10 or

12 objects each. The seemed to “wobble” as they moved and he also said they resembled

polished silver and moved a little faster than the common Japanese aircraft. In his statement he

said, “All-in-All, it was the most awe-inspiring and yet frightening spectacle I have seen in my

life.”

On Aug 10th, 1944 Capt Alvah M Reida piloting his B-

29 on a bombing mission over Sumatra in completing his

bombing run and making his way back to base he and his

crew witnessed an orange spherical object with a halo

effect that paced off the starboard wing, following his

instincts and taking evasive action he was unable to shake

his observer. For 8-minutes the crew of the B-29 observed their un-invited visitor then “it made

an abrupt 90 degree turn, up and accelerating rapidly.”

On Jan 15th, 1945, Time magazine published an article named “Foo Fighter” which stated, “If it

was not a hoax or an optical illusion, it was certainly the most puzzling secret weapon that Allied

fighters have yet encountered. Last week US night fighter pilots based in France told a strange

story of balls of fire which for more than a month have been following their planes at night over

Germany. No one seemed to know what, if anything, the fireballs were supposed to accomplish.

Pilots, guessing it was a new psychological weapon, named it the ‘foo fighter’…Their

descriptions of the apparition varied, but they agree that the mysterious flares stuck close to their

planes and appeared to follow them at high-speed for miles. One pilot said that a ‘foo-fighter’,



appearing as red balls off his wing tips, stuck with him until he dove at 360mph; then the balls

zoomed up into the sky.”

The infamous “Robertson Panel” cited “foo fighters” in their report, albeit publishing

conclusions that forever changed the face of UFO investigations, in their attempt to shift the

public’s focus of the phenomenon from one of mystery to ridicule – in their report they noted that

many “foo fighters” were described as metallic and disc shaped, and lightly suggested that if the

term “flying saucers” had been popular in 1943-1945 they would have been labeled as such. It

should be mentioned that the Robertson Panel was very careful not to label the veterans of WWII

as crazy mixed up individuals who were too addicted to Lucky Strike and Camel cigarettes.

Noted in the Project Grudge files (now on microfilm in the National Archives) labeled Report

No 4, “On the night of Jan 29 th, 1952, 30-miles WSW of Wonson, Korea, three members of a B-

29 crew…observed a light orange colored sphere for a period of 5-minutes. The object was on a

parallel course to the B-29 at 8 o’clock level. The color of the object was further described as

being the color of the sun with an occasional bluish tint. The outer edge of the object appeared to

be fuzzy and it seemed to have an internal churning movement like flames or fiery gases. The

object closed in on the B-29 to an undetermined distance, and then faded away into the distance.”

The bomber was flying at 22,500 feet with clear and visibility unlimited at 2300 hours local

time, at 2324 hours, another B-29 crew observed an identical object near Sunchon.

On the market today is a book titled, “Strange Company: Military Encounters with UFOs in

WWII”, I have not had the opportunity to read it but from the reviews I understand it has some

released past Top Secret British and US documents and is well worth reading, if you’re interested

in such topics.

And then there was the legendary “Battle of Los Angeles” on February 25 th, 1942, a battle that

when the smoke had cleared the United States government attributed to once again, you guessed

it – weather balloons, with all the weather balloons blamed for UFO sighting, our country must

have mountains of weather data stockpiled away somewhere, and even with this our

meteorologists never seem to know if it was going to rain water or bombs.

On the night of Feb 24th/25th, 1942 unidentified objects flashing across our militaries radar

screens created a succession of alerts in southern California. During the evening of the 24th

the

US Navy intelligence guys indicated that an attack could be expected within the next ten-hours.

Most of the sailor being tried and true water jockey’s headed for the nearest pub for a bracer of

two, you know to improve their ability to shoot down the incoming threat…the officers adjourned

to the Brown Derby for an evening of relaxation and entertainment – Joey Brown was on the list

for yukking it up with the troops.



The other guys stuck on duty, setup and lit up their 2,000 watt search lights scattered around the

local defense plants, in hopes they had illuminated their respective targets sufficiently, sat back

and polished their hardware listening to Roy and Dale Rogers belting out a tune from somewhere

in the desert.

At 7:18 PM Pacific Time an alert was called, but was lifted at 10:23 PM for lack of

participation by the incoming bad guys – but hold on, in the early morning of the 25 th a couple of

operators, some say in their cups, called in an unidentified target some 120 miles west of LA.

Antiaircraft batteries were put on “green” alert at 2:15 AM, in other words they were primed,

loaded and ready to fire. The Army Air Force kept their planes on the ground, whereas they

calculated that knowing the previous night the gunners were downtown hitting the local pubs they

had as good of chance as being shot down as did the enemy – their official reason was they

wanted to make sure of the strength of the “attack” and the incoming “direction” before they sent

their highly qualified pilots into the night sky. Good thing!

At 2:21 AM, more radars tracked the approaching target to within a few miles of the coast, the

guy in charge order a “blackout”, a few Navy guys took an extra slug from their bottles and did

just that.

Shortly thereafter the command center was flooded with reports of “enemy airplanes”, albeit

the mysterious object tracked from miles out of sea seemed to have vanished. At 2:43 AM planes

were reported at Long Beach, and a few minutes later a coast artillery colonel reported he’d

spotted “about 25-planes at 12,000 feet” over LA. At 3:06 AM a balloon carrying a “red flare”

was seen over Santa Monica – whereas all hell broke loose as four batteries of antiaircraft

artillery open fired, which caused the air over “Los Angeles to erupt like a volcano.” Much of the

confusion, (it was later said) was that the antiaircraft shells (flak) as they burst were caught in the

beams of the countless search lights and mistaken for enemy planes.

You have to wonder, here we are smack dab in the middle of the film capital of the world, with

some of the purported experts in film…and all that is available today is a couple of grainy out of

focus snap shots of the subsequently bombardment of the region. One can only imagine that the

film experts located a little NW of downtown LA were either at another one of their famous

parties or hiding under their girlfriend or boyfriends table, or in a closet. Regardless the industry

that cranks out picture after picture of War Action fails miserably when it came to documenting

the destruction of their playground – the beautiful, wondrous, full of fun and fantasy southern

California. The first of many failures to plague to State of Dreams down until the modern day.

Well let me tell you, the next few hours was like a modern day “rush hour” gone sideways,

there were more imaginative reporting of “swarms” of planes, sometimes balloons, of all possible



sizes and shapes, with numbers running from one to several hundred, traveling at altitudes which

ranged from a few thousand feet to more than 20,000 and flying at speeds from “very slow” to

over 200 mph – the skies over LA were alive.

The “mysterious” objects dropped no bombs nor attacked any Hollywood moguls pleasure

palace, yet the people of southern California had a majestic defending force that fired over 1,400

rounds of anti-aircraft projectiles, albeit there were reports of four-airplanes being shot down,

they turned out to be false albeit one was reported to have landed at a Hollywood intersection –

so it might not have all been false but a typical government cover up of a few Hollywood moguls

attempting to flee the action with few of their babes.

Residents who lived in a 40-mile arc along the coast and to the east in the mountains climbed

onto their rooftops and watched the greatest show on earth unfold in front of their liquor heavy

eyeballs, some later send letters to the mayor of LA thanking him for the wonderful fireworks

show. Some said “if this is what war is like, not so bad!”

When the sun peaked over the Santa Ana’s the city was a pile of expended shell casings, one

person died of a heart attack, and there were numerous traffic accidents in the blacked-out city

streets – and no enemy planes to be found.



The US Navy had no explanation for the events, albeit from the beginning of the investigation

they said that there “was no enemy planes”, and during the next day Secretary of the Navy Frank

Knox said the raid was a “false alarm”. But in saying so he remarked, with force and a grim face,

that attacks were always possible and indicated that vital industries pack their bags and move

further inland – whereas the Army had a hard time making up their fuzzy minds on what had

caused the alert.

The Western Defense Command shortly after the “raid” had ended indicated that the

“credibility” of the reports of an attack had begun to be discredited before the blackout was lifted,

they conclude their initial report that developments would prove, “that most previous reports had

been greatly exaggerated.”

The 4th Air Force had indicated its belief that there were NO planes over LA, but the Army did

not publish these initial conclusions, instead it waited a day until after a thorough examination of

witnesses had been finished – mainly Hollywood moguls who were hiding under their desks and

in between props in the Mickey Mouse movie set. On the basis of these interviews, local

commanders altered their verdicts and indicated a “belief” that from one to five unidentified

airplanes had been over LA.

Secretary Stimson of the War Department advanced two theories to account for the mayhem

caused by the mysterious craft that wonderful and exciting night in LA.

1) There were commercial planes operated by an enemy from “secret” field in California or

Mexico, or

2) They were light planes launched from Japanese submarines

Whereas in either case, the enemy’s purpose must have been to locate the anti-aircraft

installations in the area, and to deliver a blow at civilian morale.

The split opinions between the “War” and “Navy” organizations, and the unsatisfying

conjectures advanced by the Army to explain the affair, touch off a vigorous public discussion

whereas the LA Times called for a complete explanation of the “spectacular official

accompaniments” demanded a careful explanation. Fears surfaced that supposedly affected the

civilian volunteers in the aircraft early warning service, whereas it seemed the “phony raids” open

the avenues of complete disarray and confusion within the volunteer’s ranks.

Representative Leland Merritt Ford of the California's 16th congressional district, (Santa

Clara/San Jose) wanted to know whether the incident was a “practice raid, or a raid to throw a

scare into 2-million plus civilians in the area, or a mistaken identity raid, or a raid to take away

Southern California’s war industries.”



No matter all the rhetoric that followed the incident in the next few weeks one thing did

emerge, our Air Defenses were lacking and our communications systems were not even

laughable, the continental United States was NOT ready for War.

One of the most famous war correspondents in WWII witnesses the Battle of LA, Ernie Pyle

who wrote he never say one-plane, yet again a man known for his famous articles and more

famous pictures of the war in the Pacific, never took a picture – might have been he couldn’t

believe his beloved homeland was under attack. There never surfaced a satisfactory explanation

of the mysterious object originally sighted – maybe because it never existed?

Later some with UFO blood running through their systems maintain that according to an

accounting in a MJ-12 document dated on March 5th, 1942 from General Marshall to FDR that

there was a UFO recovered east of LA on that faithful night, and that Rear Admiral Walter S

Anderson wrote, “This Headquarters has come to the determination that the mystery airplanes are

in fact not Earthly and according to secret intelligence sources they are in all probability of

interplanetary origin.” According to this memo, General Marshall supposedly ordered the

formation of a special intelligence unit to investigate the phenomenon called the “Interplanetary

Phenomenon Unit (“IPU”)”.

Two days later, a William Methorst, on watch on the Royal Netherlands Navy cruiser the

Tromp while on duty-station in the Timor Sea which lies between the Island of Timor and the

north coast of western Australia saw a large, aluminum like disc approaching his position at a

terrific speed some 4,000 to 5,000 feet in altitude and reaching his position circled high above the

ship. He reported the craft to the on-deck duty officer and then watched the craft circle around the

ship for the next 3-4 hours after which it sped off into the distance at what he estimated to be

3,000 to 3,500 mph and blinked out of sight. He had noted all of this in his personal diary.

There are no huge stacks of declassified material with reference to “foo-fighters”, of the many

reports released by the US and British archives they are so heavily censored they are almost

impossible to decipher – consider this, that if the reports were dealing with a simple Weather

Plasma, these released documents would not have required the numerous and detailed deletions,

to which they have been subjected to. Keep in mind that a “deletion” in an official document is

sometimes made to protect the issuing authority, it may include an agent’s name, in that there

may have been something underhanded done, or that it may contain a description of a weapon

that the establishment does not wish the public to have.

The British and U.S. authorities did agree in their published summaries regarding the “foo-

fighter” phenomenon that the objects were “invulnerable” – there never was a method found to

shoot them down or outrun them – if someone knew of a method or way to do so it was never



done. One question surfaced time –and- time again, when a “foo-fighter” was fired on with an

accuracy that allowed for a positive hit, where did the bullets go? Did they seem to go straight

through the object, or were they rebounded or deflected by some kind of force field?

Some facts such as we think we know are denied to the general public in some cases by the

authorities whose job, they say, is to protect the general public – thereby the phenomenon of the

“foo-fighters” will more than likely remain a huge aeronautical mystery.

Before the end of WWII in the Pacific around mid-July 1945 an incident occurred in Eastern

Washington concerning the Hanford Nuclear Plant at Hanford, Washington, one that was related

in a book “Living on the Edge” written by Bryron D Varner and Rolan D Powell that told of his

experience along with a group of his fellow aviators in eastern Washington.

USN Pilot Rolan D Powell had just returned to active duty after surviving the attack on the 2 nd

USS Yorktown or the “Fighting Lady”, he and 12 other survivors of Air Group III had been

reassigned to the Naval Air Station in Pasco, Washington – which is just across the Columbia

River from Hanford at some 60-miles.

His assignment at Pasco was to train greenhorn (untested in battle) Navy pilots, a task that

required daily flights practicing air tactics, maneuver, bombing, strafing, dog fighting, gunnery

and other tools of the trade for combat in the air in the F6F Grumman carrier plane. The training

squadron other responsibility was to protect the

Hanford Nuclear facility, albeit at the time the

veteran pilots have no idea what Hanford was all

about, they, like all military personnel follow

orders.

Around noon on a clear sky day, with no planes

in the air the bull horn at the base screams out a

General Quarters and the pilots scramble to the “ready room” to receive their orders, they are

ordered to their aircraft immediately, each only carrying a message between their ears that radar

has picked up a fast-moving object that is now in a holding pattern over the Hanford facility.

Airborne and scooting along at 380mph they are soon in position, looking up through their

canopy’s they eventually all see it and climb towards its position, none recognize it, but they all

can see it outlined in the clear sky – it has a saucer-like appearance, it is bright, extremely fast,

and very high.

The F6F has an official service ceiling of 37,300 feet, today they will exceed that official

altitude and will still never get close to the object.



“What the hell is that?” one pilot yells over the radio.

“Nothing I’ve ever seen before.” Answers another

Roland calls the base to report the situation, they tell him to go higher.

“If we go much higher we can ruin these engines.”

“Blow the engines if you have to, but use full military power, full throttle injection, maximum,

continuous. Go for it!”

Roland wonders what the pilots will do when their engines quit and the tower operators tells

them to “glide back towards the airport and hope you make it.”

Even with the emergency military settings, the F6F cannot get close enough to determine the

exact nature of this object – in the meantime as their 3-blade Hamilton Standard propellers pull

them higher and higher with the 2,000 hp Pratt & Whitney R-2800s screaming for air, the object

doesn’t make any overt moves, gives no signals, it just hovers there as if observing, staying well

out of reach. When some of the engines began to sputter and hack and their fuel consumption

gets critical the planes return one-by-one to the base, and the strange craft disappears of the radar

scopes just as quickly as it had appeared, it never came back. Later all the pilots would comment

on the ability of the craft just to sit there, as it was just enjoying the day and the clear weather.

Walt Andrus later interviewed Rolan Powell at his home in Round Rock, Texas.

The six F6F “Hellcats” made visual contact with the object described by Rolan, it was about the

size of three aircraft carriers side-by-side, oval shaped, very streamlined like a stretched-out egg

and pinkish in color. He said that there was some kind of vapor being emitted around the edges

from portholes or vents – he speculated that the vapor might have been discharged to form a

cloud for disguise. Based on the altitude they finally reached and the clear sky he estimated the

objects height at 65,000 feet (12.3 miles), Roland and his fellow pilots had pushed their F6Fs to

42,000 feet before they began acting up, after hovering in a “fixed” position above the Hanford

Nuclear Reactor for another 20-minutes the object disappeared going straight up as the six

Hellcats limped back to Pasco Naval Air Station.

It is important to know that the Hanford Engineering Works Plant (Richland, WA) was actually

a large “plutonium –production” facility constructed adjacent to the Columbia River that

eventually produce the material our country dropped on Hiroshima on August 6th

, 1945 and on

Nagasaki on August 9th, 1945 thereby ending the war in the Pacific on August 14th, 1945.

Compare the preceding to the “cluster-hump” that happened in 1942 in LA – now you can

understand why the brass in the Pentagon were very reluctant to acknowledge the presence of an

extraterrestrial race cruising at will around the globe. The communications system broke, the

civilized people of Southern California ran around screaming, dying of heart attacks and in



general just being Californians. It is no wonder that the Robertson Panel recommended

“debunking” instead of any serious investigation of what was happening in our skies.

During the summer of 1945 while sailing back to Seattle, several crewmen on the US Army

Transport “Delarof ”, which had been used

to evacuate the indigenous population

after the Japs bombed Dutch Harbor, to

Southeast Alaska. Richard S Crawford,

once a consulting geologist with the

Indiana Soil Testing Laboratory at

Griffith, Indiana was interviewed by Dr

James E McDonald a scientist at the

University of Arizona, working under a

grant in 1967 to investigate numerous

UFO reports.

At the time of the “incident” Crawford was one of the radiomen on the ship, which at the time

was in open sea just past Adak. It was close to sunset, and Crawford was on the port side near the

radio room. He heard shouts from some of the crew, he turned and saw a large round object

which had just emerged from the sea – where later he was told several crewmen had seen the

object as it emerged from beneath the waves, estimated to be around 1-mile from the ship.

The unknown craft, silhouetted by the sun, climbed almost straight up for a few moments, than

it arced into level flight, and began to circle the Delarof – all who witnessed the event said the

object was very large – whereas Crawford comparing it with the width of a finger held at arm’s

length gave an estimate of 150 to 250 feet in diameter.

As the craft circled the ship it was in range of the ships guns, but the gun crews who were now

on station held their fire, keyed to any sign of hostility – none was forthcoming. The craft circled

the ship two or three times, moving smoothly and quietly – again all witnesses felt that it was

self-propelled, other wise the strong winds would have visibly affected its movements. After

several minutes, the flying object disappeared to the south or south-southwest – as it zipped from

sight the viewing crew saw three bright flashes of light from the area where it had vanished.

Needless to say the Captain posted extra men on watch, nothing was seen for the rest of the

time there were in the area – on arrival in Seattle 14-crewmen signed affidavits swearing to their

observations.



Unfortunately, unlike today not everyone in the 1940s carried around a pocket camera, with

maybe onboard a ships photographer – and on an ordinary troop carrier I doubt if they had one,

and also security regulations prohibited picture taking during war time – oh well!

Stephen A. Pratt on Dec 8 th, 1984 interviewed a seaman (D.P.) from the U.S.S. New York who

told a tale of when the majority of the crew witnessed an unidentified object.

In mid-March-1945 was in the South Pacific in the vicinity of the Admiralty Islands, whereas

the ship had just spent 3-weeks in port making repairs in had received during the battle of Iwo

Jima – at the time it had two destroyer escorts sailing with it and were on their way back to

Okinawa which she reached on March 27th, 1945 and took part in 76 consecutive days of action.

One early afternoon around 1:00 PM, the ship was called to General Quarters, every soul on

board ran to their stations thinking that maybe they were in for a Japanese kamikaze attack, in

short order everyone was at their stations guns manned and ready. Cpl D.P. at the time was a

gunner on one of the ship’s 40mm gun mounts. All hands waited at their battle stations their eyes

sweeping the sky looking for something to let loose at – their eyes took in the clear sky and not

an object in sight.

Inside the ship, a single distinct blip had appeared from no where and was being tracked by the

ship’s radar, after a few seconds the blip became visible, almost directly over the U.S.S. New

York – there it hovered, motionless.

By this time, the ship’s captain, Capt K.C. Christian, was out on deck looking at the object with

his binoculars – it wasn’t too long after this that the ship’s complement, all 2,000 plus of them

joined him looking at the hovering object – some through binoculars or with the naked eye. It

was described as being silver in color and very shiny, it was much larger than what the brightest

star would be, but smaller than a full moon. There was no noise that anyone could detect, and it

did not change color, split up, or perform any erratic or complicated maneuvers, but remained

above the ship, matching speed and course with the ship.

After about a half-an-hour had passed, Capt Christian and many members of the crew were

getting a bit nervous – asking themselves if it was a Japanese trick or some new kind of Weapon?

Capt Christian didn’t know and wasn’t going to take any chances, he ordered two of the ship’s 3-

inch anti-aircraft mounts to open fire. For the next half-hour the 3-inch guns hammered away at

the object…but to no avail. It was figured to be out-of-range because the shells did not seem to

be reaching it – it was later determined that the object was at 20,000 feet (3.78 miles).

Captain Christian finally ordered the guns to cease fire, the object remained above the ship for a

few more seconds, then climbed up at a fantastic rate of speed and off the radar scope – lips

flapped and everyone on board said they had never seen anything like it.



D.P. said after a few hours General Quarter’s was cancelled and the ship slowly went back to

its normal operating procedures – but for day the talk of the ship was the silvery object their guns

couldn’t touch.

Yet another story dug from the annals of strange phenomenon our race has experience in the

last 60+ years, keep in mind that up until Kenneth Arnold most of the known world knew little

about UFOs, whereas the media was not as connected as it is today and in some circles the “foo

fighters”, strange objects in the sky and flying formations of lights were the stuff of the Saturday

matinee, Buck Rodgers and the like. Besides during the early 40s there was a pretty good sized

war going on, and people were a little worried to sit on their back porch at night in a blacked-out

city or town looking into the night sky looking for a strange object.

On May 18th, 1946 outside of Angelholm, Sweden,

28-year-old Gosta Carlsson encountered some

creatures from another world, and their disc shaped

craft. She reported there were 11 beings with

transparent helmets and uniform-type clothing doing

something to their craft – she later saw the craft take

off and speed away leaving burnet grass and other

trace marks. In a glade today you’ll find a unique concrete monument in memory of the strange

encounter.

On August 14th, 1946, a Ltd “I”, who wished to remain anonymous in documents released to

the pubic, witnessed a flying missile, whereas as the pilot on a navigational training flight saw the

phenomenon at 8:18 AM at an altitude of 328 feet on route F1, between the Swedish Air base at

Vasteras to Malingsbo, some 11.18 miles south of Skinnskatteberg. Sergeant “M” was the

signalman and observer. On the route, they noticed after about 2-minutes, an aircraft-shaped

object, of the port front of their craft, at about 60 degrees, on a south-easterly course slightly over

the horizon.

They estimated the altitude “over-terrain” of the object to be about 820 feet, their own altitude

was 656 feet, they estimated the distance of the object to be at least 1.24 miles, with good weather

conditions with some clouds at ½ mile off the ground, scattered at 6-8/10, and overall visibility at

19 –to- 25 miles.

With the latest newspaper reports, regarding over-flight’s of Swedish territory by the preceding

objects wandering around in his head, the pilot was immediately suspicious – and in his looking

at the object could not identify it as any Swedish craft. He made up his mind to attempt to

overtake the craft, after about 10-seconds, he looked down at his instrument panel to engage the



SAAB B-18 maximum cruising speed, which for his aircraft was 357 mph for the twin Daimler-

Benze B 605 (1,475 hp each) inverted-vee piston engines, when he looked up the object had

vanished.

Suspecting that the object had disappeared under the horizon the pilot reduced his altitude –

whereas it appeared that both the object and SAAB B-18 had come over a relatively low

countryside, and they had both reduced the cruising altitude – both maintaining a constant altitudeabove ground.

After about 20-seconds the 2nd seat observer located the object, it was about 30 degrees to the

starboard, immediately the pilot made a starboard bank ending up on a parallel course, and again

switched his power plants to achieve maximum speed. The shortest distance between the SAAB

B-18 and the object the pilot was able to achieve was about 0.62 miles whereas the pilot

estimated the objects speed at 370 to 430 mph – in about 2-minutes the object vanished in a

south-easterly direction.

Directly in-front of the fleeing object was a storm system with heavy rain at an altitude of 330

t0 985 feet, which it disappeared into.

The two-man crew agreed that the

1) Object kept a constant cruising altitude of 800 feet, therefore it followed the topography of

the ground

2) Its speed was considerably higher than the speed of the SAAB

a. Object 372 to 435 mph

b. Saab at 237 mph

3) Appearance of the object, reminded the crew to the fuselage of the B-18

a. No wings

b. No rudder or protruding parts

c. Color – Dark

d. Estimate length 50 feet

e. Cross section about 3.28 feet



f. Shaped like a cigar

On August 11th, 3-day preceding the event, a mass sighting was reported as a similar object

passing over Vasteras at around 8:48 PM, in addition reports came in from many locations in the

south of Sweden detailing the same sighting.

Aug 22nd, 1946 another interview occurred within the same base, this again another

navigational training flight – division of the Uppsala wing of the Swedish Air Force, the reporting

official’s goal was to compare the data obtained from the single flight of the SAAB B-18 two-

man crew on the 14th. Whereas it was noted that the Swedish Air Force was planning to have a

group of planes on “alert status”, ready to pursue after the “ghost” rocket if it appeared again.

At the meeting were 7 pilots from the F16 route, two were absent due to another assignment,

Lieutenant I and Sergeant M.

On Aug 14th, nine planes from F16 carried out navigation training flights on the triangular route

F16 – point 156 West of Norberg – Floda Church (Sodermanland) and back to F16.

The start of the flight began at 09:40 AM with takeoffs spaced at 5-minute intervals, to cruise at

a minimum altitude of 328 feet, and a maximum altitude of 984 feet at a speed of 260 to 264

mph, whereas the estimated flying time of 15 minutes had been kept by all aircraft with the larges

divergence being 1-minute.

After turning point 156 NO plane had essentially been to the west of line from 156 to the

church of Floda – after passing point 156 the course was 165 degrees.

Lt I made an observation at 10:02 – 10:04 AM, 4.3 miles northeast of the Malingsbo church,

the object at approximately 139 degrees. Whereas the only plane from F16, according to the

noted time schedule that could have been at the point of observation at 10:02/10:04, would have

been the one which took off at 09:45 AM, but the pilot insists the he never flew west of a line

between point 156 and the Floda church, choosing to fly east of the line due to better checkpoints

on the ground – the course of direction for the Lt I observation was Floda church 157 degrees.

None of the J-26 (Mustangs) pilots had observed any SAAB B-18 or any other flying objects,

whereas Lt I states the he first observe the object at 60 degrees to the port, his own course being

245 degrees, and his speed at 236 mph and at an approximate distance from the object at 1.86

miles – if it had been a J-26 with a speed of 264 mph the B-18 pilot would have been the first to

reach the point of intersection. He lost it out-of-sight and it was then rediscovered at 45 degrees

to the starboard in front of him at a distance of 1.24 miles, whereas the speed of the object must

have been at least 497 mph.

Because of the short distance, and the excellent visibility, Lt I and Sgt M maintain that the

object observed could NOT have been confused with a J-26 or any other conventional aircraft:



One summary of the incident relates that the object seen by I and M could have been a plane J-

26 from F16 with regard to

1) Time of Observation

2) Cruising Altitude

3) Changes of Altitude with respect to the ground

4) Estimated length of the fuselage

The other conclusion reached was it could not was based on

1) the line-of-flight the J 26 was about 9.32 miles to the east of the point of observation

2) the course

3) the cruising speed

4) General appearance of the object

5) The fact that NO J-26 pilot saw a B-18

The investigating officer Eric Malmberg conclude that he did not consider it as probable that

the object observed was a J-26 or any other Swedish aircraft, this conclusion filed on August 23rd,

1946.

The primary reason I’ve included this narrative, seemingly obscure the records of UFO

sighting is the detail provided by an organization outside of the United States of American, along

with an obvious dedication to their analysis of the incident. It becomes very evident, real or

imagined that other countries paid attention to such occurrences and spent a conscious amount of

time investigating reports from their population, naturally it doesn’t hurt that the personnel

reporting this incident were all professional observes being trained navigators understanding the

concept of all the physical aspects of piloting a plane with reference to estimating distance and

plotting the degrees of their observations.

On July 10th, 1947 a letter was published in the San Rafael Independent that was submitted by

Don Wisher and Vic Levin (residents of San Anselmo, CA) that related that they had been surf

fishing during their summer vacation at Fort Bragg (up the coast from Point Reyes) and that on

July 8th, 1947 around 3:10 PM they had witnessed a flat, glistening object approach them from the

ocean – unable to estimate its height as it was dropping rapidly and finally hit the water,

approximately a ¼ mile off-shore.

The enormity of the splash led them to believe that it was a heavy object, one that was traveling

at a high-rate of speed and that just before it hit the water they heard a humming sound. If floated

for a few minutes, and then they lost sight of it, assuming it had sank – they said it was about the

size of a large truck tire, but at the ¼ mile distance could not confirm whether or not it was

perfectly round.



Early Sept 20th, 1947 the USCG at San Diego were informed that a flaming object had fallen

into the sea off the coast, checking with local airports showed that no plane had been reported

missing, and the Griffith Park Observatory did NOT think it was any sort of meteor – over

Toronto on the same day two people had photographed an object like a yellow ball with a trail of

streamers – the photos showed an oval white spot trailing two milky lights…normally this would

have been accepted as a meteor, however witnesses on site witnessed the object performing some

maneuvers – this of course did not make the USCG to happy.

More and more reports were bombarding the military concerning this mysterious phenomenon

so much so that it eventually caused a general alert at the higher-command levels in Washington

D.C. which issued orders to make every “effort should be made to trail these mysterious

phenomena.”

Thor Heyerdahl wrote of an interesting series of encounters in his book Kon Tiki that took

place between April 28th and August 7th, 1947:

Several times, when the sea was calm, the black water round the raft was suddenly full of

round heads two or three feet in diameter, lying motionless and staring at us with great

glowing eyes. On other nights balls of light three feet and more in diameter would be visible

down in the water, flashing at irregular intervals like electric lights turned on for a moment.

We gradually grew accustomed to having these subterranean or submarine creatures under

the floor, but nevertheless we were just as surprised every time a new species appeared.

About two o'clock on a cloudy night, when the man at the helm had difficulty in distinguishing

black water from black sky, he caught sight of a faint illumination down in the water which

slowly took the shape of a large animal. It was impossible to say whether it was plankton

shining on its body or whether the animal itself had a phosphorescent surface, but the glimmer

down in the black water gave the ghostly creature obscure, wavering outlines. Sometimes it was

roundish, sometimes oval, or triangular, and suddenly it split into two parts which swam to and

fro under the raft independently of each other. Finally there were three of these large shining

phantoms wandering round in slow circles under us.

They were real monsters, for the visible parts alone were some five fathoms long, and we all

quickly collected on deck and followed the ghost dance. It went on for hour after hour, following

the course of the raft. Mysterious and noiseless, our shining companions kept a good way beneaththe surface, mostly on the starboard side where the light was, but often they were right under the

raft or appeared on the port side. The glimmer of light on their backs revealed that the beasts were

bigger than elephants, but they were not whales, for they never came up to breathe. Were they

giant ray fish which changed shape when they turned over on their sides? They took no notice at

all if we held the light right down on the surface to lure them up so that we might see what kind



of creatures they were. And, like all proper goblins and ghosts, they had sunk into the depths

when the dawn began to break.

We never got a proper explanation of this nocturnal visit from the three shining monsters,

unless the solution was afforded by another visit we received a day and a half later in the full

midday sunshine. It was May 24, and we were lying drifting on a leisurely swell in exactly

95°west by 7° south.

We saw the shine of phosphorescent eyes drifting on the surface on dark nights, and on one

single occasion, we saw the sea boil and bubble while something like a big wheel came up and

rotated in the air, while some of our dolphins tried to escape by hurling themselves desperately

through space.

On several occasions we glided past a large dark mass, the size of the floor of a room, that lay

motionless under the surface of the water like a hidden reef. It was presumably the giant ray of

evil repute, but it never moved, and we never went close enough to make out its shape clearly.

Another account surfaced about large undersea objects being tracked or plotted by professionals

in the year of 1947 – the USS Maury after undergoing an extensive conversion at the Portsmouth

Naval Shipyard into a survey ship, emerging from the ship yard in October of 1946. She had a

new silhouette, new electronic survey and sounding equipment, along with a new photographic

lab, print shop and repair shops, and a helipad added to her superstructure, the USS Maury

AGS16 was a well equipped hydrographic survey ship.

On Jan 6th, 1947 she sailed for the Pacific and her first hydrographic mission, to survey and

chart the waters in and around Truk and Kwajalein Islands.

On Dec 27th, 2007 a man send an e-mail to Mr. C. Feindt:



The USS Maury was a survey ship, on which my father was a crewman in 1946 and 1947. I

heard you on a podcast and visited your website, as I have always been interested in underwater

objects and have seen a few things on the Discovery and History Channels.

My father, who passed away a couple of years ago, was an extremely truthful and religious

person, and I have no reason to doubt the account he told me and my family members about

which happened to him while serving on the USS Maury- in other words if the man ever told a lie

or falsehood his face would fall off! Albeit there is no known documentation of the incident,

other than maybe the ships log, which I’m sure it has long since gone by the wayside.

(http://www.ussmauryags16.org/Photo_Gallery.html)

They had left San Francisco, their homeport at Alameda, for the Truk Island area, during their

outgoing voyage they sounded and charted what they believed to be an underwater mountain top

of a solid object of some sort. It was very large, and being a viable hydrographic ship they made

several passes over the object their sonar scanning the object. Albeit my father was not in the

Sonar Department, if any ship changes its planned course the crew eventually will learn why, for

instance they are sailing over and over again over a certain location, besides my father was from

time-to-time used as the ships helmsman and was the Captain’s on-shore driver – I’m not sure if

he was on the bridge during the survey of the object.

They made several passes over the object, when during one-sweep the object accelerated to a

high-rate of speed and disappeared into the depths and they lost contact. They searched for some

time and never located it again – all on board had no idea what it was, and my father did not

know its size only that it was very big and stationary for a long-period of time, allowing for their

initial sonar mapping. My father said it was large-enough for the ships on-board technical

personnel to investigate the object – which they did. I only recall what my father told me and my

family years ago, I wish I had more information but I don’t.

The ship was sold for scrap in 1970 out of Mare Island in California and I’m sure the ships logs

and whatever survey data it accumulated from the voyage are long gone…too bad.

In my career as an degreed Electrical Engineer Communications having worked in the subsea

fiber-optic industry I know and well understand the professionalism associated with the science

of underwater survey’s, albeit today vs 1947 the equipment has advanced, when the surveyors are

at any time engaged in their science they are as reliable and accurate as any professionally trained

pilot as observers of events and keep accurate records of their findings, like I said too bad!

The next account I ran into is a statement from a couple of Mediterranean fishermen, now I

realize that from time-to-time (most of the time) fishermen tend to spin a yarn or two, and will

http://www.ussmauryags16.org/Photo_Gallery.html

http://www.ussmauryags16.org/Photo_Gallery.html



swear on a cats tail that their story is true, sweat to God and cross their hearts until Hell freezes

over – but there is within this tale a hint of truth, but what the heck here it is.

It was a bright sunny afternoon in the Mediterranean on day in 1947, as fisherman on their boat

some 20-miles south of Malta pulled in their nets, as they pulled the net over the back of their

boat one noticed a black object bobbing in the slight surf a distance (not noted) from their

position. As they watched they being somewhat afraid quickly pulled in their nets and started

their engine, all while watching the neighboring craft. In a few moments a bright light from the

floating object lit up the entire area around it, including them – at this the fishermen noticed, as

they say “little men” who were running around on the surface of the object – the fishermen

couldn’t make out any detail with respect to their physical structure other than that they seemed

as tall as a ten-year-old child – they did notice that strapped around the waist of each was some

sort of apparatus, what it was they had no idea.

After a short time the “little men” entered the object which began to glow so brightly that the

men could no longer see but the outline of the vessel, as they watched it submerge.

As I mentioned before, it has been my experience that fishermen have a difficult time relating

true tales, by-the-way my father was a commercial fisherman in Southeast Alaska and I spent

many hours with him and his buddies recounting what had transpired that day, and I could never

associate what had happened as to what my father was relating – might have been I had a hearing

and visual perception problem.

One day in mid-September, 1949 about 44-miles from Leningrad (now St Petersburg) a

Militiaman Major A Burkov (who was responsible for the area) had run into an old friend from

the war, a former pilot Captain B.I. Surikov and they were strolling along heading towards a café

they both knew. While they talked refreshing their acquaintance, two boys came running up to

them all out of breath and between gasps of oxygen they managed to relate to the two that they

were from the village, and that they had witnessed an unknown craft or flying machine that had

landed on the banks of the River Oredezh. They had never seen such a craft and it had no

identification marks and that two “men” had came out of the craft, both dressed in strange-suits

that resembled “diver’s suits”, they then inserted some type of hose into the river.

Major Burkov attempted to communicate with his command center but his radio failed to raise

anyone, he manage to round up a Sergeant N.N. Nechiporenko and they both drove an American

jeep to the location the boys had described, they were accompanied by Captain Surikov who as a

pilot was familiar with all types of present day Soviet and German aircraft. The distance to the

village as a few miles, and the road was in poor condition and had several deep patches of water

and mud, nevertheless it took the entourage about 20-minutes to drive the distance.



Upon arriving they were met by more than a few agitated, worried villagers who went with the

three men to the location mentioned by the boys. Armed with automatic pistols, both Major

Burkov and Sgt Nechiporenko pistols drawn approached the location where the craft had landed.

There were no men visible near or on the machine when they arrived, but as the boys said a

“shiny metallic hose, the thickness of a human had stretched from the craft into the river.”

The witnessed stood about 165 feet from the craft and its hose, they describe the appearance of

the craft as resembling an inverted aluminum saucer close to the size of an American-made truck.

The craft had neither windows or a hatchway or any identification markings on its surface, it also

lacked wings and a tail unit.

Captain Surikov stated that Russia did not posses such a circular aircraft, but he knew that the

Germans had tested something similar during the war. As they stood there speculating about the

craft the metallic hose started to slowly retract back into the craft, whereas simultaneously a quiet

humming sound was heard, as if an engine was being turned on. The Sgt and the Major both

fired two warning shots in the air, but the humming only increased, and a red-lit ring appeared at

the bottom section of the craft. Soon after the craft began to slowly ascend into the air. The two

men again fired several shots aimed at the craft and seemingly the object wavered for a moment,

then in a split second it literally jumped up, hovered at tree-top level for a couple of seconds, and

then shot away at a very high-speed towards Luga.

At the landing site the three men found a large circle of grass totally dried out and smashed

against the ground, they also notices that the ground was almost warm. Albeit they did not find

any foreign objects they did notice several dead fish floating on the surface of the river, near

where the metallic hose had been inserted. After reporting the events to higher authorities, a

group of military officers arrived from Leningrad and did their investigation.

Although world-wide the year 1949 was relatively quiet in the reporting of strange incidents

there was one incident that was reported to have happened in November of the year that is worth

relating.

On November 14th, 1947 Commander J.R. Bodler, US Navy Reserve (inactive) gave a report

that related the following as a member of the Merchant Marine.

My vessel had passed through the Strait of Hormuz bound for India. The Little Quoin Island

Light was still in sight on the starboard quarter, bearing 305° T, distance 20 miles. The night was

bright and clear, with very good visibility, no moon. The Third Mate called me to the bridge

saying that he had observed something he thought I should see.

About four points on the port bow toward the coast of Iran, there was a luminous band which

seemed to pulsate. Its appearance suggested the aurora borealis but much lower, in fact, on or



below the horizon. Examination with binoculars showed that the luminous area was definitely

below the horizon in the water and drawing nearer to the vessel. With the approach of this

phenomenon, it became apparent that the pulsations seemed to start in the center of the band and

flow outward towards its extremities.

At a distance of about a mile from the ship, it was apparent that the disturbance was roughly

circular in shape, about 1000 to 1500 feet in diameter. The pulsations could now be seen to be

caused by a revolving motion of the entire pattern about a rather ill-defined center with streaks of

light like the beams of search-lights, radiating outward from the center and revolving (in a

counterclockwise direction) like the spokes of a gigantic wheel.

For several minutes the vessel occupied the approximate center of the phenomenon. Slightly

curved bands of light crossed the bow, passed rapidly down the port side from bow to stern, and

up the starboard side from aft forward. The luminosity was sufficient to make portions of the

vessel’s upper works quite visible. The bands of luminance seemed to pass a given point at about

half-second intervals. As may well be imagined, the effect was weird and impressive in the

extreme with the vessel seeming to occupy the center of a huge pinwheel whose "spokes"

consisted of phosphorescent luminance revolving rapidly about the vessel as a hub. (The sketch

on the next page shows, diagrammatically, the effect produced. Arrows indicate direction of

rotation.)

The central "hub" of the phenomenon drew gradually to starboard and passed aft becoming

more and more distant on the starboard quarter. While it was still in sight several miles astern and

appearing by this time as a pulsating band of light, a repetition of the same manifestation

appeared fine on the starboard bow. This was slightly smaller in area than the first and a trifle less

brilliant. Its center passed slowly aft on the starboard side with the pattern of revolving, luminous

"spokes" clearly defined.

It was my impression that the actual illumination was caused by the natural phosphorescence

in the water periodically stimulated by regular waves of energy. The shape of the "pinwheel," the

well-defined "spokes," the revolutions about a center, and the speed with which each band of

light traversed the water all preclude the possibility of this phenomenon being caused by schools

of fish, porpoises, or similar cause.

Approximately half an hour later, a third repetition of this manifestation was observed. The

general characteristics, direction of rotation, etc., were the same as the others, but this one was

much smaller and less brilliant. Its diameter was not over 800 to 1000 feet and, compared to the

other two, was unimpressive. It was first observed much closer to the vessel than had been the



case with the others. Whether this was due to its lesser brilliance or the fact that it came into

being at comparatively close range could not be determined.

At the time of the above, conditions were as follows: Date—14 November, 1949, time 1830

GMT, position 26°-17.5' N, 56°-51' E. Wind NW'ly force 1. Sea calm with slight surface ripples;

no swell. Air 75° (Fahr.), sea 83°. Visibility very good. A clear, bright night with no moon.

Vessel’s course 157° T. Speed through the water 11.6 knots, Actual speed over the bottom

approximately 9 knots due to strong head current. (Very strong streams are encountered in this

area.) At no time were any unusual deviations of the magnetic compass observed.

It is of interest to note that the same, or similar, phenomena have previously been reported in

the Indian Ocean. A book titled Oddities by T. R. Gould, published in England during the past

century, devotes a chapter to reports of similar manifestations. However, the author is as unable

as the present writer to offer an explanation! This volume, unfortunately, is not in the writer's

possession at the present time. The author appears to be a pre-Ripley collector of various odd

occurrences, well authenticated, but never satisfactorily explained.

SKETCH SHOWING AN ODDITY OF

THE SEA

A veteran Merchant Marine Officer, Commander Bodler was Gunnery Officer of the Regulus

(AK-14) and of the Liscome Bay (CVE-56), and in command of the Hemminger (DE-746) and

the Vixen (PG-53) during World War II.

Returning to the Merchant Marine in 1946, he has been Master of the Frank Adair Monroe,

the Charles Tufts, and the Sarah Orne Jewett , and at present is Master of the Seaveteran.

During the summer of 1950, a well known event took place concerning Senior Romeo Ernseto

Suarez who was an unemployed driver in the fire department of Ushuaia the capital of Tierra del

Fuego – being unemployed and a man of adventure he made up his mind to take a long-journey

on foot from his city to Buenos Aires, whereas he did walking almost 2,485 miles in 5-months

and 14-days.



Albeit a majority of Argentine newspapers carried accounts of his journey, including the

various troubles and problems which he overcame, he did not related at the time once experience

he had simply because he did not want to face the ridicule he would incur relating the event.

In 1968 due to a growing interest being shown by various Argentine groups in the UFO

phenomenon he reconsidered his previous decision and told the following tale.

Four or five days after his departure from Ushuaia, when he was between San Sebastian and

Rio Grande, well within the territory of Tierra del Fuego, he was strolling through a coastal

region about 2,000 feet from the Atlantic at around 11:00 PM. Breaking the silence he heard

something similar to a loud noise of water being violently disturbed. Several sheep who were

sleeping in the area jumped up and ran away from the noise. He said there was no wind, storm or

thunderstorm that might have explained the noise. Within seconds of the disturbance he watched

a luminous object, oval in shape, appear from beneath the sea about 1,600 feet from the shore. It

rose up vertically to a certain altitude and then made a turn of 90 degrees and disappeared

towards the northeast in the direction of the Argentine territory.

Fifteen days later, also at night, when he as between Rio Gallegos and Santa Cruz (in the

neighborhood of Puerto Coyle in the province of Santa Cruz), a similar phenomenon happened.

At this time, albeit he could not determine the exact distance from the coast, four small luminous

objects came up out of the waters of the Atlantic. They repeated the same maneuver as the

previous one, gained altitude vertically and then in perfect formation approached the coastline

and moved off towards the west in the direction of the Andes Mountains.

It is noted that these observations of luminous fleets seem to constituted a very frequent event

in the Patagonian region of Argentina (around the 40 th parallel onto the south) – whereas in 1952

a truck driver, Senor Vincente A Bordoli, based in Mar del Plata (province of Buenos Aires)

reported to the police that in the south along National Route 3, which follows the Atlantic coast

of Argentina, he together with his son Hugo had observed a strange, brilliant formation which –

periodically – entered the Gulf of Matias (province of Rio Negro) and afterward emerged

climbing up into the sky and disappearing.

Some bolder and older folks than I speculate the UFOs have bases in the Atlantic off the coast

of Argentina – some, I repeat. Me, I just think they were fishing, or looking for oil!

On February 8th, 1951, the crew and passengers on a Navy R5D transport (DC-4) experienced a

dramatic sighting in the early morning hours of the day while flying over the North Atlantic. In

their words:

The aircraft was on automatic-pilot, a standard procedure in clear weather, Lt Commander F.K

and myself (the reporting member) were on constant watch for other aircraft. I observed a yellow



glow about 30 –to- 50 miles away at about the 1 o’clock position and below the horizon. My

impression was that there was a small city ahead because it was the same glow you get from a

group of lights on the surface before you get close enough to pick them out individually.

"Knowing that we passed the tip of Greenland, my first thought was that we were behind

schedule and had drifted north, but remembering that we had passed over the weather ship, I

knew this was not the case. I called F. K.'s attention to the glow and asked him what he thought it

was. He said that it looked like we were approaching land. I asked our navigator to check his

navigation. He did and replied that we were on flight plan and on course.

"The lights were farther away than we thought because it took us from eight to ten minutes to

get close enough to where the lights had a pattern (our ground speed was over three miles per

minute), about 15 or 18 miles away. At that time, due to the circular pattern of lights, I got the

impression that possibly two ships were tied up together and that lights were strung between them

for either transferring cargo from one to the other or that one was in some kind of trouble.

"I asked the navigator to check his ship plot. He replied that there were no ships plotted in this

area and that we were not close to the shipping lanes anyway. The radioman also went on the air

to the weather ship which verified that there were no ships in the area.

"Since it was time for Lt. J.'s crew to relieve us, I had the plane captain awaken them. When Lt.

J. and Lt. M. came up forward, I pointed the lights out to them. Their only comment was that it

had to be a ship because it was on the water and we were overtaking it fast. At this time, we were

five to seven miles away; it was about 30 degrees to our right, and we had to look down at about

a 45-degree angle. The lights had a definite circular pattern and were bright white.

"Suddenly, the lights went out. There appeared a yellow halo on the water. It turned to an

orange, to a fiery red, and then started movement toward us at a fantastic speed, turning to a

bluish red around the perimeter. Due to its high speed, its direction of travel, and its size, it

looked as though we were going to be engulfed. I quickly disengaged the automatic-pilot and

stood by to push the nose of the plane over in hopes that we could pass under it due to the angle it

was ascending. The relief crew was standing behind us; everyone began ducking, and a few heads

were hit on objects.

"It stopped its movement toward us and began moving along with us about 45 degrees off the

bow to the right, about 100 feet or so below us and about 200 to 300 feet in front of us. It was not

in a level position; it was tilted about 25 degrees.

"It stayed in this position for a minute or so. It appeared to be from 200 to 300 feet in diameter,

translucent or metallic, shaped like a saucer, a purple-red fiery ring around the perimeter and a

frosted white glow around the entire object. The purple-red glow around the perimeter was the



same type of glow you get around the commutator of an auto generator when you observe it at

night.

"When the object moved away from us, it made no turns, as though it was backing up about

170 degrees from the direction that it approached us, and was still tilted. It was only a few

seconds before it was out of sight. (Speed estimated in excess of 1500 mph.)

"All of our cameras were within reach, but no one was calm enough to think about taking a

picture. Most of us were wondering what it was. Our impression was that this was a controlled

craft. It was either hovering over the water or sitting on it, then it detected us and came up to

investigate.

"After Lt. J.'s crew had taken over, I proceeded aft and learned that most of the passengers had

observed the same thing. Since I was unable to identify the object, I asked Dr. M., CDR U.S.

Navy, if he had observed the object. He replied that he had and that he did not look because it was

a flying saucer and he did not believe in such things. I immediately returned to the cockpit and

informed the crew to keep quiet about what we observed because it might have been our first

sighting of a flying saucer (during those years when you mentioned you had such a sighting, you

were believed to be crazy). Lt. J. informed me that it was too late because he had called Gander

Airfield in Newfoundland to see if the object could be tracked by radar.

"When we landed at Argentia (Newfoundland), we were met by intelligence officers. The types

of questions they asked us were like Henry Ford asking about the Model T. You got the feeling

that they were putting words in your mouth. It was obvious that there had been many sightings in

the same area, and most of the observers did not let the cat out of the bag openly. When we

arrived in the United States, we had to make a full report to Navy Intelligence.

"I found out a few months later that Gander radar did track the object in excess of 1800 mph. I

did not see the reports made by other members aboard the aircraft. I did talk to the Air Force at

Wright-Patterson AFB in 1957 but did not look at the report. They said they had it and many

similar reports."

Pilots view from the Cockpit



In April 4th, 1966 a letter written by Eldon L White on the 1st of April that told of an

experience he had when employed as a rigger on Shemya, or today a Top Secret Air

Force Base name Eareckson Air Station, with a large radar installation. If you attempt at

landing an aircraft there without permission, they will blow your craft out of the sky.

April 1, 1966

Dear Sir:

Many times from many places I have postponed writing to you. I presumed even you

would not believe my story. I write to you now because of an article I read recently in (author)

Martin Caidin’s book Hydrospace, Chapter Two.

On January 1952, while employed as a rigger on Shemya, a “two-by-four” island in the

Aleutians, the following happened.

It was my day off and I was wandering around looking for blue fox burrows when a whirring,

whining sound caused me to look up.

About 300 feet above me, falling leaf-like towards the water was a gray, bat-shaped craft. Itwas about 30 feet across. The leading edge of its wing was spaced with round openings emitting a

greenish-yellow glow. Top center of the wing was a dome emitting a pulsating red glow from

inside. Underneath and aft of the wing was a long rod or shaft.Around 75 feet above the water, this craft commenced hovering for a few seconds, then fell

off into a steep angled glide and disappeared beneath the water. I gaped and waited quite some

time for it to surface - it never did.

In addition, on August 1949, while employed as a brakeman on the Alaska Railroad, I

sighted a similar craft --- minus the protruding rod or shaft.

To conclude, I want you to know I have not mentioned either case to anyone over the years.

Why? (Perhaps) Hell! The scoffers said---“Fox on Shemya---you’re nuts and blue at that.”

But! Sir, the fox are there. Imagine! If I had used the “verboten” phrase –“U.F.O.”

Most sincerely,

Eldon L. White

It can be noted that albeit that Eldon L White doesn’t have the credibility of the witnesses on

the DC-4 flying west over the North Atlantic, but what the hey! – more than 90% of the

American public don’t believe them either – where do you draw the line?

To add to the list of credible witnesses consider General George S. Brown, a past Air Force

Chief of Staff who said at a press conference in October 1973 that UFOs had been a thorn in their

side during the Vietnam War – saying “I don’t know if the this story has ever been told, but

UFOs plagued us in Vietnam during the war!” Going on to site an incident in early summer 1968

when a series of sightings set off quite a battle with an Australian destroyer taking a hit, and

another in 1969 that resulted in “some shooting.”



It was also reported that a spectacular sighting took place in June 1966 at Nha Trang, an active

base on the coastline of South Vietnam whereas at around 9:45 PM there was a flash of light and

a UFO approached, descended in plain view of numerous soldiers, while hovering a few hundred

feet off the ground, its glow illuminating the entire area. The base generator failed causing a base

black out, while idling aircraft engines, bulldozers, trucks, everything including some diesel

engines failed for about four-minutes. The UFO finally “went straight up” and rapidly

disappeared from view.

On March 14th, 1969 Colonel Robert M. Tirman (an Air Force flight surgeon) was among a

group who observed a “huge” cylindrical UO over southeast Asia, all were passengers on a KC-

135 – the sighting was also confirmed by the crew. The cylinder hovered in a vertical orientation

about 2-miles from the plane at about 15,000 feet in altitude. In circling the aircraft for a closer

observation, the UFO disappeared – jet interceptors were scrambled but could not locate the

UFO.

So there you have a limited scope of UFOs sightings from the past, at least back to the pre-war

days of WWII – sightings that included the unexplained “Foo Fighters”, all keeping the brass

busy trying to come up with a solid explanation and yet not to cause panic among the general

population. Many sightings were explained away as simply “ball lightning” or put off as an

active imagination by the observers – most be highly experienced pilots, but they were justifiably

nervous during WWII under the pressure of flying bombing missions over enemy territory.

Although no conclusive explanation has ever been found and most of the sightings are

classified as simply Unidentified Flying Objects and filed under the secrets act, whatever one was

in place at the time.

What say you, super active imaginations who reported that they were the gospel or maybe they

were searching for a section 8 so they could go home, or for whatever reason why did the

governments of various countries steadfast in their response, deny that such sightings ever

happened?