The National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (Nicap)

## Approved For Release 2001/04/02 : CIA-RDP81R00560R000100010001-0

four times the light's diameter. A smaller body light was visible on the underside. The object was tracked by ground radar, and an F-94 interceptor obtained a radar lock-on while chasing it. At one point, the UFO suddenly raced away at a clocked speed of 300 knots (about 345 mph.), dividing into three separate radar targets at spaced intervals. Contact with the UFO either by radar or visually, was maintained for over 30 minutes. During this period, scattered witnesses saw the UFO exactly where radar showed it to be. Conclusion: Officially "unknown."

## 1951-1952 Period; East Coast Air Force Base

Period of September 1951 to November 1952; prominent east coast Air Force Base.

Confidential report, certified by Rev. Albert H. Baller, German Congregational Church, Clinton, Mass.

Extracts from letter by Air Force Control Tower Operator to Rev. Baller, dated March 10, 1954:

"About 3 a.m., on a clear moonlit night, a buddy of mine who was radar operator on the same night shift called me rather excitedly on the intercom, and asked me if I could see any object in the sky about 15 miles southwest of the base. Using a pair of powerful binoculars I carefully scanned the sky in that direction and assured him that I could see nothing. It was then that he told me why he was so concerned.

"For several minutes he had tracked an object on his radar scope, then all of a sudden it had stopped at a range of about 15 miles from the base and remained stationary. Being an experienced radar operator, he knew that whatever it was, it was of good size, at least as big as any of our larger transport planes. But what amazed him was the fact that it stopped and remained motionless on the scope. A full half hour passed and still this object remained in the same location on the radar screen. Remembering that I had an inbound C-124 Globemaster coming in from that direction, I thought that perhaps the pilot would see something out there that we couldn't. I gave the pilot a couple of calls and finally raised him just south of___on his way in. I told him what we had on radar and asked him if he would mind swinging off his course slightly so that he could take a look for us.

"I then turned him over to the radar operator who had picked up the inbound aircraft on radar and he guided the pilot to a new heading that would bring him directly into this blip that was still stationary on the screen. The pilot slowed his aircraft and he and his copilot and engineer started looking about them. I could hear the radar man giving the pilot directions on a monitoring speaker in the tower.

"The aircraft got onto a line on the radar screen that would intersect the blip that was unidentified; then as the minutes went by the aircraft slowly approached the object on the scope. Both blips were equally bright and distinct. Then when it seemed that the two would collide, at about a half mile separation on the scope, the stationary object simply disappeared, vanished seconds before the big Globemaster reached its location.

"None of the crew on the plane had seen anything at any time, although they were all observing closely at the time and were told how close they were getting all the way to the object.

## Summer 1953; Yaak, Montana

"How anything could vanish so suddenly from a radar screen without even leaving a trace of what direction it went is really amazing. When you bear in mind that a radar scanner usually has a sweep of better than 50 miles, that would mean that whatever the object was it went from a dead standstill at 15 miles and disappeared from the scope covering over 35 miles in a split second. Remember also that this object was there for over a half hour and did not disappear until seconds before the aircraft reached its position: certainly this couldn't be any electrical disturbance or other phenomena. Why then would it disappear precisely when it did?"

Unidentified objects were tracked at an Air Force radar site several times. S/Sgt. William Kelly described the incidents in a taped interview with Olean, N. Y., newsman Bob Barry.

On one occasion Sgt. Kelly and other radarmen picked up six unidentified targets. In five sweeps of the antenna (about 1 minute), the UFOs changed direction 5 times, sometimes making 90 degree turns. When radar indicated the UFOs had approached within 10 miles of the station, the crew went outside to look for them. They saw six objects in trail formation, switching to inline abreast, then stack formation. Other radar stations were notified and they also tracked the UFOs.

At other times, the station tracked UFOs making similar maneuvers. Sgt. Kelly had also tracked UFOs climbing vertically out of the radar beam, with height finder equipment confirming the rise, until the objects went off the scope.

The radar crew calculated the objects' speed: 1400-1600 mph. (In 1953 the official world speed record for aircraft was 755.14 mph.; see table).

## July 3, 1954; Albuquerque, N.M.

Nine greenish spherical UFOs which invaded a restricted flying area were detected by Air Defense Command radar and sighted visually. The Albuquerque radar station's message on the sighting was accidentally intercepted at Chicago Midway Airport by an airline operations employee:

0105-C. . NINE UNIDENTIFIED SPHERICAL OBJECTS GIVING OFF GREEN LIGHT REPORTED 20 MILES NORTH ABQ [Albuquerque] FIELD AT 24,000 FEET. OBJECTS HOVERED MOTIONLESS FOR 6 MINUTES THEN PROCEEDED 340 DEGREES AT APPROX 2600 MPH. ALTITUDE AND SPEED BY TRIANGULATION. . ABQ ADIZ RADAR.

(NICAP Note: "ADIZ" means Air Defense Identification Zone; only aircraft which have filed a flight plan are allowed to fly through an ADIZ area.)

## March 23, 1957; Los Angeles, Calif.

Confidential report obtained from CAA (now FAA) radar operator confirming visual sightings at Oxnard AFB and vicinity. Report certified by NICAP Board Members: Rev. Albert Baller; Dr. Earl Douglass; Mr. Frank Edwards; Col. Robert B. Emerson, USAR; Prof. Charles A. Maney; Rear Admiral H. B. Knowles, USN (Ret.).

At 9:55 p.m., Mr. K. E. Jefferson, Pasadena, saw a brilliant flashing object moving over Downey. Between that time and midnight, police switchboards throughout the Los Angeles area were flooded with hundreds of calls reporting a-UFO. The reports poured into the Pasadena Filter Center.

According to Capt. Joseph Fry, commanding officer of the Center, the first official report came in at 11:10 p.m., at which time Capt. Fry notified Air Defense radar.

"Between 2310 (11:10 p.m.) and 2350," Capt. Fry said in a statement to newsman Russ Leadabrand, "we had many reports. We had reports that indicated the UFO was orange-red, flashing a bright white light. Some of the callers claimed they heard the 'sound of reports' when the light flashed from the object."

At the Filter Center itself, Air Force T/Sgt. Dewey Crow and newsman Les Wagner watched the UFO maneuver slowly around the area for over an hour. Just after midnight, Mrs. Robert Beaudoin, wife of an Oxnard AFB Captain, telephoned the base tower to report sighting the UFO. It was described as a large silent object, flashing a brilliant red light, and maneuvering above the Santa Rosa Valley.

An F-89 interceptor attempted to locate the object, but the Air Force denied it was able to make contact, although at the same time witnesses on the ground could see the UFO plainly near one of the Oxnard runways.

Reports continued into early morning hours, with witnesses in various locations describing objects which sometimes hovered, and sometimes moved swiftly.

The CAA radar report, obtained later, virtually proved that unexplained objects were operating over Los Angeles. The radar operator's report:

"At 2350 (11:50 p.m.) I was watching the radar scope, when I noticed a target about 15 miles northwest and moving northwest. At first I thought it was a jet, then I noticed it was moving much faster than anything I had ever seen on the scope. About 40 miles northwest it came to an abrupt stop and