Project Blue Book file, RB-47, July 17, 1957

Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.

# Sample Case Selected by the UFO

Subcommittee of the JLA

In its resolution of the UFO Problem"A/A Nov. 1970. pp. 44 the Subcommittee pledged to give the mem of t society an opportunity to their own respect to the type of actions wile the wave of the UFO controversy

The contacted area, which occurred on July 17. Is traced in the London Report (Condor E. Science Unidentified Flying Objects. Books p. 53. 136-139, 260-263, 750. 877-816. During the University of Colorado growth the o as not located due to an error in In addition, rad and weather analyses were September 19, rather than July 17, 1957. The conclusions drawn members of the Condon Comm

1. If the report is accurate, it describes an unusual, intriguing, and surprising phenomenon, which. In the absence of additional information, must be listed as unidentified. (Condon, p. 57).

2. In view of...the fact that additional information on this incident is not available, no tenable conclusions can be reached. From a propagation [Based on a wrong data] standpoint, this sighting must be tentatively classified as an unknown. (Thayer, p. 139).

3. If a report of written either by the B-47

crew or by Wing Intelligence personnel was submitted In 1957, it apparently is no longer in evidence. Moving pictures of radar scopes displays and other data said to have been recorded during the incident apparently never existed. Evaluation of the experience must therefore, rest entirely on the recollection of crew members ten years after the event. Tone descriptions are not adequate to allow identification of the phenomenon encountered. (Craig, p. 205)

6. After review the unanimous conclu object was not a plasma or an elec the atmosphere. (Altschuler, p. 750). was that the luminosity by

Subsequently. James McDonald has been able to locate the case files. to correct the date of the flight and to draw additional information from the files as well as from personal interviews with the crew. At the request of the UFO Subcommittee, he describes the case in the following article. It is left to the reader to draw his own conclusions.

The aircraft Commander, Lt. Colonel Lewis D. Chase, USAF (Ret.), has confirmed the accuracy of this report in a letter to the Subcommittee.

This sample case may serve to illuminate the difficulity in deciding whether or not the UFO problem presents a scientific problem.

Air Force C of an Uni dersty Ciyao in the South Oceane. O. July 17, 1957

## Summary

An Air Force RB-47, equipped with electronic countermeasures (ECM) gear and manned by six officers, was followed by an unidentified object for a distance of well over 700 mi. and for a time period of 1.5 hr., as it flew from Mississippi, through Louisiana and Texas and into Oklahoma. The object was, at various times, seen visually by the cochipit crew on an intensely luminous light, followed by ground radar and detected on ECM monitoring gear aboard the RB-47. On special interest in this case are several instances of simultaneous appearances and disappearances on all three of those physically distinct "channels." and rapidity of maneuvers be-

good the prior experience of the pln-

## 2023-03-27 10:47:37

In the early morning hours of July 17. 1937. an RD-17 was flying out of Torber Air Force Base, Topeka, Kansas, on a composite mission that included military exercises over the Torber Conference, navigation exercises on Gulf, and finally ECM exercises conducted for the return trip across the south-central United States. The RD-17 was carrying a six-man crew. Of them three were electronic warfare officers manning ECM gear in theaft portion of the aircraft. Their names are as follows: Lewis D. Chase, pilot: James H. McCoid, co-pilot: Thomas H. Hanley, navigator: Lorenzo, No. 1 monitor: No. 2 monitor: No. 3 monitor.

I also my Interview with the crew as case is

which I finally located. The files consist of a three-page TWX filed from the 745th ACWRON, Duncanville, Texas, at 1557Z on July 17, 1957, and a four-page case summary prepared by E. T. Pitrezz. Wing Intelligence Officer, 55th Reconnaissance Wing, Forbes AFB, and committed to ADC Ho.. Ent AFT. Colorado, in compliance with of August 15, from Col. S. Director of Intelligence, ADC. summary, plus a 1000000 Observer's Data Sheet on November Book, and was notified concerning 12-page Data Sheet

on September 10 and contains a number of police refences not covered in other parts of the case file. There is very relea formation in the case file as to pro liances, liabilities, and other circumstances, and the case file does have the great