Certified by the following NICAP Board members: Reverend Albert Bailer, Dr. Earl Douglass, Mr. Frank Edwards, Colonel R. B. Emerson, Professor Charles A. Maney, and Rear Admiral H. B. Knowles. “It was a night in ’51. Under lowering clouds, a United States task force of fourteen ships was cruising near Korea. Down in the Combat Information Center of a CVE-class carrier, intercept officers and radar men were keeping a routine watch. Suddenly a strange blip appeared on the CIC radarscopes. Some unknown machine, larger than carrier aircraft, was circling the fleet. In minutes, Navy interceptors were boring up into the clouds that hid the intruder. At first, the CIC men had thought it was some new Red aircraft spotting the fleet by radar. But an hour passed with neither an attack nor message to bring enemy bombers. Even before this the CIC men knew, from the object’s speed and maneuvers, it had to be a UFO. As the hours went on, fresh pilots replaced the first group. Again and again, flying by instruments in the misty dark, they risked collision for a look at the unknown craft. But the UFO stayed deep in the clouds. Down in the CIC, puzzled intercept men watched the mysterious “target.” What could explain the hours of circling up in the overcast? Could “they” see through those tight-packed clouds by some unknown device—or a different kind of vision? What was behind this long surveillance—curiosity, or something more ominous? Near the end of the seventh hour, another squadron was launched. Abruptly, the UFO stopped circling. As the tense CIC men watched, it swung in behind the nearest Navy plane. “Target joining up on wingman!” the lead pilot reported. “Close in for visual on target!” ordered the CIC, fearing an attack on the wingman. Though the clouds made it almost hopeless, the leading pilot turned. Swiftly, the UFO speeded up, leaving the plane behind. In less than ten minutes, the radarscopes showed it was two hundred miles away. The signed report later certified by Board members was given to NICAP by one of the pilots involved, now a lieutenant commander on duty in this country. The unknown machine, officially logged as a UFO, was tracked by radar operators on all fourteen ships. Its long surveillance of the task force remained a mystery.
KEN PFEIFER WORLD UFO PHOTOS ……….. Special thanks to Phantoms and monsters.com
