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Group
/Category 9
Radar Cases
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Case Directory
The Rapid City / Ellsworth AFB
Incident
(RV)
August 5, 1953
East of Rapid City, SD
Francis Ridge:
There was a date discrepancy on this case. Ruppelt said it was the 12th
and subsequently NICAP listed that date in The UFO Evidence.
Project Blue Book, which didn't list this as an "Unknown", showed it
clearly as August 5, 6, and the documents (see below) show that this
case
as "unsolved." This incident always impressed me, and apparently it
impressed a lot of others, too. For the die-hard skeptics at Project
Blue Book this was the one they had always asked for. Here was a
good UFO sighting. "This was an unknown, one of the best", a ground
witnessed visual, with a ground radar tracking, and the pursuit of the
object by a jet interceptor that also locked on with its radar, with
all the maneuvers independently verified. The UFO was playing a cat
& mouse game with an F-84 "Thunderjet", the first USAF jet
fighter able to carry a tactical atomic weapon. Major Lawrence Tacker
not only confirmed this case, but he wrote one NICAP member and told
him the Air Force had gun-camera photos of the object and radarscope
photos. (FSTS,243)
Ellsworth AFB is located about 12 miles from Rapid City, and in
1947, the base hosted the 28th Bombardment Wing (BMW), flying the B-29.
In July 1949, the 28th began conversion to the gigantic B-36
bomber. Ellsworth was one of the original five Air Force Operational
Storage Sites for nuclear weapons, and first received its atomic bombs
in 1952.
Joel Carpenter:
I've been checking on the model of F-84 assigned to SAC, and it
turns out that the F-84G was the one based at Rapid City at the time.
This was a tactical-nuclear-capable day fighter-bomber with straight
wings and gun ranging radar.
Brad Sparks:
The Condon Report with Hynek's analysis also shows Aug 5-6, 1953, as
the date (it extended past midnight). (CR pp. 132-136)
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