about 20minutes west and south of Rapid City but saw nothing. He re- turned to base and was about to land when he observed a light northwest of the base. He started out on a heading of 350 degrees magnetic, the object was high (30 deg - 45 deg) at 11 o'clock from him. He checked the possibility of a reflection and determined that this was not the cause. He continued his course keeping the object at 11 o'clock for a better view. After about 30 seconds, it disappeared then reappeared for another 30 seconds at the end of which it abruptly faded and was not seen again. The object was silver in color and varied in intensity. It appeared to "pull away" because it got smaller. The comment as to size was that it was "brighter than the brightest star I've ever seen".

The pilot who flew the second CAP was interviewed next. He stated that he took off and started to climb when GCI told him that GOC had a light. He was north of Ellsworth AFB on a heading of 360 degrees magnetic when he saw a light 30-40 degrees to his right and level. He thought it was a star or planet but as he looked away it appeared to "jump" 15-30 degrees in elevation. (Note: Due to the speed of the aircraft and the fact that the pilot wan intent on identifying the object, he was not exactly sure of his positions. All positions are subject to some error.) The light seemed to be paralleling his course. The first thing the pilot did was to check for reflections in the cockpit (i.e., canopy, gun sight head, etc.). He was sure the light was no reflection in the aircraft. The light, which the pilot estimated to be considerably brighter than a star, changed intensity and changed in color from white to green. When the object was first sighted, the aircraft was at 15,000 feet. The pilot started to climb and the light appeared to climb faster. This was because the angle of elevation increased. He climbed to 26,000 feet. All this time both the radar blip of both the object and the aircraft were being carried and the pilot was talking to the controller on UHF. As the pilot turned into the light on his initial sighting, he turned on his radar gun sight. As he swung onto the target, the warning light came on. No range was obtained since the sight starts to measure at about 4,000 yards. All this might indicate was that something was beyond 4,000 yards. The light remained on until the chase was broken off. After the chase, on the way home, the light blinked on and off several times indicating a possible malfunction. The sight was not checked by maintenance on return and had not been checked since.

The F-84 chased the light for about five minutes, or to about 80 miles north of the base. The light appeared to make slow changes in color and intensity. The pilot stated that the light definitely moved in relation to the stars. After the intercept was broken off, the aircraft returned toward base.

About 20 miles out of base he got a visual on a similar light that changed from red to white. He was on a heading of 180 degrees magnetic at 12-14,000 feet and the light was 10 degrees low to the right. He thought it was a car going around curves in the hills but changed his mind when the red and white lights were of equal intensity. This target was in the ground clutter of the radar but something at 8000 feet was picked up on the height finder radar. The light slowly went out then