UFO Report

Date: Fri, 27 Aug 2010 05:53:59 -0500
From: Francis Ridge <nicap@insightbb.com>
Subject: Pacific Ocean Off Korea, Night in 1951
To: RADCAT

The following is from Carl Feindt's files and originally from Keyhoe's "Flying Saucers: Top Secret.", 262-263., then second report from NICAP files, most probably the same incident.

The Navy Korean Case. 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 deviceor a different kind of vision? What was behind this long surveillancecuriosity, 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.

ALSO

Fall 1951; Korean Area

Following are extracts from a letter to NICAP dated May 16, 1957, signed by Lt. Cmdr. M. C. Davies, U.S.N., then stationed at the U. S. Naval Air Station, Jacksonville, Florida.

My background is a Naval Aviator with approximately 4000 hours. At the time of the incident, I was deployed with an Anti-Submarine Squadron aboard a CVE-class carrier. I was assigned Air Crew Training Officer and prior to deployment had attended CIC Air Controller School at Point Loma, also Airborne Air Controller School and Airborne Early Warning School both located at NAS, San Diego...

It was at night. I was riding with a radar operator which I often did to check on their proficiency. We were flying at 5000 feet, solid instruments, with our wingman flying a radar position about 3 miles astern and slightly to our right or left. The target, which was slightly larger than our wingman, I picked up on our scope, had been circling the fleet; it left the fleet and joined up on us a position behind our wingman, approximately the same position he held on us.

I reported the target to the ship and was informed that the target was also held on the ship's radars, 14 in number, and for us to get a visual sighting if possible. This was impossible because of the clouds. The target retained his relative position for approximately 5 minutes and then departed in excess of one thousand miles per hour. He departed on a straight course and was observed to the maximum distance of my radar which was two hundred miles.

Upon completion of my flight, an unidentified flying object report was completed, at which time I was informed that the object was held on ship's radars for approximately seven hours.

UFOCAT PRN 56404 [DOS: FF-??-1951]

UFOCAT URN 056404 Donald E. Keyhoe investigation files

UFOCAT URN 100165 Flying Saucer Magazine (Palmer), June 1970, p. 19

UFOCAT URN 113357 J. Allen Hynek Center for UFO Studies, June 1977, p. 9

UFOCAT PRN 56404 [DOS: 10-??-1951]

Pacific Ocean Off Korea

Position Unknown