Subject: discussion with Mike Cataldo, witness to Pascagoula UFO 

On October 21, 2001, Natalie Chambers of the Associated Press 
reported that a new witness to a legendary 1973 UFO incident has 
recently surfaced. Chambers identified this individual as Mike 
Cataldo, a retired Navy chief petty officer. 

I was interested in more general details of this account, and 
specifically the reference to "a report" Cataldo made with a 
supervisor. This morning I conducted a YAHOO PEOPLE SEARCH for the name Mike Cataldo and found his telephone number listed for 
his residence at Marker Rd. in Rotonda West, FL. 

Cataldo came to the phone and was surprised at my call, stating 
that I was the first person to ever contact him about this UFO 
sighting from 1973. He explained that he had been in touch with 
Associated Press reporter Natalie Chambers, but only after 
calling a Pascagoula, Mississippi newspaper a month ago. When 
calling the newspaper, he asked to talk with an old-timer 
employee at the paper, someone that might remember the 
Hickson/Parker abduction. Cataldo said that when he talked with 
Natalie Chambers, she made reference to the book entitled 'UFO 
in Pascagoula.' Being unaware of this book, Cataldo was shocked, 
saying "you gotta be kidding me!" to the reporter. 

He went on to excitedly relate the story as it happened back in 
1973. 

"The story is very true," he assured while recounting the event. 
"We (Cataldo, Ted Peralta and Mack Hanna) left the shipyard and 
rode in Ted's Volkswagen to Hwy. 90, traveling west towards 
Buloxi, Mississippi. It was not even dusk yet, there was still 
some daylight to see by. 

"When we first saw this thing through the windshield we thought 
it was a shooting star, going from right to left, but then it 
came down into a marshy, tree-lined area and hovered there for 
about 30-seconds. It was spinning and had blinking lights on the 
top of it all around its edge, all the way around it in a 
circle. These were blinking lights arranged on it just like you 
would tape lights to the side of a cake pan." 

Cataldo affirmed that there was a definite structure to be seen, 
not just blinking lights. 

"This thing was like a whitish-gray colored sailor hat, or a
tambourine, and it was less than half a mile away and looked as 
big as any big American airliner I've ever seen. And then it 
just shot away, almost like it was just suddenly gone." 

Cataldo said that shortly after the sighting he parted company 
with Ted Peralta and Mack Hanna and changed cars. Then while 
enroute to Ocean Springs as darkness was setting in, he saw the 
same object a second time at about the same distance away, 
watching it for another 45 seconds to one minute before it again 
shot off in the same manner as before. 

Mike Cataldo said that there were other motorists in the area 
during each episode and that some of them had slowed down to look 
at the ufo. 

"We were the only ones on the road to stop and look at it 
though," he said. 

During this time, Cataldo said he never knew anything about the 
Hickson/Parker claim. He went home, telling his wife about it. 
Cataldo humorously recalled how his wife said he was 
hyperventilating with excitement. He went on to liken the anxiety 
and strangeness of the situation to a large snake sighting he had 
years earlier in 1963, "Some things you see in your lifetime that 
you just don't ever forget," he said. 

The next day he returned to the site with Ted and Mack and they 
parked their car at the shipyard area, talking about the 
sighting from the previous day. They discussed what should be 
done about it and if they should report what they saw. 

Cataldo said that he felt the sighting should be reported and he 
approached a man by the name of Nick, his division officer. He 
then approached the executive commander, Lt. Commander Heath and issued him a verbal report on the sighting. He said that to his 
knowledge, Heath did not prepare a written report concerning 
what was told to him. 

"Not one of them took me seriously," he complained, "and I never 
heard another thing about it. Nobody ever asked about it again. 

"I never knew of the Hickson/Parker abduction until days later. 
It happened on Thursday and it was not until the following 
Sunday that I saw the headline in the morning paper about two 
men taken aboard a Flying Saucer, I'm telling you I about died." 

The next morning, Oct. 15, Cataldo said that he talked the 
situation over with his wife and again decided that it would be 
important to report the UFO sighting. At that time he placed a 
phone call to a an assistant public relations officer Keesler 
AFB. The female taking his call took the information, but 
Cataldo said that once again nothing resulted from his 
advisement. 

"I have never talked to the fella involved, Charles Hickson, and 
I've never discussed this case or met with them at all, I never 
knew them and I never saw anything and had no involvement with 
what they said," Cataldo assured, "and I've never seen a UFO 
since then, not at all. Not even before then. Was it real? 
You're damn right it was real. I can't say anything about they 
did or were involved in. I don't even know if what I saw matches 
what they saw, but I know what I saw and where I was at. But 
where we saw the thing going across the sky through our 
windshield is basically the area where Hickson and Parker said 
they were taken aboard. The time frame of our sighting might 
have been around 6:00, but I can't recall for certain." 

Cataldo said that two weeks after the sighting he left for 
California on temporary duty. While there, he saw Hickson on the 
Dick Cavette television show. 

"I just couldn't believe it, here I was seeing this guy," he 
said. 

Mike Cataldo explained that he has not seen Ted Peralta for 21 
years, but thinks he could possibly be in the San Diego, 
California area. Likewise he has not seen Mack Hanna for about 
23 or more years and suspects that he could also be located in 
either Kentucky or Logan, West Virginia. In the intervening 
years, Cataldo said that he has frequently told told his family 
(wife, 2 sons and relatives) about the sighting. 

Cataldo said that aside from this present call, he has not been 
contacted by anyone regarding this except for his discussion 
with reporter Natalie Chambers. He said that he has not seen the 
newspaper article and would like to read it. He also said that 
he received a message from a friend telling him that Paul Harvey 
mentioned the story on his radio program yesterday, and wishes 
he could have heard it. 

I thanked Mike Cataldo for talking with me and told him that I 
would be happy to E-mail him the text of the newspaper article 
by Chambers. Although it is a disappointment to know that his 
claims were probably not documented in a written report by his 
supervisor, further interviews with Hanna and Peralta would 
still be valuable to provide some verification of this alleged 
sighting. A YAHOO PEOPLE SEARCH was conducted for
their names in the specified locations resulting in many
returns and as of this writing some of the names have already
been contacted but thus far with no success in finding the right
individuals. 
 

Filed, 

October 27, 2001 
Kenny Young