The October 15, 1948 Japan sighting already onsite has been
updated to include the NARCAP RADCAT version and analysis, the Blue
Book microfilms, and the caption/listing from the Catalog of
Comprehensive Project Blue Book Unknowns:
location. Hynek had it located 50 miles from Fukuoka well out in
the Korea Strait off the NORTHWEST of Kyushu island. The report
none of which is anywhere near here. First it is given as
ground clutter apparently in the area of the sighting. Distance
Yes but I've tried looking up the
names. As I said there is nowhere near the location in my
maps or gazeteers that could be Shigano Shima. It isn't a
typo in this case. I've found references on the net circa Korean War
but still no location. I've written to an ex radar operator of the
610th ACW there in 1950 hoping he can advise and also maybe help out re
the ground radar specs and any pick-up idiosyncracies there might have
been if it was the same kit.
B: What does McDonald say?
Usually he tried to identify site locations, at least in his
notes.
<>
Dunno, I don't have his take on this case
except for a brief summary in the 1968 House Symposium. Where should I
look?
Hi All
I wrote to this guy about positions and specs of radar sites
around Kyushu, this was re the 1948 F-61 case. Well I learned
that Shikano Shima radar is a very long way from the map
coordinates given and is on a little island off the W coast near
Fukuoka, not off the E coast as indicated! And he gave this story
into the bargain. Anyone recognise a report post Oct 1952 - 1953
that matches this?
Martin
"Hello Martin
...Shikano Shima (Shigano Shima) is an island off the coast of
Japan, reached by a half mile causeway that leads out to it,
after you pass through the little Town of Saitozaki. After
crossing the causeway, at the point of access, there is a little
fishing village followed by a climb up the mountain road to the
Radar Site Det 3. I was a scope dope and had no technical
training nor experience. It seems to me that it was an A/N CPX 10
or 12 Radar Unit and an A/N CPS?? Height Finder. Wish I could be
of more help....One more thought to help you geographically....
We looked right across the Strait of Korea from the west coast of
Kyushu and we were located near Itazuke AFB and the major City of
Fukuoka.
"Now Hear This"... I was working a plot on my scope one night in
Fall of '52 or '53. All of a sudden My PLOT jumps about an each
on each sweep which means it is super sonic. I gasp and
immediately call it to the attention of all the duty personnel. A
Controller looks at it and decides that it's the British "Comet"
coming out of Iwakuni. I dismiss this by saying the Comet could
not possibly have that airspeed even if it was falling to the
ground under full power.
Others agree with me but, as we are all looking at it....the
darned thing starts vectoring toward us....as if it picked up our
radar signal. It's altitude was around 40K initially as I recall.
But as it came toward us it dropped down to around 5K. Then, as
it was almost upon us, it stopped and I ran out of the hut to
look at it.
And there it was almost directly in front of me. It radiated a
horizontal sort of "spectrum" glowing light that became brighter
(on and off) as if on a frquency of some sort. 10 or 12 other
Officers and Enlisted all came out to see it with me. So it was
no illusion. We all saw it together. It remained for about 4 or 5
minutes and then suddenly departed slowly at first but at
progressively greater speed until it disappeared in a modified
orbit to the North. We followed it on the scope for a short
period and then it was just "gone". There was, of course, no
communication with the intercept and no ID determined. Thus no
record. But I have never forgotten it and no one can ever
convince me that it was some anomalous propagation or similar
rationale. For my money, it was a UFO that had tremendous speed,
the ability to change course, on a dime, in any direction, and it
was visible just as described. A pulsating disk that undulated
red, orange, yellow & blue.
I still talk about it to this day when the UFO subject is raised
and I believe people when they tell similar sighting
stories....exactly, or close, to mine. Stated another way, we
can't all be seeing the same thing all over the world, for all
these years, and then deny its existence eh? Does this make your
day????
Captain Tom Sheehan USNR-R Retired
(....I want you to know that the Feb '52 sighting in your finding
[he means Haneda I think] was not my sighting. I got to Japan in
October of '52. So, my Group's sighting was a different event.)"
B: This really should not have required this much effort to
figure out though at least we have a new UFO radar-visual out of it
(snipped).
The AF docs with horribly garbled lat-long coordinates had said the
Site 1 radar site at Shigano-shima was at:
33-40' N, 132-00' E
Nearby Fukuoka's coordinates however are easily found on the Internet
as at:
33-36' N, 130-25' E
Obviously the latitude is about right, and it's the longitude that's
way off. Notice the digit "2." Internet searching finds
descriptions of Shigano-shima (Shikano-shima or shimaj) as at the end
of a peninsula roughly 10 miles to the NW or WNW of Fukuoka, so
obviously the radar site's coordinates must have been approximately:
33-40' N, 130-20 ' E
and there was a typo displacing the "2" to read wrongly as "132-00
E."
One can find a nice little map of what later became the USAF 610th ACW
Squadron (and also an NSA Army subsidiary 14th USASA Field Station for
communications intercepts at Saitozaki nearby):
http://groups.msn.com/610thACWSqRadarSitesSouthernJapan/hqs610thacwsq.msnw?action=ShowPhoto&PhotoID=310
<>
B: This really should not have
required this much effort to figure out though at least we have a new
UFO radar-visual out of it (snipped).
M: "Much effort"? I wrote to a
guy who was on the spot and asked him. He told me. Easy. What's to be
critical of?
The AF docs with horribly garbled lat-long coordinates had said the
Site 1 radar site at Shigano-shima was at:
33-40' N, 132-00' E
Nearby Fukuoka's coordinates however are easily found on the Internet
as at:
33-36' N, 130-25' E
M: Fukuoka's coordinates were
never in doubt. The location of Shikano Shima was. You didn't tell me
so I found out. Job done.
Obviously the latitude is about right,
and it's the longitude that's way off <snip>
M: Obviously. This
inconsistency is what I pointed out originally when trying to
understand where the action was. Now I know what the right ground radar
locations are. What I still don't know is why an F-61 at 50
miles 330 degrees from Fukuoka, in the middle of the Korea Strait
(25-30 miles away from the nearest island), is described as only
intermittently detectable because it was going in and out of "ground
clutter". As I also pointed out the F-61 location is described as being
"between" the radars, which are both among the off-shore W coast
islands. You can interpret "between" as meaning tens of miles NW of
both radars if you want to keep the "50 miles at 330 degs" intact, but
IMO something here is probably wrong and the reference to "ground
clutter" is suspicious. If the answer is obvious maybe you can tell me
now and save time?
B: Apparently the F-61 was at low altitude and near the range
limits of the ground radars. Apparently the lat-long for the F-61
which was moving around at perhaps 200 mph for quite a long time was
very roughly 34-00 N, 130-00 E but the digits got screwed up.
The entire incident lasted 10 minutes.
From the position given, 50 miles at 330 degs from Fukuoka, if the F-61
flew straight west at 200 mph it would reach Tsushima within 10 mins.
But the plane did not fly in a straight line and was not tracked into
ground echo only once at the start or end of the event. The report
describes the F-61 repeatedly going in and out of ground clutter as it
turned in pursuit of the UFO, so that it was only ever detected
intermittently during the incident, which means that the ambit of the
F-61's ground track was localised in the area of an island or islands,
repeatedly cutting the same coastline or going between different land
areas. So maybe the position given is taken from a "screwed up" map
reference and is completely meaningless. Does it matter? Yes it does
because now we can't infer anything at all about the range from the
radars. It could have happened over Tsushima islands, in
which case the suggestion I originally made (that the smooth UFO with
no lift/control surfaces or engine pods etc was a poor radar target
compared to the F-61 and that the location at low altitude and 50 miles
range might have been on the edge of the radar horizon, explaining
why the UFO wasn't detected) would even be improved. But If the
position given is this grossly unreliable, the action could have
happened anywhere within a few tens of miles of it. It could
have happened among the off-shore islands off the W coast of Kyushu,
and this would be consistent with the statement in the report that the
F-61 was "between" the two radar sites. So now we can't get any
leverage to rebut the argument that the UFO should have been detected:
If it was this close then there is no radar horizon issue and we need
to think again about why it wasn't detected.
The 50 miles at 330 degs from Fukuoka is FLIGHT CREW data
whereas the Lat-Longs were screwed up by BASE personnel teletyping
reports, so I think the 50/330 is accurate and indicates the F-61 was
flying close to the radar horizon some 40-50 miles from the
Fukuoka/Shikano-shima radar