WHAT WERE THOSE MYSTERIOUS CRAFT?

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01315R000300070004-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 17, 2004
• Sequence Number: 4
• Publication Date: January 19, 1979
• Content Type: NSPR

at W
By Ward Sinclair and Art. Harris
l;esaiaitan lose stet: writ .t3 .
.7
During, two. weeks in 1975, a string
of the nation's supersensitive- nuclear
missile launch sites- and bomber bases.
were- visited by unidentified, low-?ly
it?g and elusive objects, 'according, to
Defense Department report,%,11
The- sightings, made visually, and onr
radar-.by air and ground:.crews. and.
sabotage-alert-.forcesi? occurred at in-'
stallations in. Montana; Michigan and ?
Maine; aud:led"to extensive?butunsuc
cessful Air Force attempta~.totrac
and detain-the objects.*::- -.,
Air Force-.and Defense:Iaepartment
records variously. deseribe::tlie. objects
as . helicopters,.; aircraft;;nnknowir. elr
titles and brightly lighted; moving
} vehicles.'-that - hovered -. over- .nuclear
weapons storage. areai and. evaded
pursuit effortS._
Force sent fighter. planes and: air
on the unsuccessful pursuit The rec..'.
oils do not indicate if the fighters
fired on the intruders ? ?;
The documents also=give'no indica
voked much more than- focal- command
concern. -
But. a Nov. :11, 1975,".
the office of the secretary of the Air-
Force instructed : public information
staffers to avoid linking--the-scattered
sightings unless specifically asked. `
deals.with? UFO inquiries:said'he. could'
si tugs: at"strategic ztstaJliti' ris gip,;
-The IJefensa Department_'pdsi 15
cited in that memo and reiterated. ye
tilled flying obects. (UFOs) -ended"in:
Yet another Air Force intelligence
,report indicated extensive=interest in
a 1976 incident over Iran, when two
.Iranian Air Force F4. Phantom- lighter
planes were scrambled to encounter?a
.brightly lighted object' in?? the- sides
That object was' tracked by Iranian>
-around radar, seen, independently: by
the crew of a-commercial airliner and
. pursued by the F4, which, according to
of their electronic Communications
devices when. they neared the object;.
Approved For Release 2004/10/13: CIA-RDP88-01315R00
Article appeared
on page A-1, 6
THE WASHINGTON POST
19 January 1979
`The report, compiled by American.]
officials, said that the electronics
weapons system of one of the planes
went dead when its, pilot prepared to
fire an A1ld9 missile at a smaller. ob-
ject that appeared to roar out fromi
the larger vehicle. ': -, .- -
The planes- electronic equipment
reportedly- b e "c a m e-. operative = after
they veered. away. from the smaller ob-
ject,whieh'had returned to the larg
light,;: tine 'report::: said;' Iranians de-
scribed,, the- larger object,. with. co
oredi fast-flashing lights,. as the. size o
a Boeing 707 jetliner; ?? `.;'
=The information on. the- 1975 and
1975 sighting-s --records from the Air
.Force and the North American .Airl
,Defense Command (NORAD) was
turned over to Ground Saucer Watch
. (GSW), a Phoenix-based organization
that monitors UFO reports.
GS W obtained the .information
through a freedom-of-Information re-
quest to the Air Force,'one of a num-
ber it has made to government agen
cies involved in UFO investigations.
A similar request to the CIA, made
-both by_ GSW and The Washington
Post, resulted in. the CIA's turning
over almost 900 pages of documents
related. to its monitoring of.:UFO re-
ports since the 195N.,
The CIA was directed by a U.S. Dis-
trict Court judge here, last . year to
turn over to Ground Saucer Watch
UFO data unrelated to national secu-
rity..,.
: The agency, according to GSW offi-
cials and attorneys, apparently has
i.withheld some- UFO records, - and
GSW says it intends to seek-further
court action in the case....-
-,The Air Force and- other federa
military . and intelligence `agencies
have. maintained consistently the
sightings of unidentified'- flying::o
j ects have logical, explanations--the
the UFOs are not visitors from ' an-
other ' world.
agency memoranda relating to 'UFO
;trial life. ? :
terday-by a spokesman, is that it has
had no involvement with UFOs since
1953, when a special study" panes con-
cluded that.they presented.uo threat
to national security.
While memos. from as - recently as
1977 are included in the 879 pages, the.
CIA spokesman said the agency con
Todd Zechel,:-a GSW investigators
and director or another organizaton, i
Citizens Against UFO Secrecy, said. I
"We've had to pry loose every item ofi
information we have. I am inclined to
believe the government doesn't know
any more about UFOs than we do, but
if UFOs are what they say-nothing
why don't they-open their:, files'
1otaliy?" .
Zechel and William Spauldtug,, ' a
,Phoenix. engineer : and director :'o
GSW, said that Defense, the Force3
and the National-` Security Agezcyy.
? (NSA) have-.refused to t u r n over cer
'.tarn other.: information that would
shed. more light on: military encoun-
ters with unidentified flying objects.
Zechel, a former NSA employe who-
now lives in Wisconsin, said that the
1973 incidents around the missile and
bomber facilities would not have been
revealed had it.not been for a "leak'
from a Pentagon source. That tip, he said, led to the?informaa
Lion request. that-produced the reports
on the "flap," as a .rash of UFO inci-
dents is called, in, the last days. of Oc-
tober and the fast. two weeks of No-
vember 1975,
The. Air Force and NOB.AD data
'provided -detailed..-accounts of sight.
-.tugs of unexplained, objects from Lor
ing Air Force Base- in. Maine, Wurt:
smith AFB in Michigan and Malm-
strom AFB in -Montana, all within,a
two-week period.-. ; = .
At those and.. other missile-launch-
ing sites in the northern tier of states,
military personnel reported that the
objects hovered over nuclear weapons
-storage areas 1n'some.cases as low as
10 feet, from., the,'.ground, and,missil
silos, before, they- departed..
The reports referred to the objects
'in' some ?cases-,F'ai3``helicopters, ""ai
though - no>=witness`tmade a positive.
identifications Thw abunds- the objects
emitted'wese~ described as being Simi
lar to heifcopternoise.=",-? ~?4
In one-.such;lnatazice,. on? Nov.:tT,
1975, at Malmstrom