An Odd 1965 Sighting from Carswell AFB, Fort Worth, Texas

                The cool shadows of night were just settling down over Fort Worth on July 28, 1965 (0240 z or 8:40 p.m.) when a United States Air Force Reserves Major and his wife paused in their bicycle ride around the north parameter of Carswell Air Force Base.

          

  It had been a clear warm day, high nineties with just enough wind (8 knots) to feel some relief from the heat. Somewhere in the distance, on base or elsewhere, the faint sounds of music came from someone’s radio. Several hundred yards to the south of where they paused there was a C-124 being loaded or unloaded and around it were grouped some Air Force guards, some airmen, and a waiting truck.

                His wife called his attention to three extremely bright lights coming toward them from the south. As the Major glanced up he found himself staring at something that left him shocked.  As it moved past them heading north the light was far more intense and pulsated slower, as if from a Doppler Effect. Watching it silently continue on he realized right away three very important things.

The first that the massive (about 40 foot) mantra ray shaped dark object sailing back overhead was inside the Carswell AFB controlled air space.

The second fact was that he did not recognize the object in the sky above them. He was a command pilot, a major In the AF Reserves and had top secret clearances yet he did not recognize the object. He estimated it was under 1000 feet in altitude. He also noticed that the standard position lights were not there.  When the lights went out underneath, there was an odd twinkle along the leading edge, like electricity zipping across its surface.

Finally, he recognized one other thing and that was the object was sailing overhead with a total lack of sound. There was not even the whisper of air displacement as a glider would make.

                His training kicked in and he noticed other things. On the underside were three extremely brilliant white lights. It had come in low at about a 20 degree horizon and was going somewhere between 50 and 60 knots. Hurrying back to the base he typed up a report, citing the potential threat to security for ground or air crew to not be able to immediately recognize all air craft in the skies.

                He immediately returned to base, checked with tower control, and a Sergeant and three air men there verified they had also seen the object. He then submitted his report. Local authority teletyped his statement to Wright-Patterson and other recognized recipients per protocol.

                That is about all that is in the Project Blue Book file on this case. The cover sheet with its summaries and comments is once more a source of some interesting information. The sighting was summarily concluded to be an “aircraft.” The lack of detail is significant given the questions the witness raised about security. The summary also adds the following: “Tower regarded it as aircraft. Pilots of aircraft in the area regarded it as aircraft. Call to investigating officer that it was an aircraft. Reported because RAFCON (a radar approach control system used by the FAA and the military) could not identify aircraft in area at time of sighting. Report regarded as aircraft observance. Flight could be local with no flight plan at local FAA station. Evaluated as aircraft."

                On the cover someone, higher up or one of the several consultants hired to review cases, had scrawled a question that can be taken several ways: “How come a command pilot can’t recognize an aircraft?”  This could be an indicting statement about the level of training of said command pilot with top secret clearance or it could be a question just what was this object that flew so steady northward through restricted and controlled air space over an air base that houses, among other things, the Strategic Air Command (SAC)?

                The most striking aspect of this case is the silence. The absolutely-no-sound-being-made-whatsoever element that is out of step with recognized aerial development for the time.  The “manta ray” shape was not new (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_F4D_Skyray) and was first seen in craft tested as early as 1951.  The silence, however, is harder to locate prior to 1993 with rumors of the new stealth craft being developed.  

                Most probable is that there was a clandestine line of development at work in the 1950’s and into the space race 1960’s that pursued the idea of zero- gravity and anti-gravity (see https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/30499/the-truth-is-the-military-has-been-researching-anti-gravity-for-nearly-70-years). It is known that the FBI, CIA and companies used by them in contract work such as Northrup destroyed many files related to top secret projects.  Northrup’s flying wing, Northrop YB-49, bears a strong resemblance to some witness drawings in Project Blue Book files indicating that people were sometimes seeing experimental craft.

                The records for a 1965 craft generating less than 10 decibels (audible breathing) are difficult to verify. There may be another clue in the sparkling lights seen along the leading edge of the craft. This is an effect reported by some claiming they had worked on anti-gravity experimental crafts and has been reported to have been seen on some early spy planes. The U-2 and other early spy planes can account for many of the very high and very fast sightings of strange objects but low and silent?

                What craft in 1965 had a manta ray shape, was roughly 40 feet across, had three extremely brilliant (the new strobe lights?) underneath and could travel at under 1000 feet with total absence of sound?  That is the question. Do you have an answer?