Oklahoma UFO's Featured in Interview

 Oklahoma has decades-long history with UAP sightings (koco.com)

Author and researcher, Marilyn A. Hudson, Stroud, Oklahoma, is seen here showing a drawing done of a witnesses account of seeing something strange in 1969 near Stroud, Lincoln Co., Oklahoma. 

Follow the link to read the story and see the video from OKC KOCO Television. 

NEW BOOK SHARES UFO SITES OVER ROUTE 66 IN OKLAHOMA

 

A new book by co-authors Cullan Hudson and Marilyn A. Hudson explores the stories from the historic "Mother Road" in Oklahoma. The state has the longest stretch original highway of any of the Route 66 states.  Coming soon will be the centennial of the road that  country together  and generated an entire sub-culture of enthusiasts and tourists. 

The book is a short and simple guide for those traveling through the state, with a map, legends and lots of stories to tease the imagination.  So cruise down the mother of all roads - but grab of copy  UFO's OVER OKLAHOMA first~

Look for it soon on Amazon and Kindle.  (Covers different for formats)

Click here for Kindle version and paperback link: Amazon.com: UFOs Over Oklahoma: A Short Guide to Route 66 eBook : Hudson, Marilyn A., Hudson, Cullan : Kindle Store

A Spy Plane, A UFO, and Some Near Misses: The RB-47h Incident (Kansas, Texas, Oklahoma)

 1957, July 17, Forbes AFB, Topeka, Kansas.

“A Spy-Plane, A UFO, and Some Near Misses: The RB-47h Incident.”

In a year that would turn out to be truly amazing in regards the unidentified, this case and those surrounding it rank as a truly important and classic case. Better known as the “RB-47h Case” this is very impressive case. Forbes was home to a special plane loaded with some new and hush-hush electrical counter-measures equipment. 

Flying out of Forbes AFB that day the task was simple. It was a standard weapons and systems proficiency assignment that included the new counter-measures. They would fly south over Oklahoma, cross into the Dallas-Ft. Worth area in Texas, and then head east toward Louisiana (toward Jackson and Meridian in Mississippi to be precise) and then south to Gulfport. 

Finally, they would go out into the gulf to practice some predetermined weapons maneuvers to add to the previous testing of both ground equipment and the onboard gear.

Mission completed, the plane simply reversed its course. That was when things became … a little interesting. The craft (the RB-47h) was crewed by pilot Lewis D. Chase; co-pilot James H. McCoid; navigator Thomas H. Hanley; #2 Monitor Operator, Frank B. McClure; #3 Monitor Operator, Walter A. Tuchscherer; #1 Monitor Operator, John Provenzano.

Coming home, the first contact was equipment based over the region of Gulfport, Mississippi. This was followed by a visual sighting by the crew of RB-47h over western Louisiana (southeast of Jackson, Mississippi). At about 5:10 am, the aircraft commander observed a very bright white light tinted by blue. It was at an 11 o’clock position and crossed right in front of the plane at about the 2:30 o’clock position. At 1039z the aircraft commander sighted a huge light estimated 5000 ft. below the aircraft at about the 3 o’ clock position. The crew clearly recalled a light emanating from its top portion. These air reports were being verified by the ground units.

Later experts would describe the actions of this “light” as traveling faster than an airplane, nothing that it “emitted, and reflected, 2800 megahertz radio waves…it displayed behavior indicative of intelligent control.” (Craig, pg. 143).

At about 5:40 a.m. the #2 Monitor Operator reported two signals (i.e., two objects) at 40 and 70 degrees. At this time, the aircraft commander and co-pilot saw two objects with red color. There was no discernable shape to the red glow. At the time they were approaching the Dallas area and received approval to ignore their flight plan and pursue the mystery objects. Sources diverge as to the source of the approval. One indicates it was the FAA (then called the CAA) and another that it was the military authority who granted this pursuit action. One crew member recalled seeing the lights moving abruptly starboard to port side and then back; in other words the lights were actively moving. The ground sensing equipment was with several designated radar stations involved in the exercise with RB-47h. Several of these had tracked the objects. One, code named UTAH, had not been on or its settings had not been calibrated because it did not track the objects until further into the incident. When they came online it was after the objects had turned northward and reappeared visually as well on the radar screens. 

The “unknown” turned north between Ft. Worth and Dallas.  It was while in that general area that chief pilot Chase received permission to go after it from an authority (CAA or military). One source said they had “told all jets to get out of the way.”

 

The plane went toward Mineral Wells (west of Ft. Worth) before making a turn back toward the Ft. Worth-Dallas air corridor.  At about 5:42 a.m. the crew reported an object ten nautical miles northwest of Ft. Worth.  ADC’s “UTAH” station confirmed it on their ground scopes.  One of the Monitors on the RB-47h regained the object on their scope at 5:58 a.m. when it was some 25 nautical miles northwest of Ft. Worth. It was at again at a 2 o’clock position relative to the RB-47h.

At this time, the crew was beginning to fear they would run low on fuel and not make it back to their home base in northern Kansas.  So at 6:20 a.m. they took up a heading for home station at Forbes. Heading into southern Oklahoma, at 20,000 ft., they once more tracked an object (the same or similar).  Some unofficial reports indicate that the object may have been seen by people on the ground near both the Ardmore and Oklahoma City area. Just as the RB-47h was nearing Oklahoma City the object was permanently lost.  The plane continued on to Topeka, was debriefed, audio wire recordings and images from the equipment and the interviews was collected and the crew believed all reports had been filed by their superiors. 

Well, at least that was way it was supposed to happen.

That same early morning just fifty miles east of El Paso, over an area called the Salt Flats, in the far southwest corner of Texas, an American Airlines commercial plane had a near collision with a “mysterious unidentified object.” The incident made headlines – complicating things for many agencies involved in answering the mystery.

It was only fast action that kept AA Flight # 655 from having a more serious encounter than it did that morning of July 17, 1957. I was about 4:00 a.m. when Captain T. ‘Ed’ Bachner, a 15 year pilot veteran, saw a “green light” ahead. The plane was a DC-7 air coach with 85 souls (80 passengers and 5 crew). Presuming the light was the left wing running light of another aircraft while flying at 14,000 ft., he veered right. At the same time, he sent the plane into a sharp 400-500 drop. Some passengers injured, two of them seriously enough to require an unscheduled stop at the El Paso airport.  AA Flight 655 was heading west on a flight from, newspaper accounts vary, from either New York to Los Angeles from Dallas to Los Angles. His position of 50 miles east from El Paso was tracked by the beacon towers at Salt Flats and the Waco Tower.

The year would see many problems for commercial flights with numerous crashes making headlines.  That was one reason why the mysterious near-misses caught people’s attention. Add in the mysterious unknown craft angle and there was a much stronger interest. Were UFO’s causing these near collisions? Commercial pilots, crews and passengers had been among some of the earliest, and best, cases reported about unidentified flying objects. The pilots were great witnesses – smart, experienced, calm under pressure.  When the explanation that the “discs” were secret test projects one disgruntled pilot asked a still unanswered question: “why fly in commercial air space and endanger the public?”

The next week (July 22, 1957) near Amarillo in the Texas panhandle a Trans World Airlines Flight #21 had a similar encounter. It was about 10 p.m. when a Captain Schamel of TWA was flying at 18,000 ft. when, in the darkness ahead he saw, unexpectedly, what looked like “running lights.” Again, an emergency dive by an experienced pilot, created chaos in the cabin, and a few minor injuries,  but a collision was averted.

Then on the night of July 29 and early morning of July 30 in Ohio the pilots of Capital Airlines # 841 observed an object suddenly appear out of the north and passed their path some 40-50 miles out of Akron. The aircraft gave chase and the object sped up ahead of it and then disappeared northwest over the horizon of Akron itself. Both pilots were very sure the object was not a star and not jet. They described this object as large, yellow-white light, no sound, very fast, light would go brilliant then dim and then brighten once more in a cycle. It hovered at one point over the area of Cleveland and then moved northwest at a 20 degree angle.  The pilots had it view for about eight minutes.

Further north on July 30, an object was seen east of Rockford, Michigan about midnight.  It was described as three walnut sized, round, objects changing colors from red, green, and to yellow. There were three in the west and one object in the northeast. When they moved they left a small red tinged “exhaust.” The objects remained stationary and moved in bobby motion. They remained in place in the sky for some thirty minutes. The conclusion of the Air Force? The witnesses had seen the “aurora borealis” then “visible in the United States.”

This case, involving as it did a virtual “spy-plane” with electronic counter-measure equipment and a specialized crew did not even reach Project Blue Book until November of 1957. The file was classed “Secret” according to documents because of that special aspect to the equipment. To further muddy the waters the report was dated for September and as a result all weather reports and other data accessed to investigate this case were invalid.  September and as a result all weather reports and other data accessed to investigate this case were invalid. 

The CAA handed the Air Force a solution when they sent a letter to Project Blue Book saying they had proven the Aircraft (AA Flight 655) had encountered another aircraft (AA Flight 966). The TWA flight on July 22 had, it was “assumed” encountered a U.S.A.F. KC-97 aircraft “which was known to be operating in the area at the time of the incident.” “The true identify,” wrote A.L. Coulter and Ray Keeley, Director, Office of Flight Operations and Airworthiness for the Department of Commerce, Civil Aeronautics Division in a November 1957 letter to ATIC at Wright-Patterson AFB, “of this aircraft was never determined, however…”   An incident endangering civilian lives in commercial airspace was solved by an “assumption.”

The reason for this delay may have been the highly classified nature of the equipment. Just the month before the Russian launching Sputnik I there may have been concerns about leaking information. It could also have been that the incident was one big puzzle and those in “intelligence” had no clue what had happened or what had been seen by the crew over some 700 nautical miles.

In 1971, Dr. James McDonald, a rare scientific proponent of the need for serious investigations into such things, led an academic sub-committee report on this case. He and his committee noted it had been studied by the Condon Report. 

In McDonald’s group they had uncovered that (a) the case was misfiled due to the wrong date being assigned to the case. It was labeled as 18 September 1957 (Craig, pg. 134) and not 17 July 1957 ;(b) as a result of that error all the radar and weather reports analyzed by Condon’s team had used the incorrect event date thus invalidating all of their conclusions; (3) the audio interview made of the crew on landing at Forbes, the reports, and a lot of other materials were “misplaced.”

McDonald, so often horribly ridiculed and attacked by his peers and professional debunkers such as Phillip Klass and Dr. Donald H. Menzel, arranged for new interviews with the crew to replace the “lost” (or simply never generated reports of the event), he saw that the dating was corrected in the record, and made sure the scientists who were members of the AIAA were heard. For more information see “UFO Encounter 1: Sample Case Selected by the UFO’s Sub-committee of the AIAA” Astronautics and Aeronautics (July 1971) and Scientific Studies of Objects Unidentified Flying Objects (Boston 1969). 

Despite the odd conclusion found in Project Blue Book, namely agreeing with the CAA statement that the incident was caused by a near collision with an American Airlines Flight #655, later research pointed out the impossibility of that given their relative locations.  Also, the alleged AA Flight #966 was reportedly grounded at the time. So the whole solution becomes a bit sticky the closer it is examined.

Debunkers Klass and Menzel, among others, would assert “ball lightening” but when the University of Colorado committee heard the report and talked with the crew all but the diehard skeptics lost interest in that as a viable cause.

Charges of problems with the electronic countermeasure equipment would be made, as they often were, on any radar based sightings. The problem was the objects were seen by both human eye and electronic equipment.  Later, the Wing Reconnaissance Director had no question that the electronic signal they had picked up had come from the mystery object.

An excellent summary of the importance of this event is found on NICAP’s 1957 Chronology page: “1. The RB-47 case is the first known case of a UFO transmitting its own radar beam (several other cases are now known but the RB-47 was the first to become public).  Not only was the UFO tracked by an air defense radar on the ground near Dallas and by the RB-47 spy plane's airborne radar, but the UFO itself was sending out radar signals.  It is the only known radar-visual-ELINT case on record (a few radar-ELINT cases with no visual sightings, and a few visual-ELINT cases, with no radar tracks, are known too); 2.  The UFO's radar signals were picked up on special highly classified Electronic Intelligence (ELINT pronounced "EL-int") equipment aboard the RB-47. 

The RB-47 normally flew missions on the periphery of the Soviet bloc, using its spy gear to locate enemy radars.  In this case, on July 17, 1957, the RB-47 flew out of Forbes AFB, Kansas, on a training mission out over the Gulf of Mexico.  On its return leg, the UFO was detected on the spy plane's ELINT gear.”

What was scheduled to be a run-of-the-mill practice mission that day in July 1957 became much more. Although authorities attempted to hide the information, lose the evidence, and divert attention the truth did emerge.  The shell game aspect, however, leaves the possibility of other evidence lost, misplaced, and intentionally obfuscated in those years – and perhaps – still today.

Sources: Include, NICAP http://www.nicap.org/reports/rb47_update_sparks.htm’; Roy Craig, UFO’s An Insider’s View of the Official Quest for Evidence (UNT, 1995); “Airliner Misses Mystery Craft in Darkness” (The Daily News-Telegram, Sulphur Springs, TX (July 17, 1957); Project Blue Book files; “UFO Encounter 1: Sample Case Selected by the UFO’s Sub-committee of the AIAA”, Astronautics and Aeronautics (July 1971) and Scientific Studies of Objects Unidentified Flying Objects (Boston 1969). 

[From “Kansas Encounters”, Marilyn A. Hudson, 2022]

Mystery Photo October 1965 in Oklahoma: UPDATE?

Has this mystery been solved? One person has suggested that this was Tulsa and another that it was the area where Alan Smith, the 14-year-old who took the famous color photo of the UFO, August 1965 lived. The Smith family lived then at 4719 S. 29, in "west Tulsa."  

Maybe someone can provide some information on this scene. It is in a Project Blue Book file labeled "OklahomaReports 6978166 9984 " and contains this one photo. It is dated October 1965. 

The cases for Oklahoma for 1965 do not include any with an October date. What is there are three files for Hinton (Jan.), Hugo (Feb) and Tulsa (August).   

The Tulsa is a photo file with attempts to duplicate the UFO photo of a 14 year old Tulsa boy (possibly the first color UFO photo). That file is number 08 6977940 9666, Given the hundreds of cases and firsthand reports of the summer of 1965 in Oklahoma the sparse files in intriguing. Especially, when the "reports" and data for Oklahoma can be found in two other MASSIVE files for other locations instead. 

If anyone knows where this photo was taken and what event it represents, please leave your information through the comment form portion of this webpage. 

Marilyn A. Hudson

When The UFO's Harried the Air Force: Wyoming and Nebraska August 1965

 The copy is printed overlarge and in a file of over three hundred pages. Command post records of communications during a fast-paced time the Air Force will later struggle to hide under sightings of stars and planets and mirages from temperature inversions. The truth was far stranger...

"8. Warren Command Post. Sighting seems to be a blob approximately 20 feet in diameter orange in color. No sound. About as tall as one-story building. Descending. Observed for 2 minutes. No
sighting aids used. Report by Staff Sgt. Boast."

In early August the Army Ammunition Depot at Sidney, Nebraska and the Missile Silos at Warren AFB near Cheyenne, Wyoming burned up the communication lines to Wright Patterson, NORAD, and other locations. It was not merely the high number of civilian sightings of things in the skies, the military itself was experiencing dozens of men seeing things with their own eyes. Men trained to guard missile silos and protect the nation were reporting in official communications "formations of objects", "circular in shape", depending on vantage points, the size of "a dime" or "a quarter". Some were size of peas seen in the distant sky blinking red, green, white.  They were "stacked" and they moved to the west, to the south, to the north and all different directions from both locations

[Note these will be similar to sightings in Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas and elsewhere.]

The duty officer reports are filled with scrawls as someone attempted to label a sighting as a natural astronomical event with a hasty "Jupiter" in heavy thick pencil or grease-pen. Yet there were so many of the same or similar in all positions in the skies that excuse was flimsy and uninformed. 

"No.10: 2 GI's at Golf 1 Warren missile site...0600. Extremely bright moving very fast. No sound or propulsion. 10 to 20,000 feet north to south. Approx. 30 minutes to cross sky horizon to horizon.... Appeared size of a quarter at arm's length."

The massive file containing these is labeled "Bunkie, Louisiana."  The contents reveal the harried atmosphere of the Air Force in the 31 July to August 1-6, 1965.  The time of the "Midwest Flap", the "Summer of the Saucers" and other designations.

Hot off the press Monday, Aug.2, newspapers had a press release where the Air Force said the sightings were the result of people seeing stars and planets. They even named them. 

Meanwhile, down in Oklahoma, where July31- August 4 the state and regions would report hundreds of sightings of lights and object moving in formation and in various directions, even landing briefly in Oklahoma and Texas, the scientists shook their heads. Astronomers at two public planetariums quickly questioned where the Air Force was getting its information. The stars and planets offered as explanations where not even visible at that time of the year to account for the sightings. As nimble as an elephant on skates, the Air Force switched its words  and were quoted in an Oklahoma newspaper (Chickasaw Daily Express, Tues, Aug. 3, 1965):

"The "Blue Book" spokesman at Wright-Patterson  Air Force Base said Monday's statement mentioning certain stars was intended as an explanation of UFO sightings in Wyoming not in Oklahoma."

The problem with that statement was the stars and planets in the sky for Oklahoma would be the same for Wyoming. If they were not visible in Oklahoma then they were not visible in Wyoming. I checked a historical star chart that showed that the stars and planets offered in the press release were indeed not visible during the hours of the sightings and reports either in Oklahoma or in Wyoming. 

In Oklahoma You Get Your Kicks on Route 66

Several times in Oklahoma history, UFO's followed that idea as they traveled over Oklahoma skies. In the 1960's they followed the corridor of northeast route 66 around Sapulpa, Cushing, Bristow, and Tulsa.

I share some of these in my book "SOONER SAUCERS" (see link on sidebar).   A visit to the museum of the Route in Clinton, Oklahoma found a newspaper article and photo about UFO's. A treat!

OKLAHOMA BOOK SHARES ABOUT STATE UFO'S

Oklahoma - the Sooner State - has been witness to numerous strange and unusual events over its history and that include things zipping across its skies and landing on its soil.  Author Marilyn A. Hudson serves as tour guide to a collection of the assorted events that had people looking up to search the skies from 1947 to 1969. Drawn from government records, newspapers, personal accounts and local legends she shares what people saw, what some said the objects were and provides some information and questions along the way.

Today, as 'Unidentified Aerial Phenomena" are becoming news worthy and the term is replacing the well worn "Flying Saucers" and "UFO's" of the past, take a trip to see what was going on over Oklahoma skies...

You might be surprised. Read SOONER SAUCERS: OKLAHOMA UFOs 1947-1969.

Marilyn A. Hudson, is an Oklahoma research, author, and storyteller who has written both fiction and nonfiction.

Sooner Saucers: Oklahoma UFO's 1947-1969 now available in Kindle format.

ISBN 9798667091219