Is it any wonder that in 1959 when the US was rolling out Mach III capable fighters and interceptors that suddenly an overt attempt at testing our air defense response time came in the form of a red disk hovering in a stationary position adjacent to Redmond, Oregon airport? It would seem that someone or something was not only interested in our response, but was perhaps aware of the rapidly changing state of the art of air to air capability as well.

Fatal possibilities

The tragic fate of Captain Thomas Mantell, who climbed to over 20,000 feet to intercept a UFO over Godman Army Air Field in Kentucky 7, January 1948 is one of many fatalities in a long history of pursuits of the unknown and the loss of a decorated combat aviator. In 1965 General Benjamin Chidlaw, head Strategic Air Command admitted at that time that there had been 3000 attempted UFO intercepts over the continental United States and it had resulted in the losses of many men and aircraft.

Since 1948 there had been a number of attempted intercepts of UFO’s and some of these incidents had led to crashes of US pilots and their hardware as well as purported crashed and forensically investigated UFO crash sites. Many analysts have suggested that an undeclared air war was being conducted without knowledge of the general public. In the book by “The Report on UFO’s” by USAF Captain Edward J. Ruppelt, former Director of Project Blue Book, a number of attempted intercepts are described leaving both pilots and radar operators in complete shock while the generals concocted some kind of vague and non-threatening explanation for public consumption.

Dogfight with the unknown

In 1948 Lieutenant Gorman over Fargo, North Dakota encountered a UFO at night he pressed his F-51 Mustang to its limits making acrobatic dives and sharp turns trying to identify an unknown aerial object that evaded his every attempt. The official explanation was that he had mistakenly chased a lighted weather balloon, but he claimed to have watched the thing in flight as he took off from the flight line and climbed into the sky to intercept the intruder!  Once again another ridiculous explanation by the “brass” as high ranking officers were called back then.

Debris field in Texas

Sometime in 1949 a former USAF pilot tells about a UFO crash site he flew over near Del Rio, Texas close to the Mexican border. He landed at a San Antonio airfield, commandeered as private single engine plane and flew back over the area and made mental notes of the details. Knowing it was a classified operation he was never able to get as close as he would have liked, but apparently an unknown craft had been shot down.

Hysterical pilot

In that same year of 1949, a USAF pilot is harassed by an unknown flying object that continually threatens his plane by making near head on passes forcing him to take evasive maneuvers to the point of throwing him into a panic. When the pilot is finally able to land his F-51 Mustang he is immediately greeted by an intelligence officer for a debriefing on his harrowing experience. The aviator is extremely shaken up. Incident occurred at San Antonio air field.

Soviet encounter

Apparently, America is not the only nation to have engaged UFO’s in the air space over their territory. A Soviet test pilot in 1949 was in flight when a bizarre UFO flew close to his aircraft. When he steered toward the object all of his electrical panel instruments failed. Once he turned away from the unknown craft he regained power again. He describes the UFO as appearing like a rotating fan and it causes him to experience a near black out and medical problems that last for months. Was it radioactive? Had he been subjected to microwaves? Months later once he had recovered the test pilot reportedly had another encounter and was forced to land his plane again. Nothing is known about his fate, but the Soviets were not known for human rights or being necessarily sentimental about those who did not perform well.

The unfortunate Russian aviator’s saga is from Timothy Good’s Book “Above Top Secret” an excellent source of forbidden history. His thorough examination of UFO intercepts and the unfortunate turn of events in some cases is intriguing.

Attempted shoot down

In 1950 Blue Book Director Ruppelt was called onto an attempted UFO incident cover up at a location he could not disclose, but the “Bird Colonel” on the base who had called the pilot onto the carpet for an explanation had burned up his copy of the pilot’s account of the encounter. Luckily an intelligence officer on duty had reviewed the case, had retained his copy, and contacted Captain Ruppelt. According to the report the pilot had been on routine air patrol with a wing-man in his F-86 and was flying at a low altitude when he spotted what looked like a parachute canopy only the object was picking up speed and altitude as he observed it.

He frantically called for his wing man to confirm what he was seeing but he couldn’t make radio contact. He throttled into full after burner in an effort to stay with the UFO but it was out distancing him so he charged up his six wing to wing mounted 50 caliber machine guns and a fired on the object at a range of 1000 yards but observed no effect upon the UFO or its performance as it left him behind. He then knew he would be called in by his commanding officer for an explanation over why he had discharged his weapons.

UFO's frequent nuclear facilities

A two seat fighter interceptor, the F-94C was in flight over Hanford, Washington at night when an unidentified object began making passes directly at the pilot and his backseat weapons officer, often nicknamed “Wizzo” as their designated mission. Having to make acrobatic maneuvers in order to avoid a midair collision, the pilot attempted to get a radar lock on the red disk as it came at them again but could not get a lock on in order to fire an air to air missile upon the “Bogie” as UFO’s are often called. The unknown craft was simply coming at them too fast for their missile to be readied. They were finally able to dive into a low altitude to escape. This report came from the book “Aliens in Space” by Donald Keyhoe, a former US Marine Corps pilot himself.

US Astronaut gives chase

In that same year future Mercury Program astronaut, Deke Slayton, was about to land his F-51 Mustang when he spotted a UFO to his left. He quickly aborted his descent and made a hard turn and increased his altitude at full throttle! Making a pass at the object he cut inside of its turn to try and get an edge against the unknown craft, but as Deke put it, his propeller driven fighter plane was no match for the UFO. The object quickly moved away and out of sight.

Unreachable

Future NASA Astronaut, Gordon Cooper, was stationed in Germany in the mid 1950’s and flew the F-86, an excellent fighter aircraft and with speeds over 600 miles an hour. He reported that on a number of occasions his squadron was scrambled to intercept fast and high flying unidentified objects that simply outclassed his unit’s jet fighters. They couldn’t get close enough and high enough to get a good look.

Desperation

According to former USMC Major Keyhoe, the air to air engagements became so intense that the Pentagon was worried that if the Soviets were to bring down or capture a flying disk the back engineered technology could create a dangerous threat to the balance of power so that secret instructions were given to Naval and US Air Force pilots to ram a flying saucer if they could safely eject just before impact in their desperate bid to capture the technology exhibited by their unknown aerial opponents.

Conclusion?

In these early air to air encounters with UFO’s we are seeing a definite pattern of the violation of protected air space and a cat and mouse game being played between the pilots who are under orders to pursue and identify as their duty, and yet who are they up against in the thin air and frozen altitudes of international air space? Who is testing them, perhaps taunting them? Who is perhaps demonstrating their technical superiority?

Importance of Redmond incident

The important distinction at Redmond, Oregon in 1959 is the amount of documented US Air Force facilities, the expert eye witness testimony, and the procedures that were thoroughly conducted in dispatching nine US military aircraft in order to intercept a ubiquitous flying saucer! Did they think they could capture it, shoot it down, or simply get a closer look? The details to this incident are exceptionally well verified.