The Fletcher Prouty Commentary - Oct
Unidentified Objects
UFO SIGHTINGS: ON THE RECORD
From an article October 1983
Something is out there! There have been so many sightings of unidentified flying objects (UFO's) by reputable witnesses, that the fact cannot be denied. And obviously, the Air Force agrees; Years ago, they established an office charged with the collection of data on UFOs.
Officials as well placed as Senator Barry Goldwater - a major general in the Air Force Reserve - have demanded this information and they've always been turned down. Today, although there is a growing awareness of valid sightings, information on UFOs is even more secretly hidden than ever before. Let's consider one undeniable case. An experienced Military Transport Service aircrew and many passengers on a long overwater flight from Hawaii to Tokyo, clearly saw a UFO. The year was 1954.
They had left Midway Island shortly after sundown, climbed to 8,000 feet, and set the aircraft on a course for Tokyo. It was a clear night. Even in the dark they could see low clouds hanging over the warm Pacific.
Sometime after midnight, the copilot noticed an object - or at least a source of light from some definitive form - on the right side of the plane, moving along with them at about the same altitude, a little faster than they were.
As he glanced outside again, he saw this large object, not quite as large as their aircraft, had moved closer and slightly ahead. The luminescence from this object resembled the light from a fluorescent lamp with some areas of intense light emanating from a dimmer, but clearly defined, main body.
Although this craft had moved a little closer, there were no other distinguishing features other than this pattern of light. The copilot called to the flight engineer and showed him what he had been watching. They pointed it out to the pilot, who had no trouble seeing it from his side of the plane. All three watched for some time, and all agreed they were seeing the same pattern: a large airship and a source of light. They called other crew members to see it, and at about that same time, one of the flight stewards came forward to report that many passengers were watching this same thing, near them and "off the right wing."
This object had one distinct characteristic that set it off from any known aircraft and from normal flight: It would dart ahead of them, soar high above them very quickly, and then dive below them - effortlessly.
These nine or ten experienced aircrewmen were convinced, beyond any doubt, that what they were watching was a UFO. They made an initial report to their commanding officer; and later, after a night's rest, they returned to make out individual, formal statements. Their formal reports were then forwarded, to Air Force Headquarters, in Washington.
The reason I've chosen to cite this factual UFO case from 1954 is because I was that commanding officer. I have heard nothing more about that incident since that day. However, I have heard about UFOs flying along beside the world's fastest aircraft, the Spyplane (SR-71), and I have heard that the Air Force has two "bodies" or extraterrestrial objects in storage on one of its bases. Most UFO stories contain elements I cannot believe; this case has been my only direct contact with an actual responsible sighting. I knew my crewmen well and believed their individual stories. I have never doubted that. Those men were too experienced to have mistaken other aircraft: weather phenomena: aurora borealis; St. Elmo's fire; shooting stars; and all other strange, but natural wonders of the world of the airman. That object over the Pacific that night in 1954 was a UFO.
L. Fletcher Prouty
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