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The USS Midway 1989
– The Gulf of Oman.
 In 1989 the aircraft carrier USS Midway
was on a tour of duty in the Indian Ocean. On a mission in the Gulf of
Oman, the Combat Direction Center (CDC) watch officer and his crew were
electronically monitoring the positions and movement of all surface
contacts to ensure a safety margin of three miles or more from any
potentially hostile vessels.
Suddenly the officer spotted three strong
blips (contacts) on his radar screen grouped in a triangular formation.
On the second sweep of the radar screen the officer was stunned to see
that the contacts had moved a considerable distance in a remarkably
short period of time. While this CDC group’s mission is to monitor and
track ocean surface contacts, low flying aircraft are also periodically
picked up on their low angled radar. These contacts however, were
moving faster then any aircraft the officer or his crew had ever
observed. The next unnerving thought to occur to the CDC officer, was
that these were missiles. The officer checked with the airborne
detection group within the CDC and they responded that they weren’t
picking up or tracking anything at all. There were no contact blips
flashing on their screens.
Tensions mounted quickly however, as the
CDC Officer and his crew continued to track the three fast moving blips
as they angled toward the ship. As the ‘contacts’ rapidly got closer,
two of the blips made a startling ninety degree turn away from the ship,
but the third turned directly toward the ship. The CDC officer
excitedly barked over the ship’s intercom to the observers on the ship’s
superstructure that something was coming right at them at a high rate of
speed. Accelerating, it was coming in so fast there was no time to
react. When the object got within one mile of the ship it suddenly
disappeared from radar. The CDC Officer again called out to the
lookouts high above in the superstructure, asking if they saw anything
through their binoculars. They reported that they looked at the exact
location but didn’t see a thing.
The CDC Officer then reported the incident
to his commander but was a bit taken aback by the commander’s lack of
reaction. He didn’t react at all.
Within a few minutes the CDC radar screens
picked up the three blips again, very nearly in the same location where
they first picked them up. Alerting the commander that they were back,
the sequence of events played out nearly as before, with neither, the
airborne radar or the lookouts seeing anything.
After this second incident the CDC Officer
was more than a bit concerned that something had actually approached to
within one mile of them without anything or anyone other than surface
radar picking them up and tracking them. (The air defense protection
radius for an aircraft carrier guarding against air attack is fifty
miles.)
The CDC Officer calmly approached the
commander and began discussing the close contact incident, commenting
particularly on the incredible speeds and the virtually impossible 90
degree turns executed by the unknown contacts. The officer then
commented that the only way he could have picked them up on his low
angled radar was if they were flying 30 feet or lower over the ocean’s
surface. He then speculated that the only way they could have
disappeared so suddenly, within one mile of the ship, would be to dive
beneath the ocean’s surface.
The commander then offered (in a rather
hushed voice) that the CDC had, some months before detected an
unidentified object in this general vicinity and had launched an ‘Alert
Fighter’ to intercept and identify the object. The commander stated
that the fighter pilot had just managed to get within visual range and
report the object as a strange metallic glint, when the object quickly
accelerated away from the Navy jet and dove into the water. As the
pilot flew over the point of the object’s entry into the sea, he
reported no wreckage or any sign of oil or fluids floating on the water.
The Navy immediately sent one of the
aircraft carrier’s escort ships over to the site to investigate, but no
trace of a crash or of any type of debris was observed.
While detailed reports were filed by the
Officers and personnel involved, the Navy has reserved comment or
official position on this incident.
by:
Dr. Von Zuko 2007©
Electronic and Visual
Sightings from Other U.S. Warships:
The USS Constellation Aircraft Carrier -
1994
This account has many similarities to the encounter of 1989 concerning the
USS Midway. The USS Constellation was on patrol in an undisclosed
location in the Indian Ocean in the early summer months of 1994.
The Combat Direction Center (CDC) picked up a low flying contact on their
radar that was closing in on the ship at a very high
rate of speed. Initially thought to be an incoming missile the ship braced
for impact when the radar contact vanished
suddenly.
As the ship went to a General Quarters alert, it was then reported that
there was an object now hovering over the aircraft
carrier’s “Island.” Witnessed only by those on the ship’s superstructure, it
was described as a large bright light. The
object was visible for only a few seconds and with an eerie silence, shot
straight up into the sky until it was completely out
of sight.
Officers and crew were debriefed and reminded that the incident should be
forgotten.
The USS Lexington – Gulf of Mexico -
1965
The USS Lexington was on routine patrol in the Gulf of Mexico in the fall of
1965. During night time flight operations an unknown contact was picked up
on radar and attempts were made to quickly identify the contact. Support
crew on the flight deck that night were also able to observe a bright orange
glow in the sky.
Unable to identify the object with a radar profile, and unable to get any
sort of radio response from the object, the Lexington launched two F-4
fighter jets to intercept and identify. The F-4 jets immediately went to
afterburners (a method for jets to temporarily accelerate to a high rate of
speed) but even at 1,500 miles per hour, the F-4s could not get close to the
object. It simply accelerated away, vanishing from sight.
This game of cat and mouse played out the same way three times during that
night. The F-4s would land, the light would appear. The jets would launch
and the light would accelerate away. The fourth time the light appeared the
Navy elected not to launch the F-4s and the light appeared to follow them
harmlessly for nearly a half hour before vanishing the for final time.
Officers and crew were debriefed and reminded that the incident should not
be talked about with any un-authorized individuals.
by:
Dr. Von Zuko 2007©
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