OFallon, IL - Light

Circular Green light rose vertically from ocean to 30-40K ft, then accelerated out of sight horiztonally

I sighted an Unidentified Flying Object in the summer (Aug/Sep) of 1968 in the Pacific Ocean.

At the time, I was a Captain and a highly qualified Navigator (5,000+ hours flying time) with the US Air Force, and was flying a C-124 Globemaster aircraft from Bucholz Army Airfield located on Kwajalein Island, Kwajalein Atoll, Marshall Islands to Hickam Air Force Base at Honolulu, Hawaii. I flew the route periodically and had never encountered any other aircraft traffic on that route. As far as I knew, only the Military Airlift Command wing at Hickam Wing and their C-124s were the only aircraft the ever flew in this part of the world – and the purpose of our missions was to ferry supplies and a few passengers between Hawaii, Johnston Island, Kwajalein, & Eniwetok.

Circumstances at time of sighting: Location: 16N – 176W (approximate) Date: August 16, 1968 (approximate) Time: Approx. 0800 GMT (Local time – 2100) Altitude: 9,000 feet Airspeed: 200 Knots Heading: Approx. 060 degrees, true Weather: Clear – Unlimited visibility – Dark – Moon: Waxing Gibbous – overhead, slightly behind aircraft Lights: None on Ocean Surface – only nav lights on aircraft – using red light in cockpit I was between required fixes, and was sitting in the co-pilot seat in the cockpit (co-pilot was in the bunk). Cockpit instrument lights were configured red for night flying.

I spotted a light green glow on the ocean in front of us (relative heading 30 degrees). Due to lack of fixed objects outside the aircraft, would estimate the spot was 3-4 miles in front of us. I pointed the object out to the Aircraft Commander (Maj. Hal Walthal) and between us we speculated what it might be. It looked like the glow was under the ocean surface and appeared several 100 feet in diameter, although there was no way to know for sure, as there were no outside references and we were at 9,000 feet.

We speculated we might be looking at “maybe” a missile equipped submarine with a door open and that was what was emitting the light. We talked about the French testing nuclear weapons in French Polynesia, but knew that was about 5,000 miles south of us. We recheck NOTAMs and there was nothing mentioned there.

As we came closer (perhaps the spot was 1 mile away at our 2:30 position, the light began rising vertically. We picked up nothing on our weather radar (APS-42), and the green light continued to rise vertically - perhaps at 10,000 ft/min rate of climb until it was “far” above us (perhaps 30,000-40,000 feet) at which time the object literally performed an immediate, sharp. 90-degree turn to seeming level flight and headed in an Easterly direction. It was still glowing green and its lateral acceleration was unbelievable – perhaps 1,000’s of miles an hour, and almost immediately disappeared into the distance. We knew the laws of physics would not permit any known vehicle to physically turn 90-degrees like that, nor accelerate to that speed that quickly.

As the UFO disappeared to the East, we discussed whether it might be a threat to the United States, even though the US coast was 3,000-4,000 miles away. We pulled our instructions for filing a CIRVIS (Communications Instructions for Reporting Vital Intelligence Sightings) report, but as we composed the report, we speculated that whatever the UFO was, if its intent was to do damage to the US, it would likely be there and carry out its intended damage long before anyone received our report. By now, we had the whole crew involved discussing our sighting. Several of us “knew of” people who had formally reported UFOs in the past, and knew they had spent years answering bizarre questions and being hounded by “investigators”. We speculated that formally reporting our sighting might wind up being a career-impacting event, and most of us were career-minded people.

So … we ultimately chose not to file the CIRVIS report and let the event “slide by”. For the next several hours we tuned our HF radios to stations where we thought we might hear news if something or someone attacked the US. It was a great personal relief that nothing “weird” happened or was sighted in the US. Some of us mentioned the event to our friends over the years, but to my knowledge, no one ever filed an official report.