Yoza Dakke Air Station, Okinawa (Japan) - Light

This incident took place in 1967 or 1968 while I was stationed in Okinawa in the Air Force. I was assigned to maintain and operate a small 24 hour diesel power house at this very powerfull search radar site called Yoza Dake Air Station. We were loacted at the southern tip of the island and there was a Army Hawk missle site near us. One night me and a co-worker were coming out of a NCO club that was our late night mess hall as the regular mess hall closed at 7 pm. We had a Okinawan waitress that came out side with us as she was beginning to clean up the NCO club and she was coming out to get a mop bucket and a mop as she did almost every night. When we came out of the door she shouted out in Japanese ..OH My God. (OK Sami Yo).. and she ran back inside the NCO cluub. We were very astonished ourselves in the very large red/orange colored light that appeared at 25 -30 degrees above the horizon on the eastern side of the mountain top. We asked each other what could this light be from as it was not usual to see any light on the east side of the mountain as the Naha Airbase has a glide path on the west side of the island and our radar site. We asked each other who had a camera in the barracks which was only about 50 meters away. My friend ran to get his 35 mm camera and I stayed and observed this light alone for about 5 or 10 minutes. The weather was pretty humid and there was a slight misty rain earlier, but it was not raining when we saw this huge bright light. While I was waiting for him to come out of the barracks I was walking towards the rear door of the barracks and watching this light which is very bright. The intensity of the light seemed to stay steady. and it did not move at all and then it suddenly disappeared befor my co-worker came out of the door with his camera. We asked our radar observers that was on duty that night in the block house if they saw any boogies on the radar screens that night and they said no. But later after many questions some did admit the radar observers were! tracking this and some other boogies. Later after this incident one of the senior radar observers said they have logged many unknown boogies there over the years in a daily log book. We both talked about this openly with the 80 plus staff on the radar site and some were open to discussions but most said they could not discuss these boogies as they were instructed by their officers to remain quiet about boogies. A very well known radio personally who was in the Air Force then was also there at this time. He was moonlighting as a DJ at a local NAHA radio station there that we all listened too called KSBK. He is the host of After Dark on the weekends now. I remeber there was newspaper articles in the local dailies as this light or lights were observed in many places that night and it scared alot of people. The KSBK radio station had radio news stories about this light that same night as we went back to barracks and listen to the DJ as the station received alot of call in reports. I visited the KSBK radio station during my 18 month stay there and I was able to meet the current weekend host of After Dark.

((NUFORC Note: Time and date are approximate. We have corresponded with the witness, inquiring whether he is still in touch with the other witnesses. PD))