UFO Sighting at Luke Afb?

UFOs, Unidentified Flying Objects - Flying Saucers,the F-84 back and forth, convinced a flaw in the
whatever you care to call them, and whether youcanopy's plexiglass was blanking out the airplane,
believe in them or not, there are too many sightingshowever, still none to be seen. Whatever the object,
to be totally dismissed. Here's an exceptional oneit was darned high, or darned small. The object was
extracted from "Project Blue Book", written by "EJR"traveling at approximately 300 miles an hour, as it
former chief of the Air Force's project forwas necessary to reduce engine power and "S" to
investigating UFO reports.stay under it.
The incident took place at Luke AFB, Arizona, the AirHe was beginning to get low on fuel about this time
Force's advanced fighter-bomber school that isso he hauled up the nose of the jet, took about 30
named after the famous "balloon buster" of Worldfeet of gun camera film, and started down. When he
War I, Lieu¬tenant Frank Luke, Jr. Itlanded and told his story, the film was quickly
was a sighting that produced some veryprocessed and rushed to the projection room. It
inter¬esting photographs.showed a weird, thin, forked vapor trailbut no
The sky was clear except for a few high cirrusairplane.
clouds, late morning of March 3, 1953, when the pilotLieutenant Olsson and Airman Futch (veterans of the
took off from Luke Air Base in an F-84 jet, to addUFO campaign of 1952) worked the report over
some more hours to his flight log. He had been flyingthor¬oughly. The photo lab confirmed
F-51s in Korea and had recently started to check outthat the trail was definitely a vapor trail, not a freak
in the jets. After take off, clearing the trafficcloud formation. But Air Force Flight Service said, "No
pattern, he climbed toward Blythe Radio, situatedother airplanes in the area," and so did Air Defense
about 130 miles west of Luke.Command, because minutes after the F-84 pilot
He'd climbed for several minutes and had just pickedbroke off contact, the "object" had passed into an
up the coded letters BLH that identified Blythe RadioADIZAir Defense Identification Zoneand radar
when he looked up through the corner glass in thehad shown nothing.
front part of his canopyhigh at about two o'clockThere was one last possibility: an astronomer said
he saw what he thought was an airplane anglingthat the photos looked exactly like a meteor's smoke
across his course from left to right leaving a long, thintrail. But there was one hitch: the pilot was convinced
vapor trail. He glanced down at his altimeter and sawthat the speed of the object at the head of the
that he was at 23,000 feet. The object that wasvapor trail was approximately 300 miles per hour. He
leaving the vapor trail must really be high, hewas unsure how many miles had been covered, but
remembered thinking, because he couldn't see anyon first picking up Blythe Radio, whilst flying on Green
airplane at the head of it.5 airway, he was approximately 30 miles west of his
He altered his course a few degrees to the right soAir Base. When the pilot had disengaged from the
that he could follow the trail and increased his rate ofchase, a further radio bearing confirmed his position
climb. Before long he could tell that he was gaining onas almost up to Needles Radio, 70 miles north of
the object, or whatever was leaving the vapor trail,Blythe. He could see a lake, Lake Mojave, in the
because he was under the central part of it. But hedistance.
still couldn't see any object. This was odd, heWas a high-altitude jet-stream wind the reason for
thought, because vapor trails don't just happen;the smoke cloud? Futch checked thisno. The winds
something has to leave them.above 20,000 feet were the usual westerlies and the
His altimeter had ticked off another 12,000 feet andjet stream was far to the north.
he was now at 35,000. Still climbing, the F-84 beganSeveral months later I talked to a captain who had
to mush; it was as high as it would go. The pilotbeen at Luke when this sighting occurred. He knew
dropped down 1,000 feet and continued oneventhe F-84 pilot, whose report he had heard in minute
when he was below the front of the trail, however,detail. Maybe not a confirmed believer, however,
still no sight of an airplane. This bothered him too.certainly curious. "I never thought much about these
Nothing in 1953 flew over 55,000 feet except a fewreports before," he said, "but I know this guy well.
experimental airplanes like the D-558 or those of theHe's not nuts. What do you think he saw?"
"X" series, and they don't stray far from EdwardsI don't know what he saw. Maybe he didn't travel as
AFB in California.far as he thought he did. If he didn't, then I'd guess
He couldn't be more than 15,000 feet from the frontthat he saw a meteor's smoke trail. But if he did
of the trail, and you can recognize any kind of anknow that he'd covered some 80 miles during the
airplane 15,000 feet away in the clear air of the subchase, I'd say that he saw a UFOa real one. And I
stratosphere.find it hard to believe that pilots don't know what
He looked and he looked and he looked. He movedthey're doing.