Chasing UFO's in the Guard

In 1954, I was presented with a certificate of membership in the "Mach Buster’s Club" by North American Aircraft. These awards were issued to pilots who had flown the F-86 Saber Jet faster than the speed of sound.  I began flying in the California Air National Guard. We were flying the F-51H and  the F-86 Saber Jet. The F-86 was able to fly at greater than the speed of sound. As far as I know, it was the fastest aircraft the US had at that time.

While flying with the Air National Guard, I became aware that I could spend a year on active duty with the Air Defense Missions. I immediately signed on. The Air Defense controlled the radar stations on the islands off the coast of Southern California. They were responsible for monitoring and identifying any non-commercial air traffic in the vicinity.

Since I had been a firm believer in UFO’s since World War II, I felt that flying for the Air Defense would afford the greatest possibility of encountering a UFO. I was right! On several occasions we (two jets were always scrambled at once) were called out to verify and identify UFO’s in the air space above Southern California.

One day we were scrambled and the controller directed us up over Los Angeles. Both my wing man and I saw a stationary object at about fifty thousand feet. It looked like a light bulb. . . just sitting there. We were climbing toward it, at full throttle in our F-86’s, going through about 37,000 feet. In a split second, the object took off and left us like we were backing up! Ground control verified that the object had moved off their radar screen. We were ordered to return to base.

At the conclusion of each mission, both myself and the other pilot went through extensive military debriefing. Our individual accounts were almost always identical. I felt that our interrogators were doing their best to make us disbelieve what we had seen with our naked eyes and verified with each other during the flight.

This is one of the many UFO experiences I had while on active duty for the Air Defense Missions. It sure was an eventful, exciting year.  I am positive, that we are not the only intelligent life in this universe.

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