The Minot AFB B-52 UFO Incident.

Originally posted by karl 12

Originally posted by Lowneck
Hope I'm not duplicating any previous posts with this link I've just found to superb recent work by Thomas Tulien

www.minotb52ufo.com...

Lowneck, many thanks for posting that link my friend, haven't had time to go through all of the article yet but Captain Brad Runyon's witness sketch of the object is certainly a very interesting one!


[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/8313a00200bd.png[/atsimg]


Will post back when time allows but I think it's got to be said that the USAF explanation for this incident (twinkling stars) has got to be one of the most contrived and intellectualy dishonest ones yet.
All the best mate.

Tuliens' site is excellent, looking at the original documentation that makes up this case is totally different than reading one of the abridged versions floating around on the internet. Project Bluebook never interviewed the crew of the B-52 for example. None of them, except Partin who was not part of the crew, filled out sightings questionaires. Partin described the UFO as an orange ball of light. The drawing you posted by the co-pilot Runyon was made recently. Did Runyon actually witness what he described some 30 years after the fact? Well it can't be backed up with the help of the original documentation available.

The most fascinating part of the case, Runyons' observation of the "craft", is the also the weakest part of the case.

That may be true, however, in many respects there is a remarkable consistency in the object descriptions over a three-hour period. For example, all of the ground witnesses described a very large object, which would alternate bright white, to reddish orange, to green. In his official report Col. Werlich described: “VISUAL SIGHTING COMPARED OBJECT SIZE TO BE EQUAL TO THE SUN, VERY LARGE, TOO BIG FOR AN AIRCRAFT. RADAR SIGHTING DESCRIBES THE SIZE ON THE SCOPE TO BE LARGER THAN THAT OF A KC-135 DURING AERIAL REFUELING. (3) COLOR WAS A VERY BRIGHT RED ORANGE MOST OF THE TIME. (4) THE INITIAL SIGHTING WAS ONE OBJECT. THE ONE OBJECT WAS JOINED BY ONE OTHER LIKE OBJECT FOR A SHORT TIME. The B-52 navigator, McCaslin, described the object as being as large or larger than a KC-135 tanker. McCaslin routinely observed incoming/approaching KC-135’s on his radarscope during refueling. Partin described the object as being larger than a house in our interview, and as “a miniature sun placed on the ground below the aircraft” in his AF-117, drawing an “orange ball of light with a very dim ring of soft white light” extending to the side. He initially observed the object from an estimated distance of 15 miles. Imagine seeing an object at that distance in the dark.

PARTIN: Yeah, he watched it go. So we forgot it and went on down and were shooting low approaches in the traffic pattern. . . — but I remember looking off to my right probably about the 2 o’clock position, as they used to say, and low and I saw a — it was sort of oblong, there were, looked like windows around it that were lit and it
was just hovering there… . We must have been around 1500-1700
feet above the ground — you could see houses on the ground from that altitude, and they looked like, you know, the size of dice — a die.
INTERVIEWER: Maybe like a Monopoly house?
PARTIN: Yeah, right, and this was much larger than that… . When I described to the crew over the interphone what I was seeing the navigator, the radar navigator, and everybody tried to get up in our lap in the cockpit and — [laughs].

In addition:
NARRATIVE Endnotes:

[117] The body of the object is described as: egg-shaped (Runyon), football-shaped (Goduto), cough drop-shaped, and elliptically-shaped (McCaslin), and oblong (Partin), possibly watermelon-shaped, which could be defined as a prolate ellipsoid, generated by revolving an ellipse about its major axis with the polar diameter greater than the equatorial diameter.

[120] McCaslin 2000, 12-13. Also: “At that briefing it was described as an orangish, elliptically-shaped object—not perfectly circular, but elliptically-shaped, with kind of a halo—a boomerang-shaped exhaust, if you will, of the same color, slightly separated from the elliptical shape. I didn’t see it, so I just go with what the pilot said, but that’s what I was told. And that’s my memory of what General Holland was told” (McCaslin 2001, 30).

Goduto recalls, “Brad’s description that came over intercom was it was kind of a reddish, orangish football shape” (2001, 19-22).

In any case, Runyan's air-visual description is not completely unsupported. Unfortunately, only the pilots could have viewed the object in a B-52, and Partin would have been quite busy simply piloting a very heavy aircraft at reduced speed and low altitude.

Kind regards, Tom

reply to post by cripmeister


The case is incredibly interesting, in my opinion, even if never looking at any documentation produced after 1968.

Take a look at the report by Colonel Werlich from that time. (He was the Base Operations officer that did a lot of the interviewing of the ~19 (IIRC) witnesses.... ) The following, taken from that official report to Air Force higher-ups, doesn't sound intriguing?

Of the visual sightings:
"Just about round, a little oblong if anything."
"Very large, too big for an aircraft."
"Color was a very bright red orange most of the time."
"Initial sighting was one object... joined by one other like object for short time."
"Faintly white oblong halo on one side with an orange spot on the other side and the body appeared to be a bright white light."
"The ability to hover and to change direction and speed abruptly."

In describing the radar sightings:
"Larger than that of a KC-135 during aerial refueling."
"Radarscope echoes were obtained and clearly show the radar echo. As soon as the echo disappeared the B-52 UHF transmitter became operational."

Instructor Pilot Major Partin's AF-117 (filled out within days after the event) also has an interesting drawing, the shape of which basically agrees with Runyon's, and with the labels "orange ball of light" and "a very dim ring of soft white lit."

I find that all pretty interesting, and am not the least bit concerned about Runyon's credibility. If you read carefully, there's plenty in the documentation which suggests that his description of the object has not basically changed over the years. So I think it's quite a stretch to imply that this is all something that's been made up or highly embellished by him over the 30 intervening years.

Originally posted by TeaAndStrumpets

Of the visual sightings:
"Just about round, a little oblong if anything."
"Very large, too big for an aircraft."
"Color was a very bright red orange most of the time."
"Initial sighting was one object... joined by one other like object for short time."
"Faintly white oblong halo on one side with an orange spot on the other side and the body appeared to be a bright white light."
"The ability to hover and to change direction and speed abruptly."

In describing the radar sightings:
"Larger than that of a KC-135 during aerial refueling."
"Radarscope echoes were obtained and clearly show the radar echo. As soon as the echo disappeared the B-52 UHF transmitter became operational."

Instructor Pilot Major Partin's AF-117 (filled out within days after the event) also has an interesting drawing, the shape of which basically agrees with Runyon's, and with the labels "orange ball of light" and "a very dim ring of soft white lit."

Thanks for the replies and I also agree it's an incredibly interesting UFO case with consistency in the object descriptions over a three-hour period, especially when a person factors in the radar confirmation evidence and EM effects on the two transmitters (not to mention the completely ridiculous yet painfully predictable USAF 'debunk').

There are some other documents at the link below from the August 1966 UFO sightings at Minot and radar confirmation and EM effects are also mentioned in the report - Dr Hynek also asserts that 'a similar event also occurred near the Minot base a few days earlier'.

Minot Daily News, Dec. 6, 1966

link

Cheers.

Australian researcher Bill Chalker discusses Thomas Tulien's “Investigation of UFO Events at Minot AFB on 24 October 1968” as compiled for the Sign Oral History Project.

The Extraordinary 1968 Minot B52 UFO Encounter – a remarkable example of a latent and almost lost scientific opportunity

Tom Tulien has given me permission to quote from the report. These quotes are just the tip of a very massive UFO iceberg, and perhaps one that could help sink the “the UFO taboo.” There is so much to explore in this fine study.

“In May 2000, we interviewed Minot AFB, B-52 co-pilot, Bradford Runyon. This resulted in years of research, and various collaborations in order to present the 24 October 1968, Minot AFB case study online. This offers the opportunity to critically examine an extraordinary UFO event in some detail, and to learn in the process.““That UFOs exist is indisputable.”

I urge you to study Tom Tulien’s Sign Oral History Project study of the 1968 Minot encounter. I congratulate Tom and his associates for producing such an excellent study.

link

Good interview with USAF Staff Sergeant Richard Clark discussing the B-52 radarscope film, also brought up is the aircrew debriefing after the incident, a team from Washington coming out to discuss the case and the unlocked navy hatch (sourced by RealTVUFOs).

RC Well, you know it had to have been a UFO. You know, we had nothing that could do the
kind of speed that it had back then and to be able to change directions, I mean, flying
with the plane and changing directions while still maintaining, I mean, you’re going—

TT The plane was going between 230 and 280.

RC OK, yeah, I mean, it’s going like this and then all of a sudden it’s over here, and it’s still
going this way [indicating object motion with hand], I mean, even if we had something
that could go that fast it could not—it’s going to go that fast this way [indicating straight
line motion with hand] and—

TT In one direction.

RC —but it can’t go that way too. And that’s why it was phenomenal

PDF file

Nice finding karl 12 (S+F).

originally posted by: meaningless333
Nice finding karl 12 (S+F).

Thanks mate, really is an interesting case this one.

There are more government documents at the link below dealing with another UFO incident at the base in 1966 and by the looks of it there could have been physical trace evidence as well.

Department of The Air force
HQ 862nd Combat Support Grp (SAC)
Minot AFB, North Dakota 58701
8-26-1966

Link

Cheers.

New video address - see 36:10

Chinese State TV reports on the 1968 Minot AFB case (sourced by RealTVUFOs)


Vid

More UFO accounts from Minot AFB:

And, a book:

The book, “It Never Happened, Volume 1", is a riveting and amazing account of U.S. Air Force cover-up of the “UFO question.” It is authored by retired Air Force Captain David Schindele who was a former Minuteman ICBM launch control officer stationed at Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota.

It was there, in 1966, when he was involved with a spectacular incident where a flying object managed to take down all ten of his nuclear-tipped missiles, and render them unlaunchable! This very grave situation involved the strategic U.S. nuclear deterrent force, which was America’s first line of defense in the Cold War. It resulted in the Air Force “instructing” Captain Schindele to never speak of the incident again, and telling him “As far as you are concerned, It Never Happened.”

Captain Schindele maintained his silence for nearly forty years until other former missileers began to speak out about their incredible unearthly incidents. It was then that he attempted to learn the long history of the Air Force cover-up. He needed to find out why the Air Force publicly insisted that flying objects didn’t exist, and why it was stated that there was “nothing to investigate.”

He also found he needed to confirm to the world the awesome Truth that, “We are not alone in the Universe.” The book reveals the enormous attention given to Unearthly Flying Objects by the Air Force, which was documented in its own investigative efforts code-named Project Sign and Project Grudge. Those projects are examined in detail, which outlines a trail of convoluted and contorted investigative efforts to determine modus operandi of the objects and their potential threat to national security.

Sources:
www.amazon.com...
www.minotdailynews.com...
ufologie.patrickgross.org...

Cheers!

Great thread very interesting thanks Karl