17 July 1974
(The Star-Phoenix, Saskatoon , Canada
Source: The UFO Chronicles, 30 November 2016
The whole article:
“Experts at a missile base here say they are puzzled
about strange ‘ghost ships’ picked up by powerful radar scanners in the Pacific
during a tracking exercise last year.
There has been little official comment on what the
scientists found. But Major Dallas van Hoose, the army’s base spokesman,
confirmed that ‘some unexplained aerial phenomena’ were observed last August
(1973).
Scientists, many of whom are reluctant to be named in
interviews because of general public skepticism concerning unidentified flying
objects, say privately they have been unable to find any explanation for the ‘ghost
ships.’
‘We have never seen anything precisely like this
before,’ said one ballistic missile defense expert who works for an army agency
here and is familiar with the advanced radar used to test missiles and
warheads.
Last August, the air force launched a Minuteman
intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) from Vandenberg Air Force Base aimed for
the Kwajalein missile range, used by the army,
air force, and navy.
When the ICBM was screaming toward the Pacific test
site, it bagan its descent on a normal, ballistic trajectory, scientists said.
The nose cone had separated from the third stage of
the missile and was entering the atmosphere at 22,000 feet a second.
Radar scanners at Kwajalein and Meck Islands were
tracking the nose cone routinely.
At about 400,000 feet , the radar experts in the Pacific
found they were also tracking an unidentified flying object next to the ICBM’s
nose cone.
Radar picked up an inverted saucer-shaped object to
the right and above the descending nose cone and watched it cross the warhead’s
trajectory to a point which was below and to the left of it before the phantom
disappeared.
The ghost ship was described as being 10 feet high and 40 feet long.
So far, none of the experts here believe the ghost
ship was a natural phenomenon caused by freak weather conditions or echoes
commonly seen on radar screens.”
This news article is also presented (Page 69) in the
book, The UFO Cover-Up (Fawcett, Greenwood
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(wikimedia.org image)
