May 2005
(Airport Journals, Centennial, Colorado)
Sources: UFO Newsclipping Service, Plumerville, Arkansas
and AFU.se
The last part of the article reports on the UFO sighting
of Marine Second Lieutenant Eddy Paul Balocco, a fighter pilot.
Balocco flew 85 combat missions during the Korean War,
mostly in F4U Corsairs, F9F Panthers and F2H Banshees.
NOTE: NICAP.org reports that the UFO incident occurred
over Washington, North Carolina, on 9 February 1953 (nicap.org),
and not on 11 February 1953. The Norfolk (Virginia) Navy
Tower only sighted the
UFO visually from the ground (not on radar), according to a Rocky Mount Evening
Telegram article (nicap.org)
and NICAP.org (nicap.org).
Quote from the article (Page 8):
“About six years ago he told me of his encounter with
a real UFO. After returning from the Korean police action, Ed was a first lieutenant
stationed at Edenton, N.C., a small Marine fighter base about 100 miles southwest of
Norfolk, Va. Norfolk was—and still is—a major naval and air base on the East
Coast. By that time, Ed, only 24 years old, bad some 1,000 hours of pilot time,
mostly in fighter jets.
On Feb. 11, 1953, just a week after a flurry of UFO
sightings in the Norfolk
area, he was the only pilot on the base on intercept-ready status at about 10
p.m.
‘I was riding around the base in a Jeep, when the
alert whistle sounded,’ he recalled. ‘I sped out to my waiting F9F Panther jet
and in less than two minutes, I was beading toward Norfolk.’
Flying with his external lights off, he was being
vectored toward an unknown flying object spotted by Norfolk radar. As he neared where the object
was supposed to be, that object suddenly dropped off Norfolk’s radar screen.
‘I had no radar in my Panther, so I searched visually,
and began running low on fuel,’ he said. ‘I got approval to return to Edenton.’
As he proceeded south at 20,000 feet, with his
outside running lights turned on, he spotted a bright light well below him on
the port side, near the ocean surface.
‘I looked away for a couple of moments to steady my
course for Edenton and when I looked back through the windscreen, I was
astonished to find that the object had climbed vertically to my altitude and
was only about 2,000 teet away and almost directly ahead of me,’ he remembered.
He quickly adjusted his heading to aim right at the
UFO and increased his speed to more than 500 miles an hour. As he
got closer, he could clearly see that the UFO was disk-shaped with blinking red
lights.
‘I guess it was my Korean combat experience, but my
reaction was to squeeze the trigger on my control stick to blast this ‘enemy.’’
he said.
Nothing happened. The guns were empty!
‘With full throttle, I got to about 350 feet from the UFO when
my entire cockpit was bathed in a strong, blue-white light,’ he recalled. ‘Everything
seemed to be motionless.’
As he glanced at his gloved hand on the throttle, he
was shocked to discover that he could see through the glove, and the flesh, to
see the bones of his hand.
‘lt was like an X-ray,’ he said. ‘For what I think was
several seconds there was no sound—not even the sound of my engine. Suddenly,
there was a flash, and the UFO broke away at incredible speed, as sound and
motion returned.’
As reported by newspapers in the following days, a
similar flash was seen by a Navy pilot over Norfolk and a civilian near Oriental, N.C.
Marine helicopters searched where the flash was seen, but found nothing.
Ground-controlled interceptors with radar also failed to make contact after a
helicopter spotted the mysterious object south of Norfolk earlier in the day.
On his return to Edenton, Ed was whisked to Cherry
Point, the headquarters for Marine Air on the East Coast, and subjected to an
intense debriefing by several Marine colonels and others for several hours. He
was told in no uncertain terms to say absolutely nothing about the incident.
‘There were other UFO sightings that night, and the
Marines were really concerned,’ he said.”
Wikipedia article: “United States Marine Corps”:
Wikipedia article: “Grumman F9F Panther”:
Article: “Edenton Marine Corps Air Station
(historical) in Chowan
County NC”
(northcarolina.hometownlocator.com):
Related posts:
realtvufos.blogspot.com/search?q=1953
An F9F-3 Panther fitted with an experimental Emerson
turret housing four 12.7 mm
machine guns, in 1950 (text by Wikipedia) (wikipedia.org)
(wikipedia.org photo)
Satellite photo of Washington, North Carolina
(tageo.com)
(tageo.com photo)
%2C_foreground%2C_and_the_guided_missile_cruiser_USS_Princeton_(CG_59)_transit_the_Indian_Ocean_June_1%2C_2013_130601-N-AZ866-512.jpg){kind=spacer}
