by Mike Boss
Casein on Rag Board
12" x 18"
From the Collection of Jan Ashbaugh, Fairfax, Missouri
Early in 2009, after hearing an on-line interview concerning an encounter with a UFO, I emailed Bill Madsen, a Cold War Era Alaskan-based Lockheed F-94A pilot. What I got back was a story with a bit of a different turn. Bill's back seater, or radar man, as well as ground radar, had contact with an unknown object coming toward them head on at an impressive rate of speed. Following are Bill's words of an encounter with "nothing". Bill's "bump" with nonexistence isn't necessarily unique in the annals of aircraft/UFO happenings.
"I was there. From August 1953 to August 1954 except for about three months duty at Edwards AFB in California flying the new F 89D. The squadron was the 449th Fighter Interceptor Squadron All Weather based at Ladd Air Force Base outside of Fairbanks Alaska. We flew in all sorts of weather. I can't remember ever not going because of the weather and we had lots of rotten stuff."
"It was in February as I recall, black and dark and clear weather. I do not recall the compass direction but it had to be southerly as the object was coming north at a rapid speed, faster than anything we had flying at that time. There was no shape on the radar, just a well-defined blip."
"My time estimate as I recall was about 0200. It was a long time ago you must remember. The important part of this experience was that there was a well-defined radar return on three radar sets. Something was there of size and mass or something we don't know about. Surely there would be a shock wave at that rate of speed."
"I do have my logbook but I made no notation of the event and cannot truly remember the date. I do not know if the ground based radar stations made any report. I doubt it as surely I would have been contacted. I saw nothing, felt nothing, and heard nothing."
"It may as well not have happened!"