January 22, 1950 — NAS Kodiak, Alaska
2:40 a.m. Navy patrol pilot Lieut. Smith makes a routine security flight out of Naval Air Station Kodiak [now Coast Guard Base Kodiak], Alaska. He obtains a radar reading on an object 20 miles north. It quickly vanishes. At 2:48, he tracks a similar object 10 miles southeast. Kodiak radar reports no known aircraft in the vicinity, but they are seeing the same track.
At 3:00 a.m., the tug USS Tillamook is south of Kodiak when one of the men on deck sees a “very fast-moving red glow light, which appeared to be of exhaust nature.” The object comes from the southeast, moves clockwise around Kodiak, and returns to the southeast. Another officer sees it for 30 seconds and describes it as a “large ball of orange fire.” At 4:40 a.m., Lieut. Smith picks up another blip moving so fast that it leaves a trail on his screen. His crew sees the UFO close a five-mile gap in 10 seconds, an apparent speed of 1,800 mph. Witnesses report two orange lights that rotate around a common center. The object makes a sharp turn and heads directly towards Smith’s plane. Smith considers this a threatening situation and turns off his lights; the UFO flies by and disappears. At least 35 copies of Smith’s report are sent to FBI, CIA, AFOSI, and the State Department. None are ever officially released or published. [Eberhart]
Intelligence Report:
Sources:
Brad Sparks, Blue Books Unknowns Catalogue, Case 324, p. 80;
Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: Volume 5, January–March 1950, The Author, 1983, pp. 11-13;
Lawrence Fawcett and Barry Greenwood, Clear intent : the government coverup of the UFO experience, Prentice Hall, 1984, pp. 165–166;
Martin Shough, RADCAT: Radar Catalogue: A Review of Twenty-One Ground and Airborne Radar UAP Contact Reports Generally Related to Aviation Safety for the Period October 15, 1948, to September 19, 1976, National Aviation Reporting Center on Anomalous Phenomena, NARCAP Report TR-6, December 8, 2002, pp. 4–12;
Michael Swords and Robert Powell, UFOs and Government, pp. 90–91;
Jerome Clark, The UFO Encyclopedia, 3rd Ed., pp. 58, 997;
Jerome Clark, The UFO Encyclopedia, 4th Ed., pp. 79, 1110;
NICAP, “USN P2V3 Patrol Plane and USS Tillamook Encounter”;
“Historical Report Period 1 January - 30 June 1950,” U. S. Naval Air Station Kodiak, Alaska
