Posted On: June 13, 2022

The years are 1953 and 1954. The place was Lowry AFB, Colorado. The air force was sending up squadrons of jets to photograph UFOs. Here is a pilot’s story.

During a research trip to the United States in 1976 Timothy Good had the good fortune to interview a former Air Force lieutenant who together with other pilots succeeded in obtaining movie films of UFOs in 1953 and 1954. "Mel Noel" (pseudonym) was twenty years old when he was assigned to a reserve squadron at Lowry AFB, Colorado, and selected for special photo reconnaissance missions to film UFOs.

Prior to the missions Mel Noel, and the other pilots were given briefings by Colonel Peterson, who had been assigned to the operation unit from Washington, DC, and acted as flight leader for the missions, of which there were seventy-three in all. The pilots were instructed in the specific aerial maneuvers, weave patterns, and formation flying that would be required in the event UFOs were encountered. They were also warned of certain effects that might influence their F-86A Sabre jets: these included the loss of silicon-damping instruments, airspeed indicator, altimeter, rate-of-climb indicator, and to some extent the gyrocompass, as well as malfunction of the magnetic compass.

They were told that there would be no adverse effect on the engine or hydraulic control systems. A high level of radio static could also be expected, they were warned. The briefings also included the showing of several hours of movie films that had been taken by military pilots, and hundreds of still photographs, many of which had been confiscated from civilians, Mel told me.

The pilots were skeptical about the whole business and were convinced they would see nothing. The first few missions were "orientation runs" during which the pilots tightened up their formation flying in different conditions.

The initial sighting, in December 1953, was announced by one of the pilots as they were flying at 38000 feet and 680 knots over the Rocky Mountains in Idaho: "bogies at 9 o’clock level!" From Mel’s position in the echelon formation he was at first unable to see anything.

On sighting a target the formation had been instructed to close in, sixty feet from wing tip to wing tip. "I was not allowed to move from my position until Lee called the move, and from my position that I would go from would be from right wing into the slot, and form a diamond, which means moving in between number two and three aircraft and behind and below number one’s position, at which times when I dropped back I could see them out there."

Sixteen saucer-shaped objects, in a vertical "V" formation, seven aloft and nine aft, were flying parallel to the F-86s, at roughly the same speed. Then the formation broke into four groups of four. Mel to describe the objects. "There was a form of, an extension on top. I wouldn’t call it a cupola, but there was some extension," he said. "We didn’t have a crystal-clear image: the only time we had the best outline was when they stopped. There is no deceleration to stop," he explained. "It’s just that you’re looking, and then you look back, and it’s obvious that they have ceased forward motion. And at that time the outline was sharpest, but there was still some haze around them, a silver-gray haze."

They were 150-180 feet in diameter and 30-40 feet thick. When the objects accelerated, the haze, or "corona" effect changed color. "It was just like it was going through the colors of the spectrum," Mel said. "You could see it going through the yellows, the oranges, the reds and so forth."

The objects were in sight for a total of eight minutes. Despite the briefing on the effects that should be expected, there was only slight compass malfunction. The pilots had also been warned not to cross the path of the objects, because this had sometimes resulted in damage to or loss of aircraft.

Each of the F-86s’ six 50-caliber machine guns had been replaced with gun cameras, some with standard film and others with infrared film. But on the first encounter the pilots assumed that they were unsuccessful in obtaining any film as the cameras were automatically calibrated to trigger at 1300 yards ahead of the aircraft. "It was our opinion that we never did have them at 1300 yards," Mel told me. "They were everywhere but!"

The cameras, magazines, and all instrumentation were replaced on landing, and the aircraft were given a complete check. "They talked about scanning them for radioactivity, none being found, and this type of thing," Mel said.

All four aircraft were always replaced with another four jets following the missions. "The second time we got a lot of film," Mel said.

Two weeks later five objects, similar in type to the first group, were seen. The pilots had asked for the gun-cameras to be triggered manually.

We said, "Take it off the sights. There’s no way we can get those things at 1300 yards and lock them there for any length of time. So, on manual, we could of course run the film any time we wanted to. And the cameras fired 1100 frames a minute, and that’s six cameras per airplane, so you’re talking about 6600 frames per minute capability per airplane, so you’ve got pretty good movement definition. You can tell exactly the size: they can triangulate pretty well with that many cameras. You’re talking about hopefully, a minimum of 12 cameras bearing on a target simultaneously, and that’s going to give you some triangulation, depending on the separation of the aircraft.

Mel advised. "We never saw the film. All we knew was that it was always taken to Wright-Pat [Wright-Patterson AFB] or someplace else for evaluation."

Mel and the other pilots began worrying about the possibility of harmful effects on their bodies. If the UFOs could influence the aircraft’s instruments, why not the pilots too?

"There’s something affecting those instruments, and there’s something that’s pretty strong," Mel said. "What are the physiological effects of this? Are we going to come out of this thing being some babbling idiots, or are we going to start getting the shakes after a few months and so forth, you know?"

Following the third encounter, in 1954, when another five objects were sighted and filmed, the pilots returned to Mountain Home AFB, Idaho, suffering from effects similar to combat fatigue: This was a matter of maybe thirty minutes after the experience, and we were on the ground coming apart, which is a reaction trigger saying, "Hey, the next time we may come apart in the airplane: we may not be able to get on the ground and do it!"

We said, "Give us an Article 15, give us a Section 8 [psychiatric unit], we don’t care what it is, but we’re not psychologically ready, we’re not prepared for this thing, and you’re going to be interrogating some dead pilots pretty soon, so get us off this thing!" And they listened, and they let us off.

Four days later we got the papers. And that was the end of it. The pilots were warned at each debriefing following the encounters not to discuss the matter with anyone. This point was driven home more emphatically after the third encounter. "They repeatedly enforced the penalties, JANAP 146 [Joint Army Navy Air Force Publication] Section III, the 10 years in jail, $10000 fine, and all this kind of stuff," Mel said. "They let us know that was real; that they wouldn’t hesitate to enforce that."

Eight years later Mel Noel was encouraged to talk about the experiences publicly, using his pseudonym, having taken legal advice on the matter. The Statute of Limitations normally prohibits those in the military from revealing certain information for ten years, but Mel and his lawyer decided to take the risk and go ahead.

Just before his going on one radio show in Washington, DC, Mel advised, a couple of men came up to him: They showed these credentials, they were CIA, and they said, "This is a Cease and Desist directive, because what you’re saying is disconcerting to the public’s ears." And I said, "Well, I’m not saying anything but fact."

"That isn’t the point. To continue could be detrimental to your health." They had intimidated me, but I didn’t want to give them the satisfaction of knowing that they’d done that. But I did do the broadcast, wondering if they’d be there afterward, which they weren’t. And then I didn’t say anything for quite a while."

There is a great deal more that Timothy Good learned from Mel Noel during his lengthy interview with him on 22 August 1976. Suffice to say that there is no doubt in my mind that Mel was describing genuine encounters with UFOs, and his knowledge of aircraft and flying is beyond dispute.

Since leaving the Air Force, Mel has continued to fly different types of aircraft in his capacity as a commercial pilot. He has also done a great deal of research into UFOs, sometimes in association with his friend Gordon Cooper, the ex-astronaut and Air Force pilot.

In a statement read at the United Nations on 27 November 1978, Cooper revealed that he had encountered UFOs over Germany in 1951:

"Several days in a row we sighted groups of metallic, saucer-shaped vehicles at great altitudes over the base and we tried to get close to them, but they were able to change direction faster than our fighters. I do believe UFOs exist and that the truly unexplained ones are from some other technically advanced civilization."

As with Mel Noel, Gordon Cooper’s testimony will be dismissed by the skeptics and debunkers, who maintain that all such incidents can be explained in terms of misperceptions or hoaxes. But the fact remains that literally hundreds of reports of close encounters have now been made by American military and civilian pilots which simply cannot be dismissed so easily.

Resources: Above Top Secret, Timothy Good, 1988

My Take: This is an exceptional story. No two ways about it. It’s either 100% true or a complete lie. If true, then it tells us that the UFOs are something exceptional that the US government is taking seriously and is trying to learn more about.

Posted On: June 13, 2022

The years are 1953 and 1954. The place was Lowry AFB, Colorado. The air force was sending up squadrons of jets to photograph UFOs. Here is a pilot’s story.

During a research trip to the United States in 1976 Timothy Good had the good fortune to interview a former Air Force lieutenant who together with other pilots succeeded in obtaining movie films of UFOs in 1953 and 1954. "Mel Noel" (pseudonym) was twenty years old when he was assigned to a reserve squadron at Lowry AFB, Colorado, and selected for special photo reconnaissance missions to film UFOs.

Prior to the missions Mel Noel, and the other pilots were given briefings by Colonel Peterson, who had been assigned to the operation unit from Washington, DC, and acted as flight leader for the missions, of which there were seventy-three in all. The pilots were instructed in the specific aerial maneuvers, weave patterns, and formation flying that would be required in the event UFOs were encountered. They were also warned of certain effects that might influence their F-86A Sabre jets: these included the loss of silicon-damping instruments, airspeed indicator, altimeter, rate-of-climb indicator, and to some extent the gyrocompass, as well as malfunction of the magnetic compass.

They were told that there would be no adverse effect on the engine or hydraulic control systems. A high level of radio static could also be expected, they were warned. The briefings also included the showing of several hours of movie films that had been taken by military pilots, and hundreds of still photographs, many of which had been confiscated from civilians, Mel told me.

The pilots were skeptical about the whole business and were convinced they would see nothing. The first few missions were "orientation runs" during which the pilots tightened up their formation flying in different conditions.

The initial sighting, in December 1953, was announced by one of the pilots as they were flying at 38000 feet and 680 knots over the Rocky Mountains in Idaho: "bogies at 9 o’clock level!" From Mel’s position in the echelon formation he was at first unable to see anything.

On sighting a target the formation had been instructed to close in, sixty feet from wing tip to wing tip. "I was not allowed to move from my position until Lee called the move, and from my position that I would go from would be from right wing into the slot, and form a diamond, which means moving in between number two and three aircraft and behind and below number one’s position, at which times when I dropped back I could see them out there."

Sixteen saucer-shaped objects, in a vertical "V" formation, seven aloft and nine aft, were flying parallel to the F-86s, at roughly the same speed. Then the formation broke into four groups of four. Mel to describe the objects. "There was a form of, an extension on top. I wouldn’t call it a cupola, but there was some extension," he said. "We didn’t have a crystal-clear image: the only time we had the best outline was when they stopped. There is no deceleration to stop," he explained. "It’s just that you’re looking, and then you look back, and it’s obvious that they have ceased forward motion. And at that time the outline was sharpest, but there was still some haze around them, a silver-gray haze."

They were 150-180 feet in diameter and 30-40 feet thick. When the objects accelerated, the haze, or "corona" effect changed color. "It was just like it was going through the colors of the spectrum," Mel said. "You could see it going through the yellows, the oranges, the reds and so forth."

The objects were in sight for a total of eight minutes. Despite the briefing on the effects that should be expected, there was only slight compass malfunction. The pilots had also been warned not to cross the path of the objects, because this had sometimes resulted in damage to or loss of aircraft.

Each of the F-86s’ six 50-caliber machine guns had been replaced with gun cameras, some with standard film and others with infrared film. But on the first encounter the pilots assumed that they were unsuccessful in obtaining any film as the cameras were automatically calibrated to trigger at 1300 yards ahead of the aircraft. "It was our opinion that we never did have them at 1300 yards," Mel told me. "They were everywhere but!"

The cameras, magazines, and all instrumentation were replaced on landing, and the aircraft were given a complete check. "They talked about scanning them for radioactivity, none being found, and this type of thing," Mel said.

All four aircraft were always replaced with another four jets following the missions. "The second time we got a lot of film," Mel said.

Two weeks later five objects, similar in type to the first group, were seen. The pilots had asked for the gun-cameras to be triggered manually.

We said, "Take it off the sights. There’s no way we can get those things at 1300 yards and lock them there for any length of time. So, on manual, we could of course run the film any time we wanted to. And the cameras fired 1100 frames a minute, and that’s six cameras per airplane, so you’re talking about 6600 frames per minute capability per airplane, so you’ve got pretty good movement definition. You can tell exactly the size: they can triangulate pretty well with that many cameras. You’re talking about hopefully, a minimum of 12 cameras bearing on a target simultaneously, and that’s going to give you some triangulation, depending on the separation of the aircraft.

Mel advised. "We never saw the film. All we knew was that it was always taken to Wright-Pat [Wright-Patterson AFB] or someplace else for evaluation."

Mel and the other pilots began worrying about the possibility of harmful effects on their bodies. If the UFOs could influence the aircraft’s instruments, why not the pilots too?

"There’s something affecting those instruments, and there’s something that’s pretty strong," Mel said. "What are the physiological effects of this? Are we going to come out of this thing being some babbling idiots, or are we going to start getting the shakes after a few months and so forth, you know?"

Following the third encounter, in 1954, when another five objects were sighted and filmed, the pilots returned to Mountain Home AFB, Idaho, suffering from effects similar to combat fatigue: This was a matter of maybe thirty minutes after the experience, and we were on the ground coming apart, which is a reaction trigger saying, "Hey, the next time we may come apart in the airplane: we may not be able to get on the ground and do it!"

We said, "Give us an Article 15, give us a Section 8 [psychiatric unit], we don’t care what it is, but we’re not psychologically ready, we’re not prepared for this thing, and you’re going to be interrogating some dead pilots pretty soon, so get us off this thing!" And they listened, and they let us off.

Four days later we got the papers. And that was the end of it. The pilots were warned at each debriefing following the encounters not to discuss the matter with anyone. This point was driven home more emphatically after the third encounter. "They repeatedly enforced the penalties, JANAP 146 [Joint Army Navy Air Force Publication] Section III, the 10 years in jail, $10000 fine, and all this kind of stuff," Mel said. "They let us know that was real; that they wouldn’t hesitate to enforce that."

Eight years later Mel Noel was encouraged to talk about the experiences publicly, using his pseudonym, having taken legal advice on the matter. The Statute of Limitations normally prohibits those in the military from revealing certain information for ten years, but Mel and his lawyer decided to take the risk and go ahead.

Just before his going on one radio show in Washington, DC, Mel advised, a couple of men came up to him: They showed these credentials, they were CIA, and they said, "This is a Cease and Desist directive, because what you’re saying is disconcerting to the public’s ears." And I said, "Well, I’m not saying anything but fact."

"That isn’t the point. To continue could be detrimental to your health." They had intimidated me, but I didn’t want to give them the satisfaction of knowing that they’d done that. But I did do the broadcast, wondering if they’d be there afterward, which they weren’t. And then I didn’t say anything for quite a while."

There is a great deal more that Timothy Good learned from Mel Noel during his lengthy interview with him on 22 August 1976. Suffice to say that there is no doubt in my mind that Mel was describing genuine encounters with UFOs, and his knowledge of aircraft and flying is beyond dispute.

Since leaving the Air Force, Mel has continued to fly different types of aircraft in his capacity as a commercial pilot. He has also done a great deal of research into UFOs, sometimes in association with his friend Gordon Cooper, the ex-astronaut and Air Force pilot.

In a statement read at the United Nations on 27 November 1978, Cooper revealed that he had encountered UFOs over Germany in 1951:

"Several days in a row we sighted groups of metallic, saucer-shaped vehicles at great altitudes over the base and we tried to get close to them, but they were able to change direction faster than our fighters. I do believe UFOs exist and that the truly unexplained ones are from some other technically advanced civilization."

As with Mel Noel, Gordon Cooper’s testimony will be dismissed by the skeptics and debunkers, who maintain that all such incidents can be explained in terms of misperceptions or hoaxes. But the fact remains that literally hundreds of reports of close encounters have now been made by American military and civilian pilots which simply cannot be dismissed so easily.

Resources: Above Top Secret, Timothy Good, 1988

My Take: This is an exceptional story. No two ways about it. It’s either 100% true or a complete lie. If true, then it tells us that the UFOs are something exceptional that the US government is taking seriously and is trying to learn more about.