SP~SM-??-1983

Further narrowing of the date established the event occurring between July 01, and September 27, 1983. See end for ship’s History.-CF-       

            The witness in this case desired complete confidentiality and I agreed. The text was obtained via e-mail and finally, corrections were done by phone as the witness called me directly. He was quite cooperative in answering all questions asked regarding this specific event and I feel that he is a creditable witness. –CF-

To anyone who remembers this incident, I would sure like
to hear from you for any further details you can add,

and to make this a multiple witness case.-CF-        

USS John F. Kennedy CV-67

Thanks to: http://www.military.cz/usa/navy/uss/carriers/kennedy/kennedy_en.htm

Thanks Carl,

After all these years I still don't know what to make of it. As I stated before this would be the summer or late spring of 1983. We were doing what is known as work ups¹ just prior to our ORE (Operational Readiness Exam) I worked in CIC (Combat Information Center) I was an operations specialist I think at the time I'd been an E-3 or early into being an E-4. We were just leaving port (Gitmo²) after doing a sea and anchor detail to assess our ability to navigate a mine field in a friendly harbor. It was late; I'm guessing around 2 or 3 a.m. local. We had just secured from general quarters and the dog watch³ was set. We had personnel at the look out positions from our division for the sea and anchor detail (normally manned by the deck department during normal at sea operations) - sailors whom I would not be familiar with but these were our guys at the look out positions with binoculars and on the sound powered phones. I was on the SPA 74 radar CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) in SSSC (Surface Subsurface Surveillance Coordination) taking fixes of the Cuban coast and keeping track of all shipping both on the water and under. We had 3 Men in SSSC including myself and one officer for a total of 4 witnesses, and 4 lookouts 8 in total. Every 3 minutes I would take a new round of fixes and the plotter would work our position and the other ships in company with us various positions, course and speed and the like. At around 20 nautical miles south of the coast our lookout on the 010 level (superstructure) called out an air contact to the west or us, he claimed, “it was blinking 4 different colors" like a Simon game, blue, yellow, red, and green" he also gave me a distance of between 10 and 15 miles. I was on a surface radar so I switched the SPA 74 to a 48c air search radar and found a contact approx 18 miles to our west, and this contact was not "squawking and IFF" ( Identification Friend or Foe) which got our attention. Our officer called the D&T (Detection and Tracking) module to find out what they could. This is the air search side of CIC we had no aircraft airborne as we had secured flight ops for the night, but we did have an alert 15⁴ tomcat [F-14] on deck. Of course, the Tactical action officer (TAO) was notified that we had an unknown bogey in the air not squawking, the alert 15 tomcat was activated. Meanwhile all of the look outs were going absolutely crazy over this bogey the way it moved and changed course with the ship always keeping a position relative with our ship. I guessing that about 10 minutes into the alert the alert 15 fighter being activated, the bogey just disappeared, vanished off of radar, and visual, the alert aircraft stood down and was not launched. The ship took a turn to the west shortly after or before, I can't remember if we turned into the wind and headed west as a result or if we were suppose to head west for the next day of operations. The lookouts were still jumpy and seemed to be calling out every star they saw. The ship secured from sea and anchor detail shortly after this, this is when it really gets strange. The deck department took over the lookout positions, our guys went to the racks (bed) and as I was being relived of duty I heard the look outs shouting about the sea being completely aglow with phosphoresce. I quickly left SSSC and headed for top side, when I got there right where the lookouts said was a trail of glowing water crossing the bow of the ship. Never have I seen the ocean lighted up like that in a trail it was so very bright going north to south! I had just left the radar and knew no ship had crossed our path. All I could think of was that bogey was under the water toying with us. I have sailed every ocean, and I have seen phosphorescence on every tropical water but I tell you there has never been a sea like this one. It was a continuous glowing line very well defined and we sailed right across it. The next day our Lieutenant told us to forget about this and some things can't be explained (See below-CF-). I remember the names of the men on watch that night but I have not been in contact with any of them in years, the last time that I talked to the Lieutenant (5 or 6 years ago) we both remembered this event like it was yesterday. I have since seen 2 UFO's independently of the Navy and am now convinced we either have some very black projects or we are not alone.       

Carl, I would love to hear your input about this, I think of these things that I have seen quite a bit of late and can't help but be intrigued and alarmed. But mostly just very interested and wanting to learn more. Thanks for your time and patience.                                                   

This reference: E-mail received Jan. 22 and 27, 2009 from the witness. -CF- 

In response to the above testimony, I sent a reply and asked the following: QUESTION: As the UFO went under the ship was there any noise or power fluctuations anywhere on the ship?

To which I received the following:      

Perhaps I should clear up something; the ship went across the trail of glowing water that extended in front of us. The trail was out in front of us maybe 3000 yards when I saw it, as I came on deck. It was long, extending from the North to the south, I am guessing that because the trail was brighter to the south and more defined, and less bright and more diffuse to the north plus my eyes were adjusting to the dark for a few seconds. I was on the port side of the ship when I first arrived on the deck (south side) then seeing what the lookouts were talking about I went up on the flight deck to see more of this glow in front of the ship. From there at amidships port side I walked up to the flight deck, aircraft parked all around obscuring my full view so I quickly wended my way forward on the flight deck to the forward catapult area where I could see the sea in front of me. That is when I could fully see the entire line running from North to south. When the ship crossed the line I did not notice any unusual sound or power surge aboard the ship. Also the flight deck is a very dark place at sea when flight operations are secured so I would not have noticed any light or fluctuation of the power from my vantage point.  
I also just wanted to add that at no time, did the officers or crew of the ship think they were prosecuting⁵ a UFO⁶. We were, I believe acting as we would for any aircraft not squawking IFF that was in close proximity to our ship, i.e. we were under the impression that Cuba might have hostile aircraft/Helicopters in the area.                                                                                   

This reference: E-mail received Jan. 29, 2009 from the witness. No personal information was give other than his e-mail address, which will not be revealed.-CF-   

Note #1: simulated war games          

Note #2: Gitmo – Guantanamo U.S. Navel base, Cuba           

Note #3: Dog Watch = Navy slang term for 5-7-7-5 watch (5 hrs on, break, 7 hrs. on, break, etc.) set after midnight. Kind of, the dog watching over the house (ship) while the rest sleep.           

Note #4: Alert 15 simply means that the tomcat will be ready to launch in 15 minutes. We had alert 5 tomcats in a hot zone and alert 10 and so on. These alert aircraft were only used when the ship was not running flight ops, which is rare, also would have alert helicopters for the event of a man overboard. An alert 5 tomcat for instance would have the pilot on the aircraft, engines running at idle.          

Note #5: prosecuting – I had trouble with this term as it smacks of legalize, and asked if I could substitute “pursued” in its place and was told that this was accepted terminology as in pursuit of the unknown target, a determination must be made as to the guilt or innocence of the target (friend or foe), whether it is hostile or friendly.-CF-           

UFOCAT PRN – NONE           

Central America – Cuba

Guantanamo U.S. Navel base  Latitude 19-54-07 N, Longitude 76-53-52 W (D-M-S)

Reference: http://www.zone-interdite.net/P/zone_756.html

Ship’s History for the Period:

       1981 JFK made her first deployment to the Indian Ocean. While on this cruise JFK served as the first United States ship to be visited by a Somali head of state, transited the Suez Canal, and logged its 150,000th arrested landing.   
Reference: http://www.military.cz/usa/navy/uss/carriers/kennedy/kennedy_en.htm            

Date of Departure      Date of Return   CVW             Tail code         Area of Operations

May 25, 1983               July 1, 1983           3                    AC                Northern Atlantic

Reference: http://www.navysite.de/cvn/cv67deploy.htm       

The event occurred between July 1 and Sept 27 in the southern Atlantic. This was established over the phone with the witness as we reviewed the previous and subsequent ships history.

In Oct 1983 Kennedy was diverted to Beirut, Lebanon from its planned Indian Ocean deployment, after the Beirut barracks bombing took the lives of 241 US Military personal taking part in the Multinational Force in Lebanon, and spent the rest of that year and early 1984 patrolling the region.

Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_John_F._Kennedy_(CV-67)