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2~9-??-1982
This
date was refined to 1982 from the second e-mail, in which three separate
voyages were mentioned.-CF-
Original E-mail:
Have you ever been contacted
about an encounter between a destroyer tender
(USS Yellowstone AD-41) and a USO in waters off the coast of the eastern US between 1981 and 1983? The
encounter occurred at night and lasted several hours and witnessed by several
persons standing duty.
Any information you might
have would be greatly appreciated.
I can be reached by phone at:
[Deleted –CF-]
This reference: Letter and
e-mail to me (-CF-) dated January 03, 2009.
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 Yellowstone AD-41
Thanks to: http://www.navsource.org/archives/09/03/0341.htm
E- Mail #2:
Dear Mr. Feindt,
Subject: Water UFO query
Follow-up to your email and phone call.
My apologies for not getting
back to you sooner with regards to this information. I had to think about
that night and try to find photos from my time on Yellowstone.
You sent me an email with
eight questions. This is now my attempt at filling in all I can recall.
1) The date and time of day?
2) Approximate position of
the ship?
I can’t give you a firm date,
only an approximate time. We
had to go to sea at least three times in 1982. First time was in February of
1982 during a vicious nor’easter1 that put ships at risk in the Norfolk
Harbor. We left Norfolk to ride out the storm at sea. The second time we went
out to sea Yellowstone went to Boston over the July 4th Holiday as
a show of community spirit. When we returned, we remained in Norfolk until
just before October 1st. During that time, we were on maneuvers
off the coast of Virginia in an area of the
Atlantic; we called the Virginia Capes (VaCapes
for short). The maneuvering was referred to as “circle 8s in the VaCapes”
which meant we were not really going anywhere just remaining in that area for
our obligated time out at sea. Best
I can narrow it down was that it took place during the dark of the moon (no
moon in the sky2) and we had to be in dark out
conditions at night.
I took my watch in the
electrical burn out shop at 2345 (11:45 PM) that night and my watch would go
until 0400 hours (4:00 AM) then I would be relieved and go to bed.
It was about an hour into my watch
when there was a commotion and several folks were running down the passageway
toward the aft hatch just outside the rewind shop. I went to investigate and
had a paperback book in my hand when I went out onto the 3rd deck
fantail. We were illuminated from below. This stunned the people who were
there and the watch was communicating to the bridge of what he saw. I do not
know if the Captain (Harry Konkel) had been notified of this situation.
We looked down the side of
the ship and could see the sonar swords and the curve of the hull. The light
was so bright I was able to read the words in the paperback book and the
numbers welded on her hull to mark her draft had shadows.
3) Any idea of
“approximately” how many crew members were on deck to witness the event?
Maybe four of us. The aft
watch, myself and I think two others. I don’t recall anymore but we were all
looking over the side and aft of Yellowstone trying to locate the source of
the light. I have no idea how many other people witnessed it but there had to
be the bridge crew and the lookouts in the signal shack on the top deck. I
could not tell you their number.
4) Can you give an estimate
of the size?
USS Yellowstone AD-41 is 643
feet long, pulling a 25-27 foot draft. The light was bigger than the ship and
extended 100 to 150 feet beyond the aft of the ship and as much off the bow
of the ship. That would make it between 800 and 900 feet long.
5) Color underwater?
Not quite chlorine green. RGB 127/254/159 or HTML code #7FF99F 
I’ve been trying to find that
color for several years in order to describe it to others.
6) Did anyone debrief you or
instruct you to remain silent about the sighting?
The moment the light turned
off, I went back to my station and remained there until my relief arrived. No
one came to me or spoke about it afterwards even when I asked about it. If
they had been told not to talk about what they have seen, I was not aware of
their orders.
7) Did the UFO ever exit the
water?
We did not see anything leave
the water. The light just turned off like someone had flipped the switch off
on a very large flash light3.
8) Shape of the UFO?
To the best of my knowledge the light was not oval but
round and it was solid. No feathering of the perimeter, no spiral
arms. It was like a beam of light directly under us that was extremely
bright. This was not the
result of bioluminescence. Bioluminescence is faint and fades off as the
water calms.
I hope this helps you some.
My apologies that it’s not as detailed as you might need.
This reference: Second letter
and e-mail to me (-CF-) dated January 30, 2009.
In a phone conversation with the witness, I
asked: While viewing
this glow in the water was there any power interruption on the ship or any
noise from the object in the water? The answer was that no noise was heard
and even if there was she would not have necessarily heard it as she was
situated above the screws (the ship’s propellers).
Note 1 (this was all I could find for 1982
as there were no specific dates for Virginia. However the witness says that
this was the same storm as mentioned below as it came south to Norfolk.):
22-27 February 1982, Prince
Edward Island:
Five-day blizzard strands Islanders. Winds exceed 80 km/hr (50 mph) and drift
the 60-cm (24-inch) snowfall into 7 m (23.3 ft) drifts
Reference: http://www.islandnet.com/~see/weather/almanac/diaryfeb.htm
Note 2:
YEAR MONTH DAY HOUR UT PHASE DAY J.D.
1982 2 23 21:15.1 New Moon 2 2445024.39 1982 3 25 10:19.8 New Moon 4 2445053.93 1982 4 23 20:30.5 New Moon 5 2445083.35 1982 5 23 4:41.9 New Moon 7 2445112.70 1982 6 21 11:53.1 New Moon 1 2445142.00 1982 7 20 18:57.7 New Moon 2 2445171.29 1982 8 19 2:45.9 New Moon 4 2445200.62 1982 9 17 12:09.7 New Moon 5 2445230.01 1982 10 17 0:04.2 New Moon 7 2445259.50
Reference: http://wise-obs.tau.ac.il/~eran/Sky/MoonPhase.html
Note 3: The ability of UFOs to turn off the
ionized field surrounding it that causes the glow, will be brought up in my
forthcoming book.
UFOCAT PRN – NONE
Ship’s location
Unknown – Probably the northern Atlantic Ocean
Ship’s
History for this period:
During the NATO exercise Ocean Venture "81",
the Repair Department, under simulated wartime conditions, completed over 100
jobs during a three day anchorage in Scapaflow, Scotland. During United
Effort-Teamwork "84", YELLOWSTONE completed over 300 jobs, sending
Tiger Teams of repair personnel to other ships and providing logistic support
by transferring repair parts and supplies and pumping fuel and water to ships
of the task force.
Reference:
http://fp.semo.net/scooby/historyN.htm
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