11-05-1957  

Sebago, 1945, WPG / WHEC-42

Thanks to: http://www.uscg.mil/History/WEBCUTTERS/Sebago_1945.html     

November Crisis        

At NICAP, between attempts to phone Stokes, I had a call from Sam Gordon, science editor of the Washington Daily News:   

       "Somebody high up in the Coast Guard must believe the 'saucers' are real. They held a special press conference at their New Orleans office and released a sighting by the Coast Guard cutter Sebago. The cutter was cruising in the Gulf of Mexico. This wire story is a radio report from the C.O., Commander C. H. Waring."

       At 5:10 that morning (November 5), veteran radar men on the Sebago had picked up a strange flying object. According to Commander Waring, the UFO had raced around the cutter for ten minutes. Tracking it constantly, the radar men had seen it stop in mid-air, then accelerate swiftly. At one point, its speed was almost 1,000 m.p.h.

       At 5:21, the mystery craft, brightly glowing, was seen by four men on deck: Lieutenant Donald Schaefer, Ensign Wayne Schottley, Quartermaster Kenneth Smith, and Seaman Radioman Thomas Kirk. The UFO was then moving horizontally at very high speed.

       The last radar contact, Commander Waring said, showed the unknown object heading toward Louisiana. It had then flown 175 miles in seventeen minutes. [=10.29 MPM X 60 = 618 MPH.-CF-]

       To the Air Force, this published official report was a hammer blow. The Coast Guard was highly respected by the public, and its technicians and officers were as well trained as any in the armed forces. This was one time when a quick brush-off could be dangerous.

       Avoiding comment, the Air Force told the press the Sebago's report had not been received. This may have been true, though JANAP 146, binding on the Coast Guard, orders the swiftest possible transmission of UFO reports by teletype, radio or telephone.⁴

       Lack of Air Force ridicule in the Coast Guard and Stokes cases temporarily offset their debunking campaign. Noting the serious press treatment, many citizens were encouraged to report their own observations. By the evening of November 5, NICAP had logged scores of new, verified sightings.

Note #4 – On August 4, 1958, the Coast Guard wrote NICAP that this sighting had been reported as required by law.                                                                                                              

This reference: Flying Saucers: Top Secret by Major Donald Keyhoe, pp. 121-122, © 1960.   

UFOCAT PRN – 29301 [DOS: 11-05-1957]

UFOCAT URN – 029301 Newspaper clipping, November 06, 1957

UFOCAT URN – 029302 Newspaper clipping November 06, 1957

UFOCAT URN – 029287 APRO Bulletin, November 1957, p. 8

UFOCAT URN – 029296 UFO Investigator, publication of NICAP, January 1958, p. 4

UFOCAT URN – 029294 1957 Saucer Wave in the US by Alexander Mebane, p. 242, © 1958

UFOCAT URN – 029293 Scientific Study of Unidentified Flying Objects by Edward Condon,

                                        p. 165, © 1960

UFOCAT URN – 029295 Flying Saucers: Top Secret by Donald Keyhoe, p. 121, © 1960

UFOCAT URN – 029303 Report on Unidentified Flying Objects by Edward J. Ruppelt, p. 256,

                                        © 1960

UFOCAT URN – 029298 The World of Flying Saucers by Donald Menzel, p. 182, © 1963

UFOCAT URN – 029305 The UFO Evidence 1, Richard Hall, p. 86, © 1964

UFOCAT URN – 106866 Flying Saucer Magazine (Palmer), February 1965, p. 36

UFOCAT URN – 029306 Flying Saucers: The Startling Evidence by C. Lorenzen, p. 101, © 1966

UFOCAT URN – 029304 Flying Saucers – Serious Business by Frank Edwards, p. 121, © 1966

UFOCAT URN – 029289 Data-Net Report, January 1970

UFOCAT URN – 029290 Data-Net Report, January 1970

UFOCAT URN – 081483 Flying Saucer Story by Brinsley Trench, p. 40, © 1973

UFOCAT URN – 122206 UFOs: A Century of Sightings by Michael D. Hall, #253, © 1999

UFOCAT URN – 029291 (USAF) Blue Book files counted in official statistics, #34

UFOCAT URN – 029300 James E. McDonald investigation files, #063

UFOCAT URN – 029288 Condon Committee investigation files

UFOCAT URN – 029292 (USAF) Blue Book files counted in official statistics, #34

UFOCAT URN – 029297 Computerized Catalog (N=3076), #2481 by Jacques Vallee, no © date

UFOCAT URN – 029299 Computerized Catalog (N=3173), #1093 by L. Schoenherr, no © date

UFOCAT PRN – 029305 [DOS: 11-??-1957]

UFOCAT URN – 079802 Mysteries of the Skies by Gordon I. R. Lore, p. 170, © 1968 

UFOCAT PRN – 029306 [DOS: 11-05-1957]

UFOCAT URN – 065521 UFOs: The Whole Story by Coral Lorenzen, p. 083, © 1969  

UFOCAT PRN – 182139 [DOS: 11-05-1957]

UFOCAT URN – 136782 UFOs and the National Security State by Richard Dolan, 497-222, © 2000

UFOCAT URN – 182139 UFOs and the National Security State by Richard Dolan, 410-222, © 2002

North America - Gulf of Mexico

South of New Orleans, USA (See below)        

UFO Location (UFOCAT) Latitude 25.78 N, Longitude 89.40 W (D.%) 

Ship’s History

See: http://www.uscg.mil/History/WEBCUTTERS/Sebago_1945.html