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
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