Le pilote militaire Bob Schneck a rencontré un ovni en vol...

[Benjamin.dResponsable du forum]

No enemy contact, but UFO? Maybe…



Although the war ended before U.S. Army Air Corps pilot Bob Schneck could fly combat missions, he trained hundreds of bombardiers who made their mark overseas.

And while the World War II years didn't provide much adventure for Schneck, the 1950s gave him as much excitement as he could handle — including a UFO encounter.

After Schneck received his pilot wings at Douglas, Ariz., in April 1944, he was assigned to train bombardier cadets in Deming, N.M.

“That was long enough to keep me out of combat,” Schneck said of his stint with the students. “I was training to go to war, but I never got there.”

Schneck took two students up at a time in a twin-engine aircraft, 10,000 feet over a target laid out in an auxiliary field in the New Mexico desert.

Using the Norden bombsight, the students practiced dropping their 100-pound “bombs.” A shotgun-type shell attached to the bomb would go off on impact and mark where the bomb touched down in the circle. Photos were taken of where the bomb landed.

Schneck flew four or five missions a day, each mission lasting one-and-a-half to two hours. Sometimes he flew the students on night missions. Bombardiers were in high demand during that time.

“They all got assignments to B-17s or B-24s,” and were sent overseas, Schneck said.

Schneck completed his eight-month teaching assignment in December 1944 and finally began his pilot training in B-17 and B-29 bombers in January, but by the time his training wrapped up in August, the war was over.

Although he was disappointed he missed out going overseas, at least he was doing what he loved — even if it was just flying young bombardiers over practice targets.

“It was flying,” he said. “That was the main thing. Most of us wanted to get into combat. The patriotism was very high.”

In the military, you don't have much say in the decision-making process, he said.

“You were just cannon fodder,” Schneck said. “That's what we called ourselves,” he said, laughing.

After the war was over, Schneck, who held the rank of first lieutenant, dropped back to the rank of master sergeant and, to complement his piloting skills, became a bombardier, navigator, radio operator and flying boom operator.

A boom operator (in-flight fuel technician) controls a long, extendable metal arm that connects to another aircraft for the transfer of fuel. Schneck went to boom school in 1950 and became one of the very first boom operators in the U.S. Air Force.

From the back of a Boeing KB-29P tanker, Schneck would “Fly the boom into a receptacle in a receiver airplane flying in close formation.”

The aircraft, usually a bomber or fighter, and the tanker would be about 50 feet apart — at a altitude of about 10,000 feet — when the two connected.
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Once inserted into the receptacle, the boom was automatically latched into place with toggles.

It took the steady hand of a boom operator and the careful maneuvering of the receiving pilot to make the connection.

“Sometimes they'd break away; sometimes they'd get hung up,” he said.

“I was proud of being on the ground floor and given the chance of doing it,” he said.

In July 1955, Schneck was flying a KC-97 tanker over Newfoundland — one of two crews that had just finished refueling B-47 bombers bound for England — when he saw a UFO.

“At that time in the mid-50s that's when everybody was seeing UFOs,” including pilots and people on the ground, he said. “Most of us in the service” didn't believe the stories.

Schneck's report — and the reports of pilots and crewman from both tankers — was sent to the director of the National Security Agency in Washington, D.C., on July 18, 1955.

It looked like “A big white spot that's way off in the distance,” he said, describing the UFO. “It moved very fast, back and forth. It's something you've never seen before it would zoom across the horizon.”

After returning to Ernest Harmon Air Force Base, “they sent a special crew to interrogate us,” Schneck said.
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According to the official report by the ground control radar operator, “The object was described as flying a very erratic course, making sharp changes in direction. Both aircraft reported that there were no clouds whatsoever near this altitude that might cause a reflection I asked ‘Archie 29' (pilot of second tanker) if he would attempt to close on the sighted object, using caution, for a better report.”

The pilot changed course and headed toward the target, about 40 miles away. After the pilot closed within about 18 miles of the object, the pilot reported the object moved northward and began climbing. The pilot said he was no longer closing in on the object.

The speed of the UFO was estimated to be about 1,500 mph.

Ground control “scrambled” a fighter to chase down the object, but the aircraft's radar was inoperative.

“Shortly thereafter, a momentary contact with the object was made on our height-finder,” the ground control radar operator said in the report. “Altitude was 35,000 feet. ‘Archie 29' reported that object was getting much higher and fading from view.”

According to the official report by the ground control radar operator, “The object was described as flying a very erratic course, making sharp changes in direction. Both aircraft reported that there were no clouds whatsoever near this altitude that might cause a reflection I asked ‘Archie 29' (pilot of second tanker) if he would attempt to close on the sighted object, using caution, for a better report.”

The pilot changed course and headed toward the target, about 40 miles away. After the pilot closed within about 18 miles of the object, the pilot reported the object moved northward and began climbing. The pilot said he was no longer closing in on the object.

The speed of the UFO was estimated to be about 1,500 mph.

Ground control “scrambled” a fighter to chase down the object, but the aircraft's radar was inoperative.

http://www.mydesert.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=20106270325 via http://ovniparanormal.over-blog.com/