T-33 Chases UFO
over Sandy Hook
Date: September 10 and 11, 1951
Location: Monmouth, New Jersey, and Sandy Hook,
Connecticut, United States
Over a span of two days, unidentified objects were tracked on military radar and visual contact was also made by a pilot flying a Lockheed T-33 aircraft. The case begins on the morning of September 10, 1951 at the Fort Monmouth radar facility center. Private First-Class Eugent Clark was giving a demonstration for a number of visiting officers on a AN/MPG-1 radar set. Unfortunately for Clark, the demonstration did not go as smoothly as he had planned.
At around 11:18, Clark started picking up an unidentified target on his radar scope, which was flying along the coast line and was presenting an unusually high radar return. The target was flying at an unusually low altitude and was travelling at such a high speed that the automatic setting on the radar could not keep up with it. The AN/MPG-1 radar had the ability to track targets travelling up to 700 miles per hour. The target then crossed the entire coast line in an instant and disappeared near the Sandy Hook coastal peninsula. At the time of the radar sighting, Lieutenant Wilbert Rogers was airborne, piloting a Lockheed T-33 jet trainer with Major Edward Ballard Jr. sitting in the rear seat.
En route to Mitchell Air Force Base in New York, the T-33 was at an altitude of twenty thousand feet, flying over Point Pleasant in New Jersey at 450 miles per hour. The time was around 11:35, just seventeen minutes after the radar sighting had been made back at Fort Monmouth, when Ballard noticed a disk-shaped object flying below their T-33 aircraft. Ballard pointed the sighting out to Rogers who immediately noticed the flying object. The two estimated that the object had a diameter of thirty to fifty feet and had a flat surface without any visible windows or exhaust plumes; it was also not leaving any trails behind, it was simply gliding through the air at an incredible speed. The object was estimated to be traveling at least nine hundred miles per hour. In an attempt to keep up with it, Rogers increased the aircraft’s speed up to 550 miles per hour and descended to seventeen thousand feet. Even at this speed, the object was well ahead of them.
The disk-shaped object had crossed the coast in mere seconds. Rogers attempted to mirror the trajectory of the object, however, it disappeared out of sight in a matter of seconds. In an article published in The Canberra Times on September 12, 1951, Rogers stated the following: “I don’t know if it was a flying saucer, but it sure was something I’ve never seen before. This could not have been a balloon because it was descending, and no balloon goes that fast.”
A few hours after the object disappeared, a second radar sighting was made. At 15:15, the commanding officer at Fort Monmouth started tracking an unidentified blip on radar, which was moving slowly at an altitude of ninety-three thousand feet. Although the object could not be identified, records show that a weather balloon was released at around the same time, leading many to assume that it was the target captured on radar. The following day, September 11, more radar sightings were made at Fort Monmouth. At 10:50, two separate radar scopes picked up an unidentified object at an altitude of thirty-one thousand feet, traveling well over seven hundred miles per hour. Once again, the automatic tracking on both sets of radars could not keep up with the target.
Switching to manual tracking, the radar operators attempted to lock down with the object, however, it was simply too fast. The high velocity made it virtually impossible for them to keep up with it. Just two hours later, at 13:30, another target was picked up on radar. This time, the object was moving erratically at an altitude of six thousand feet, and then even proceeded to remain in a stationary position, signifying that the object must have been hovering. Although the object was close to the radar facility, the radar operators were unable to locate any aircraft outside their windows. Within a few seconds, the target began a vertical climb. The elevation was performed at such an incredible rate that the operators suspected that the target had performed a vertical rise.
The Unidentified Flying Object
In a letter sent to the commanding general at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base dated September 12, 1951, Lieutenant Wilbert Rogers described the encounter as follows:
******
a. The unidentified object, which was sighted at about 11:35 DST Monday, September 10, was round and flat in shape. The size of the unconventional object is estimated to be the size of a fighter or light bomber, thirty to fifty feet in diameter. Only one object was sighted, and no exhaust or trail was observed at any time. […] Only one time was the object seen edgewise and it appeared definitely discus-shaped; the rest of the time it was in a port turn, disappearing as it went out to sea.
b. Time of observation was between 11:35 and 11:40 DST. Duration of the observation was about two minutes.
c. The manner of observation was visual. The object was sighted from an Air Force T-33, which was on a routine training flight from Dover Air Force Base. The T-33 was cruising at twenty thousand feet making good about 450 miles per hour when the object was sighted at least twelve thousand feet below at eleven o’clock position. After making a gradual 120-degree descending turn to seventeen thousand feet the T-33 was going over 500 miles per hour when the object disappeared out to sea.
d. The observers were above and due south of the object when it was first sighted. Observer plane was over Point Pleasant and the object was over Sandy Hook, N.J. when it was first sighted. The object flew southwest over Red Bank and started a gradual port turn to about 120 degrees, crossing just south of Point Pleasant and disappearing out to sea.
e. The observers were 1st Lt. Wilbert S. Rogers and Ballard, Jr. Both men are experienced fighter pilots.
f. Weather ceiling for Mitchell Air Force Base at 1:30, September 10 was twenty thousand feet and seven mile visibility. Pilot reports CAVU at point of sighting object.
g. No meteorological conditions that might account for the sighting existed.
h. No photographs were possible.
i. Observer turned to chase the object but could not stay with it
j. Local aircraft airborne during the observation is unknown.
******
The Investigation
The two sightings were investigated under Project Grudge, the predecessor of the air force’s Project Blue Book. Lieutenant Henry Metscher, one of the lead investigators of Project Grudge, had come up with several explanations for the four sightings. The official conclusions that Project Grudge came to are as follows:
1. The unidentified aircraft reported by the T-33 pilots was probably a balloon launched by the Evans Signal Laboratory a few minutes before the T-33 arrived in the area.
2. The 11:10 EDST radar sighting on September 10, 1951, was not necessarily a very high-speed aircraft. Its speed was judged only by the operator’s inability to use aided tracking and this was possibly due to the operator being excited, and not the high speed of the aircraft.
3. The 15:15 EDST radar sighting on September 10, 1951, was a weather balloon.
4. The 10:50 EDST radar sighting on September 11, 1951, was a weather balloon.
5. The 13:30 EDST radar sighting on September 11, 1951, remains unknown but it was very possible that it was due to anomalous propagation and/or the student radar operators’ thoughts that there was a great deal of activity of unusual objects in the area.
Weather Balloon or Flying Saucer?
Project Grudge had attributed the sightings to a pair of weather balloons that were released from Evans Signal Laboratory at 11:12 on September 10. The facility in question is in close proximity to Fort Monmouth, however, were these weather balloons the same object Lieutenant Rogers and Major Ballard had seen in the sky? Were these weather balloons the same targets that the radar operators had tracked on four separate occasions?
The visual sighting was made at around 11:35 over Point Pleasant. In the twenty-three-minute difference between the time when the balloons were released (11:12) and the time of the sighting, a typical radiosonde weather balloon would have reached an altitude of seventeen thousand to eighteen thousand feet. If we consider the weather conditions on the day, given the upper winds, the weather balloon would have traveled to the northeast toward Sea Bright, whereas the UFO traveled southwest over Red Bank. Moreover, Rogers and Ballard stated that the object had made a sharp 120-degree turn, before speeding out to sea at an incredible velocity (it most definitely exceeded 700 miles per hour, which is unduly faster than the velocity of a weather balloon). We must also consider the fact that the airmen described the object as having a disk-shape and a flat surface, this naturally does not match up with the characteristics of a typical weather balloon. Another factor that proves that the UFO in question was not a weather balloon is the fact that, given the altitude the UFO was at, the weather balloon would have had a diameter of fifteen feet (as opposed to the thirty to fifty feet in diameter the UFO reportedly had).
Conclusion
So, with all the information presented, was the UFO a weather balloon? Ruppelt, who would later lead Project Blue Book, did not believe so. He stated that there was no comparison between the reported disk-shaped UFO and the released weather balloons. There are too many factors that simply disprove this hypothesis. Although Project Grudge refused to acknowledge so, neither Ruppelt nor Metscher were able to explain what the unidentified flying object was: “Lieutenant Metscher took over and, riding on his Fort Monmouth victory, tried to show how the pilots had seen the balloon. He got the same thing I did—nothing” 125
125. Ruppelt, “The Report,” 114.