Coast Guard Sebago RV Case. Nov 5, 1957

Coast Guard Cutter = "Sebago" RV=20 Case
November 5, 1957 =
Gulf of Mexico

Updated by Thomas Kirk 5/11/2007
Just after 5:00 a.m. the U. = S.=20 Coast Guard Cutter Sebago was about 200 miles south of the=20 Mississippi delta. At 5:10 the bridge (correction, shipboard) = radar=20 suddenly showed an unidentified target at 246 degrees true, moving = N to=20 S., range 12,000 yards (almost 7 miles). On duty were Ensign Wayne = Schotley (Shockley), deck officer, Lt. (j.g.) (LTJG) Donald = Schaefer,=20 first class quartermaster Kenneth Smith, and radioman (radarman) = Thomas=20 Kirk.

Interviewed in New Orleans, Ensign Schotley (Shockley) was = asked how=20 good the radar target was.

Schotley: (Shockley) "The ship's combat information center = confirmed=20 the sighting. At that point it was reported falling astern = rapidly. It was=20 a good pip [target]. It was a very strong contact, considered = good."

Cmdr. James N. Schrader, spokesman in New Orleans, said that at = one=20 point "in two minutes it went 33 miles straight away from the = ship."=20 (About 1020 mph.)

At 5:14 contact was lost.

At 5:16 contact was regained, object about 22 miles north.

At 5:18 Object faded off radar screen, range about 55 miles. =

At 5:20 contact regained, object appeared stationary, seven = miles due=20 north.

About this time, A/lC William J. Mey, an Electronics technician = at=20 Keesler AFB, Mississippi (about 320 miles to the north on the Gulf = Coast)=20 spotted an elliptical UFO. In his signed report to NICAP, A/lC Mey = gives=20 the time as approximately 5:20 a.m. Looking south, he saw the UFO = approach=20 on a northerly course at about the speed of a propeller airliner, = then=20 accelerate rapidly and disappear into some clouds.

This suggests that more than one UFO may have been operating in = the=20 area, and that the Sebago's radar may have tracked more = than one of=20 them. A/1C Mey's report is fairly consistent with the 5:18 radar = report of=20 the UFO headed north at over 1000 mph. If Mey actually saw the UFO = at=20 5:28, it would have averaged about 1590 mph., from the time it = faded from=20 the Sebago's radar screen. If he saw it precisely at 5:20 a.m., it = would=20 have had to accelerate to nearly 8000 mph. to cover the distance = in that=20 time).

At 5:21 the Sebago regained radar contact, and also saw = the UFO=20 visually for 3-5 seconds as a brilliant white object with no=20 distinguishable shape. It was at a bearing of 270 degrees true = (west),=20 elevation about 31 degrees, moving horizontally from south to = north. (A=20 navigator obtained the elevation by noting a star at the same = angle and=20 taking a sextant reading of it). The UFO finally entered a = cloudbank and=20 disappeared.

At 5:37 the cutter reported its last radar contact with the = object,=20 about 175 miles to the north, traveling about 660 mph.

NICAP UFO Evidence, 86
[See Section XII, November = 1957=20 chronology, for other reports during the same period.]

(This web page was created for the NICAP site by Francis = Ridge)

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