The Secret in the Sky

For many of the Marco Beach Boys and Girls, the change of seasons on our islands defines the people we meet. One benefit of living where we do is the opportunity to meet amazing individuals. Quite often, visitors that are seeking the perfect autumn vacation will discover our little corner of the tropics and return year after year. When the same new friends return, season after season, they become good friends, and after several years of watching their kids grow up, and sharing many conversations, the new good friends are perhaps ready to share their secrets.

On one unforgettable sun splashed day along the desolated beach on Keewaydin Island, we were walking and talking as mom and the teenagers ranged out ahead. The conversation somehow turned a corner and a good friend who happened to be a career U.S. Air Force officer shared a very special story of a secret in the sky. This was when the world stopped for a few seconds as the implications of extraterrestrials visiting our world changed a Beach Boy’s outlook forever.

We learned our visitor from the Air Force, over the years, had flown jet fighters in Iraq and Afghanistan and most everywhere in between. The following was not from the Air Force officer we knew, but from his father. The narrative that follows is a story passed down from father to son; a story from a jet fighter pilot from the early 1970’s - who was also an officer in the Air Force - to his son that flies jet fighters in the present day.

During the early 1970s the father was assigned to fly the Voodoo Interceptor, which is a two-person jet fighter. The Voodoo crews at the time were given the task of protecting our airspace. When coastal radar would detect unknown aircraft approaching the international boundaries of the United States, two Voodoo fighters were launched to intercept the possible invaders. Most often, this was a nonevent with the unknown radar image turning out to be an ordinary private civilian aircraft.

On this occasion however, there was nothing ordinary about the airborne altercation. After the two jet fighters were scrambled with two crew on each airplane, they were quickly dispatched to an interception point where the radar intruder was rapidly approaching.

After a few hundred miles away from base voice communication started to become garbled. The two fighters could communicate with each other but any transmission apart from the two aircraft was becoming impossible to understand. When the intruder that was the radar contact became visible, it appeared as a shining metal object glistening in the sunlight. After the Voodoo interceptors came closer, many of the earthborn airplane’s instruments began showing impossible readings and any attempted communication with the Voodoo fighter’s base was filled in with a strange static that none of the pilots had heard before. 

Even before the two intercepting airplanes were reaching optimal visual inspection, all four of the men onboard knew that their lives were changed forever. The unidentified flying object before them did not appear to have any type of engine, windows, hatches, or doors. It did however respond to the two Air Force jets as they continued to approach. When the Voodoo crews continued to draw cautiously nearer, the bright and shining UFO came over to investigate them. At this point, the UFO turned and revealed its true shape. It was no longer a shining and silver cigar shaped object. It was now a circular disc-shaped craft about the size of five of their fighters. Upon closer contact, it was very clear this was not an aircraft like any other made on earth. There were no seams visible in the shining silver metal that was glowing. What at first was believed to be reflection from the sunshine was now something altogether different.

As the two jet fighters continued the interceptor flight, the UFO moved in even closer. It then began to act playful. It was moving in at the same rate of speed the fighters were flying and it seemed to want to fly in-between the two airplanes. The fighters obliged and moved apart. Soon the UFO was very close and continuing to match course and speed. When the otherworldly craft continued even closer to the fighters, the strange static in the pilot’s headgear grew louder as the men onboard began to decide enough was enough. At this point, the avionics on both of the aircraft were no longer showing anything reliable and the two Voodoo jet fighters began to edge away.

The UFO banked and followed as if it were another aircraft of the same kind. The Air Force pilots then banked again heading for a lower altitude, but the glowing flying saucer - that was glowing brighter than any reflected sunlight - banked and replicated their every attempt at evasion. Finally, when the strange craft began to nudge even closer, both of the Voodoo pilots engaged after burner and went supersonic. Even with the dramatic acceleration, the visitor continued to match course and speed - even at supersonic speed - and when the earthborn jets reached their ceiling and could fly no higher, the UFO accelerated, and flew straight up into the very thin air and finally disappeared into outer space.

When the UFO vanished into the unknown and where no earthbound airplane could venture, all of the flight instruments and avionics on both US jet fighters returned to normal parameters. The strange static in the headphones disappeared and was replaced with frantic Air Force radio operators calling out for the two missing Voodoo Interceptors.

After the two planes returned to base, they learned they had been missing and out of radio contact for 56 minutes. When all four of the aviators looked at their wristwatches, all four of the timepieces were exactly 56 minutes behind the correct time. The aviators compared accounts from the encounter but all believed the altercation lasted only a few minutes.

After making their fantastic reports to a group of senior officers, the radar tapes on both aircraft were examined and both tapes showed the UFO’s attitude and maneuvers exactly as described in the post flight reports. The radar tapes were then placed into a vault for safekeeping.

The following day the radar tapes were missing and each of the four aviators received a telephone call instructing them to: Forget what you saw. Tell no one of this encounter. This flight on this date is now classified and officially never happened.

When the son’s story of what happened to his father aboard the Voodoo Interceptor was told, there was one Beach Boy that knew…this was going to be an out of this world Halloween chronicle that just might bridge several generations.

Tom Williams is a Marco Islander. He is the author of two books: “Lost and Found” and “Surrounded by Thunder - The Story of Darrell Loan and the Rocket Men.” Both books are available on Kindle and Nook.