A master sergeant who had seen and heard the happenings told me that in all his years of duty—­combat radar operations in both Europe and Korea—­he’d never been so completely awed by anything.  When the warrant officer had yelled down at him and asked him what he thought they should do, he’d just stood there.  “After all,” he told me, “what in hell could we do—­they’re bigger than all of us.”

But the warrant officer did do something.  He called to the F-84 pilot he had on combat air patrol west of the base and told him to get ready for an intercept.  He brought the pilot around south of the base and gave him a course correction that would take him right into the light, which was still at 16,000 feet.  By this time the pilot had it spotted.  He made the turn, and when he closed to within about 3 miles of the target, it began to move.  The controller saw it begin to move, the spotter saw it begin to move and the pilot saw it begin to move—­all at the same time.  There was now no doubt that all of them were watching the same object.

Once it began to move, the UFO picked up speed fast and started to climb, heading north, but the F-84 was right on its tail.  The pilot would notice that the light was getting brighter, and he’d call the controller to tell him about it.  But the controller’s answer would always be the same, “Roger, we can see it on the scope.”

There was always a limit as to how near the jet could get, however.  The controller told me that it was just as if the UFO had some kind of an automatic warning radar linked to its power supply.  When something got too close to it, it would automatically pick up speed and pull away.  The separation distance always remained about 3 miles.

The chase continued on north—­out of sight of the lights of Rapid City and the base—­into some very black night.

When the UFO and the F-84 got about 120 miles to the north, the pilot checked his fuel; he had to come back.  And when I talked to him, he said he was damn glad that he was running out of fuel because being out over some mighty desolate country alone with a UFO can cause some worry.

Both the UFO and the F-84 had gone off the scope, but in a few minutes the jet was back on, heading for home.  Then 10 or 15 miles behind it was the UFO target also coming back.

While the UFO and the F-84 were returning to the base—­the F-84 was planning to land—­the controller received a call from the jet interceptor squadron on the base.  The alert pilots at the squadron had heard the conversations on their radio and didn’t believe it.  “Who’s nuts up there?” was the comment that passed over the wire from the pilots to the radar people.  There was an F-84 on the line ready to scramble, the man on the phone said, and one of the pilots, a World War II and Korean veteran, wanted to go up and see a flying saucer.  The controller said, “O.K., go.”