story might be leaked to the media, compounding the derision even further. Not one witness would go on the record regarding the 2006 O’Hare case, despite the numbers who validated the incident and despite the legitimate concern about aviation safety expressed by many of them. But what happens when pilots in military jets, fully armed, encounter UFOs? Or, if electromagnetic radiation from UFOs disables sensitive equipment at military bases, as it can do in the cockpit of an airplane, does this become an issue of national security? These considerations go one step further than that of aviation safety problems caused by accidental proximity to UFOs. When is it appropriate for military jets to take aggressive action, if ever?
As contrasted with commercial aviation, the military operates within a more self-contained, less public arena. Unlike commercial pilots, who are committed to assuring the comfort and safety of often hundreds of passengers as well as protecting their personal reputations and the reputations of their parent companies, Air Force officers have a very different set of priorities. Instead, these pilots are oriented toward protecting their homelands from attack and maintaining readiness for an unanticipated invasion or terrorist assault. Military fliers are prepared to defend themselves if necessary; their jet aircraft are loaded not with passengers but with lethal weaponry that can be used either to attack or to defend.
Military pilots and their air-traffic controllers are trained to obey orders and not ask too many questions, and the system is well practiced in the arts of both reporting sensitive information and maintaining its confidentiality. Within the armed services, pilots are more likely to file reports as a matter of duty, free of the risks that commercial pilots face, because they know that such information will likely be restricted. When Air Force pilots are faced with a UFO, there are often other witnesses from a second aircraft or a base below, and information can be quickly relayed up the chain of command. These officers know that other aircraft can readily be scrambled as support in response to any unusual engagement. And they can defend themselves instantly if necessary.
Knowing this, one naturally wonders: Have military pilots ever shot at UFOs? The shocking answer is yes.
In November 2007, I was fortunate to meet and spend a few days with two pilots who have both engaged in lengthy “dogfights” with targeted UFOs. Retired Iranian general Parviz Jafari was a major in the Iranian Air Force in 1976 when he was ordered by the Air Force Command to man his Phantom II F-4 jet and approach a luminous UFO observed over Tehran. Several times during a wild cat-and-mouse chase, he and his backseat navigator attempted to launch a Sidewinder missile at additional smaller objects heading their way, but at the moment of fire their equipment shut down, returning to normal only when their jet moved away. The main object had been pursued by a second Air Force jet, was recorded on cockpit radar, and was observed from the ground by a general and experienced air navigation crews.
A second, similar event occurred four years later, in 1980, over an air base in Peru, when then Lieutenant Oscar Santa Maria Huertas was ordered to intercept what was at first believed to be an aerial spying device. He fired at the balloonlike object and barraged it with machine-gun shells, but they had no effect. He quickly realized this was something unknown, a UFO. Three different times he locked on to the object to fire when it was stationary, but each time, at the last instant, it shot straight upward. This UFO was witnessed in broad daylight by over a thousand soldiers and staff at the La Joya military base.
General Jafari and Comandante Santa Maria[45] met for the first time at our 2007 press conference in Washington, D.C., also attended by General De Brouwer, Captain Ray Bowyer, and a number of other contributors to this book. This was an opportunity to present statements publicly, but it was also a unique opportunity for these men to converse over the course of a few days, forming the basis of an international network.
As the co-organizer and media contact for the event, and host for our panelists, I was privy to many private discussions over morning coffee and some that lasted late into the night. I will never forget the evening two days before the press conference when General Jafari and Comandante Santa Maria shook hands and sat down together for the first time. They had just arrived at the Washington Hotel after long journeys from very distant parts of the globe. These two unassuming gentlemen joined a small group of us at the hotel’s rooftop restaurant, weary but relieved to be among friends and excited about the momentous press event that lay ahead. General Jafari, sitting to my right, was affable and animated, and soon was responding to a host of questions from those at our table about the 1976 incident. Neither Jafari nor Santa Maria knew much about the other’s experience, and the conversation that followed was unplanned and spontaneous, with no tape recorders or cameras present to curtail its intimacy.
Comandante Santa Maria did not speak English, but shortly after Jafari began his account, a Spanish- speaking couple at the next table confessed that they couldn’t help eavesdropping, and one of them offered to translate for him. Following Jafari, he told his story, prompted by questions from those around him. Both men, each a witness to one of the most unusual events in Air Force history, discovered through the ensuing exchange how similar their experiences were. Each could identify with the fear and awe expressed by the other in the retelling of his story. As Air Force pilots on two different continents, they both had suddenly found themselves face-to-face with something utterly impossible, yet powerfully real. It was one of the most remarkable, and chilling, few hours I’ve spent since beginning this journey ten years ago, and I felt privileged to bear witness to it. Both retired military men were humble, understated, and direct, as well as entirely believable. Jafari described one speeding object coming after his Phantom F-4 jet as he prepared to return to the base. Someone at our table asked him how he felt. “At that moment,” he replied in his imperfect but colorful English, “I doubled my scare.” Santa Maria made a drawing of his UFO on a sugar pack served with our coffee, which I saved as a memento.
And why had the two pilots felt compelled to fire at these UFOs? General Jafari explained that he was acting in self-defense. He initially had no intention of taking any such action, because the Iranian general who ordered him and his navigator aloft was simply interested in getting a better look at the brilliant starlike object, to try to determine its identity. But Jafari soon found himself confronted with actions highly unexpected and threatening to his aircraft. Santa Maria’s circumstances were different. At the outset, he was told the purpose of his mission was to destroy the “espionage device” above his air base, since it had failed to respond to normal communications. Neither pilot realized how futile his actions would be when attempting to fire at a UFO.
In retrospect, there will always be a question as to whether actual aggression was displayed by the UFOs, and we have no idea as to their intention or purpose, or even whether these concepts apply. However, such incidents, although rare, do raise serious national security questions. As it stands now, there appears to be uniform agreement at the highest military levels that UFOs are not belligerent. Even when provoked by human aggression, they do not retaliate—and we have to assume they have every capability of doing so. As General Denis Letty of France assured readers in the COMETA Report, although “intimidation maneuvers have been confirmed,” UFOs have demonstrated no hostile acts to date.
Perhaps the real national security problem lies with impulsive, even if understandable, attempts by military pilots to defend themselves against what they soon discover are phenomena of vastly superior technology with unknown agendas—a truly frightening prospect. But even if pilots feel that self-defense is warranted, such actions could have disastrous consequences if they were ever successful in damaging their target, or if the object
CHAPTER 9
Dogfight over Tehran
by General Parviz Jafari (Ret.), Iranian Air Force
At about 11:00 p.m. on the evening of September 18, 1976, citizens were frightened by the circling of an unknown object over Tehran at a low altitude. It looked similar to a star, but bigger and brighter. Some called the air traffic control tower at Mehrebad Airport, where Houssain Pirouzi was the night supervisor in charge. After
