1971 - USS John F. Kennedy and Alien Craft

pigfarmer

tall, thin, irritable
Never heard of this before .......... but boy, it does have a few bits that sound familiar

1971 - USS John F. Kennedy and Alien Craft

johnfkennedy.jpg
Published: 2:08 PM 11/29/2011

This encounter occurred in 1971, while aboard the aircraft carrier, USS John F. Kennedy CVA-67 (now CV-67) in the Bermuda Triangle. I was assigned to the communications department of the Kennedy and had been in this section about a year.

The ship was returning to Norfolk, VA, after completing a two week operational readiness exercise (ORE) in the Caribbean.

We were to stand down for 30 days, after arriving in Norfolk, Virginia, to allow the crew to take leave and visit family before deploying to the Mediterranean for six months.

I was on duty in the communications center. My task was to monitor eight teletypes printing the "Fleet Broadcasts." On the top row were four teletypes each printing messages from four different channels.

On the bottom row were four more doing the exact same thing, except the signal was carried on different frequencies. If one of the primary receivers started taking "hits."

I would be able to retrieve the message from the bottom one.

I also notified Facilities Control of any hits so they could tune the receivers. On the other side of the compartment room was the NAVCOMMOPNET (Naval Communications Operations Network).

This was the Ship to Shore circuit with the top teletype being the receive and the bottom as the send (known as a duplex circuit). Next to this was the Task Group Circuit for ship to ship communications (task group operations or TGO).

It was in the evening, about 20:30 (8:30 PM) and the ship had just completed an eighteen hour "Flight Ops." I had just taken a message off one of the broadcasts and turned around to file it on a clip board. When I turned back to the teletypes the primaries were typing garbage.

I looked down to the alternates which were doing the same. I walked a few feet to the intercom between us and the Facilities Control. I called them and informed them of the broadcasts being out.

A voice replied that all communications were out. I then turned and looked in the direction of the NAVCOMMOPNET and saw that the operator was having a problem.

I then heard the Task Group operator tell the watch officer that his circuit was out also. In the far corner of the compartment were the pneumatic tubes going to the Signal Bridge (where the flashing light and signal flag messages are sent/receive).

There is an intercom there to communicate with the Signal Bridge and over this intercom we heard someone yelling "There is something hovering over the ship!" A moment later we heard another voice yelling. "IT IS GOD! IT'S THE END OF THE WORLD!”

We all looked at each other, there were six of us in the Comm Center, and someone said, "Let’s go have a look!”

The Comm Center is amidships, just under the flight deck, almost in the center of the ship. We went out the door, through Facilities Control and out that door, down the passageway (corridor) about 55 feet to the hatch that goes out to the catwalk on the edge of the flight deck (opposite from the "Island" or that part of the ship where the bridge is).

If you have ever been to sea, there is a time called the time of no horizon. This happens in the morning and evening just as the sun comes up or goes down over the horizon.

During this time you cannot tell where the sea and sky meet. This is the time of evening it was. As we looked up, we saw a large, glowing sphere.

Well it seemed large; however, there was no point of reference. That is to say, if the sphere were low; say 100 feet above the ship, and then it would have been about two to three hundred feet in diameter.

If it was 500 feet about the ship then it would have been larger. It made no sound that I could hear.

The light coming from it wasn't too bright, about half of what the sun would be. It sort of pulsated a little and was yellow to orange.

We didn't get to look at it for more than about 20 seconds because General Quarters (Battle stations) was sounding and the Communication Officer was in the passageway telling us to get back into the Comm Center.

We returned and stayed there (that was out battle station). We didn't have much to do because all the communication was still out.

After about 20 minutes, the teletypes started printing correctly again. We stayed at General Quarters for about another hour, then secured. I didn't see or hear of any messages going out about the incident.

Over the next few hours, I talked to a good friend that was in CIC (combat information center) who was a radar operator. He told me that all the radar screens were just glowing during the time of the incident. I also talked to a guy I knew that worked on the Navigational Bridge.

He told me that none of the compasses were working and that the medics had to sedate a boatswain’s mate that was a lookout on the signal bridge. I figured this was the one yelling it was God.

It was ironic that of the 5,000 men on a carrier, that only a handful actually saw this phenomenon. This was due to the fact that Flight Ops had just been completed a short time before this all started and all the flight deck personnel were below resting.

It should be noted that there are very few places where you can go to be out in the open air aboard a carrier. From what I could learn, virtually all electronic components stopped functioning during the 20 minutes or so that whatever it was hovered over the ship. The two Ready CAPs (Combat Air Patrol), which were two F-4 Phantoms that are always ready to be launched, would not start.

I heard from the scuttlebutt (slang - rumor mill) that three or four "men in trench coats" had landed, and were interviewing the personnel that had seen this phenomena. I was never interviewed, maybe because no one knew that I had seen it.

A few days later, as we were approaching Norfolk, the Commanding and Executive Officers came on the closed circuit TV system that we had. They did this regularly to address the crew and pass on information.

During this particular session the Captain told us how well we did on the ORE and about our upcoming deployment to the Mediterranean.

At the very end of his spiel, he said "I would like to remind the crew that certain events that take place aboard a Naval Combatant Ship, are classified and are not to be discussed with anyone without a need to know."

This was all the official word I ever received or heard of the incident.

Being young and excited about my visit home and going to the Med, I completely forgot about it until years later when my wife and I went to see "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" at the movies when it first came out.

In fact the friend that had been the radar operator was with his wife and went with us. As we walked across the parking lot to my car, I ask him if he remembered what we had experienced years earlier on the ship.

He looked at me and said he never wanted to talk about it again. As he said it he turned a little pale. I never talked about the incident again.

When I discovered "Aliens and Strange Phenomenon" on MSN and started reading the posts I started thinking about it again. Now I seem obsessed in finding out all I can about this phenomena."


Special thanks to Yorktown Sailor.com

KEN PFEIFER WORLD UFO PHOTOS
 

nivek

As Above So Below
That's quite an event, those guys were very fortunate to see the UFO, which doesn't appear to be terrestrial judging by the description...

...
 

pigfarmer

tall, thin, irritable
Who knows.

5000 people, handful of witnesses, men in trench coats. I heard this as part of a Bermuda Triangle story and the explanation offered had something to do with a methane discharge. You know, something like swamp gas.
 

1963

Noble
Never heard of this before .......... but boy, it does have a few bits that sound familiar

1971 - USS John F. Kennedy and Alien Craft

johnfkennedy.jpg
Published: 2:08 PM 11/29/2011

This encounter occurred in 1971, while aboard the aircraft carrier, USS John F. Kennedy CVA-67 (now CV-67) in the Bermuda Triangle. I was assigned to the communications department of the Kennedy and had been in this section about a year.

The ship was returning to Norfolk, VA, after completing a two week operational readiness exercise (ORE) in the Caribbean.

We were to stand down for 30 days, after arriving in Norfolk, Virginia, to allow the crew to take leave and visit family before deploying to the Mediterranean for six months.

I was on duty in the communications center. My task was to monitor eight teletypes printing the "Fleet Broadcasts." On the top row were four teletypes each printing messages from four different channels.

On the bottom row were four more doing the exact same thing, except the signal was carried on different frequencies. If one of the primary receivers started taking "hits."

I would be able to retrieve the message from the bottom one.

I also notified Facilities Control of any hits so they could tune the receivers. On the other side of the compartment room was the NAVCOMMOPNET (Naval Communications Operations Network).

This was the Ship to Shore circuit with the top teletype being the receive and the bottom as the send (known as a duplex circuit). Next to this was the Task Group Circuit for ship to ship communications (task group operations or TGO).

It was in the evening, about 20:30 (8:30 PM) and the ship had just completed an eighteen hour "Flight Ops." I had just taken a message off one of the broadcasts and turned around to file it on a clip board. When I turned back to the teletypes the primaries were typing garbage.

I looked down to the alternates which were doing the same. I walked a few feet to the intercom between us and the Facilities Control. I called them and informed them of the broadcasts being out.

A voice replied that all communications were out. I then turned and looked in the direction of the NAVCOMMOPNET and saw that the operator was having a problem.

I then heard the Task Group operator tell the watch officer that his circuit was out also. In the far corner of the compartment were the pneumatic tubes going to the Signal Bridge (where the flashing light and signal flag messages are sent/receive).

There is an intercom there to communicate with the Signal Bridge and over this intercom we heard someone yelling "There is something hovering over the ship!" A moment later we heard another voice yelling. "IT IS GOD! IT'S THE END OF THE WORLD!”

We all looked at each other, there were six of us in the Comm Center, and someone said, "Let’s go have a look!”

The Comm Center is amidships, just under the flight deck, almost in the center of the ship. We went out the door, through Facilities Control and out that door, down the passageway (corridor) about 55 feet to the hatch that goes out to the catwalk on the edge of the flight deck (opposite from the "Island" or that part of the ship where the bridge is).

If you have ever been to sea, there is a time called the time of no horizon. This happens in the morning and evening just as the sun comes up or goes down over the horizon.

During this time you cannot tell where the sea and sky meet. This is the time of evening it was. As we looked up, we saw a large, glowing sphere.

Well it seemed large; however, there was no point of reference. That is to say, if the sphere were low; say 100 feet above the ship, and then it would have been about two to three hundred feet in diameter.

If it was 500 feet about the ship then it would have been larger. It made no sound that I could hear.

The light coming from it wasn't too bright, about half of what the sun would be. It sort of pulsated a little and was yellow to orange.

We didn't get to look at it for more than about 20 seconds because General Quarters (Battle stations) was sounding and the Communication Officer was in the passageway telling us to get back into the Comm Center.

We returned and stayed there (that was out battle station). We didn't have much to do because all the communication was still out.

After about 20 minutes, the teletypes started printing correctly again. We stayed at General Quarters for about another hour, then secured. I didn't see or hear of any messages going out about the incident.

Over the next few hours, I talked to a good friend that was in CIC (combat information center) who was a radar operator. He told me that all the radar screens were just glowing during the time of the incident. I also talked to a guy I knew that worked on the Navigational Bridge.

He told me that none of the compasses were working and that the medics had to sedate a boatswain’s mate that was a lookout on the signal bridge. I figured this was the one yelling it was God.

It was ironic that of the 5,000 men on a carrier, that only a handful actually saw this phenomenon. This was due to the fact that Flight Ops had just been completed a short time before this all started and all the flight deck personnel were below resting.

It should be noted that there are very few places where you can go to be out in the open air aboard a carrier. From what I could learn, virtually all electronic components stopped functioning during the 20 minutes or so that whatever it was hovered over the ship. The two Ready CAPs (Combat Air Patrol), which were two F-4 Phantoms that are always ready to be launched, would not start.

I heard from the scuttlebutt (slang - rumor mill) that three or four "men in trench coats" had landed, and were interviewing the personnel that had seen this phenomena. I was never interviewed, maybe because no one knew that I had seen it.

A few days later, as we were approaching Norfolk, the Commanding and Executive Officers came on the closed circuit TV system that we had. They did this regularly to address the crew and pass on information.

During this particular session the Captain told us how well we did on the ORE and about our upcoming deployment to the Mediterranean.

At the very end of his spiel, he said "I would like to remind the crew that certain events that take place aboard a Naval Combatant Ship, are classified and are not to be discussed with anyone without a need to know."

This was all the official word I ever received or heard of the incident.

Being young and excited about my visit home and going to the Med, I completely forgot about it until years later when my wife and I went to see "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" at the movies when it first came out.

In fact the friend that had been the radar operator was with his wife and went with us. As we walked across the parking lot to my car, I ask him if he remembered what we had experienced years earlier on the ship.

He looked at me and said he never wanted to talk about it again. As he said it he turned a little pale. I never talked about the incident again.

When I discovered "Aliens and Strange Phenomenon" on MSN and started reading the posts I started thinking about it again. Now I seem obsessed in finding out all I can about this phenomena."


Special thanks to Yorktown Sailor.com

KEN PFEIFER WORLD UFO PHOTOS

Hi PF, hope you are well buddy. :Thumbsup:
Yes, I remember this 'case' from one of Karl12's threads … 'UFO the water connection' ? .. [or something like that]
… it came from the late Carl Feindt's excellent 'WaterUFOnet' site. .. And the very respectable Carl Feindt attested to actually meeting the claimant of the event "Mr. Jim Kopf" and saying
" I have met Mr. Jim Kopf at a MUFON meeting in Maryland several years ago and found him to be quite sincere regarding this case.-CF-
..... and after reading and studying so many of his presentations over the years, and being forced to a pretty favourable opinion of Carl's skill and integrity in the field, ... that statement has to kind of resonate favourably somewhat. However, i feel that i have to hold back from declaring 'belief' in this claim for a few reasons really . ie... i would have expected much more [or any] corroboration to such a jaw dropping event onboard a ship that popuplous. etc. ... but to be honest my main bugbear in this case is the last part of Kopf's statement ...
Being young and excited about my visit home and going to the Med, I completely forgot about it until years later when my wife and I went to see "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" at the movies when it first came out.
In fact the friend that had been the radar operator was with his wife and went with us. As we walked across the parking lot to my car, I ask him if he remembered what we had experienced years earlier on the ship.
He looked at me and said he never wanted to talk about it again. As he said it he turned a little pale. I never talked about the incident again.
When I discovered "Aliens and Strange Phenomenon" on MSN and started reading the posts I started thinking about it again. Now I seem obsessed in finding out all I can about this phenomena."
... just doesn't ring true to me at all!

US Aircraft Carrier Stopped By UFO
http://www.nuforc.org/webreports/013/S13385.html
...and as you can see in the above links to nicap and nuforc the two organisations that he reported the 'event' to in 2000 [29 years after the alleged event] there are a couple of minor discrepancies... but nothing really fatal , just a bit of an irritant . But on the whole... I doubt that this case has any real validity. [without more corroboration] and suspect that Kopf is presenting a fictional account created from his studies on more tangible similar cases that can be easily found in UFO literature and internet sites.
But of course, as usual I can [like everyone else] be totally wrong, and am doing the guy an injustice. :oops: .. who knows? ... what do you think matey?

Cheers Buddy.
 
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