Michael Smith was an Air Traffic Controller with the Air Force in Oregon and, subsequently, in Michigan. At both of these facilities, he and others witnessed UFOs tracked on radar and moving at extraordinary speeds. He also confirms that personnel were expected to maintain secrecy concerning these observations, and that NORAD, the North American Air Defense Command, was fully apprised of these events. In fact, in one event in Michigan, NORAD was fully engaged, and steered B-52s returning to base around these UFOs.

"My name is Michael W. Smith. I was in the Air Force from 1969 to 1973 and was an Aircraft Control and Early Warning Operator, which was basically an Aircraft Control person. Our job was to track and give altitudes for military aircraft, and to detect and identify any incoming aircraft coming into our airspace.

In spring of 1970, while I was stationed in Klamath Falls, Oregon, I came up to the radar site on the evening shift, and where there [were] normally two or three people in the radar room, there [were] quite a few, from the cooks to maintenance — all kinds of people. I asked what was going on, and they said that they were watching a UFO on radar. I immediately was stunned and asked if the Pentagon [had been] notified, or if we [had] called the President. They said no, they don’t do that. And I said, well, we should call the news media or, you know, call somebody — this was Earth-shaking news to me. And they said, “No, just calm down.”

NORAD [North American Air Defense Command] knows about it. They had called NORAD. The senior NCO pulled me to the side and said that NORAD knows about it — that’s the only people we notify. We don’t talk about this. We don’t tell anybody about this. The people that know, know. We just watch, see what happens, and that’s it. That’s our job. I insisted there has to be a report filed or something filed, you know? And he said that there is a report that you can file — it’s about an inch thick, and the first two pages are about the sighting. The rest of it is basically a psychological profile of you, your family, your bloodlines, everything.

When the Air Force goes through it, they can discredit you completely by either saying that [you were] on drugs, or your mother was a communist, or anything to discredit you. You’d never get a promotion, and [you’d] spend the next three and one-half years up at the North Pole, living in a tent, checking the weather balloons. You know — no hope for promotion. So, the message was pretty loud and clear: you just shut-up and don’t say anything to anybody.

This UFO was stationary; wasn’t moving at all. Then it would slowly lower itself down until it got behind a mountain so that you lost radar contact. It would stay down for about 15 minutes, and the next thing you knew, it was right back up there at 80,000 [or] 90,000 feet. Then, [in] the next sweep of the radarscope, it would be 200 miles away, stationary — completely stopped. It would hover there for 5 [or] 10 minutes, and then slowly start descending until it dropped off radar. Then it would come back up. It did this three times, that I saw.

This happened one more time that I know of. I heard that it’s not an infrequent occurrence out there. They have them quite often, but I’ve personally seen it twice.

There’s no aircraft that can accelerate and decelerate that fast without having the pilot’s face go through the windshield. I mean it is impossible to operate that way with gravity... So, it was obviously something we didn’t have. We never scrambled interceptors on them, so it was obviously something the Russians never had. It was a UFO. That’s the only explanation there was for it. NORAD knew about it and they just handled it like it’s just a UFO — watch it and see what happens. Don’t take any actions, don’t tell anybody, don’t write it down, and don’t disclose it.

NORAD is in charge of all of the air space of the United States and North America. It’s their job to identify any incoming aircraft, any threats — Russian planes or any aircraft at all. The first thing they do is check it with the flight plans of airlines or private carriers or whatever. Everything is identified, so when something like this just pops up on the scope with no flight plan and doing erratic behaviors, it’s their job to identify it. They have a tie-in with all the radar stations in North America. It all goes to Cheyenne Mountain, CO [NORAD HQ]. They have a big screen and they can see any area of the country at any time.

Another experience I had happened on third shift. I was on the radar, and NORAD called me and informed me that there was a UFO coming up the California coast and it would be in my area pretty soon.

I said what do you want me to do? And they said, “Nothing, just watch it, don’t write it down.” We have a log book in which we are supposed to keep track of anything out of the ordinary. But they said, “Don’t log it or anything, just watch it. We are just letting you know — heads up.” NORAD was well aware, obviously, that these UFOs were around, and the action of the people when I first saw the UFO on radar was as if it happens quite often.

The first time you see a UFO on radar you realize the Government knows about this, so why aren’t they telling the press?

But when I was pulled to the side, it was explained that, yes, there are UFOs. Yes, we know [about] them. Yes, NORAD knows about them. But that’s it. This is a secret. You are not supposed to talk about it. Don’t tell anybody about it. Don’t make any reports. Don’t write it down. Just shut-up and you’ll get your next stripe, and you’ll be promoted, and we’ll go on from there.

Another encounter happened while I was stationed in Michigan. It was in 1972 — I believe it was in the fall of 1972. I was working alone that night. By then, I was promoted to Sergeant. I got a phone call from the switchboard operator, and he said he had the State Police on the phone and they wanted to talk to me. He was real frantic when he got on the phone, and said that there [were] three UFOs over the north tower of the Mackinac Bridge. Mackinac Bridge connects the upper peninsula and the lower peninsula of Michigan.

I immediately turned on the radar, but my immediate reply to the officer was [that] they are not on radar, and I hung up the phone. It’s just something that’s programmed into you — that’s what you are supposed to say, “There’s nothing on radar”, even if you see something. But actually, the north tower seemed to be a little bit bigger, and then I realized that they were the UFOs. One took off, left the other two, circled Mackinac Island and came back to the other [two]. Then, all three started going along Interstate 75, north from St. Ignace.

In the meantime, I got calls from the Sheriff’s Department. They were frantic, saying, “We are chasing these UFOs up the highway.” My response was, there’s nothing on radar. Several people called — several civilians. I believe there was a newspaper person that called. In the meantime, I called NORAD and told them. They looked it up and they said, “Oh, they are going up I-75?” I said yes, at about 70-80 miles an hour.

Now, about halfway between St. Ignace and [unintelligible], there is Kincheloe Air Force Base, which is a SAC base [closed in 1977]. They have B-52 bombers. They had two that were on final approach, and that crosses I-75. Apparently, they diverted those two bombers because they didn’t want — [whether] they have nuclear weapons or not — to take a chance on them meeting UFOs about the same altitude, crossing the highway. So they diverted the two B-52s.

As the UFOs came closer, I realized that they were coming this way — following the highway right by my radar site, which is up on top of a hill.

Then I saw a bright bluish glow go by silently, followed by the flashing red and blue lights of the police cars that were chasing them.

If I had said, oh, yes, I have them on radar, then the next thing I know, newspapers are going to be up there wanting to talk to me and I’d probably get courtmartialed… It was just instinct, saying there’s nothing on radar when there actually was. I was watching them come up the highway. They were so close together, they looked like one return. In other words, it looked like it was one aircraft and it was very low.

It doesn’t matter if he’s wearing a badge or not — you don’t talk about it. In the log book, [I] wrote this down, and I told my Senior NCO the next day about it — but that’s all you are supposed to do. Don’t tell anybody else. Don’t write it down, although I did write it down. But, I doubt you’ll ever find that log book.

The government, they cover up. They don’t want anybody talking about it. But this is such remarkable technology. These people come from who knows where. I would think you’d want everybody to know…

On a personal note, after the first event happened in Oregon, I came home on leave and told my Dad about it. He was red, white, and blue through and through--an old WWII hero and all that, and very patriotic. I was explaining to him about these UFOs that we routinely see out there, and he said, “No, the Government says that there are no UFOs.” I’m saying, Dad, I’ve seen these on radar with my own eyes. And he says, come on, the Government would never lie to him. You know? But here’s his son; I would never lie to him.

So, he just didn’t know what to do. It wasn’t until years later, until after Watergate, that he said, “Hey, sit down and tell me about this. The Government is lying to me about a little thing like Watergate, so obviously they are out lying about something big.”

It’s a Government cover-up that doesn’t need to be here any more. There is no more Cold War. I believe the same thing Dr. Greer does, that the technology they have could enable us to stop burning our fossil fuels and stop the damage to the ozone, etc. These people have technologies — they must have something. And the Government knows about it. They have these aliens, they have these spacecraft, they have this technology, all this. There’s a lot of back-engineered technology, that’s pretty obvious. Who are they to cover this up when other Governments are coming forward, admitting, and showing their files — why isn’t our Government?

While I was in the Air Force, there were a number of other people that had witnessed UFOs on radar, also. A number of pilots I’ve talked to had chased them or come close to them or flown in formation with them. For example, a friend of mine was in a tower and there was a flight of three interceptors coming in. And he said, “No, there’s four of them.” And the Captain is going, “No, there’s three of us.” And he said, “Well, look around.” Sure enough, there was a UFO flying in formation with them.

When Dr. Greer brought us down to Washington, D.C. for the Congressional briefing [in April 1997], I was very nervous. I didn’t know what to expect. However, there were about 12 other people there that really amazed me. My story is very tame compared to what they’ve experienced and what they’ve encountered. It was a real eye-opener, how deep this secrecy goes, how deep the cover-up is — everyone from astronauts to senators who know that there’s something going on."

 

Source: http://ufology.wikia.com/wiki/Michael_W._Smith