Milton Torres 1957 UFO Encounter

US airman Milton Torres told to shoot down UFO when based at RAF Manston

Article is from 2008

The order came straight out of the Cold War manual: “Arm all weapons and fire on sight.” For Lieutenant Milton Torres, an American jet fighter pilot based in Britain, it was the first and last time that he had received such a chilling instruction.

As soon as he scrambled his Sabre jet from RAF Manston in Kent and headed eastwards, he saw the blip on his radar, indicating the presence of an aircraft the size of a B52 about 15 miles away, and he prepared to close in for the kill with a salvo of rockets. But the “aircraft”, judged to be hostile and probably Russian, simply vanished. The blip on the radar disappeared.

Facts

en.wikipedia.org...

"The initial briefing indicated that the ground was observing for a considerable time a blip that was orbiting the East Anglia area." Torres was then told that the object of his pursuit "was an unidentified flying object with very unusual flight patterns" and that "the bogey [UFO] actually was motionless for long intervals."

Aware that he was reaching the upper limit of his jet's capabilities, Torres requested to come out of afterburner, but ground control denied his request. At that time, he prepared to execute the order to "fire a full salvo of rockets at the UFO."[2] The F-86D carried 24 rockets. The National Museum of the U.S. Air Force describes the aircraft as having a "retractable tray of 24 rockets" and adds that "the effect of these weapons would have been devastating to an enemy bomber" because each 2.75-inch Mighty Mouse Mk 4/Mk 40 Folding-Fin Aerial Rocket (FFAR) contained the power of a 75mm artillery shell.

On the day after the incident, Torres was ushered into a room of the squadron operations area, where a well-dressed American civilian in a dark blue trenchcoat was waiting for him. The civilian, who looked to Torres like an "IBM salesman" and was in his late 30s or early 40s, had come from London to interview Torres. He waved a National Security Agency (NSA) ID at Torres and immediately began asking questions about the UFO sighting. "He advised me that this would be considered highly classified and that I should not discuss it with anybody, not even my commander. He threatened me with a national security breach if I breathed a word about it to anyone. He disappeared without so much as a goodbye, and that was that, as far as I was concerned." The interview took only about 30 minutes, but Torres was "significantly impressed" by it that he did not speak to anyone about the UFO incident until recent years.

Map of Incident



UK UFO Archives

CNN Transcript of Interview

Opinion

In my opinion this looks like an authentic UFO incident from 1957 but what is more surprising is that he was ordered to attack the unknown object, why would they order a pilot to attack an unknown object unless they knew what it was?

Very interesting video which I highly encourage you to read. To me this is a pretty good case for a UFO incident.




*Long time since I posted in the Aliens and UFOs section, did my best *

reply to post by Misoir


maybe he was told to attack it because it was during the cold war and it was invading our airspace and wasn't ours?.

thanks

rich

reply to post by RICH-ENGLAND


I understand that position too but still in all the focus is on the UFO incident NOT my opinion.

reply to post by Misoir


ok, im sorry, why bother putting your opinion if you dont want to discuss it!.

thanks

rich

reply to post by RICH-ENGLAND


The topic on hand was meant for discussion, my opinion really means nothing.

Interesting. The story seems to have changed.

But as he came within seconds of firing at the alien intruder — “the size of an aircraft carrier” on his radar — it vanished at 10,000 mph.

www.foxnews.com...
With fish stories they get bigger. With UFOs they get smaller? Now it's the size of a B-52.


The description of the radar contact seems to fit the description of the effects of radar countermeasures. The fact that, during the Cold War, an interceptor and GCI may have been spoofed by a Soviet (or other unidentified) aircraft would be very good reason to "conceal" the incident. Of note is the fact that there was never any visual contact made with this immense object, by the pilot of the interceptor or ground observation. The Soviets were known to play "cat and mouse" games with NATO forces at the time.

Mechanical jamming

Mechanical jamming is caused by devices which reflect or re-reflect radar energy back to the radar to produce false target returns on the operator's scope. Mechanical jamming devices include chaff, corner reflectors, and decoys.
* Chaff is made of different length metallic strips, which reflect different frequencies, so as to create a large area of false returns in which a real contact would be difficult to detect. Chaff is often aluminum for weight purposes and is usually coated with something such as a plastic to make it more slick and less likely to bind up in large clumps.
* Corner reflectors have the same effect as chaff but are physically very different. Corner reflectors are multiple-sided objects that re-radiate radar energy mostly back toward its source. An aircraft cannot carry as many corner reflectors as it can chaff.
* Decoys are maneuverable flying objects that are intended to deceive a radar operator into believing that they are actually aircraft. They are especially dangerous because they can clutter up a radar with false targets making it easier for an attacker to get within weapons range and neutralize the radar. Corner reflectors can be fitted on decoys to make them appear larger than they are, thus furthering the illusion that a decoy is an actual aircraft. Some decoys have the capability to perform electronic jamming or drop chaff.

Source

Electronic jamming can cause the "target" to appear to be in different locations and move at different speeds.Time Magazine article 1957

Originally posted by Misoir
reply to post by RICH-ENGLAND

 

The topic on hand was meant for discussion, my opinion really means nothing.

i mean no offence but just about everything anyone will say will be their opinion!. and you asked a relevant question and i gave a relevant answer!. and it was about the topic.

thanks

rich

reply to post by Misoir


Misoir.....

Thank you for stimulating discussion regarding this very interesting case.

On the one hand.....

There is significant description of that which defies conventional explanation.

On the other hand…..

Significant phenomenon therein appears to fit within conventional explanations such as those provided by Phage.

And so to my mind, we arrive at “situation normal”…..that is to say…..

“What happened out there?”

Kind regards
Maybe…maybe not

Originally posted by Phage
The description of the radar contact seems to fit the description of the effects of radar countermeasures.

I was going to say much the same thing. Throughout the 1950s, radar technicians were experimenting with all kinds of radar "spoofing," some as precursors to Project Palladium. This sounds like a perfect example of that. Strong radar target that just vanishes. Here's an article in a recent Fortean Times about it, including a mention of Torres. Interesting stuff:

Fortean Times -- ECM + CIA = UFO

In relation to the "Mechanical jamming" explanation, one question i feel needs addressed.
Was this "Mechanical jamming" a common occurrence or known to happen so that the whatever country's military was on the receiving end of it would have a good knowledge of it and know what to look out for??Seems very strange that the order was given to Milton Torres to fire upon this Mechanical jamming.My point here is if this was NOT a new military tactic of deliberate jamming of radars then surely the respected country's military would be aware of this form of espionage. Surely experienced pilots like Milton Torres would be briefed on this and would have the perception to be able to differentiate between a "Mechanical jamming" and real solid object and i persume so would his superiors.

reply to post by Maybe...maybe not


We must remain skeptical at all times, I believe it's healthy for us. But in any case seeing the evidence provided by Phage my opinion is now mixed.

Originally posted by Phage
Interesting. The story seems to have changed.

But as he came within seconds of firing at the alien intruder — “the size of an aircraft carrier” on his radar — it vanished at 10,000 mph.

www.foxnews.com...
With fish stories they get bigger. With UFOs they get smaller? Now it's the size of a B-52.

Where did he say that? I've only heard him say "the size of an aircraft carrier". Interesting case btw

edit: to answer my own question, in the article at the top of the OP

reply to post by cripmeister

www.dailymail.co.uk...
www.timesonline.co.uk...
en.wikipedia.org...