Patrick D. McCaslin Interview, 11 November 2000
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| PM | Yeah, it wasn't long after. So, uh there was a Blue Book bunch came down to investigate. As I remember—I mean, I think that's the way they were introduced to us, they said: "people from Washington," now maybe— | |
| JK | OK, now Blue Book was Wright-Patterson [Dayton. Ohio]. | |
| PM | Wright-Patterson, I don't know, they may have said Washington. My memory is that it was people from Washington. But I remember when these guys showed up and interviewed us; I asked them "can I talk to this, about this to anybody?" Because I'd been keeping it quiet, I, you know, military training. | |
| JK | Now they didn't ask you to sign a non-disclosure or tell you not to talk about it at the debriefing? | |
| PM | No. They told us "Fine, go ahead." | |
| JK | I'll be darned. | |
| PM | That's what I remember. They just said: "Yeah, you know, go ahead we don't care." | |
| JK | Now, like I say, that one incident that occurred in August of '66 also at Minot ...had a lot of similarities, except it wasn't as dramatic as yours. That was written up— | |
| PM | I was there then, but I don't remember that. | |
| JK | Yeah, there was an object and it was on radar and it was at 100,000 feet and they lost communication. It was down over the missile sites again, and they lost communications between some of the Launch Control Facilities and the Command Post. That was, you know, that would make a SAC officer nervous. Yeah, there are three generals mentioned in the documentation, but I don't have those names right in front of me, or I'd run those names by you. | |
| PM | The other thing, as I said, the Targeting people, the Target Studies Officers, I remember, ran this film by us. As I remember it, and that's where I found that they had computed a closure rate on this thing, when it closed from three miles to one mile, and they didn't have any qualms about letting us see it. But I'd love to have a copy of that baby. | |
| JK | Yeah. Now in the Blue Book documents, there are a number of scope photographs... however, it's copied onto microfilm, copied onto paper, and you can't see anything on the scope. | |
| PM | Boy, you could sure see it that night! It was shining like a diamond in a goat's ass. It was big, and bright, and it was clear on the film. In my memory, but [sighs] who knows what happened to it, I mean, I don't even know if the film is extant. |
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