William E. Smith Interview, 11 July 2001(a)

JK

Well, there was a—I guess it wasn't any longer SAGE, but there was a SAGE site to the south of the base. And according to their documents they had nothing on their radar.

WS

Yeah.

JK

But there are two radars on the B-52. There is a gunner's radar and their standard radar, and they both had it. Both of them independently. Now we had very carefully kept, you know, we had contacted these guys in the B-52 but we didn't let them talk to each other until we got full interviews. And they both independently reported that they had it on both radars. Well, then, they completed that penetration and then went around at a low altitude. They made another pass at low altitude and they saw this thing either on or near the ground. The location is given in the documents twice, or let me rephrase that. It's given in the Blue Book documents once as a grid reference. The other mention in the copilot's report to CUFOS, and he reports seeing a very large object on the ground which he made a drawing of—in great detail and said the thing was maybe 200 feet long and a hundred feet wide—by his estimate and glowing orange.

WS

Right. That would indicate then that the distance away from us that it was—

JK

Well, this was about two miles south of Lanford.

WS

And Lanford would be where from Oscar?

JK

I don't have it on my map but it's real close. Now, Renville is directly south of you, right at the intersection of 5 and 83. And I think Lanford is just like southwest of there a little built.

WS

I was going to say southwest because that's where we saw a lot of the activity, yes. Off to the southwest.

JK

Right. Now, this document here gives the names of the camper team and it's McDowell and Johnson, both Airmen First Class.

WS

Yeah. There would be no way I could remember any of those guys.

JK

Right. Now, it gives an initial on both of them which would make it easier to try and trace them, but they're virtually unreadable, I think it's R for McDowell and W for Johnson but I am just not certain.

WS

I am wondering if there's not some way that you go back and find and archive some of those military records. There should be a place on the internet, I would think.

JK

Well, I have been trying. I have been talking to the historian at Minot.

WS

Right.

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