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The Ellsworth AFB UFO Incident

In the crisp, star-drenched silence of the Black Hills, high on the Rubicon Trail at 6,500 feet, I froze one autumn night in the late ’90s as an immense shadow eclipsed the heavens above me. What began as a low, vibrating rumble—like the earth’s own frequency thrumming through my bones—swelled into the passage of something colossal, blotting out the entire canopy of stars to an unnatural void of pure black. No twinkling lights pierced that abyss; just the craft’s ponderous silhouette, vast as a small town, hovering or drifting lazily mere hundreds of feet overhead, its presence so tangible it warped the night into a dreamlike hush. Heart slamming against my ribs, I dashed inside for my video camera, only to return and find the battery inexplicably drained, as if the thing had siphoned the very power from my grasp. To my right, a row of five pulsing lights flickered horizontally in defiance of the dark, mocking my solitude—then, in the time it took to fetch a witness, the formation had twisted vertical, gliding away in eerie reversal, leaving me breathless and unraveling. These graphics zI designed years ago, which I still found online here.

When I walked outside again the sky returned I could see the stars again but to my left I saw these lights going in the distant horizon flying in a horizontal plane.
When I returned neck outside the objects or object were flying on the exactly opposite side flying off in the exact opposite direction. They or it flew off into the distant horizon on a completely different plane of space.

That visceral terror, the kind that claws at your certainty of the world, hurled me into a frenzy of research, unearthing a spectral twin from the annals of the unknown: the 1953 Ellsworth AFB incident, chronicled in the declassified Project Blue Book files. There, in Blackhawk—just miles from my own haunted ridge—a woman’s urgent call to the base had scrambled jets against a maneuvering red-green orb that danced radar scopes and outran fighters, its maneuvers a mirror to the impossible geometry I’d just witnessed. It burrowed deep, this echo across decades in the same shadowed terrain I roamed, a tale so resonant yet buried in silence, unspoken amid the pine whispers and tourist trails of the Hills. Compelled by that kinship, I reached out to her niece, sharing the faded report over a crackling line, asking if family lore held fragments of her aunt’s awe-struck vigil—she murmured maybe, the edges blurred by time. I vowed to forward the documents, a fragile tether between our sightings, but chaos scattered the thread; now, as I set these words to page, that unfinished bridge reignites my purpose. In publishing this, I shatter the hush—not for spectacle, but to honor the shiver we both carried, proving the Black Hills’ secrets don’t fade; they wait, rumbling low, for voices like ours to call them into the light.

The Ellsworth AFB UFO Incident (August 5, 1953)

Based on declassified Project Blue Book records, the case you’re describing is almost certainly the “Ellsworth AFB radar/visual” incident from August 5, 1953—one of the most compelling multi-witness, radar-confirmed UFO reports in the project’s files. It centers on an initial sighting by Mrs. Phyllis Killian (sometimes spelled “Kellian” in secondary sources), a trained Ground Observer Corps (GOC) volunteer stationed in Blackhawk, South Dakota (about 10 miles west of Ellsworth AFB near Rapid City). This matches your details: a woman’s report from Blackhawk, a call to the local filter center (which routed to Ellsworth), and the immediate scrambling of F-84 Thunderjet fighters from the base. The object was tracked on radar, pursued by pilots, and observed by multiple ground witnesses over several hours.

This case was investigated by Project Blue Book’s headquarters at Wright-Patterson AFB and classified as “unidentified” due to the combination of visual sightings, radar returns, and pilot interceptions that couldn’t be explained by conventional aircraft, weather, or astronomical phenomena. Later analyses (e.g., in the 1969 Condon Report) proposed prosaic explanations like temperature inversions causing radar “angels” (false echoes), a radio tower light, or stars/meteors, but these have been widely critiqued for not aligning with the object’s reported maneuvers, speed, and simultaneous confirmations.

Key Details from the Incident

  • Date and Time: Started at approximately 8:05 PM MST (shortly after dark) on August 5, 1953. The object was visible intermittently until around 11:00 PM, with related sightings continuing into the early hours of August 6.
  • Weather Conditions: Clear skies, excellent visibility, moonless night, stable atmosphere with slight temperature inversions (which could contribute to radar anomalies but didn’t explain visuals).
  • Initial Sighting by Mrs. Killian:
  • Mrs. Killian was manning a GOC observation post in Blackhawk when she spotted a bright red glowing light low on the horizon, about 4 miles northeast of her position. It appeared stationary at first.
  • While reporting it by phone to the Rapid City GOC Filter Center (which patched her through to Ellsworth’s radar controller), the object began moving: It shifted 30 degrees to her right, shot straight up vertically, then veered left back to its original spot before heading south toward Rapid City at high speed.
  • As it accelerated westward, the red glow shifted to green (getting “greener” with speed). It then stopped abruptly south of Blackhawk, reversed east to near its starting point, and vanished behind southeast hills.
  • About 20-30 minutes later, she saw what appeared to be the same object directly overhead (disappearing north by the time she grabbed binoculars). Roughly 45 minutes after that, it reappeared northeast of Blackhawk, hovering and pulsing in bright “flaming red” intensity—dimming and flaring repeatedly.
  • Description: Round or oval-shaped, silent, with a V-shaped vapor trail at times. Estimated speed: 3-4 times faster than pursuing jets (around 1,200-1,500 mph based on pilot estimates). No sound; highly maneuverable (abrupt stops, 90-degree turns, climbs).
  • She emphasized it wasn’t a star, plane, or tower light (despite one untrained observer nearby suggesting the latter). Her training as a GOC spotter lent credibility— she was accustomed to identifying aircraft.
  • Air Force Response and Scrambles:
  • Mrs. Killian’s call reached Ellsworth AFB’s 18th Fighter Interceptor Wing radar control room around 8:05 PM. The duty warrant officer immediately detected a solid, bright radar target matching her description—slow-moving at first, confirmed at 16,000 feet by height-finding radar.
  • Three airmen were sent outside from the radar site; they visually confirmed a light moving north-to-south at high speed.
  • At 8:24 PM, Lt. John W. Stockham (piloting an F-84D) was vectored from combat air patrol to the target’s location (15 miles northeast of Blackhawk). He visually acquired it as a bright silver light (brighter than any star), closed to ~3 miles, but it accelerated northwest at ~320 degrees, maintaining separation. Radar tracked four solid blips during the chase; the object outpaced the jet over 120 miles into North Dakota until Stockham broke off due to fuel. Gun camera film was exposed but came back blank.
  • Around 9:24 PM, based on Mrs. Killian’s report of the object reappearing ~7 miles from its prior spot (medium altitude, same red-green pulsing), a second F-84 was scrambled with Lt. David K. Needham (a WWII/Korean War veteran). He spotted it 30-40 degrees to his right at 15,000 feet—white turning green, paralleling his course. His gunsight radar locked on briefly (possibly a malfunction, per later notes), but the object climbed rapidly and fled north toward Fargo, ND (350 miles away), where GOC spotters later reported a fast bluish-white light.
  • Additional visuals: Two control room technicians from the 740th Aircraft Control & Warning Squadron confirmed the object hovering over Rapid City. Other ground witnesses (e.g., Mrs. Martha Daughenbaugh, Jim Aldren, and civilians like Richard O. Loren) reported similar lights pulsing and maneuvering erratically.
  • Radar scopes photographed 13 shots, but a camera malfunction prevented development. The target evaded jets by vanishing north when approached, reappearing after they left.
  • Overall Object Behavior:
  • Tracked for ~35 minutes initially, then sporadically. It circled Rapid City, hovered, and made abrupt direction/speed changes inconsistent with known aircraft.
  • No transponder or IFF response; no correlation with scheduled flights.

The Actual Project Blue Book Report

The primary declassified document is a 10-page memo/report from Captain John W. Bristol (Intelligence Officer, 18th Fighter Interceptor Wing) dated August 8, 1953, titled something along the lines of “Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon” (file reference: possibly MAXW-PBB1-583 or similar in Blue Book archives). It includes witness statements as enclosures:

  • Enclosure 1: Lt. Stockham’s statement.
  • Enclosure 2: Lt. Needham’s statement.
  • Enclosures 3-4: Statements from the two radar site airmen.
  • Enclosure 6: Mrs. Killian’s detailed affidavit (describing the color changes, maneuvers, and her certainty it was no conventional object).
  • Additional statements from ~7 other witnesses.

You can access the full scanned PDF of this report directly from the U.S. Air Force’s declassified archives here: AFD-100617-042.pdf. It’s hosted on the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service site. The National Archives also has the complete Blue Book microfilms (Record Group 342), but this PDF is the core incident file.

Captain Bristol’s conclusion: “All of the evidence… coincides to such an extent as to present an excellent case for the actual existence of a flying object… Undoubtedly all of these persons saw something.” Project Blue Book HQ upheld it as unidentified.