Message posted by Will on July 23, 2004 at 18:20:26 PST:
OK...here goes... This relates to a 1963 sighting of what could only have been an A-12 at the NTS. First...a little background...My parents came to CA in 1957 at the advice af their doctor. It seem my older sister was prone to Asthma and other ailments related to climate. Dad was a member of IBEW #3 Bronx, NY. He was trained as an electrician, with aspirations toward electrical engineering. I was born in 1962. I don't know what brought them west, whether a promised job at the NTS, or simply a contract with Reynolds or E G & G. What I do know is that he was employed as a civilian for a contractor from 1957 until 1964. He worked alternately at the NTS and Vandenberg AFB. Mom and sis were living in a teardrop trailer in Santa Maria, CA initially, until they were able to buy a house on Tanglewood Dr. in Santa Maria at some point. When he was working at NTS, he would stay there during the week and come home on weekends. I suspect he spent a few hours in Las Vegas occasionally....:) One day, in 1963, he was working with some other eletricians wiring some facilities in the Frenchman Flat area. Suddenly a truck (your basic deuce-and -a - half) pulls up, and the driver and a AF General (he swears it was a General) got out. They asked some basic questions...."who do you work for", "what's your clearance", etc....then a squad of AF personnel with rifles exited the back of the truck, and instructed the electricians to face the wall (away from the Fremchman Flat/Dry lake area). Dad says he was a little annoyed, as he had work to do. Another of the electricians was apparently a bit worried about being forced to the wall by rifle-bearing AF personnel,,,He asked if they were going to be shot. One of the AF squad quietly remarked "if it makes you feel better, we have to turn around, too".... He would recognize it later as an "SR-71".....yeah, right.... He says the enlisted guys with rifles turned around, too, as well as the general and driver. Unknown if they were cleared to witness this sight. Dad says it was comical, as the aircraft was moving so fast, there was no possibility of anyone recognizing or documenting what they saw. Dad ended up working for Rockwell as a facilities engineer, first at the "AI " facility on De Soto in the SFV and finally at Rocketdyne before he retired.
Please consider this an "anecdotal observation", although the source is considered somewhat reliable.......(my father).
Dad says they stayed in this posture for about a minute.....then heard an incredible sound. They all turned around instinctively (he says it was like the feeling you are about to be hit by a freight train) and saw something going across the flat at high speed and low altitude. He says the only recognizable feature was the twin canted tails...
Will (NorCal)
In Reply to: Black Aircraft posted by MPJay on July 23, 2004 at 17:16:48 PST:
Replies: