ACUFO-1944-12-00-PASCO-1
Ufologists are generally aware that there were several cases of “unidentified aircraft” over or in the vicinity of the Hanford nuclear plant in the end of 1944 and in 1945.
The Hanford plant was then a secret installations where the radioactive compounds to be used in the first atom bombs was being produced. Nearby, was the Pasco Naval Air Station of the U.S. Navy, from which planes were sent on at least 3 occasions where an “unidentified aircraft” was detected by the nearby radar station.
Probably the least known of these cases seems to be known only by a letter sent to the ufology group National Investigation Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP) sometime in the 1950's or 1960's or 1970's.
The letter was sent by Cdr. R. W. Hendershott, USNR, of Seattle; whom I identified as Robert Wheeler Hendershott (1918-2012), a decorated veteran of WWII, United States Navy pilot.
In his letter, Hendershott told that in the latter part of December 1944 and January and February of 1945, radar operators at the Pasco Naval Air Station had reported “unusual blips” that “appeared out of nowhere and proceeded from Northwest of the Air Station to the Southwest and consequently off of the radar screen.”
Hendershott remembered that a fighter pilot was made available with an armed F6F fighter and given orders to shoot down anything that appeared to be hostile. This pilot was vectored out on two occasions that Hendershott remembered, but, in each instance, he made no contact. (At it is known that at least two pilots reported they did make visual contact in separate operations in this period; this suggests there had been at least 5 scrambles in 1944 and 1945 only.)
Hendershott said the blips always acted much like a Piper Cub aircraft and at about the same speed.
He told that he was personally vectored out one afternoon in an SNJ aircraft to make contact with one of these blips; which “appeared to be very high according to the radar operators” who reported two blips on their screen.
Hendershott did not specify whether he saw something or not, he did not specify anything else, but said he is “convinced that there was something there but, the mystery as to what it was will apparently never be answered.”
Astonishingly, I found out that it seems that no other ufology source so far mentioned this report.
| Date: | End December 1944 or January 1945 or February 1945 |
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| Time: | Afternoon. |
| Duration: | ? |
| First known report date: | 1950's or 1960's or 1970's |
| Reporting delay: | Years, 3 decades. |
| Country: | USA |
|---|---|
| State/Department: | Washington |
| City or place: | Pasco |
| Number of alleged witnesses: | 1 |
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| Number of known witnesses: | 1 |
| Number of named witnesses: | 1 |
| Reporting channel: | Witness letter to NICAP ufology group. |
|---|---|
| Visibility conditions: | Jour. |
| UFO observed: | ? |
| UFO arrival observed: | ? |
| UFO departure observed: | ? |
| UFO action: | ? |
| Witnesses action: | ? |
| Photographs: | No. |
| Sketch(s) by witness(es): | No. |
| Sketch(es) approved by witness(es): | No. |
| Witness(es) feelings: | ? |
| Witnesses interpretation: | Unidentified. |
| Sensors: |
[?] Visual: 0 or 1 or 2?
[ ] Airborne radar: N/A. [X] Directional ground radar: Yes. [X] Height finder ground radar: Yes. [ ] Photo: [ ] Film/video: [ ] EM Effects: [ ] Failures: [ ] Damages: |
|---|---|
| Hynek: | DD? RV? |
| Armed / unarmed: | ? |
| Reliability 1-3: | 2 |
| Strangeness 1-3: | 2 |
| ACUFO: | Unidentified, insufficient information. |
[Ref. nip1:] NICAP:
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In the latter part of December 1944 and January and February of 1945, Radar operators at the Naval Air Station Pasco Wn. reported unusual blips appeared out of nowhere and proceeded from Northwest of the Air Station to the Southwest and consequently off of the radar screen. A fighter pilot was made available with an armed F 6F fighter and given orders to shoot down anything that appeared to be hostile. He was vectored out on two occasions that this writer remembers, but, in each instance made no contact. The blips always acted much like a Piper Cub aircraft and at about the same speed. The writer was vectored out one afternoon in on SN J aircraft to make contact with one of these blips. This particular one appeared to be very high according to the radar operators report two blips on the screen. The writer 1a convinced that there was something there but, the mystery as to what it was will apparently never be answered.
Cdr. R. W. Hendershott
USNR
2064 E. 90th.
Seattle 15, Wash.
[Ref. bgd1:] BARRY GREENWOOD:
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In a report sent to a NICAP subcommittee in Seattle, in 1961, the following is described:
In the latter part of December 1944 and January and February 1945, radar operators at the Naval Air Station, Pasco, Washington, reported unusual blips on their radar screens. These blips appeared out of nowhere and proceeded from Northwest of the Air Station to the Southeast and consequently off of the radar screens. A fighter pilot was made available with an armed F6F fighter and given orders to shoot down anything that appeared to be hostile. He was vectored out on two occassions that this writer remembers, but, in each instance, made no contact. The blip always acted much like a Piper Cub aircraft and at about the same speed. The writer was vectored out one afternoon in an SNJ aircraft to make contact with one of these blips. This particular one appeared to be very high according to the radar operators. Nothing was sighted but the operators reported two blips on the screen. The writer is convinced that there was something there, but, mystery as to what it was will apparently never be answered."
Cdr. R. W. Hendershott
U.S.N.R.
Radar angels, i.e. false radar returns, were quite common in the early days of radar and can certainly account for reports like this, but with regard to unidentified flying objects, it is unusual to have this kind of detail to make such determinations decades after the fact.
The “S N J” indicated in the report was the North American T-6 “Texan”, the standard training aircraft for Allied fighter pilots during World War II. It was called SNJ in the US Navy (photo below). It was a great success with 15,495 units built, all versions combined.
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The Hanford nuclear plant is located 30 miles in the Northwest of the Pasco Naval Air Station.
According to Hendershott's letter, the “blips” were not going towards the Hanford plant, but may have been coming from that direction, and were located in the Southeast of the Pasco base.
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Lieutenant Robert Wheeler Hendershott (photo below), U.S.N.R., was born in 1918 in Bend, Oregon, USA, and died in 2012.
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He was a United States Navy pilot, and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for extraordinary achievement while participating in aerial flight as Pilot of a seaplane embarked in U.S.S. Santa Fe, over the Kazan Island area on 4 July 1944. (See Bureau of Naval Personnel Information Bulletin No. 358, January 1947.)
After the War, he earned a Masters Degree in education from the University of Washington in 1950.
What he reported is blatantly incomplete; for example, he give no date, and does not tell whether he himself saw anything or not when he was sent up to investigate the radar blips.
However, he wrote a letter to NICAP, and this implies that to him, this was related to the UFO question. He also considers it was an “unidentified”.
During WWII, the Japanese Army built hydrogen-filled paper balloons fitted with incendiary and anti-personal bombs, to be used against the United States. These uncontrolled balloons (photo below), called “Fugo” or “Fu-Go”, were carried over the Pacific Ocean from Japan to North America by fast, high-altitude “jet streams” air currents, and used a sophisticated sandbag ballast system to maintain their altitude. The bombs were intended to ignite large-scale forest fires and spread panic.
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Between November 1944 and April 1945, the Imperial Japanese Army launched about 9,300 balloons from sites on coastal Honshu, of which about 300 were found or observed in the U.S.A., Canada, and Mexico. The bombs were ineffective as fire starters due to damp seasonal conditions, with no forest fires being attributed to the offensive. A U.S. media censorship campaign prevented the Imperial Army from learning of the offensive's results. On May 5, 1945, six civilians were killed by one of the bombs near Bly, Oregon, becoming the war's only fatalities in the continental U.S.A.
The first Fugo balloons were launched on November 3, 1944, and some were found on U.S grounds in December 1944: near Thermopolis, Wyoming, on December 6, near Kalispell, Montana, on December 11, near Marshall and Holy Cross, Alaska, near Estacada, Oregon, later in December.
Fugo balloons are certainly not a proven explanation for this case, as they would not have been detected on radar. To be tracked by radar, a balloon needs to be fitted with a reflector device.
Unidentified, insufficient information.
* = Source is available to me.
? = Source I am told about but could not get so far. Help needed.
| Main author: | Patrick Gross |
|---|---|
| Contributors: | None |
| Reviewers: | None |
| Editor: | Patrick Gross |
| Version: | Create/changed by: | Date: | Description: |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.1 | Patrick Gross | May 17, 2024 | Creation, [nip1]. |
| 1.0 | Patrick Gross | May 17, 2024 | First published. |
| 1.1 | Patrick Gross | June 8, 2024 | Addition [bgd1]. |
