Time to talk UFOs

Testimony of a US Air Force Aircraft Mechanic

Some truth about UFOs (Unidentified Flying Objects) seems to be coming out this year. Just a few weeks before a US Congress report on UFOs will be released, more and more military personnel and government officials are speaking out. Last week at UFO Paradigm we had the great pleasure to interview a former USAF Aircraft Mechanic, Tom Wharton. 

Tom served in the US Air force from 1969 to 1996. He served in Vietnam in 1971 and in Bosnia in 1994. He then worked at the Pentagon with the Foreign Technology Transfer Unit and the Foreign Disclosure Office. He was stationed at RAF Bentwaters, Suffolk, England from January 1977 to January 1980, working on a command-and-control assignment called MOC. He was 27 years old on the night of the 16 of April 1978 when he witnessed what he says was a “UFO Sighting”, at about 01:30hrs. This is the first time Tom shares his story publicly. This is his account of what occurred that night:

One of my assignments after the crew chief assignments with the F4 to A-10 aircraft conversion was a volunteer assignment as a “board controller” at the RAF Bentwaters, Maintenance Operations Center, better known as the “MOC”. I was working the swing shift, between 15:30hrs to 24:00hrs, the day of this event. 

Three of us were driving home with Staff Sergeant Mike Bugno in his VW Bus, with a nice big open front window and a great view of the road ahead. SSgt Bugno lived across the street from me at RAF Wethersfield. Two of the other military personnel lived in a town called Ipswich, which was on the way to base. We would pick them up or drop them off from time to time. After dropping them off, the Sergeant and I still had about a forty-minute ride home. 

One evening, the Sergeant and I had just passed through the little town of Finchingfield, off the main road A-12, heading towards RAF Wethersfield; our home. We drove about another five minutes and as we approached the crest of a small hill, we could see in the background many miles away, the American base called RAF Mildenhall. It was about thirty miles away and at night it lit up the entire sky. Suddenly I noticed a really bright light near Mildenhall; at least I thought it was from that area. I watched it for a few seconds; it appeared to get bigger and brighter. I then said to the Sergeant: 

“Look at that light! It is the brightest landing light I had ever seen!”

It lit up the entire sky near the base. I thought it was a C-5 or maybe a C-141 with new, bright landing lights. I had never seen anything so bright from so far away before. The Sergeant was still driving and it was dark; he needed to watch the road too but I noticed it appeared to be headed our way. Sergeant then pulled over, he wanted to see what kind of aircraft this was. The lights got brighter, and brighter. We got out of the van, and just as we did that, within seconds, it was right over our heads! There was no noise, none at all. 

The entire sky above us was so bright, we could not look up at the object… It was weird and it was completely silent. No shape could be seen of whatever this thing was. We both looked at each other and said: “What the hell is this”? We could not believe this, we kept trying to look up at it but could not because it was so bright. We felt nothing, no humming, no noise, no movement of the grass around, nothing was happening, it was like we were in a void of some kind.

It hovered over us for 30 seconds or more then I heard a noise from behind me, it was a jet engine sound. I looked up, put my hands over my eyes to see better and I saw two British F4’s headed right towards our location. They got so close; we could see the “Union Jack” flag panel on their aircraft fuselage. The F4s were taking pictures of this thing.

Mike yelled out to me:

“What the hell is happening here”? 

I did not know either, but a moment later whatever this thing was took off to the West towards London. The acceleration was instantaneous, drawing a like white line in the sky; I could not believe it. One second it was above us, the next it was over London (you could see the lights of the city from our location).

The British F4’s took off after it, they kicked their aircraft into “burner” trying to catch or chase this thing. It was amazing to witness, they never caught it but were headed towards London too when all of a sudden, this thing appeared over our heads again, in a blink of an eye, that fast. We tried to look up at it again but it was useless. I turned my head and saw the F4’s headed back towards us again. We were right under it when it shot straight up; I mean it, straight up. All we saw was a white line in the sky until we could follow it no longer, still going straight up without a sound into space.

As we approached the base main gate, the American and British Security Guards there were going nuts with excitement, they too had seen this thing. Military personnel wanted us to file a report with the MOD Police (Minister of Defense) on base. So, we did.

Later when I got home, I woke my wife up to tell her what happened. She thought I had been drinking, of course I had not. I decided to turn on the BBC radio. It was now two o’clock in the morning, the BBC radio stations were flooded with calls about a UFO sighting over London and fighters that were reported chasing it. It was an amazing night to say the least! I later filed a second report with the RAF Bentwaters OSI (Office of Special Investigations). The OSI took the report and that was that; we never heard another thing about it again. 

During the rest of the tour, the Sergeant and I talked often about it, but never really understood what happened that night. One thing for sure, what we saw that night wasn't from this planet.

10 months after Tom’s UFO sighting, the famous Rendelsham incident occurred. Tom later became a civil pilot. He is now 69 years old, retired and lives with his wife in Layton, Utah, USA.