UFO Over The Eastern Mediterranean
Or
How Stellar Stew Skeen Got His Nickname
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This is the true story of what happened on October 19, 1982 and how I got my nickname, "Stellar."
We were flying on the North-South leg of our East Med track at about 1600Z (6:00pm local). The sun was setting fast and not a lot was going on. Maj Ed Rupp, Aircraft Commander (AC), and Capt Matthew Field (Co-Pilot) with Capt Ed Schindler, lead navigator (Nav1) were up in first class. There were three nameless ravens in business class and myself (Airborne Mission Supervisor - AMS) with TSgt Jerry Coffman as the #2 operator - my right-hand man.
CMSgt Sam Watson was on-board to keep a close eye on me. Ray Meador was our "Super Op," Carl Muellner a lead gunner, Tommy Nance a TAC OP, lead AMT Don Weaver and others on the crew whom I hope won’t be offended if I don’t remember their names. Anyway, we were headed south about 15 minutes from the turn point when Ed Rupp calls me and says,
"I’ve an aircraft about 25 miles out, same altitude, heading right at us."
"Rgr, sir, we’re looking," I replied.
During this time, the U.S. Navy had two ships in the area: the aircraft carrier USS Independence (CV-62) and the cruiser USS Biddle (CG-34) on station off the coast of Lebanon since the Israelis and Palestinians had completed a little "skirmish" in June of that year and Marines were on the ground at Beirut. I told Jerry to give the Biddle a call to see what was up. In the Navy world, the cruiser is the actual "air defender" of the fleet since she can "reach out and touch someone" at 60+ miles with no help. Since we only had secure comms with the Biddle, the sailors had to get on the ship’s phone to the combat information center and see what was out there. A couple minutes later, Biddle reported that the only plane in the sky was us.
Hmm.....
I called the AC and gave him this bit of news. He came back with (I'm paraphrasing), "Well, it’s about 15 miles now and it might be two airplanes." Jerry promptly relayed that info to the Biddle, who relayed it to the Combat Information Center (CIC), who relayed back that we are still the only plane in the sky.
Hmm..... again.
I call Ed again and tell him the same news. Jerry is kaking a message to Crete to get them in on it, I call the raghead gunners to get on it and I call Sam to let him know what is happening.
I’m feeling like I have some semblance of control at this point when Ed calls again and says, (paraphrasing again), "AMS, PILOT, it’s about 10 miles now and it might be three airplanes, still heading right for us."
Folks, it was a perfectly clear night. Visibility was about a million miles and not one cloud in the sky. We were doing normal cruise at Flight Level 370 ( 37,000 ft.). No haze, no nothing. It’s just us boring holes in the sky and something heading right for us.
Crap.
Jerry is kaking up messages on the UYA-7, I’m calling the Navy on the KY-28, ops are searching and what appears to be a wing of unknowns are heading right for us.
What next?
I had to ask.
"AMS, PILOT."
"Yes Sir!."
"Well, it’s about 4 miles off the left wing in forward echelon formation and I don’t know how many airplanes it is.
"Thanks a lot."
At this time, I start the recorder. We were on 848 before BLK III conversion, so we had tapes and I couldn’t blame this on the computer. Copilot Field started describing our visitor. Again, I paraphrase.
"It’s a symmetrical array of lights. Squares, parallelograms, triangles. Lights change color from orange to red to white. Shape is changing now. It appears to rotating at an angle away from us."
This went on for about 20 minutes, we made the turn north and it stayed with us. Ed Rupp calls me and says,
"AMS, I think you should get a fighter up here."
"Rgr, sir, I will," was my reply.
I called the USS Independence directly and requested they launch their fighter alert.
"What?" came the reply.
"My aircraft commander requests you launch you alert fighter."
"Stand by," Independence says.
Right, stand by. I getting ready to beamed aboard a spaceship to become a slave of green Orion women ..hey, wait a minute. That might not be so bad. WHAT AM I SAYING! Anyway, I digress.
In the meantime, the British Base at Akrotiri is listening in to this entire conversation and launched AN F-4M on their own. Now, I have another dilemma. UFO on the left wing, Navy pissed off about launching a fighter and now our allies are launching on their own. Remember, 200 miles around an aircraft carrier is U.S. Navy airspace. If you enter it unannounced, you die. I call the Navy and let them know the contact from the north is a friendly, we are still in formation with the unknown, and WHERE THE HELL IS THE F-14? Capt Field is still describing the contact, Nicosia ATC is telling us not to hit it in the turn, and missiles are about to fly all over the place.
At least I’m not bored!
I call Chief Watson and meekly ask,
"Sam, can’t we abort or something?"
"No, Sgt Skeen, we can’t. No advisory condition is met and he isn’t doing anything."
"But Chief we don’t know what it is; we’re not even sure its an airplane!"
"Nope," was the reply. Now Sam did go look out the window and came back and called me.
"WHOA! THAT IS THE DAMNDEST THING I’VE EVER SEEN!"
At about this time it disappeared. Yup, right into thin air. It had been with us for about 40 minutes and 26 of our 27 crew saw it. We tried to get pictures. Carl Muellner went to the front end and took 16 shots. No, we never saw them. The F-14’s and the F-4 finally joined up with us after it disappeared and we could hear the squids laughing at us on one of their discreet frequencies.
Last message I had Jerry send before we left orbit was to tell Athens to have 5 cases of beer meeting us in the briefing room. Jim Pitney, the on-duty trick chief, went to the R&G and got it. Good man, Jim.
Me? Well, I wrote up the PMFR without the ?SI tag, but LtCol Blau decided it needed to be there. And yes, I signed the damn thing, "?AM SKEEN S."
And that is how I got my name, "Stellar Stu Skeen." I did drink a few beers that night ..and the next.
Addendum: All the pictures went back to Wright-Pat for analysis and we got the message that the film was blank.
EUCOM calls a couple days after that message and says, "We got the pictures. All we see is just a bunch of lights. What did you really see?"
You tell me and we’ll both know.