Michael Smith's NORAD reporting account
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event
Contents 9
| Date | 30 August 1996 |
|---|---|
| Topics | Military encounters (topic) |
| People | Michael Smith, Steven Greer |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 127 |
| Year | 1996 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 1996 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 6 |
Michael W. Smith, a former U.S. Air Force radar operator, told Steven Greer's Disclosure Project that UFOs tracked on radar during his service were reported only to NORAD (the North American Air Defense Command) and that airmen were expected to stay silent about them. His testimony, recorded in November 2000, was published in the project's 2001 briefing document.[1]
Service
Smith said he served in the Air Force from 1969 to 1973 as an Aircraft Control and Early Warning Operator, tracking military aircraft and identifying anything entering the airspace. He was stationed first at Klamath Falls, Oregon, and later in Michigan.[1]
The Klamath Falls sighting
Smith said that one evening in spring 1970 he arrived for his shift to find the radar room crowded with off-duty staff watching a UFO on the scope. He described a stationary target that would sink slowly behind a mountain and out of radar coverage, reappear about 15 minutes later at 80,000–90,000 feet, and then, on the next sweep, be some 200 miles away and stationary again. He said he watched it repeat this three times, and saw a similar event once more during his time there.[1]
"NORAD knows"
When Smith asked whether the Pentagon or the President had been told, he said a senior NCO took him aside and explained that NORAD had been called, that NORAD was the only body they notified, and that they did not talk about it. Smith said he was told he could file a report, but that it was about an inch thick, with two pages on the sighting and the rest a psychological profile that could be used to discredit him and end his career.[1]
Michigan
The briefing document's summary says Smith also described an event in Michigan in which NORAD was fully engaged and steered returning B-52 bombers around the unknown objects.[1]
Context
NORAD is the joint U.S.–Canadian command responsible for aerospace warning. Smith's account belongs to a wider set of claims that, after Project Blue Book closed in 1969, unknown radar tracks were handled through air-defence channels rather than any public office. His specific account has not been independently verified.[1][2][3]
People and topics
.jpg)
- U.S. Air Force — The U.S. military service that ran the official UFO projects from 1947 to 1969.
- Unidentified anomalous phenomena — The U.S. government's current term for unidentified objects in the air, in space and underwater.
- NORAD — The U.S.–Canadian air defence command.
- Michael Smith — Air Force radar controller who gave Disclosure Project testimony.
- Steven Greer — Physician who founded CSETI and the Disclosure Project.
- Disclosure Project — Steven Greer's campaign for UFO disclosure, best known for its May 2001 press conference.
- Unidentified flying object — An object in the sky that can't be identified; the older term for UAP.
- Project Blue Book — The Air Force's public UFO investigation from 1952 until its closure in December 1969.
- Bolender memo — The 1969 Air Force memo saying important UFO reports would bypass Project Blue Book.
- AARO — The Pentagon office set up in 2022 to investigate UAP.
On the Timeline
- Dan Morris testimony (30 August 1996) — Air Force Sgt. Dan Morris says he was part of a group gathering UAP information.
- Prudence Calabrese and TransDimensional Systems (1997) — Prudence Calabrese starts a medical remote viewing organization.
See every 1996 event on the UAP Timeline →
References
- Disclosure Project Briefing Document (2001), Internet Archive (PDF) · archive.org · archived copy
- NORAD — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- "Group calls for disclosure of UFO info", ABC News (May 2001) · abcnews.go.com · archived copy
- Greer's Disclosure Project — Patrick Gross · ufology.patrickgross.org · archived copy
- A historian on the Disclosure Project — History News Network · historynewsnetwork.org · archived copy
- archive.org · archive.org · archived copy
Further reading
- NORAD — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
This page was last edited on 29 October 2026. Articles are written in our own words from the sources listed under References; disputed claims are attributed to the people who made them.
No discussion yet.