Navy pilots' shoot-down orders claim (1956)
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event
Contents 8
| Date | 5 July 1956 |
|---|---|
| Topics | Military encounters (topic), Congress & law (topic) |
| People | Donald Keyhoe |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 58 |
| Year | 1956 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 1956 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 5 |
In July 1956, a radio journalist reported that U.S. Navy pilots flying across the Pacific had been ordered to "shoot to kill" if they met hostile flying saucers. The story is preserved in Loren Gross's detailed history of 1956 UFO reports.[1]
The report
Pat Michaels of radio station KWIZ in Santa Ana, California, joined a Navy-sponsored press trip to Hawaii in early July 1956. On 26 July he filed a story with the Orange County News Service saying that pilots of a Navy reserve squadron from Los Alamitos Naval Air Station had been told in a briefing to engage and identify any unidentified flying objects on the trans-Pacific route, and to fight them if they seemed hostile. Squadron members in Honolulu reportedly said this was a standard order for the crossing.[1]
What the pilots said
Michaels quoted unnamed Navy fliers. A commander said they would not dare report a UFO because every pilot in the Pacific would be sent up. One pilot doubted that bullets would work against a saucer and worried about provoking return fire. Several said they had seen objects they thought were saucers but had not reported them, fearing ridicule or questions about their fitness to fly.[1]
Context
A week earlier, a Santa Ana newspaper had quoted a civil aviation flight instructor claiming the Air Force had orders to shoot down UFOs. Fighters were routinely scrambled to identify unknown radar targets in the Cold War, and Donald Keyhoe's books made similar claims about orders to engage.[1][2]
Assessment
All the pilots were unnamed, and no Navy or Air Force order to shoot down UFOs has been released.[1]
People and topics
- U.S. Navy — The U.S. naval service, whose pilots reported the UAP encounters revealed in 2017.
- Unidentified anomalous phenomena — The U.S. government's current term for unidentified objects in the air, in space and underwater.
- Unidentified flying object — An object in the sky that can't be identified; the older term for UAP.
- Donald Keyhoe — Retired Marine officer, author and director of NICAP who campaigned against UFO secrecy.
- U.S. Air Force — The U.S. military service that ran the official UFO projects from 1947 to 1969.
- NICAP — The leading U.S. civilian UFO group of the 1950s and 1960s.
On the Timeline
- John Moss and Special Report 14 (1956) (5 July 1956) — Rep. John Moss asks why the unclassified Blue Book Special Report 14 isn't public.
- White Sands landing reports (1956) (September 1956) — Unconfirmed reports describe a domed disc landing in front of personnel at White Sands.
See every 1956 event on the UAP Timeline →
References
- Loren E. Gross, UFOs: A History — 1956, May–July (PDF), Sign Oral History Project · sohp.us · archived copy
- The Flying Saucer Conspiracy — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Loren Gross, 'UFOs: A History — 1956' (PDF) — SOHP · sohp.us · archived copy
- U.F.O. Investigator (NICAP), July 1957 — archive · realtvufos.blogspot.com · archived copy
- ignaciodarnaude.com · ignaciodarnaude.com · archived copy
Further reading
- U.S. congressional hearings on UFOs — 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.
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