USS John F. Kennedy encounter (1971)
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event
Contents 8
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| Date | June/July 1971 |
|---|---|
| Topics | Military encounters (topic), Secrecy & cover-up (topic), Ocean & underwater (topic) |
| People | John F. Kennedy, James Kopf, Timothy Good |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 74 |
| Year | 1971 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 1971 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 7 |
James Kopf, a former U.S. Navy communications specialist, has described an incident aboard the aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy in which a huge glowing object hovered over the ship while its communications and electronics failed. He gave his account to Steven Greer's Disclosure Project in October 2000.[1][2]
Kopf
According to the Disclosure Project's briefing document, Kopf joined the Navy in 1969 and worked part of the time in communications aboard the Kennedy, which carried nuclear weapons; he later worked for the National Security Agency from 1980 to 1997. The document's summary dates the incident to the summer of 1979, which conflicts with Kopf's dates of service; other accounts of his story place it in the summer of 1971.[1][3]
His account
Kopf said that one evening at twilight all eight teletype machines in the communications centre began printing garbage, and he learned that communications had failed throughout the ship. Over the intercom someone shouted that "God was here", and another voice said something was over the ship. He and a shipmate went out to a catwalk on the edge of the flight deck and saw a large glowing, pulsating sphere above the carrier; it was hard to judge its size. He said a friend in the radar department told him the radar screens glowed and then went blank, and he heard that the compasses on the bridge failed. The object was over the ship for perhaps five minutes, but the crew stayed at battle stations for about two hours while systems were restored, and he heard that two F-4 Phantoms kept on alert would not start.[1]
Aftermath
Kopf said that a few days later the commanding officer told the crew on the ship's closed-circuit television that certain events aboard a major warship were classified and should not be discussed with anyone without a need to know. According to the briefing document's summary, men in suits interviewed crew members when the ship returned to Norfolk, Virginia. A version of the story circulating online, which does not name its witnesses, describes a green glowing ball hovering about 100 feet above the deck in the Caribbean in May 1971.[1][4]
Assessment
No deck logs or official reports about such an event have been released, and the account rests on the recollections of Kopf and unnamed shipmates.[1][4][5]
People and topics
- U.S. Navy — The U.S. naval service, whose pilots reported the UAP encounters revealed in 2017.
- John F. Kennedy — 35th U.S. president, named in disputed MJ-12 memos.
- Unidentified anomalous phenomena — The U.S. government's current term for unidentified objects in the air, in space and underwater.
- James Kopf — Navy yeoman who described a 1971 encounter aboard the USS John F. Kennedy.
- Disclosure Project — Steven Greer's campaign for UFO disclosure, best known for its May 2001 press conference.
- Timothy Good — British author of books on UFO secrecy including Above Top Secret and Need to Know.
- NICAP — The leading U.S. civilian UFO group of the 1950s and 1960s.
On the Timeline
- Montauk chair (January 1971) — Nichols also claims Montauk mind experiments produced a chair that turned thoughts into reality.
- Hynek's The UFO Experience (May 1972) — Blue Book adviser J. Allen Hynek writes that Blue Book was a cover-up and the problem was glossed over.
See every 1971 event on the UAP Timeline →
References
- Disclosure Project Briefing Document (2001), Internet Archive (PDF) · archive.org · archived copy
- "Group calls for disclosure of UFO info", ABC News (May 2001) · abcnews.com · archived copy
- "Witness to the unknown: a UFO encounter on the USS JFK", The Gamma System (podcast) · thegammasystem.podbean.com · archived copy
- "The USS Kennedy incident", Stronghold Nation · stronghold-nation.com · archived copy
- USS John F. Kennedy (CV-67) — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- 1971 chronology — NICAP · nicap.org · archived copy
- archive.org · archive.org · archived copy
Further reading
- John F. Kennedy — 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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