THINK ABOUTIT UFO|UAP ENCOUNTER REPORT

1963: Naha Air Base, Okinawa UFO Sighting | Two-Witness Case Archive

Just before midnight on June 26, 1963, two Air Force airmen stargazing from their barracks sundeck at Naha Air Base, Okinawa, watched a silent, unlit, disc-shaped craft — roughly 75 feet across, smooth, razor-edged, dull metal — cross low over the runway at a steady 3,000 to 4,000 feet and a hundred knots. Both men worked around control towers and flight lines; both were certain it matched nothing in the military’s inventory. They climbed to the roof for a better look, watched it fade north toward Naha City’s lights, and immediately called the tower. The controller checked radar at three separate sites. All three had nothing.

About a month later, alone this time, the same witness saw what looked like the same object again. He never filed the official report the tower suggested either time — by his own reasoning, a story without radar, photos, or more witnesses wasn’t worth putting on paper. That restraint, and the genuine two-witness corroboration for the first sighting, are what earn this account real weight even without the paperwork.

Date: June 26, 1963 (primary sighting); a second, related sighting reportedly occurred approximately one month later, witnessed solely by the reporting witness

Sighting Time: 23:40 (primary sighting); the second sighting reportedly occurred just before 1:00 AM, about a month later

Day/Night: Night

Location: Naha Air Base, Okinawa, Japan

Urban or Rural: Naha Air Base (military installation)

No. of Entity(‘s): 0 — none reported

Entity Type: Not applicable

Entity Description: Not applicable

Hynek Classification: NL (Nocturnal Light) — retained, though the witnesses’ detailed structural description places this at the edge of the category; see Researcher’s Notes

Duration: About 2.5 minutes (primary sighting)

No. of Object(s): 1 (per instance; a similar object was reportedly seen again about a month later)

Description of the Object(s): A silent, unlit disc with no antennae, dome, windows, or markings; smooth, dull-yet-reflective metallic surface; razor-thin outer edges; appeared “as flat as a quarter”; displayed none of the flashing or red/green wingtip navigation lights required on aircraft flying at night

Shape of Object(s): Disk

Size of Object(s): Approximately 75 feet in diameter

Color/Description of Object(s): Dull, reflective metallic surface; unlit apart from ambient light it appeared to reflect from Naha City to the north

Distance to Object(s): Undocumented precisely; the object passed directly over the base and was later seen reflecting light from Naha City, a few miles to the north

Height & Speed: Held a steady altitude of 3,000–4,000 feet; traveled at an estimated 100 knots on a steady northerly course

Number of Witnesses: 2 for the primary (June 26) sighting — the reporting witness and a fellow airman; the second sighting, about a month later, was witnessed solely by the reporting witness

Special Features/Characteristics: Both witnesses worked as Air Force communications specialists around control towers and flight lines and were experienced at identifying conventional aircraft; witnesses climbed to their barracks roof for a better view once satisfied the object was moving away; the sighting was reported immediately to the base control tower, which checked radar at three separate sites (the base’s own, Kadena Air Base’s radar center, and an Army NIKE missile site) — all reported no contacts for the preceding hour; witnesses declined to file an official Unidentified Aircraft Report, reasoning they lacked independent physical evidence; a similar object was reportedly seen again about a month later by the same witness alone, and a second radar check across three sites again found no contacts, this time for the preceding two hours; the witness purchased a camera afterward in hopes of documenting any future sighting

Case Status: Unexplained (for the primary, two-witness June 26, 1963 sighting); the second, solo sighting a month later is treated as a related but independently unconfirmed report

Source: Report via Bay Area NICAP Subcommittee

Summary/Description: Just before midnight on June 26, 1963, two Air Force airmen at Naha Air Base, Okinawa, watched a silent, unlit, disc-shaped object, roughly 75 feet across, cross the base at 3,000–4,000 feet and about 100 knots before fading from sight to the north. They reported it immediately to the control tower, which found no radar contact at three separate sites over the preceding hour. About a month later, the same witness reported seeing a similar object alone; a second radar check again found nothing. Neither sighting was ever formally filed as an official Air Force report.

Related Cases: The witness’s own second sighting, approximately one month after the first, is treated here as a related but separately unconfirmed event. Not separately indexed in this archive.

Detailed Report

The witness, identified in his own account as Marty, was stationed at Naha Air Base, Okinawa, in the Communications Squadron, and had made a habit of sky-watching for arriving and departing aircraft from the second-floor sundeck of his barracks, which offered an unobstructed view of the runway. On the night of June 26, 1963, he and a fellow airman, Frank, had been watching for over an hour without seeing anything, and had switched to stargazing — Frank pointing out constellations — when something caught Frank’s eye just before midnight.

What they saw, through binoculars, was a large, slow-moving disc traveling on a steady northerly heading directly over the base. Both men had direct professional experience identifying military and civilian aircraft from their work around control towers and flight lines, and were certain this matched nothing in the inventory: it carried none of the flashing or red-and-green wingtip navigation lights required on any aircraft flying at night, made no engine sound at all, and was clearly not a cloud, flare, or weather balloon. Marty judged its altitude at 3,000 to 4,000 feet, its speed at about 100 knots, and its diameter at roughly 75 feet. Through his binoculars he made out a smooth, seamless, dull-but-reflective metallic surface, razor-thin edges, and no antennae, dome, windows, or markings of any kind — flat, in his words, “as flat as a quarter.”

Frightened but unable to look away, the two men debated fleeing before deciding the object was moving away from them, not toward them, and climbed the building’s fire ladder to the roof for a clearer view. From there, they watched it recede to the north, catching what looked like reflected light from Naha City a few miles away, until it faded from sight entirely — a total sighting time of about two and a half minutes.

The two ran for the Charge of Quarters phone and called the control tower. Marty knew the controller on duty, Airman Bernard, personally, and Bernard took the report seriously enough to turn on the phone recorder before checking radar returns at three separate sites: the base’s own, Kadena Air Base’s radar center, and an Army NIKE missile site covering the island. All three reported no contacts for the preceding hour. Bernard suggested the two file a formal Unidentified Aircraft Report, but they declined, reasoning that without radar confirmation, photographs, or additional witnesses, there wasn’t much a report could substantiate — and despite hoping others would come forward with a matching account, no one ever did.

For weeks afterward, Marty kept watching the sky on his own time and eventually bought a camera to carry with him, just in case. About a month later, alone on the barracks’ second-floor landing just before 1:00 AM, he saw what appeared to be the same type of object again, moving away from his position to the north. Badly shaken, he ran for the same phone and reported it to Bernard a second time; a fresh check of the same three radar sites again found nothing, this time for the preceding two hours. As before, he chose not to file an official report, doubting anyone would believe an account with no supporting evidence behind it.

RESEARCHER’S NOTES

The Naha Air Base Disc — Okinawa 1963 and Radar That Found Nothing

• Two Separate Sightings: The structured date (June 26, 1963) reflects the first, two-witness sighting. A second, similar sighting reportedly occurred about a month later, witnessed solely by the reporting witness. This entry treats the two as related but distinct events, with only the first independently corroborated by a second observer.
• Radar Checked, Not Confirmed: On both occasions, the witness’s report prompted an active check of radar returns at three separate sites, and all three reported no contacts for the preceding one to two hours. This is a genuine, good-faith attempt at corroboration, though its result is ambiguous: it could suggest the object was not a solid, radar-reflective craft of the size and altitude described, or it could reflect the known limitations of period ground radar against certain objects. This entry presents the negative result honestly rather than reading it either way.
• Classification Notes: NL is retained, though the witnesses’ detailed description — obtained through binoculars — of a smooth, seamless, featureless disc with razor-thin edges is considerably more structured than a typical undifferentiated nocturnal light. Given the reported altitude of 3,000–4,000 feet, the sighting falls outside Hynek’s close-range CE-I threshold, and NL remains the closest fit despite the level of detail observed.
• No Formal Air Force Report Filed: Unlike cases with surviving official Project Blue Book files, the witnesses explicitly declined to file the Unidentified Aircraft Report suggested by the tower controller, reasoning that they lacked independent physical evidence to support one. As a result, this case’s documentation exists only through the witness’s later account to NICAP’s Bay Area subcommittee, not through any official Air Force case file.
• Careful, Non-Embellishing Witnesses: Both airmen had direct professional experience identifying aircraft, and are explicit that the object displayed none of the required nighttime navigation lighting and matched nothing in their known inventory. Their choice not to over-claim by filing an unsupported official report, and the narrator’s candid account of his own fear and hesitation, are treated here as points in the account’s favor.
• Source Chain Assessment: The account is attributed to the Bay Area NICAP Subcommittee, a regional chapter of the historical National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena; the narrative’s specific, detailed, retrospective style suggests it was written by the witness himself, likely years after the events described, for submission to NICAP.

Two trained observers, an immediate call to the tower, and three radar sites checked in good faith — all before anyone had time to embellish the story. That the radar came back empty doesn’t resolve the case either way; it just leaves the same honest gap the witnesses themselves refused to paper over with a report they couldn’t back up. It remains filed as Unexplained for the corroborated first sighting, with the solo second sighting held at arm’s length as related but unconfirmed.

“Look! What the hell is that?”