The first plane equipped with onboard radar, the P-61 Black Widow, rolled off production lines in 1942. Designed for nighttime missions, Northrop’s innovative twin-engine warplanes saw action in every theater of World War II. And of course, in certain circles, the aircraft were most famously known for their interactions with UFOs, dubbed “foo fighters” by a radar operator with the 415th Night Fighter Squadron in France.

Sometimes the pilots were lucky enough to make radar as well as visual contact with the airborne phantoms. During the last foo fighter encounter in the 415th’s logs, near the Rhine River on April 23, 1945, the pilot spotted four of them arrayed in a square formation. They disappeared as he approached. But they were completely invisible to radar. Over the years, that unit was eventually rolled into the 415th Special Operations Squadron (Kirtland AFB), which once included stealth fighters.

The Northrop Corporation produced the first warplanes with radar, which had trouble locking in on “foo fighters” in WWII. Generations later, Northrop-Grumman designs flying machines that attempt to render radar obsolete/CREDIT: northropgrumman.com

One of the early frontiersmen in this formerly fringy realm was Dr. Paul Kaminski, an Air Force colonel who served as Director for Low Observables Technology, which monitored the development of F-117 and B-2 radar-evading platforms. Kamiski’s bio is beyond impressive:

President’s Intelligence Advisory Board, chair of the Defense Science Board, Senior Advisory Board member of the Director of National Intelligence, developer of the National Reconnaissance Office space and sensor systems technologies, Technical Advisory Board of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, board chair of the RAND Corporation, Exostar and HRL – to mention a few. Accolades and awards include: the Department of Defense Medal for Public Service, the Ronald Reagan Award for Missile Defense, the Legion of Merit with Oak Leaf Cluster, Pioneer of Stealth, and Pioneer of National Reconnaissance.

But his tenure as the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Technology, from 1994-97, is what’s been getting some attention lately. References to Kaminski crop up several times in the notes from an alleged conversation in 2002 between physicist Eric Davis and Vice Admiral Thomas Wilson. Wilson had just retired from his post as head of the Defense Intelligence Agency.

In the notes, Wilson was still steamed over his failed efforts in 1997 to be read in on a Special Access Program handling UFO technology. A private contractor, whom Wilson did not name, had locked him out, and the Pentagon’s Special Access Program Oversight Committee agreed that Wilson couldn’t prove he had a need to know. If you’re late to the controversy, Richard Dolan provides a good summary here.

According to the notes – which neither Wilson nor Davis have verified – after learning about the highly classified UFO program five years earlier, Wilson specifically mentioned meeting Kaminski in Kaminksi’s office in May of ’97, for the expressed purpose of confirming the name of the contractor monopolizing the UFO research.

Contacted this week at his home in Virginia, Kaminski, 77, said none of this stuff rang a bell.

“I don’t think I knew Admiral Wilson, I don’t recall meeting him,” he told De Void. “It’s possible I did. But I left the Pentagon in March or April of 1997, so this was probably after that.”

According to his bio, Kaminski left the USDAT office on May 16, 1997. Our phoner lasted less than five minutes.

Stealth tech innovator Paul Kaminski pauses for a photo op with President Dubya/CREDIT: wikipedia.org

“There are special access programs which are very important to national security, and a small number of people have access,” he said. “But I can just tell you I’m not aware of anything that would be very likely to be seen as a UFO.

“But,” he added, “I would also tell you I wasn’t aware of all programs. So it’s certainly possible there was something that was special access and there wasn’t a need to know. And there are always tradeoffs in that. Unfortunately, I don’t have any knowledge to convey about this one.”

As one of the leading authorities on radar-thwarting technology, which was apparently demonstrated as far back as WWII by the foo fighters, certainly a scientist of Kaminski’s pedigree would be intrigued by anything exhibiting those capabilities, no matter what the source. At least, one would think. But Kaminski was ready to end this thread.

“I do need to leave here and take a conference call that’s coming in,” he said. Bad timing. Drat. Well, obviously I had other questions and asked if I could call back. “You can try later,” he said.

Several messages have not been returned. Maybe tomorrow. Definitely tomorrow.