Several years before the Atlas incident in september of '64, a Juno II rocket had been launched by the Army Ballistic Missile Agency at Cape Canaveral, Florida. German Scientist, Dr. Wernher von Braun was assigned to this agency in Huntsville, Alabama. The "buzz" around the Cape was that the Juno II, which was having tests run on the ablative shield applied to its nosecone, was accompanied by "visitors" which followed it into the earth's atmosphere upon reentry.
The nosecone left quite a streak, resembling a fireball as it reentered atmosphere. Remarkably, the UFOs seemed to behave as if atmospheric friction was not an issue.
I was working on a launch tower steel modification assignment when Dr. von Braun and other former German Scientists were doing an on-site inspection near Launch Pad 5. I had an opportunity to introduce myself to him, Dr. Kurt DeBus, Director of the ABMA Launch Team at the Cape, and Dr. Grune, his deputy. As Dr. DeBus walked ahead of von Braun and me, I asked him, "Dr. von Braun, is it true that a Juno II we launched from here had other unknown craft accompany it back into the earth's atmosphere?"
He looked at me with a bit of surprise, and said, "Young man, yes we had such an encounter with a power that appears advanced beyond ours here. Stronger than we have assumed and unknown to us where their base is located. I cannot say much more other than we are entering into a closer contact with these unknown powers and perhaps within a short time, a few months or so of time, we will be capable of saying more." I must have had my lower jaw hit the ground when I heard these statements. I shook his hand and returned to my assignments. Later, I would learn that he made a similar statement while visiting his homeland of Germany. I personally withheld this astounding disclosure for many years due to my utmost respect for this pioneer of space travel.
