Part 6 (1/2)
All during the spring of 1948 good reports continued to coe percentage of the from people whose reliability couldn't be questioned
For example, three scientists reported that for thirty seconds they had watched a round object streak across the sky in a highly erratic flight path near the Ar Ground And on May 28 the crew of an Air Force C-47 had three UFO's barrel in froh” to buzz their transport
On July 21 a curious report was received from the Netherlands The day before several persons reported seeing a UFO through high broken clouds over The Hague The object was rocket-shaped, with ts of s along the side It was a poor report, very sketchy and incootten except that four nights later a similar UFO almost collided with an Eastern Airlines DC-3 This near collision is Volu of July 24, 1948, an Eastern Airlines DC-3 took off from Houston, Texas It was on a scheduled trip to Atlanta, with intermediate stops in between The pilots were Clarence S Chiles and John B Whitted At about 2:45 AM, when the flight was 20 ht dead ahead and closing fast His first reaction, he later reported to an ATIC investigation team, was that it was a jet, but in an instant he realized that even a jet couldn't close as fast as this light was closing Chiles said he reached over, gave Whitted, the other pilot, a quick tap on the arm, and pointed The UFO was now alht left turn Just as the UFO flashed by about 700 feet to the right, the DC-3 hit turbulent air
Whitted looked back just as the UFO pulled up in a steep cliood look at the UFO and were able to give a good description to the Air Force intelligence people It was a B-29 fuselage The underside had a ”deep blue glow” There were ”ts of s froe-red fla out of theat the tiators talked to hiht, very intense,” but that was all, no details He said that it all happened before he could adjust his eyes to the darkness
Minutes later a crew chief at Robins Air Force Base in Macon, Georgia, reported seeing an extreh speed A few days later another report froinia-North Carolina state line, reported that he had seen a ”bright shooting star” in the direction of Montgomery, Alabama, at about the exact ti to the old timers at ATIC, this report shook them worse than the Mantell Incident This was the first tih to anything reseood look and live to tell about it A quick check on a map showed that the UFO that nearly collided with the airliner would have passed al the DC-3 It had been turning toward Macon when last seen The story of the crew chief at Robins AFB, 200 , not to inia-North Carolina state line
In intelligence, if you have so to say about some vital problem you write a report that is known as an ”Estimate of the Situation” A few days after the DC-3 was buzzed, the people at ATIC decided that the time had arrived to make an Estimate of the Situation The situation was the UFO's; the estimate was that they were interplanetary!
It was a rather thick docual-sized paper Stamped across the front were the words TOP SECRET
It contained the Air Force's analysis of many of the incidents I have told you about plus many similar ones All of them had come from scientists, pilots, and other equally credible observers, and each one was an unknown
The document pointed out that the reports hadn't actually started with the Arnold Incident Belated reports froinia, who observed a ”silver disk” through his theodolite telescope; an F-47 pilot and three pilots in his forhost airplanes”
that had been picked up on radar early in 1947 proved this point
Although reports on the, these incidents all had taken place earlier
When the estih channels to higher-command echelons It drew considerable comment but no one stopped it on its way up
A ned, sealed, and sent on its way, the third big sighting of 1948, Volume III of ”The Classics,” took place The date was October 1, and the place was Fargo, North Dakota; it was the faht a ”duel of death” with a UFO
The pilot was George F Gorman, a twenty-five-year-old second lieutenant in the North Dakota Air National Guard
It was eight-thirty in the evening and Gorht He flew around Fargo for a while and about nine o'clock decided to land He called the control tower for landing instructions and was told that a Piper Cub was in the area
He saw the Cub below hiht of another airplane passed hiht He called the tower and complained but they assured him that no other aircraft except the Cub were in the area Gorht so he decided to find out what it was He pushed the F-51 over into a turn and cut in toward the light He could plainly see the Cub outlined against the city lights below, but he could see no outline of a body near the ave the '51 h to estiht was 6 to 8 inches in dia on and off Suddenly the light became steady as it apparently put on power; it pulled into a sharp left bank and ht zoomed up with the F-51 in hot pursuit
At 7,000 feet it ht's turn to get closer to it but he couldn't do it The light made another turn, and this time the '51 closed on a collision course The UFO appeared to try to raet out of the way The UFO passed over the '51's canopy with only a few feet to spare Again both the F-51 and the object turned and closed on each other head on, and again the pilot had to dive out to prevent a collision All of a sudden the light began to climb and disappeared
”I had the distinct iht or reason,” Gorators
Four other observers at Fargo partially corroborated his story, an oculist, Dr A D Cannon, the Cub's pilot, and his passenger, Einar Neilson They saw a light ” fast,” but did not witness all the round saw a light ators rushed to Fargo They had wired ahead to ground the plane They wanted to check it over before it flew again
When they arrived, only a matter of hours after the incident, they went over the airplane, froer counter A chart in the official report shohere every Geiger counter reading was taken For cos on a similar airplane that hadn't been flown for several days Gorot sworn statements from the tower operators and oculist, and flew back to Dayton
In the file on the Gor that was held upon the ATIC teao Theplace
The historians of the UFO agree Donald Keyhoe, a retired Marine Corps _ _Saucers_ _Are_ _Real_ and _Flying_ _Saucers_ _from_ _Outer_ _space_, needles the Air Force about the Gor that the light could have been a lighted weather balloon, they dropped it like a hot UFO Some person by the name of Wilkins, in an equally authoritative book, says that the Gorman Incident ”stumped” the Air Force Other assorted historians point out that norot too inquisitive, ”they” just weren't ready to be observed closely If the Air Force hadn't slapped down the security lid, these writers ht not have reached this conclusion There have been other and more lurid ”duels of death”
On June 21, 1952, at 10:58PM, a Ground Observer Corps spotter reported that a slow-e Laboratory, an area so secret that it is prohibited to aircraft The spotter called the light into his filter center and the filter center relayed the et But before they could do et faded from the radarscope
An F-47 aircraft on combat air patrol in the area was vectored in visually, spotted a light, and closed on it They ”fought” from 10,000 to 27,000 feet, and several tiht was described as white, 6 to 8 inches in dia until it put on power The pilot could see no silhouette around the light The siht of December 10, 1952, near another atoton, the pilot and radar observer of a patrolling F-94 spotted a light while flying at 26,000 feet The crew called their ground control station and were told that no planes were known to be in the area They closed on the object and saw a large, round, white ”thing” with a di froot a radar lock-on They reported that when they atteain it would reverse direction and dive away Several times the plane altered course itself because collision seemed imminent