Part 23 (1/2)
Then on top of all this there were the reports froood--all from airline pilots or equally reliable people
To say the least, the sighting at Washi+ngton National was a jolt
Besides trying to figure out what the Washi+ngton National UFO's were, we had the proble to put on a squeeze by threatening to call a congress chills blood faster in the military They wanted some kind of an official stateence wanted to say just, ”We don't know,” but others held out for a ation I happened to be in this latter category Many tiood UFO report coation
I was for stalling the press and working all night if necessary to go into every aspect of the sighting But to go along with the thes--confusion--there was a lot of talk but no action and the afternoon passed with no further investigation
Finally about 4:00PM it was decided that the press, who still wanted an official coet an official ”No coton and ation
I called Lieutenant Andy Flues, as in charge of Project Blue Book while I was gone, to tell hi over and I found out that they were in a de luxe flap back in Dayton Reports were pouring out of the teletype ood, if not better, than the Washi+ngton incident I talked this over with Colonel Bower and we decided that even though things were popping back at ATIC the Washi+ngton sighting, from the standpoint of national interest, waslike a national ht if necessary, I laid the course of ton National Airport, Andrews AFB, airlines offices, the weather bureau, and a half dozen other places scattered all over the capital city I called the transportation section at the Pentagon to get a staff car but it took ulations said no staff cars except for senior colonels or generals Colonel Bower tried--saone, so I couldn't get them to try to pressure a staff car out of the hillbilly as dispatching vehicles I went down to the finance office--could I rent a car and charge it as travel expense? No--city buses are available But I didn't know the bus systeet to all the places I had to visit, I pleaded You can take a cab if you want to pay for it out of your per diem was the answer Nine dollars a day per diem and I should pay for a hotel room, meals, and taxi fares all over the District of Columbia Besides, the lady in finance told ton covered only a visit to the Pentagon In addition, she said, I was supposed to be on h all the red tape of getting the orders amended I couldn't collect any per diem and technically I'd be AWOL I couldn't talk to the finance officer, the lady informed me, because he always left at 4:30 to avoid the traffic and it was now exactly five o'clock and she was quitting
At five-one I decided that if saucers were buzzing Pennsylvania Avenue in formation I couldn't care less I called Colonel Bower, explained h He concurred, and I caught the next airliner to Dayton
When I returned I dropped in to see Captain Roy Ja He said that he thought it sounded as if the radar targets had been caused by weather but since he didn't have the finer details he naturally couldn't ood UFO reports that Lieutenant Flues had told ton had tripled in nu at them Our daily take had risen to forty a day, and about a third of thehts like those seen on July 18 had been observed over the Guided Missile Long-Range Proving Ground at Patrick AFB, Florida In Uvalde, Texas, a UFO described as ”a large, round, silver object that spun on its vertical axis” was seen to cross 100 degrees of afternoon sky in forty-eight seconds During part of its flight it passed between tering cumulus clouds At Los Alamos and Holyoke, Massachusetts, jets had chased UFO's In both cases the UFO's had been lost as they turned into the sun
In two night encounters, one in New Jersey and one in Massachusetts, F-94's tried unsuccessfully to intercept unidentified lights reported by the Ground Observer Corps In both cases the pilots of the radar- nosed jet interceptors saw a light; they closed in and their radar operators got a lock-on But the lock-ons were broken in a few seconds, in both cases, as the light apparently took violent evasiveto the Pentagon, and I was constantly on the phone or having teleconferences with Major Fournet
When the second Washi+ngton National Sighting ca, almost a week to the hour fros weren't too fouled up Thedidn't exactly follow the official reporting procedures that are set forth in Air Force Letter 200-5, dated 5 April 1952, Subject: Reporting of Unidentified Flying Objects--but it worked
I first heard about the sighting about ten o'clock in the evening when I received a telephone call frootten the word froton News Bureau and wanted a statement about what the Air Force planned to do
I decided that instead of giving a mysterious ”no comment” I would tell the truth: ”I have no idea what the Air Force is doing; in all probability it's doing nothing” When he hung up, I called the intelligence duty officer in the Pentagon and I was correct, intelligence hadn't heard about the sighting I asked the duty officer to call Major Fournet and ask hio out to the airport, which was only two or three ot the call from the duty officer Major Fournet called Lieutenant Holcomb; they drove to the ARTC radar room at National Airport and found Al Chop already there So at this performance the UFO's had an official audience; Al Chop, Major Dewey Fournet, and Lieutenant Holconed to the Air Force Directorate of Intelligence, all saw the radar targets and heard the radio conversations as jets tried to intercept the UFO's
Being in Dayton, 380 miles away, there wasn't much that I could do, but I did call Captain Roy Jaht want to talk on the phone to the people atching the UFO's on the radarscopes But Captain James has a powerful dislike for UFO's-- especially on Saturday night
About five o'clock SundayMajor Fournet called and told ton National Airport:
About 10:30PM on July 26 the same radar operators who had seen the UFO's the week before picked up several of the saets This time the mysterious craft, if that is what they were, were spread out in an arc around Washi+ngton froinia, to Andrews AFB This tiets The24-inch radarscope one of the controllers placed a plastic et near each blip on the scope When all the targets had been carefully marked, one of the controllers called the tower and the radar station at Andrews AFB--they also had the unknown targets
By 11:30PM four or five of the targets were continually being tracked at all tiain a call went out for jet interceptors Once again there was soht two F- 94's from New Castle County AFB were airborne and headed south The reporters and photographers were asked to leave the radar room on the pretext that classified radio frequencies and procedures were being used in vectoring the interceptors All civilian air traffic was cleared out of the area and the jets moved in
When I later found out that the press had been disrounds that the procedures used in an intercept were classified, I knew that this was absurd because any ham radio operator worth his salt could build equipment and listen in on any intercept The real reason for the press dismissal, I learned, was that not a few people in the radar rooht in UFO history--the night when a pilot would close in on and get a good look at a UFO--and they didn't want the press to be in on it
But just as the two '94's arrived in the area the targets disappeared from the radarscopes The two jets were vectored into the areas where the radar had shown the last target plots, but even though the visibility was excellent they could see nothing The two airplanes stayed around a few minutes more, made a systematic search of the area, but since they still couldn't see anything or pick up anything on their radars they returned to their base
A few ton area, the unidentified targets were back on the radarscopes in that same area
What neither Major Fournet nor I knew at this tiets left the radarscopes in Washi+ngton people in the area around Langley AFB near Newport News, Virginia, began to call Langley Tower to report that they were looking at weird bright lights that were ”rotating and giving off alternating colors” A few an to come in, the tower operators theht and they called for an interceptor
An F-94 in the area was contacted and visually vectored to the light by the tower operators The F-94 saw the light and started toward it, but suddenly it went out, ”like soht bulb”