Part 32 (2/2)

navigation flight from Moody AFB to Lawson AFB to Robins AFB, then back to Moody--all in Georgia At exactly nine thirty-five he was at 6,000 feet, heading toward Lawson AFB on the first leg of his flight

He rehts of Albany, Georgia; then he'd looked up again and seen this bright white light at ”ten o'clock high” It was an unusually bright light, and he said that he thought this hy it was so noticeable a it as he passed over Albany He decided that it ht star or another airplane--except it just didn't look right It had too ht to fly and he had to get in so et a little closer to it If it was an airplane, chances were he could close in and if it was a star, he should be able to clie its relative position He checked his oxygen supply, increased the rpine, and started to clietting above the light, and he watched it; it had moved in relation to the stars It must be an airplane then, he'd decided--an airplane so far away that he couldn't see its red and green wing tip lights

Since he'd gone this far, he decided that he'd get closer and make sure it _was_ an airplane; so he dropped the nose of the F-86 and started down As the needle on thecloser because the light was getting bigger, but still he couldn't see any lights other than the one big white one Then it wasn't white any longer; it was changing color In about a two-second cycle it changed froh this cycle two or three ti on, he told le Then it split into two triangles, one above the other By this ti in any one He used the old standard description for a disappearing UFO: ”It was just like soone”

I asked hi saucers, he said, but he ”just couldn't s those stories” He thought he had a case of vertigo and the ht about it, the surer he was that this was the answer He'd felt pretty foolish, he told lad that he was alone

Up ahead he saw the sprawling lights of Fort Benning and Lawson AFB, his turning point on the flight, and he'd started to turn but then he'd checked his fuel The cli to Robins AFB and started straight back to Moody

He called in to the ground station to change his flight plan, but before he could say anything the ground radio operator asked hiht

Then the ground operator proceeded to tell him that the UFO chase had been watched on radar First the radar had the UFO target on the scope, and it was a UFO because it was traveling much too slowly to be an airplane Then the radar operators saw the F-86 approach, climb, and make a shallow dive toward the UFO At first the F-86 had closed in on the UFO, but then the UFO had speeded up just enough to maintain a comfortable lead This went on for two or three minutes; then it had moved off the scope at a terrific speed The radar site had tried to call hiround station told the F-86 pilot, but they couldn't raise hih the tower

Rack up two more points for the UFO--another unknown and another confir of the panel of scientists in Washi+ngton I received word that Project Blue Book would follow the recommendations that the panel had ht away Our proposal for setting up instruon weeks before, so that was already taken care of We needed anizational cable that called for h to ATIC's personnel section

About this tis caly reco Accordingly, when the press got wind of the Treuarded secret, I agreed to release it for the newsmen to see I wrote a press release which was OK'd by General Garland, then the chief of ATIC, and sent it to the Pentagon It told what the panel had said about the movies, ”until proved otherwise there is no reason why the UFO's couldn't have been sea gulls” Then the release went on to say that eren't sure exactly what the UFO's were, the sea gull theory was only an opinion When the Pentagon got the draft of the release they screamed, ”No!” No ull theory was too weak, and we had a new publicity policy as of now--don't say anything

This policy, incidentally, is still in effect The January 7, 1955, issue of the _Air_ _Force_ _Information_ _Services_ _Letter_ said, in essence, people in the Air Force are talking too nore the followed

Inside of a month the UFO project took a few more hard jolts In Decereed to stay on as chief of Blue Book until the end of February so that a replacement could be obtained and be broken in But no replacement showed up And none showed up when Lieutenant Rothstien's tour of active duty ended, when Lieutenant Andy Flues transferred to the Alaskan Air Command, or when others left When I left the UFO project for a two-month tour of temporary duty in Denver, Lieutenant Bob Olsson took over as chief

His staff consisted of Airman First Class Max Futch Both n of '52, but two people can do only so much

When I came back to ATIC in July 1953 and took over another job, Lieutenant Olsson was just getting out of the Air Force and Al/c Futch was now it He said that he felt like the President of Antarctica on a non-expedition year In a few days I again had Project Blue Book, as an additional duty this time, and I had orders to ”build it up”

While I had been gone, our instruher headquarters had decided against establishi+ng a net ofstations, astronomical cameras tied in with radars, and our other proposed instru and hard for the plan, but he'd lost It was decided that the cas over the lenses, the cameras that had been under developram had started out as a top-priority project, but it had lost momentum fast e'd tested these widely publicized instruraph a million-candle power flare at 450 yards The caratings, they were no good

However, Lieutenant Olsson had been told to send the that I did when I returned to Project Blue Book was to go over the reports that had coood reports but only one that was exceptional It had taken place at Luke AFB, Arizona, the Air Force's advanced fighter-bomber school that is named after the famous ”balloon buster” of World War I, Lieutenant Frank Luke, Jr It was a sighting that produced soraphs

There were only a few high cirrus clouds in the sky late on theof March 3 when a pilot took off fro F-51's in Korea and had recently started to check out in the jets He took off, cleared the traffic pattern, and started cli toward Blythe Radio, about 130 miles west of Luke He'd climbed for several minutes and had just picked up the coded letters BLH that identified Blythe Radio when he looked up through the corner glass in the front part of his canopy--high at about two o'clock he sahat he thought was an airplane angling across his course frolanced down at his altimeter and saw that he was at 23,000 feet The object that was leaving the vapor trail , because he couldn't see any airplane at the head of it He altered his course a few degrees to the right so that he could follow the trail and increased his rate of cli on the object, or whatever was leaving the vapor trail, because he was under the central part of it But he still couldn't see any object This was odd, he thought, because vapor trails don't just happen; so has to leave them His altimeter had ticked off another 12,000 feet and he was now at 35,000 He kept on clih as it would go The pilot dropped down 1,000 feet and continued on--noas below the front of the trail, but still no airplane This bothered hi that we have flies over 55,000 feet except a few experimental airplanes like the D-558 or those of the ”X” series, and they don't stray far from Edwards AFB in California He couldn't be more than 15,000 feet fronize any kind of an airplane 15,000 feet away in the clear air of the substratosphere He looked and he looked and he looked He rocked the F-84 back and forth thinking lass of the canopy that was blinking out the airplane, but still no airplane Whatever it was, it was darn high or darn s about 300 miles an hour because he had to pull off power and ”S” to stay under it

He was beginning to get low on fuel about this time so he hauled up the nose of the jet, took about 30 feet of gun camera film, and started down When he landed and told his story, the film was quickly processed and rushed to the projection room It showed a weird, thin, forked vapor trail--but no airplane

Lieutenant Olsson and Airhly The photo lab confirmed that the trail was definitely a vapor trail, not a freak cloud forht Service said, ”No other airplanes in the area,” and so did Air Defense Command, because minutes after the F-84 pilot broke off contact, the ”object” had passed into an ADIZ--Air Defense Identification Zone--and radar had shown nothing

There was one last possibility: Blue Book's astronomer said that the photos looked exactly like a meteor's smoke trail But there was one hitch: the pilot was positive that the head of the vapor trail wasat about 300 round he'd covered, but when he first picked up Blythe Radio he was on Green 5 airway, about 30 iven up the chase he'd gotten another radio bearing, and he was now almost up to Needles Radio, 70 miles north of Blythe He could see a lake, Lake Mojave, in the distance

Could a high-altitude jet-strea the smoke cloud? Futch had checked this--no The winds above 20,000 feet were the usual westerlies and the jet stream was far to the north

Several months later I talked to a captain who had been at Luke when this sighting occurred He knew the F-84 pilot and he'd heard hireat detail I won't say that he was a confirht uy well He's not nuts

What do you think he saw?”