UFOs: A True Unknown
What constitutes a good, solid and credible UFO
incident? That’s a very good question, and one I get asked now and
again. Well, my answer would be that such a case would, ideally, have
the support of a number of witnesses, some form of evidence that can be
analyzed, and on the record individuals whose words we can refer to and
study. And, for me, this is typified by a highly notable affair that
falls into this particular category, and which will be celebrating its
60th anniversary in just a few months from now…
On both July 19 and 20, 1952, there were repeated sightings of unknown aerial objects in the Washington, D.C., airspace,
something that, on July 24, led USAF Major General John A. Samford to
state in a Secret memorandum for the attention of the Deputy Chief of
Staff, Operations: “We are interested in these reports in that we must
always on the alert for any threat or indication of a threat to the
United States. We cannot ignore these reports but the mild hysteria
subsequent to publicity given this subject causes an influx of reports
which since the 19th of July has almost saturated our ‘Emergency’
procedures.”
The situation really escalated after the weekend of July 26-27. A
two-page USAF document, prepared only days later, related the facts:
“This incident involved unidentified targets observed on the radar
scopes at the Air Route Traffic Control Center and the tower, both at
Washington National Airport, and the Approach Control Radar at Andrews
Air Force Base. In addition, visual observations were reported to
Andrews and Bolling AFB and to ARTC Center, the latter by pilots of
commercial aircraft and one CAA aircraft…”
The report continues:
“Varying numbers (up to 12 simultaneously) of u/i targets on ARTC
radar scope. Termed by CAA personnel as ‘generally solid returns’,
similar to a/c except slower. Mr. Bill Schreve, flying a/c NC-12
reported at 2246 EDT that he had visually spotted 5 objects giving off a
light glow ranging from orange to white; his altitude at time was
2,200’. Some commercial pilots reported visuals ranging from ‘cigarette
glow’ to a ‘light…”
And the deep strangeness only continued, as the USAF noted:
“ARTC crew commented that, as compared with u/i returns picked up in
early hours of 20 July 52, these returns appeared to be more haphazard
in their actions, i.e. they did not follow a/c around nor did they cross
scope consistently on same general heading. Some commented that the
returns appeared to be from objects ‘capable of dropping out of the
pattern at will’. Also that returns had ‘creeping appearance’. One
member of crew commented that one object to which F-94 was vectored just
‘disappeared from Scope’ shortly after F-94 started pursuing. All crew
members emphatic that most u/i returns have been picked up from time to
time over the past few months but never before had they appeared in such
quantities over such a prolonged period and with such definition as was
experienced on the nights of 19/20 and 26/27 July 1952.”
Although the portions extracted from this report speak for
themselves, let us now examine an official transcript of a conversation,
dated July 26, between staff at Washington National Airport and
personnel from Andrews Air Force Base at the time of the sightings:
Wash: “Andrews Tower, do you read? Did you have an airplane in sight west-northwest or east of your airport eastbound?”
Andr: “No, but we just got a call from the Center. We’re looking for it.”
Wash: “We’ve got a big target showing up on our scope. He’s just
coming in on the west edge of your airport – the northwest edge of it
eastbound. He’ll be passing right through the northern portion of your
field on an east heading. He’s about a quarter of a mile from the
northwest runway – right over the edge of your runway now.”
Andr: “This is Andrews. Our radar tracking says he’s got a big fat
target out here northwest of Andrews. He says he’s got two more south of
the field.”
Wash: “Yes, well the Center has about four or five around the Andrews
Range Station. The Center is working a National Airlines – the Center
is working him and vectoring him around his target. He went around
Andrews. He saw
one of them – looks like a meteor…went by him…or something. He said
he’s got one about three miles off his right wing right now. There are
so many targets around here it is hard to tell as they are not moving
very fast.”
Within a matter of hours of hearing of the events of July 26-27, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover instructed N.W. Philcox,
the FBI’s Air Force liaison representative, to determine what had taken
place and to ascertain the Air Force’s opinions on the UFO subject as a
whole.
On July 29, Philcox made arrangements through the office of the
Director of Air Intelligence, Major General John A. Samford, to meet
with Commander Randall Boyd of the Current Intelligence Branch,
Estimates Division, Air Intelligence, regarding “the present status of
Air Intelligence research into the numerous reports regarding flying
saucers and flying discs.”
Although the Air Force was publicly playing down the possibility that
UFOs were anything truly extraordinary, Philcox was advised that “at
the present time the Air Force has failed to arrive at any satisfactory
conclusion in its research regarding numerous reports of flying saucers
and flying discs sighted throughout the United States.”
Philcox was further informed that Air Intelligence had set up at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio,
the Air Technical Intelligence Center, which had been established in
part for the purpose of “coordinating, correlating and making research
into all reports regarding flying saucers and flying discs.”
As Philcox listened very carefully to what Boyd had to say on the
matter, he noted that the Air Force had placed their UFO reports into
three definable categories. In the first instance there were those
sightings “which are reported by citizens who claim they have seen
flying saucers from the ground. These sightings vary in description,
color and speeds. Very little credence is given to these sightings
inasmuch as in most instances they are believed to be imaginative or
some explainable object which actually crossed through the sky.”
Philcox then learned that the second category of encounters proved to
be of greater significance: “Sightings reported by commercial or
military pilots. These sightings are considered more credible by the Air
Force inasmuch as commercial or military pilots are experienced in the
air and are not expected to see objects which are entirely imaginative.
In each of these instances, the individual who reports the sightings is
thoroughly interviewed by a representative of Air Intelligence so that a
complete description of the object can be obtained.”
The
third category of encounters, Boyd advised Philcox, were those where,
in addition to a visual sighting by a pilot, there was corroboration
either from a ground-based source or by radar. Philcox wrote to Hoover:
“Commander Boyd advised that this latter classification constitutes two
or three per cent of the total number of sightings, but that they are
the most credible reports received and are difficult to explain.”
“In these instances,” Philcox was told, “there is no doubt that these
individuals reporting the sightings actually did see something in the
sky.” And to demonstrate that Boyd was well acquainted with the UFO
issue on a worldwide scale, he confided in Philcox that “sightings have
also recently been reported as far distant as Acapulco, Mexico, Korea
and French Morocco… the sightings reported in the last classification
have never been satisfactorily explained.”
The commander then came out with a true bombshell, as Philcox noted
in his report on the meeting: “[Boyd] advised that it is not entirely
impossible that the objects may possibly be ships from another planet
such as Mars.”
Clearly, within both the military and the Intelligence community of
the day, there was deep concern about the Washington events – something
which led to the development of startling and intriguing theories, and
the analysis of countless data. So, collectively, this is why – in my
opinion – the July 1952 encounters over the nation’s capital were
evidence of true unknowns in our very midst…
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