The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects | Page 3

intelligence officer shut the door, went over to
his safe, and dug out a big, thick report. It was the standard Air Force
reporting form that is used for all intelligence reports, including UFO
reports. The intelligence officer told me that this was the only existing
copy. He said that he had been told to destroy all copies, but had saved
one for me to read.
With great curiosity, I took the report and started to read. What had
happened at this fighter base?
About ten o'clock in the morning, one day a few weeks before, a radar
near the base had picked up an unidentified target. It was an odd target
in that it came in very fast--about 700 miles per hour-- and then slowed
down to about 100 miles per hour. The radar showed that it was located
northeast of the airfield, over a sparsely settled area.
Unfortunately the radar station didn't have any height-finding
equipment. The operators knew the direction of the target and its
distance from the station but they didn't know its altitude. They

reported the target, and two F-86's were scrambled.
The radar picked up the F-86's soon after they were airborne, and had
begun to direct them into the target when the target started to fade on
the radarscope. At the time several of the operators thought that this
fade was caused by the target's losing altitude rapidly and getting below
the radar's beam. Some of the other operators thought that it was a
high-flying target and that it was fading just because it was so high.
In the debate which followed, the proponents of the high-flying theory
won out, and the F-86's were told to go up to 40,000 feet. But before
the aircraft could get to that altitude, the target had been completely
lost on the radarscope.
The F-86's continued to search the area at 40,000 feet, but could see
nothing. After a few minutes the aircraft ground controller called the
F-86's and told one to come down to 20,000 feet, the other to 5,000 feet,
and continue the search. The two jets made a quick letdown, with one
pilot stopping at 20,000 feet and the other heading for the deck.
The second pilot, who was going down to 5,000 feet, was just
beginning to pull out when he noticed a flash below and ahead of him.
He flattened out his dive a little and headed toward the spot where he
had seen the light. As he closed on the spot he suddenly noticed what
he first thought was a weather balloon. A few seconds later he realized
that it couldn't be a balloon because it was staying ahead of him. Quite
an achievement for a balloon, since he had built up a lot of speed in his
dive and now was flying almost straight and level at 3,000 feet and was
traveling "at the Mach."
Again the pilot pushed the nose of the F-86 down and started after the
object. He closed fairly fast, until he came to within an estimated 1,000
yards. Now he could get a good look at the object. Although it had
looked like a balloon from above, a closer view showed that it was
definitely round and flat--saucer-shaped. The pilot described it as being
"like a doughnut without a hole."
As his rate of closure began to drop off, the pilot knew that the object

was picking up speed. But he pulled in behind it and started to follow.
Now he was right on the deck.
About this time the pilot began to get a little worried. What should he
do? He tried to call his buddy, who was flying above him somewhere in
the area at 20,000 feet. He called two or three times but could get no
answer. Next he tried to call the ground controller but he was too low
for his radio to carry that far. Once more he tried his buddy at 20,000
feet, but again no luck.
By now he had been following the object for about two minutes and
during this time had closed the gap between them to approximately 500
yards. But this was only momentary. Suddenly the object began to pull
away, slowly at first, then faster. The pilot, realizing that he couldn't
catch it, wondered what to do next.
When the object traveled out about 1,000 yards, the pilot suddenly
made up his mind--he did the only thing that he could do to stop the
UFO. It was like a David about to do battle with a Goliath, but he had
to take a chance. Quickly charging his guns, he started shooting. . . . A
moment later the object pulled up into a climb and in a few seconds it
was gone. The pilot climbed to