The UFO Gap

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# Approved For Release 2001/04/02 : CIA-RDP81R00560R000100010006-5

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in the sky, even after all the stars had disappeared." The witnesses were so insistent and vocal that this couldn't be anything ordinary that I made a quick trip to the town. I set up a small telescope, followed the object into full daylight and, with the aid of the Nautical Almanac, proved even to their satisfaction that the mysterious object was none other than the planet Venus shortly after inferior conjunction with the sun and so at its greatest brilliancy. (The Air Force can always be assured of several $\Sigma 1$ reports, either before sunrise or after sunset, whenever Venus is at greatest brilliancy.)

In New Hampshire, four lights in a diamond-shaped formation and later in a T formation were observed to hover and then to travel first in one direction and then in another. The sighting lasted for some minutes. Identification was positive that the object sighted was a KC-97 performing a refueling operation. A Labrador radar station picked up an object traveling at 72 knots at an altitude of 50,000 feet. Two F-102 aircraft were scrambled and picked up the object on their radar. The object was fully observed by several military personnel on their separate radars. Identification was positive that the object tracked was a

balloon released from an Air Force base in Maine.

In New Jersey, a flat-shaped object was reported. It had a dome in the middle and was somewhat bigger than a commercial aircraft, with bright yellow lights coming from square windows around the bottom and with green lights on the front. This turned out to be, quite positively, a commercial aircraft with a 39-foot advertising sign containing 245 flashing electric lights. Apparently, the advertiser was not getting his message across. And, for good measure, in 1962, one of our Navy's ships reported an object traveling southeast that remained visible for 15 minutes but which "air and surface radar could not pick up." It was observed by navigators taking a celestial fix, by the commanding officer and by about 1000 enlisted personnel. This was the satellite Echo I, which calculations showed had traced that identical path at that precise time.

But this is only one part of the story. There are high $ \sum $ reports, too. If there weren't, there would be no UFO problem. High $ \sum $ ratings, of $ \sum 4 $ and $ \sum 5 $ are reserved for reports that, at face value, do not find an explanation in conventional scientific terms. Let us look at some examples from my files.

It was 5:30 p.M. I remember the exact time because our car radio was on. A program change was made and the time was given. I was now driving with my headlights on, the electric windshield wipers were going, as we were in a heavy mist. The highway in this area [of Oklahoma] has many rolling hills and is heavily wooded with native post-oak trees. The visibility is limited to the highway by looking ahead or behind or up overhead. We were driving along, everything in normal condition and operation, when suddenly from above and ahead of us over the top of the hill and trees, at a fantastic speed, came a tremendous bright light. The color or glow was similar to that of a mercury light. I thought for a moment we were going to have a head-on crash with something.

I was looking for an escape route to avoid a collision. We were extremely frightened. My wife had dropped down in the seat and our son had jumped from the back seat and had positioned himself between me and my wife. At the speed of approach, I had little time for a reaction. The light around us was almost blinding as the object approached our car. As it came toward us, the car began to slow