in an equally authoritative book, says that the Gorman Incident “stumped” the Air Force.  Other assorted historians point out that normally the UFO’s are peaceful, Gorman and Mantell just got too inquisitive, “they” just weren’t ready to be observed closely.  If the Air Force hadn’t slapped down the security lid, these writers might not have reached this conclusion.  There have been other and more lurid “duels of death.”

On June 21, 1952, at 10:58P.M., a Ground Observer Corps spotter reported that a slow-moving craft was nearing the AEC’s Oak Ridge Laboratory, an area so secret that it is prohibited to aircraft.  The spotter called the light into his filter center and the filter center relayed the message to the ground control intercept radar.  They had a target.  But before they could do more than confirm the GOC spotter’s report, the target faded from the radarscope.

An F-47 aircraft on combat air patrol in the area was vectored in visually, spotted a light, and closed on it.  They “fought” from 10,000 to 27,000 feet, and several times the object made what seemed to be ramming attacks.  The light was described as white, 6 to 8 inches in diameter, and blinking until it put on power.  The pilot could see no silhouette around the light.  The similarity to the Fargo case was striking.

On the night of December 10, 1952, near another atomic installation, the Hanford plant in Washington, the pilot and radar observer of a patrolling F-94 spotted a light while flying at 26,000 feet.  The crew called their ground control station and were told that no planes were known to be in the area.  They closed on the object and saw a large, round, white “thing” with a dim reddish light coming from two “windows.”  They lost visual contact, but got a radar lock-on.  They reported that when they attempted to close on it again it would reverse direction and dive away.  Several times the plane altered course itself because collision seemed imminent.

In each of these instances, as well as in the case narrated next, the sources of the stories were trained airmen with excellent reputations.  They were sincerely baffled by what they had seen.  They had no conceivable motive for falsifying or “dressing up” their reports.

The other dogfight occurred September 24, 1952, between a Navy pilot of a TBM and a light over Cuba.

The pilot had just finished making some practice passes for night fighters when he spotted an orange light to the east of his plane.  He checked on aircraft in the area, learned that the object was unidentified, and started after it.  Here is his report, written immediately after he landed: 

As it [the light] approached the city from the east it started a left turn.  I started to intercept.  During the first part of the chase the closest I got to the light was 8 to 10 miles.  At this time it appeared to be as large as an SNJ and had a greenish tail that looked to be five to six times as long as the light’s diameter.  This tail was seen several times in the next 10 minutes in periods of from 5 to 30 seconds each.  As I reached 10,000 feet it appeared to be at 15,000 feet and in a left turn.  It took 40 degrees of bank to keep the nose of my plane on the light.  At this time I estimated the light to be in a 10-to-15-mile orbit.