At 11:40 P.M. on July 19, radar at Washington National Airport picked up a formation of seven objects near Andrews AFB, moving along at a leisurely pace of 100 to 130 mph. Before long, two of the targets suddenly accelerated and vanished off the scope within seconds. One of them apparently reached 7,000 mph. This got the attention of several controllers, especially when they learned that a second radar at the airport, as well as the radar at Andrews AFB, also picked up the objects. For six hours, between eight and ten UFOs were tracked on radar.
The senior air traffic controller for the CAA, Harry G. Barnes, “knew immediately that a very strange situation existed.” In his opinion:
... [The] movements were completely radical compared to those of ordinary aircraft. They followed no set course [and] were not in any formation, and we only seemed to be able to track them for about three miles at a time.... [F]or six hours ... there were at least ten unidentifiable objects moving above Washington. They were not ordinary aircraft.... I can safely deduce that they performed gyrations which no known aircraft could perform.
Several times, at least two of the radar stations displayed the same targets simultaneously. But the phenomenon was not restricted to radar tracking. Several Capitol Airlines pilots saw the objects visually as orange lights in the same area that radar indicated they should be. Just where were they? Over the White House and Capitol!
A radar-visual sighting of eight to ten UFOs over such highly restricted airspace is certainly cause to send a few jet interceptors, and this is exactly what happened. But by the time the interceptors arrived, shortly before dawn, it was too late. The objects were gone.
The sighting made headlines the next day. And yet, according to Ruppelt, “nobody bothered to tell air force intelligence about the sighting.” At least nobody bothered to tell ATIC, which by now was receiving about thirty UFO reports per day. When Ruppelt arrived in Washington to investigate, he learned that President Truman was personally interested in the affair and wanted a full investigation. Good news for Ruppelt, except that all the while he was in Washington, Ruppelt could not obtain a military vehicle, and had to use a bus. Who, then, did Truman want to do this full investigation? Clearly not Blue Book.
In the week that followed, sightings continued at an intense pace throughout the country. Several occurred over military bases. According to the Washington, D.C.,
Dozens of new reports reached Blue Book every day. Near Boston on July 23, a bluish-green object easily evaded a pursuing F-94 that tracked it on radar. On the same day in Culver City, California, several aircraft-plant workers saw an elliptical-shaped object through binoculars. The object stopped and hovered, and they saw two smaller discs emerge from it, circle, rejoin the “mother” ship, then vanish at tremendous speed. 27 On July 24, two air force colonels flying a B-25 over the Sierra Nevada saw three “bright silver, delta wing craft with no tails and no pilot’s canopies.” They estimated its speed at 1,000 mph, and believed it came to within four hundred to eight hundred yards of their plane.28
But, somehow, flying over the nation’s Capitol was
not a few people in the radar room were positive that this night would be the big night in UFO history—the night when a pilot would close in on and get a good look at a UFO—and they didn’t want the press to be in on it.
The objects had been tracked continuously for nearly two hours—an important point, as this appeared to rule out atmospheric phenomena. But as the F-94s approached, they disappeared from the radarscopes. Visibility was excellent, but the pilots saw nothing. As the pilots returned to their base, the targets returned to the area.
Near Newport News, Virginia, reports were reaching Langley AFB about odd, rotating lights that gave off alternating colors. Tower operators saw these lights. Another F-94 was scrambled, obtained a radar lock, and the target sped away.
