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[Music]

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washington dc sightings

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chief facility operations branch 1-547

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chief washington center-9 unidentified

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targets

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july 20th 1952 attached is a copy of the

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report written by the senior controller

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on duty from approximately

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23 30 east july 19th to 0-800 eastern

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time

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july 20th 1952.

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parts of this report have been given to

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major williams or air force

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intelligence lieutenant colonel searles

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office of public information department

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of defense

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into mr blank

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w-41 signed blank

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united states air force headquarters

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at 23 405 19 controller nuget called my

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attention to several targets observed on

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the vc2 scope sight of them

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were counted and although an occasional

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strong return

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was noted most of the targets would be

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classified as fair to weak

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after we had checked carefully on the

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movement about 100 to 130 miles per

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hours

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and confirmed our findings with what the

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tower saw in asr

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i called hfs and reported it

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this was about midnight eastern time

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mfs later advised that the nearest

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military base was supposed to handle

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these matters

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and to call the intelligence officer or

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ao

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there was some confusion for a while as

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to whether andrews or bullying was going

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to make the report

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but it was finally determined that

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andrews

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i called blank and asked if they could

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see

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what i saw and was advised they saw

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nothing

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our hsw maintenance then checked the

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equipment very carefully and advised

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that it was functioning satisfactorily

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and confirmed it with a fellow worker

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this lad tells me he's been working on

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this equipment for five

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years so i guess he knows what he's

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doing

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the targets were noticed east and south

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of adw so he asked the adw

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tower to look and see if they saw

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anything

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also asked adw approach control to check

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scopes

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adw had a lad on the roof with glasses

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who spotted an object that looked to be

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orange in color

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and appeared to be just hovering in the

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vicinity of adw

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they saw others as time went on with

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varying descriptions

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most of this information was given

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to blank and

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nfs with the expectation that they would

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run

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the impression received from blank

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was to the effect that more information

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was needed to order an intercept

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i told them our equipment was giving us

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good reading so we would be able to do

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any vectoring

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that might be necessary but they seem to

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be leaving it all up to the smoke ring

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pilot reports were received b807 saw

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seven of the objects between

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washington and martinsburg variously

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described as lights that move very

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rapidly

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up and down horizontally as well as

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hovering in one position

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and sp 610 saw one come in

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with him from around herndon and follow

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him within

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four miles of touchdown this was

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substantiated

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by tower and center radar

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[Music]

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in my conversation with mfs adw and the

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man on duty we reached the point where

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we wondered just how much of this could

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go on

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and for how long before something could

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be done

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about it i contacted smoke ring finally

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about

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300 eastern time they were doing nothing

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about it so i asked if it was possible

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for something like this to happen even

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though we gave them

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all the information without anything

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being done about it

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the man who was supposed to be in charge

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and

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he guessed so

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then another voice came on who i

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identified himself

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as the combat officer and said that all

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the information was being forwarded to

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higher authority and would not discuss

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i insisted i wanted to know if it was

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being forwarded tonight and he said yes

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but would not give me any hint

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as to what was being done about all

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these things flying around washington

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he tried to assure me that something was

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and i did ask too how he was getting his

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information he said they would

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[Music]

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he was then told by 8.7 that they had no

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way of forwarding it to them smokering

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then said that they were really not

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[Music]

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that somebody else was supposed to

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handle it

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mfs then said that adw was supposed to

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have forwarded it

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to intelligence but when i checked with

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adw05053 they said to the ao

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had gone back to bed and the report will

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go in later

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they confirm the above by saying that

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it would be extremely difficult to write

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this

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so that it is in logical sequence due to

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the confusion that seems to have existed

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throughout this whole affair

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for example adw called us and asked what

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we wanted them

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to do with the information we had given

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them

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8.

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at about 0.530 east controller

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richie reported seeing 10 targets in the

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vicinity counted

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seven or eight in scattered positions

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which indicated a very rapid movement

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and if they were the same one seen near

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adw this report was forwarded to both

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adw and mfs

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15 that mfs advised that they had

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determined

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that none of the information we had been

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giving to a dw was

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mfs advised however that they were

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following up

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with their own

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[Music]

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at 5407 targets