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so I found this in the newspaper and I

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thought it was really good because for

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all the research that I've put into the

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DC sightings and everything somehow I

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missed this story and it's a first

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person account from the actual CAA which

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is now the FAA but the CAA radar

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operator who had a few years of

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experience

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so I took this story from the Buffalo

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News July 31st 1952 how CAA radar in

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Washington spotted mysterious objects

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saucers moved Helter Skelter

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the controller said I don't know what

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they are it says radar men of saucer CAA

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controller who watched Pips which were

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the blips the things that show up on the

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radar screen for hours declares they're

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not natural phenomena Harry G Barnes who

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wrote this eyewitness account

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of this month's first appearance of

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flying saucers over Washington has been

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working on radar traffic control for

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over five years

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shortly after at midnight on July 19th

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Ed Nugent called me over to the radar

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scope and laughingly said

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here's a fleet of flank saucers for you

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as it turns out now Ed could very well

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have been stating in absolute fact I'm a

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senior air Route traffic controller for

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civil Aeronautics Administration and was

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in charge of the air Route traffic

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control center that particular night at

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Washington's national airport

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briefly part of our job is to constantly

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monitor the skies around the nation's

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capital with the electronic eye of radar

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for purposes of controlling air traffic

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our shift had been on duty about 40

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minutes eight men were on this

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particular ship it was a normal night

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for both flying and weather the sky was

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cloudless no storms were approaching

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air traffic was light as usual for that

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period

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I think those facts are important in

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connection with what came later

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the things which caused Ed to call me

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over to the scope were seven Pips

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clustered irregularly in one corner the

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scope is 24 inches in diameter and the

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Pips show up at a pale Violet spots

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ordinarily they represent aircraft in

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the air the radar we were using skins a

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70-mile radius

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the seven Pips indicated that the

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objects or whatever they were were in

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the air over an area about nine miles in

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diameter 15 miles South Southwest of

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Washington we knew immediately that a

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very strange situation existed

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first from all the information we had at

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hand we knew that the spots were not

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aircraft at least not friendly aircraft

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that left three possibilities enemy

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aircraft some unexplained flying objects

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there's something wrong with the radar

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we tracked the seven Pips for about five

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minutes and quickly determined that they

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were moving between 100 and 130 miles

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per hour while we could observe them

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but their movements were completely

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radical compared to those of ordinary

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aircraft

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they followed no set course were not in

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any formation and we only seem to be

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able to track them for about three miles

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at a time

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the individual pip would seem to

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disappear from the scope at intervals

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later I realized that if these objects

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had made any sudden burst of extremely

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high speed that would account for them

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disappearing from the scope temporarily

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a radar is only designed to track known

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types of aircraft or objects in the air

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at speeds known to all of us after five

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minutes of watching The Strange Pips I

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asked Jim Copeland and Jim Ritchie to

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experience radar controllers to check

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our observations they confirmed our

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findings then I called the airport

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control tower to see what the radar

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showed there the radar operator verified

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the same thing instantly

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at this time I notified the air force of

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our observation this is a regular

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procedure but some parts of it are

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secret and I am not at Liberty to

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explain it in detail

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but we kept the Air Force informed of

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subsequent observations which continued

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for approximately the next six hours

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until after daylight when we could no

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longer distinguish the objects from

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other aircraft

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an early Sunday morning is an especially

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busy time for both private flying and

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Military Reserve flight before notifying

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the air force of our findings our

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technicians had carefully checked the

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equipment to make certain that it was

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operating perfectly

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these are the most important events

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during the first hour of the objects had

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moved over all sectors of our slope that

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meant that they had been over the

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restricted areas of Washington including

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[Music]

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at the first opportunity Mr Richie

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contacted Capital airline pilot Captain

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Pearman a veteran of 17 years of flying

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shortly after taking off Mr Richie ASCAP

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to Pyramid to look for the objects we

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were watching on scope he agreed to do

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this

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all of a sudden his voice came over the

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radio which we could all hear with the

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words there's one

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and there it goes He described it as

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just a bright light moving faster than a

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shooting star at times

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his subsequent descriptions of the

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movements of the object coincided with

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the position of our Pips at all times

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while in our range

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during the next 14 minutes he reported

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that he saw six such lights

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he said they had no tail no recognizable

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shape and were just bright lights in the

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dark sky each sighting coincided with a

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pip

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we could see near his plane when he

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reported that the light streaked off at

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high speed it disappeared on her scope

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for the apparent reason I cited

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while he was giving us reports of his

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sightings he was on a course from

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Herndon Virginia to Martinsburg West

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Virginia

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some of the other Pilots we contacted

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reported that they were unable to see

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the objects I had the distinct feeling

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that some of them were just unwilling to

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discuss the subject over the radio

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however one other commercial pilot did

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flatly confirm seeing a light off his

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left wing which we saw as a pip on the

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scope

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he was coming in for his landing and the

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tower scope reported the same radar

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sighting the light disappeared on our

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scope and from his view about four miles

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during the whole period of observation

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we could detect no pattern to the

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movement of these objects however they

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did seem to become most active around

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the planes we saw on the scope

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we did not see the Pips in any

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recognizable formation at any time

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the radar we were using does not show

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altitude and is faintly possible

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that the objects could have been in a

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vertical formation without a recognizing

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it

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at one time toward Daybreak we counted

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10 objects over Andrew's field just

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outside of Washington we cited seven

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originally most of the time we could

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count eight of them

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the only recognizable Behavior pattern

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which occurred to me from watching the

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Pips was that they acted like a bunch of

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it was Helter Skelter

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as if directed by some innate curiosity

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at times they moved as a group or

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cluster other times as individuals over

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widely scattered areas

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other than some information in

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connection with our Communications with

192
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the Air Force which is classified the

193
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above is a complete factual description

194
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of the important events which took place

195
00:08:00,230 --> 00:07:58,020
during those six hours these facts I

196
00:08:02,650 --> 00:08:00,240
have set forth in my official report to

197
00:08:05,029 --> 00:08:02,660
CAA

198
00:08:08,210 --> 00:08:05,039
speaking personally

199
00:08:09,950 --> 00:08:08,220
and not officially for CAA

200
00:08:12,170 --> 00:08:09,960
I would like to make these additional

201
00:08:16,490 --> 00:08:12,180
comments

202
00:08:19,010 --> 00:08:16,500
radar is strictly an Electronics device

203
00:08:21,890 --> 00:08:19,020
it has no imagination

204
00:08:25,189 --> 00:08:21,900
it reports only what it sees

205
00:08:28,790 --> 00:08:25,199
equipment was imperfect operating order

206
00:08:33,829 --> 00:08:31,730
there is no other conclusion I can reach

207
00:08:35,709 --> 00:08:33,839
but then for six hours on the morning of

208
00:08:38,149 --> 00:08:35,719
July 20 there were at least 10

209
00:08:39,469 --> 00:08:38,159
unidentifiable objects moving above

210
00:08:42,529 --> 00:08:39,479
Washington

211
00:08:44,810 --> 00:08:42,539
they were not ordinary aircraft

212
00:08:46,190 --> 00:08:44,820
I could tell that by their movement on

213
00:08:48,769 --> 00:08:46,200
the scope

214
00:08:51,470 --> 00:08:48,779
I can safely deduce that they performed

215
00:08:53,329 --> 00:08:51,480
at gyrations which no known aircraft

216
00:08:55,190 --> 00:08:53,339
could perform

217
00:08:57,290 --> 00:08:55,200
by this

218
00:09:00,110 --> 00:08:57,300
I mean that our scope showed that they

219
00:09:03,530 --> 00:09:00,120
could make right angled turns and

220
00:09:05,630 --> 00:09:03,540
complete reversals of flight

221
00:09:07,810 --> 00:09:05,640
nor in my opinion could any natural

222
00:09:10,070 --> 00:09:07,820
phenomena such as shooting stars

223
00:09:12,530 --> 00:09:10,080
electrical disturbances or clouds

224
00:09:15,530 --> 00:09:12,540
account for these spots on our radar

225
00:09:18,769 --> 00:09:15,540
exactly what they are I don't know