Somewhere in the Skies - Bite-Sized UFOs | The Atomic UFO Incident

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Starting point is 00:00:46 The truth is ours. It's just so beautiful. On Pluto TV, free streaming of Terminator 2, Fringe Arrow, the 100 N-EX files may cause excitement, loss of sleep, and sudden belief in extraterrestrials. No credit cards or alien encounters necessary. Pluto TV, stream now, pay never. Welcome to bite-sized UFOs, a show where we break down lesser-known UFO cases in 20 minutes or less.

Starting point is 00:01:10 And now here's your host, Graham Rendell. Welcome to Episode 7 of Bite-Sized UFOs. I'm Graeme Rendell, author of UFOs Before Roswell and other books about pilot and aircrew sightings during the 1940s and 1950s. In this installment, let's look at a series of events that took place over a top-secret, highly sensitive facility in Tennessee, during October 1950. Reports of UFOs in proximity to atomic or nuclear facilities, whether civilian or military, have been part of the phenomenon since early 1945, when strange objects were seen in the sky near the Hanford plant in Washington State.

Starting point is 00:01:50 But this addition of bite-sized UFOs deals with events that occurred within the protected zone around Oak Ridge, Tennessee. A UFO had already been reported over the facility as early as June in 1949, but a more alarming set of sightings took place in mid-October 1950. Just what was so important about the facility at Oak Ridge. Chosen in 1942 is a production site for materials related to the Manhattan Project, the development of the first atomic bombs. By the end of World War II, Oak Ridge was effectively a town of over 70,000 people, complete with schools, supermarkets and theatres. Production of enriched uranium took place there, as did research into medical isotopes, and by 1950, there was also teaching and reactor safety. In 1947, the site came under the authority of the United States Atomic Energy Commission,

Starting point is 00:02:39 and it was covered by restricted airspace to prevent prying eyes. FBI interest in the Oak Ridge sightings was summed up in a confidential memo dated 18 October 1950. It read as follows. Radar detection of unidentified objects over Oak Ridge, October 12, 15, 16, 1950. protection of vital installations. There is being submitted here with a copy of two reports made by district representatives of the Office of Special Investigations, 8th District, US Air Force, with regard to the detection of unidentified objects by the means of radar as set forth in reference teletype. These reports continue to set forth additional

Starting point is 00:03:25 reports concerning unidentified objects in the airspace, area above Oak Ridge, Tennessee, which to date have not been explained. No investigation is being conducted by the Knoxville office in this matter, but any further information received from OSI or from Counterintelligence Corps representatives will be forwarded immediately. At around 2325 hours local time on 12 October 1950, the radar station at McGee Tyson Airport, Knoxville, Tennessee, picked up no less than 11 objects over the Oak Ridge restricted area.

Starting point is 00:04:03 They were heading south at a between 100 and 125 miles per hour, between 1,000 and 5,000 feet and were tracked for some 35 miles. Estimates of the size of the contacts varied from light liaison-type aircraft to transports such as a C-47 Dakota. Captain W.J. Akin, the radar station controller on duty that evening, put in a call to request the scramble of a an all-weather interceptor aircraft to investigate the contacts. An F-82 twin Mustang from the 52nd Fighter Interceptor group was airborne at 2339 hours,

Starting point is 00:04:39 14 minutes after the initial radar contact. Aiken vected Lieutenant Wolfe, the pilot of the twin Mustang, onto two separate radar targets at distances of 1 and 8 miles respectively. Despite the aircraft apparently intercepting the targets, at least according to the radar plot, the The pilot saw nothing, both visually and on his airborne intercept site. The F82 returned to its base at 014 hours, having been aloft for 35 minutes. Ground security patrols at Oak Ridge were alerted but nothing was seen. However, at 0.100 hours, more contacts appeared on the radar, but no interception was requested. Checks with local airfields and the flight service centres at Atlanta and Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama, came back negative.

Starting point is 00:05:27 On the morning of the 16th, the security division at Oak Ridge informed special agent William Price from the 8th District Office of Special Investigations, that visual sightings of a UFO had been made by several people in the facility. Accompanied by an agent from the Counterintelligence Corps, Price traveled to Oak Ridge and interviewed Trooper Reiner, who had been on security duty at the Solway entrance the previous afternoon. A civilian worker from the University of Tennessee research farmer at Oak Ridge, John Moneymaker, had drawn his attention to a bullet-shaped object in the sky, something at an estimated altitude of 12,000 to 15,000 feet, travelling slowly at around 100 miles an hour. Reiner entered his guard post to report the sighting, and when he came back outside to confer with Moneymaker,

Starting point is 00:06:14 he realised that the object had descended to mere feet above the ground and was only 70 yards away from them. It looked like a small piece of card with a ribbon-like tail or similar structure attached to it. This tail was almost transparent in places and rippling. Rainer moved towards it to get a better look, but as he approached, it suddenly moved, crossing a highway, rising to clear a nine-foot-high fence and then dipping down again before climbing once more to clear a 30-foot-high willow tree. It then sped off towards a ridge line in the distance and disappeared over it.

Starting point is 00:06:51 Special Agent Price accompanied Reiner to his guardpost to check out distances and directions. Mr. Moneymaker was also brought to the scene to be interviewed. He disclosed that when Reiner went to report the sighting, the object had initially descended to around 1,300 feet and that it looked pear-shaped. A second pear-shaped object appeared next to the first before disappearing. The first then took on the card shape that both witnesses subsequently reported. The object reappeared briefly above the first. ridge line before disappearing for good. At the radar station Captain Akin had also picked up peculiar readings on his scope at about the same time. These were blips that appeared,

Starting point is 00:07:34 disappeared and then reappeared at a different location. A further report of UFOs followed on the afternoon of the 16th the same day that the OSI and CIC agents visited Oak Ridge. Special Agent Price was informed about an incident that occurred at the Blair Gate at a around 1455 hours. According to the official incident report, a trip at Isabelle had stopped two colleagues to show them a strange object which appeared round or ball-shaped, was rotating quickly in a counter-clockwise fashion, and was moving slowly towards the northwest. It disappeared soon after it was cited. Isabel had also reported seeing a silver-white sphere flying over the K-25 area nearly 90 minutes earlier. K-25 was a gaseous diffusion plant that made enriched uranium for atomic bombs,

Starting point is 00:08:26 and it was therefore a hugely important high-security facility at Oak Ridge. A report regarding the UFO sightings was telephoned to the local security headquarters. Meanwhile, at McGee Tyson Airport, the radar post was picking up a strange contact which intermittently appeared over the area. Once again, an F-82 twin Mustang was scrambled, but the pilot reached Oak Ridge around 15 minutes after the object finally disappeared. That same evening, security guards at Oak Ridge reported hearing loud noises, which they couldn't identify or locate the source of. On the 20th, something that appeared to be a balloon that had lost its basket, was spotted by a security chief at Oak Ridge. On the same afternoon, about an hour earlier, Lieutenant Wolfe was airborne again in his F-82 twin Mustang, being vected towards unknown radar contacts picked up by the radar station at McGee Tyson. No visual contact was made. A further scramble occurred on the 24th when radar contacts were spotted over the southeastern corner of the Oak Ridge restricted area.

Starting point is 00:09:34 No contact was made on this occasion as well. Press reports told of another sighting at Oak Ridge on the 12th. a mysterious object that had appeared over the K-25 area late that evening. It was described as round, as big as a four-roomed house, silver, and had a dome-shaped blister on top. It rose about 100 feet in a slow manner, moved forward, then rose about the same height again before heading off into the distance at high speed. October 1950 saw lots of reports of UFOs in and around the Oak Ridge restricted area,

Starting point is 00:10:05 but despite Air Force, FBI and counterintelligence calls involved, no explanations were ever forthcoming. And that's it for this seventh installment of bite-sized UFOs. Remember, bite-sized UFOs? It's all about the facts. This has been bite-sized UFOs with your host, Graham Rendell. Be sure to rate and review wherever you get your podcasts. For a full video version of this episode, subscribe to the bite-sized UFOs YouTube channel. Thank you for listening.

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Somewhere in the Skies - Bite-Sized UFOs | The Atomic UFO Incident

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