Somewhere in the Skies - The 1952 UFO Invasion: Then and Now

Episode Date: October 4, 2021

On episode 233 of SOMEWHERE IN THE SKIES, we are revisiting one of the most interesting and prolific years in UFO history: 1952. UFOs were being sighted all over the United States, with a concerning wave occurring above Washington D.C, specifically over the nation's Capitol building. Jets were scrambled to try to identify these luminous objects to no avail. Meanwhile, strange saucers and discs were being reported on the other side of the country in California in great numbers. But one of the most underreported events happened to Captain John Harter and his B-29 Bomber crew off the Gulf of Mexico in December of that year. Captured on radar and visually, he and several other pilots and officers would report a swarm of UFOs surrounding their aircraft, with some sort of massive mothership seemingly watching from above. This incident, and several others of 1952 and 1953, would be documented and investigated by Project Blue Book, and also by independent researcher and former Marine Corps Naval Aviator, Major Donald Keyhoe. We explore these dramatic close encounters and near misses that military aircraft had with these strange objects, how the U.S Government handled the situation, and how it all may be changing as we head in to a new decade of military and governmental acknowledgement and disclosures of UFOs, somewhere in our skies. This episode was co-written and co-researched by Marcus Lowth. It was inspired by his article, The Mothership-Rendezvous Over The Gulf Of Mexico – The B-29 UFO Incident. Read the original article at: www.ufoinsight.com Patreon: www.patreon.com/somewhereskies Website: www.somewhereintheskies.com YouTube Channel: CLICK HERE Official Store: CLICK HERE Somewhere in the Skies Coffee! https://bit.ly/3mIAq2o Order Ryan’s book in paperback, ebook, or audiobook by CLICKING HERE Twitter: @SomewhereSkies Instagram: @SomewhereSkiesPod Somewhere in the Skies Subreddit: www.reddit.com/r/SomewhereSkiesPod/ Watch Mysteries Decoded for free at www.CWseed.com Episode edited by Jane Palomera Moore Opening Theme Song, "Ephemeral Reign" by Per Kiilstofte SOMEWHERE IN THE SKIES is part of the eOne podcast network. To learn more, CLICK HERE Copyright © 2021 Ryan Sprague. All rights reserved. Copyright Disclaimer: Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/somewhere-in-the-skies. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lots of places can expose you to identity theft. Oh, no. That's why LifeLock monitors hundreds of millions of data points a second for threats to your identity, which is way more than anyone can do on their own. If we find anything suspicious, like new loans or changes to your financial accounts, we alert you right away all through text, phone, email, or the LifeLock app. Get the alerts that could make all the difference. Save up to 40% your first year at LifeLock.com slash special offer.

Terms apply. I am here to discuss the so-called flying saucers. The Air Force interest in this problem has been due to our feeling of an obligation to identify and analyze to the best of our ability, anything in the air that may have the possibility of threat or menace to the United States. In pursuit of this obligation since 1947, we have received and analyzed between one and two thousand reports that have come to us from all kinds of sources. Of this great mass of reports, we have been able adequately to explain the great bulk of them, explain them to our own satisfaction.

However, there have been a certain percentage of this volume of reports that have been made by credible observers of relatively incredible things. It is this group of observations that we now are attempting to resolve. We have, as a date, come to only one firm conclusion with respect to this remaining percentage. and that is that it does not contain any pattern of purpose or of consistency that we can relate to any conceivable threat to the United States. The voice you just heard was that of Major General John A. Sanford of the Army Air Force, speaking from the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. on July 29, 1952. The press conference taking place was in response to a wave of UFO reports

from across the east coast, primarily in Washington, D.C. Hundreds of reports came in of strange lights being spotted across the district, some even being spotted directly over the nation's capital. These lights and objects were detected on radar, and jets were even scrambled to try to investigate, but no solid conclusions were ever made on just exactly what had occurred. Meanwhile, on the West Coast in California, Reports of silver discs flying through the skies in broad daylight were being made across the state.

Again, no explanations were given for the varied and persistent sightings. And while the United States government may have calmed public nerves on the threats of these UFOs, it certainly wasn't calming the nerves of Captain John A. Harder and his crew on a B-29 Super Fortress bomber. a few months later over the Gulf of Mexico, nor would it calm the nerves of those involved in countless other military encounters that year. This is the story of the B-29 bomber and the UFO invasion of 1952. Then and now. This is somewhere in the skies with Ryan Spread.

Of December 6, 1952 at 524 a.m., Captain John Harder was piloting his B-29 bomber over the Gulf of Mexico, back to Randolph Air Force Base in Texas. Harder had radioed his radar operator, Lieutenant Sid Coleman, and asked him to get a check on the coastline on the auxiliary scope in the cockpit. As Coleman was doing this, he suddenly noticed an unknown blip on the radar screen. Only a moment later, the object had moved to approximately 13 miles. As Coleman watched, a rising sense of concern began to form inside of him. The unknown object was seemingly headed straight for their plane. He then noticed that their paths were separating. At this point, Coleman reached for his stopwatch and shouted for the assistant radar operator,

Master Sergeant Bailey, to help him track the unknown craft. With the stopwatch, Coleman quickly, calculated that the object was moving at a staggering 5,200 miles per hour. He reached for the intercom and spoke to Captain Harder, stating, quote, Captain, check your scope. We just clocked an unknown at over 5,000 miles per hour, end quote. Harder dismissed the reading as, quote, impossible, ordering Coleman to recalibrate the set. Coleman did as he was ordered. However, a moment later, Bailey exclaimed that, another two blips had just shown on the radar. A moment after that, another assistant radar operator, Staff Sergeant Ferris confirmed the sighting, stating that he had them on his scope as well.

Coleman finished the recalibration and returned his focus to the screen. There were now four separate objects, all of which were heading straight toward them. Suddenly, Harder's voice came over the Intercom. Harder would say that he had four unknowns at 12 o'clock. He then asked Coleman what he could see on his screen. He responded that the objects were on all three scopes. Coleman would state that he now had an unknown at his three o'clock. Sergeant Bailey witnessed this approach, having left his station momentarily to peer through a side window of the plane. In the dark sky of early morning, he could clearly see a glowing blue object streak past the plane at unbelievable speeds. The object was nothing but a blur to Bailey due to the incredible speeds, and eventually the object disappeared

under the wing of their aircraft. Almost as soon as the craft had vanished into the dark, another set of blips appeared on the radar screens, and once more they were moving over 5,000 miles per hour. Of more concern, however, was the fact that they were coming right at the plane from straight ahead. The operators quickly calculated the objects would indeed

miss the plane. But any deviation from this route or the bombers would almost certainly result in a head-on collision. At approximately 5.31 a.m., the objects appeared to have vanished for good.

Several of the crew members led out a eye of relief. But that sense of relief would be short-lived. It was a little after 532 a.m. when another group of objects appeared on the radar screens. Pulling the crew back into action, Coleman once more worked out their speed as being the same as the previous objects. The next thing they knew, two objects were streaking past them on the right side. This time, Ferris took the opportunity to look out into the sky. witnessing two blue-white blurs speed past. While this was taking place in the cockpit,

Harder was carefully monitoring the auxiliary scope. He could see a group of five objects, approximately 40 miles behind the B-29 bomber. They were clearly following them and looking to cut across their path. Then he noticed them change slightly, heading straight for the plane again. At the current speed,

they would be on them in under three seconds. As he was about to react, though, the blips suddenly slowed down to a speed that matched that of the bomber. And for the next ten seconds, they remained behind them, keeping pace with the plane. Then things turned even stranger.

The objects suddenly moved to the side of the plane, once more at great speed. At the same time, a monstrous blip appeared on the radar screen. As the crew watched, the five objects race towards the larger object, still at over 5,000 miles per hour, and then seemed to merge with what appeared to be a mothership of some sort. Once all the objects appeared to be attached, the larger object moved across the radar screens at an alarming speed. And then, in an instant, the mothership was gone. After a few moments, Coleman's startled voice came over the intercom.

He would declare that the large object was moving at a speed of over 9,000 miles per hour. Although there were no more appearances from the glowing disc-shaped objects, the crew remained on full alert until they landed at Randolph Air Force Base a short time later. By the time they arrived in Texas, following on from Hartford, Partly radioing the base of their experience, intelligence officers were already waiting for them. Each of the crew members were questioned repeatedly by these officers, both separately and then together. However, their accounts remained exactly the same each time. Noted UFO researcher Donald Kehoe had looked extensively into this case.

In his personal report, he would state that it was clear that, quote, these discs had been launched from a huge mothership for some type of reconnaissance mission, end quote. He would go on to speculate how the mothership and the discs could have, quote, covered parts of the United States, end quote. However, he would also point out that given the discs and the mothership's tremendous speed, they, quote, could have been operating anywhere over the world. He would also state that it was likely pure coincidence that the rendezvous point, point happened to be the Gulf of Mexico, where the B-29 was flying. Furthermore, it was likely that one

unit, or batch of disks, had gone to observe or track the plane. Kehoe would also point to the radar readings, combined with visual sighting, that all but confirmed the incident as genuine and credible. But even more incredible was that a similar incident had occurred only 48 hours prior to the B-29 event. According to an official Project Blue Book report on the evening of December 4th, Lieutenant Robert Arnold was piloting a T-28 Trojan aircraft from Laredo Air Force Base in Texas. After an extensive training exercise, he began his journey back to the base. While waiting for permission to land from the control tower,

he circled the base for almost 45 minutes during a 3rd. very heavy traffic time period. It was as he was asking ground control how much longer it would be, that Arnold noticed a strong, bluish light in the distance, moving with considerable speed. From his position, the glowing object appeared to be approximately two miles southeast of the airbase and around 4,000 feet below Arnold's altitude. At first, he thought the light must be an approaching jet. However, as it got closer, he realized it wasn't a jet at all. Though it was very bright, he could somewhat make out an elliptical shape within the light. The object continued moving in a southeasternly direction as Arnold steered his plane in order to keep it in view.

Suddenly, the object rose in an instant to the same altitude as Arnold, before embarking on what appeared to be a circling of the air base. When it reached the north side of the base, the object suddenly dropped to an altitude of around 2,000 feet. It would move out over the city of Laredo before climbing to unbelievable speed, according to Arnold, of approximately 15,000 feet in altitude. The object remained at this altitude for several moments, before dropping once again to the same altitude as Arnold. Then it headed straight at him. Arnold noticed that the object appeared to waver slightly, as if, quote, determining on which side of my craft it wanted to pass by, end quote. The next thing Arnold knew, the object was passing within 50 yards of the left wing of his plane.

He noted that as it passed, he could see a, quote, blurred, reddish, bluish, bluish haze, end quote. The Blue Book report states that things, quote, happened so rapidly that, Lieutenant Arnold was unable to take any evasive action. He turned his plane once more in order to keep the craft in sight. And once more, he noticed that the object was accelerating to a high altitude of around 15,000 feet. Then, the object began to descend once more, only this time it appeared as though it was looking to approach Arnold's plane head on. Arnold would turn off his running lights and drop to an altitude of a little bit of a little bit of. around 1,500 feet.

He managed to keep the object in his sights while doing so, and notice that it had seemingly given up the chase and was instead heading out of sight at extremely rapid pace. In total, the object remained in sight of Arnold for around seven minutes. By 9.05 p.m., Arnold finally landed at Laredo Air Force Base. He would immediately report the incident to his superiors and was then told to never speak of the incident again. As 1952 ended, it only seemed to bring out more UFO sightings in the beginning of 1953. On January 6th, a little after 1 a.m. just outside of Dallas, Texas, multiple reports were received of a strange light moving in the night sky. Shortly after 1 a.m., a report came in from a resident of Paris, Texas, who claimed that he had, quote, chased an object with his car for 30 minutes, end quote.

Several other witnesses would report that a, quote, arrow-shaped object with a green, blue light at what appeared to be the front end, a red light that changed orange underneath. According to the Air Intelligence Information Report in the Project Blue Book files, several of these reports conflicted with each other. In terms of the direction of the object and where it was moving and its estimated altitude, What's more, Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma would also report that they had had an unidentified object on the radar around 30 miles southwest of Paris, Texas. they would estimate that the object was moving at just short of 700 miles per hour and was flying at an altitude of about 7,500 feet. The object remained on their screens for around 30 minutes before simply fading away. Because of the different directions of the objects, one on radar and one witnessed visually,

it was determined that there must have been at least two strange objects over Texas that night. And when we recall the claims of the, quote, mothership sending out scouter-type vehicles, we might also consider the possibility that this might have been the same case. Investigations into these reports showed that there were no planned flights in the region that evening. Furthermore, when the local police were contacted, they revealed not only had they received multiple calls that evening of the strange glowing object, but that several of their officers on patrol duty, also spotted it and reported it to the dispatcher. The same was stated by the local fire department who claimed that the radio dispatcher and several firemen witnessed the object overhead. Another witness

claimed to have seen the object, quote, floating in the sky as he looked out of the window of City Hall. A pilot with almost three decades of experience in aviation at the control tower of Love Field, who also witnessed it, claimed that he, quote, should know a plane. He, quote, should know a plane or a star by now, and this was neither. Perhaps one of the best sightings, though, came from a meteorologist at the Dallas weather station who would view the object through a six-power telescope. He would state that, quote, the object was elongated, and it was vertical, standing on end, and it had a definite impression of dimension.

At first, it changed color rapidly from white to blue and then red to green. Later, it remained white with a red spot on the underside, end quote. Of course, this detailed description viewed through a telescope, no less, matched many of those that had come from the general public. Interestingly, the meteorologist also stated there was a possibility, in his opinion, that, quote, this could be a mothership for smaller saucers traveling in our orbit, end quote. Three days later on the evening of January 9th, another sighting of a glowing object was observed, this time further west in California. Just before 7.30 p.m., the crew of another B-29 bomber over Santa Ana witnessed a, quote, V formation of blue-white lights approach their plane.

They matched the plane's altitude for a few moments before fading away again into the night. According to the pilot, Lieutenant Lowell D. Brandt's statement, it was co-pilot Lieutenant Charles Loveless who had drawn his attention to the lights. The official report states that the lights, quote, approach the aircraft with such rapid speed of closure that Brandt started to turn to the left. As he did so, it appeared the lights were holding their position before they suddenly rose slightly and disappeared in what seemed to be an instant, end quote. In total, the lights were in sight for no more than five seconds.

Brandt and Loveless reported they heard no sound whatsoever from the mysterious objects. The weather at the time of the incident was clear, and each pilot was certain what they had seen was not a reflecting illusion. Records show that there was no other aircraft in the area at the time of the sighting. There were also, however, no other witnesses from the ground, who might have observed them a mysterious object, and there were no reports of the strange object from the many control towers, military, and civilian in the region.

Around three weeks later, another intriguing sighting occurred on the other side of the United States. Just before 10 a.m. on the morning of January 29th, the pilots of an F-94 jet witnessed a, quote, gray-oval UFO over Presque Isle in Maine. According to the report, the pilot, Lieutenant Fred Goating, would witness the object first and would quickly alert his radar observer, Lieutenant Howard Kelly. The F-94 was flying in an altitude of around 23,000 feet, with a bizarre object slightly above them.

In his official statement, Kelly would offer that Goating had to, quote, point it out repeatedly before he finally saw the object. He would describe the object as being, quote, thin and unresolved. oval and gray in color, elaborating further that it was well-defined and dull colored, and that it was not shiny or luminous. He would continue that there was, quote, no visible means of propulsion, nor any smoke or contrails, end quote. Goating would echo these descriptions, describing the object as clearly oval and thin-shaped. He would also, like his co-pilot, claim that the object, quote, did not shine or give off any light.

end quote. Goating began to give chase to the oval-shaped craft in an attempt to intercept it. However, after several minutes of doing so, covering a distance of around 40 miles, low fuel levels would force him to break off from the chase and return to base. According to the Air Force Intelligence Information Report, two other unnamed pilots also witnessed the strange aircraft. Project Blue Book investigators would state that the object was most likely, likely the planet Venus. In this, despite the time of the sighting and the detailed description

from Goading and Kelly, it was a conclusion that many rejected. There were several other incidents in the opening weeks of February of 1953 as well. On February 1st at around 930 p.m. over Tara Hot, Indiana, the pilot of a T-33 military plane witnessed a strange moving light that was quote, changing color from red to blue to green to yellow, end quote. The pilot would estimate that the light's altitude varied from about 15,000 feet to 30,000 feet, and appeared to fly, quote, in a manner similar to conventional aircraft. What's more, search lights from the St. Louis region appeared to pick up the moving light several times. Later investigations would reveal that there were several aircraft in the Terre Haute airspace

at the time of this incident, both commercial and military. Whether these terrestrial aircraft might have been the moving lights or not is still uncertain, meaning that the sightings are essentially still unexplained. Around the same time as these incidents in the U.S., similar sightings were occurring all over the world as well. At around 11 a.m. on the morning of February 6th, a United States Air Force officer in charge of the Weather Bureau station near the former Truck A. Tall Islands reported seeing a shiny bullet-shaped object moving at a speed of around 150 miles per hour, and at an altitude of around 500 feet.

He would further estimate that the object was approximately 3 to 4 miles from his location and was slightly larger than a C-47 aircraft. However, the object had no noticeable wings or tail section, and appeared to be made of a highly polished metal as it shined brilliantly in the morning sky. Despite the witness clearly stating he could not make out any wings or tail section, not to mention how fantastically it shone.

The military investigation claimed that Guam flight records showed that a C-47 was in the region at approximately the same time as the sighting, elaborating that the quote bright sun could very well have distorted the normal features of the plane. But, just like the rest of the sightings, this was never truly explained. The following day on February 7th, a little after 9.20 p.m. in Okinawa, Japan, the crew of an F-94 Starfire, witnessed a bright orange object that changed color from red to green several

times, until changing color to white with occasional red and green flashes, before finally glowing a steady, uninterrupted white. In the Air Intelligence Information Report, the radar at a control tower over 160 miles away also registered an unidentified object, but only very briefly. After one sweep, the object had disappeared from the monitor. The pilot continued to view the object, both with a naked eye and with binoculars. The crew, however, all of whom witnessed a strange object, were undecided on certain details of the sighting. Some, for example, claimed the object was, quote, whirring while hovering, while others thought it was motionless. Although the sighting is unexplained, the investigation would suggest it could have been a weather balloon, as many

had been released from multiple global weather stations at this time. Four nights later, on February 11th, the crew of an Air Force C-119 aircraft, traveling between Tunis to Tripoli, witnessed a strange object that began following their aircraft at just before 9 p.m. According to the since-declassified report, the object appeared very bright with a halo of diffused light surrounding it. The crew noticed that. the strange glowing object off their right wing, and appeared to follow them for just short of an hour before it began to descend. Although two of the crew members were not certain what the object was,

the remaining four believed it was something out of the ordinary. But according to the Project Blue Book investigation, the sighting was most likely attributed to Venus. Two days later, at 2.35 a.m. on February 13th, back in the United States, The pilots and crew of a B-36 aircraft over Carswell Air Force Base at Fort Worth, Texas, witnessed three strange lights approaching their aircraft. With clear and calm weather at the time of the sighting, the details of the objects were very detailed indeed.

Each glowed white with the same intensity, and each had a blue-green light in the middle. When they first appeared, they were, quote, stacked in vertical echelon, approximately 500 feet apart. As the crew watched them, they noticed how one of the lights suddenly accelerated toward them

before coming to a complete stop. The remaining two lights did the same moments later. The lights continued to move around in a controlled manner before moving away at great speed, climbing vertically and disappearing out of sight. In total, the glowing objects remained in sight for around 15 minutes before disappearing.

Much like the other sightings during this period between the end of 1952, in the start of 1953, this incident remains unexplained. So given all of these cases between these two years with military aircraft, what we know for certain is that multiple trained pilots witness something very strange that, for the most part, could not be explained. What's up, guys, Ryan dropping in to wish you all of very happy Halloween season. And what better way to celebrate than with Jim Harold's Campfire podcast? With over 500 episodes of Campfire, you'll hear stories that will bend your reality and leave you truly spooked.

The concept is pretty simple. Jim talks to regular folks about strange stuff that happens to them. And yes, that includes UFOs and UAPs, along the concept. with cryptids, and of course, ghosts. Now, not all the stories are horrifying. Some are pretty heartwarming, like a visit from a past loved one or a peaceful near-death experience.

Regardless, they are true and fascinating stories, as told by ordinary people who've had extraordinary experiences. So, pull up a log and tune in to Jim Harold's Campfire. On Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to somewhere in the skies. And remember, stay spooky.

We should perhaps at this point remind ourselves of the desire of those at the top of Project Blue Book to attempt to undermine the sightings they were investigating. This was no more telling than when Project Blue Book spokesperson for the Air Force, Lieutenant Colonel Lawrence J. Tacker, and Project Blue Book director, Major Hector Quentinia, were interviewed in 1966 under the auspices of the Department of Defense. Major Quintanella, what's the record so far? Today we have over 10,000 cases of Wright- Patterson Air Force case, of which 646 of these remain in the benefit.

That's not to say that we could not have identified more cases if we had gotten to the observing quickly and checked the local aircraft. The Air Force has been accused in time of time. hiding information about UFO. What do you have to say to that kind of happen? Police charges are absolutely untrue. Actually, the United States Air Force releases statistics on the UFO phenomena through the Department of Defense Press Desk periodically. And we've always honored accredited media when they want to investigate a given specific sighting. There's nothing to hide at all. Is there anything in the files,

either classified or unclassified, that would indicate that there may be extra terrestrial visitors over there. First of all, the project is completely unclassified. And there's nothing in the records that you can indicate that we have been visited by any advanced civilization. How does the Air Force look upon people who make reports of UFO? Do they look on them as qualified observers? Yes, they do look on them as qualified observers. Actually, most people who report a UFO sighting are patriotic citizens who have been mystified by

something that they've seen and through a patriotic sense reported to the local law enforcement officials or to the United States Air Force base near that. Well how about the tracking and detected facilities that the Air Force itself how does this work? Well actually to begin with the United States Air Force is charged by an act of Congress with the Air Defense of the United States and the North American Air Defense Command and the Air Defense Command have space tracking facilities which are constantly on the alert 24 hours a day. We're interested in anything that flies in our atmosphere. Well, how about UFO reports in other countries? How are they

happening? The UFO is actually a curl worldwide. However, the United States is the only country in the world that places as much emphasis on the phenomenon. Other countries place a burden of proof on the observer and not on the airport. That would make your job a lot easier if they did that here. Yes, it would. As quoted earlier, UFO researcher and former Marine Corps naval aviator, Major Donald Kehoe, had a rather tumultuous relationship with the United States Air Force when it came to their stance and handling of the UFO issue. After looking heavily into the many close calls with UFOs that military aviators had, Kehoe would state the following when interviewed by noted American journalist Mike Wallace, in 1958.

Major Kehoe, first of all, let me ask you this. Most people in the United States, in spite of the fact that I say that millions do believe, I think you will agree that most people in the United States don't believe in flying saucers from outer space. They probably hold the view of columnist Bob Considine, who wrote that flying saucers are products of, for the most part, quote, pranksters, half-wits, pranks, publicity hounds, fanatics in general and school balls, end quote. How do you feel about Mr. Considine's charge?

Well, I know where he got the story. He got it from Colonel Watson out at the Air Technical Intelligence Center in Dayton. In fact, the colonel went even a little farther, and he said behind every sighting was an idiot, a crackpot, a religious fanatic. That included a lot of high-ranking Air Force pilots, incidentally, and many airline captains, people who were qualified to see these things. But he's just following on an Air Force policy. Well, now, you're not suggesting that Bob,

Considine is in the pay of the Air Force. He's an independent newsman with a considerable reputation. I mean the Colonel. No, I have every respect for Bob Considine. In spite of the fact that he suggests that pranksters half-wits and screwballs are responsible for the stories about flying saucers. Well, I wish I could show him any time a list of about 800 witnesses, some of the big names in aviation, including up to the rank of Colonel in the Air Force. They're still flying and they're still carrying passengers. They've never been grounded. They're guiding airliners in, the radar men are, night after night and bad weather. If there's screwballs and incompetence, why are they still on the job? During the last 10 years, what we call

the modern phase, there have been sightings before then. There have been some accidents. Air Force pilots chasing these things. Captain Mantel was killed chasing one in 48, and two pilots disappeared chasing one in 53 over Lake Superior. But the Air Force has said time and time again, This is a quote from Richard Horner, Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Research and Development. All but a small percentage of these reports of unidentified flying objects have been definitely attributed to natural phenomena that are neither mysterious nor dire, end quote. Weather balloons, mirages, ordinary sky phenomena like meteors, airplanes themselves. What about that?

In 1952, there was an intelligence analysis of the maneuvers of these. things, as seen by radar, triangulation, radar photographs, and in 53, the Central Intelligence Agency and the Air Force had a special panel of scientists meet at the Pentagon to tell him what to do. And after they got through, this group said, you don't have proof that these things exist, not scientific proof, but you have a very strong circumstantial case. We suggest your quadruple investigation, set up special observation post, and in the meantime, release everything you've got the American people.

It's quite clear that throughout the entire run of the United States Air Force projects, Stein, Grudge, and Blue Book, that some good work was done in investigating UFO incidents, which had military involvement. But it was even more clear that much of the work carried out was to calm public nerves when it came to the potential threat aspect of the UFO phenomenon. And this was no more apparent than when noted astronomer and consultant for Project Bluebook, J. Ellen Heineck, would go on the record stating his dismay with the way in which the United States Air Force

handled the UFO situation, especially when the Condon report was finally presented to the public in 1968. This report in the committee that came to its conclusions was funded by the United States Air Force from 1966 to 1968 at the University of Colorado to study UFOs under the direction of physicist Edward Condon. It comprised the case files from the Air Force's Project Blue Book, National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena, aerial phenomena research organization, and investigating settings reported during the project. Here is what Heinek had to say about how it was handled in an interview with television host and mentalist Kreskin in 1972. I was a scientific consultant of the Air Force for 20 years. In fact, I got into it as because I was an astronomer.

The Air Force needed an astronomer to weed out the meteors, the twinkling stars, and things like that. And we found that about 30 percent could be explained that way. And another 50 percent or so could be explained as aircraft, balloons, and so forth. But there was this hardcore residue of 15 to 20 percent that just couldn't be explained. I think some of us who followed this whole phenomena became interested in the Condon report. which is how many years ago that it reached a fruition or did it reach a climate it was issued in 1969 it seems more recent yeah what was what was the conclusion what's your feeling about that well my feeling is that the Condon report was a

travesty on science yeah it just simply was inside them the method of methods used in fact Dr. Condon didn't investigate one case he didn't no personally you never investigated a single case and yet they came they they came out negative but you don't feel like present in a fair picture well actually if you read the report from cover to cover and that's difficult because it's 947 pages sounds like the warren commission yeah you'll realize that there's a very real problem there because the condon committee was unable to explain one quarter of the cases that were submitted that they studied i'm curious and i think everyone is now thinking the obvious question how did they handle that in

their report the ones they couldn't explain well very nicely very nicely very Drightly, here's the word. Dr. Condon wrote this the summary and completely neglected the contents of the report. Whether it's dramatic UFO encounters of B-29 bombers in the Gulf of Mexico or the countless other sightings reported by trained observers and aviators, the skies have been plagued with close calls, close encounters, and near misses, with phenomena that refuse to adhere to our known physics, our known technology, and our known airspace. From the very beginning of the modern UFO era, the United States government has attempted to find answers while also ignoring or flat out denying those answers as well.

It's a vicious cycle that began at the very onset of the US government's involvement in the UFO issue. As both Donald Kehoe and J. Allen Heineck pointed out, these incidents persist with alarming continuation, but are constantly downplayed by the U.S. government. But something seems to have changed in the past few years, and even more so in the past few months and weeks, as at the release of this episode.

On June 25, 2021, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence released a preliminary assessment on UFOs or UAP, unidentified aerial phenomena. This was done by the UAP-THAI-TRAP. task force as requested by an act of Congress in 2020. This task force established within the Department of Defense and the Office of Naval Intelligence would look into UAP reports by military witnesses. While the assessment didn't share much in terms of detailed case reports, it did show

that out of 144 cases reported by military witnesses and captured on cameras, radar, and various other sensor platforms, only one case could be readily explained. One case. On page six of the assessment, it stated that the UAP Task Force had, quote, 11 reports of documented instances in which pilots reported near misses with a UAP, end quote. So were these near misses, as compared to those from 1952 onward, with foreign adversaries, top secret American tech that the pilots weren't privy to? The Pentagon assessment certainly didn't think so. Here's former A-Tip director Luis Elizondo on this very issue in an interview with The Washington Post. Bottom line is up until very recently, there are really only three possibilities of what this could be.

And the first possibility is that it is some sort of secret U.S. tech that somehow we have managed to keep secret even from ourselves for a long period of time. The second option is that it's some sort of foreign adversarial technology that has somehow managed to technologically leapfrog ahead of our country, despite having a fairly robust and comprehensive intelligence apparatus. And of course, the third option is something quite entirely different. It's a different paradigm completely. Now, as of this week, we now know through some of the discussions at senior level leadership that this report has definitively stated once and for all that it's not our technology.

And that's hugely important. For 30 years, there has always been this undercurrent, if you will, these conspiracies, that there was some sort of TR3B program and some sort of super special technology that has been implemented, and we've just been very careless about it. And I think that argument was finally put to bed this week. So that really only leaves two other options. And that's, again, it's foreign adversarial or it's something quite different. And I think we're now beginning to live.

learn, as we've heard from the Director of National Intelligence, and I can certainly tell you from my experience, that we're pretty confident that it's not Russian or Chinese technology. So it would appear our military and governmental bodies here in the United States are no closer to truly understanding what these UFOs are or aren't in our skies. It isn't ours. It is in another country or nation. So what is it? Obviously, there is no one single explanation.

and it would appear that like a snowflake, every UFO seems to be different, whether by design or by perception and interpretation of the observer. But the fact of the matter is this. While projects have come and gone like sign, grudge, and arguably Blue Book, and even A-Tip, it would appear that the U.S. government is attempting through the passage of several bills by the Senate Intelligence Committee and the Armed Services Committee, in relation to the 2022 National Defense Authorization Act

to once and for all establish a permanent office to study UFOs. This story was simultaneously broken by researcher Dean Johnson and also by investigative journalist for debrief media, Tim McMillan. Here is Tim giving his thoughts on this new development in an interview with the unidentified celebrity review. The one that was recently coming out is the Armed Services Committee bill. Now, this one was a bit different and pretty surprising.

This is the one that would go into the National Defense Act, which is the big bill. They spent trillions of dollars. But what it did is it set legislation in place that would create a formal office. So no longer we have a UAP task force. And in fact, the bill says upon creation of the office, the UAP task force would be terminated and you would have a permanent office. Now, it probably seems silly. You're like, well, obviously the task force has to work out of an office. Like, I don't understand. What does this really mean? But in the highly bureaucratic, ridiculous world of the U.S. government, what this does is it does

create the framework for having a permanent structure now. So the task force was always temporary. And you've probably seen, I know we've reported on it. I know some other outlets, I think have mentioned it that you've had different leadership kind of shuffle around in the task force you know it's a fluid that's because they're temporary structures somebody can ask to be a part of it uh even when somebody asked to be a part of it they can be removed because they have another job formally so in essence what would happen is if this bill passes you will have a formal office now so now it is a permanent structure this is where you don't have this revolving door of employees you have people who are actually designated. This is going to be their job. It's very much, in a way, I guess you could

liken it to Blue Book because, you know, that's probably people recognize the most. And honestly, if it passes, it will be the first time since 1968, the U.S. government, or 69, that the U.S. government has a official, formal UFO office. So it's a fairly big deal. So as we wait to see if this bill or any other bills are passed, and if a permanent UAP office is established, we also wait for the inevitable. The day that one of these UAP doesn't just have a close call, but a full-on collision with an aircraft. Christopher Plain, head science writer for debrief media, was able to report on a very interesting panel that took place online recently. In an article at the debrief, Plains stated that, quote,

on August 6th, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, held a UAP-related safety session as part of their annual conference. The six-member panel featured three scientists, including one from NASA, a European Space Agency project director, the Director of Science for the National Aviation Reporting Center on anomalous phenomena, and one former U.S. Navy pilot. That pilot was Lieutenant Ryan Graves. Graves claimed that he and fellow pilots flying in restricted airspace southeast of Virginia Beach, Virginia,

observed UFOs every day for at least a couple of years. In fact, two of the now-famous Navy UFO videos leaked to the New York Times and subsequently released by the Department of Defense were captured by members of Graves Squadron in 2015. Graves had also witnessed several UFOs himself and explained in this interview for the History Channel series Unidentified about the mysterious nature of these objects he and his squadron had encountered. When we talked about the visual contact, when it buzzed by, it was very likely that that was stationary. And, you know, we actually buzzed by it because I didn't know it was there. So it was likely stationary at that time. And it basically split our section when they were in Tack Wing.

so it wasn't like it was trying to merge with us or was making high speed pass or anything like that it was most likely stationary we just didn't know it was there or this was at a time where we weren't even sure if they were real or not essentially just kind of flew into it when i say it was following us i don't mean individual aircraft i mean wherever we were they were there so that could mean two things that could mean they were already there or they were following the strike group but they weren't following individual aircrafts And of course, at this point, we're like, okay, well, clearly there's nothing that we're used to seeing out there. We submitted a safety report and saying that there was an unidentified object in our working space, and we don't know what to do. After the panel concluded at the AIA conference, Graves was chosen to summarize what needed to be done when it came to both military and commercial flights in relation to near misses with strange objects and how the issue should be handled when it comes to.

to FAA protocol in reporting UFOs. What needs to happen here isn't something where, you know, we can look to you and tell you what needs to be done. You know, this is going to require a lot of different specialties from tactical aviation to physics. And so, you know, we need everyone's help on this and we need to do in a way that is transparent because at the end of the day, like I said, very pragmatically, we're flying around objects out there that hundreds of miles an hour with people's families on board. It's just a matter

of time, frankly. I'm surprised it hasn't happened already. The fact that we're talking about stigma still in a time when people are having near misses is disturbing. So we need to make sure that the military is already underway in this process, but we need to ensure civilian aircrew feel comfortable submitting aviation safe reports related to UAP without fear of retribution, creating a standardized FAA UIP reporting protocol that is pushed out and that air crew are trained to in order to ensure that we are receiving accurate data from the civilian aviation community. According to the Federal Aviation Administration, approximately 45,000 flights take place on a daily basis in the United States alone, multiplying that by literally every other

country and continent, both military, commercial, and private flights, it is statistically only a matter of time before something truly disastrous happens with one of these UAP. The object or phenomena itself may not even be the actual threat, but the response or reaction by a pilot or military branch could be just as dangerous. From the early days of the foo fighter phenomena reported by Allied aircraft pilots during World War II through the 50s and decades to follow, even up until the past few years with sightings by the likes of Ryan Graves and many other pilots, it's clear that whatever these UAP or UFOs are or aren't, they remain just as elusive as they always have been, both to the public and obviously to our military pilots and ground witnesses as well. Either way, it seems that the UFO researchers of yesteryear and the current advocates for government transparency on the UAP issue may finally be getting a small, of an important piece of their wish coming true, an age where it becomes increasingly harder to keep the lid on secrets once kept. And as we continue to head into an uncertain future in relation to UFOs, it may be worth wondering that perhaps we're not. aren't on our own timetable when it comes to understanding these phenomena. Perhaps we are and always have been on the timetable of the phenomena itself. And only then will we get any answers, whether we like those answers or not.

This episode was co-researched and co-written by Marcus Loth. It was originally published in article form at UFOinsight.com under the title The Mothership Rendezvous over the Gull of Mexico, the B-29 UFO incident. You can read the full article at UFOinsight.com. You can follow Marcus on Twitter at Marcus Loth. You can follow us on Twitter at SomewhereSkies and Instagram at SomewhereSkies pod. If you haven't already, please take just a moment to rate and review Somewhere in the Skies on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It helps us gain visibility and find new listeners.

Thank you in advance. Special thanks to Tim McMillan at the Deep Brief and Luis Jimenez at the Unidentified Celebrity Review. Thanks as always to the E1 Podcast Network and especially to you for listening. I'll see you here next week and remember keep your feet on the ground but never stop searching. Somewhere in the Skies. Somewhere in the Skies is produced by Third Kind Productions in association with the Entertainment One Podcast Network.