50th Anniversary Of DC 'Flying Saucer Invasion'

[Anonymous]

some recent articles/news re the 'invasion' of Fyling Saucers over Washington in 1952-

"Alien Armada"
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A31625-2002Jul19
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"UFO reported in area again after 50 years"
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20020807-25283248.htm
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New sighting mentioned in 'times' report
http://wtopnews.com/news/newsdetail.cfm?newsid=584517
8/28/02 radio report

What was that bright light in Maryland's sky???

WTOP has learned that residents near Andrews Air Force base were shaken from their beds early Friday morning by some strange activity in the air.

"Incredible. Absolutely incredible" is what Renny Rogers of Waldorf calls it. Just before two in the morning, Rogers says he saw a large blue ball of light streaking across the sky. But it was the military jets that really startled him.

"(The jets) were right on its tail. As the thing would move, a jet was right behind it," Rogers recalls.

He is not the only one who saw it. Several people called WTOP Radio reporting seeing a bright blue or orange ball moving very fast, being chased by jets.

Rogers says there was no smoke coming from the object, no flashing lights, and says it was smooth, and eerily silent.

The Air National Guard confirms they scrambled the 113th squadron. Spokesman Sheldon Smith says they are investigating and in contact with NORAD.

WTOP Radio, 2002
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‘52 DC UFOs/City Paper,DC/DEC 14-20
Dan Gilgoff- 12 page printout
washingtoncitypaper.com

CIA briefings after the 'fact'
"A fair proportion of our population is mentally conditioned to the acceptance of the incredible. In this fact lies the potential for the touching-off of mass hysteria and panic...”
The Robertson Panel's final report only underlined the CIA's national security concerns. "The continued emphasis on the reporting of [UFOs] does, in these perilous times, result in a threat to the orderly function of the protective organs of the body politic," it reads. "We cite as examples the clogging of channels of communication by irrelevant reports, the danger of being led by continued false alarms to ignore real indications of hostile action, and the cultivation of a morbid national psychology in which skillful hostile propaganda could induce hysterical behavior and harmful distrust of duly constituted authority."
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http://www.nicap.dabsol.co.uk/twelve.htm
the 'complete' story by Captain Ruppelt ( original head of Project Blue Book) can be read on-line/Chapter 12 of his "Report on ...."// "The Washington Merry Go Round"
this is a great book on UFOs/from 1956-

 

[naitaka]

I hate to see the 50th anniversary of something that happened the year I was born...

...but maybe this would be a good time for a re-investigation of the 'Washington Attack'.

People might have been too hasty in putting this one into the 'Solved: Temperature Inversions' file. Some meteorologists believed that the temperature differential on the nights in question wasn't enough to produce the effects observed, and the objects were seen on some nights but not on others with similar weather conditions. Several radar contacts were visually confirmed by pilots, and one target was seen simultaneously by three overlapping radars. Air traffic controllers were convinced they were seeing solid, metallic objects.

 

[EnolaGaia]

The first two links in post #1 are dead, and the news items aren't archived in the Wayback Machine.

This new item from the New York Times provides a summary retrospective on the 1952 Washington DC incident(s) and credits the event as the jumping-off point for the flying saucer mania of the 1950's.

A Radar Blip, a Flash of Light: How U.F.O.s ‘Exploded’ Into Public View
In the early morning of July 20, 1952, Capt. S.C. “Casey” Pierman was ready for takeoff at Washington National Airport, when a bright light skimmed the horizon and disappeared. He did not think much of it until he was airborne, bound for Detroit, and an air traffic controller told him two or three unidentified flying objects were spotted on radar traveling at high speed.

The controller told Captain Pierman to follow them, the pilot told government investigators at the time. Captain Pierman agreed, and headed northwest over West Virginia where he saw as many as seven bluish-white lights that looked “like falling stars without tails,” according to a newspaper report.

The sighting of whatever-they-were garnered headlines around the world. And in the decades since, U.F.O.s have become part of the pop culture zeitgeist ...

FULL STORY: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/03/science/UFO-sightings-USA.html

 

[EnolaGaia]

There was a pretty detailed account of the 1952 Washington incident(s) published in the December 14-20, 2001, edition of the Washington City Paper. It was entitled 'Saucers Full of Secrets'.

That article was linked from the FT website back then, but the FT-quoted link is dead. The City Paper is still operating, the article is lengthy, and it's copyrighted material. The City Paper site doesn't contain any archived edition of the article.

Here's a link to the full article at the Wayback Machine:

https://web.archive.org/web/2002020...per.com:80/archives/cover/2001/cover1214.html