Page 33 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - Late January 2019

Project Blue Book TV Show Review 33

Project Blue Book

TV Show Reviewed

Continued from Page 32

After the initial peel off, I realized the speed of
the object was too great to catch in a straight
chase, so I proceeded to cut it off in turns. At this
time my fighter was under full power. My speed
varying between 300 and 400. The object circled
to the left, I cut back to the right for a head-on
pass. The pass was made at apparently 5000
feet, the object approaching head-on until a
collision seemed inevitable. The object veered
and passed apparently 500 feet or less over the
top above me. I chandelled [a flight maneuver]
around still without the object in sight. The
object made a 180 degree turn and initiated a
pass at me. This time I watched it approach all
the way as it started to pull up, I pulled up
abruptly trying to ram the object until straight
up with me following at apparently 14,000 feet,
I stalled out at 14,000 feet with the object
apparently 2000 feet above me circling to the
left. We made two circles to the left. The object
then pulled out away from me and made another
head-on pass. At this time the pass started and
the object broke off a large distance from me
heading over Hector Airport to the northwest at
apparently 11,000 feet. I gave a chase circling to
the left trying to cut it off until I was 25 miles
southeast of Fargo. I was at 14,000 feet, the
object at 11,000 when I again gave the aircraft noticed the 51, and when we were over the North Though some knowledgeable students of the
full power… to catch it in a diving turn. The side of Hector Field going West a light UFO phenomenon… have rejected such an
object turned around and made another head-on seemingly on a plane flared above and to the explanation for this famous sighting, unlike
pass. This time when pulling up, I pulled up also North moving very swiftly toward the West. At some Air Force would-be solutions this one
and observed it traveling straight up until I lost first we thought it was the 51 but we then saw seems plausible, particularly in the light of the
it. I then returned to the field and landed. the lights of the 51 higher and more over the failure of ground witnesses to confirm the
field. We landed… and then went up to the tower extraordinary performance Gorman ascribed to
Although the program suggested that Gorman and listened to the calls from the 51 which the object he was pursuing After the Mantell
had fired on the object and that his aircraft had seemed to be trying to overtake the plane or incident [in which another Air Guard pilot was
been damaged by it, there is nothing in the Blue lighted object which then went southward and killed chasing what turned out to be a balloon],
Book files to corroborate that. This is artistic over the city. The plane was moving very swiftly, the Gorman sighting may be the most overrated
license, I suppose, but it is important to note that much faster than the 51. Tried to get a better UFO report in the early history of the
this was an aspect added to the story. view with a pair of binoculars but couldn’t phenomenon.
follow it well enough…
Gorman did say, “I am convinced that there was I will note here that Clark is more liberal than I
definite thought behind its maneuvers.” He In the tower, L. D. Jensen, said that he had seen when it comes to UFO sightings and
added: the object or light at about 1000 feet in the explanations, so his conclusion here carries
northwest, pass rapidly over the field, flying in a extra weight. I agree with him. Gorman
I am further convinced that the object was straight line. He could see no form or shape, somehow tangled with a balloon.
governed by the laws of inertia because its even through binoculars, and he could not see
acceleration was rapid but not immediate and the maneuvers of either the F-51 or the object. There is one final point and that concerns the
although it was able to turn fairly tight at over reaction of the pilot in, dare I say it, the
considerable speed, it still followed a natural Officers from Project Sign, the forerunner of pilot of Project Blue Book. There is no evidence
curve. When I attempted to turn with the object I Blue Book, arrived from Ohio and interviewed Gorman was completely freaked out over the
blacked out temporarily due to excessive all the witnesses. Eventually, after an encounter. True, he had trouble landing the
speed… I do not believe thee are many pilots investigation that included testing Gorman’s aircraft, but that was the reaction of the
who could withstand the turn and speed effected aircraft for radiation [which might have had encounter. It was not a long-term problem. He
by the object, and remain conscious. more to do with the altitude and cosmic remained in the Air Guard and retired as a
radiation rather than alien spacecraft], they lieutenant colonel in 1969.
There were other witnesses, though they didn’t concluded that Gorman had engaged in a
support all of the statements made by Gorman. dogfight with a balloon. Dr. Donald Menzel
One of those was Dr. Cannon and he provided a believed that Jupiter had a role in the dogfight as Col. Kevin Randle (Ret.) host of “A Different
statement for Air Force investigators. It said: well. The official answer in the Blue Book files Perspective” can be heard daily, at different
is balloon. times on The ‘X’ Zone Broadcast Network,
I was flying and Nielson was using the phone www.xzbn.net and for all past episodes of “A
and while circling the Football Field at the A.C. Jerry Clark, who is one of the historians of the Different Perspective” go to the RSS feed
at 1600 feet, the Fargo tower advised us there UFO field, and who might be THE historian of https://www.spreaker.com/show/2069421/epis
was a [F]-51 in the air and a few moments later the field, wrote in his UFO Encyclopedia: odes/feed
asked who the third plane might be. We had