UFO. United States

New York, New York, TIMES, 29 July 1952, page 23

Air Force Explains 2-Hour Delay In Chasing 'Objects' Over Capital

WASHINGTON, July 28 (AP) - The Air Force said tonight the current series of "flying saucer" reports had brought no change in its twenty-four-hour-a-day program to challenge any unidentified and potentially hostile object in the skies over the United States.

Unidentified objects were spotted on radar screens at the Washington National Airport this week-end, as they had been last Monday.

Reports of the sightings reached the Air Force, and jet fighter-interceptor planes made a search of the Washington area. One pilot reported seeing "lights" that he had not been able to overtake.

An Air Force official tonight said its Air Defense Command had been ready for many months to challenge any unknown object aloft.

Air Force interceptors and pilots started the continuous watch on a limited basis before the start of fighting in Korea, the official noted. At the outset the watch was confined to the areas over key targets. Later, after the hostilities in Korea increased the threat of an all-out war and as morefast-climbing jets became available, the Air Force gradually extended the watch across the northern and the coastal sectors of the nation. The continuous state of readiness now extends to the air space above all areas of the country that contain vital military or industrial installations.

Jet interceptors were sent aloft during the week-end after the radar maintained by the Civil Aeronautics Administration near the Washington National Airport showed objects on its screen that should not have been there.

Actually the jet interceptors did not take off from their base near Newcastle, Del., until nearly two hours after the radar watcher at Washington first had seen the unexplained objects on his radar screen.

The Air Force explained today that the delay occurred when the report was sent to an Air Force flight center at Middletown, Pa., instead of through the Air Force command post in the Pentagon.

Air Force officers happened to visit the radar post at the National Airport Saturday night and learned about the mysterious spots on the radar screen. These officers telephoned the command post and the jets took the air at Newcastle within five minutes.

Despite the renewed flurry of excitement about the unidentified objects, the Air Force maintained its stand that it still did not know whether any such thing as a "saucer" existed. For several years Air Force technical and intelligence experts have methodically studied and filed away all "flying saucer" reports that have been passed on to them.

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'Objects Seen Over Tarrytown
Special to THE NEW YORK TIMES

TARRYTOWN, N. Y., July 28 - Streaks of light, reportedly similar to those spotted over Washington twice within the last week, were sighted in the sky above this Hudson River village shortly before midnight last night. Eastern Air Defense Force officials are investigating.

The flashes were reported to the Defense Force Filter Center in White Plains by Joseph Pulsoni, post supervisor, and two ground force observers at a spotters' post atop an apartment house here. The report was relayed to an area radar station, according to Maj. F. B. Johnson, commanding the filter center.