Air traffic controller Hany G. Barnes tracked some of the UFOs thai were reported over Washington� D.C., in 1 952. The air force blamed the sighdngs on cemperacure inversions.
Washington a week later, on
explanation or dismissed the
july 26. At I 0:30 that evening,
incidents as a sort of mass hal
the air traffic radar at National
lucination. If the la tter was
Airport again picked up blips.
true, the masses remained
There were five or six objects,
highly hallucinatory, for the
which seemed to be moving
UFO reports continued. Early
s o u t h . O n c e m o r e , H a rry
in 1 953 the air force and the
Barnes checked with the An
Central Intelligence Age ncy
drews tower in Maryland; the
were worried that the reports
controllers there also had un
could prove dangerous to na
known targets showing on
tional security. The CIA was
their scopes. And the pilots of
concerned that the Soviets
departing and arriving airlin
might use a wave of UFO re
ers radioed reports of strange
ports as a cover for an aerial
sightings
attack on the U.S. or deliber
near
At I I : 0 0
the
airport.
P. M . ,
Barnes
ately confuse the U . S . into
called the Pentagon, which responded with no more alacrity
thinking that flights of bombers were merely more of those
Washington. Again, the UFOs instantly disappeared from the
the UFO craze could undermine public confidence in the U.S.
radar screens. After ten minutes of fruitless search, the in
military. Thus it became high-level policy to convince the
terceptors headed home. Back came the UFOs. At 3:20
country that UFOs simply did not exist.
than before. At I I :25, a pair of F-94s came howling over
funny little men from Mars. At the very least, argued the CIA,
A.M.,
with the UFOs constantly on radar, the air force sent in an
With the air force's blessing, the CIA formed a panel of
other pair of F-94s. But now the UFOs remained visible on the
five noted scientists otherwise not involved with UFOs.
screens, and one of the jet fighters reported a visual sighting
Chaired by H. P. Robertson, a physics and weapons expert at
of four lights. At one point, the pilot radioed that the lights
the prestigious California Institute of Technology, the group
were surrounding his plane. What should he do? he asked the
included Nobel laureate Luis Alvarez, who had played a ma
ground controllers. Before the controllers could respond, the
jor role in developing the atomic bomb, and Samuel Goud
lights sped away.
smit, an associate of Albert Einstein with numerous theoret ical advances to his own credit.
Next morning, the Pentagon was inundated with que ries. Even President Harry Truman asked an aide to find out
The Robertson panel assembled in Washington on
what in the world -or out of it- was going on. Finally, on july
january I 4, I 953. Over a three-day period, it was given
29, Major General john A. Samford, director of air force in
seventy-five UFO reports. The scientists studied eight in close
telligence, held a press conference. He told reporters he was
detail, took a general look at fifteen, and viewed two color
convinced that all the sightings over Washington in the past
film clips that showed maneuvering lights in the sky. All told,
two weeks had been caused by temperature inversions. The
the panel spent twelve hours considering UFO phenomena.
general said that outside scientists would be asked to exam
To some, that did not seem like a great deal of time, yet it was
ine the reports more closely -but there is no evidence that
enough for the panel to firmly conclude that UFOs posed no
such a panel was ever assembled.
physical risk to national security, but "continued emphasis on the reporting of these phenomena does result in a threat. "
The news media by and large accepted the air force's 55