As Press Chief for the U.S. Air Force in 1952, Albert M. Chop was a direct participant in the famous July 1952 radar-visual UFO sightings around Washington, D.C. Chop attended the University of Dayton for two years, and was a newsman for the Dayton Daily News and the Associated Press from 1937-1943. During World War II he served as a combat correspondent with the U.S. Marine Corps (which might account for his cooperative relationship with Maj. Donald E. Keyhoe, USMC Ret.) After several years in public relations and advertising copywriting, Chop became Press Chief for the Air Materiel Command in Dayton, Ohio, in 1951. He was transferred to the Department of Defense in Washington, D.C. in 1952 where he served as Press Chief and was public spokesman for the Air Force UFO project. From 1953 to 1962 he was a public relations representative for Douglas Aircraft Company. He then became Deputy of Public Affairs for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) from 1962 until 1975. For two years after that he was employed by the Atomic Energy Commission in a management position. Chop was involved in providing information and writing for the 1956 Greene-Rouse Productions documentary film UFO, which included the 1950 Montana film taken by Nick Mariana and the 1952 Utah film by Delbert C. Newhouse. The documentary also recreated the Washington sightings and other important cases, providing new, inside information to the public. Chop gave an oral history to the Sign Historical Group in November 1999 in which he talks about his relationship with Donald Keyhoe, whose dedicated and persistent interest resulted in his obtaining the good information that he did on Air Force cases. He (Chop) also describes being present at Washington National Airport on the night in July 1952 watching on radar and hearing the communications when an Air Force F-94 pilot reported being surrounded by UFOs. (This incident is reconstructed in the movie UFO.) He quotes the pilot as saying, "They're closing in on me! What shall I do?" Chop: "There was dead silence in the radar room; no one knew what to say. I don't mind telling you this, it scared me! It was frightening! And I think everybody in the room was very apprehensive. They had to be intelligently controlled." His experience that night convinced him that UFOs probably were from another planet.