Col. William A Matheny
Col Matheny was the CO of the 34th Air Defense Division in Albuquerque. He later became a Brig. General. He was firmly convinced that the UFO’s were real and that they were interplanetary space ships. He wrote up a plan, Project Pounce, that called for a special squadron of stripped down F-94C’s to chase the UFO’s. The plan went through Western Air Defense Headquarters and to Air Defense Command Headquarters but it was rejected because of the non-availability of the aircraft. It was in the 34th that the F-86 pilot claimed that he had shot at the a UFO, in the disturbing incident Ruppelt wrote about in the beginning of his book, which evidently occurred in September of 1952, according to Brad Sparks' research. Joel Carpenter: "In the spring of 1952 there was proposal by Col Matheny of Kirtland's Air Defense Command 34th Air Defense Division - to modify Lockheed F-94C Starfire interceptors with cameras to get closeup photos of UFOs. They were to be put on 24/7 alert (POUNCE). I would think Kirtland would have been the logical place."
Col Matheny was the CO of the 34th Air Defense Division in Albuquerque. He later became a Brig. General. He was firmly convinced that the UFO’s were real and that they were interplanetary space ships. He wrote up a plan, Project Pounce, that called for a special squadron of stripped down F-94C’s to chase the UFO’s. The plan went through Western Air Defense Headquarters and to Air Defense Command Headquarters but it was rejected because of the non-availability of the aircraft. It was in the 34th that the F-86 pilot claimed that he had shot at the a UFO, in the disturbing incident Ruppelt wrote about in the beginning of his book, which evidently occurred in September of 1952, according to Brad Sparks' research. Joel Carpenter: "In the spring of 1952 there was proposal by Col Matheny of Kirtland's Air Defense Command 34th Air Defense Division - to modify Lockheed F-94C Starfire interceptors with cameras to get closeup photos of UFOs. They were to be put on 24/7 alert (POUNCE). I would think Kirtland would have been the logical place."