Directory A Marine Corps fighter pilot, alerted by a Navy signal tower at Norfolk, Va., chased a silver object which had been sighted from the ground over an area near the Virginia-North Carolina border. After cruising in his F9F Panther for half an hour without seeing anything unusual, 1st Lt. Ed Balocco was returning to his base. "Over Washington, North Carolina," he said, "I saw what looked like an airplane with red lights which appeared below me. I was cruising at about 20,000 feet. What caused me to look back at the object was the fact that it moved from below me 10,000 feet vertically in a matter of seconds." He turned and chased the object at better than 500 mph., but was unable to gain on it. Balocco estimated the UFO was about 10 miles from him during the 3-4 minute chase. At that distance, he said, it appeared about 1/4" wide and about 3" long. "The object was the color of white heat and it threw out a red glow behind it. It had two red lights on the left hand side, bounding and flashing off the end, encircling an arc." The Marine officer said he seemed to gain on the object for a time, but it then dropped from his altitude and disappeared toward the coast. Another pilot involved in the search, Capt. Thomas W. Riggs, reported he sighted an object flying low near the Carolina coast, but couldn't identify it. [13] Associated Press, February 12, 1953
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