The Nuclear Connection
Project
presents
The
Oak
Ridge Sightings
including
all the Tennessee Blue Book Unknowns
"Y-12"
Area
at Oak Ridge, TN
Updated: September 22,
2005:
The evidence for a UFO/Nuclear Connection grows stronger by the
day. Official FBI, CIA, Army and Air Force documents establish,
beyond a doubt, that UFOs have been seen and reported where
uranium was mined and plutonium was manufactured (
the Congo, New
Mexico,
The Oak
Ridge, Tennessee,
the Hanford Plant at Washington, the Savannah River facility at
South Carolina). Official reports are on file of UFOs seen where
bomb development took place (
Los Alamos, Sandia Base)
and where nuclear weapons were stored (
New Mexico: Los
Alamos,Manzano Mountain near Kirtland, NM, and
Texas: Killeen Base ant
Camp Hood).
This is the third part of that story, the Oak Ridge and Tennesse
Sightings, which we produced to include all the known cases and
provided links to the full report directories and official
supporting documents. The matrix for this chronology is based on a
paper
NCP-14: Saucers Over Oak
Ridge by one of our NCP staff members, Bruce Maccabee.
Where enough information is not available to produce a case
directory, the supporting documents are provided as temporary
directories.
I wish to thank Dan Wilson, one of our staff researchers, for his
fine research into the Blue Book Archives for the supporting
documents in most of these cases. And to Brad Sparks for his
re-evaluation of the Project Blue Book Unknowns which doubled
the number of cases that were unexplained, many of which
occurred in New Mexico and other high-security areas such as Oak
Ridge (TN) and Killeen Base (TX) and were used as a
checklist. Jan Aldrich provided documentation on some cases;
Richard Hall provided the chronologies and basic case lists (UFOE,
UFOE II); and Jean Waskiewicz and I created a set of
useable databases within the NICAP Global Sighting Information
Database) for the total caseload.
Francis
Ridge
Coordinator, Nuclear Connection
Project
September, 1944; Oak Ridge, TN (BBU)
Metal tube hovers over gaseous diffusion plant.
May 7, 1948; Memphis, TN (BBU)
Bray and Kaiser. (McDonald list; FUFOR Index)
June 30, 1948; S. Knoxville, TN (BBU)
Whitehouse. (McDonald list; FUFOR Index)
In January, 1949, Colonel Gasser had reported to the
FBI that two photos of a UFO had been taken near Oak Ridge
in the summer of 1947. That was the first Oak Ridge
sighting.
April 6-7, 1949; Memphis, TN (BBU)
12:01 [12:30?], 2, 3:30, 4 a.m. Housewife Mrs. Mike Love Stewart
and Dorthy [Dorothy?] Hall (and Helen Howell?), a husband and son,
saw 6-9 climbing, diving, whirling yellow or silvery ovalobjects
which avoided 3-4 airplanes, traveling from SW to SE about 45°
elevation about 1-2 miles away, 1/4 moon angular size. (FOIA)
The second occurred at about noon on May 25, 1949. It was a
multiple witness sighting of a strange flat metallic object
passing over the area while making a cracking noise.
The third occurred at 7:00 PM, June 20, 1949. Several
people observed three objects, two rectangular in shape and one
circular, flying over Oak Ridge.
Bruce Maccabee:
...at the end of January,
1950, President Truman announced that work would begin on
the hydrogen bomb. The race for the Super Bomb was
on! (The Soviet Union would win this race in 1953.)
Suddenly spies were being caught everywhere. In February,
Klaus Fuchs was arrested for giving secrets of the atomic bomb
to the Soviets. (Fuch’s spy activities were in large
part the cause of the Soviet Union’s successful detonation of a
fusion bomb in August, 1949.) FBI Director Hoover made a
personal report to President Truman on Fuchs’ capture and
subsequent confession in Britain. A few days later Senator
Joe McCarthy announced that there were over two hundred
Communist Party members working for the Department of State.
Five months later, about the time that the Korean War began,
Harry Gold and David Greenglass were caught and provided
information about a spy ring directed by the Rosenbergs which
had provided atomic secrets to the Soviets during WWII.
All of this espionage activity may have affected the FBI view of
the UFO phenomenon because the Air Force was clearly worried
about the green fireball and disc phenomena seen near the
nuclear installations... could they be related to Communist
subversion?... and because Colonel Gasser had indicated that the
saucers were man-made missiles...but not made by the USA!
March
1,
1950; Knoxville, TN
Radio amateur says he tracked UFOs with radar. For the record,
this often-quoted series of incidents beginning with the one on
March 1st, fails to provide a credible witness or a reliable set
of equipment. It is presented here to set the record straight.
There was no conclusion as to
what, if anything, Adcock had detected. SAC Robey reported
to FBI headquarters that the most impressive thing to him had
been the “lack of any agency actually taking responsibility for
the situation and taking any action to verify or disprove the
threat.” He also pointed out that it was many hours after
the initial detection or “threat” was reported that any action
at all was taken. Evidently Oak Ridge was not as well
protected against a threat of sabotage as the security agencies
had hoped!
March 29 [30?], 1950; Marrowbone
Lake, TN (BBU 682)
7 a.m. Real estate salesmen
Whiteside and Williams saw 6-12 dark objects shaped like 300-lb.
bombs, estimated 5 ft long, flying 500 mph in descent, making a
noise like wind blowing through the trees. (Berliner)
The summer and fall of 1950 was
an important time in the history of UFO phenomena.......there
were important national and international political and
military developments which affected the FBI perception of the
flying saucer problem. The Cold War was hot. The Berlin
Blockade had been successfully overcome, but the Russians had
successfully taken over the satellite countries of East
Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Yugoslavia.
Then, on June 25 North Korea marched about 60,000 men into
South Korea and began the Korean War. Both the Soviet
Union and China were aiding North Korea. The South Korean
Army, not fully prepared, collapsed under the weight of the
attack and two days later President Truman ordered US troops
to South Korea. The next day Seoul fell to the North and
General MacArthur reported that the South Korean army was too
demoralized to mount an effective resistance. Two days after
that Truman ordered U.S. ground forces to Korea. The first
post-WWII war was on!
All this time the FBI was
quietly monitoring the fireball (New Mexico) and saucer
situation. Recall that in late August 1950 agent A. H.
Belmont had written a memorandum to Special Assistant D. M.
Ladd summarizing recent developments regarding green fireballs
and saucers. On October 9 Mr. Ladd wrote a
memorandum for Mr. Hoover providing an update on Project
Twinkle. The memorandum states that “To date the Air Force has
not advised us of any new developments in connection with this
project.” Evidently the Air Force had not told the FBI
about the multiple witness sightings and filming of multiple
objects on August 30 and 31. Mr. Ladd also made an
explicit comparison between saucer sighting reports (referred
to as “complaints”) and the war in Korea, which to this point
had been going reasonably well, since the North Korean army
had not (yet) succeeded in pushing the United Nations and
United States forces into the sea:
"According to Bureau files, an
average of approximately three or four complaints have been
received per month from June through September. These
complaints were brought to the attention of OSI. A
review of Bureau files does not indicate that there has been
any increase in sightings of these phenomena during or as a
result of the war in Korea."
Mr. Hoover was probably glad to see that there were so few
complaints and that there was no apparent connection with the
war. However, there still was the major question of the
origin of the phenomena seen near the vital installations and
the secondary question of just what the Air Force was doing
about it. Mr. Ladd provided the following comments on
these subjects:
“The Bureau has been advised
in the past by OSI that many of the sightings reported to
them were determined by investigation to have been of
weather balloons, falling stars, meteorological phenomena
and other air-borne objects.
"Bureau liaison determined on
the morning of October 9, 1950 from OSI headquarters that
the investigation of these aerial phenoena are being handled
by OSI, Wright Field, Ohio. Their investigation of
these phenomena fails to indicate that the sightings
involved spaceships or missiles from any other planet or
country.
"According to OSI, the
complaints received by them have failed to indicate any
definite pattern of activity. OSI further advised they
are closely following the investigation of the captioned
matters and they will advise this Bureau of any matters of
interest.”
Once again the FBI was told that the Air Force was
sufficiently worried about these phenomena to continue
secretly investigating even though many sightings could be
explained. Since the Air Force was once again
ruling out the interplanetary and “foreign country”
explanations the FBI could only presume that all saucer
sightings resulted from misidentifications, delusions and
hoaxes.
Major General Cabell, Director of AFI, had requested
that AMC reinstate the investigation and analysis at
ATIC. On September 25, 1950 the Bureau received from
Cabell a copy of an intelligence collection memorandum
entitled “Reporting of Information on Unconventional
Aircraft.” This was yet another request to provide
sighting information with the added request that “no publicity
be given this reporting or analysis activity.” The
memorandum to Mr. Ladd, quoted above, reflected this new
activity at ATIC. Once again, in private the Air
Force was contradicting its public stance that saucer
sightings were not worthy of attention. In private the
Air Force and the FBI found out that sightings which were
about to occur at Oak Ridge were worthy of attention...a lot
of attention.
Att 11:25 PM on October 12, a military radar unit at Knoxville
Airport suddenly detected 11, “and possibly more,”
unidentified targets moving over the restricted flight zone at
Oak Ridge. This time action was taken.
(McDonald list) At 11:30, the
radar station commander scrambled an F-82 fighter. It was in the
air nine minutes later. The fighter was vectored toward two
targets and, according to the radar, closed with the targets,
but the pilot saw nothing. Ground observations also failed
to detect anything in the sky. No unusual objects were seen
visually or on radar for the next two days. Then the “dam broke.”
October 13, 1950; Oak Ridge, TN
Cat 2. Sightings by AEC security patrols.
Keeping in mind that these (UFO)
books were coming at a time of “atomic paranoia,” it is not
surprising to see that Hoover took a particular interest in
(Frank) Scully’s book. Ever on the alert for
Communist subversion, on October 13 he sent an urgent teletype
message to SAC, Los Angeles:
FLYING SAUCERS. YOU ARE
INSTRUCTED TO DISCREETLY DETERMINE THROUGH APPROPRIATE SOURCES
OF YOUR OFFICE WHETHER FRANK SCULLY AUTHOR OF THE BOOK QUOTE
BEHIND THE FLYING SAUCERS UNQUOTE IS IDENTICAL TO THE FRANK
SCULLY WHO HAS BEEN ACTIVELY ENGAGED IN COMMUNIST ACTIVITIES
SINCE THE LATE NINETEEN THIRTIES IN THE TERRITORY OF YOUR
OFFICE.
October 15, 1950; Oak Ridge,
TN (BBU 819)
Oct. 15, 1950. Oak Ridge, TN (BBU 819)
3:20 p.m. AESS Trooper Rymer, J. Moneymaker, and Capt.
Zarzecki saw 2 shiny silver objects shaped like bullet
or bladder dive with a smoke trail, one vanished, the other
hovered at 5-6 ft altitude, 50 ft away, left and returned
several times somewhat further away. (Berliner)
At 3:25 PM, an Atomic Energy
Security Patrol Trooper, Edward D. Rymer, and a caretaker,
John Moneymaker, from the University of Tennessee Research
Farm, at Oak Ridge, saw an object at about 12,000 to 15,000
feet above Solway Gate of the "Control Zone." This object
appeared to be an aircraft which was starting to make an
outside loop, trailing smoke behind. Soon these two men
realized that the formerly described smoke behind the aircraft
was a tail. This object continued to descend in a controlled
dive, and when it approached the ground it leveled off and
flew slowly, parallel to the ground. This object came within
two hundred and ten (210) feet of the two observers and was
paralleling the ground at approximately six (6) feet. The
Knoxville radar showed on its screen some strange targets at
the same time as the visual sightings. Again an aircraft was
scrambled and saw nothing. The Project Blue Book master
list shows that ATIC could not explain the visual sighting.
(Hynek UFO Rpt pp. 142-3)
The next day at about 1:30
PM, John Isabell, a security guard of the Oak Ridge Patrol
Force, saw a silver-white spherical object traveling from the
southwest to the northeast and passing over the K-25
restricted area at high altitude. It was white or silvery
and round like a ball.
The second sighting on that day
occurred at “exactly 2:55 PM.” Mr. Isabell and two
other members of the patrol force saw the same round object
approaching from the northeast at a lower altitude and
speed. The object, while spinning about an axis, traveled
in a wide circle toward the southwest and disappeared. In
a couple of minutes it reappeared in the southwest at a
very high altitude and headed northeast at a high rate of
speed. The guard phoned the information on the
sighting immediately to headquarters where radar was picking up
an indistinct target every third or fourth sweep over the K-25
area. An F-82 was scrambled. The ground witnesses
reported that the fighter plane arrived about 15 minutes after
the object had disappeared. (The ATIC sighting analysts
subsequently decided that this object was a balloon in spite of
the decription of spinning amd in spite of the odd flight
path.) Later on, during the evening, some of the security
guards heard strange, loud noises.
That same day, October 16, the CIC agent decided it was time to
review the situation. He wrote a report mentioning the
1947 and 1949 sightings and discussed the recent
sightings. The CIC took these sightings very seriously and
thoroughly checked the backgrounds of the witnesses by using
employment records and FBI reports in order “to ascertain their
reliability, integrity and loyalty to the United States
Government.” The was no reason found to discredit
these witnesses, many of whom were professional security guards.
The CIC and the other security
agencies discussed the situation and attempted to arrive at some
conclusions. The CIC report of these discussions make
amusing reading in view of the concerted attempt later on by
ATIC to explain the sightings any way possible. One gets
the impression from the following document that, when it came to
explaining UFO sightings as mundane phenomena, the security
officials who were involved in the investigations had “been
there, done that” and now they were looking for something new
and convincing to explain these sightings:
“ The opinions of the officials of
the Security Division, AEC, Oak Ridge; Security Branch, NEPA
Division, Oak Ridge; AEC Security Patrol, Oak Ridge; FBI
Knoxville; Air Force Radar and Fighter Squadrons, Knoxville; and
the OSI, Knoxville, Tennessee, fail to evolve an adequate
explanation for OBJECTS SIGHTED OVER OAK RIDGE, however the
possibilities of practical jokers, mass hysteria, balloons of
any description, flights of birds (with or without cobwebs or
other objects attached), falling leaves, insect swarms, peculiar
weather conditions, reflections, flying kites, objects thrown
from the ground, windblown objects, insanity, and many other
natural happenings have been rejected because of the
simultaneous witnessing of the objects with the reported radar
sightings; because of the reliability of the witnesses; because
of the detailed, similar description of the objects seen by
different persons; and because of impossibility.”
“...because of
impossibility”? What was that supposed to mean? It
meant that all the suggested explanations had been rejected
because, in view of the high quality of the witnesses and the
descriptive details, these explanations were
impossible. So, having rejected mundane
explanations, what were these objects? The CIC agent
continued:
"The trend of opinions seem to
follow three patterns of thought. The first is that the
objects are a physical phenomenon which have a scientific
explanation; the second is that the objects are experimental
objects (from an undetermined source) guided by electronics and
the third is similar to the second except that an intended
demoralization or harrassment is involved. The fantastic is
generally rejected.
"These objects have apparently
followed only two patterns. The first is that they
were sighted at the same hour on two consecutive days and the
second is that the time of flight is either to or from the
Northeast and Southwest, which directions (are) parallel the
terrain ridges in the locality.”
The fantastic is generally
rejected?
It is not too surprising that “the
fantastic” would not be in an official report. However, the
fact that it was rejected means that they at least thought about
“the fantastic.” They also showed a healthy degree of
skepticism regarding the ATIC treatment of such sightings because
they questioned the ATIC “identification” of the image in the 1947
photographs as a photographic flaw:
“Attention is invited to the 1947
photograph of a flying object. Atomic Energy Commission
officials advise that the Air Force Laboratory at Wright Field,
Ohio, indicate that the object is a water spot on the
photograph. Because this object does not resemble other
water spots of the photograph and because the object in the
second photograph is following the dim trail left by the first
object, some officials at (the) Atomic Energy Commission
question the veracity of this statement. They also believe
it is significant that the Air Force did not return the negative
of this print.”
These security agencies were quite
correct to be skeptical of the ATIC treatment of these
sightings. The Project Blue Book record shows that the
radar sightings were identified as “radar pecularities,” the
first October 16 sighting was identified as an aircraft and the
second as a balloon (even though the description of the object
was the same for both sightings!). Only the October 15 sighting
discussed above was listed as Unidentified.
Copies of the reports by the CIC
agents were made available to the FBI. When he saw them Hoover
may have wondered if the saucers had now transferred their
activities from the west, where atomic bombs were designed,
built and stored, to Oak Ridge where the uranium isotope U-235
was being extracted for use in atomic bombs and where nuclear
energy was being studied as a possible source for aircraft
propulsive power.
Strange noises were also part of the
phenomena reported. Major Ronniger, a Senior Instructor at
Oak Ridge, reported that at 3 PM on October 15 he heard a sound
like the blast of a jet engine. He and another person
searched the sky for such an aircraft but could find none.
The next day several security guards reported that around 8 PM
they heard what sounded like the blast of a jet several
times. Each time the noise lasted about 3 1/2 seconds.
“The sounds seemed to leave the vicinity making an ascent almost
vertical. None of the guards could see an object in the
sky.”
By October 16 things were already hot at Oak Ridge, but that was
only the beginning.
October 18, 1950; Oak Ridge,
TN
Unidentified radar contacts. Source of this report is unknown.
On the 19th of October, before the
FBI was fully aware of what was taking place at Oak Ridge,
Hoover received from Mr. Ladd more information about Air Force
activities:
“The matter of flying saucers
was discussed by Special Agent .....(name censored)...with
Major General Joseph F. Carroll of OSI on October 16, 1950, at
which time General Carroll advised that insofar as he has been
able to determine the Air Force is not working on any type of
‘flying saucer’ or ‘flying disc.’ General Carroll stated
that the Air Force is working on high altitude rockets and jet
aircraft. He stated these experiments may account for
some of the reports concerning flying saucers but that the air
Force is not apparently working on anything which is the cause
of the many flying saucers reports. He stated that the
Air Force program for investigating reports concerning flying
saucers, etc., has been reinstituted at Wright Field and that
any pertinent information of interest coming to his attention
will be furnished to the Bureau.”
By October 16 things were
already hot at Oak Ridge, but that was only the beginning.
October 20, 1950;
Oak Ridge, TN
At 4:55 PM on October 20,
Larry Riordan, the Superintendent of Security for the X-10
control zone became a witness. While driving to a
residential area he saw an object which he thought at first
was a balloon which had lost its “basket.” It was
generally round, appeared to “come together at the bottom in
wrinkles (rather indistinct and something was hanging
below.” It appeared to be 8 to 10 feet long and
lead or gunmetal colored. It didn’t seem to be moving
but, since he was traveling and only saw it for a number of
seconds, he couldn’t be sure. He was sure it wasn’t a
weather balloon, although he thought it might have been a gas
bag balloon launched by the nearby University of Tennessee
Agricultural Research Farm.. On the same day at 3:27 PM
the radar unit at the Knoxville airport detected radar targets
near the area of Mr. Riordan’s sighting and scrambled a
fighter plane. The pilot searched the area for about an
hour and a half, which included the time of Mr. Riordan’s
sighting, and found nothing.
Three days later, October 23, at
4:30 PM, Francis Miller, an Oak Ridge laboratory employee, while
driving along a road in Oak Ridge saw an object that appeared to
be less than half a mile away and between 1,000 and 2,000 feet
up.
October 23, 1950; Oak
Ridge, TN
It appeared as an “aluminum
flash” that was traveling in a south-southeast
direction. He only saw it for a few seconds.
Subsequently it was discovered that a nuclear radiation
detection station (a Geiger counter) in the vicinity of the
sighting registered a burst of alpha and beta
radiation. The purpose of this station was to
detect any leaks of radiation from the Oak Ridge
Laboratory. There was no leakage of radiation,
however. An expert from the Health and Research Division
analyzed the readings from the Geiger counter and pronounced
them unexplained. This association between radiation
detection and a UFO sighting was similar to that at Mt.
Palomar mentioned in Chapter 13. Whether the
reading of the Geiger counter was actually a result of nuclear
radiations or whether the presence of the UFO induced a
transient electrical fault in the counter or whether there was
some other explanation is not known. This case
does not appear in the Project Blue Book file.
October 24, 1950; Oak Ridge,
TN
During the evening there
was a “light in the sky” sighting by two witnesses who
were at widely separated locations. The first to see it
was Mr. William Fry, the Assistant Chief of Security for
Project NEPA. He was at a drive-in theater with his
family at about 6:45 PM waiting for the movie to begin when he
saw the lighted object in the southwest while casually looking
around the sky. He reported to the CIC investigator:
“...I observed what I at
first thought to be an unusually bright star. The
exceptional brilliance caused me to continue to observe it
when it suddenly seemed to change color rapidly from a reddish
hue to a bright orange and again to a brilliant light
blue. (His wife and son also saw it.) ...A
few moments later I heard a plane directly overhead making
passes over the Oak Ridge area, which was later identified as
one of the F-82 fighter planes from the Air Force unit
stationed at McGhee-Tyson Airport..
(At this point Mr. Fry went
to a phone and called someone to look, but the person could
not see it because of the hills and trees.) "While
returning to my car I met a friend...who stated he had been
observing the object. I continued to observe the object
with my wife but it seemed to be in a more northerly position
which caused me to select a fixed point to determine whether
or not the object was changing in either direction or
altitude. There seemed to be a deviation from north to
south for approximately five to ten degrees. The
changing colors were still very evident but the object seemed
to be continually getting smaller and smaller as though it was
becoming more distant. At approximately 7:18 by my watch
it disappeared from view entirely. During these
observations my wife continued to report to me the identical
things that I was observing. During the entire time the
F-82 airplane continued to make passes over the area until
approximately 7:15. The weather conditions were
excellent; the air was calm; and the sky was cloudless with
the exception of a very slight haze over the distant horizon.
"The following morning,
upon reporting to work I confided my story to...(name
censored)...stationed at Oak Ridge with the NEPA project, but
I hesitated to go on record as having observed such an
unidentified object.”
Mr. Fry did go on record
because he learned that he was not the only witness. Air
Force Major Lawrence Ballweg also saw the light. He
reported as follows:
“On the evening of 24
October 1950 at approximately 1855 (6:55 PM) I heard a plane
fly over my home in the Woodland area. Being a curious
individual I went outdoors to watch it with my
binoculars. While looking for the plane I saw an object
in the western sky which appeared at first to be a star but
upon closer observation I noticed that it was rapidly changing
colors from red to blue to white. When first seen it
appeared to be moving very slowly in a northwest
direction. It was moving relative to the other
stars. The object was too small to be able to see any
details even with the glasses. It disappeared from sight
about 1920 (7:20 PM). During this period of time my wife
also observed the object.”
Mr. Fry then learned that
the radar unit had also detected something. He was told
that an unidentified object appeared at 6:30 PM at an altitude
of approximately 5,000 feet in the same general vicinity as
the object he saw. The radar target disappeared at 7:20
PM. The complete radar report to the CIC investigator
says that targets appeared at 6:23 PM moving over the
restricted flight zone and at 6:26 a fighter was scrambled to
the area of the targets but failed to see anything.
Considering that the
atmosphere can make a star or planet which is within a few
degrees of the horizon appear to change color and move very
slightly or twinkle, one might be tempted to identify the
light as the bright planet Venus or a very bright star seen in
the west an hour after sunset, which was at about 6 PM local
daylight savings time. However, two elements of
the description reject that sort of explanation. First,
the light was described by Major Ballweg as moving relative to
the stars. Since Major Ballweg used binoculars to view
the light it is likely that his description of motion is
accurate. Furthermore, it must have been quite large
because Mr. Fry, not using binoculars, also detected
motion. Second, Major Ballweg said that the
light appeared over a telephone pole that was about 100 yards
away. That would make the angular elevation greater than
5 degrees. According to the CIC investigator, Mr.
Fry indicated that the elevation from his location was 30 to
40 degrees above horizontal. Hence it was so
high in angular elevation that atmospheric effects would not
make it appear to change color and there would be no
noticeable effects other than the normal twinkling which
affects stars at any angular elevation. The final
reason for rejecting Venus or a bright star is that Venus was
below the horizon at the time and there were no excessively
bright stars in that sector of the sky at the
time. The disappearance of the radar target at the
same time as the light suggests that the UFO was a some kind
of metallic unknown object hovering in the vicinity of Oak
Ridge. This is another Oak Ridge sighting that is not in
the Blue Book file, nor are the following October events.
October 25, 1950; Oak Ridge, TN
About six hours later, between 2 AM and 3 AM, the radar unit
reported several slowly moving objects such as had been seen
previously.
On October 26 at 5 AM Col. Edwin
Thompson heard an intermittent noise like the blast of a jet,
similar to what had been reported on the 15th and 16th. He
saw no aircraft associated with the noise.
Three days later seven people
waiting at the Knoxville Airport “saw an object traveling to the
Southwest at a great rate of speed. (name censored),
who has considerable flying experience, was extremely excited
and stated that this object was not an aircraft. He
described it as a circular object, leaving a trail of smoke.”
There were
two reported sightings on November 5.
November 5, 1950; Oak Ridge, TN
At 9:29 AM an object was
detected on radar traveling over the restricted area at a
speed of 80 mph. A fighter aircraft attempted an
intercept and then trailed the object for 20 miles. The
pilot reported no visual contact.
Two and a half hours later, at 11:55 AM, Don Patrick of
the NEPA Division saw a very strangely shaped object travel by,
apparently just above the mountain range.
November 5, 1950; Oak Ridge,
TN. (BBU 829)
11:55 a.m. Fairchild Aircraft illustrator Don Patrick saw a
translucent object, light grey with dark core, shaped like a
pear or bean, flying with rapid, darting movements. (Berliner)
It seemed to change rapidly
from a pear shape to a bean shape and other sausage like
shapes as it traveled. Although the shape changed the
overall size was about constant. It seemed translucent
but had definite outlined edges as seen against the sky and
background clouds. There was no particular color and
there were no bright highlights. Mr. Patrick at first
thought it was a balloon but then realized that the shape
changes and rapid motions meant it was something else.
He told the CIC investigator that “the core (dark triangular
portion) remained constant and the apex of the core varied
only a few degrees while the body of the object seemed to
change shapes rapidly and would become elongated during a
quick movement of the object.” Project Blue Book files
list this sighting as unidentified.
As part of the CIC agent’s
attempts to explain these sightings he asked Mr. J.
Holland, chief of the Weather Section of the AEC at Oak
Ridge, to provide information on balloon launches at the times
of the sightings. There was no correlation. The only
sighting that could have been a balloon was the October 20
sighting, and even that was not correlated with the Weather
Section data. With regard to the radar detections during
the previous month, Mr. Holland said radar can be reflected from
patches of ionized air and if a large quantity of radioactive
material were released it might provide sufficient ionaization
of the air. However, he didn’t believe any such release
had occurred. According the the CIC agent’s report the
Weather Section would carry out research to determine whether or
not “radioactive energy ejections” could cause radar returns.
There is no report on the results of the radar research.
Between 5 and 11 PM radar targets
returned to the Oak Ridge area. Fighters were scrambled.
They saw nothing.
However, at 7 PM, during this
period of radar sightings, graphic records of Geiger counter
detections in the restricted area of Oak Ridge indicated an
abnormal increase in alpha and gamma radiation that could not be
attributed to a known source. Apparently this was “too
much” for the officials in charge of Oak Ridge security.
They held a two day meeting to discuss the “operational
difficulties” of the early warning radar of the Air Defense
Command at Knoxville. AFI was asked to investigate the
situation and to set up a separate radar set for comparison.
(McDonald list)
The suggestion that some
radar targets might be the result of ionization of the air by
nuclear radiation must have been on the mind of Mr. Gray, SAC
Knoxville, because on December 4 he called FBI headquarters
and discussed the speculation that releases of radioactive
material could have caused the anomalous radar targets
observed. The next day Mr. Hoover sent an urgent
teletype to SAC Knoxville: “Arrangements should be made to
obtain all facts concerning possible radar jamming by
ionization of particles in the atmosphere. Conduct
appropriate investigation to determine whether incident
occurring northeast of Oliver Springs, Tennessee, could have
had any connection with alleged radar
jamming.” Unfortunately any information that
might have been available on the “Oliver Springs” case has not
been released. Nor is there any response to Hoover’s
teletype message.
On December 5 and 6 there was a
discussion of the technical aspects of the radar sightings with
ATIC and intelligence officials. They concluded that the
targets were probably “radar angels” which are reflections of
objects on the ground which are observed only because of a
temperature inversion which bends the radar radiation
downward. On the other hand, that did not mean that there
were no flying saucers around.
December 5, 1950; Oak
Ridge, TN
Wife of security officer reports object made of
polished metal.
At about 12:50 PM, December
5, the wife of one of the security officers saw an unusual
object north of her position, flying apparently over the Post
Office building in Oak Ridge. It appeared to be a couple
of miles away and 500 feet above the ground. It appeared
to be made of highly polished aluminum or metal that reflected
the sun. Its shape was round and flat or disklike.
She saw the object for about a minute as it flew in a direct
course eastward. Ten minutes later another lady at a
different location observed the same or a similar object heading
westward. The OSI agent who investigated this case learned
that there was an east wind at 6 mph and a clear sky. No
balloons had been launched near that time. He also learned
that there were two aircraft airborne at the time, but both were
about fourteen miles south of the witnesses. ATIC
subsequently claimed that the witnesses saw an aircraft
Although ATIC would
eventually claim that most of these events were mundane (radar
anomalies, balloons, aircraft) and leave only two of the
Oak Ridge sightings unidentified, the local military officials
and scientists were not so certain of easy
identifications. They planned to begin their own
scientific investigation. Lt. Col. John Hood, the AMC
Field Engineering Officer, outlined the plan in a December 5
memorandum entitled “Technical Approaches to the Problems of
UFOs.” He proposed placing radiation counters over a
wide area. After there had been sufficient anomalous
object reports to establish a pattern, the data recorded by
these counters would then be compared for time and location
with the sightings “to see if any change in the background
(radiation) occurs with the presence of sighted
objects.” He also proposed that portable counters be
made available which could be taken to the area of a
sighting. Along with the counters he proposed that an
aircraft with Geiger counters and also a magnetometer be made
available. The magnetometer would indicate any
fluctuations in the local magnetic field associated with
sightings. He also proposed more accurate radars capable
of measuring height as well as range and azimuth. This
plan was to begin operating near the end of December.
The next anomalous event in
the Oak Ridge area was yet another appearance of radar targets
which “blanketed the radar scopes in the area directly over
the government Atomic energy Commission projects.....these
objects could not be identified from the radar image and a
perfect fighter interception met with negative results.”
On December 6, 1950. For an
hour the United States military was under a condition of national
emergency that morning. Two days later the FBI was informed that
the Army's Counter Intelligence Corps had been placed on Immediate
High Alert for any information related to flying saucers. Were
these two documented events related?
December 14,
1950; Oak Ridge, TN
An FBI document found in Clear Intent (page 173) shows
that a group of targets blanketed the radar scopes in an
area directly over the government AEC projects at Oak Ridge. They
were not identified and scope photos were taken. However, these
radar tracks were not listed among the Blue Book Unknowns.
December 18, 1950; Oak
Ridge, TN (BBU)
Calkins. (McDonald list; FUFOR Index)
The last Oak Ridge sighting of any
consequence occurred at about 8:30 AM on December 18.
Groups of people in separate cars traveling to work saw an
unusual object fly over the Oak Ridge area. To the Air
Force officers in one of the cars it appeared as would a bright
reflection from a very distant aircraft. It was southwest
of them and they only saw it for a few seconds. At the
same time several other NEPA project employees were in another
car at a different location. They saw this object for
about 30 seconds before it was obscured by the nearby
hills. They described it as a bright circular light with
an intensity greater than that of the full
moon. It was between 15 and 30 degrees above the horizon
as it moved in a northwesterly direction. They observed a
strange effect on the circular light: it seemed to
“darken, starting at approximately 7:00 t o 9:00 o’clock along
the perimeter and continuing to darken along the perimeter and
inner area until the light was concentrated in approximately
1:00 to 3:00 o’clock position of a very small diameter, at which
point it appeared somewhat similar to a large star.”
(McDonald list; FUFOR Index)
Not listed among Blue Book list or
Spark's updated version.
About the time that Col. Hood’s
research plan was to be put into effect the last two Oak Ridge
sightings occurred. These were on December 20 and January
16. The December 20 case was another radar-only event (no
visual contact) and the January 16 sighting involved
sightings of stars. The Oak Ridge flap was
over. There were no more sightings until a single one in
the late fall of 1951. By that time the research project
had effectively died. Thus, as happened with Project
Twinkle in New Mexico, just as the local scientists and security
agencies were about to carry out precise research that could
prove the UFOs were real anomalous objects.... they disappeared!
In retrospect,
although it might be possible that some of the radar detections
were weather anomalies, often called “radar angels,” caused by
temperature inversions in the atmosphere, the visual sightings
cannot be so easily dismissed.
AESS guard J. H. Collins saw a 20 ft
square object, white-grey but not shiny fly above ridge to the
clouds and back again twice, taking 30-40 seconds each time. A
civilian guard (AESS) on duty at Oak Ridge reported sighting an
airborne object at 0815 EST. Traveling at a constant speed,
equivalent to conventional aircraft, the object was described as
square, approximately 20 feet wide, grey-white in color, with no
markings. The observer, age 40, is described by his employer as
honest and conscientious, and is held in high respect by his
employer. Two F-47's were unsuccessful in an attempt at
interception. (Berliner; FUFOR Index)
1952
April 14, 1952; Memphis, TN (BBU 1112)
6:34 p.m. U.S. Navy pilots Lt. jg.
Blacky, Lt. jg. O'Neil flying on 18° (about NNE) heading at
2,000 ft over NAS Range Station saw to their left an inverted
bowl glowing bright red, 3 ft long and 1 ft high, with vertical
slots, approaching at high speed on 300° heading, straight and
level at 2,000 ft, passing 300 ft from their aircraft and below
overcast at 4,200 ft.[Red glowing trail?] (Berliner; McDonald
files; Jan Aldrich; cf. NARCAP)
June 21 [23?], 1952; Oak Ridge
[Marxville?], TN (BBU)
10:58 p.m. GOC post spotted
target, confirmed by ADC radar, followed by F-47 fighter
interception of a 6-8-inch white blinking light which made
ramming attacks on the F-47 from 10,000 to 27,000 ft. (Ruppelt
p. 43)
June 23, 1952; Oak Ridge, TN (BBU
1334)
3:30 a.m. Secretary Martha
Milligan saw a bullet-shaped object with burnt-orange exhaust
fly straight and level. (Berliner)
Oct. 21, 1952; Knoxville, TN (BBU
2179)
No time given. Witnesses at
airport weather station saw 6 white lights fly in a loose
formation, make a shallow dive at a weather balloon. (Berliner)
December 18, 1952; Oak Ridge, TN
RV, source unknown.
1953
July 19, 1953; Oak
Ridge, TN
At approximately 3:00 P.M., an F-86 aircraft was
observed flying over the Oak Ridge residential area, making
circles at what appeared to be approximately 2,500 or 3,500 feet.
The F-86 flew over the area in this manner for approximately ten
or fifteen minutes. The witness, together with his wife, observed
the aircraft through a pair of six power field glasses. After the
aircraft flew in what appeared to be the direction of Knoxville,
Tennessee, a black object moved out of a high white cloud,
directly over the area the F-86 had been flying. This object began
to travel, at a tremendous speed, in a large circle. This action
on the part of the unknown object continued for at least five
minutes. During the circle of this object, it appeared at times to
be in the shape of a cigar and at other times round.
1954
Sept. 23, 1954; Gatlinburg, TN (BBU 3227)
9:45 a.m. (EST) Dave Owenby [and Trainer?] saw 2 bright silver,
wheel-shaped objects fly N to S in trail. (Berliner;
FUFOR Index)
1955
Sept. 9, 1955. Near Alcoa [Rock Garden?], TN (BBU 3757)
12 noon. M. N. Dawkins, using binoculars, saw a brown, almost
square object fly with a circular motion. (Berliner)
Oct. 19, 1955. 40 miles NW of Knoxville, TN (BBU)
8:30 p.m. (EST) F-86 case. (McDonald list; FUFOR Index)
Nov. 20, 1955; Lake City, TN (BBU 3862)
5:20 p.m. Operations Officer Capt. B. G. Denkler and 5 men of the
USAF 663rd AC&W Sq saw 2 oblong, bright orange,
semi-transparent objects fly at terrific speed and erratically,
toward and away from each other (Berliner)
1957-1966
Dec. 11, 1957; Lake City AFS, TN (BBU)
(McDonald list)
March 28, 1966; Fayetteville, TN (BBU)
8 p.m. Man driving 60 mph suddenly saw a large lighted object
3 ft above the road on a hilltop, which flew off, as the car
engine and headlights died. Headlight bulbs later had to be
replaced. Object was oval, 25 ft long, dark gray, with about
30 lights along its periphery. (Vallée Magonia 739)
April 5, 1966. Alto, TN (BBU 1038)
11:55 p.m. W. Smith and another stopped to watch an
object hovering about 15 ft above a swamp, tried to follow
it but it flew away. Object 100 ft long oval with a dark
top, appearing cone-shaped when moving, making a
high-frequency noise, and flying between a hightension
power line and a row of trees. Animal reactions wherever the
object flew over. (Berliner; cf. Vallée Magonia 753)
END OF REPORT
