Saucers Over Washington: That time UFOs invaded D.C.
While they didn’t land on the lawn, the White House was once visited by something extraordinary.
During the 1950s, America was obsessed with UFOs. People witnessed various crafts occupying the skies and reported sightings of flying saucers almost daily. Most of the sightings were reported to Project Blue Book, the United States Government’s department, for UFO reports and analysis. Unfortunately, Project Blue Book quickly became a propaganda outlet for the government to deny any UFO activity, except with this next story, where even government agents couldn’t explain what they witnessed. Five years after the iconic Roswell UFO crash, on the 12th of July, 1952, a mass sighting event occurred over Washington D.C. that we refer to today as ‘The Washington D.C., UFO Incident’, ‘The Washington Flap’, or ‘The Invasion Of Washington’.
What Happened?
Seven unidentified flying objects were spotted in unauthorised airspace in 1952 by an air traffic control tower. S.C. Pierman, a pilot at Washington National Airport awaiting takeoff authorisation, also reported witnessing these objects. Following Pierman’s sighting, the objects were detected on radars by National Airport’s air traffic controller Edward Nugent and were confirmed by his superior, Harry Barnes. Given the object’s manoeuvrability, Barnes had two other controllers ensure the equipment was usually working, as the things moved “completely radically compared to ordinary aircraft”. Nugent and Barnes were not the only ones to witness this, as Barnes then called the airport’s radar-equipped control tower and learnt that the controllers present reported picking up the same objects on the radar and saw a hovering “bright light” in the sky, which departed with incredible speed.
At the Andrews Air Force Base nearby, Airman William Brady reported sightings of fireball-like objects with unusually high speeds and manoeuvrability, unlike anything he’d ever seen. The Base promptly ordered the urgent deployment of F94 Starfire jet fighters after the strange objects passed over the White House and Capitol Building. By the time they were in the air, the UFOs had disappeared.
The UFOs were described as glowing lights in the shape of flying saucers. The following day, many newspapers published stories about Washington D.C. being overrun by flying saucers, most notably The Cedar Rapids Gazette publishing the iconic headline “Saucers Swarm Over Capitol”.
A week later, the incident occurred again, with the UFOs appearing in the sky above the Capitol. This time, President Harry Truman called the director of Project Blue Book and ordered fighter jets to shoot down these objects. The Air Force deployed fighter jets, and the pilots locked onto one of the objects intending to pursue it. However, the UFOs were far too fast. These objects moved at unbelievable speeds, ranging from 1,150 to over 7,000 miles per hour. During this second occurrence, Project Blue Book investigators went to the National airport, seized charge of the control panel, and witnessed the encounter for themselves. They observed the scrambled jets and radars but could not identify what it was. Albert M. Chop, the spokesman for Project Blue Book, suspiciously denied reporters’ requests to photograph the radar screens. This action leads me to believe that they witnessed something extraordinary.
There is a recurring theme with these encounters. UFOs show up, the military chases them, outmanoeuvre our best technology, and either disappear or fly away at incredible speeds.
The Aftermath
This event is a classic story in the UFO community, a mass sighting event that not even the U.S. Government had a valid explanation for. Its legacy lies in newspaper reports from that time, as the news media were running with the story that flying saucers were seen over Washington, and the Air Force couldn’t keep up with them. Given that thousands witnessed these objects, it would have been hard for the media to downplay the sightings. You could even argue that the Washington event occurred before the Government-led media disinformation campaign against UFOs took off, so sightings were reported accurately, and the sources were reliable.
Behind the scenes, President Harry Truman was quietly asking for answers, but Project Blue Book and the Air Force were publicly ordered to cover up the event. Shortly after, the biggest press conference since World War II was held at the Pentagon, where Major General John Alexander Samford spoke to the public and military officers about the sightings. General Samford confirmed that these sightings were not connected to any secret technology development by government agencies and that these objects posed no national security risk. He then explained that the sightings over Washington could easily be explained as natural weather phenomena such as stars or meteors, and the radar targets could be temperature inversion.
As expected, many were not happy with these explanations. Following the Roswell cover-up, public distrust of the government around the UFO phenomenon gradually increased. Considering how many people witnessed the event and saw first-hand how these objects moved, it isn’t likely that it was a natural phenomena. The UFOs were chased by Air Force jets, which managed to outmanoeuvre and outrun them, so whatever the UFOs were, they were physical objects. A mass sighting took place. Only this one was harder to cover up.
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