they
went over the airplane, from the prop spinner to the rudder trim tab,
with a Geiger counter. A chart in the official report shows where
every Geiger counter reading was taken. For comparison they took
readings on a similar airplane that hadn't been flown for several
days. Gorman's airplane was more radioactive. They rushed around, got
sworn statements from the tower operators and oculist, and flew back
to Dayton.

In the file on the Gorman Incident I found an old memo reporting the
meeting that was held upon the ATIC team's return from Fargo. The
memo concluded that some weird things were taking place.

The historians of the UFO agree. Donald Keyhoe, a retired Marine
Corps major and a professional writer, author of _The_ _Flying_
_Saucers_ _Are_ _Real_ and _Flying_ _Saucers_ _from_ _Outer_ _Space_,
needles the Air Force about the Gorman Incident, pointing out how,
after feebly hinting that the light could have been a lighted weather
balloon, they dropped it like a hot UFO. Some person by the name of
Wilkins, in an equally authoritative book, says that the Gorman
Incident "stumped" the Air Force. Other assorted historians point out
that normally the UFO's are peaceful, Gorman and Mantell just got too
inquisitive, "they" just weren't ready to be observed closely. If the
Air Force hadn't slapped down the security lid, these writers might
not have reached this conclusion. There have been other and more
lurid "duels of death."

On June 21, 1952, at 10:58P.M., a Ground Observer Corps spotter
reported that a slow-moving craft was nearing the AEC's Oak Ridge
Laboratory, an area so secret that it is prohibited to aircraft. The
spotter called the light into his filter center and the filter center
relayed the message to the ground control intercept radar. They had a
target. But before they could do more than confirm the GOC spotter's
report, the target faded from the radarscope.

An F-47 aircraft on combat air patrol in the area was vectored in
visually, spotted a light, and closed on it. They "fought" from
10,000 to 27,000 feet, and several times the object made what seemed
to be ramming attacks. The light was described as white, 6 to 8
inches in diameter, and blinking until it put on power. The pilot
could see no silhouette around the light. The similarity to the Fargo
case was striking.

On the night of December 10, 1952, near another atomic installation,
the Hanford plant in Washington, the pilot and radar observe