During its descent, the light appeared to slow down at about 10,000
feet, at which time I made three runs on it. Two were on a 90-degree
collision course, and the light traveled at tremendous speed across
my bow. On the third run I was so close that the light blanked out
the airfield below me. Suddenly it started a dive and I followed,
losing it at 1,500 feet.

In _this_ incident the UFO _was_ a balloon.

The following night a lighted balloon was sent up and the pilot was
ordered up to compare his experiences. He duplicated his dogfight--
illusions and all. The Navy furnished us with a long analysis of the
affair, explaining how the pilot had been fooled.

In the case involving the ground observer and the F-47 near the
atomic installation, we plotted the winds and calculated that a
lighted balloon was right at the spot where the pilot encountered the
light.

In the other instance, the "white object with two windows," we found
that a skyhook balloon had been plotted at the exact site of the
"battle."

Gorman fought a lighted balloon too. An analysis of the sighting by
the Air Weather Service sent to ATIC in a letter dated January 24,
1949, proved it. The radioactive F-51 was decontaminated by a memo
from a Wright Field laboratory explaining that a recently flown
airplane will be more radioactive than one that has been on the
ground for several days. An airplane at 20,000 to 30,000 feet picks
up more cosmic rays than one shielded by the earth's ever present haze.