realized that it couldn't be a balloon because it was staying ahead
of him. Quite an achievement for a balloon, since he had built up a
lot of speed in his dive and now was flying almost straight and level
at 3,000 feet and was traveling "at the Mach."

Again the pilot pushed the nose of the F-86 down and started after
the object. He closed fairly fast, until he came to within an
estimated 1,000 yards. Now he could get a good look at the object.
Although it had looked like a balloon from above, a closer view
showed that it was definitely round and flat--saucer-shaped. The
pilot described it as being "like a doughnut without a hole."

As his rate of closure began to drop off, the pilot knew that the
object was picking up speed. But he pulled in behind it and started
to follow. Now he was right on the deck.

About this time the pilot began to get a little worried. What should
he do? He tried to call his buddy, who was flying above him somewhere
in the area at 20,000 feet. He called two or three times but could
get no answer. Next he tried to call the ground controller but he was
too low for his radio to carry that far. Once more he tried his buddy
at 20,000 feet, but again no luck.

By now he had been following the object for about two minutes and
during this time had closed the gap between them to approximately 500
yards. But this was only momentary. Suddenly the object began to pull
away, slowly at first, then faster. The pilot, realizing that he
couldn't catch _it_, wondered what to do next.

When the object traveled out about 1,000 yards, the pilot suddenly