Then check on our plans for space exploration. I'll give you some
sources. When you get through, come on back and we'll talk it over."

The Gorman "saucer dogfight" had been described in newspapers; the
pilot had reported chasing a swiftly maneuvering white light, which
had finally escaped him. Judging from the Project "Saucer" preliminary
report, this case had baffled all the Air Force investigators. When I
met George Gorman, I found him to be intelligent, coolheaded, and very
firmly convinced of every detail in his story. I had learned something
about his background. He had had college training. During the war, he
had been an Air Force instructor, training French student pilots. In
Fargo, his home, he had a good reputation, not only for veracity but
as a businessman. Only twenty-six, he was part owner of a construction
company, and also the Fargo representative for a hardware-store chain.
Even knowing all this, I found it hard at first to believe some of the
dogfight details. But the ground observers confirmed them.

It was about nine o'clock in the evening, October 1, 1948. Gorman, now
an Air National Guard lieutenant, had been on a practice flight in an
F-51 fighter. The other pilots on this practice patrol had already
landed. Gorman had just been cleared by the C.A.A. operator in the
Fargo Airport tower when he saw a fast-moving light below his circling
fighter.

From his altitude, 4,500 feet, it appeared to be the tail light of a
swiftly flying plane. As nearly as he could tell, it was 1,000 feet
high, moving at about 250 m.p.h.

{p. 91}