The Gorman Dogfight
Date: October 1, 1949
Location: Fargo, North Dakota, United States
Just a couple of days after the Estimate of the Situation was sent to Air Force Chief of Staff Hoyt Vandenberg, another compelling UFO sighting was reported. It was October 1, 1949, in North Dakota. Although just twenty-five years of age, George Gorman was a second lieutenant in the North Dakota Air National Guard and had also served as a veteran fighter pilot during the Second World War. Gorman, together with his colleagues, had just participated in a cross-country mission on board a F-51 Mustang. At around 20:30 Gorman and his colleagues decided to land at Hector Airport in Fargo.
Given that the weather conditions were optimal for a night flight, Gorman decided to keep flying in the area for a few more minutes. It was around 21:00 when Gorman requested permission to land. Given that a Piper Club aircraft was in the area, Gorman had to wait for the aircraft to land first. He was able to make visual contact with the Piper, however, in the distance he also noticed a second aircraft in the sky. Flying from east to west, Gorman saw an intense bright white light, which, at first, he thought was a taillight from another aircraft.
When contacting the Hector Airport Air Traffic Control, George was informed that the only two aircraft in the nearby distance were his own F-51 and the Piper Club, which was now descending to land. As the light got closer to his F-51, he noticed that it was simply a ball of light, without any wings or exhaust plume. It was roughly six to eight inches in diameter and its presence was confirmed by the pilot and passenger on board the Piper Club aircraft. Unable to offer any explanation for what the light was, Gorman made a left turn and decided to pursue the object himself.
He quickly noticed that the ball of light was infinitely faster than his aircraft and the only way that was he was going to be able to get closer to the unidentified aircraft was by making turns to cut the distance. Flying at four hundred miles per hour, Gorman pushed the F-51 to its limits and he noticed that the light, which was straight ahead, pulled a sharp turn and rapidly accelerated toward Gorman. Collision was imminent and Gorman was expecting the worst. However, just like the Chiles and Whitted encounter, the UFO made a sharp turn and just barely avoided his aircraft. Mirroring the turn, Gorman continued his pursuit. In his report, he noted that he had temporarily blacked out due to the excessive speed. As the light accelerated farther away from the F-51, its brightness increased, becoming more intense.
Gorman was now chasing the UFO, which was thousands of feet away. For the second time, the object slowed down and started accelerating toward his aircraft once again. This time, the aircraft broke off into a vertical climb before it reached the F-51. Gorman attempted to mirror the same climb, but his aircraft could not handle such a steep gradient. The F-51 started stalling once it reached fourteen thousand feet but the bright light was still at least two thousand feet above.
At this point, the chase was occurring over the airport and air traffic control operator L.D. Jensen was witnessing the entire encounter through his binoculars. The light descended until it leveled at the same altitude of the F-51, and as it did so, it started accelerating toward his plane, for what now was the third head-on approach. Once again, the object broke off into a vertical climb before it reached his aircraft. However, this time, it continued the climb until it disappeared out of sight. Unable to locate the light, Gorman was forced to break off the pursuit at 21:27.
“I am convinced that there was definite thought behind its maneuvers,” Gorman said. “I am further convinced that the object was governed by the laws of inertia because its acceleration was rapid but not immediate and although it was able to turn fairly tight at considerable speed, it still followed a natural curve. When I attempted to turn with the object, I blacked out temporarily due to excessive speed. I am in fairly good physical condition and I do not believe there are many, if any pilots, who could withstand the turn and speed effected by the object and remain conscious. The object was not only able to out-turn and out-speed my aircraft … but was able to attain a far steeper climb and was able to maintain a constant rate of climb far in excess of my aircraft.” 118
The Investigation
Within a few hours after the sighting, investigators from Project Sign arrived at Fargo and interviewed Gorman, the two pilots on board the Piper Club and the two radio control operators who had witnessed the encounter.
The investigators checked the F-51 for an unusual radioactive level and the Geiger counter did indeed show that Gorman’s aircraft had a higher radioactive level than the other F-51 aircraft. The high radioactive levels indicated that the UFO was atomic-powered, which ruled out the possibility of the object being a weather balloon or any aircraft. For a second time, the radars were checked, and the investigators confirmed that there had been no registered aircraft or weather balloons in the vicinity at the time of the sighting. Thus far in the investigation, it was becoming apparent that this case involved an extraterrestrial aircraft. Just like the Chiles and Whitted sighting, there were no other plausible explanations.
A few days after the initial investigation, Air Force Chief of Staff, General Hoyt Vandenberg rejected the idea of the object being extraterrestrial in nature and instructed another department to carry out a second investigation. As the months went by, the investigation was passed from one organization to another; no one could come up with a conclusive explanation. At the end of the year, an explanation was finally deduced. The UFO Gorman had pursued was a light weather balloon that had been released from Fargo at 20:50. The high radioactive levels were a result of the F-51 flying at a high altitude that resulted in the aircraft being hit with more cosmic rays.
The National Weather Service verified this statement and stated that the weather balloon was released from the weather station and traveled with the wind’s direction, which was westward. After ten minutes in the air, the balloon reached Hector Airport where the two radio control operators reported seeing the UFO. The official report stated that the maneuvers the UFO had carried out were illusions. The report also suggested that the light could have been confused for a bright Jupiter, even though at the time of the sighting it was in the southwestern sky and would have been practically impossible for Gorman to mistake it for a moving aircraft.
Conclusion
It is still unclear how a weather balloon or a planet could have been mistaken for a moving aircraft. Once again, Vandenberg’s own biases influenced the objectivity of the investigation. For over half an hour, Gorman chased an object that could not have been anything other than an interplanetary object. No terrestrial aircraft could possibly execute the same maneuvers the unidentified object had.
Even though this case is a perfect example of an encounter with an extraterrestrial aircraft, the air force refused to even consider such a hypothesis; perhaps because by acknowledging such a thing would mean the public would become aware that the military is not as powerful and in control as everyone believes. How can any government acknowledge the fact that there is a race out there that is infinitely more advanced and superior? Wouldn’t that affect the control the governments have over the people? Could it be that acknowledging such a thing would make the military seem somewhat powerless when compared to these extraterrestrial beings? Would acknowledging such a possibility affect the power and control the government has over its civilians? As UFO researcher Stanton Friedman stated, “nationalism is the only game in town.”
118. Curtis Peebles, Watch the Skies! A Chronicle of the Flying Saucer Myth, (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1994), 26.