Revisiting the 1952 Washington DC UFO Flap

a reply to: mirageman

Hi mirageman,

I wanted to thank you for your hard work on this thread and your Rendlesham Forest Incident thread. I know it's posted just above my post but this...

But if you follow the history of the UFO age it runs almost concurrently with the Cold War and slowly goes out with the Phoenix Lights in 1997.

...really blew my mind. I am wondering how greatly the mystery author of the report produced by Project Condign might have tapped the work of Andrew Pike and his asociate. Thanks for a great thread.

a reply to: mirageman

The Condign report ,which was conducted in the late 1990s by the UK MoD hints at weaponising the "phenomena" observed in Rendlesham Forest.

Whatever that really means. Rendlesham happened 28 years after the DC incidents.

Here is the relevant bit about the Rendlesham Forest Incident from the Project Condign report. Member IsaacKoi posted it in his thread on Project Condign here.

The relevant comment (in full) from the Condign Report is as follows:

“The well-reported Rendlesham Forest/Bentwaters event is an example where it might be postulated that several observers were probably exposed to UAP radiation for longer than normal UAP sighting periods.

There may be other cases which remain unreported. It is clear that the recipients of these effects are not aware that their behaviour/perception of what they are observing is being modified”

(Volume 2, Working Paper 1, Annex F, page F-4, para 13).

Maybe it's the modification of the "behaviour/perception" of the "recipients of these effects " that is under consideration for weaponisation?

originally posted by: Bybyots
a reply to: mirageman

Hi mirageman,

I wanted to thank you for your hard work on this thread and your Rendlesham Forest Incident thread. I know it's posted just above my post but this...

But if you follow the history of the UFO age it runs almost concurrently with the Cold War and slowly goes out with the Phoenix Lights in 1997.

...really blew my mind. I am wondering how greatly the mystery author of the report produced by Project Condign might have tapped the work of Andrew Pike and his asociate. Thanks for a great thread.

Although I've always had a casual interest in the subject (probably since I could first read) I actually write up these threads to either refresh my memory on cases where I've long since forgotten the details or simply because I didn't know much about them in the first place.

The comment about the Cold War and UFOs is only my opinion. But it does seem that once the Roswell 50th anniversary party ended there have only been a handful of interesting UFO cases in the last 17 years. Which I find strange during a time when many people carry a mobile camera built into their phones and we have the ability to communicate with others across the world in seconds. (Even though ,contradicting myself somewhat, my opinion is that any truly unexplained aerial phenomena would probably be very rare anyway!)

a reply to: Bybyots

The Condign report seems to echo something else that has been dismissed by many in relation to the Rendlesham case in regards to "behavioural and perception modification".

“The Role of Behavioral Science in the Physical Security Proceedings of the 5th Annual Symposium June 11-12, 1980” carefully details the plans. Download it here.




It's probably related to something that was not around in the 1952 but relates to research into behavioural sciences alongside plans to field test various very exotic technologies within the military (mainly security personnel).

I am probably going off at a tangent here and there could well be a much more mundane, or even more exciting explanation for the DC sightings. But temperature inversions?????

a reply to: mirageman

I am probably going off at a tangent here and there could well be a much more mundane, or even more exciting explanation for the DC sightings. But temperature inversions?????

To me, the idea that some weird form of concentrated radar could generate radiating energies that interact with the human brain and instigate altered states, and are sometimes powerful enough to cause burns, is so utterly mundane that it is profoundly exciting.

I mean, that has been my take-away from a first and furtive reading of the massive Unidentified Aerial Phenomena in the UK Air Defence Region (the report from Project Condign): that there is a natural phenomenon that exists between the human brain and some atmospheric plasma-energy-based thing that does just that: creates a third, altered state that exists between the natural-plasma-thingy and the human brain.

Anyhow, I'm pretty well sold on the radar stuff from A. Pike.

I actually write up these threads to either refresh my memory on cases where I've long since forgotten the details or simply because I didn't know much about them in the first place.

Well, yeah, but you also process the information creatively when you relay it back to print and that makes your stuff special.

Hehe. You guys might wanna go back and see my posts where I was rambling about the Unitah basin and plasmas.

It seemed clear that the microwaves pumped out from this new radar equipment were creating the foo fighters.The limited equipment even had to be transferred to Coastal Command in 1943 to detect U-boats in the North Atlantic....Powerful microwaves pumped into air...seemed to produce foo at certain wavelengths and powers under the right atmospheric conditions..

certain wavelengths and powers under the right atmospheric conditions

This, ladies and gentlemen, should be replicable under controlled conditions. Lets suppose we're dealing with the H2S radar, which initially was transmitting on 9.1 cm, but by 1943 they were using 3 cm and 1.5 cm sets, and at a strength of ~40 kilowatts. My guess is that it was the latter which would have caused the foo effect - as I'd imagine water vapor would play a role in plasma formation.

It might also be useful to look at UFO sighting data and see if it correlates to the 'ley lines' of the microwave relay network. Note the dates in the following:

During the 1950s the AT&T Long Lines system of microwave relay links grew to carry the majority of US long distance telephone traffic, as well as intercontinental television network signals.[3] The prototype was called TDX and was tested with a connection between New York City and Murray Hill, the location of Bell Laboratories in 1946. The TDX system was set up between New York and Boston in 1947. The TDX was improved to the TD2, which still used klystron tubes in the transmitters, and then later to the TD3 that used solid state electronics. The main motivation in 1946 to use microwave radio instead of cable was that a large capacity could be installed quickly and at less cost. It was expected at that time that the annual operating costs for microwave radio would be greater than for cable. There were two main reasons that a large capacity had to be introduced suddenly: Pent up demand for long distance telephone service, because of the hiatus during the war years, and the new medium of television, which needed more bandwidth than radio.
Though not commonly known, the US Military used both portable and fixed-station microwave communications in the European Theater during WWII. Starting in the late 1940s, this continued to some degree into the 1960s, when many of these links were supplanted with tropospheric scatter or satellite systems. When the NATO military arm was formed, much of this existing equipment was transferred to communications groups. The typical communications systems used by NATO during that time period consisted of the technologies which had been developed for use by the telephone carrier entities in host countries.

a reply to: mirageman
Disclaimer: This is not a real picture of the D.C. sightings. This is a still clip from a documentary video.



This is one of those topics that I had in the back of my mind for a long time now. Of course I have seen a lot of this material before and I really like your idea/presentation style of "Revisiting" historical events which remain murky in the minds of most Americans. The reports of UFO's over Hanford and Washington D.c. sent a chill down the spine of many Americans, especially in government.

July of 1952 was indeed a spectacular month for UFO's. Early in the month there was a major event over Hanford, Washington... you know where they made material for the atom bombs.

Another important thing was going on in July of 1952- it was the Republican party in the midst of deciding who was to be the nominee for candidate for president and vice-president of the United States.


Another important thing to remember about July of 1952 - the Korean War was still hot. Newspaper reports of terrific jet battles over Korean battle zones reminded Americans of the daily cost in lives and the existential war against Communist treachery.

I hope that some of this contextual history helps some of the readers get a better understanding of what the heck was going on in America and Washington D.C. in July of 1952.

Here's another bit of trivia : Richard Nixon was nominated for vice president on July 11, 1952.

And let's not forget that in July of 1952 ... Joseph Stalin was still alive. According to Wikipedia,

Contrary to America's policy which restrained armament (limited equipment was provided for infantry and police forces) to South Korea, Stalin extensively armed Kim Il Sung's North Korean army and air forces with military equipment and "advisors" far in excess of those required for defensive purposes in order to facilitate Kim's (a former Soviet Officer) aim of conquering the rest of the Korean peninsula.

The Korean War was an extension of American/Soviet hostility. The Koreans were pawns in a much greater game.

This election of 1952 had so many variables and outcomes! The United States was in the grip of Red Paranoia so what does the electorate do? The electorate chooses "Ike" the leading general of a victorious American World War II and for second-in-command they choose Nixon, the tireless hater of Commies and the prosecutor of Alger Hissssssssss.

This might blow your mind, but, in the early 1950's, Howard Hughes had developed many of the new armaments and systems required to to fight a modern jet fighter war, e.g., missile electronics and radar tracking systems. Hughes was a force in the defense/electronics industry, namely, Hughes Aircraft division of Hughes ToolCo.

In my opinion only, what we are seeing here in 1952, is a power grab by the military industrial complex. Our understanding of the UFO phenomenon is intimately linked with the military industrial complex... at Roswell, at Hanford, over Washington D.c.

Don't you think it is very strange for July of 1952 to be such an incredible month for sightings?

a reply to: ZetaRediculian

Yes ZR, I dislike the term "debunking" as well as "conspiracy theory/ist" and "believer" etc when all people are trying to do is get at the truth. It is true some people do get overly attached and emotional to some ideas/claims, but this happens in almost any field, for example physics, astronomy, medicine - and yet when people in those fields or others come up with speculative claims they would like to research they are not labelled with these pejorative terms.

I just think getting false radar returns is one thing, maybe possible, but generating matter out of thin air is another, and would be rather revolutionary for contradicting the theory of energy/mass conservation. And if some kind of hologram was generated, like the "Foo" balls, I don't see how something with no solid mass would show up on radar.

And for the poster speculating about the Foo being radar generated, these energy balls would follow WWII planes closely and follow their movements, I don't think some random electromagnetic phenomenon would be capable of that. I guess we will have to do a thread on that.

originally posted by: PlanetXisHERE
a reply to: ZetaRediculian

Yes ZR, I dislike the term "debunking" as well as "conspiracy theory/ist" and "believer" etc when all people are trying to do is get at the truth. It is true some people do get overly attached and emotional to some ideas/claims, but this happens in almost any field, for example physics, astronomy, medicine - and yet when people in those fields or others come up with speculative claims they would like to research they are not labelled with these pejorative terms.

Yes. absolutely. Would you believe that identify more with being a "believer"?

I just think getting false radar returns is one thing, maybe possible, but generating matter out of thin air is another, and would be rather revolutionary for contradicting the theory of energy/mass conservation. And if some kind of hologram was generated, like the "Foo" balls, I don't see how something with no solid mass would show up on radar.

I'm not sure if that is how its supposed to work. I think there were a couple of different "technologies" being discussed. One was the "Palladium" radar spoofing and the other was the foo fighters being generated FROM the radar. On top of that, its all super secret military stuff so I don't think there will be a demo anytime soon.

And for the poster speculating about the Foo being radar generated, these energy balls would follow WWII planes closely and follow their movements, I don't think some random electromagnetic phenomenon would be capable of that. I guess we will have to do a thread on that.

this from 1ofthe9

This, ladies and gentlemen, should be replicable under controlled conditions.

But look on the bright side. nobody is discussing temperature inversions.

a reply to: 1ofthe9

Thanks for the information.

My knowledge of how radar works is fairly rudimentary and this was merely a hypothesis based on the information Zeta provided on Project Palladium and from a scientific investigation which linked sightings of 'foo fighters' in WW2 to the presence of H25 AI (Air Interception) radar on certain allied aircraft. So anything else is more than welcome.

a reply to: SayonaraJupiter

Thanks for placing historical context into the thread. Ironically Ike was to leave office warning about the overbearing influence of the "military-industrial complex" on America and it's allies. Although, as I stated earlier in the thread it is merely my opinion, I am convinced that much of the UFO phenomenon is intrinsically linked with the history of the Cold War.


a reply to: PlanetXisHERE

I think it's important you have counter-balanced the theory about radar spoofing and "foo fighters" generated by the radar. Although we are dealing with two separate technologies. One that creates spoof radar signals and another that creates the 'foo' (UFO/plasma) in the visible spectrum.

It is only a theory and the path to the truth may well lead in another direction, even to the involvement of extra-terrestrial spacecraft.

Somehow after all this time though, barring a release of top secret USAF documents, we will probably never know the real truth behind those 'temperature inversions' as far too much time has passed.

However I did enjoy reading up on the case and discussing it with everyone who has participated in the thread.

So does anyone have any other theories as to what went on in the summer of '52?

Great thread. Looks like Leon Davidson was maybe the first on track. A little precedence for spoofing and other "ufological" delights from the M.I.C.

CIA, under its assigned responsibilities, and in cooperation with the psychological strategy board, immediately investigate possible offensive or defensive utilization of the phenomena for psychological warfare purposes both for and against the United States, advising those agencies charged with U.S. internal security of any pertinent findings affecting their areas of responsibility.

www.deeppoliticsforum.com...

Then we have the so-called Pentacle Memo (Bolding Mine.):

Among other things, this document contains confirmation that Battelle Memorial Institute was working on UFO project(s) at the time of the Robertson Panel, (January 1953), and apparently could exercise some amount of control over the handling of the subject matter. 

www.cufon.org...

Therefore, we recommend that a controlled experiment be set up by which reliable physical data can be obtained. A tentative preliminary plan by which the experiment could be designed and carried out is discussed in the following paragraphs.

Assuming that, from our analysis, several definite areas productive of reports can be selected, we recommend that one or two of theses areas be set up as experimental areas. This area, or areas, should have observation posts with complete visual skywatch, with radar and photographic coverage, plus all other instruments necessary or helpful in obtaining positive and reliable data on everything in the air over the area. A very complete record of the weather should also be kept during the time of the experiment.

Coverage should be so complete that any object in the air could be tracked, and information as to its altitude, velocity, size, shape, color, time of day, etc. could be recorded. All balloon releases or known balloon paths, aircraft flights, and flights of rockets in the test area should be known to those in charge of the experiment. Many different types of aerial activity should be secretly and purposefully scheduled within the area.

www.philipcoppens.com...

This [Pentacle Memo] was the report that was also at the core of [Dr.] Leon Davidson’s enquiries and which made him conclude that the US government were using UFOs as part of a psychological warfare exercise…

...But Davidson pointed out that as early as 1945, mechanical countermeasures against radar had become publicly known – and used. It was known that these could cause blips on the radar screen, resulting in incorrect range, speed, or heading. This was called Electronic Countermeasures and Davidson believed this method of counterintelligence was used to present the myth that “UFOs” existed.

Davidson drew the infamous equation: ECM+CIA=UFO, suggesting that the CIA were creating ECM signals on radars, so that people would believe in the presence of UFOs, as they confirmed eyewitness accounts of anomalous objects in the sky. Furthermore, the anomalous blips were a perfect mechanism to distort the true capabilities of any new aircraft that was being test-flown – occasional sightings of which were passed off as UFOs too.

www.philipcoppens.com...

Dr. Leon Davidson

ECM + CIA = UFO-or-How to Cause a Radar Sighting by Dr. Leon Davidson

originally posted by: DexterRiley

That source indicates the picture is from

physicists attending conference celebrating Albert Einstein's 70th birthday

So, it's probably not related to the Robertson Panel.

Hi Dex, it's been stated that Einstein maintained 'a long-standing and close relationship' with Samuel Goudsmit who was a key member of the CIA sponsered Robertson Panel (he was put there by the CIA’ s Director of Scientific Intelligence who authored this document in the same year) -there were also some pretty wild claims from Frank Edwards about Einstein advising President Truman not to shoot down the UFOs involved in the Washington Flyovers, apparently Grant Cameron has looked in the Truman archives for substantiating documents or phone records but not come up with anything so it has to taken at face value.

I think as far as is known Einstein only spoke once about UFOs and that's in the article from the St. Louis Post Dispatch (dated 7/30/52).

"These people have seen something - What it is I do not know and am not curious to know".

Albert Einstein, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, New Jersey (reply letter to Californian Minister, July 23rd, 1952)

Article

originally posted by: mirageman

Definitely one of the most intriguing cases.

Sure is mate and also thought this thread by Fls13 contained some important info.


Presidential Meeting Regarding 1952 DC Sightings


Cheers.

a reply to: karl 12

That's interesting. It would make sense that the government would contact the greatest scientific mind of the day for opinions regarding the "flying saucer" phenomena. His rather terse reply to the pastor's letter, posted in the newspaper, is also somewhat indicative of someone who wants to keep his mouth shut.

In looking at the information you provided, as well as other info provided in the OP, I'm beginning to think that the US government's interest in the matter may have been particularly related to strategic threats posed by the UFOs rather than trying to determine what they were. At the time it's unlikely they had any idea what they were, and no way of determining it. So, the only thing they could do was to play it down and hope for the best.

In the years since then I would wager that a great deal more has come to light. This may include contact.

Thanks for the new information.


dex

The DC Sightings occurred just before George Adamski launched his career as a "contactee", another era of Ufology befire it morphed again in the 1960s/70s.

It's impossible to draw any definitive conclusion but the fingerprints of the 'Military Industrial Complex' are once again there for those keen enough to look for them.

Apparently this was featured on ATS live at the weekend. Did anyone catch it?

Here is Truman talking about UFO's, I believe it was soon after the Washington 1952 incidents:

originally posted by: mirageman
a reply to: 1ofthe9

Thanks for the information.

My knowledge of how radar works is fairly rudimentary and this was merely a hypothesis based on the information Zeta provided on Project Palladium and from a scientific investigation which linked sightings of 'foo fighters' in WW2 to the presence of H25 AI (Air Interception) radar on certain allied aircraft. So anything else is more than welcome.

If you really want to have fun, we'll need a list of foo observations and the aircraft involved. If this radar thing has anything to it, it should show a correspondence to heavy bombers and night fighters - night fighters in particular should show up among the top if the radar thing has anything to it.



This would basically be what we'd be observing, zipping around the plane like a hybrid of ball lightning and St. Elmo's Fire. It would be interesting to know if there was anything specific about the radars in use while foo was being observed.

Incidentally...

Post-war, the AN/APQ-13 became the first military radar converted to a domestic peacetime application as a storm warning radar. About thirty systems were converted and installed on military bases. It was replaced by the AN/CPS-9 system in 1949.

"Replaced" in '49, but it seems at least one unit was in service as late as 1977 in Oklahoma. It'd be interesting to know where the others were in use...

originally posted by: DexterRiley
a reply to: karl 12

That's interesting. It would make sense that the government would contact the greatest scientific mind of the day for opinions regarding the "flying saucer" phenomena. His rather terse reply to the pastor's letter, posted in the newspaper, is also somewhat indicative of someone who wants to keep his mouth shut.

In looking at the information you provided, as well as other info provided in the OP, I'm beginning to think that the US government's interest in the matter may have been particularly related to strategic threats posed by the UFOs rather than trying to determine what they were. At the time it's unlikely they had any idea what they were, and no way of determining it. So, the only thing they could do was to play it down and hope for the best.

In the years since then I would wager that a great deal more has come to light. This may include contact.

Thanks for the new information.

dex

Makes sense to me too Dex and when it comes to authenticated government documents from the era it looks like your comments could well be correct (this book about the subject is a great one) -as one of its authors has already mentioned "I don't think there is any way to read this scholarly work without concluding that the Air Force lied, that the phenomenon is real and that the extraterrestrial hypothesis is on the table".

originally posted by: Aliensun

I was surprised to find that Al Chop was mentioned as the AF PR man for Blue Book . He was later to be the public voice for NASA.

Certainly an interesting character mate and has been described as 'one of the last honest men' - apparently he was initially skeptical about the UFO subject but gradually came around to accepting their existence based upon his "ringside seat ability to review highly intriguing military reports about strange flying objects with apparent intelligence behind their control".

"You must remember that I was privy to the project files. These contained hundreds of official reports of UFO encounters made by military personnel from all branches of the service. They were all classified with a high degree of security classification. Almost all of these made pretty scary reading from the verbatim descriptions of the pilots concerned"

Albert M. Chop, Air Force UFO Public Information Officer at the Pentagon

The Chop Clearance List.

Cheers!

originally posted by: CollisioN
So people did not have a camera at that time?|How was It never recorded

A lot of people seem to think the Air Force explanation is implausible, but it's not without some support and if correct would certainly explain why there were no UFO photographs (and why is this case considered so good with literally zero photos, when there was enough time to scramble interceptors, etc?):

Washington DC UFO incidentWashington DC UFO incident

Samford argued that the radar contacts were not caused by solid material targets, and therefore posed no threat to national security. In response to a question as to whether the Air Force had recorded similar UFO radar contacts prior to the Washington incident, Samford admitted that there had been "hundreds" of such contacts where Air Force fighter interceptions had taken place, but stated they were all "fruitless." The conference proved to be successful "in getting the press off our backs", Ruppelt later wrote.[24]

Among the witnesses who supported Samford's explanation was the crew of a B-25 bomber, which had been flying over Washington during the sightings of July 26–27. The bomber was vectored several times by National Airport over unknown targets on the airport's radarscopes, yet the crew could see nothing unusual. Finally, as a crew member related, "the radar had a target which turned out to be the Wilson Lines steamboat trip to Mount Vernon...the radar was sure as hell picking up the steamboat."[25] Air Force Captain Harold May was in the radar center at Andrews AFB during the sightings of July 19–20. Upon hearing that National Airport's radar had picked up an unknown object heading in his direction, May stepped outside and saw "a light that was changing from red to orange to green to red again...at times it dipped suddenly and appeared to lose altitude." However, May eventually concluded that he was simply seeing a star that was distorted by the atmosphere, and that its "movement" was an illusion.[26] At 3 a.m. on July 27, an Eastern Airlines flight over Washington was told that an unknown object was in its vicinity; the crew could see nothing unusual. When they were told that the object had moved directly behind their plane, they began a sharp turn to try to see the object, but were told by National Airport's radar center that the object had "disappeared" when they began their turn. At the request of the Air Force, the CAA's Technical Development and Evaluation Center did an analysis of the radar sightings. Their conclusion was that "a temperature inversion had been indicated in almost every instance when the unidentified radar targets or visual objects had been reported."[27] Project Blue Book would eventually label the Washington radar objects as "mirage effects caused by double inversion" and the visual sightings as "meteors coupled with the normal excitement of witnesses."[28] In later years two prominent UFO skeptics, Dr. Donald Menzel, an astronomer at Harvard University, and Philip Klass, a senior editor for Aviation Week magazine, would also argue in favor of the temperature inversion/mirage hypothesis.

originally posted by: Arbitrageur

A lot of people seem to think the Air Force explanation is implausible, but it's not without some support and if correct would certainly explain why there were no UFO photographs (and why is this case considered so good with literally zero photos, when there was enough time to scramble interceptors, etc?):

I don't think the official explanation adds up for a number of reasons. But first to address the issue about the fighters being scrambled - well they were on both weekends. They are detailed in the opening posts.

Just after 3 a.m., two jet fighters scrambled from Delaware arrived over Washington. All of the objects abruptly vanished from the radar screens. Bizarrely the objects returned almost as soon as the interceptors landed to refuel some 20-30 minutes later. Barnes was convinced that the UFOs were somehow monitoring air traffic and “behaving accordingly." The objects last blips on the radar occurred at around 5:30 hrs.

First Weekend of Sightings

One of the pilots was even surrounded by bright objects on the following weekend.

At first the objects seemed to be moving slowly across radar scopes. But they would then rapidly change direction and move at speeds calculated to be 7,000 mph. By 23:30 hrs, two jet fighters from Newcastle AFB in Delaware arrived over Washington. Flight leader, Capt. John McHugo, saw nothing, despite a number of intercept attempts. Wingman, Lt. William Patterson, however, spotted four white glowing lights headed towards their location. The lights surrounded his fighter leaving Patterson desperately requesting instructions from the control tower at National Airport . He heard only a stunned silence. There was no procedure to deal with such an encounter. The four brightly lit objects then sped away from Patterson's jet and disappeared much to everyone’s relief.

Second Weekend of Sightings

Ed Ruppelt the head of Project Buebook also found that through June, July, and August in 1952 there was hardly a night that passed when temperature inversions in Washington had not occurred.

Dr. James E. McDonald, conducted his own analysis of the Washington sightings. After interviewing four pilots and five radar operators, McDonald concluded that the Air Force explanation was "physically impossible."

The lack of photographs is probably because the sightings happened under cover of darkness and in the main occurred during the early morning when most people would be tucked up in bed. Plus it was 1952.

I'm not saying the theory of spoofed radar and plasma created by the radar (as part of a military experiment) is necessarily correct. So if you think the 'official' statement has some legs to it then that's fine by me. It's all about opinions and everyone is entitled to one.

As far as I'm concerned this case is simply another 'unknown'.

a reply to: mirageman

I just stumbled on this now...

An article by the late Phil Coppens
A lone chemist’s quest to expose the UFO cover-up

In the late 1950s, chemist Leon Davidson worked at Los Alamos, the research facility where the atomic scientists had endeavoured to control the force of the atom. But atoms were not the main thing on this scientist’s mind. Davidson was interested in UFOs and hunted down the then top secret CIA Robertson Panel report. This led him to the conclusion that the CIA were actively promoting UFOs as ETs, a conclusion few have been able – or willing – to accept since.
-----
...Later, Davidson would write: “It became clear [to me], early in the 1950’s, that the CIA, specifically Allen Dulles, had used legitimate ‘flying saucers’ events […] as a tool in the Cold War.

At the time, a lot of emphasis was placed on UFO sightings that were confirmed by radar – as late as 1989 and the Belgian UFO wave, specific emphasis continues to be placed on this “technological confirmation”. But Davidson pointed out that as early as 1945, mechanical countermeasures against radar had become publicly known – and used. It was known that these could cause blips on the radar screen, resulting in incorrect range, speed, or heading. This was called Electronic Countermeasures and Davidson believed this method of counterintelligence was used to present the myth that “UFOs” existed. Davidson drew the infamous equation: ECM+CIA=UFO, suggesting that the CIA were creating ECM signals on radars, so that people would believe in the presence of UFOs, as they confirmed eyewitness accounts of anomalous objects in the sky. Furthermore, the anomalous blips were a perfect mechanism to distort the true capabilities of any new aircraft that was being test-flown – occasional sightings of which were passed off as UFOs too.

So this view point has been around since...UFOs. I did not know that.

ETA: a reply to: The GUT
Ah yes, Im a few steps behind I see.
The CIA and the UFO Mythos

originally posted by: mirageman
As far as I'm concerned this case is simply another 'unknown'.

At least one radar target seems to be known:

Washington D.C. UFO incident

"the radar had a target which turned out to be the Wilson Lines steamboat trip to Mount Vernon...the radar was sure as hell picking up the steamboat."

This is also why I don't understand people denying the Air Force explanation because the radar was picking up specific targets and not "vague blobs", as the steamboat was definitely a specific target.

Also the portions of text you cited seem to me to confirm the mirage idea where the pilot Capt. John McHugo saw nothing and his wingman saw something. It wouldn't be the first time that people made false correlations between radar targets and visual sightings and it looks to me like a whole lot of that was going on, with the possible exception of the steamboat. That's the one correlation I find to be most plausible, and it not only wasn't a UFO, it wasn't even flying.

I also found it interesting that of all the user names on ATS to make a thread about an incident the Air Force claimed was due to mirages, yours was the one to make this thread!

I find sightings like the 2000 UFO over Illinois better because I have no doubt there was actually a real UFO in the air, and they also managed to get a picture, even though it's low quality. I'm not convinced there was even one real flying object in this case, though I do think it's likely that the steamboat was correctly identified as one of the radar targets.