1948.1001 Gorman Dogfight Incident

19481001_gorman_1
Gorman dogfight incident

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On 1 October 1948, Lieutenant George F Gorman of the North Dakota Air National Guard has a “dogfight” with an alleged UFO as he approached Fargo, North Dakota in an F-51.

This incident is Case 33 in Isaac Koi's "Top 100" article, since it was referred to in 64 of the books covered by that article.

 

Isaac Koi’s “ICES” Rating for this sighting = 5,005 (out of a potential score of 14*14*14*14 i.e. 38,416)

(1) “Impact” Rating of 13 (out of a potential score of 14), because it is Case 33 in Isaac Koi's "Top 100" article.

(2) “Credibility” Rating of 11 (out of a potential score of 14) because the sighting report was made by a military witness and the debate has centered on what was actually there.

(2) “Expert” Rating of 7 (out of a potential score of 14). It is given this neutral rating because (at the time of writing) it has not been included in any of the short lists of the best cases produced by various UFO researchers that have been compiled by Isaac Koi (see the “Best UFO Cases" article at PART 3: Existing lists by various individuals), but also is not commonly given by UFO researchers as an example of an incident that can be explained by hoax, misperception or other mundane cause.

(4)“Strangeness” Rating of 5 (out of a potential score of 14). The sighting has a relatively low strangeness rating since there several researchers (particularly Donald Menzel) have plausibly suggested that Gorman saw some form of balloon carrying a candle/light.

 

 

Sections below:

1. Web Resources

2. Book References

3. Other material

 

 

 

19481001_gorman_1

 

19481001_gorman_2

19481001_gorman_3

 

 

Web Resources

For links to various relevant documents and articles online see:
http://www.nicap.org/gormandir.htm
http://www.ufoevidence.org/cases/case704.htm

This incident is discussed on the AboveTopSecret.com (“ATS”) internet discussion forums in Thread 57541.

{text}

 

Book References

For discussion of the Gorman “dogfight” incident see the following:

Year

Discussion by:

 

No. of Pages

1952

Arnold, Kenneth and Palmer, Ray in their “The Coming of the Saucers” (1952) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 104-105 (in Chapter 7) of the Amherst softcover edition.

2

1997

Baker, Alan in his “Sci-Fi Channel: True Life Encounters: UFO Sightings” (1997) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 18-19 (in Chapter 1) of the Orion softcover edition.

2

1979

Ball, Brian in his “A Young Person’s Guide to UFOs” (1979) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 10-11 (in Chapter 1) of the Dragon paperback edition.

2

1996

Brookesmith, Peter in his “UFO: The Government Files” (1996) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 28 (in Chapter 1) of the Parragon hardback edition.

1

1994

Campbell, Steuart in his “The UFO Mystery Solved” (1994) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 75-76 (in Chapter 4) of the Explicit Books softcover edition.

2

1967

Chambers, Howard in his “UFOs for the millions” (1967) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 17-18, 19 (in Chapter 2), 83 (in Chapter 7) of the Bell hardcover edition.

4

2003

Clark, Jerome in his “Strange Skies: Pilot Encounters with UFOs” (2003) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 66-68, 72 (in Chapter 3) of the Citadel softcover edition.

4

1992

Clark, Jerome in his “The UFO Encyclopedia: 1st edition: Volume 2 – Emergence of a Phenomenon” (1992) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 180-182 (in an entry entitled “Gorman Sighting”) of the Omnigraphics hardback edition.

3

1998

Clark, Jerome in his “The UFO Encyclopedia: The Phenomenon from the Beginning - 2nd edition : Volume 1:A-K” (1998) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 452-453 (in an entry entitled “Gorman sighting”) of the Omnigraphics hardback edition.

2

1978

Cohen, Daniel in his “The World of UFOs” (1978) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 25-26 (in Chapter 3) of the Lippincott hardback edition.

2

1969

Condon Report (“Scientific Study of Unidentified Flying Objects”, Edward U Condon (Director) and Daniel S Gillmor (Editor) (1969)) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 848-849 (in Section 5, Chapter 2 “UFOs: 1947-1968”, by Edward U Condon) of the uncorrected version submitted to the Air Force (with the same page numbering in the 3 volume paperbound edition distributed by the National Technical Information Service, US Department of Commerce) at pages 505-506 of the Vision hardback edition (with the same page numbering in the Bantam paperback edition). The first of these editions has the same page numbering as the edition available free online at the following links:

http://www.project1947.com/shg/condon/contents.html

2

2001

di Fate, Vincent in his “The Science Fiction Art of Vincent Di Fate” (2001) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 100 (in the unnumbered chapter entitled “Shadows on the Sky - The Early Flying Saucer Era”) of the Paper Tiger hardback edition.

1

2000

Dolan, Richard M in his “UFOs and the National Security State: Volume 1: 1941-1973” (2000) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 106 (in Chapter 3) of the Keyhole softcover edition, at pages 62 of the 2002 revised Hampton Road softcover edition.

1

1967

Erskine, Allen Louis in his “Why Are They Watching Us?” (1967) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 69-70 (in Chapter 5) of the Tower paperback edition.

2

1976

Flammonde, Paris in his “Ufo Exist!” (1976) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 258-265 (in Chapter 13) of the Ballantine Books paperback edition.

8

1990

Fowler, Raymond E in his “The Watchers“ (1990) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 70 (in Chapter 5) of the Bantam paperback edition.

1

1956

Gibbons, Gavin in his “The Coming of the Space Ships” (1956) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 9 (in Chapter 1), 34 (in Chapter 4) of the Neville Spearman hardback edition.

2

1967

Greenfield, Irving A in his “The UFO Report” (1967) at pages 76-78 (in Chapter 8) of the Lancer paperback edition.

3

1956

Guieu, Jimmy in his “Flying Saucers Come From Another World” (1956) (edited by Ronald Story) (edited by Ronald Story) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 25-27 (in Chapter 1) of the Hutchinson hardback edition.

3

1970

Gurney, Gene (USAF Lt Col) and Clare Gurney in their “Unidentified Flying Objects” (1970) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 25-28 (in Chapter 2) of the Abelard-Schuman hardback edition.

4

1987

Haines, Richard in his “CE-5 : Close Encounters of the Fifth Kind” (1987) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 186-187 (in Chapter 4) of the Sourcebooks softcover edition.

2

1999

Hall, Michael David in his “UFOs : A Century of Sightings” (1999) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 111-112 (in Chapter 3) of the Galde Press softcover edition.

2

1980

Hall, Richard in “The Encyclopedia of UFOs” (1980) (edited by Ronald Story) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 151-152 (in an entry entitled “Gorman ‘dogfight’”) of the NEL hardback edition.

2

1988

Hall, Richard in his “Uninvited Guests” (1988) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 173 (in Chapter 11), 234-235 (in Appenix A) of the Aurora Press paperback edition.

3

1972

Hartmann, William K in “UFO's: A Scientific Debate” (1972) (edited by Carl Sagan and Thornton Page) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 12 (in Chapter 2) of the Barnes and Noble hardback edition (with the same page numbering in the Norton paperback edition.

1

1950

Heard, Gerald in his “The Riddle of the Flying Saucers: Is Another World Watching” (1950) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 31-34 (in Chapter 5), 76 (in Chapter 9) of the Carroll & Nicholson hardback edition.

5

1953

Keyhoe, Donald E in his “Flying Saucers from Outer Space” (1953) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 14, 20, 33-34, 38, 40 of the Henry Holt hardback edition, pages 21, 27, 39, 43, 45-46 of the Tandem paperback edition (in Chapters 1, 2 and 3).

 

1950

Keyhoe, Donald E in his “The Flying Saucers are Real” (1950) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 78 (in Chapter 9 ), 91-96, 98 (in Chapter 10), 108-109, 114-115 (in Chapter 12), 146 (in Chapter 16), 149 (in Chapter 17). 161-162 (in Chapter 18 ) of the Fawcett Gold Medal paperback edition, which has the same page numbering as the version available on-line at:

http://www.nicap.org/fsar/fsar-chapters.htm

16

1979

Knight, David C in his “UFOs: A pictorial history from antiquity to the present” (1979) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 32 (in Part 3) of the McGraw Hill hardback edition.

1

1999

Kurland, Michael in his “The Complete Idiot's Guide to Extraterrestrial Intelligence” (1999) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 103-104 (in Chapter 10) of the Alpha Books softcover edition.

2

1962

Lorenzen, Coral E in her “The Great Flying Saucer Hoax” (1962) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 13 (in Chapter 1) of the APRO hardback edition.

1

1966

Lorenzen, Coral in “Flying Saucers : the Startling Evidence of the Invasion from Outer Space” (1966) (an enlarged version of her “The Great Flying Saucer Hoax” (1962)) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 25 (in Chapter 1) of the Signet paperback edition.

1

1997

Marrs, Jim in his “Alien Agenda” (1997) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 105-106 (in Chapter 4) of the Harper Collins paperback edition.

2

1963

Menzel, Donald and Lyle Boyd in their “The World of Flying Saucers” (1963) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 77-85 of the Doubleday hardback edition (in Chapter IV).

9

1953

Menzel, Donald in his “Flying Saucers“ (1953) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 16-19 (in Chapter 2) of the Putnam hardback edition.

4

1956

Michel, Aime in his “The Truth about Flying Saucers” (1956) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 65-72 (in Part 1, Chapter 3) of the Robert Hale hardback edition, pages 69-77 of the Pyramid paperback edition.

8

1977

Ortzen, Len in his “Strange Stories of UFOs” (1977) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 17-18 (in Chapter 2) of the Coronet paperback edition.

2

1967

Palmer, Raymond A in his “The Real UFO Invasion” (1967) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 13-15 (in the Introduction) of the Greenleaf paperback edition.

3

1994

Peebles, Curtis in his “Watch the Skies!” (1994) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 24-27 (Chapter 3, “The Classics” – in a section entitled “The Gorman Dogfight” and in a section entitled “Rejection”, with personal experience described in material at footnote 36) of the Smithsonian hardback edition, pages 28-31 of the Berkley paperback edition.

4

1985

Randles, Jenny and Warrington, Peter in their “Science and the UFOs " (1985) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 30 (in Chapter 3) of the Blackwell hardback edition.

1

1987

Randles, Jenny in “The UFO Conspiracy” (1987) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 28 of the Barnes & Noble hardback edition (in Chapter 3).

1

1994

Ritchie, David in his “UFO : The Definitive Guide” (1994) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 91 (in an entry entitled “Gorman incident, United States”) of the MJF hardback edition.

1

1987

Rodeghier, Mark in Richard Haines’s “CE-5 : Close Encounters of the Fifth Kind” (1987) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 39 (in the Foreword to Part 1) of the Sourcebooks softcover edition.

1

1956

Ruppelt, Edward J in his “The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects” (1956) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 41-45 (in Chapter 3) of the original 17 chapter Doubleday hardback edition, at pages 63-67 of the Gollancz hardback edition, at pages 59-64 of the Ace paperback edition, at pages 41-45 of the 1959 revised Doubleday 20 chapter hardback edition, at pages 28-30 of the reprinted Source Books softcover edition. The first of these editions (i.e. the original 17 chapter hardback edition) has the same page numbering as the version available free online at:

http://www.nicap.org/rufo/contents2.htm

5

1980

Sachs, Margaret in her “The UFO Encyclopedia“ (1980 (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 99-100 of the Corgi softback edition in an entry entitled “Fargo, North Dakota”. Also included in a list entitled “Chronological list of UFO sightings” at page vii of the Corgi softback edition.

2

1968

Saunders, David R and Harkins, R Roger in their “UFOs? Yes!” (1968) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 58 (in Chapter 5) of the Signet paperback edition.

1

1950

Scully, Frank in his “Behind the Flying Saucers” (1950) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 81-82 (in Chapter 7), 92 (in Chapter 8) of the Henry Holt hardback edition.

3

1999

Spaceage in its “UFO USA - A Traveler's Guide” (1999) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 130-132 (in the chapter entitled “North Dakota”) of the Hyperion softcover edition.

3

2003

Sparks, Brad in version 1.7 of his “Comprehensive Catalog of 1,500 Project BLUE BOOK UFO Unknowns” (2003) as Case Number 109 on pages 20-21 of the PDF edition (with the same page numbering in the Microsoft Word edition). Both editions are available online, respectively at the following links:

http://www.cufos.org/BB_Unknowns_1_7.pdf

http://www.nicap.org/bluebook/CufosBBUnknowns.doc

2

1997

Spencer, John and Spencer, Anne in their “Fifty Years of UFOs” (1997) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 27 (in the unnumbered chapter entitled “1947-1957”), 133 (in the unnumbered chapter entitled “1977-1987”) of the Boxtree hardback edition.

2

1991

Spencer, John in his “The UFO Encyclopedia” (1991) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 130 (in an entry entitled “Gorman, Lieutenant George”) of the Guild hardback edition (with the same page numbering in the Avon softcover edition) at pages 148-149 of the Headline paperback edition.

1

1991

Spencer, John in his “UFOs: The Definitive Casebook” (1991) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 23 (in the unnumbered section entitled “North America”, in the chapter entitled “Database”) of the Hamlyn hardback edition.

1

1966

Stanton, L Jerome in his “Flying Saucers : Hoax or Reality?” (1966) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 39-40 (in Chapter 2), 125 (in Chapter 8) of the Belmont paperback edition.

3

1966

Steiger, Brad in his “Strangers from the Skies” (1966) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 150 (in Chapter 30) of the Award Books paperback edition.

1

1976

Steiger, Brad, with extracts from relevant documentation, by Steiger, Brad in his “Project Blue Book“ (1976) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 62-78 (Chapter 3: “Dogfight over Fargo”) and also at pages 8-9 (Introduction).

19

1978

Stemman, Roy in his “Mysteries of the Universe: Great Mysteries” (1978) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 128, 130 (in Chapter 6) of the Book Club Associates hardback edition.

2

1987

Time-Life (Editors of) in “The UFO phenomenon: Mysteries of the Unknown” (1987) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 44 (in Chapter 2) of the Time-Life Book hardback edition.

1

1949

US Air Force in its “Memorandum for the Press NO. M 26 – 49” entitled “Project Saucer” (1949.0427) at pages 8-10. Available online at: http://www.project1947.com/fig/projsauc.htm

3

1966

Vallee, Jacques and Vallee, Janine in their “Challenge to Science – The UFO Enigma” (1966) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 138-139 (in Chapter 7) of the Ballantine Books paperback edition, at pages 118-119 of the Tandem paperback edition.

2

1965

Vallee, Jacques in his “Anatomy of a Phenomenon” (1965) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 54-55 (in Chapter 3) of the Henry Regnery hardback edition (with the same page numbering in the Tandem paperback edition), page 60 of the Ballantine Books paperback edition, pages 94-95 of the 1966 revised and enlarged Ace Star paperback edition.

2

1975

Weldon, John and Levitt, Zola in their “Encounters With UFOs“ (1975) (formerly “UFOs, What on Earth is Happening?”) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 6-7 (in Chapter 1) of the Harvest House paperback edition.

2

1954

Wilkins, Harold in his “Flying Saucers on the Moon” (1954) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 105-108 (in Chapter 6) of the Peter Owen hardback edition, at pages 99-102 of the Ace paperback edition published under the title “Flying Saucers on the Attack”.

4

1988

Wilson, Clifford in his “The Alien Agenda” (1988) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 103 (in Chapter 9) of the Signet paperback edition.

1

1974

Wilson, Clifford in his “UFOs and Their Mission Impossible” (1974) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 103 (in Chapter 9) of the Signet paperback edition.

1

Other Material

Official US documents about this incident can be found online. See the material on the ambitious “Project Blue Book Archive” website in relation to Project Sign Incident Number 172 and also Project Blue Book Case Number 234, which commences at the links provided (and continues on the pages which follow them).

Listed as Project Sign Incident Number 172 in the microfilm records of Project Sign. The relevant case file is included on Roll Number 2 of the Project Sign microfilm collection, at the link below from the page with the unique Page ID (“PID”) of USAF-SIGN2-779 (page 779 of 807) to the page with the PID of USAF-SIGN2-807 (page 807 of 807).

Listed as Project Blue Book Case Number 234 on the redacted US National Archives and Records Administration (“NARA”) microfilm records of Project Blue Book, released to the National Archives in 1975 – see National Archives Microfilm Publication T1206 roll number 1. An image of the relevant index page has been given the unique Page ID (“PID”) of NARA-PBB1-18 (page 18 of 1014) at the link below.

Listed (without a Project Blue Book Case Number) on the unredacted Maxwell Air Force Base (“Maxwell”) microfilm records of Project Blue Book – see Maxwell microfilm roll number 30,363. An image of the relevant index page has been given the unique Page ID (“PID”) of MAXW-PBB2-249 (page 249 of 1352) at the link below. The relevant case file is included on Maxwell microfilm roll number 30,365 – at the link below from the page with the PID of MAXW-PBB4-684 (page 684 of 1466) to the page with the PID of MAXW-PBB4-795 (page 975 of 1466).

http://www.bluebookarchive.org