ACUFO:

Monday, October 05, 2015

Former US Navy Pilot Says Huge Fireball Maneuvered Above the Hanford Atomic Plant During World War II: First Attempted Intercept of a UFO by a Military Fighter?

UFO incursions at U.S. atomic/thermonuclear weapons sites, from the 1940s onward, are detailed in thousands of declassified Army, Air Force, Navy, FBI, and CIA documents. Moreover, hundreds of U.S. military veterans have now discussed their involvement in one or more of those incidents in video interviews.

One of them, former U.S. Navy Lieutenant Junior Grade Clarence R. “Bud” Clem, says that a UFO monitored one of our fissile materials facilities the Hanford plutonium-production plant in Washington State on three different nights in January 1945, some seven months before Hiroshima and Nagasaki were bombed. Clem says that members of his Navy Hellcat F6F fighter squadron chased them away.

UFOs and Nukes researcher Robert Hastings first learned of the incidents when Clem wrote to him in 2009, but it was not until December 2013 that funds became available to capture the former fighter pilot on video. The edited, four-minute interview may be seen here:

[Link to Youtube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ieZB_nk3HY&t=1s]

In July 2014, UFO historian Jan Aldrich revealed that his research group, Project 1947, had secured World War II-era documents from Headquarters Fourth Air Force, which referred to overflights of the Hanford site by unidentified aircraft . One of them, dated January 23, 1945, and directed to the Commanding General of the Army Air Forces and the Assistant Chief of Air Staff, Training, states:

Resulting from an unidentified aircraft flying over the Hanford Engineering Company Plant at Pasco, Wash. on at least three nights in the past month (this Company is engaged in undisclosed projects for the War and Navy Departments) this HQ was requested by [Western Defense Command], about ten days ago, to move one [battery] of searchlights from Seattle to the Pasco plant. The Thirteenth Naval District has made arrangements for Naval Air Station, Pasco, to employ both radar and fighter aircraft in attempting interception of these unidentified aircraft. The airspace over the Hanford Company is both a Danger area and a Restricted area. Our battery of searchlights has been in place since 15 January; one incident has occurred since that date in which a brief radar contact was made attempted night interception again failed.

So here we have an official document referring an unidentified aircraft flying over the Top Secret Hanford atomic materials production plant on three occasions in January 1945. At least one of those aircraft was tracked on radar and successfully eluded the U.S. Navy fighter sent up to intercept it.

In conclusion, declassified military documents confirm the events described by former USN fighter pilot Bud Clem. Unfortunately, when Robert Hastings attempted to notify Clem of the discovery of those documents by Jan Aldrich, in July 2014, he learned that Clem had died the previous month.

Reports Confirm UFO Activity at A-Bomb Plant in 1945

UFO incursions at U.S. atomic/thermonuclear weapons sites, extending from the 1940s to nearly the present day, are well-established. Hundreds of U.S. military veterans and thousands of declassified Army, Air Force, Navy, FBI, and CIA documents make reference to these incidents. In fact, it can now be said that UFOs apparently monitored our atomic weapons program even before Hiroshima and Nagasaki were bombed in August 1945.

During the war, Clarence R. “Bud” Clem was a Lieutenant Junior Grade in the U.S. Naval Reserves, serving as an F6F Hellcat fighter pilot assigned to Air Group 50 aboard the U.S.S. Cowpens CVL-25. In an April 2, 2009 email, Clem told me:

Our group was deployed to NAS (Naval Air Station) Pasco, Washington for ground support training in March 1945. The Hanford Ordnance Works was just across the Columbia River from Pasco and designated Top Secret. We experienced an unknown object over the Hanford site in March/April, 1945. I did not fly after the object, as two members of our squadron did, but I did assist in trying to determine what was going on. I am 84 and I do not know if any other members of our squadron are still alive [who] could add more information. If you have any information about our experience, I would like to see what the official report stated.

The Hanford site was the plutonium-production plant that manufactured the fissile material used in the first atomic bomb exploded on July 16, 1945, near Alamogordo, New Mexico as well as in the bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan three weeks later, on August 9th. I wrote back to Clem, saying that I didn t have any official reports relating to the incident at Hanford and asked for more details. He responded:

One night, shortly after the evening meal, the officers were gathered at the Officers Club for relaxation when the duty officer at the tower called our commander with a request. Lt. Commander Richard Brown took the call, as the Captain was in conference. Ensign C.T. Neal and I were with Brown and he asked us if we would volunteer to go with him to the flight line for possible duty. We both agreed and a jeep was waiting at the door to take us to the flight line. We learned that an unknown bogey was over the Hanford Ordnance Works, according to the radar operator located at an auxiliary field just across the Columbia River from Hanford reservation.

We had been instructed upon arrival that the Hanford Ordnance Works was Top Secret and no flights over any part were permitted...We did not know about the radar, but the duty officer stated that something was in the sky over the area and wanted someone to investigate. A plane was [already] armed and warmed-up on the tarmac. Brown stated he would go and Neal was to stand-by in another plane, in case of trouble. I was to join the [controller] in the tower and communicate info from radar to the pilots.

Brown quickly found the object, a bright ball of fire, and took chase. But he could not close (on it), even with water injection that gave a quick boost in speed. The object headed out NW towards Seattle and was quickly lost by radar. Brown returned to base and we three retired to the club, still shaking and wondering what we had encountered. Memory does not recall details of two similar experiences I think Neal was to take the next chase but the object disappeared before he got airborne. I was assigned to fly the entire [Hanford] reservation at low altitude (200 feet or so) to give the radar operator the blind spots (caused by the terrain)...

I do not know if any other incidents occurred after we left Washington. None of the above information was mentioned in the history of our squadron but I wonder what is on record at NAS Pasco.

I asked Clem, “During the first incident, how long did it take for the aircraft to get to Hanford?” He replied, “Not long. An aircraft was always ready to fly on short notice to intercept the Japanese incendiary balloons. If you ve read the history of that project, and the concern the balloons caused, it would have been logical to intercept them before they could reach Hanford.”

I asked Clem if the pilot on the first night, Lt. Commander Brown, had described the object in detail, either over the radio or back at the Officers Club. Clem replied, “He just said it was so bright that you could hardly look directly at it. As he closed on it, it took off to the northwest at a high rate of speed. No maneuvers really, just a straight-line course.”

Other questions to Clem added few details. He later sent me his military records which revealed that his fighter squadron was actually at Pasco from January 9 to February 15, 1945, not during March and April, as he had first indicated. This fact is important in light of subsequent developments.

On July 6, 2014, UFO historian Jan Aldrich wrote to me saying that his research group, Project 1947, had secured documents from Headquarters Fourth Air Force, written during the war, which referred to overflights of the Hanford site by “unidentified aircraft”. One of them, dated January 23, 1945, and directed to the Commanding General of the Army Air Forces and the Assistant Chief of Air Staff, Training, states:

[Image caption:]
Daily Diary (Period 1600 22 January 1945 to 1600 23 January 1945)
Courtesy of Jan Aldrich / Project 1947

Resulting from an unidentified aircraft flying over the Hanford Engineering Company Plant at Pasco, Wash. on at least three nights in the past month (this Company is engaged in undisclosed projects for the War and Navy Departments) this HQ was requested by [Western Defense Command], about ten days ago, to move one [battery] of searchlights from Seattle to the Pasco plant. The Thirteenth Naval District has made arrangements for Naval Air Station, Pasco, to employ both radar and fighter aircraft in attempting interception of these unidentified aircraft. The airspace over the Hanford Company is both a Danger area and a Restricted area. Our battery of searchlights has been in place since 15 January; one incident has occurred since that date in which a brief radar contact was made attempted night interception again failed.

So here we have an official document referring to one or more unidentified aircraft flying over the Top Secret Hanford atomic materials production plant on three occasions between late December 1944 and late January 1945. At least one of those “aircraft” was tracked on radar and successfully eluded the U.S. Navy fighter sent up to intercept it.

A second record, dated January 25, 1945, states:

[Image caption]
Daily Diary (Period 1600 23 January 1945 to 1600 25 January 1945)
Courtesy of Jan Aldrich / Project 1947

Western Defense Command and Army Commands represented at the Hanford Engineering Co, Pasco, have informally asked HQ Fourth Air Force for one or more night fighter aircraft to be based, temporarily, at Naval Air Station, Pasco, for employment against the alleged “bogie” which has been detected by radar on several nights in the past three weeks.

Here we learn that the radar trackings of the unidentified aircraft occurred more than once. No known records exist which confirm that any Japanese fixed-winged aircraft ever overflew the Hanford site. Regarding the balloon bombs, on March 10, 1945, one of them descended near the facility, resulting in a short circuit in the power lines supplying electricity for the nuclear reactor s cooling pumps, but power was quickly restored.

In any case, given Bud Clem s description of the object that outran Lt. Commander Brown, it seems highly unlikely that it was Japanese in origin. Once again, Clem told me, “[Brown] just said it was so bright that you could hardly look directly at it. As he closed on it, it took off to the northwest at a high rate of speed. No maneuvers really, just a straight-line course.”

Given the available data, it appears that bona fide UFOs were in fact operating near the Hanford site in early 1945, only months prior to the attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. If this was the case, one might ask if the unknown craft whether piloted or remote-controlled were also monitoring other operations associated with the U.S. atomic weapons program.

Indeed, one might wonder whether UFOs were present during the atomic attacks themselves! It must be stressed that no credible evidence is available which would substantiate this possibility, however, military records confirming sightings of the orb-like “Foo Fighters” by U.S. Army Air Force bomber crews on missions over Japan, during the early months of 1945, are a matter-of-record.

See Also:

• Former US Navy Pilot Says Huge Fireball Maneuvered Above the Hanford Atomic Plant During World War II: First Attempted Intercept of a UFO by a Military Fighter?
• UFO Over Hanford Atomic Plant Triggers 'Alert Condition'; Fighter Jets Scrambled!
• 1949 Nuclear Experiment is an Ugly Legacy of Hanford: “Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Southeastern Washington Deliberately Experimented on Residents in the Area”
• MY UFO EXPERIENCE: “UFO's Were Hovering Over the Hanford Atomic Energy Facility...” F 94 Starfire Jets Were Scrambled!
• UFO incursions at U.S. atomic/thermonuclear weapons sites, extending from the 1940s to nearly the present day, are well-established. Hundreds of U.S. military veterans and thousands of declassified Army, Air Force, Navy, FBI, and CIA documents make reference to these incidents. In fact, it can now be said that UFOs apparently monitored our atomic weapons program even before Hiroshima and Nagasaki were bombed in August 1945.

PROJECT 1947

UFO REPORTS - 1945 - Hanford Engineer Works, Washington

SECRET

HEADQUARTERS FOURTH AIR FORCE
OFFICE OF THE COMMANDING GENERAL
180 NEW MONTGOMERY STREET
SAN FRANCISCO 6 CALIFORNIA

(4AFGA-S&C)1

314.81/174

4 January 1945

SUBJECT: Daily Diary (Period 1600 3 January 1945 to 1600 4 January 1945).

TO: Commanding General, Army Air Forces, Washington 25, D. C.
(Attention: Assistant Chief of Air Staff, Training).

....

3. Japanese Balloon Incidents. RESTRICTED

In accordance with request from the Public Relations Officer, Western Defense Command, notified all subordinate headquarters this command directed that no publicity be released concerning the Japanese balloons which have been found at different areas of the Pacific Coast and further directed that local inquiries be referred to this command.

(PRO)

....

SECRET

HEADQUARTERS FOURTH AIR FORCE
OFFICE OF THE COMMANDING GENERAL
180 NEW MONTGOMERY STREET
SAN FRANCISCO 6 CALIFORNIA

(4AFGA-S&C)1

314.81/190

23 January 1945

SUBJECT: Daily Diary (Period 1600 22 January 1945 to 1600 23 January 1945).

TO: Commanding General, Army Air Forces, Washington 25, D. C.
(Attention: Assistant Chief of Air Staff, Training).

....

2. Air Defense Measures at Hanford Engineering Company SECRET

Resulting from an unidentified aircraft flying over the Hanford Engineering Company Plant at Pasco, Wash. on at least three nights in the past month (this Company is engaged in undisclosed projects for the War and Navy Departments) this hq was requested by WDC, about ten days ago, to move one Btry of searchlights from Seattle to the Pasco plant. The Thirteenth Naval District has made arrangements for Naval Air Station, Pasco, to employ both radar and fighter aircraft in attempting interception of these unidentified aircraft. The airspace over the Hanford Company is both a Danger area and a Restricted area. Our battery of searchlights has been in place since 15 January; one incident has occurred since that date in which a brief radar contact was made - attempted night interception again failed. It is understood that WDC has obtained permission from War Department in this instance for the Navy to fire on such unidentified aircraft as can be intercepted over this area. The U.S. Army Commanding Officer at the Hanford Project was called by this Division and agreed to release the searchlights this week, however, he desires to withdraw only approximately half of the battery; i. e. one platoon of six lights. This proposal was passed to both 4th AAA Command and WDC who concurred and instructions have been issued to withdraw one Platoon this date, the other platoon will remain approximately one week, depending on further incidents.

(D/O)

....

SECRET

HEADQUARTERS FOURTH AIR FORCE
OFFICE OF THE COMMANDING GENERAL
180 NEW MONTGOMERY STREET
SAN FRANCISCO 6 CALIFORNIA

(4AFGA-S&C)1

314.81/191

25 January 1945

SUBJECT: Daily Diary (Period 1600 23 January 1945 to 1600 25 January 1945).
Two-Day Period

TO: Commanding General, Army Air Forces, Washington 25, D. C. (Attention: Assistant Chief of Air Staff, Training).

1. 1. Commanding General's Office. UNCLASSIFIED

Major General Charles R. Parker assumed command of the Fourth Air Force effective 25 January 1945.

....

3. Security Measures, Pasco, Washington CONFIDENTIAL

a. “Danger Area” over Handford Eng Co.

At the request of G-3, Western Defense Command, Hq Fourth Air Force has, through the Seattle Control Group, sent special notification to: (1) CAA, (2) Ferry Command, (3) ATC and (4) Navy, as well as to Fourth Air Force bases in the Northwest, re “Danger Area” to flying, over the Hanford Eng. Co, near Pasco, Wash. This same information is carried in Chart 2 of the “Weekly Notices to Airmen” for 11 January 1945. Naval Air Station, Pasco, Wash, has WD authority to fire on unidentified aircraft intercepted over this “Danger Area.”

b. Request for Night Fighters at Pasco, Wash.

Western Defense Command and Army Commands represented at the Hanford Eng Co, Pasco, have informally asked Hq Fourth Air Force for one or more night fighter aircraft to be based, temporarily, at Naval Air Station, Pasco, for employment against the alleged “bogie” which has been detected by radar on several nights in the past three weeks. Presumably, such night fighters as we might furnish would operate under Naval GCI Station at Pasco. Decision is being withheld pending more definite information regarding this incident.

(D/O)

....

PROJECT 1947 Comment: Commander R. W. Hendershot revealed his role in the Hanford incident many years after 1945. Decades after that some possible official confirmation was located at the National Archives.

The NICAP Subcommittee in Washington State indicated that Commander Hendershot had agreed to a tape recorded interview at some future date. We do not know if this occurred. However, among Richard Hall's' files were hundreds of tape recordings from various NICAP members and groups. Perhaps this interview is contained in this collection.

Further information on the Hanford incident is probably in the records of the Western Defense Command, Thirteenth Naval District, the Naval Squadron stationed at Naval Air Station, Pasco, Western Sea Frontier, Hanford Works, and in other records of the HQ Army Air Force.

These specific 4th Air Force documents, while addressed to the Assistant Chief of Air Staff for Training at Washington, D. C., were found in the HQ, Army Air Forces, Assistant Chief of Staff, Intelligence, at the National Archives II, Decimal File Number 319.1 Daily Diary. Note that the 4th Air Force documents give no clue as to what is going on at Hanford, which at the time was producing plutonium for the first atomic bombs.

---

Further confirmation of the Hanford aerial intrusions and emergency installation of radar coverage of the facility came from Colonel Franklin T. Matthias, Officer in Charge of the Hanford Engineering Works. One day after the atom bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, Colonel Matthias convened a press conference to reveal the previously Top Secret activities undertaken at Hanford.

The Seattle Times carried the report of the conference by Times Associate Editor, Ross Cunningham. In an article published on August 8, 1945, it was publically revealed that there had been suspected aerial intrusions over Hanford, that radar was hastily installed to detect such intrusions, and that an arrangement was made with the Navy to intercept the intruders. This confirms that the plans described within the 4th Air Force documents were actually carried out, supporting the testimony of the Naval officers Hendershot, Clem, and Powell regarding encounters by Naval aircraft with intruders over Hanford. (see Hanford entry in Naval Chronology.)

Excerpt from the Seattle Times article:

“Throughout the war, the project has had no direct protection against external enemy action, no anti-aircraft, no protective troops, and no aircraft.” Colonel Matthias explained that radar was installed at the project hurriedly, “when we saw or thought we saw unidentified aircraft operating.” Defensive plans, not to be confused with internal security, rested on an arrangement with the Navy to send fighter planes if needed and arrangement with the 9th Service Command to “send us all the troops they had if we needed them.”

---

Seattle, Washington, The Seattle Times - 8 August, 1945

Hanford Made Material For Atomic Bomb That Hit Japs

By ROSS CUNNINGHAM
Associate Editor, The Times

HANFORD ENGINEER WORKS, Benton County, Aug. 8.-Stripping away another layer of the security secrecy shrouding this project, the Army took newsmen on an inspection of some of the hitherto restricted areas today after the project head, Col. F. T. Matthias, in a remarkably frank interview, made these revelations regarding atomic energy production and use:

1. The atomic material for the bomb which launched the “finish Japan” attack Sunday was produced in this project.

2. The Hanford project and its principal counterpart in Tennessee operate independently and if either were closed down the other could produce the material, although by a divergent process.

3. No plans have been made for the peacetime use of the Hanford Engineer Works.

4. It is probable that preliminary studies are under way for adapting atomic energy to peacetime use, but no work along that line is under way here.

5. Commercial representation is present on the top-flight committee studying the potentialities of the energy so that the greatest good possible may be accomplished.

After these statements by the Army officer here in the position to project the future of atomic energy, newsmen made the 30-mile drive north from Richland to the center of the production area, where the “ghost town” of Hanford lies virtually empty.

The newsmen stared at huge cement plants with smokestacks towering against the sky as workmen within them spin the dials to produce atomic energy to press forward the attack on Japan. They were not permitted within the plants, which are within wire inclosures and Colonel Matthias explained it thus:

“The disclosure of the nature of their work and its effect upon the enemy has had a stimulating effect and we must get on with production. It was a terrific relief to the staff to learn the details and they are proceeding, I'm sure, with renewed zip.

“Besides,” he added, referring to the decision not to allow internal plant inspection, “these men are working with delicately balanced force and I don't think there should be anything to distract them.”

Colonel Matthias' press conference - in which he stood for an hour on a raised platform behind a counter, snapping a cigarette lighter but never getting around to lighting his smoke - covered a wide range of subjects, even including the question as to whether the colonel's experience with atomic energy led him to conclude a projectile could be made of it in the United States and shot to any place on earth.

The colonel smiled, snapped the lighter a couple of times, and replied slowly:

“We have nothing to lead us to believe it could be done with any degree of certainty.”

Good nature was applied by the colonel when someone quipped about how he kept from revealing the secret while “talking in his sleep.”

“I don't talk in my sleep - and my wife was just as surprised as any one when she learned Monday what we had been working on,” the colonel smiled.

But the more serious questions were answered in rapid-fire order, the gray-haired colonel seldom avoiding an answer, and then only when security was involved, or the top committee in the East had ruled that the subject was not to be discussed.

Why Hanford Was Chosen

After discussing how the present Hanford site was selected because of the availability of huge quantities of electrical power, an abundance of pure water, isolation and cheap land, Colonel Matthias said that the late President Roosevelt was in close touch with the project from the beginning, as was Secretary of War Stimson.

President Roosevelt wanted to visit the project but decided against it because it would focus too much attention on it. The Truman Senate investigating committee, too, withheld visiting Hanford, the colonel said, for the same reason.

“The then Senator Truman probably had some inkling of it through Secretary Stimson.”

Reluctance to emphasize the project also prevented it from beginning with a triple-A priority for materials, he said, and work was begun with a third-rate priority. It later was raised when the pinch of materials threatened to slow construction and it was possible to increase the priority without emphasizing the project.

Actually, Colonel Matthias said, he didn't know the exact nature of the project when he and two other officers selected the site.

“We had only an approximate idea,” he explained.

“We knew that we had to have firm ground for massive buildings,” he said.

These were the towering buildings which newsmen saw from a short distance.

The looming chimneys cast their shadows in points toward the old construction town of Hanford, where row on row of Quonset huts; large square dormitories which once housed tens of thousands of men and women; the commissary which once fed thousands of the employes (sic), and the research and administrative buildings spread over scores of acres.

No Workers to Remove Town

Officers explained that they were left standing for two reasons. Construction changes might at any time up until a few weeks ago have necessitated their being used again to house more workers. The second reason was the reluctance to divert essential manpower to their demolition, although much of the critical electrical materials have been stripped of and shipped to the South Pacific. To get on with Colonel Matthias' revelations, he spoke of the independence of the Hanford and Oak Ridge, Tenn., plants in response to a question.

“Could the material for the atomic bomb be produced in either Oak Ridge or Hanford?”

“Yes, all of the essential materials,” the colonel replied, adding that the processes employed in the two projects differs.

“Have you had any trouble with sabotage-spies?” “The word spies needs defining - but I can say that when the project was in its early stages we had some people here who were here to try to find out something.”

“And I can add with certainty we haven't any now,” Colonel Matthias said with emphasis.

“You know, when some of them applied and found they had to have their fingerprints taken before they came to work they didn't show up again.

Low Rate of Injury

“The project,” he said, “had a low rate of injury among workmen, and only 16 of the thousands of men and women who worked on the project were injured fatally - 11 in two accidents, the collapse of a big tank and a train-wreck.

“Its unusual but we are not eligible for the E award given by the Army and Navy,” the colonel said. “We're too far along - 90 per cent - with the construction to win a construction award and not far enough along to get an award through comparison with other plants.

“Throughout the war, the project has had no direct protection against external enemy action - no anti-aircraft; no protective troops and no aircraft.”

Colonel Matthias explained that radar was installed at the project hurriedly, “when we saw or thought we saw unidentified aircraft operating.” Defensive plans, not to be confused with internal security, rested in an arrangement with the Navy to send fighter planes if needed and arrangement with the 9th Service Command to “send us all the troops they had if we needed them.”

“Do you see any peacetime use of the plant?” he was asked.

“Well, they used to say that there was no future for the horseless carriage, but you know what happened,” he laughed. “I can't answer that question and I don't think anyone else can because no one knows.

“The project was not built with the idea of being part of any projected Columbia River development.”

He said that the project was a round-the-clock operation, meaning that it is like an aluminum plant in necessity of continuous operation, which brought out that for a time there was an outside chance electrical power interruption by an accident might break off production. But precautions have been completed now to insure against this.

Other Atoms May Be Used

“I cannot over-emphasize the importance to the nation of security on this project,” he said.

“On the committee working with the future of the process there are commercial interests because it is hoped that it can be handled to the best interest of the country.”

Colonel Matthias said that it is common belief that atoms other than of U-235 uranium - which is used in the present process - can be utilized as research progresses.

“I did not think that the public could so quickly realize the importance of the development of atomic energy,” Colonel Matthias replied in response to a question as to whether it was being over-emphasized.

“I think it is the biggest thing that has happened in many years.”

“The project was financed at first from President Roosevelt's special fund to exploit war production,” Colonel Matthias said. “But later the funds were obtained from a regular congressional appropriation. This involved letting key members of the appropriations committees know of the importance of the development, but the key secret was withheld.”

Robert Hastings of Colorado is a regular speaker at the annual UFOfest in McMinnville and has worked more than 40 years researching UFOs and their interactions with nuclear weapons. UFOs in January 1945, he said, buzzed the Hanford plutonium production site in Pasco on three separate nights.

The area was top secret, of course, for making the plutonium that would go into the atomic bombs the U.S. dropped months later on Japan to end World War II.

Hastings in his research found base personnel saw the objects, which also appeared on military radar, and one night an F6F Hellcat fighter pilot tried to intercept whatever was flying over the site.

Clarence R. “Bud” Clem was a lieutenant junior grade in U.S. Naval Reserves at the time, and at 84 years of age told Hastings in 2009 how he was in the flight tower and assisted with communications between radar operators and the pilot, Lt. Cmdr. Richard Brown.

Brown reported chasing a bright ball of fire, according to Clem's account, but could never catch the thing, which after a few moments zoomed toward Seattle and off radar.

Hastings said the story was one thing, but documents in The National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C., confirmed Clem's report of “bogies” over Hanford. The things raised such a concern, Hastings said, the military considered bringing in a special night squad of fighter planes to protect Hanford.

He also said he was not surprised the story never made it to the public in 1945. Even today, he said, what government official would want to admit objects were zipping over U.S. military bases and no one could do a thing to stop them?

“One external threat was the launching of Japanese balloon bombs. Following a United States raid on Tokyo after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, the Japanese produced about nine thousand rice paper balloon bombs. Easterly winds carried them to the North American mainland, including some in the Hanford area. One of the balloons tangled in a power line that stretched between Bonneville and Grand Coulee dams resulting in a power outage at the Hanford Site. Although the power outage was shorter than a minute, it took 3 days to restore the reactors to full power (Jones 1985, Sanger 1995). For more information, see also McDowell (1993) and the Tri-City Herald (1995).”

“The Japanese balloon bombs were a real worry. Everybody at the plant was always looking up because of the statistical chance of one falling. I remember seeing 40 at one time going over. The Navy planes at Pasco chased them regularly but they had poor luck. Matthias and I went over to prod them about getting better protection. They never managed to shoot one down, although a number came down on the project, but away from buildings. The bombs never went off, but the balloons blew around and the military were a great sight trying to round these up without being blown up themselves.” - Walter O. Simon quoted in Sanger 1995, p. 155”