"Impact" Rating = 13
"Credibility" Rating = 11
"Expert" Rating = 7
"Strangeness" Rating = 5
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
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:
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
There is a rapid turnover of UFO material on the Internet. Many links to material on UFO websites quickly become out of date. Therefore, instead of giving many links to specific webpages I have instead included below a search box which can be used to search various leading UFO websites at the same time. You can then click on tabs at the top of the search results to list only results from forums, only results from websites I have labelled as "skeptical" etc. I have included tabs for a couple of specific websites that I find particularly useful, including the valuable archives of the UFO UpDates email discussion List. The relevant websites are all listed in the discussion of the "UFO Searchillion" search engine in Section 2.4 of the "Free UFO Researcher Starter Pack" and continues to evolve...
The relevant search box is one of the two main tools on this website which are intended to help reduce the amount of reinvention of the wheel within UFOlogy. The other main tool is the collection of tables of references to discussion of UFO incidents, personalities and other matters in various books. Those tables can be sorted by author, length and date. I hope these tools are useful.
Book References
The table below includes references to relevant discussions in UFO/SETI books noted by Isaac Koi during a review of approximately 963 UFO/SETI books during the period 2003-2006 (with a few later additions). The table can be sorted by author, date and length of discussion by clicking on the relevant word in the top line of the table.
Many of the tables of references on this website are considerably longer than the references to books found on most other UFO websites. Indeed, some are probably the longest that have been collated in relation to some events and personalities. Together with the "UFO Searchillion" search box, I hope that these tables are found to be a useful contribution to UFOlogy.
For discussion of the Gorman “dogfight” incident see the following:
|
Year |
Discussion by:
|
No. of Pages |
|
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 |
|
|
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 |
|
|
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 |
|
|
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 |
|
|
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 |
|
|
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 |
4 |
|
|
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 |
|
|
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 |
|
|
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 |
|
|
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 |
|
|
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 |
|
|
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 |
|
|
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 |
|
|
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 |
|
|
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 |
|
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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 |
|
|
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 |
|
|
Greenfield, Irving A in his “The UFO Report” (1967) at pages 76-78 (in Chapter 8) of the Lancer paperback edition. |
3 |
|
|
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 |
|
|
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 |
|
|
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 |
|
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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 |
|
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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 |
|
|
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 |
|
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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 |
|
|
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 |
|
|
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). |
|
|
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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: |
16 |
|
|
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 |
|
|
|
2 |
|
|
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 |
|
|
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 |
|
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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 |
|
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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 |
|
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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 |
|
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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 |
|
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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 |
|
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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 |
|
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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 |
|
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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 |
|
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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 |
|
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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, |
1 |
|
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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 |
|
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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: |
5 |
|
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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 “ |
2 |
|
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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 |
|
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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 |
|
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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 “ |
3 |
|
|
Sparks, Brad in version 1.7 of his “Comprehensive Catalog of 1,500 Project |
2 |
|
|
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 |
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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 |
|
|
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 “ |
1 |
|
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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 |
3 |
|
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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 |
|
|
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 |
|
|
Stemman, |
2 |
|
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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 |
|
|
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 |
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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 |
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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 |
|
|
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 |
|
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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 |
|
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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 |
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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 (“
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.orgPlease use the comments section below to share references to any particularly interesting relevant articles.