al good ones.

In Banning, California, Ground Observer Corps spotters watched a
"balloon-like object make three rectangular circuits around the
town." In Plymouth, New Hampshire, two GOC spotters reported "a
bright yellow object which left a trail, similar to a jet, moving
slowly at a very high altitude." At Rosebury, Oregon, State Police
received many reports of "funny green and red lights" moving slowly
around a television transmitter tower. And in Hartford, Connecticut,
two amateur astronomers, looking at Saturn through a 4-inch
telescope, were distracted by a bright light. Turning their telescope
on it they observed a "large, whitish yellow light, shaped like a ten
gallon hat." Many other people evidently saw the same UFO because the
local newspaper said, "reports have been pouring in."

In Miami, a Pan American Airlines radar operator tracked a UFO at
speeds up to 4000 miles an hour. Five of his skeptical fellow radar
operators watched and were confirmed.

At Moneymore, Northern Ireland, a "level-headed and God fearing"
citizen and his wife captured an 18-inch saucer by putting a headlock
on it. They started to the local police station, but put the saucer
down to climb over a hedge, and it went whirling off to the
hinterlands of space.

The 27th Air Defense Division that guards the vast aircraft and
missile centers of Southern California was alerted on the night of
September 9. In rapid succession, a Western Airlines pilot making an
approach to Los Angeles International Airport, the Ground Observer
Corps, and numerous Los Angeles citizens called in a white light
moving slowly across the Los Angeles basin. When the big defense
radars on San Clemente Island picked up an unknown target in the same
area that the light was being reported two F-89 jet interceptors were
scrambled but saw nothing.

A few days later investigators learned that a $27.65 weather balloon
had caused the many thousand dollars' worth of excitement.

The matter of scrambling interceptors has been a sore point with the
UFO business for a long time. Many people believe that the mere fact
the Air Force will send up two, three, or even four aircraft that
cost $2000 an hour to fly is proof positive that the Air Force
doesn't believe its own story that UFO's don't exist.

The official answer you'll get, if you ask the Air Force, is that
they scramble against _any_ unknown target as a matter of defense.
But over coffee you get a different answer.