New History Channel Show Tells of Pilot’s 1948 ‘Dogfight’ With UFO Above Fargo

by Kim Hyatt                       January 9, 2019                      (westfargopioneer.com)

• The first episode of “Project Blue Book” premiered on the History Channel Tuesday, January 8th. It focuses on a 25-year-old National Guard lieutenant’s encounter with an UFO in the skies above Fargo, North Dakota.

• In October 1948, the local Fargo newspaper interviewed Lieutenant George Gorman, a B-25 fighter pilot in World War II. He told ‘The Forum’ that his “dogfight” with the UFO was “the weirdest experience I’ve had in my life.”

• The Fargo newspaper ran an account of the incident at the time. Flying at night in a P-51 over what is now North Dakota State University during a football game, Gorman saw a “flying disk”. It was round with well-defined edges, brilliantly lit and circling over the city. Gorman decided to investigate and a 27-minute chase ensued. Gorman tried crashing into it, but the disk dodged him at speeds of 600 mph. His P-51 aircraft’s top speed was 400 mph. As he approached the disk, it lit up and, with a burst of speed, outdistanced him.

• “Once, when the object was coming head on, I held my plane pointed right at it,” Gorman reported. “The object came so close that I involuntarily ducked my head because I thought a crash was inevitable. But the object zoomed over my head.”

• His story was corroborated by another pilot flying over Fargo that night, and two air traffic controllers to whom Gorman relayed information regarding the disk. Maj. D. C. Jones, commander of the 178th fighter squadron at Hector airport, said Gorman was so shaken by the experience that Gorman had difficulty landing that night.

• The Air Force investigated the incident through Project Blue Book, as depicted in the television show. According to the National Archives, there were more than 12,500 sightings reported to Project Blue Book in the 1950’s and 60’s, but the investigations officially found no evidence that UFOs were “extraterrestrial vehicles” or a security threat, including this one. Air Force investigators noted that Gorman was a credible, sincere witness “who was considerably puzzled by his experience and made no attempt to blow his story up.” But the Air Force ultimately ruled it an encounter with a weather balloon.

• According to ‘The Forum’ newspaper clippings from 1947 to 1995, UFO sightings were a dime a dozen back then. “A flurry of reports of unidentified flying objects were made in North Dakota,” says an article from August 1965. Countless columns aimed to disprove the sightings, claiming that “flying saucers aren’t for real,” said one article from August 1963. A March 1950 article tried to downplay the UFO hype, saying UFOs aren’t anything new and that, in fact, sightings in North Dakota dated back to 1897.

• Nevertheless, the Fargo-Moorhead area has welcomed “ufologists” for lectures over the years. Officials investigated reports made by children, adults and law enforcement alike.

• As for Gorman, he carried out his career in the Guard quietly, never again speaking publicly about his UFO experience. He denied Life magazine an interview in 1952. Gorman told friends that “he was never convinced that he had been dueling with a lighted balloon for 27 minutes.”

A new History Channel series exploring U.S. investigations into UFOs has a strong Fargo tie.

The first episode of “Project Blue Book” premiered Tuesday, Jan. 8. It focuses on a 25-year-old National Guard lieutenant’s encounter with an unidentified flying object in the skies above Fargo.

The lieutenant, George Gorman, a B-25 fighter pilot in World War II, told The Forum in October 1948 that the “dogfight” with the UFO was “the weirdest experience I’ve had in my life.”

According to the archived Forum article: Flying in a P-51 over what is now North Dakota State University during a football game, Gorman saw the “flying disk,” according to the archived Forum article. It was round with well-defined edges, brilliantly lit and circling over the city.

After Gorman decided to investigate the disk, a 27-minute chase ensued in the Fargo night sky.

Gorman tried crashing into it, but the disk dodged him at speeds of 600 mph, he recalled. His aircraft was going at a top speed of 400 mph, and as he approached the disk, it lit up and, with a burst of speed, outdistanced him.

“Once, when the object was coming head on, I held my plane pointed right at it,” Gorman said. “The object came so close that I involuntarily ducked my head because I thought a crash was inevitable. But the object zoomed over my head.”

His story was corroborated by another pilot flying in Fargo that night and two air traffic controllers who Gorman relayed information to regarding the disk’s antics.

Maj. D. C. Jones, commander of the 178th fighter squadron at Hector airport, said Gorman was so shaken by the experience that Gorman had difficulty landing that night.

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