Product Description

On two consecutive Saturdays in July 1952, the nation's capitol was the site of two of the twentieth century's most remarkable occurrences. Radar picked up what is believed to have been eight alien aircraft racing across the night sky -- traveling at speeds and maneuvering in ways impossible for the era. Despite military coercion, forcing eyewitnesses to change their testimony -- despite the government's suppression of film, photos and official reports -- one fact remains indisputable: they were here. And now one of the world's leading UFOlogists reveals the complete and startling truth about the astonishing phenomena dubbed "the Washington Nationals."

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #203874 in Books
• Published on: 2001-11-01
• Released on: 2001-10-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 320 pages

About the Author
Kevin D. Randle, Captain, U.S.A.F.R., is the author of Project Moondust, Conspiracy of Silence, and A History of UFO Crashes, and the co-author of UFO Crash at Roswell and The Truth About the UFO Crash at Roswell.A Captain in the United States Air Force Reserve, he is considered the foremost expert on the Roswell incident, and is well known as a serious researcher of extraterrestrial phenomena.Captain Randle makes his home in lowa.

Customer Reviews

Another Look at a UFO Classic
"Invasion Washington" is an interesting treatment of the famous Washington National (airport) sightings of July 1952, written by Kevin Randle, who has become the voice of reasoned inquiry on the UFO topic.

Although I enjoyed the book, I felt it was hurt by a couple of problems -- first, the author's tendency to "waffle" in his explanations of some sightings and second, a number of editorial problems that give the book a slap-dash, hurriedly-put-together feel.

In some cases, I'm still not sure whether Randle feels a given sighting is truly unidentified or not. In other cases, I get the impression that he ignores credible evidence out of some sort of fear that he might appear too gullible (in particular, when he dismisses a photograph as a hoax without addressing the explanations of the original investigators OR the fact that some 40 eyewitnesses saw the object).

My objections to the editorial problems may stem from the fact that I am an editor. Still, when I see numerous misspellings, mispunctuations, and sentences that seem to lose their way in mid-stride, I have to conclude that someone was not paying attention.

Nontheless, the book overall is worth a read; it is a good treatment not only of the Washington National sightings in particular, but of what I consider the UFO "Age of Innocence" in general.

A Superb Analysis of the Washington UFO "Invasion" of 1952!
Dr. Kevin Randle has researched the UFO mystery for nearly a quarter-century, and he's earned a reputation as one of the few "ufologists" to be taken seriously. Unlike many UFO "fanatics" who do little research and who treat every UFO sighting as "proof" of alien visitation, Randle does thorough, objective research and openly admits that he's skeptical of many UFO reports (and he's highly skeptical of all UFO "abduction" reports). However, Randle, a former Air Force Captain, also doesn't believe that the testimony of thousands of reliable, competent UFO witnesses can simply be dismissed; and that the "physical evidence" of UFO sightings - radar traces, photographs, burn marks on the ground - does provide some "proof" that the UFO mystery is real and not fiction. "Invasion of Washington" is one of Randle's finest and most persuasive books to date. Reaching a half-century back into UFO history, this book focuses on what may be the single most important UFO case in American history. On two consecutive Saturday nights in July 1952, dozens of strange lights were seen above the nation's capital. Even more importantly, the objects were also detected by radar at Washington National Airport and Andrews Air Force Base at the same time. Radar experts in both radar centers confirmed that the strange objects were "solid targets", and a worried Pentagon even ordered jet fighters to intercept the UFOs. Weirdly, when the first few fighters arrived, the UFOs all vanished AT THE SAME TIME - they all disappeared off the radarscopes! However, when the fighters ran low on fuel and left, the objects just as suddenly returned - convincing the observers in both radar centers that the objects were under intelligent control. Eventually, however, at least one of the fighter pilots was "surrounded" by the strange lights, which then took off at fantastic speeds away from the fighter. The "Invasion of Washington" made front-page headlines in newspapers around the nation, and President Truman even called the head of the Air Force's Project Blue Book - the top-secret group investigating UFO sightings - to ask what was going on. With Blue Book being swamped by UFO reports (more UFOs were reported in 1952 than in any other year in US history), a concerned Air Force held a press conference at the Pentagon - the largest since World War Two - to address the issue. General John Samford dismissed the UFO sightings as "mirages", and the radar traces as "temperature inversions" - but never offered any evidence for these explanations. Randle easily disproves both theories - there were numerous "temperature inversions" throughout the month of July 1952, yet these two nights were the only times that visual sightings were made of UFOs, and radar operators in both radar centers noted that the UFOs were "strong, solid" blips, while the temperature inversions recorded on the radarscopes were weak returns which the operators easily filtered out. He also offers compelling evidence that the Air Force pressured both military and civilian pilots into changing their stories to "go along" with the "mirage" explanation (excuse). He describes both how and why Project Blue Book's mission changed after July 1952 - going from a talented and serious-minded organization dedicated to objectively investigating UFO sightings, to an understaffed group dedicated to debunking and explaining away every UFO sighting it received. For a UFO buff this book is a "must", but it also is an engrossing account of the UFO incident which possibly provides the strongest "evidence" that UFOs are real objects, and not simply hoaxes, hallucinations, or misindentifications of stars, planets, meteors, etc. Highly recommended!