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And then there was Lt. Samuel A. Krasney’s experience: a wingless cigar-shape object, glowing
red, just a few yards off the plane’s wingtip. Lt. Krasney, justifiably spooked, instructed the pilot
to attempt evasive maneuvers, but the glowing object stayed right next to the jet for several
minutes before it “flew off and disappeared.”
Eventually, the airmen named the lights: foo fighters, inspired by the comic strip “Smokey
Stover,” in which Smokey (a firefighter) would often declare, “Where there’s foo, there’s fire.
UFO Encounter Above Nuclear Plant
In the summer of 1945, only weeks away from the end of World War II, Roland D. Powell was
helping to train young pilots in the specifics of aircraft carrier operations. He was also
responsible for guarding the top-secret plutonium-producing Hanford Engineering Works, which
sat around 100 kilometers (60 mi) from Pasco, Washington. This particular afternoon, the radar
at Pasco picked up on an extremely fast-moving object that had since become stationary over the
nuclear plant. Powell would be part of the squadron sent out to see what the strange object was.
He would later recall it to be “the size of three aircraft carriers” and that it looked extremely
streamlined. The estimated altitude was around 19,800 meters (65,000 ft). He would also recall
seeing some kind of vapor that would periodically be dispersed from portholes around the edge
of the craft.As the planes—Grumman F6F Hellcats—could only achieve altitude of 11,300
meters (37,000 ft), they were unable to draw level with the mammoth object. They would
ultimately return to base, whereupon the lightning-fast object vanished directly upward.