MCAS Cherry Point—A favorite ready room conversation for Second Marine Air Wing pilots has been the story of the “flying saucer” which recently outsped an F9F Panther jet flying more than 500 mph.
The jet pilot, 1st Lt. Ed Balocco, was on a local night flight from ALF [Auxiliary Landing Field] EDENTON when alerted by Norfolk Navy tower to watch for a silver object sighted from the ground near the North Carolina-Virginia line.
Over Washington, N. C, the VMF-224 pilot said, “I saw what looked like an airplane with red lights which appeared to be below me .... It moved from below me 10,000 feet vertically in a matter of seconds.”
Balocco said he poured on the coal and could not close on the object at first, then closed rapidly. At a distance of 10 miles, it looked about a quarter of an inch wide and three inches long to the lieutenant's vision. From that he considered it a “big” object, the color of white heat and throwing out a glow. It had what appeared to be two red lights on the left-hand side, flashing and bouncing off the end, inscribing an arc.
