Page Content (OCR)
tape recorders were working so that anything taking place from that moment on would be on record. Then, an amazing series of events eat unfolded. My jet flew at a speed of 600 mph (950 km/hr) and the "balloon" remained about 1,600 feet (500 meters) in front of me. As we got farther from the base, I reported to the control tower information such as "I am at three thousand meters of altitude and twenty kilometers from the base ... I am at six thousand meters of altitude and forty kilometers from the base ..." and so on. By this time I was over the city of Camana, which was about fifty-two miles (eighty-four kilometers) from the base, flying at 36,000 feet (11,000 meters). I was in full pursuit of the object, when it came to a sudden stop and forced me to veer to the side. I made a turn upward to the right and tried to position myself for another shot. Once I obtained the desired position to fire, which was approximately 3,000 feet (1,000 meters) from the object, I began closing in on it until I had it in perfect sight. I locked on the target and was ready to shoot. But just at that moment, the object made another fast climb, evading the attack. I was left underneath it; it "broke the attack." I attempted this same attack maneuver two more times. Each time, I had the object on target when it was stationary. And each time, the object escaped by ascending vertically seconds before I started to fire. It eluded my attack three times, each time at the very last moment. Throughout this time I was very focused on trying to achieve my window of about 1,300 to 2,300 feet (400 to 700 meters) distance, which was where I had to position my plane in order to shoot. As this became less possible, I was very surprised and kept asking myself what was going on. Then it became a personal thing for me. I had to get it. But I couldn't because it would always ascend. I was committed to this mission, and felt I must succeed. This was all that mattered, and I felt confident knowing I Eventually, as a result of this series of rapid movements upward, the object ended up at an altitude of 46,000 feet (14,000 meters). I had to think of something else to do! I decided to make a bold ascent with my plane so that this time I would be above the object, and then I would come down on it vertically and initiate an attack from above. This way, if the object began to ascend as in the previous three attempts, it would not leave my target range and it would be easier for me to fire. I was not concerned about any collision because of the agility and maneuverability of my plane. So I accelerated my plane at supersonic speed and went back to where the "balloon" was, by this time traveling at a speed of Mach 1.6, which is approximately 1,150 mph (1,850 km/hr). I calculated the distance between the object and myself as I began to make the ascent. As I went higher, I saw that the object was in fact under me and I thought I would be able to gain the necessary altitude to pull off the maneuver as planned, and moment on would be on record. had an outstanding airplane.