click this over here now Mary Hyre’s next letter to John discussed UFO sightings, phone troubles, and “space grass.” John wrote “phones” on the envelope, so that was probably the part that most interested him. The clipping was not in the envelope; he must have filed it elsewhere. He did, by the way, save some of the “space grass” (radar chaff) that he collected from a UFO landing site in Point Pleasant 1n 1966. Here it is.
I looked through my Point Pleasant photos after reading this, because I remembered driving its length (you end up in the TNT Area if you follow Sand Hill Road several miles) and getting lost in 2003. Sand Hill Road is a right turn off Route 62 (which is the direct way to TNT Area), and cuts through a vast cemetery. Beyond that, a semi-rural residential area, then into complete wilds. Easy to imagine–as in the TNT Area–just about anything happening there. The radar chaff was reported a lot in the 1960s–even where I grew up, in northeast Ohio. Great material!
Comment by William J. Grabowski — May 19, 2014 @ 5:16 am
Thanks, William! I’ve never been to Point Pleasant, myself. I think that chaff puzzled many people back then…
Comment by Doug — May 19, 2014 @ 9:41 am
Yes, and it seems not all chaff reports are equal. Some sound like genuine anomalies, akin to falls of “angel hair.” Still, whatever the source(s), grist for the imagination mill.
Comment by William J. Grabowski — May 20, 2014 @ 7:22 am
I guess the foil is obviously different from Christmas tree “icicles?” You can’t tell so much from the photo how big it is, but the radar chaff I’ve seen is substantial, as it has to be cut to the half wavelength of the radar you’re trying to jam.
PBT
Comment by Paul Thompson — June 10, 2014 @ 1:15 pm
It looks like Christmas tinsel to me too. John called it radar chaff, though. Are there different kinds of chaff? Was this stuff used in 1967?
Comment by Doug — June 12, 2014 @ 7:57 am
I think chaff is still used, but it’s less important now with computer analyzed radar returns. (You can differentiate between a cloud of chaff and a moving airplane by the doppler shift of the comparative rates of movement). Chaff was used in the 60s in Vietnam and in the Middle East, often to confuse SAMs. It’ supposed to be cut to half the wavelength of the radar you’re trying to fox–the fancy for it is “dipole aerials”.
PBT
Comment by Paul Thompson — June 17, 2014 @ 9:49 pm