NOTE: The cache is not at the posted coordinates. The coordinates will take you to the nearby Titanic memorial, which is worthy of its own cache but is sitting right smack dab in the middle of NPS land.
1952 Washington D.C. UFO incident
The 1952 Washington DC UFO incident was a series of UFO reports from July 12 to July 29, 1952. The most publicized sightings took place on consecutive weekends, July 19-20 and July 26-27.
July 19-29
At 11:40pm on Saturday, July 19, 1952, an air traffic controller at National Airport spotted seven objects on his radar. No known aircraft were in the area and the objects were not following any established flight paths. The radio controller's supervisor watched the objects on the radarscope and later wrote: "We knew immediately that a very strange situation existed...their movements were completely radical compared to to those of ordinary aircraft."
Two other controllers checked the radar, which was found to be working normally. They then called the airport's other radar center where a controller also had the objects on his radar. This controller could see one of the objects by looking out of the control tower window. At this point, other objects appeared in all sectors of the radarscope; when they moved over the White House and the US Capitol, Andrews Air Force Base was called.
Although Andrews reported that they had no unusual objects on their radar, an airman soon called the control tower to report the sighting of a strange object. An airman in the tower then saw an "object which appeared to be like an orange ball of fire, trailing a tail...[it was] unlike anything I had ever seen before." As he tried to alert other personnel the object "took off at an unbelievable rate of speed." Meanwhile another person at the National Airport control tower reported seeing "an orange disk about 3,000 feet altitude." A Capital Airlines pilot waiting in the cockpit of his DC-4 for permission to take off observed six "white, tailless, fast-moving lights." Each sighting corresponded to a pip on the radarscope. Control tower personnel at Andrews were tracking the objects on radar. One of the instances proved to be simply stars and meteors while others remained unknown. At one point both radar centers at National Airport and the radar at Andrews were tracking an object hovering over a radio beacon. The object vanished in all three radar centers at the same time. At 3am, shortly before two US Air Force F-94 Starfire jet fighters from New Castle Air Force Base in Delaware arrived over DC, all of the objects disappeared from the radar. However once the jets ran low on fuel and left, the objects returned. The objects were last seen on radar at 5:30am.
These sightings made front-page headlines in newspapers around the nation. The Air Force stated that unusual weather conditions could have caused the unknown radar targets.
July 26-27
At 8:15pm on Saturday, July 26 a pilot and stewardess on a National Airlines flight into DC observed strange lights above the plane. Within minutes, both radar centers at National Airport, and the radar at Andrews were tracking more unknown objects. By 9:30pm the radar center at National Airport was picking up unknown objects in every sector. At 11:30pm, two F-94 Starjet fighters arrived from New Castle. One of the wingmen saw four white "glows" and chased them. Suddenly the "glows" appeared to turn and surround the jet. The "glows" then sped away and disappeared. Two more F-94s were scrambled during the night. One pilot moved towards a white light that vanished when he closed in. A Capital Airlines flight leaving DC spotted "odd lights" which remained visible for about twelve minutes. The sightings and unknown radar returns ended at sunrise.
These sightings also made front-page headlines and even led President Truman to call Capt. Ruppelt (head of Project Blue Book) for an explanation. Capt. Rupert said that the sightings might have been caused by a temperature inversion which can cause radar signals to bend and give false returns. White House concern may have led to an order to shoot down the UFOs. An Air Force public information officer confirmed that "The jet pilots are, and have been, under orders to investigate unidentified objects and to shoot them down if they can't talk them down." However, Air Force Headquarters also put out statements that the unidentified flying objects were no threat to the US and not controlled by "a reasoning body."
The Cache
The objects from the 1952 incident could be seen from several vantage points in DC. I picked a location for the cache from which you can see planes flying to/from the airport. As noted above, the cache is not at the posted coordinates (on NPS land). This is the best view that I could find that is not on private property, government property, or NPS property.
Now for the location...
The coordinates follow the typical N XX° XX.XXX, W XX° XX.XXX. The photos are read left to right, top to bottom.
Crop circle readings (like UFO sightings) are open to interpretation. While I tried to pick ones that I felt represented what I was looking for, others may see different things in the photos. As such, before heading out you can check your answers for this puzzle on GeoChecker.com.