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The UFO Phenomenon

US Navy once fired at a 'balloon weapon' that turned out to be Venus

By T.K. Randall
February 15, 2023 · Comment icon 3 comments



Turns out you can't shoot down Venus with one of these. Image Credit: Twitter / US Naval Institute
The rather embarrassing incident was recently recounted in a Tweet by the US Naval Institute.
Back in the 1940s, at a time when Japan was using balloons to drop bombs and other incendiary devices over the United States, the crew of a US Navy vessel spotted a spherical object in the sky that they believed to be one such weapon.

"We opened fire at what we thought was the altitude of the [balloon]," Lanson B. Ditto, who had been serving on the ship at the time, later recalled of the incident. "We had to estimate."

"We set a fuse to go off at an estimated altitude. We started out at 5,000 feet [1,524 meters] and could see that it was coming up short, so we raised to about 7,500 feet [2,286 meters] and could see that it was short, too. So, we raised it up to the maximum of 10,000 feet [3,048 meters]."
Despite their best efforts, however, the crew were unable to hit the object.

The reason, it turned out, was because what they were actually firing at was the planet Venus.



Source: IFL Science | Comments (3)




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Recent comments on this story
Comment icon #1 Posted by Crabby Kitten 10 months ago
Sorry but this has made me laugh so much I almost fell over. 
Comment icon #2 Posted by Poncho_Peanatus 10 months ago
Dammit Venus
Comment icon #3 Posted by Nicolette 10 months ago
If anyone wanted to know where their tax dollars go...


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