Gary Dillman Sighting of July 26, 2002,
Between 1:00 am and 1:55 am
Brandywine, MD

Background Information

GPS reading for Brandywine site: 38 degrees 41' 57", 076 degrees 48' 33". Compass readings seemed off, so directions taken by the setting sun, power lines as landmarks, and verified by topographic maps. Directions derived by the sun/topographic maps are in good agreement with Dillman's estimates. The site is a sand-and-gravel operation, and affords an excellent view of the sky, with exceptions being an area to the north obscured by a nearby small grove of trees and an area on southern horizon between SSE and SE where trees along a nearby road obscure a segment of the the horizon. Of importance in this report is that Waldorf is to the SW and fighters from Andrews maneuvered in the SE sky, and both of these areas were clear of obstruction.

The witness, Gary Dillman is in his early 60's, retired-policeman with the Washington, D.C. Police Department, has 15 years experience as a private investigator, and currently works security at a large sand-and-gravel operation. He has worked security at this site for 5 years and is very familiar with air base activity in the area. He is a 30-year resident of southern Maryland, and quite familiar with the geographical area. He is a MUFON Field Investigator, and a MUFON State Section Director for Maryland. Although he has a long-time interest in the UFO field, this is his first sighting.

This site is about 8 miles NE of the Waldorf area where Renny Rogers had a sighting during the same time period and is about 6 miles SE of Andrews AFB. Weather conditions were similar to those described for the Rogers sighting, although Dillman said he saw the moon periodically and briefly through the upper overcast.

Sequence of Events

  1. At 1 am, four fighters take off from Andrews and maneuver in the distant SE sky, sometimes returning to Andrews area and then flying back to the SE.
  2. An orange object appears in SW sky and banks away when a fighter approaches.
  3. This scenario is repeated 10 minutes later.
  4. At 1:55 am, four fighters return to Andrews.
  1. Fighters become airborne. Dillman was sitting in his truck looking east when he heard aircraft take off from Andrews ABF. Two fighters came from the NW (Andrews is about 6 miles to the NW), flew over the witness heading SE. Then two more fighters flew over from the NW going SE, but their flight path was slightly more to the S than the first pair. All four aircraft were in view at the same time. Some fighters were using short bursts of their afterburners, which Dillman could see and hear the boom.

    2. Dillman noticed a white blinking strobe light with a pattern of 1-2-3-4-pause on these aircraft, and this is how he tracked them for the next half-hour. For the most part, he could see only one fighter at a time in the distance, sometimes two, as they did air-show type maneuvers in the E-SE sky. This included tight circles, banking turns right and left, and one did a hard left turn immediately followed by a hard right turn that then led into a tight circle. The fighters would return, usually in pairs, to the Andrews AFB area only to fly back to the SE again or sometimes flying south of Dillman's position, and then bearing to the SE. They were not flying in formation. The activity to the SE was generally about 20-25 degrees above the horizon, probably over southern Maryland, a fairly populated area.

    Dillman called WTOP news radio at 1:30 am to alert them that something unusual was happening.

  2. Orange object appears. Soon after his call to WTOP, standing by his truck, Dillman saw a round orange ball on a downward path coming toward him in the SW sky. First seen at about 25-30 degrees over the SW horizon, it grew brighter and larger as it descended to about 20 degrees. At that point, a fighter appeared out of the clouds, coming from the N or E, turning toward the orange object, which responded with a smooth curving banking turn to the S and away from the fighter, which followed. During the turn, the orange circle appeared oval. The distance between the orange oval/circle and the fighter was estimated at 3.5 cm at arms length. They flew S, curving E, still about 20 degrees above the horizon until lost in the cloud layer toward the SE . The orange ball and the fighter maintain a constant distance from one another; in other words, the orange ball did not outrun the fighter, and the fighter stayed right with the orange ball. Dillman emphasized the orange circle and the fighter were not close to him. His guess was they may have been in the Waldorf area (7 miles away). Total time of this sequence is estimated to be between 10-15 seconds. The only noise detected was the sound from the fighter.

  3. The sequence repeats itself. At 1:40 am, Dillman called WTOP a second time with an update regarding the orange circle and the fighter. He could still see a couple of aircraft moving in the eastern sky. Just after his call, a similar sequence of events to the above occurred. Again in the SW sky at about 25 degrees from the horizon, he could see the orange ball moving from the W to the S in a very slow banking turn. It appeared as a slender oval, and as it banked it became more and more round as it headed to the S. It was being followed by one fighter. The distance between them was about the same as before. They flew S or SE, still turning, and then curved to the E again and disappearing in the same area of the sky as before into the clouds. Entire flight path was level. This sequence also lasted 10-15 seconds.

    4. After this Dillman neither saw nor heard aircraft until 1:55 am.

  4. At 1:55 am, a pair of fighters coming from the SE, followed by a second pair, flew toward Andrews AFB as if approaching for landing. No more was seen or heard.

Description of the Orange Circle

The color was the same as that of an edible orange and no variation could be seen. It had a hard edge (i.e., it was more comparable to looking a softly glowing piece of metal than it was to looking at a light source). The orange circle was much larger than the white strobing light of the fighter. Dillman's sense was that the orange circle was as big as the fighter. Comparing the size of the orange circle to aircraft and other lights available at the site, arm's length estimates using a clear centimeter ruler ranged from ½ mm to 2 mm, with Dillman feeling strongly the 2 mm estimate was the more accurate one. Its shape was round except for the times when it was banking and it appeared oval and once as a thin oval or ellipse. Dillman had a gut feeling he might be looking at some sort of exhaust, but realized that did not make sense as he was seeing an orange circle as it approach him head on.

This is the basic information from this sighting. The neighbor of Rogers in Waldorf area sighting has just been interviewed, and his observations will be presented shortly. At that point, connections, similarities, and differences between the three observers can be outlined and presented.