| Frederic Sargent was studying economics at Colby College in Maine when the draft for World War II beckoned. In 1942, the 22-year-old joined the 415th Night Fighter Squadron of the Army Air Forces and studied at a series of radio schools.
For 31/2 years, he was stationed throughout North Africa, Sicily, Corsica, Germany and England. As a corporal, he never flew, but his principal job was to take care of the lights on the landing strips for night fighters.
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He peeled potatoes in the kitchen police and learned the mechanics of aircraft engines. In 1946, as the historian for the group, he wrote an unpublished account of his unit's interaction with foo fighters, titled "Foo Fighters and the 415th."
Sargent went on to teach economics at various U.S. universities before retiring to Sarasota with Shirley, his wife of 60 years.
'The British developed radar and night fighting, so when the U.S. went into World War II, we had to learn everything from the British. My squadron was the first one to do that.
Our pilots and crew chiefs would go to England and Scotland to learn from the British. I was in the ground echelon, so I met up with them in North Africa.
Pilots in the 415th encountered and reported 'foo fighters' (or luminous, unidentified objects) during the night over the German-occupied Rhine River valley. The sightings were recorded between November 1944 and April 1945, when the 415th was operating from landing strips in Dijon and Ochey, France.
The sightings posed a baffling question to air war buffs, scientists, the media and the public. What were they? The pilots could find no explanation that fit all of the sightings. The Air Force was in a position to answer the question, as they had sequestered tons of German air war records. But their focus was on developing the next generation of fighters and bombers, not in information dissemination.
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