We Begin this hour with some breaking news the White House confirming the U.S military took down a second high altitude object over Alaska and it comes just days as you know after the U.S shot down that Chinese spy balloon off the South Carolina coast let's get right to NBC News Homeland Security reporter Julia Ainsley so Julia we just heard.
From National Security spokesperson John Kirby what did he have to say well it was interesting he did confirm this after R Kelly O'Donnell asked him about it he said that there was an object he doesn't yet want to call it a balloon that was shot down over Alaska and he did not want to attribute its ownership in other words not necessarily.
Saying yes this is another Chinese five alone even though that's obviously the question on everyone's mind here's what he had to say so I can confirm that the Department of Defense was tracking a high altitude object over Alaska airspace in the last 24 hours President Biden ordered the military to down the object.
And they did and it came and inside our territorial Waters and those Waters right now are frozen but inside uh territorial uh airspace and over territorial Waters fighter aircraft assigned to U.S Northern command took down the object within the last hour so that was Kirby's response to Kelly O'Donnell's question of course that.
Original reporting came here from NBC Courtney cubey our Pentagon correspondent was the first to find out just last week about the Chinese balloon that was eventually shot down over South Carolina she also found out about this one I point that out not just to toot the horns of my own colleagues here but to show that the Pentagon is not freely.
Giving this information it might seem that way that we're finding out about all of these in real time that's only because the media is finding out about it and in fact that could be a source of frustration for some members of Congress who want the Pentagon to do more to tell them and the public more upfront about these threats that apparently have.
Persisted long before last week all right Julia stand by for us I want to bring in Now NBC News White House correspondent Monica album Monica the Chinese were not happy when we shot down this first spy balloon and now this happens how is this escalating the situations with that other superpower yeah and just to Echo what Julie was.
Just saying there this is remarkable the fact that this came up Midway White House briefing that was on a completely different topic they were announcing that the president is going to be traveling to Poland later this month and then somebody said there's a rumor that there was another high-flying object can you tell us about it and the fact that.
The National Security spokesman comes out and talks about this entire military operation that has just unfolded in the last 90 minutes or so is something that really we don't see happen very often here and of course it is extra notable because of what we just saw take place in the last week or so with that Chinese surveillance balloon that really.
Traveled across the United States over many sensitive military sites even though military officials say that they were able to limit some of the potential surveillance capabilities of that balloon before the president authorized the Pentagon to shoot it down so we saw that take place over a longer period of time before it was taken out over water.
Parts of which are now being recovered with this smaller high-flying object which again we don't know who owns it we don't know much more about it we're told it's the size of a small car the president learned of it last night he decided this morning it should be shot down and then we saw that happen fairly quickly so this will raise a lot more.
Questions about again who was trying to do this what kind of a thing and what was notable here Tom too is that the White House says they saw it did pose a reasonable threat to civilian flight and that is why they felt they needed to get it out of the air and over some frozen Waters in Alaska where they do hope to recover pieces of it to learn more.
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Between November 1944 and April 1945, the Imperial Eastern Military launched about 9,300 balloons from sites on Honshu, of which about 300 were stumbled on or noticed within the U.S. and Canada, with some in Mexico. On May perhaps maybe also 5, 1945, Rev. Archie Mitchell, his pregnant wife, Elsie, and 5 young folk from Mitchell's congregation were heading for a picnic at Gearhart Mountain near Bly, Oregon. As Mitchell went to gain a automobile parking space, the young folk got here across a outlandish metal contraption hooked up to a valuable balloon. Without warning, the contraption exploded, killing all 5 young folk and Elsie. They were the principle and most spirited victims of a Eastern Fu-Disappear balloon bomb, and the most spirited American citizens killed by enemy action within the continental US for the length of the battle.
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