possible age discrimination

I am 51 yr old male that works in the manufacturing sector in Ohio...I have over 27 yrs in the field that i have applied for..I have worked for several large 500 fortune companies and due to senority and slow downs have been laid off....I have an extensive background in the equiptment that they need someone to run and have knowledge of safety and lean programsand also have good references...in the past 2 yrs i have worked for Raytheon Corp and have a secret clearance so i know its not a credit problem.....problem i'm finding is I can't get hired anywhere even though the interviews go extremely well...examples are:....one place said great...will call you back later in the week for additional testing....they never called and won;t return my calls.....another place, i interviewed with 2 people at the same time..answered all their questions satisfactually then the one person showed me around and at the end said if it were up to him he would hire me...get a letter a few days later saying I didn't get the job...so what should i do?.......should i keep a record of all the companies and contacts that have turned me down?...and then what?....I'm actually thinking of filing for permanent of partial disability since no one will hire me....one thing i can say most certain is, I believe who they've hired is younger...need help

You might ask one of the companies directly what was the problem.

If you believe it was discrimination you may also speak with your nearest dep of labor office...others may have noticed similar problems.

Most large firms really try to avoid those issues these days. But you may be right?