DISCLOSURE / FILE
FBI case file 62-HQ-83894 Sub A, Volume 1: a compendium of news clippings, eyewitness reports, and bureau routing slips on Unidentified Flying Objects and flying discs gathered between June 1947 and July 1968.
65_HS1-834228961_62-HQ-83894_SUB_A
FBI case file 62-HQ-83894 Sub A, Volume 1: a compendium of news clippings, eyewitness reports, and bureau routing slips on Unidentified Flying Objects and flying discs gathered between June 1947 and July 1968.
This is the FBI Central Records Center holding for file 62-83894-A, Sub A, Volume 1, opened under the Bureau's catch-all UFO file and routed through senior officials including Tolson, Belmont, Mohr, Parsons, Rosen, and Sullivan. The pages reproduced here are press clippings the Bureau retained: the May 1960 Detroit Times account of Joe Perry of Grand Blanc, Michigan losing detail on a moon-and-saucer color slide after Pentagon handling; Capt. Peter Killian's American Airlines DC-6 sighting of three luminous objects tailing his Newark-to-Detroit flight for 45 minutes on Feb. 24, 1959; the November 1957 Reinhold O. Schmidt case at Kearney, Nebraska, in which a grain dealer described a 100-foot translucent cigar-shaped craft with six occupants speaking High German; and the Nov. 5, 1957 Coast Guard cutter Sebago radar track in the Gulf of Mexico, which held an object for 27 minutes at an estimated 1,000 miles per hour. The file also preserves Dr. Carl Jung's July 1958 statement that UFOs are 'not a mere rumor' and Harvard astronomer Dr. Donald H. Menzel's counter-claim that the objects are mirages of heated air.
IT AIN'T what it used to be since they got their hands on itp.2
I have never seen anything like it before.p.3
I can only say for certain these things are not a mere rumor, something has been seenp.5
The discs do not behave in accordance with physical laws, but as though without weight. .p.5
That the construction of these machines proves a scientific technique immensely superior to ours cannot be argued.p.5
I couldn't move. I don't know whether I was just afraid or what, but it was like being paralyzedp.8
It just blended into the sky--like it changed color or disappeared into thin air,p.8
They are caused by a layer of heated air . . acting as a lens and forming an image of objects as much as 40 or 50 miles away,p.12
Extracted text · Page 1
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Declassification authority derived from FBI Automatic Declassification Guide, issued May 24, 2007. FD-245.1 (Rev. 1-4-99) U.S. Department of Justice FBI - CENTRAL RECORDS CENTER HQ - HEADQUARTERS Class / Case # 0062 83894 Sub A Vol. 1 Serial # 1 OPEN 8/11/1274151 RRPO0O1XF1 Bureau of igation File No. 62-83894-A Field Office Criminal Investigative and Administrative Files __________ Armed and Dangerous __________ FOIPA __________ DO NOT DESTROY __________ NCIC __________ ELSUR __________ OCIS __________ Escape Risk __________ Suicidal __________ Financial Privacy Act __________ Other __________ See also Nos. __________ __________ __________ __________ __________ __________ __________ __________ __________ __________ Volume Number 1 Serials OPEN
Page 2 · vision OCR
Mr. Tolson
Mr. Mohr
Mr. Parsons
Mr. Belmont
Mr. Callahan
[ILLEGIBLE]
Mr. Malone
Mr. McGuire
Mr. Rosen [ILLEGIBLE]
Mr. Tamm
Mr. Trotter
Mr. W.C. Sullivan
Tele. Room
Mr. Ingram
Miss Gandy
Flying Saucer Photo Ain't
What It Used to Be---Joe
By Charles Manos
Staff Writer
GRAND BLANC, May 25--
Joe Perry, the talented pizza
man, feels the Pentagon
people have sabotaged him
or something.
No, the Washington ex-
perts haven't fussed with
Joe's saucy pies, but they
have certainly done some-
thing to his flying saucer,
Joe claims.
"IT AIN'T what it used to
be since they got their
hands on it," said Joe, who
takes potshots at the moon
with a homemade telescope-
camera.
Joe, 44, took another look
at his color-slide photo,
snapped last February on the
second night of the full
moon.
"It's not the same," he said
dejectedly. "The flying
saucer has faded . . . some-
thing has happened to it."
The Washington experts
returned the color slide a few
days ago.
THE FEDERAL agents
picked it up last March when
they heard Joe's picture
showed a saucer-like object
silhouetted against the moon.
Most of Joe's customers at
his pizza palace here were
convinced the object was a
"flying saucer."
Joe became even more con-
cerned over his picture when
an Unidentified Flying Object
group wanted to buy his
rights to the slide.
He also got an offer from a
national magazine to buy the
picture. Other inquiries came
from all sections of the
country.
SO JOE was anxious to get
his picture back.
He called the FBI. He
talked to the air force. He
made a trip to Selfridge Air
Force Base, all in vain.
The picture was returned
shortly after he sent a letter
to President Eisenhower.
A letter included in the
package from the Pentagon
said the strange object in the
picture was the result of
faulty development and
nothing more.
Among other things, the
Pentagon folks have added
insult to injury, Joe said.
DETROIT DIVISION
Detroit, Mich.
( ) Detroit Free Press
Editor: Lee Hills
( ) Detroit News
Editor: Martin S. Hayden
(✓) Detroit Times
Editor: John C. Manning
[ILLEGIBLE] ( )
Editor:
Date: 5-25-60
Edition: Final
Page: 7 Col: 2
Title of Case:
UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECT;
JOSEPH PERRY, GRAND BLANC,
MICHIGAN - COMPLAINANT
(Defile 65-2477-105)
EX 109
REC- 41 62-83894-A
NOT RECORDED
46 JUN 3 1960
59 JUN 7 1960 [ILLEGIBLE]Page 124 · vision OCR
'Neither Airplane, Nor Cloud, Nor Balloon' By United Press Coast Guardsman Frank Ryman, 27, had a picture today snapped from the front porch of his home near Seattle which authorities hoped would clear up the mystery of the flying saucers. (It didn't.) He said what he saw was neither an airplane, a cloud nor a "silver balloon." The pilot and co-pilot of a United Airlines plane said they turned their craft off its c o u r s e near Boise, Idaho, and c h a s e d a "strange object" for 15 miles before it outdistanced them or disintegrated in the dusk. Capt. R. E. Smith and Second Officer R. H. Stevens, both of Seattle, said "we can definitely say that what we saw was not smoke, not a cloud, and not another airplane." A similar object was seen by John Corlett, United Press staff correspondent, his wife, and two friends from Mr. Corlett's back yard in Boise. He said it was a white disc flying about 10,000 feet directly overhead. It disappeared in three or four seconds. Two Portland, Ore., police scout cars three miles apart notified headquarters at 1:15 p. m. yesterday that they had sighted a group of strange objects weaving in a "playful manner" 10,000 feet above the ground over the southern suburbs of Portland. Clark County (Wash.) Deputy Sheriff Fred Krives, across the Columbia from Portland, said he saw 20 flying discs "slewing off to one side, almost in single file" over the county court house. T. L. Huckaby of Pine Bluff, Ark., said he saw a flying object "about the size and color of a Bluff area. Decatur, Ill., and Salt Lake City also reported in today. At Philadelphia, Dr. M. K. Leisy of the Pennsylvania Hospital for Mental Diseases, said he saw a big dark saucer-like object move slowly across the sky just before sunset yesterday. He said it was surrounded by a luminous halo and appeared to be propelled by whirling jets. JUL 5 1947 WASHINGTON NEWS PAGE 5
Concatenated page-by-page transcript. Born-digital pages came through pdf.js; scanned pages were transcribed by Claude vision OCR. Pages marked unreadable failed multiple OCR retries (heavy redaction, microfilm artifacts, or blank separators) and are kept in place for audit.
Declassification authority derived from FBI Automatic Declassification Guide, issued May 24, 2007. FD-245.1 (Rev. 1-4-99) U.S. Department of Justice FBI - CENTRAL RECORDS CENTER HQ - HEADQUARTERS Class / Case # 0062 83894 Sub A Vol. 1 Serial # 1 OPEN 8/11/1274151 RRPO0O1XF1 Bureau of igation File No. 62-83894-A Field Office Criminal Investigative and Administrative Files __________ Armed and Dangerous __________ FOIPA __________ DO NOT DESTROY __________ NCIC __________ ELSUR __________ OCIS __________ Escape Risk __________ Suicidal __________ Financial Privacy Act __________ Other __________ See also Nos. __________ __________ __________ __________ __________ __________ __________ __________ __________ __________ Volume Number 1 Serials OPEN
Mr. Tolson
Mr. Mohr
Mr. Parsons
Mr. Belmont
Mr. Callahan
[ILLEGIBLE]
Mr. Malone
Mr. McGuire
Mr. Rosen [ILLEGIBLE]
Mr. Tamm
Mr. Trotter
Mr. W.C. Sullivan
Tele. Room
Mr. Ingram
Miss Gandy
Flying Saucer Photo Ain't
What It Used to Be---Joe
By Charles Manos
Staff Writer
GRAND BLANC, May 25--
Joe Perry, the talented pizza
man, feels the Pentagon
people have sabotaged him
or something.
No, the Washington ex-
perts haven't fussed with
Joe's saucy pies, but they
have certainly done some-
thing to his flying saucer,
Joe claims.
"IT AIN'T what it used to
be since they got their
hands on it," said Joe, who
takes potshots at the moon
with a homemade telescope-
camera.
Joe, 44, took another look
at his color-slide photo,
snapped last February on the
second night of the full
moon.
"It's not the same," he said
dejectedly. "The flying
saucer has faded . . . some-
thing has happened to it."
The Washington experts
returned the color slide a few
days ago.
THE FEDERAL agents
picked it up last March when
they heard Joe's picture
showed a saucer-like object
silhouetted against the moon.
Most of Joe's customers at
his pizza palace here were
convinced the object was a
"flying saucer."
Joe became even more con-
cerned over his picture when
an Unidentified Flying Object
group wanted to buy his
rights to the slide.
He also got an offer from a
national magazine to buy the
picture. Other inquiries came
from all sections of the
country.
SO JOE was anxious to get
his picture back.
He called the FBI. He
talked to the air force. He
made a trip to Selfridge Air
Force Base, all in vain.
The picture was returned
shortly after he sent a letter
to President Eisenhower.
A letter included in the
package from the Pentagon
said the strange object in the
picture was the result of
faulty development and
nothing more.
Among other things, the
Pentagon folks have added
insult to injury, Joe said.
DETROIT DIVISION
Detroit, Mich.
( ) Detroit Free Press
Editor: Lee Hills
( ) Detroit News
Editor: Martin S. Hayden
(✓) Detroit Times
Editor: John C. Manning
[ILLEGIBLE] ( )
Editor:
Date: 5-25-60
Edition: Final
Page: 7 Col: 2
Title of Case:
UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECT;
JOSEPH PERRY, GRAND BLANC,
MICHIGAN - COMPLAINANT
(Defile 65-2477-105)
EX 109
REC- 41 62-83894-A
NOT RECORDED
46 JUN 3 1960
59 JUN 7 1960 [ILLEGIBLE]0-19 (Rev. 1-28-59)
Central Research Section
Tolson
Belmont
DeLoach [ILLEGIBLE]
McGuire [ILLEGIBLE]
Mohr
Parsons
Rosen
Tamm
Trotter
W.C. Sullivan
Tele. Room
Holloman
Gandy
File
62-P3894
5-[ILLEGIBLE]
1 fisk
o Flying
3 'Objects' Trailed Plane
45 Minutes, Pilot Says
DETROIT, Feb. 25 (AP)
The pilot of an American Air-
lines DC6 passenger plane
said today three mysterious
objects that looked like shin-
ing saucers appeared to ac-
company the plane for 45
minutes last night on its non-
stop flight from Newark, N.J.,
to Detroit.
Capt. Peter Killian of Svos-
set, N.Y., who has flown pas-
senger planes for 15 years,
said "I have never seen any-
thing like it before."
Killian and other members
of the crew and the 35 pas-
sengers also saw the flying
objects. The plane left Newark
at 7:10 p.m.
Killian and co-pilot John
Dee of Nyack, N.Y., said they
lost the three strange objects
in the haze when they started
their descent for landing at
Detroit's Metropolitan Air-
port while the plane was over
Cleveland, Ohio.
The three bright whitish
lights first were sighted while
the plane was flying at 8500
feet between Philipsburg and
Bradford, Pa., at 8:45 p.m.
D [ILLEGIBLE]
The Washington Post and A3
Times Herald
The Washington Daily News
The Evening Star
New York Herald Tribune
New York Journal-American
New York Mirror
New York Daily News
New York Post
The New York Times
The Worker
The New Leader
The Wall Street Journal [ILLEGIBLE]
Date 2[ILLEGIBLE] [ILLEGIBLE]
162-83894-A
NOT RECORDED
117 MAR 3 1959
57 MAR 4 1959 [ILLEGIBLE]19
MAR 5 1959(1)
o FLYING SAUCERS
UPI-9[ILLEGIBLE]
[ILLEGIBLE] P.M. -- A GROUP OF UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECTS "CLUSTERED
LIKE [ILLEGIBLE] TERED FOR MORE THAN AN HOUR NEAR HERE LAST NIGHT AND
THEN "STAR[ILLEGIBLE] ROKE APART AND DISAPPEARED," WITNESSES SAID TODAY.
A SUDDEN[ILLEGIBLE] FOR THE AERIAL RESEARCH PHENOMENA ORGANIZATION FILTER
CENTER [ILLEGIBLE] A TOTAL OF NINE PERSONS HAD REPORTED SEEING THE
MYSTERIOUS OBJECTS.
A CHECK OF NEARBY MILITARY BASES, AIRPORTS, AND THE U.S. WEATHER
BUREAU DISCLOSED THERE WERE NO JETS OR WEATHER BALLOONS ALOFT AT OR
NEAR THE TIME OF THE SIGHTINGS, BETWEEN 10 P.M. AND 11:30 P.M., FILTER
CENTER DIRECTOR L.J. LORENZEN SAID.
8/9--GD253P
[ILLEGIBLE]
Branigan
file [ILLEGIBLE]
62-83894
[ILLEGIBLE]35
59 AUG 12 1958
162-83894-A
NOT RECORDED
1[ILLEGIBLE] AUG 12 19580-19 (Rev. 10-29-57) Tolson Boardman Belmont Mohr Nease Parsons Rosen Tamm Trotter Clayton Tele. Room Holloman Gandy o [ILLEGIBLE] Flying Discs Show Sign Of Guidance, Jung Says ALAMOGORDO, N. Mex., July 29 (P)--Dr. Carl Jung, Swiss psychologist, says in a report that Unidentified Flying Objects are real and "show signs of intelligent guidance by quasi-human pilots." "I can only say for certain these things are not a mere rumor, something has been seen," Dr. Jung said in the re- port released yesterday. "A purely psychological explana- tion is ruled out." Dr. Jung, who started his re- search on UFO's in 1944, re- leased his report through the UFO filter Center of the Aerial Phenomena Research Organ- ization here. It was released by L. J. Lorenzen of Holloman Air Force Base. "I have gathered a mass of observations of unidentified fly- ing objects since 1944," Dr. Jung said. "The discs do not behave in accordance with physical laws, but as though without weight. . . "If the extra-terrestrial origin of this phenomena should be confirmed this would prove the existence of an intelligent in- ter planetary relationship. What such a fact might mean for humanity cannot be pre- dicted. "But it would put us without doubt in the extremely precari- ous position of primitive com- munities in conflict with the superior culture of the whites. "That the construction of these machines proves a scien- tific technique immensely su- perior to ours cannot be ar- gued." The Air Force has said in- vestigation of flying saucers reported over the past 10 years has produced no evidence that such things exist. It has contended that not a shred of evidence has turned up to show the existence of a flying saucer or interplanetary space ship or that the objects sighted indicate developments beyond the range of current scientific knowledge or pose a threat to the Nation's secu- rity. The Air Force said last No- vember that investigations of 5,700 reported sightings showed the mysterious objects were balloons, aircraft, astronomical phenomena, birds, fireworks or hoaxes, among other things. Doshone [ILLEGIBLE] Saucers [ILLEGIBLE] 62-83894-[ILLEGIBLE] NOT RECORDED 117 AUG 1 1958 file 62-83894 62-83894-[ILLEGIBLE] Wash. Post and Times Herald Wash. News Wash. Star A-1 N. Y. Herald Tribune N. Y. Journal- American N. Y. Mirror N. Y. Daily News N. Y. Times Daily Worker The Worker New Leader Date 7-29-58 67 AUG 1 1958
[ILLEGIBLE] Belmont [ILLEGIBLE] No Saucers' Trace Found A.F. Checks Schmidt; Kearney Amused Tales of flying saucers and other such space craft got an unofficial raspberry Wednesday night from an Air Force official. A top official of the Air Technical Intelligence Cen- ter at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio told the Dayton Journal-Herald his in- vestigators have found no evidence in the past 10 years that flying saucers are real. He said 5,700 reported sightings were investigated between 1947 and 1957. Not a single landing impression, footprint, saucer or little green man was found. Investigation Goes On In Kearney, Neb., Rein- hold Schmidt's story of an afternoon's visit with the crew of a space ship near the city Tuesday was still under investigation, officials said. Schmidt, 48, an ex-Nebras- kan and now a California grain dealer, was questioned by Air Force investigators from the Continental Air De- fense Command. Oil found near the alleged landing spot of the space ship was identi- fied as ordinary but will be tested by the University of Nebraska. While the Schmidt tale was giving Kearney a sensational conversation piece, most of the talk was of a skeptical variety. Newsmen Busy "Everybody downtown seems to think it's a big joke," one business man said. A Kearney clothier put up a sign advertising "space ship specials." A window sign in a car agency announced: "Space Ships Tuned Up." The Kearney car-rental operator reported business was so good all of his cars were in use. They were being rented by visiting newsmen. Presence of the newsmen was nearly the only sign that anything unusual had hap- pened -- or may have hap- pened. ROACH Wheele Kahots[ILLEGIBLE] OMO WORLD-HERALD OMAHA, NEBRASKA 11-7-57 SUNRISE EDITION [ILLEGIBLE] file [ILLEGIBLE] 62-83894-A NOT RECORDED 117 NOV 22 1957 52 NOV 26 1957 INDEXED - 24
Space-Ship Story Raises Eyebrows The World-Herald's News Service. Kearney, Neb.--A grain buyer who said he saw a space ship Tuesday in a field near here and chatted amicably with its six occu- pants had more pleasant dealings with the visitors from outer space than with skeptical authorities. The sensational report by R. O. Schmidt, about 50, of Bakersfield, Cal., which topped a host of reports across the nation Tuesday of seeing mysterious flying objects, had these conse- quences: --State Penitentiary rec- ords showed a man of the same name served a term for embezzlement from Scotts Bluff County in the 1930's. Scotts Bluffs Coun- ty Sheriff Steve Warrick said he talked to Schmidt by phone and was convinced he "saw nothing." --He turned down a chance to take a lie- detector test. --Schmidt was kept up most of the night for questioning. He finally asked for an attorney. Ward Minor of Kearney was named. --Wednesday forenoon he went to the scene of the space ship's landing with investigators from the Con- tinental Air Defense Com- mand at Colorado Springs, Colo., Kearney Police Chief Thurston Nelson and Buf- falo County Attorney Kenneth Gotobed. They said Schmidt's story "ap- peared to be weakening." --Oil drippings on the ground from the space machine were being ana- lyzed at Kearney State College. Investigators said the "mysterious green oil" closely resem- bled that in a partially- emptied can of commer- cial auto oil found in the back of Schmidt's car and a nearly-empty can found near the site of the "land- ing." Schmidt's story came to light when, white-faced and shaken, he appeared in Kearney Tuesday and asked to see a minister. Taken to police, he told this story: Tuesday he inspected a field of milo about two miles south and a mile east of Kearney. When ready to leave he drove down a side road seeking a place to turn around. Near the Platte River he saw what appeared to be a wrecked balloon. As he neared it, Schmidt said, his car en- gine conked out. Schmidt said he got out and walked toward the ma- chine. Proximity revealed --World-Herald News Service Photo. Schmidt (left) and Kearney Police Chief Nelson . . . In "heart-to-heart" talk. SIDE VIEW OUTSIDE [DIAGRAM OF CRAFT - SAUCER SHAPE] LENGTH: APPROX. 100 FEET FLOOR PLAN INSIDE [DIAGRAM SHOWING: INSTRUMENTS | LOUNGE | SEALED COMPARTMENT | FAN IN ROOF | CONVEYOR TO BACK OF SHIP | FAN IN ROOF] The Schmidtnik . . . As described by the grain buyer. Belmont o FLYING SAUCERS ROACH [ILLEGIBLE] file OMAHA WORLD-HERALD OMOHA, NEBRASKA 11-6-57 WALL STREET EDITION W[ILLEGIBLE] 62-83894-A NOT RECORDED 117 NOV 22 1957 [ILLEGIBLE]39 52 NOV 26 1957
it to be a translucent, ci- gar-shaped device about one hundred feet long, 30 feet wide and about 14 feet high. Schmidt said that when he was 25 or 30 feet away, two men got out and waved what looked like a flashlight. "I couldn't move. I don't know whether I was just afraid or what, but it was like being paralyzed," he said. 'In Business Suits' Schmidt said the men, dressed in business suits, searched him for weapons then remarked that as long as they were going to be there for some time "you might as well come in and see things for a few min- utes." Inside the machine were two other men and two women working on wires and instruments. The de- vice had a fan at each end. By a strange coincidence one of the crewmen "looked exactly like" a hotel ac- quaintance with whom he has been watching televi- sion programs. When the occupants wanted to move from place to place they would step in a certain location and be pulled to the new location without moving. 'Spoke German' The ship occupants talked among themselves in High German, which Schmidt says he under- stands to a limited extent. One man spoke excellent English and interpreted for the others. Schmidt said the inter- preter told him repeatedly he had nothing to fear. The visitors refused to answer any questions but said he would "find out all about it in a couple of weeks." When repairs were com- pleted, Schmidt said he was asked to leave but was told he would be unable to start his car until the machine had disappeared. 'Disappeared' Outside the machine, Schmidt said, he turned to watch as the fans started in motion without a sound. He said the machine lifted about one hundred or two hundred feet into the air and disappeared. "It just blended into the sky--like it changed color or disappeared into thin air," he said. Schmidt pressed the starter of his car. The mo- tor started right off. [ILLEGIBLE]
0-19 (Rev. 9-7-56) Tolson Nichols Boardman Belmont Mohr Parsons Rosen Tamm Trotter Nease Tele. Room Holloman Gandy Nooch. Bedegen [ILLEGIBLE] S[ILLEGIBLE]rs o Flying Saucers! Coast to Coast Rash of 'Flying Saucer' Reports Floods U.S. Several persons reported seeing a "red ball" hovering over the Atomic Energy Commission's Savannah River plant near Augusta, Ga., last night. There was an unofficial report that Air Force personnel at nearby Aiken, S.C., spotted the object on radar and issued an alert. The object appeared to be a "constant red light," according to Augusta Chronicle executive editor Louis Harris, who saw the object from the downtown newspaper building. "It could have been a tiny red light a short distance away or a gigantic thing at a great distance," he said. One witness, J.T. James, said he saw the object on two occasions from his home near Aiken. It was cigar-shaped, he said, and would alternate from bright to amber and occasionally got out altogether. Elsewhere, strange "saucer" sightings were reported. NEBRASKA At Kearney, Neb., authorities held a "heart-to-heart" talk with Reinhold O. Schmidt, a salesman, later discovered to be an ex-convict, who said he talked to four men and two women in a transport space ship which had landed. He said the space people spoke in English and German. Police roped off the area where the "whatnik" allegedly landed and examined various impressions and oil stains on the ground. At Long Beach, Calif., three Air Force weather observers, one of them the commanding officer of the spotting unit, late yesterday reported sighting six unidentified, saucer-shaped flying objects over Long Beach Air Force base. The Coast Guard reported picking up an unidentified flying object on radar over the Gulf of Mexico south of New Orleans. A Coast Guard commander said the object paused over the cutter Sebago in the Gulf and was on the radar scope for about 27 minutes. WHITE SANDS Military authorities apparently gave credence to a report by an electronics engineer who said he saw an object which made car engines stall near the White Sands proving grounds. Col. John McCurdy, Air Force public relations officer at White Sands, said the engineer, James Stokes, 42, will be given a thoro medical examination and a radiation count test. Col. McCurdy said he was "personally satisfied" with Mr. Stokes' report. A Civil Service worker at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Tex., said he saw an egg-shaped object land in a ravine about 200 yards from him as he drove near the city. He said his car engine and lights went off, and the object took off in a few minutes, enabling him to drive away. At about the same time, the Ground Observer Corps at Midland, Tex., said it saw a large, red object and picked up unintelligible conversation on a sound detector. [ILLEGIBLE] file [ILLEGIBLE] 62-83894-A NOT RECORDED 140 NOV 12 1957 Wash. Post and Times Herald Wash. News P-7 Wash. Star P N.Y. Herald Tribune N.Y. Journal- American N.Y. Mirror N.Y. Daily News N.Y. Times Daily Worker The Worker New Leader Date 11-6-57 NOV 14 1957 O[ILLEGIBLE]
0-19 (Rev. 9-7-56) o Flying Saucers Tolson [ILLEGIBLE] Nichols [ILLEGIBLE] Boardman Belmont [ILLEGIBLE] Mohr Parsons [ILLEGIBLE] Rosen Tamm Trotter Nease Tele. Room Holloman Gandy Tracked 27 Minutes on Radar U.S. Cutter in Gulf of Mexico Reports Sighting Mysterious 'Object' in Sky Associated Press A brilliant mystery object was reported sighted yester- day in southern skies by a Coast Guard cutter, even as Air Force special investiga- tors checked a flurry of ear- lier, similar reports. The Coast Guard cutter Se- bago, cruising in the Gulf of Mexico about 200 miles south of Louisiana, radioed that an object resembling "a brilliant planet with a high rate of speed" was seen for about three seconds at 5:21 a.m. (CST). The Sebago's message said the object was tracked on the vessel's radar screen for 27 minutes and that, during that period, the object flitted on and off the screen several times. Crewmen caught sight of it only for a few seconds. [The Sebago radioed New Orleans Coast Guard head- quarters that the object was traveling at an estimated 1000 miles per hour, International News Service reported. How- ever, at one point, the object appeared to remain stationary and hover above the waters be- fore it resumed its erratic flight. [The cutter's captain, Cmdr. C. H. Waring, said the object first appeared on the ship's radar screen as a "good, strong pip" at 5:10 a.m. and was lost in a northerly direction at 5:37 a.m. [In this time, the skipper said the object, which came as close as two miles to the ves- sel, was actually seen by four members of the crew. One, Ens. Wayne D. Shockley, de- scribed it as a "bright point of light with no definite shape, resembling the planet Venus." Shockley said there were no vapor trails or any other in- dications as to the object's method of propulsion. One estimate of its height placed it at 2000 feet. [Glenn Northcutt, Willis, Okla., rancher and member of the University of Oklahoma Board of Regents, reported that on Saturday he and five others had watched "a bril- liant, mysterious light that looked like the planet Venus magnified many, many times." The object, he said, was visible more than half an hour.] Sightings of strange objects have been reported from wide- ly scattered sections of the United States, most of them near secret military installa- tions in the Southwest. The Air Force said the radar network of the Air Defense See MYSTERY, A6, Col. 3 V. B[ILLEGIBLE] file [ILLEGIBLE] Sanders 62-83894-A NOT RECORDED 140 NOV 12 1957 62-83894 76 NOV 13 1957 336 Wash. Post and A1 Times Herald Wash. News Wash. Star N.Y. Herald Tribune N.Y. Journal- American N.Y. Mirror N.Y. Daily News N.Y. Times Daily Worker The Worker New Leader Date NOV 6 1957
Command was keeping watch --so far with no results--and that specially qualified inves- tigators had been assigned to look into the reports. For several years the Air Force has checked all reports of unidentified flying objects. Investigators work under the Air Defense Command at Col- orado Springs, Colo., and re- port to the Air Technical In- telligence Center. Judging from past findings, the chances are 50-1 the Air Force will offer a humdrum explanation for the current sightings. During the first half of this year, the Air Force said, only 1.9 per cent of the 250 report- ed sightings of flying saucers and other fantastic aerial ob- jects have wound up in the "unknown" category. Air Force Skeptical And the Air Force said firm- ly--though not all flying sau- cer buffs may agree--that it doesn't believe even the 1.9 per cent residue is made up of the things you read about in science fiction magazines. Balloons, aircraft and such astronomical sights as meteor- ites and bright stars account for at least to the Air Force's official satisfaction -- for al- most four-fifths of the sight- ings. The director of a private or- ganization set up to inves- tigate flying saucers and such said he couldn't evaluate at this point the current rash of reported sightings. But retired Marine Maj. Donald E. Keyhoe, director of the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phe- nomena, added that the re- ported objects may be some- thing from another planet. "Assuming they are real," he said, "they would be secret weapons made on earth or are interplanetary." Any na- tion with the secret, he added, would by now have abandoned conventional aircraft or mis- siles. Cosmic Energy "It looks as though they are interplanetary," Keyhoe said. He said one source of pow- er for such reported objects could be cosmic ray energy. Some of the citizens, peace officers and servicemen who reported sighting mystery ob- jects in the Southwest since the weekend said the objects stalled auto engines and caused radios to fade. James Stokes, an engineer at the Air Force missile de- velopment center at Alama- gordo, N.M., reported 10 autos were stalled Monday on a des- ert highway between Alama- gordo and the White Sands (N.M.) Proving Grounds. He reported seeing a sound- less, "brilliant colored egg- shaped object" which flitted erratically across the coun- tryside and left a sort of heat wave, "like radiation from a giant sun lamp," in its wake. Device Sought Leonard Hardlund, chief en- gineer for the National Inven- tors Council in Washington, said a device that could stall autos or other mechanical equipment was one of the things the armed forces would like to see developed. But Hardlund said he knew of no research in this country aimed at producing such a de- vice. Two teen-age girls reported seeing a mysterious object in the sky over Annapolis, Md., last week. Jean Hunt, 13, and Sylvia Fowler, 15, said they saw an egg-shaped object which glowed like a neon light. They spotted it while trick-or-treat- ing with Jean's two younger sisters on Halloween night in Primrose Acres, a housing de- velopment on the outskirts of Annapolis. Jean said the girls became frightened and ran home but no one would believe their story until weekend newspa- per accounts told of a mystery object sighted in Texas. Associated Press J.G. Kirby of Dallas made this photo of a diamond shaped object flying through the sky while he and his family were driving near Amarillo, Tex., in August, 1956. The photo was turned over to the FBI and has just been released after intensive study. The Air Force described the glow as "radiation vapor."
0-19 (Rev. 9-7-56) o Flying saucers Tolson Nichols Boardman Belmont Mohr Parsons Rosen Tamm Trotter Nease Tele. Room Holloman Gandy Tom[ILLEGIBLE] Branigan Kish[ILLEGIBLE] [ILLEGIBLE] Sanders Mystery Objects Called Mirage by Astronomer By the Associated Press A Harvard astronomer says mysterious objects reported from various parts of the country and the Gulf of Mexico are mirages stemming from natural causes. Dr. Donald H. Menzel, director of the Harvard College Observatory, said yesterday in Cambridge, Mass., that the whole thing amounts to "another flying saucer scare." The Air Force has started an investigation of the reported sightings of the strange glow- ing objects in the sky. The Air Force for years has had the responsibility of checking reports of unidentified flying objects, but as one officer put it, "We don't investigate all of them." A rash of such reports has developed since Sunday, with some of the sightings said to have been made near secret military installations in the Southwest. Some of the per- sons making the reports said the objects caused their auto engines to stall and their radios to fade. Cutter Claims Sighting Yesterday the Coast Guard Cutter Sebago radioed from the Gulf of Mexico that an object resembling a brilliant planet with a high rate of speed was seen for about three seconds, and that it was tracked by radar. Dr. Menzel said it is probable the cutter's crewmen got a false image "quite likely from bubbles of hot air in the at- mosphere which would give a radar reflection." As for reports of the auto engines stalling, he said, "It would not be surprising that a nervous foot could stall an en- gine." Dr. Menzel, author of a book about flying saucers, said he has been studying them for about 10 years and has yet to hear of one which could not be explained by natural phe- nomena. "They are caused by a layer of heated air . . . acting as a lens and forming an image of objects as much as 40 or 50 miles away," he said. Common in West "They are nothing more than a mirage. They are prevalent just after nightfall as the heated air begins to cool off at the ground, and they are com- mon in the West where they have clear air." The Air Force said that dur- ing the first half of this year only 1.9 per cent of the 250 re- ported sightings of flying saucers and other strange ob- jects in the air have been classed as "unknown." And the Air Force wasn't ready to be- lieve that even this small per- centage has sinister implica- tions. It seemed a good bet the Air Force will agree with Dr. Menzel's opinion that the cur- rent sightings have explana- tions in nature, or that the reported objects are actually aircraft or similar man-made things. file [ILLEGIBLE] 62-83894-A NOT RECORDED 140 NOV 13 1957 Wash. Post and Times Herald Wash. News Wash. Star A-10 N.Y. Herald Tribune N.Y. Journal- American N.Y. Mirror N.Y. Daily News N.Y. Times Daily Worker The Worker New Leader Date 11-6-57 7116 72 NOV 14 1957 62-83894
0-19 (Rev. 9-7-56) o Flying Saucers Tolson Nichols Boardman Belmont Mohr Parsons Rosen Tamm Trotter Nease Tele. Room Holloman Gandy [ILLEGIBLE] [Photograph of diamond-shaped object in sky - narrow vertical image] Associated Press J. G. Kirby of Dallas made this photo of a diamond shaped object flying through the sky while he and his family were driving near Amarillo, Tex., in August, 1956. The photo was turned over to the FBI and has just been released after intensive study. The Air Force described the glow as "radiation vapor." file [ILLEGIBLE]ess 62-83894-A NOT RECORDED 140 NOV 8 1957 Wash. Post and 11=6=57 Times Herald page A-6 Wash. News Wash. Star N.Y. Herald Tribune N.Y. Journal- American N.Y. Mirror N.Y. Daily News N.Y. Times Daily Worker The Worker New Leader Date 52 NOV 8 1957 62-83894
0-20
o Flying Saucers
Mr. Tolson [ILLEGIBLE]
Mr. Nichols [ILLEGIBLE]
Mr. Boardman
Mr. Belmont [ILLEGIBLE]
Mr. Mohr [ILLEGIBLE]
Mr. Parsons [ILLEGIBLE]9
Mr. Rosen [ILLEGIBLE]
Mr. Tamm
Mr. Trotter
Mr. Nease
Tele. Room
Mr. Holloman
Miss Gandy
B.C. Web[ILLEGIBLE]
BRANIGAN
A
UP42
(OBJECT)
LEVELLAND, TEX.--FIVE PERSONS INCLUDING A SHERIFF REPORTED TODAY
SEEING A MYSTERIOUS EGG-SHAPED OBJECT WHICH LOOKED LIKE A BLINDING-RED
SUNSET OVER LEVELLAND IN WEST TEXAS. THREE MOTORISTS SAID IT KILLED
THEIR AUTO ENGINES AND PUT OUT THEIR HEADLIGHTS WHEN THEY GOT NEAR IT.
IN EACH CASE, THE MOTORISTS SAID THEIR ENGINES AND HEADLIGHTS WERE
ALL RIGHT AFTER THE OBJECT SUDDENLY TOOK OFF AND DISAPPEARED.
SHERIFF WEIR CLEM AND A DEPUTY ALSO SAW THE OBJECT AT 1130 AM EDT
WHEN THEY WENT OUT TO LOOK FOR IT AFTER GETTING EARLIER REPORTS. THE
SHERIFF SAID IT STREAKED NOISELESS ACROSS THE ROAD SOME 200 YARDS IN
FRONT OF HIM, BUT DID NOT AFFECT HIS CAR.
11/3--WO530P
[ILLEGIBLE]
Sanders
file [ILLEGIBLE]
62-83894-A
NOT RECORDED
140 NOV 12 1957
62-83894
776 NOV 14 1957
WASHINGTON CITY NEWS SERVICE0-20
Mr. Tolson
Mr. Nichols
Mr. Boardman
Mr. Belmont
Mr. Mohr
Mr. Parsons
Mr. Rosen
Mr. Tamm
Mr. Trotter
Mr. Nease
Tele. Room
Mr. Holloman
Miss Gandy
UP44
ADD OBJECT, LEVELLAND, TEX.
ONE MOTORIST, JAMES LONG OF WACO, TEX., TOLD THE SHERIFF HE DROVE UP
ON THE OBJECT SITTING IN THE ROAD ABOUT 200 FEET FROM HIM.
LONG TOLD THE SHERIFF HE DROVE UP WITH HIS LIGHTS ON THE OBJECT,
WHICH GLOWED INTERMITTENTLY LIKE A BLINDING NEON LIGHT. HE SAID IT APPEAR-
ED TO BE ABOUT 200 FEET LONG AND EGG SHAPED. HE SAID IT CAUSED HIS ENGINE
TO DIE AND HIS HEADLIGHTS TO GO OUT.
WHEN LONG STARTED TO GET OUT OF HIS CAR TO INVESTIGATE, THE OBJECT
SUDDENLY ROSE SOME 200 FEET STRAIGHT UP AND DISAPPEARED IN A FLASH OF
LIGHT. HE TOLD THE SHERIFF.
CLEM SAID AUTHORITIES COULD FIND NO BURN MARKS OR OTHER INDICATIONS
AT THE SPOT WHERE LONG SAID THE OBJECT HAD LANDED.
CLEM SAID REESE AIR FORCE BASE OFFICIALS AT LUBBOCK, ABOUT 50 MILES
EAST OF LEVELLAND, CHECKED FOR A POSSIBLE PLANE CRASH IN THE AREA,
BUT REPORTED NOTHING.
PEDRO SACIDO, A LEVELLAND MOTORIST, WAS THE FIRST TO REPORT SIGHTING
THE THING.
"IT SOUNDED LIKE AN EAR-SPLITTING CLAMP OF THUNDER--AS IF SOMETHING
HAD EXPLODED," SACIDO TOLD THE SHERIFF.
HE SAID IT KILLED HIS ENGINE AND KNOCKED OUT HIS HEADLIGHTS UNTIL
AFTER IT PASSED OVER.
A KERMIT, TEX., MOTORIST, WHOSE NAME THE SHERIFF DID NOT GET, ALSO
REPORTED SPOTTING THE OBJECT WHILE DRIVING ON STATE HIGHWAY 51 ABOUT
EIGHT MILES NORTH OF LEVELLAND. HE TOLD THE SHERIFF IT HAD THE SAME
AFFECT ON HIS CAR ENGINE AND LIGHTS AS THE OTHERS REPORTED.
CLEM SAID HE COULD NOT OFFER A GUESS AS TO WHAT THE OBJECT MIGHT
HAVE BEEN.
11/3--WO543P
WASHINGTON CITY NEWS SERVICE0-19 (Rev. 9-7-56) 4L Flying Saucers. Branigan 'NOTHING REMOTELY RELATED' Mysterious Object Amazes Saucer Skeptic A veteran airline pilot who once denounced fly- ing saucers as "bunk" has reported encountering a mysterious unidentified flying object near Mobile, Ala. Capt. W. J. Hull of Capital Airlines described the inci- dent in a report published by "The UFO Investigator," magazine of the unofficial Na- tional Investigations Commit- tee on Aerial Phenomena, 1536 Connecticut-av nw. Capt. Hull wrote an article for a pilots' magazine in 1953 titled "The Obituary of the Flying Saucer." His experi- ence described in the "Investi- gator" took place Nov. 14, 1956. He did not suggest what he saw was a flying saucer. Capt. Hull said he was fly- ing a Viscount at about 10, 000 feet near Mobile, at 10:10 p.m., when he and his co- pilot spotted what we thought was a brilliant meteor. He said the "meteor" was descending rapidly, but in- stead of burning out with the usual flash, "it abruptly halt- ed directly in front of us." "It was an intense blue- white light, approximately seven or eight times as bright as Venus when this planet is at its brightest magnitude," he wrote. He said he thought the ob- ject might be a jet fighter, turning away from the air- liner and giving the pilots a view of its glowing tailpipe. But he said instead of grow- ing smaller, the light re- mained in front of the Vis- count. Capt. Hull wrote that the UFO)) (unidentified flying object) then began a series of violent maneuvers, "sharp- er than any known aircraft, sometimes changing direction 90 degrees in an instant." It finally zoomed up at an ex- tremely sharp angle and shot out of sight, he added. He said his own plane was above the clouds, "preclud- ing any reflections of search- lights from below." There's accent on local sports in The News sports pages. Sanders file [ILLEGIBLE] [ILLEGIBLE]-83894-A NOT RECORDED 141 OCT 14 1957 Wash. Post and Times Herald P.6 Wash. News Wash. Star N.Y. Herald Tribune N.Y. Journal- American N.Y. Mirror N.Y. Daily News N.Y. Times Daily Worker The Worker New Leader Date 10-9-57 60 OCT 14 1957 F492
0-19 (Rev. 9-7-56) o Flying Saucers Tolson [ILLEGIBLE] Nichols [ILLEGIBLE] Boardman [ILLEGIBLE] Belmont [ILLEGIBLE] Mohr Parsons Rosen Tamm Trotter Nease Tele. Room Holloman Gandy BRANIGAN [ILLEGIBLE] Sanders Doolittle Scoffs at Report Of Nazi Flying Saucer By the Associated Press James H. Doolittle says it "just ain't so" that Nazi Ger- many developed a flying saucer and a bomber that could attack the United States and return without refueling. The veteran airman, chairman of the National Advisory Com- mittee for Aeronautics, last month gave a House Appropria- tions Subcommittee his estimate of reports published in Germany of great aviation accomplish- ments under Hitler. These were contained in a book by Rudolf Lusar, former German War Min- istry special weapons chief. Gen. Doolittle's testimony was published today, along with that of Hugh L. Dryden, director of the advisory committee. Mr. Dryden said "there is no truth" in a statement that German engineers designed a flying saucer which attained a height of 40,000 feet and speed of 1,250 miles an hour. "This is an advertisement for a book which includes material discovered by our groups who went into Germany after the war," he said. He said also the man supposed to have designed the bomber that could cross the Atlantic twice without refueling had writ- ten a book of his own with no mention of any such invention. Gen. Doolittle, asked about both the saucer and the bomber, said, "it just ain't so." file [ILLEGIBLE] [ILLEGIBLE]-83894 A NOT RECORDED 138 MAR 20 1957 INDEXED - 83 MAR 11 e[ILLEGIBLE] EX107 RECEIVED - B[ILLEGIBLE] 52 MAR 27 1957 62-83894 Wash. Post and Times Herald Wash. News A1 Wash. Star A1 N.Y. Herald Tribune N.Y. Journal- American N.Y. Mirror N.Y. Daily News N.Y. Times The Worker New Leader Date MAR 14 1957
0-19 (11-22-55) o Flying Saucers Tolson [ILLEGIBLE] Nichols [ILLEGIBLE] Boardman [ILLEGIBLE] Belmont [ILLEGIBLE] Mason Mohr Parsons Rosen Tamm Nease Winterrowd Tele. Room Holloman Gandy Broniga[ILLEGIBLE] ROACH [ILLEGIBLE] [ILLEGIBLE] Sanders [ILLEGIBLE] There Are Saucers, Expert Says By VERN HAUGLAND WASHINGTON, Jan. 15 (AP) --Retired Rear Adm. Delmer S. Fahrney once head of the Navy's guided missile program, said Wednesday reliable reports indi- cate that "there are objects com- ing into our atmosphere at very high speeds." Fahrney told a news confer- ence that "no agency in this country or Russia is able to du- plicate at this time the speeds and accelerations which radar and observers indicate these flying objects are able to achieve." FAHRNEY SAID he never has seen a flying saucer, but has talked with a number of scien- tists and engineers who reported seeing strange flying objects. Fahrney called a news confer- ence following an organizational meeting of a new private group, the National Investigations Com- mittee on Aerial Phenomena, of which he is board chairman. Fahrney said the committee was set up largely to tie to- gether a number of UFO--mean- ing "unidentified flying objects" --clubs being formed throughout the world. Fahrney said his com- mittee will collect and investigate flying saucer reports, evaluate them and make public its find- ings. [ILLEGIBLE] 62-83894-A NOT RECORDED 191 JAN 23 1957 Wash. Post and Times Herald Wash. News Wash. Star N.Y. Herald Tribune N.Y. Mirror 2 N.Y. Daily News Daily Worker The Worker New Leader Date JAN 17 1957 80 JAN 23 1957
Mr. Tolson Mr. Nichols Mr. Boardman Mr. Belmont Mr. Mason Mr. Mohr Mr. Parsons Mr. Rosen Mr. Tamm Mr. Nesse Mr. Winterrowd Tele. Room Mr. Holloman Miss Gandy o Flying Saucers G[ILLEGIBLE]cock Branigan [ILLEGIBLE] Mos[ILLEGIBLE] 'Saucer' Seen by 7 West of Saginaw SAGINAW, July 30. -- (P) -- State Police at Bridgeport Post received seven reports of a "fly- ing saucer" between midnight and 7 a.m. today. One officer said he saw a fly- ing object himself. The first report, which came from the nearby Burt Ground Observer Corps, station, said the object appeared about 12 feet in diameter, had red and blue lights and was moving swiftly. Various reports put the object's height at between 1,200 and 25,000 feet. The reports came from Sag- inaw, Midland and Gratiot counties. Police said the callers told them the object was seen over Freeland, Clare, Alma and Breckinridge, all west of Sag- inaw. Midland police said they re- ceived one call but could not spot the object. Similar reports were received from the Cadillac area early Saturday, but Air Force investi- gating planes found nothing. ( ) Glos Ludowy ( ) Michigan Editor-The Worker ( ) The Daily Worker ( ) Narodna Volya ( ) Romanul American ( ) Pittsburgh Courier ( ) Michigan Chronicle ( ) Detroit Free Press (✓) Detroit News ( ) Detroit Times ( ) Michigan Daily ( ) Wayne Collegian ( ) Date 7-30-5[ILLEGIBLE] Edition 5 STAR Page 8 Column 7 NOT RECORDED 126 AUG 8 1956 [ILLEGIBLE]55 53 AUG 10 1956 Flying Saucer File [ILLEGIBLE] file sys[ILLEGIBLE]
0-19 (11-22-55) o Flying Saucers Tolson [ILLEGIBLE] Nichols [ILLEGIBLE] Boardman [ILLEGIBLE] Belmont [ILLEGIBLE] Mason [ILLEGIBLE] Mohr [ILLEGIBLE] Parsons Rosen Tamm Nease Winterrowd Tele. Room Holloman Gandy file [ILLEGIBLE] BAUMGARDNER 62- 83894 'Confidential Files' Gets 10-Cent 'Saucer' Inquiry By the Associated Press If you want information on flying saucers, don't address your request to "Confidential Files, Washington, D.C." Takes too long. And besides you may be investigated by the FBI. A woman out in Los Angeles (name withheld by various Gov- ernment agencies) dashed off a note on January 15. It said: "Confidential Files. "Wash., D.C. "Dear Sirs--Please send me a bulletin of flying saucers, or the address where I can get infor- mation about them. I am includ- ing 10 cents. "Thanks." Seemed like a simple, direct approach--except for the ad- dress. The post office, casting about for some Federal agency that might have confidential files, sent it to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The FBI, never one to pass out military secrets, made dis- creet inquiries. Then the FBI forwarded the letter to the Air Force, advising that nothing derogatory or in- dicative of subversion could be found in the woman's activities. So the Air Force reached into its nonclassified files and plucked out the latest summary on the number of sightings of UFO (un- identified flying objects), to- gether with an explanation of why people think they see flying saucers--or what it is they see which the Air Force can or can't explain. The lady's 10 cents was taped to the summary and both were mailed to her address in Los Angeles. 62-83894-A NOT RECORDED 126 MAR 23 1956 Bilf[ILLEGIBLE] Wash. Post and Times Herald Wash. News A-1 Wash. Star N.Y. Herald Tribune N.Y. Mirror N.Y. Daily News Daily Worker The Worker New Leader Date MAR 21 1956 71 MAR 28 1956
DEPARTMENT OF THE AIR FORCE Office of Public Information Washington 25, D. C. U. S. Air Force Summary of Events and Information Concerning the Unidentified Flying Object Program The Air Force feels a very definite obligation to identify and analyze things that happen in the air that may have in them menace to the United States and, because of that feeling of obligation and pur- suit of that interest, the Air Force established an activity known as the Unidentified Flying Object Program. This program was established in 1947 when unidentified flying objects were being reported in various parts of the United States. The reports of sightings reached a peak of 1,700 in 1952 and dropped to a total of 429 in 1953. During the first nine months of 1954 only 254 sightings were reported. From a survey of the volume of sightings received by the Air Force, it has been determined that over 80 percent are explainable as being known objects. Generally, sighted objects fall into the cate- gory of: balloons, aircraft, astronomical bodies, atmospheric reflec- tions, and birds. All reports of unidentified flying objects result from either radar or visual sightings. Explanations pertaining to sightings reported from military and civilian radar facilities are as follows: 1. Temperature inversion reflections can give a return on a radar scope that is as sharp as that received from an aircraft. Speeds of these returns reportedly range from zero to fantastic rates. The "objects" also appear to move in all directions. Such sightings have resulted in many fruitless intercept efforts. To possibly bear out the theory of temperature inversion reflection is an incident which occurred in January 1951 near Oakridge, Tennessee. Two Air Force aircraft attempted to intercept an unidenti- fied "object" and actually established a radar "lock" on the object. Their altitude at the time was 7,000 feet. The unidentified object, according to their radar, appeared to be at an elevation of 10 to 25 degrees from this altitude. Three passes were made in an attempt to close on the object. In each instance the pilots reported that their radar led them first upward and then down toward a specific point on the ground. (One scientific theory holds that light can be similarly reflected from a layer of warm air above the earth. If this proves to be correct, many visual night sightings could be accounted for.) 2. Ionized clouds have caused some unidentified radar returns. Thunderstorms are identifiable by radar and radar returns have also been received from ice formations in the air, balloons, ground reflec- tions, frequency interference between other radar stations, and wind- born objects. Obviously, such returns are very difficult to identify, especially when they occur during darkness. 6 2c 83894-A- ENCLOSURE MORE
3. The radar [ILLEGIBLE] has picked up birds a[ILLEGIBLE] in one case a flock of ducks. Flight interceptions proved these phenomena. An explanation of known types of visual sightings are as follows: 1. Present-day jet aircraft, flying at great speeds and high altitudes, are often mistaken for unknown objects by the untrained observer. Sunlight reflections from the polished surfaces of air- craft can be seen plainly even when the aircraft itself is too dis- tant to be visible. The exhaust of jet aircraft emits a trail and often this is seen rather than the aircraft itself. 2. Weather balloons account for a substantial number of sight- ings. These balloons, sent to altitudes of 40,000 feet and higher, are launched from virtually every airfield in the country. They are made of rubber or polyethylene, swell as they gain altitude, have very good reflective qualities, carry small lights when launched after dark, and can be seen at very high altitudes. 3. In addition to the ordinary weather balloon, huge 90-foot balloons, which sometimes drift from coast to coast, are used for upper air research. These balloons also have a highly reflective surface and are visible at extreme altitudes. 4. Frequently, unusually bright meteors and planets will cause a flurry of reports, sometimes from relatively experienced observers. At certain times of the year, Venus, for instance, is low on the horizon and will appear to change color and move erratically due to hazy atmospheric conditions. Since the stars are charted and most of their characteristics known, many cases are traced to them. Meteors on the other hand are of rapid single-direction movement and are only visible for a few seconds. Meteor activity is more common at certain times of the year than others, and reports of UFO's have shown a tendency to increase during these periods. 5. Some cases arise which, on the basis of information received are of a weird and peculiar nature. The objects display erratic movements and phenomenal speeds. Since maneuvers and speeds of this kind cannot be traced directly to aircraft, balloons, or known astro- nomical sources, it is believed that they are reflections from ob- jects rather than being objects themselves. For example: suppose we would hold a mirror in hand under a light, causing a reflection on the ceiling. Only a slight, quick movement of the hand would result in erratic movements and phenomenal speeds of the reflected beam. Reflections may be projected to clouds and haze both from the ground and air. Many things which are common to the sky have highly reflective qualities, such as balloons, aircraft, and clouds. Accu- rate speeds are also difficult to determine due to the inability of the reporter to judge distance, angles, and time. 6. Brilliant flashing lights that sometimes appear red and white in color have been reported by observers. This type has been traced to a new lighting system of commercial airlines and military aircraft. Atop the tail section of these aircraft highly reflective red and white flasher type lights have been installed and are many times misinterpreted by the ground observer. -2- MORE
In the analysis a[ILLEGIBLE] investigation of the radar and visual sightings described, t[ILLEGIBLE]re are some yardsticks whi[ILLEGIBLE] have been established from experience and trends to measure a[ILLEGIBLE] attempt to determine the source of UFO's. Some of these are general in nature and are subject to change as new scientific and factual information is received. It should be remembered that any object viewed from a great distance appears to be round. Nearly all the sightings reported are described as round and would tend to indicate that most of the objects are at a greater distance from the observer than is generally estimated. Another misconception centers about photographs of unidentified flying objects. At best the majority of photographs have proven non-conclusive as evidence to this program mainly due to type cameras used. Also, it might be mentioned that because still photographs can be so easily faked, either by using a mock-up or model against a legitimate background, or by retouching the negative, they are worth- less as evidence. Innumerable objects, from ashtrays to wash basins, have been photographed while sailing through the air. Many such photos have been published without revealing the true identity of the objects. More attention is given to moving pictures of unidentified fly- ing objects since they are more difficult to retouch. However, only a very few movie-type films have been received by the Air Force and they reveal only pinpoints of light moving across the sky. The Air Force has been unable to identify the source of these lights because the images are too small to analyze properly. Since ownership of these films remains with the persons taking them, the Air Force is now in a position to give them out. The difficulty of evaluating reports of all types is based largely upon the lack of basic data surrounding the sightings. The drop in sightings during 1953 is largely due to the increased accuracy and the completeness of reports being received. To be of value, a report should include such basic data as size, shape, composition, speed, altitude, direction, and the maneuver pattern of the objects. Without such information, it is almost impossible to establish the identity of the object sighted. In addition, a recent study has shown a direct correlation between the number of sightings reported and the publicity given to "saucers" by the nation's press. The Air Force took a further step in early 1953 by procuring Videon cameras for the purpose of photographing this phenomena. These cameras were distributed to various military installations. This type camera has two lenses, one of which takes an ordinary photograph, and the other has a diffraction grating which separates light into its component parts. This aids in determining the composition of the ob- ject photographed. A small number of photographs have been received from this camera; however, only light spots of no detail have been indicated in the photos to date. As more photographs are taken by these observers, it is believed that a great deal of the mystery will be lifted from the program. The Air Force would like to state that no evidence has been received which would tend to indicate that the United States is being observed by machines from outer space or a foreign government. No object or particle of an unknown substance has been received and -3- MORE
no photographs of detail have been produced. The photographs on hand are, at best, only large and small blobs of light which, in most cases, are explainable. It may be concluded from the above and from past experience that no new significant trends have developed out of these cases. There was an increase in public interest which occurred simultaneously with the publication of various books and articles on the subject; however, this trend has been noted several times previously. In order to overcome the lack of basic data, and to standardize all reports, a detailed questionnaire is now submitted to each person reporting an unidentified aerial object. It is felt that the infor- mation thus obtained will lower still more the number of unexplained sightings. For observers who wish to report unidentified aerial objects, the Air Force would welcome the information. Attached to this report is a brief basic summary form. It would be appreciated if observers would send the completed form to the nearest Air Force Base. If and when new developments turn up in this program, the Air Force will keep the public informed. -4-
PLEASE SEND TO YOUR NEAREST AIR FORCE BASE
DATE: _______________________________________________
TIME OF SIGHTING: _______________________________________________
SIZE: _______________________________________________
SHAPE: _______________________________________________
COMPOSITION: _______________________________________________
SPEED: _______________________________________________
ALTITUDE: _______________________________________________
DIRECTION OF TRAVEL: _______________________________________________
MANEUVER PATTERN: _______________________________________________
COLOR: _______________________________________________
SOUND: _______________________________________________
LENGTH OF TIME OBSERVED: _______________________________________________
SKY CONDITIONS: _______________________________________________
VISIBILITY: _______________________________________________
GROUND DIRECTION OF WIND: _______________________________________________
NAME, AGE, MAILING ADDRESS OF OBSERVER: _______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
REMARKS: (General desceription of what you saw--use back if necessary)
_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
62-83994-A-
ENCLOSURE[Routing slip upper right:] Mr. Tolson ___ Mr. Boardman ___ Mr. Nichols ___ Mr. Belmont ___ Mr. Harbo ___ Mr. Mohr ___ Mr. Parsons ___ Mr. Rosen ___ Mr. Tamm ___ Mr. Sizoo ___ Mr. Winterrowd ___ Tele. Room ___ Mr. Holloman ___ Miss Gandy ___ [Handwritten upper left:] aaa/ [Handwritten right margin:] Bru[ILLEGIBLE] [Photo caption:] GEORG KLEIN A NEW SLANT ON FLYING SAUCERS By FORSAITH REES HERE is the "real truth" about Flying Saucers, as told by Georg Klein, former secret weapons expert in the German War Production Ministry, and now an engineer in Switzerland. "Flying Saucers," he says, "are top secret weapons of the USA and Russia. "They are a continuation of German wartime experiments. "Prototype Flying Saucers were built in Germany during the war. I saw one reach a height of 40,000 feet in three minutes, near Prague, in 1945." Klein says the Russians captured a scale model and top technicians at Breslau. The technicians have not returned to Germany. And Walter Miethe, V weapon inventor and key man in Saucer development, fled West and now works in the United States. Klein in a Zurich interview said there are two types of Flying Saucer built to-day — one with a diameter of 45ft, powered by five jets and a larger model with a diameter of 126ft, and 12 jets. This, he says, accounts for the rumour that Saucers often appear to change size suddenly. Raised wing flaps lift both aircraft like a helicopter. The big one can keep stationary by turning jets down to counterbalance gravity. Flying Saucers developed in Canada by John Frost, former colleague of Sir Frank Whittle, have reached speeds up to 1,500 mph and have been inspected by Field-Marshal Montgomery, says Klein. [Left margin handwritten:] (Air Force Info) Som[ILLEGIBLE] 2 ENCL [Stamp lower left:] OFFICE OF THE LEGAL ATTACHE AMERICAN EMBASSY LONDON, ENGLAND 66 FEB 16 1955 249 [Handwritten notation lower center:] 1/21/55 AF advised (Sullivan (liaison) St[ILLEGIBLE]'s ideas but he has never had far as they knew he has never had anything in the air. Attached is story. AF info on flying saucers, [ILLEGIBLE] Egbert [Source line:] REYNOLDS NEWS DECEMBER 19, 1954 LONDON, ENGLAND [Stamp right:] INDEXED - 24 162-83894-A- NOT RECORDED 126 FEB 7 1955 [Handwritten right:] Stlsburg[ILLEGIBLE] Lile [ILLEGIBLE]
[Routing slip upper right:] Mr. Tolson ___ Mr. Boardman ___ Mr. Nichols ___ Mr. Belmont ___ Mr. Harbo ___ Mr. Mohr ___ Mr. Parsons ___ Mr. Rosen ___ Mr. Tamm ___ Mr. Sizoo ___ Mr. Winterrowd ___ Tele. Room ___ Mr. Holloman ___ Miss Gandy ___ [Handwritten upper right:] BRANIG[AN] ESA [Left margin handwritten:] puic 'Flying Saucer?': Weird Spy Disc Sighted By Ship A circular object, grayish at first and then brighter, like the moon, shooting up from near sea level and disappearing in clouds at 5,000 feet, was sighted at sea last night 80 miles east of New York. Officers of the Dutch liner Groote Beer reported the incident when the vessel arrived in Hoboken. "I don't know what it was," said Capt. Jan P. Boshoff, a veteran shipmaster, who said he watched the object through his binoculars. "It might have been what has been described as a flying saucer, but I don't know what it was." Through his most powerful binoculars, the captain trained them on the object, 40 degrees off the port side. Several other officer similarly trained binoculars. Capt. Boshoff described it as "a flat object, resembling the moon, at first kind of gray and then turning brighter on the lower part, and around the edges having bright spots as if they were lights." He said it was moving "directly upward, with great speed." He said he never had seen anything like it before, and added: "I am positive it was not a meteor. Nor was it anything supernatural in the sky." [Stamp lower left:] CLIPPED FROM THE N.Y. JOURNAL AMERICAN DATED JUL 29 1954 FORWARDED BY N.Y. DIVISION 53 AUG 9, 1954 [Stamp lower center:] 62-83894-A NOT RECORDED 117 AUG 9 1954 [Handwritten right:] O Flying Saucers Jele5 Ethr
[Routing slip upper right:] Mr. Tolson ___ Mr. Boardman ___ Mr. Nichols [checkmark] Mr. Belmont [checkmark] Mr. Harbo ___ Mr. Mohr ___ Mr. Parsons ___ Mr. Rosen ___ Mr. Tamm ___ Mr. Sizoo ___ Mr. Winterrowd ___ Tele. Room ___ Mr. Holloman ___ Miss Gandy ___ [Left margin:] 4 [Handwritten:] Flying Tracers- Flying Saucers [Handwritten right:] L Stlburg[ILLEGIBLE] Most[ILLEGIBLE] Bor[ILLEGIBLE]igan (OBJECT) NEW YORK--THREE CREW MEMBERS OF A TRANS-WORLD AIRLINES PARIS-NEW YORK FLIGHT REPORTED TODAY THEY SIGHTED AN UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECT ABOUT 10 MILES NORTH OF BOSTON. THE PILOT, CAPT. CHARLES J. KRATOVIL, OF PORT WASHINGTON, L.I., SAID HE SAW "A LARGE, WHITE-COLORED, DISC-LIKE OBJECT" AT 9:30 A.M. EDT. KRATOVIL SAID THE OBJECT WAS PURSUING A PARALLEL COURSE AHEAD OF HIS PLANE BUT HE COULD NOT GET A CLEAR LOOK AT IT AS IT MOVED ABOVE HIGH CLOUDS. AFTER THE PLANE ARRIVED AT IDLEWILD AIRPORT, KRATOVIL RECEIVED A MESSAGE FROM TRANS-WORLD AIRLINES IN BOSTON STATING THAT A WEATHER BALLOON HAD BEEN RELEASED FROM GRENIER AIR FORCE BASE IN NEW HAMPSHIRE, ABOUT 90 MILES NORTHWEST OF BOSTON, AT 4:30 A.M. EDT. THE MESSAGE SAID THE BALLOON WAS OVER BOSTON AT 9:15 A.M. EDT. KRATOVIL SAID THE MESSAGE DESCRIBED THE BALLOON AS "ABOUT 100 FEET IN DIAMETER AND JUST ABOUT FITS THE DESCRIPTION OF WHAT YOU SAW." COMMENTING ON THE MESSAGE, KRATOVIL, WHO HAS BEEN FLYING SINCE 1927, SAID "IT SOUNDS LIKE A COVER-UP TO ME. IF THIS IS A WEATHER BALLOON, IT'S THE FIRST TIME I EVER SAW ONE TRAVELING AGAINST THE WIND." KRATOVIL'S STATEMENT ABOUT THE OBJECT WAS SUPPORTED BY THE CO-PILOT, W. R. DAVIS OF HICKSVILLE, L.I., AND BY THE FLIGHT ENGINEER, HAROLD RANEY OF BAYSIDE, QUEENS. KRATOVIL SAID THE LOGAN INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT TOWER IN BOSTON SAID EIGHT EMPLOYES THERE TOLD OF SEEING THE OBJECT, AND IT DID NOT APPEAR TO BE A BALLOON. 6/1--MJ315P [Stamp:] 62-R3894-A NOT RECORDED 141 JUN 17 1954 50 JUN 17 1954 /316 WASHINGTON CITY NEWS SERVICE [Handwritten right:] Jile 5 Ethr
[Routing slip upper right:] Mr. Tolson ___ Mr. Boardman ___ Mr. Nichols [checkmark] Mr. Belmont [checkmark] Mr. Harbo ___ Mr. Mohr ___ Mr. Parsons ___ Mr. Rosen ___ Mr. Tamm ___ Mr. Sizoo ___ Mr. Winterrowd ___ Tele. Room ___ Mr. Holloman ___ Miss Gandy ___ [Left margin:] 4k [Stamps upper center:] JUL 2 4 30 PM COID ESPIONAGE FBI U.S. DEPT OF JUSTICE [Handwritten:] Flying Saucers [Handwritten annotations:] BRANGAN Efburg[ILLEGIBLE] Mossburg[ILLEGIBLE] (OBJECT) MOBILE, ALA.--BROOKLEY AIR FORCE BASE REPORTED THAT AN "UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECT, BRILLIANT AND SILVER COLORED" WAS TRACKED BY RADAR OVER MOBILE AND THE ALABAMA-MISSISSIPPI GULF COAST LAST NIGHT. MAJ. JAMES ZICHERALI, PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICER AT BROOKLEY, SAID THE OBJECT "APPEARED TO BE A JET-TYPE AIRCRAFT OF NEW DESIGN WITH SHORT STUBBY WINGS." FIVE OTHER RESIDENTS OF ALABAMA AND MISSISSIPPI ALSO REPORTED SIGHTING THE OBJECT. ZICHERALI SAID THE OBJECT APPEARED ON THE BASE CONTROL TOWER RADAR SCREEN AT 6:50 P. M. CST. HE SAID RADAR OPERATORS REPORTED IT "MADE NO SOUND AND LEFT NO TRAIL BUT GAVE EVIDENCE OF DEFINITELY BEING MANEUVERED." 7/1--S804P [Stamps:] 62-83894- 62-83894-A NOT RECORDED 76 JUL 14 1954 6 0 JUL 14 1954 y 462 WASHINGTON CITY NEWS SERVICE [Handwritten right:] file Edgar,
[Routing slip upper right:] 0-19 Tolson ___ Ladd ___ Nichols ___ Belmont ___ Clegg ___ Glavin ___ Harbo ___ Rosen ___ Tracy ___ Mohr ___ Trotter ___ Winterrowd ___ Tele. Room ___ Holloman ___ Miss Gandy ___ [Handwritten upper center:] G.I.R.-7 [Handwritten upper left:] O Flying Saucers [Handwritten right:] Brauegan WAB Ethr Air Force Hushes Up Saucer Probe By ROBERT CRATER Scripps-Howard Staff Writer Air Force leaders have slammed down a "brass" curtain at the Dayton (O.) Air Technical Intelligence Center (ATIC), where flying saucer reports are investigated. "The Air Force will be unable to honor visits (including the press) to the ATIC because the volume of requests for information has seriously interfered with investigations," an Air Force spokesman here said today. He said the original official policy had been to exclude visits by newsmen, however this policy had been relaxed in recent months. Most of the mail received at the Dayton office is from persons over the nation who are curious about flying saucers. "The mail has become so heavy that the two or three persons detailed to investigating unidentified flying objects—called UFO's—are not getting anything else done," the Air Force official said. "Actually, UFO's are supposed to be only a small part of the investigative work done at the ATIC." The flood of mail from the public was attributed to newspaper and magazine articles about flying saucers. Singled out were two current books, "Flying Saucers Have Landed" and "Flying Saucers From Outer Space." Just how banning the press was expected to ease the situation was not explained—unless the Air Force figures this will reduce the number of flying saucer stories. [Stamps bottom left:] 5350 50 JAN 18 1954 [Stamp bottom center:] 1 62-83894-A NOT RECORDED 160 JAN 15 1954 [Handwritten right:] Jule 5 Ethr [Bottom right:] Times-Herald ___ Wash. Post ___ Wash. News [checkmark] Wash. Star ___ N.Y. Herald Tribune ___ N.Y. Mirror ___ Date: 1/[1]3/54
[Handwritten top:] Flying Saucers [crossed out with X] [Handwritten right:] BRANIGAN WAB Ethr 'THAT WAS NO AIRPLANE' Are They Hiding Those Lights Under a Bushel? By EVERT CLARK Mysterious red lights which have flown over the Quantico Marine Base 22 times in the past six nights were officially explained away today as a new type of aircraft navigation light. But most of the Marines who saw them still don't believe that's what they were. In addition, The News ran into what seems to be a deliberate attempt to cover up certain facets of the longest continuous "flying saucer" run in history. The first man to see the light was Pfc. Norman Viets, 18, of Greenville, Pa. Since then, at least 30 other Marines, including half a dozen officers, have seen it, too. On one occasion, sentries reported seeing three lights at once. They say they have seen the lights drop straight down, fly straight up and stand still. Even the most careful—and skeptical—observer, the base provost marshal, Maj. D. D. Pomerleau, admitted the lights had characteristics he never expected to find on an airliner. FIRST SIGHTING Pfc. Viets was standing sentry duty at the Tank Park a few miles north of Camp Barrett on the southwestern side of the Quantico reservation at 9:05 p. m. Dec. 30 when he "reported a moving, blinking red light near his post which he could not explain." The sergeant of the guard, Sergt. Francis R. Salinder, "investigated and saw the light but could not explain it." Pfc. Viets told The News the light first appeared to come straight toward him over a line of trees about 200 yards to the south of his post. "It was about a foot and a half in diameter," he said, "only going about 10 or 15 miles an hour. Then it followed the tree line about 50 yards to the right and went down. "It went straight down, all of a sudden. Fifteen minutes later it went straight up and moved over here toward the tank shed. "I saw it two times after that. It did the same thing. It was the weirdest looking thing I ever saw. There was no engine noise and no shape—just the light." [Stamp lower center:] 162-83894-A NOT RECORDED 148 JAN 12 1954 [Source:] THE WASHINGTON DAILY NEWS Greater Washington Edition 1-5-54 53 JAN 131954 91 [Handwritten lower right:] Jile5 Ethr
NO SALE By the time The News talked to Pfc. Viets at Quantico yesterday, the airplane navigation light theory already had been offered. The News asked Pfc. Viets about it, and he said: "That was no airplane. I first thought it might be a weather balloon, but it wasn't. Either way, you could have seen the shape." Pfc. Viets and Sergt. Salinder saw the light again at 10:15 the same night. Five minutes later they called in the roving guard from a nearby guard tower, but the light was gone. CONFLICT First reports had it that troops were sent into the area to look for the lights. Yesterday Maj. A. B. Ferguson, the base information officer, said that report was erroneous. "We did at no time dispatch troops to fight off the invaders or capture then or welcome them aboard or anything else," he said. However, this is what the official record says: "A 13-man detail arrived (at 11:15 p. m., Dec. 30) from Camp Barrett and made a search of the area in which the light was first seen. The search proved fruitless." Fifty minutes later Pfc. Viets' relief "reported seeing the same red light." Sergt. Salinder saw nothing. HOVERS The next night the light was seen again, at 6:25 p. m., by a tank park sentry and the guard tower. At 7:10, it appeared again. This time the sergeant of the guard "came out and checked the area [Photo caption:] Pfc. Bennett (top front) grabbed a butcher knife and said: "It's landing in the tank shed!" Maj. Pomerleau (middle photo) is skeptical, but still curious. Pfc. Viets (bottom photo) told him "that was no airplane." —News Staff Photos by Gene Thomas with troops," the official report says. Thirty minutes later, the sergeant of the guard saw it again, and at 8:23 p. m. three lights were seen. (This was New Year's Eve.) At 9:01 it was seen again, and at 4:20 New Year's morning it moved northeast, then south, then north and remained "over the tank shed at an elevation of about 3500 feet." That was the time Pfc. Viets said, "when they saw it come up there and lay under the moon until morning." Pfc. Viets' relief of the night before got so excited he "grabbed a butcher knife and headed for the tank shed to help out his troops," his barracks mates said. The light came back three times Friday night, once Saturday night, five times Sunday night and twice last night. Maj. Pomerleau said the best possible way to describe the light's size, shape and intensity was to compare it to "the way a blinking red traffic light appears to a motorist as he pulls up to an intersection." He heard no noise and saw no shape. He said the light was "sharply delineated." "But I have friends and a professional reputation," he said, "and as far as I'm concerned just say it's an aircraft navigation light." Several airlines that fly in and out of Washington say they began installing new lights atop the tails of planes six months ago. They blink on and off, are red, and can be seen much farther away than older types. "Nobody in the barracks knows," Pfc. Viets said. "They're just talking flying saucers, that's all. They're talking about men from Mars and everything else you could name." THE WASHINGTON DAILY NEWS Greater Washington Edition 1-5-54
[Routing slip upper right:] 0-19 Tolson ___ Ladd [checkmark] Nichols [checkmark] Belmont [checkmark] Clegg ___ Glavin ___ Harbo ___ Rosen ___ Tracy ___ Mohr ___ Trotter ___ Winterrowd ___ Tele. Room ___ Holloman ___ Miss Gandy ___ [Handwritten top:] O Flying Saucers * Flying Saucers [Handwritten right:] BRANIGAN WAB Ethr [Handwritten:] G.I.R.-7 6/91- 4-1 Mystery Is Dissolved Marines Decide 'Objects' Are New Airliner Lights Authorities at the Quantico Marine Base last night took a long, searching look at those strange flying objects with flashing lights seen near the base for the past five nights—and decided they were commercial airliners. Quick as a flash, airlines operating out of Washington confirmed the Marine Corps' guess. An American Airlines spokesman said flashing red lights, visible for 10 to 15 miles, have been installed recently atop the vertical stabilizer, or tail, of its planes. Other airlines have put in such lights, he said. A group of Marine officers last night made a field trip to the "Guadacanal" area of the base, west of U. S. 1. They reported: "This flashing red light, when seen for the first time by the unaided eye, creates an unusual impression and an illusion of nearness." as the Marine Corps is concerned, a spokesman said. Until last night, however, the lights were reported to have done about everything. Nineteen Marines reported sighting a mysterious reddish "blinking or revolving" light over the base the nights of December 30 and January 1, 2 and 3. Rumors that platoons of infantry had been sent to the "landing site" of the objects and a report that a helicopter flew to intercept the lights were discounted by the Marine Corps earlier yesterday. The base provo marshal, Maj. D. D. Pomerleau, who saw the lights twice, guessed that they came from an airliner, but added that he couldn't b[e] sure. But last night the Marine Corps had this final word: "Officials here are convinced that the unusual phenomenon was a new navigational light of greater intensity used on airliners flying near the reserva[tion]." [Stamp bottom left:] 50 JAN 12 1954 [Stamp bottom center:] 1 62-83894-A NOT RECORDED JAN 8 1954 [Handwritten right:] Jile 5 Ethr [Bottom right:] Times-Herald ___ Wash. Post [checkmark] Wash. News ___ Wash. Star ___ N.Y. Herald Tribune ___ N.Y. Mirror ___ Date: JAN 5 1954
[Routing slip upper right:] 0-19 Tolson [checkmark] Ladd [checkmark] Nichols [checkmark] Belmont [checkmark] Clegg ___ Glavin ___ Harbo ___ Rosen ___ Tracy ___ Gearty ___ Mohr ___ Winterrowd ___ Tele. Room ___ Holloman ___ Sizoo ___ Miss Gandy ___ [Left margin:] b [Handwritten right:] Bu[ILLEGIBLE]W[ILLEGIBLE]B[ILLEGIBLE] Marines Investigating Mystery 'Flying Object' Lands Near Quantico, Say Sentries One of those mysterious flying objects reportedly landed near Quantico on New Year's Eve but took off again before the Marines could get the situation in hand. A spokesman yesterday confirmed that a flying object had been reported near the base. Two sentries on duty at Camp Barrett, a Marine installation about 15 miles from Quantico, reported seeing an object in the sky and described it as a "flying saucer," according to the spokesman. They notified the Officer of the Day that it had landed, and the helicopter took off from Quantico. By the time it arrived, the mystery ship had risen and was out of sight. The news spread swiftly among Quantico personnel. One report had it that two platoons were deployed to capture the thing but this was denied by the official spokesman. Statements were taken from the two sentries, and the spokesman said the investigation was now in the hands of "higher authorities." The two sentries were reported off the base on pass last night and the Marine spokesman was not able to supply their description of the objects, or their report of its actions. The spokesman reported they had been summoned to appear before high officers of the Marine Base this morning for additional statements. [Stamp:] 62-83894-A NOT RECORDED 191 JAN 20 1954 [Right side:] Times-Herald ___ Wash. Post [checkmark] Wash. News ___ Wash. Star ___ N.Y. Herald Tribune ___ N.Y. Mirror ___ 58 JAN 21 1954 [Handwritten:] Jle5 Ethr Date: JAN 4 1954 389
[Routing slip upper right:] 0-19 Tolson ___ Ladd ___ Nichols ___ Belmont ___ Clegg ___ Glavin ___ Harbo ___ Rosen ___ Tracy ___ Gearty ___ Mohr ___ Winterrowd ___ Tele. Room ___ Holloman ___ Sizoo ___ Miss Gandy ___ [Left margin:] jk [Handwritten top:] O Flying Saucers [Handwritten right:] Branigan WAB[ILLEGIBLE] Ethr Swedish Pilot Reports 'Saucer' By United Press STOCKHOLM, Sweden, Dec. 18—The Swedish Royal Air Force ordered a full investigation today of an airliner crew's report of seeing a saucer-shaped object over Sweden near secret Soviet bases. Gen. Bengt Norderskjold, air force commander-in-chief, called in complete reports from all Swedish radar stations after joining the defense staff in promising a detailed inquiry. Capt. Ulf Christiernsson, pilot of the passenger liner, told the defense staff he and his crew saw the disc-shaped metallic object shortly after noon yesterday over the southern Swedish town of Haessleholm, about 300 miles from the strategic Baltic coast. "It was entirely an unorthodox, metallic, symmetrical and circular object," Capt. Christiernsson said. "I was not at all scared, but curious, very curious." Capt. Christiernsson said the object flew faster than sound about 5000 feet above the ground. Capt. Christiernsson said the object headed southward over a low-lying cloud layer which would obscure it from ground observers. He said he watched it for about six seconds before it disappeared in the direction of East Germany's Baltic shore, near the former Nazi research station at Peenemunde, now operated by the Russians. [Stamp:] 62-83894-A NOT RECORDED 45 JAN 6 1954 [Right side:] Times-Herald ___ Wash. Post ___ Wash. News [checkmark] Wash. Star ___ N.Y. Herald Tribune ___ N.Y. Mirror ___ N.Y. Compass ___ 52 JAN 8 1954 [Stamp:] THIS MAIL TO BE FILED U.S. DEPT OF JUSTICE JAN 18 3 25 PM[ILLEGIBLE] Date: Dec 18, 1953 [Handwritten right:] Jile5 Ethr
[Handwritten]: Branigan
WAB [ILLEGIBLE] [Etm?]
SAUCERS HELD
SPACE SHIPS
BY EX-MARINE
Hits AF Stand On
Flying Disks
(This is the last of three articles on the controversial subject of "flying saucers" and their investigation by the Air Force.)
BY RICHARD REILLY
Are the flying saucers real — and if they are, what are they?
That, in essence, is the question that faces the Air Force — and the American public as well. Altho it remains unanswered, it has stirred no end of opinions and theories.
One theory advanced from time to time is that the saucers are some revolutionary type of weapon perfected either by this country or some other nation.
The Air Force, however, deprecates this possibility. In a recent statement, it said:
"The Air Force has stated in the past, and reaffirms at the present time, that unidentified aerial phenomena are not a secret weapon, missile or aircraft developed by the United States. None of the three military departments nor any other agency in the government is conducting experiments, classified or otherwise, with flying objects which could be a basis for the reported phenomena."
Weapon Theory Discounted
In addition, a high-ranking Air Force officer indicated to the Times-Herald that it is believed impossible the saucers could be a foreign weapon.
Regarding the question as to whether flying saucers exist, Lt. Robert White, public information officer, said the Air Force believes reliable observers such as veteran airline pilots are sincere when they report sighting unidentified objects.
The Air Force was tossed a hot potato recently by Maj. Donald E. Keyhoe, U.S.M.C. (ret.), who claimed in his recent book, "Flying Saucers from Outer Space," that the saucers not only are real but that they are of inter-planetary origin.
Furthermore, Keyhoe contends that the so-called "Utah film" possessed by the Air Force proves this thesis.
Theory Bolstered
Keyhoe's inter-planetary theory was bolstered by a letter published on the jacket of his book from Albert M. Chop, former Air Force civilian expert on the saucer project, who now is with the Douglas Aircraft company in California.
In the letter, Chop stated:
"The Air Force, and its investigative agency, 'Project Bluebook,' are aware of Maj. Keyhoe's conclusion that the flying saucers are from another planet. The Air Force has never denied that this possibility exists. Some of the personnel believe that there may be some strange natural phenomena completely unknown to us, but that if the apparently controled maneuvers reported by many competent observers are correct, then the only remaining explanation is the interplanetary answer."
Upon publication of the letter — written on Defense department stationery — the Air Force challenged Chop's claim and said he was merely expressing his personal opinion.
Chop subsequently admitted that he was not speaking for the Air Force, but maintained that some of the investigative personnel had subscribed to the interplanetary theory. He said this was based on "personal contacts with these various individuals" and insisted that it was "a true statement."
Charges Cover-Up
Amplifying his theory that the saucers come from another planet, Kehoe claims they could originate from some other body in the earth's solar system — such as Mars or Venus — or from some other system or universe.
Kehoe charges that the Air Force is convinced that the saucers are space ships from another world, but that it is covering up because of a fear that such a disclosure would result in widespread panic.
The Air Force, however, insists that this is not so — that it is holding back no important facts from the public.
Lt. White said the names of persons involved in the sigh[tings] are withheld, and reports which divulge the capabilities of our aircraft, radar and electronic equipment are classified. All other information with respect to sightings is a matter of public record, he said.
Keyhoe maintains, tho, that the Air Force has refused to release many analyses of sighting reports. He points out that the names and locations connected with the incidents could be deleted, if necessary.
Wants Film Released
Keyhoe also claims that the Air Force should release the final intelligence analysis on the Utah film.
In connection with this, Keyhoe recently sent a telegram to high Air Force officials charging that since the Air Force had implied that he had misrepresented the analysis of the Utah film, either he or the Air Force was lying.
The Times-Herald asked a top Air Force spokesman if Keyhoe had, in fact, misrepresented the Utah film analysis. He declined to comment.
In his telegram — as in his book— Keyhoe stated:
"The final analysis proved that the saucer formation could not be explained as any known aircraft or other conventional objects."
Cites Conclusions
The spokesman was asked if this statement were true or false. He said that, to date, the Air Force has neither affirmed nor denied it.
Keyhoe also contends the analysis concluded the objects were not birds and were not caused by weather conditions.
Specifically, Keyhoe claims the
62-83899-A
NOT RECORDED
44 JAN 12 1954
[Handwritten]: Jiles 5 Etm
Date: 12-28-53
5 0 JAN 13 1954 [ILLEGIBLE]
Times Herald P9
Wash. Post ___
Wash. News ___
Wash. Star ___
N. Y. Times ___
N. Y. Compass ___intelligence experts reached the following conclusions:
1. The average speed of the unknown objects was somewhere between 653 and 980 miles per hour.
2. All the objects appeared round, of the same size, and gave off a bluish-white glow of very high intensity.
3. The objects seemed to be maneuvering in a circular or elliptical pattern within the group, at very high speeds.
4. Because of these high speeds, the objects obviously could not be balloons or birds.
5. They were not any type of known aircraft.
6. The sighting could not be explained by any conventional answer.
Asked if the Times-Herald could see the final analysis report, an Air Force spokesman said that there were certain reports the Air Force could not make public for security reasons, risk of libel, and other reasons.
However, the spokesman said the film could be viewed at Wright field, Ohio.
Not Discounting Theory
The Air Force officially neither accepts nor rejects the interplanetary theory.
Brig. Gen. Sorv Smith, Air Force public relations chief, put it this way:
"We do not know enough about it to deny that flying saucers exist. Conversely, we have no proof that they do exist.
"In our investigation we are not discounting the possibility that the saucers — if they exist — could be interplanetary. We are interested in anyone who might be using the air over the United States.
"However, we have no authentic physical evidence that they are interplanetary."
Continuing, Gen. Smith stated:
"For the Air Force to admit that flying saucers exist, it would want indisputable physical evidence. For such an admission, it would want stronger evidence than it now has."
Summing up the problem, he said:
"So far, the question of whether flying saucers exist, and if so, what they are, has not been conclusively answered either way."
But one thing is certain, he added. The Air Force will continue to seek the answer.
Will Push Campaign
Meanwhile, Keyhoe plans to continue his campaign to compel the Air Force to disclose the facts he says it is concealing. He told the Times-Herald he will continue to make his claims in print and on television, and will challenge the Air Force to deny them.
"If any official, after reading the final analysis on the Utah film, says that it did not rule out birds, known aircraft or conventional objects as the cause of those objects, I will call him a liar to his face.
"I do not like to use such terms, but after all, the Air Force has, in effect, been calling me a liar and I'm getting tired of it."
Regardless of the charges and counter-charges, so long as the Air Force has unsolved sightings in its files — and until it is definitely known what the flying saucers are — the average person is bound to wonder . . .
Are the flying saucers real? If so, what are they?
The final chapter is yet to be written in this strange drama. The answer is not yet available to us.
Times Herald ___
Wash. Post ___
Wash. News ___
Wash. Star ___
N. Y. Times ___
N. Y. Compass ___
Date: ___[Routing slip upper right:] Tolson ___ Ladd ___ Clegg ___ Glavin ___ Nichols ___ Rosen ___ Tracy ___ Harbo ___ Mohr ___ Tele. Room ___ Nease ___ Gandy ___ [Left margin:] 1/ [Handwritten right:] mo[ILLEGIBLE]Sturg[ILLEGIBLE] Statement by Air Force Truman, Other Officials Deny Knowledge of Flying Saucers By John G. Norris Post Reporter Top officials and agencies of the Government—from President Truman on down—joined yesterday in an effort to convince the American public that "flying saucers" do not exist. A formal statement issued by the Air Force last night was most explicit. It declared flatly that: 1. None of the armed forces is conducting secret experiments with "disc-shaped flying objects which could be a basis for the reported phenomena." 2. There is no evidence that the latter stem from "the activities of any foreign nation." 3. Evaluation of reports of recent "sightings" bears out early conclusions that all can be explained away as "misinterpretation of various conventional objects, a Saucers 'News' To Officials mild form of mass hysteria, or hoaxes." Earlier, President Truman announced through his press secretary at Key West, Fla., that he knew absolutely nothing of such flying objects being developed by the United States or any other nation. "We are not denying this because of any development of secret weapons," said Secretary Charles G. Ross, "but purely because we know of nothing to support these rumors." Defense Secretary Louis Johnson said about the same thing at a news conference. He told reporters he was "satisfied there is nothing in the reports." Johnson said he had facetiously See SAUCER, Page 3, Col. 2 raised the question at yesterday's meeting of the Armed Forces Policy Council, which includes the departmental secretaries and Joint Chiefs of Staff. Navy Secretary Francis Matthews and Admiral Forrest P. Sherman, chief of naval operations, as well as other officials, assured him the denials were sincere and truthful. The latest flareup of public interest in the saucers resulted from statements by Radio Commentator Henry J. Taylor and the weekly news magazine United States News and World Report that the saucers do exist and are revolutionary American aircraft probably developed by the Navy. A Navy spokesman flatly denied this Monday[.] Johnson said he is convinced the saucers could not be experiments conducted by any other Government agency outside his department because the Pentagon's Research and Development Board co-ordinates all such activity. Despite the denials, new reports of "saucers" continued. At Tipp City, Ohio, nine persons said they saw saucers over the Air Force base at Wright Field, early Sunday. Jerry Robinson, a 22-year-old Marine veteran, speaking for the group, said they saw "two bright lights in the sky" which later were discerned as bright discs trailing a[ILLEGIBLE] streak of orange flame. After hovering for a time, they shot straight up in the air and disappeared, he said. Police Chief J. C. Lee of Elizabeth City, N.[J.], reported that "a weird red and blue disc-like object" whizzed over the town early Sunday, "traveling at a high rate of speed." [Stamp:] 62-73894-[ILLEGIBLE] Ethr NOT RECORDED 42 APR 21 1950 52 APR 22 1950 WASHINGTON POST Page [ILLEGIBLE] Date 4-[5]-50 [Handwritten:] Jle5 Ethr
[Handwritten top:] Flein Flying Disc O Flying Discs 1 Kingsub[ILLEGIBLE] [Left margin:] 1st But the Navy Says 'No' 'Saucers' New-Type Aircraft, Probably Navy, Magazine Says By John G. Norris Post Reporter "Flying saucers" are in fact radically new type aircraft, conforming to known aerodynamic laws and probably developed by the United States Navy, the magazine United States and World Report said yesterday. This latest effort to explain the continuing reports of strange flying disks at various points over the country brought a prompt denial from the Navy Department that it is now "conducting research or flying" any such plane or missile. A spokesman pointed out that the Navy did develop the "pancake-shaped" Chance-Vought XF5U-1, but that it never flew and was scrapped more than a year ago. A small, 3000-pound scale model of the plane was flown and pictures of it have been released, but this model is now at Norfolk awaiting shipment to the National Air Museum here. The weekly news magazine did not quote any authority for its statement that the "flying saucers" are real American planes, but said that "engineers competant to a[ppraise] praise reports of reliable observers reach these conclusions: "They are aircraft of a revolutionary type, a combination of helicopter and fast jet plane. They coform to well-known principles of aerodynamics." They are "exactly 105 feet in diameter, circular in shape" and "are made of a metal alloy with a dull whitish color. There are no rudders, ailerons or other protruding surfaces. From the side, the saucers appear to be about 10 feet thick." "Each saucer appears to have a series of variable-direction jet nozzles around its rim. . . Direction of the aircraft and its velocity, in turn, evidently are controlled by the angle at which the jet nozzles are tilted, the number operating, the power applied. "By choosing which nozzles to turn on or off and the angle of tilt, the pilot could make the saucer rise or descend vertically, hover, fly straight ahead or make sharp turns. A right-angle turn, for example, could be made by turning off the rear jets, turning on the side and front nozzles. "Great speed can be obtained by focusing to the rear all nozzles in the after half of the aircraft. With all nozzles pointed downward, the saucer could rise straight off the ground, and with less power, could descend the same way . . . "Jet helicopter action . . . makes takeoffs and landings almost completely safe." The magazine said that an early model of the saucer was built by National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics experts in 1942 and made 100 successful flights. The Navy took over development and "much more advanced models now are being built." NACA Engineer Charles H. Zimmerman designed the first model, which had a speed of from 400 to 500 miles an hour and was powered by two piston propellers, said the article. "Surface indications," the magazine went on, "point to research centers of the United States Navy's vast guided-missile project as the scene of present flying-saucer development." The project, it was said, has the "scientists, the engineers, the dollars, the motive and the background" for the job. "This likelihood will remain, despite any future denials by the Navy front office, until secrecy is lifted," the magazine added. The Navy declared it was true that its abandoned "flying pancake" was designed by Zimmerman, and was called the "Zimmerman Skimmer." It added that a still smaller scale model—onethird of actual size—is still at NACA's Langley, Va., laboratory for wind-tunnel tests, but the Navy insisted it had no such project now active. The Air Force, after many months of investigation of "flying saucer" reports, concluded that all the evidence pointed to "misinterpretation of various conventional objects, a mild form of mass hysteria, or hoaxes." [Photo caption:] Model of aircraft developed in 1948 and flown by the Navy under radio control—full-size craft never flew, the Navy has announced Associated Press Photo [Stamp:] 1 62-83894-A NOT RECORDED 83 APR 11 1950 56 APR 11 1950 WASHINGTON POST Dated 4-4-50 [Handwritten:] Feb 5— Ethr [ILLEGIBLE signature] [ILLEGIBLE]Sturgis [ILLEGIBLE]
[Routing slip upper right:] Mr. Tolson [checkmark] Mr. Ladd ___ Mr. Nichols [checkmark] Mr. Belmont [checkmark] Mr. Clegg ___ Mr. Glavin ___ Mr. Harbo ___ Mr. Rosen ___ Mr. Tracy ___ Mr. Mohr ___ Mr. Trotter ___ Mr. Winterrowd ___ Tele. Room ___ Mr. Holloman ___ Miss Gandy ___ [Left margin:] / [Handwritten right:] B[r]bragan To Fan Hysteria Red Labels 'Saucers' U.S. Fiction LONDON — [A] — A Soviet commentator Saturday accused "aggressive forces" in the United States and other countries of inventing flying saucers to fan war hysteria. Moscow radio broadcast excerpts from an aritcle by K. Khachaturov in the Soviet army newspaper Red Star, saying: "Those who spread these fables are endeavoring to create the impression that the mysterious object originate from Moscow. "The mythical 'saucers' take off from the pages of the bourgeois press every time the ruling circles of this or that capitalist country, on orders from Washington, are trying to foist upon their people the new burden of military expenditure." [Stamps:] 62-83894-A NOT RECORDED 46 JAN 8 1954 50 JAN 11 1954 5350 THE MIAMI HERALD MIAMI, FLORIDA DECEMBER 28, 1953 [Handwritten:] Jele5 Ethr
0-20
Mr. Tolson ✓
Mr. Ladd ✓
Mr. Nichols ✓
Mr. Belmont ✓
Mr. Clegg
Mr. Glavin
Mr. Harbo
Mr. Rosen
Mr. Tracy
Mr. Gearty
Mr. Mohr
Mr. Winterrowd
Tele. Room
Mr. Holloman
Mr. Sizoo
Miss Gandy
BRANIGAN
[handwritten] 4-1
[handwritten] Stt Mossburg [ILLEGIBLE]
O FLYING SAUCERS
(SAUCERS)
THE AIR FORCE STILL INSISTS THAT "FLYING SAUCERS" ARE WEATHER FREAKS
DESPITE A RETIRED MARINE OFFICER'S ATTEMPT TO PROVE THEY ARE SPACE
SHIPS FROM ANOTHER PLANET.
A SPOKESMAN SAID THERE WAS NO CHANGE IN AIR FORCE'S OFFICIAL VIEW,
ALTHOUGH DONALD E. KEYHOE, IN A BOOK "FLYING SAUCERS FROM OUTER SPACE,"
CLAIMED THE AIR FORCE HAS SECRET MOVIES PROVING THE OFT-SEEN GLOWING
OBJECTS ARE INTERPLANETARY CRAFT.
BOTH THE AIR FORCE AND THE WEATHER BUREAU, AFTER EXHAUSTIVE STUDIES,
AGREED MANY MONTHS AGO THAT THE FIERY, FAST-MOVING OBJECTS SEEN BY
OBSERVERS FROM COAST TO COAST WERE LIGHT EFFECTS CAUSED BY TEMPERATURE
"INVERSION."
KEYHOE, HOWEVER, CLAIMED HE SUPPORTS HIS INTERPLANETARY SHIP THEORY
WITH OFFICIAL AIR FORCE DOCUMENTS. A PRESS RELEASE PREPARED BY HIS
PUBLISHER "REVEALED" WHAT IT SAID WAS A BITTER STRUGGLE IN HIGH AIR
FORCE CIRCLES OVER WHETHER TO MAKE THE ALLEGED PICTURES PUBLIC.
KEYHOE SCHEDULED A COCKTAIL PARTY AT 4:00 P.M. FOR THE PRESS TO PLUG
HIS BOOK.
9/29--GE1024A
[stamp] 162-83894-A- O Flying Saucers
NOT RECORDED
199 OCT 8 1953
[handwritten] Jile 5 Shr
[stamp] 50 OCT 14 1953
WASHINGTON CITY NEWS SERVICE0-19
Tolson
Ladd ✓
Nichols ✓
Belmont ✓
Clegg
Glavin
Harbo
Rosen
Tracy
Laughlin
Mohr
Winterrowd
Tele. Rm.
Holloman
Gandy
[handwritten] Phe[ILLEGIBLE]
[handwritten] Flying Saucers
[handwritten] Bra[ILLEGIBLE] [ILLEGIBLE]
Plastic 'Moby Dicks' Flying Since 1950
Whale-Like Air Force Balloons Rise 20 Miles,
Solve Flying Saucer Riddle, Wind Secrets
By the Associated Press
The magazine Aviation Week published a new report yesterday on what the Air Force has found out about the upper atmosphere with its "Moby Dick" balloons—whale-like bags which have often been mistaken for flying saucers.
Since the big helium-filled balloons made their appearance three years ago, the magazine said, more than 90 percent of the "saucer" sightings have coincided with their logged ascents and charted courses.
The shiny surface of the plastic balloons is an excellent reflector of light. Long after the sun has set end darkness has covered the earth, they shine brilliantly with the light reflected from the sun at altitudes of from 90,000 to 100,000 feet, almost 20 miles up in the sky.
Vapor dust or other foreign particles in the atmosphere make the light appear white, red, purple, or green. Because of the difficulty of judging speed at high altitudes, the balloons sometimes seem to be racing at tremendous velocities, whereas they actually are moving at 60 miles an hour or less.
One evening after sunset many units of the Strategic Air Command in Texas were kept busy trying to catch and shoot down a flying object that was actually a Moby Dick drifting along at about 90,000 feet in a glow of dust-refracted sunlight.
B-36 bomber crews, accustomed to flying high altitudes, gave up the chase when they were left behind at 45,000 feet, and jet fighters stalled trying to pursue the object above their altitude ceiling.
Another mysterious object, later identified positively as a research balloon, floated over San Francisco last spring during a parade welcoming Gen. James A. Van Fleet home from Korea. It shone as a brilliant white sphere as jet fighters vainly tried to reach it. On another day, Dayton, Ohio, was filled with "saucer" reports as another balloon floated over the city.
The balloon flights have confirmed the fact that air currents travel in opposite directions at different altitude layers. The prevailing wind moves from West to East across the United States at about 50,000 feet. About 10,000 feet higher, however, the flow is sometimes reversed.
Balloons have also carried various kinds of animal life, ranging from fruit flies to mice and monkeys, up to 80,000 feet. The experimental animals have survived such altitudes for 24 hours and have been recovered to provide living data for scientific research.
The Moby Dick balloons are released almost daily at Tillamook, Ore.; Vernalis, Calif., and Edwards Air Force Base in California. Two more sites will be used to take advantage of late summer winds—the Moody Air Force base near Valdosta, Ga., and Sedalia, Mo.
The big bags are made so that they destroy themselves automatically when they descend to 33,000 feet. Recording machines and instruments are parachuted to earth.
INDEXED - 81 | 62-83894-A
NOT RECORDED
191 SEP 11 1953
Times-Herald
Wash. Post P.M 1
Wash. News
Wash. Star
N.Y. Herald Tribune
N.Y. Mirror
[handwritten] C.E. [ILLEGIBLE]
fill
Date: AUG 2 3 1953
[stamp] 58 SEP 17 19530-19
Tolson
Ladd
Nichols
Belmont
Clegg
Glavin
Harbo
Rosen
Tracy
Laughlin
Mohr
Winterrowd
Tele. Rm.
Holloman
Gandy
[handwritten] Bra[nigan]
[handwritten] Flying Saucers
Pilot Sights Small Flying Disc
Chasing F-84 Over Japan
By the Associated Press
UNITED STATES AIR BASE, Northern Japan, Jan. 28.—The United States Air Force last night reported a small, metallic, disc-shaped object made a controlled, sweeping pass at an American jet fighter-bomber and was observed at very close range by another pilot.
The report, from Air Force intelligence files, said the sighting was made over Northern Japan at 11:20 a.m., March 29, 1952, by Lt. David C. Brigham of Rockford, Ill.
It was a bright, cloudless day. Lt. Brigham said he got a very good look at the object from about 30 to 50 feet for about 10 seconds.
The pilot described it as "about eight inches in diameter, very thin, round, and as shiny as polished chromium; had no apparent projections and left no exhaust trails or vapor trails."
He said it caught up with an F-84 Thunderjet, hovered a few moments and then shot out of sight. The F-84 pilot, whose name was not revealed, did not see it.
It was the second disclosure in a week by Air Force intelligence of mysterious flying objects over Northern Japan near the Russian-Siberia area.
On January 21, the Air Force disclosed that "rotating clusters of red, white and green lights" had been sighted over Northern Japan by American airmen.
162-83894- A
[RECORDED]
FEB 2 1953
Times-Herald
Wash. Post
Wash. News
Wash. Star ✓
N.Y. Herald Tribune
N.Y. Mirror
[handwritten] Jile 5 Efm
A.M. C[ILLEGIBLE] Edition
Date: 1-28-53
[stamp] 79 FEB 3 - 19530-20
Tolson
Ladd
Nichols ✓
Belmont
Clegg
Glavin
Harbo
Rosen
Tracy
Laughlin
Mohr
Winterrowd
Tele. Rm.
Holloman
Gandy
[handwritten] Branigan, W.A.B., P. Efm
SANTA FE, N.M.--THE SANTA FE NEW MEXICAN SAID TODAY THAT
"FANTASTIC" STRIDES HAVE BEEN MADE IN THE FIELD OF GUIDED MISSILE
RESEARCH AND THAT IT IS "POSSIBLE" THE DEFENSE DEPARTMENT MAY SOON
CLEAR UP THE MYSTERY OF THE FLYING SAUCERS.
THE NEWSPAPER SAID "SOME WRAPS MAY BE REMOVED FROM SOME ASPECTS
OF THE HUSH-HUSH PROGRAM" AT A SPECIAL DEMONSTRATION TENTATIVELY
SCHEDULED AT THE WHITE SANDS PROVING GROUNDS SOUTH OF HERE LATER THIS
SPRING.
"IT IS POSSIBLE THAT THE DISCLOSURE SOON TO BE MADE BY THE DEPART-
MENT OF DEFENSE MAY, IN PART AT LEAST, EXPLAIN SOME OF THE 'THINGS'
SIGHTED IN SOUTHWESTERN SKIES BY BEWILDERED OBSERVERS WHO HAVE
TERMED THEM 'FLYING SAUCERS' FOR LACK OF A BETTER NAME," THE PAPER
SAID.
(HOWEVER COL. M. G. HENDRICKS, COMMANDANT OF THE PROVING GROUNDS,
SAID TODAY THAT RESEARCH THERE "HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH ANYING LIKE
THE SO-CALLED FLYING SAUCER. WE ARE STRICTLY IN THE GUIDED MISSILE
BUSINESS. THERE CERTAINLY WON'T BE ANYTHING LIKE A FLYING SAUCER
DEMONSTRATED.")
1/8--N1134P
[handwritten] Jile 5 Efm
[stamp] 62-83894-A
NOT RECORDED
98 JAN 10 1953
[stamp] 89 JAN 19 1953
WASHINGTON CITY NEWS SERVICE[handwritten] Branigan W.A.B. Jel Efm
SANTA FE, N.M.--THE SANTA FE NEW MEXICAN SAID TODAY THAT
"FANTASTIC" STRIDES HAVE BEEN MADE IN THE FIELD OF GUIDED MISSILE
RESEARCH AND THAT IT IS "POSSIBLE" THE DEFENSE DEPARTMENT MAY SOON
CLEAR UP THE MYSTERY OF THE FLYING SAUCERS.
THE NEWSPAPER SAID "SOME WRAPS MAY BE REMOVED FROM SOME ASPECTS
OF THE HUSH-HUSH PROGRAM" AT A SPECIAL DEMONSTRATION TENTATIVELY
SCHEDULED AT THE WHITE SANDS PROVING GROUNDS SOUTH OF HERE LATER THIS
SPRING.
"IT IS POSSIBLE THAT THE DISCLOSURE SOON TO BE MADE BY THE DEPART-
MENT OF DEFENSE MAY, IN PART AT LEAST, EXPLAIN SOME OF THE 'THINGS'
SIGHTED IN SOUTHWESTERN SKIES BY BEWILDERED OBSERVERS WHO HAVE
TERMED THEM 'FLYING SAUCERS' FOR LACK OF A BETTER NAME," THE PAPER
SAID.
(HOWEVER COL. M. G. HENDRICKS, COMMANDANT OF THE PROVING GROUNDS,
SAID TODAY THAT RESEARCH THERE "HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH ANYING LIKE
THE SO-CALLED FLYING SAUCER. WE ARE STRICTLY IN THE GUIDED MISSILE
BUSINESS. THERE CERTAINLY WON'T BE ANYTHING LIKE A FLYING SAUCER
DEMONSTRATED.")
1/8--N1134P
[handwritten] Jile 5 Efm
[stamp] 162-83894-A
NOT RECORDED
08 JAN 14 1953
[stamp] 67 JAN 15 1953
Washington City News Service[handwritten] an
O FLYING DISC
(RELEASE AT 7:00 P.M. EST)
Flying Discs
NEW YORK--THOSE LIGHTS IN THE SKY NEXT WEEK WILL NOT BE FLYING
SAUCERS, BUT MERELY "SUDDEN TRAILS OF LIGHT CAUSED BY SOLID
PARTICLES FROM OUTER SPACE THAT ENTER OUR ATMOSPHERE AT TREMENDOUS
SPEEDS AND ARE HEATED TO INCANDESCENCE BY THE RESISTANCE OF AIR TO
THEIR FLIGHT."
THEY'LL BE ESPECIALLY BAD ABOUT THE 10TH AND THE 16TH OF THE
MONTH.
ROBERT R. COLES, CHAIRMAN OF THE HAYDEN PLANETARIUM OF THE AMERICAN
MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, GAVE FAIR NOTICE OF THE LIGHTS TODAY.
THE TWO PRINCIPAL METEOR SHOWERS IN NOVEMBER, COLES SAID, ARE THE
SO-CALLED TAURID METEORS, WHICH SHOW OFF BEST ABOUT THE 10TH OF THE
MONTH, AND THE LEONID METEORS, WHICH STEAL THE SHOW ABOUT THE 16TH.
11/3--E346P
[handwritten] WAB Branigan, [ILLEGIBLE] Efm, Mossburg Efm
[handwritten] Jile 5 Efm
[stamp] 62-83894-A
NOT RECORDED
138 NOV 18 1952
[stamp] 385
53 NOV 18 1952 Washington City News Service[handwritten] Flying Discs
(SAUCER)
HELENA, MONT.--THE FBI, HIGHWAY PATROL AND POLICE OFFICERS INVESTI-
GATED TODAY A STRANGE WHITE OBJECT WHICH REPORTEDLY STREAKED ACROSS THE
SKY OVER MONTANA FOR ABOUT 100 MILES.
THE STRANGE OBJECT APPEARED LATE LAST NIGHT, AND THE LAW ENFORCEMENT
OFFICIALS TRACED IT FROM BOZEMAN, MONT., TO THIS CITY. IT WAS ALSO
SIGHTED OVER BUTTE AND BOULDER, MONT.
CAA OFFICIALS SAID THERE WAS NO PLANE IN THE SKY THAT COULD HAVE
BEEN MISTAKEN FOR THE WHITE OBJECT.
9/20--U0959A
[handwritten] Washington City News Service
[handwritten] WAB Efm
[stamp] 162-83894-A
NOT RECORDED
98 SEP 23 1952
[handwritten] Jile 5 Efm
[stamp] 68 SEP 25 19520-19
Tolson
Ladd
Nichols ✓
Belmont ✓
Clegg
Glavin
Harbo
Rosen
Tracy
Laughlin
Mohr
Winterrowd
Tele. Rm.
Holloman
Gandy
[handwritten] Branigan, WAB Efm, Mossburg Efm
[handwritten] Flying Saucers
FIVE-STATE WHATZIT
Well, It Sure Was
Some Ball of Fire
It has been pretty well established today that the "mass of flaming, incandescent material" which flashed across the sky over Washington and five eastern states last night was a meteor, a flying saucer "as big as a washtub," or a mass of flaming, incandescent material.
The Naval Observatory, the Weather Bureau and observers at National Airport lean toward the meteor theory.
Scores of Washingtonians, who saw it, leaned in all directions. Police remained stolidly upright, and the FBI had no comment.
HOW IT LOOKED
But citizens here, in Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Ohio couldn't be silenced.
They said:
● "Suddenly this thing came swooping down from the eastern skies. It looked like it was right above the housetops. It was a ball of bright greenish fire with a long tail." (This was a housewife.)
● "I thought it was a flying saucer. I thought it was a flare at first—that is, I thought it was a flare until the darned thing swooped down—and then up again. It seemed to follow the contours of the road." (Army veteran.)
● "It looked at first look like a plane on fire, it was that big. It was sun-colored with a tail." (Suburbanite.)
● Shaped like a star "about as big as the inside of a tennis racket." (12-year-old boy.)
SHOCKING
Four Frederick farmers saw "a ball shooting across the horizon."
Near Washington, three United Press correspondents said it was like this:
● "A rocket with a fiery tail . . . It shocked us, it looked so close." (Frank Eleazer.)
● "A big magnesium flare . . . It gave off sparks." (Robert Loftus.)
● It plunged out of the sky "very fast," like a plane shot down in the war. It was trailing a tail of flame."—(John A. Goldsmith.)
George Lincoln, of 756 S. Greenbrier-st, Arlington, saw something "about as big as a washtub. I was sure it was going to crash, some place," he said.
A Maryland state trooper, sitting out his lonely vigil atop Negro Mountain in far Western Maryland, said "it" passed over him, too.
Times-Herald
Wash. Post
Wash. News 3
Wash. Star
N.Y. Herald Tribune
N.Y. Mirror
N.Y. Compass
[handwritten] Jile 5 Efm
[stamp] 162-83894-A
NOT RECORDED
96 SEP 19 1952
[stamp] 58 SEP 24 1952 F158
Date: SEP 13 1952Mr. Tolson
Mr. Ladd
Mr. Nichols
Mr. Belmont
Mr. Clegg
Mr. Glavin
Mr. Harbo
Mr. Rosen
Mr. Tracy
Mr. Laughlin
Mr. Mohr
Mr. Winterrowd
Tele. Room
Mr. Holloman
Miss Gandy
[handwritten] Brabi[gan]
[handwritten] D
High-Flying Bomber
Caused New Disc Tale
Special to The Inquirer
READING, Pa., Aug. 28.—Air National Guard officers and control tower operators of the Civil Aeronautics Administration today "cleared up" the latest flying saucer mystery, as evolved in the skies over Berks county last Monday.
The saucers, seen by a large number of persons at that time, a spokesman said, were vapor trails of a B-36 inter-continental bomber and a jet plane, which CAA towermen said were flying at an altitude of 40,000 to 45,000 feet.
The jet left a bigzag trail as it dived in on the big bomber in a mock interception attack. The spokesman said such air shows were frequent when atmospheric conditions were right for the hot exhausts from engines to freeze at high altitude.
The big bombers, the spokesman explained, often fly far out over the ocean, and when they approach the coastline on their return journeys they are observed on radar screens and jets are sent up to intercept them. Such tests, he added, are frequent, to keep interceptor teams on the alert.
The aerial display on Monday was witnessed by hundreds of Guardsmen of the 112th Fighter Wing, Pennsylvania-Maryland Air National Guard, as well as officers who watched the maneuvers through binoculars.
Air National Guard officers said the report submitted by Harry Feinauer, 43, of Birdsboro, who said he thought he saw a plane release a flying saucer in the air Monday morning, probably had to do with the jet which he saw diving on the bomber.
Nor did the Guard's explanation dovetail very closely with the account given by Herbert Long, 29, Kutztown insurance salesman, who told of seeing a flying saucer 30 feet in front of his automobile Monday night, off the Allentown pike near Maxtatawny. Long said he saw the object so clearly that he was able to make a detailed drawing of its appearance.
[stamp] 62-83894-A
NOT RECORDED
101 SEP 12 1952
[handwritten] Jile 5 Efm
DATE 8/28/52
THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER
PHILADELPHIA PA.
PAGE 1 COLUMNS 7
EDITION: STAR FINAL
[stamp] 51 SEP 16 1952
ASAC
SECTION 1
SECTION 2
SECTION 3
SECTION 4
SUPERVISOR
BUREAU ✓[Newspaper photograph: sketch of a dome-shaped flying saucer with an antenna on top, hovering over a surface] THIS IS IT A sketch of the flying saucer which Herbert Long, 29, a Kutztown, Pa., insurance salesman, contends he saw parked on a road 30 feet from his car. He said he was too frightened to approach it. He's shown (left, below) giving Leroy Gensler, artist, directions for the sketch. (AP Wirephotos)
Mr. Tolson Mr. Ladd Mr. Nichols Mr. Belmont Mr. Clegg Mr. Glavin Mr. Harbo Mr. Rosen Mr. Tracy Mr. Laughlin Mr. Mohr[rowd] [ILLEGIBLE] [ILLEGIBLE] [ILLEGIBLE] [handwritten] Bran[igan] O Flying Saucers [Photograph: industrial building silhouetted against a sky with an unidentified object visible above it] What Is It? FLYING SAUCER MAYBE?—The unknown object over the building in the picture, photographed above Anacortes, moves swiftly through the sky, seemingly a part of a cloud formation. But is it? Walter Elliott of Anacortes was preparing to take a picture of the building when he noticed the unusual saucer-like object in his view finder, so he snapped the picture at 1/100th of a second. Elliott was unable to determine the nature of the unusual object which quickly disappeared. (Associated Press Wirepho[to].) [stamp] 62-83894-A NOT RECORDED 101 SEP 12 1952 SEARCHED [ILLEGIBLE] AUG 2 8 1952 [ILLEGIBLE]-SEATTLE [handwritten] Jile 5 Efm SEATTLE POST INTELLIGENCER PAGE 10 COL. 1 PM [stamp] 68 SEP 18 1952
0-20
Mr. Tolson
Mr. Ladd ✓
Mr. Nichols ✓
Mr. Belmont ✓
Mr. Clegg
Mr. Glavin
Mr. Harbo
Mr. Rosen
Mr. Tracy
Mr. Laughlin
Mr. Mohr
Mr. Winterrowd
Tele. Room
Mr. Holloman
Miss Gandy
[handwritten] Bra[nigan], [ILLEGIBLE] Efm, [ILLEGIBLE]
Flying Discs
(SAUCERS)
SAN FRANCISCO--A FORMER AIR FORCE B29 TEST MECHANIC AND SCIENTIFIC
LECTURER SAID TODAY HE SAW TWO SILVER GREY OBJECTS FLYING ERRATICALLY
OVER SAN FRANCISCO AIRPORT "AT TERRIFIC SPEEDS."
ROBERT G. GARNER, 38, SAN FRANCISCO, SAID HE AND HIS WIFE BOTH
OBSERVED THE OBJECTS AT 5:30 P.M. YESTERDAY AND HE WAS CONVINCED THEY
WERE "NOT OF THE EARTH."
GARDNER, WHO SAID HE WAS WITH THE AIR FORCE IN THE PACIFIC
DURING WORLD WAR II, SAID THE OBJECTS LOOKED LIKE "CROSS SECTIONS OF
A CONE CLIPPED OFF AT BOTH ENDS."
"THEY WERE SILVER GREY IN COLOR AND APPEARED TO HAVE A DIAMETER OF
ABOUT 150 TO 200 FEET EACH," HE SAID.
"BOTH OF THEM FLEW AT AN ALTITUDE OF ABOUT 12,000 FEET," GARNER
SAID. "AND I'D ESTIMATE THEY WERE GOING AT LEAST 1800 MILES AN
HOUR."
8/25--TS1147A
O Flying Discs OR Flying Saucers
[handwritten] Jile 5 Efm
[stamp] 62-83894-A
NOT RECORDED
146 SEP 15 1952
[stamp] 51 SEP 17 1952
WASHINGTON CITY NEWS SERVICE0-20
Tolson
Ladd ✓
Nichols ✓
Belmont ✓
Clegg
Glavin
Harbo
Rosen
Tracy
Laughlin
Mohr
Tele. Rm.
Holloman
Gandy
[handwritten] Brab[igan]
Flying Saucers
(SAUCERS)
PHYSICIST NOEL W. SCOTT SAID TODAY THAT THOSE FLYING "THINGS"
PEOPLE HAVE BEEN SEEING MAY BE "ANODE GLOWS" CAUSED BY IONIZATION OF
THIN AIR IN THE UPPER ATMOSPHERE.
ONE REASON SCOTT FEELS THAT WAY IS THAT HE HAS PRODUCED "FLYING
SAUCERS" IN HIS LABORATORY AT FORT BELVOIR, VA., WHICH POSSESS ALL
THE CHARACTERISTICS ATTRIBUTED TO THE RADAR-SPOTTED "OBJECTS" REPORTED
HERE IN RECENT WEEKS.
SCOTT WAS NOT TALKING ABOUT THE BRIGHT METEOR WHICH FLASHED ACROSS
THE NORTHWESTERN SKIES HERE SUNDAY NIGHT, BUT ABOUT WHATEVER IT IS
THAT HAS BEEN PRODUCING "BLIPS" ON AIR FORCE RADAR SCREENS.
FIVE SUCH "UNIDENTIFIED OBJECTS" WERE SPOTTED BY RADAR AT NEARBY
ANDREWS AIR FORCE BASE IN MARYLAND SHORTLY BEFORE LAST MIDNIGHT.
AS A RESULT OF HIS CREATIONS IN THE RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
LABORATORIES AT FORT BELVOIR, SCOTT SAID, "I AM CONVINCED THAT THESE
'FLYING THINGS' ARE NATURAL PHENOMENA."
SCOTT HAS BEEN CONDUCTING EXPERIMENTS WITH A LARGE VACUUM JAR UNDER
CONDITIONS SIMULATING THE RAREFIED AND IONIZED UPPER ATMOSPHERE.
BY IONIZING THE THIN AIR IN HIS BELL JAR WITH STATIC ELECTRICITY
SCOTT AT WILL PRODUCED BALLOON-LIKE BLOBS OF LIGHT WHICH HE COULD MOVE
AROUND AT ANY DESIRED SPEED. ALL, HE SAID, COULD HAVE BEEN
"DETECTED" BY RADAR.
IN A DEMONSTRATION YESTERDAY FOT LT. GEN. LEWIS A. PICK, CHIEF OF
ARMY ENGINEERS, AND OTHERS, SCOTT SAID HE MADE THE LIGHTS STAND STILL,
REVERSE THEMSELVES, OR WINK OUT.
BY ALTERING THE AIR PRESSURE HE CHANGED THE COLOR FROM A NEON-LIKE
ORANGE TO WHITE OR BLUE OR WHITE WITH A GREEN HALO. HE COULD MAKE THE
BLOBS APPEAR TO LEAVE AN INCANDESCENT TRAIL LIKE A JET DISCHARGE.
SCOTT EXPLAINED THAT AN "ANODE GLOW" FORMS ON AN IONIZED
(ELECTRIFIED) LAYER OR VOLUME OF GAS WHICH IS POSITIVE IN RESPECT TO
THE SURROUNDING ATMOSPHERE. SUCH GLOWS COULD OCCUR ANYWHERE FROM 50
TO 200 MILES UP, HE SAID, DEPENDING ON CONDITIONS OF ATMOSPHERIC
PRESSURE AND IONIZATION.
8/6--TS1259P
INDEXED-119 62-83894-A
EX. - 73 NOT RECORDED
98 AUG 11 1952
[handwritten] Jile 5 Sto
[stamp] 65 AUG 14 1952
WASHINGTON CITY NEWS SERVICE0-20
Tolson ✓
Ladd ✓
Nichols ✓
Belmont ✓
Clegg
Glavin
Harbo
Rosen
Tracy
Laughlin
Mohr
Tele. Rm.
Holloman
Gandy
[handwritten] Bra[nigan], [ILLEGIBLE] Efm
Flying Saucers
(SAUCERS)
THE COAST GUARD TODAY RELEASED A PHOTOGRAPH OF FOUR BRILLIANT WHITE
LIGHTS SNAPPED OVER ITS SALEM, MASS., AIR STATION SEVERAL WEEKS AGO.
THE PICTURE, TAKEN BY A 21-YEAR OLD COAST GUARD PHOTOGRAPHER, WAS
THE LATEST EPISODE IN THE NATIONWIDE OUTBURST OF "FLYING SAUCER"
MYSTERIES.
IT CLEARLY SHOWS FOUR RAGGED-EDGED ROUND OBJECTS IN V-FORMATION.
EACH APPEARS TO HAVE TWO IDENTICAL SHAFTS OF LIGHT EXTENDING ACROSS
ITS CENTER AND PROTRUDING FORE AND AFT LIKE A WING.
A SPOKESMAN SAID THE NEGATIVE HAS BEEN EXAMINED BY COAST GUARD
PHOTOGRAPHY EXPERTS WHO ARE SATISFIED "THERE IS NO RETOUCHING OR
FAKERY INVOLVED."
"WE DON'T KNOW WHAT THE OBJECTS ARE," A COAST GUARD OFFICER SAID,
"BUT THAT BOY'S CAMERA CAUGHT SOMETHING."
A UNITED PRESS REPORTER WAS ALLOWED TO SEE THE NEGATIVE WHICH WAS
FLOWN LATER TODAY TO DAYTON, O., WHERE IT WILL BE EXAMINED BY AIR
FORCE INVESTIGATORS.
THE NEGATIVE SHOWS NO SIGN OF RETOUCHING, EVEN UNDER AN ENLARGER
WHICH PRESUMABLY WOULD SHOW UP ANY FAKING.
THE PHOTOGRAPHER WAS SHELL ALPERT. A COAST GUARD ENLISTED
PHOTOGRAPHER. HE SAID HE MADE THE PICTURE AT 9:35 A.M., JULY 16,
THROUGH AN OPEN WINDOW OF THE AIR STATION'S PHOTO LABORATORY.
8/1--GE1137A
INDEXED 68 62-83894-A-
NOT RECOR[DED]
98 AUG 18 1952
[handwritten] Jile 5 Efm
[stamp] 68 AUG 18 1952
WASHINGTON CITY NEWS SERVICETolson
Ladd
Nichols
Belmont
Clegg
Glavin
Harbo
Rosen
Tracy
Laughlin
Mohr
Tele. Rm.
Holloman
Gandy
O Flying Discs
Flying Discs [handwritten]
Just Nature
Cutting Up,
Says Air Force
[of 'Saucers']
THE LATEST NEWS: Washington, July 29—Air Force experts said today that they are convinced "natural causes" account for the "flying saucers" which have been dotting local skies for more than a week and have been appearing intermittently throughout the country for more than five years.
Maj. Gen. John A. Samford, director of Air Force intelligence, offered the further assurance that a six-year study shows "no pattern vaguely resembling any threat to the United States."
Referring to the fact that radar screens are picking up what appear to be natural phenomena, Gen. Samford said:
"I think radar is beginning to tell us a great many things it was not built to discover—for instance, about Northern Lights and atmospheric conditions after a heat wave."
Despite the reassurance, which was delivered in an atmosphere of confusion, public concern over the mystery of the skies reached an all-time high.
Twelve more unidentifiable dots on a Civil Aeronautics Administration radar scope here early today threw the city into a dither.
(Jersey City reported tracking flying disks and one observer offered a photo of an oddly-shaped chunk of light to prove it.)
The Air Force flew the experts from Wright-Paterson Field, Dayton, O., to quell the gathering alarm, but meanwhile, USAF planes were equipped with special astronomical cameras, with which it is hoped pursuing pilots may be able to take pictures of the phenomena.
Air Defense Command planes remained on 24-hour alert to chase the "interlopers" and, if possible, "shoot them down."
Today's rash of "saucers" appeared on the CAA screen from 1:30 a.m. to 6 a.m. Airline pilots who were asked to scan the skies for signs of the things reported they saw nothing. Air Force radar equipment at a field near the CAA installation also spotted nothing.
For that reason, the Air Defense planes remained grounded, giving rise to rumors that the Pentagon somehow was surrendering to the "saucers." The Air Force took pains to deny this, and promised pursuit the next time a flying mystery is sighted with the naked eye.
Meanwhile, other responsible Pentagon officials reiterated denials that the strange aerial lights—or whatever they are—represent some new phase of U.S. military experimentation. They expressed firm conviction, too, that the things are no threat to the nation's security.
[stamp] 162-83894-A
NOT RECORDED
98 AUG 18 1952
[handwritten] Jile 5 Efm
Times-Herald
Wash. Post
Wash. News
Wash. Star
N.Y. Mirror
N.Y. Compass PP 3+16
Date: 7-30-52
[stamp] 86 AUG [ILLEGIBLE]BEHIND THE NEWS
By RICHARD CARTER
The swift-moving celestial luminosities which the American public has come to call "flying saucers" are phenomena with a recorded history dating back at least 200 years and perhaps several thousand.
The Biblical Ezekiel's airborne "wheels," for example, had some of the earmarks of what modern American science fiction readers, televiewers and "cold worriers" are on the verge of regarding as interplanetary scouts or missiles from Moscow.
Dr. Donald H. Menzel, professor of astrophysics at Harvard University, made this point in an interview last month with Time magazine. He produced documentary evidence that there was a saucer scare in Chicago on April 10, 1897, when many sky-watchers claimed to have seen two flying cigar-shaped objects.
Cigar-shaped objects have been spotted skyward by innumerable participants in America's postwar saucery.
Flying lights which differ in all apparent respects from shooting stars, meteors, and the like, have been seen by multitudes of sailors over the centuries, and their accounts of the phenomena differ hardly at all from those contributed by recent viewers.
Some people see white lights moving in formation; others see kelly green fire balls; others see orange fire balls; others see flying disks; others see the cigar-shaped mysteries. Some of the objects seem to hover, virtually [Continued on Page 15?]
motionless, before darting into a cloud and disappearing forever; others move at what seems to be an impossible rate of speed, reversing directions instantaneously, swooping and climbing in a manner which no man-made machine or human pilot could survive.
Since one of the foundations of modern science is to believe nothing that cannot be proved, most theories about the skittering whatizzits have to be rejected. Many theories which have gained wide currency are based on facts which are "probably true." But no scientist bases conclusions on things which only are probable.
The closest anyone has come not only to explaining the phenomena, but duplicating them, is Prof. Menzel. He believes the saucers are fancy mirages—actual images of lights, but displaced through miles of space by refraction. He explains that light moves slower through a dense medium like cold air than in warm air. When it passes from a layer of dense cold air into a layer of less dense warm air at an appropriate angle, it is bent, and may be seen miles away, as if disembodied, moving at fantastic speeds, or just hovering, depending on conditions.
Headlights, aerial searchlights, even street lights in a city can be refracted by the atmosphere and become "flying saucers" out in the country miles away, he says.
To prove it, he has produced startlingly similar phenomena in his own laboratory.
One of the reasons the Air Force has felt impelled to take part in the public debate on the subject, after having satisfied itself through research that the saucers are something akin to what Menzel describes, is that radar scopes in Washington have been described as spotting the saucers at the same time pilots and ground observers were seeing them with the naked eye.
Until further returns are in, the only explanation available is one known to anyone who has ever had anything to do with radar—you see all kinds of unaccountable things on it. It was considered noteworthy that Air Force radar in the same region failed to pick up the impulses which the CAA now has added to flying saucer lore.0-19
Tolson
Ladd
Nichols
Belmont ✓
Clegg
Glavin
Harbo
Rosen
Tracy
Laughlin
Mohr
Tele. Rm.
Holloman
Gandy
[handwritten] Bra[nigan], [ILLEGIBLE] Efm
O Flying Saucers
'Saucer' Mystery
Is Solved; Device
Studies Weather
One of the Washington area's flying saucers has been tracked down finally.
Last week a Martinsburg (W. Va.) woman found a mysterious five-foot square piece of aluminum covered material on her farm. She wanted to know what it was but nobody seemed to be able to tell and there was the usual speculation about flying saucers.
Andrews Air Force Base cleared up the mystery today. A spokesman said the object was used by the Air Weather Service. It is attached to a balloon and sent into the sky.
It is then tracked by radar and the direction and speed of the wind calculated. The device is in constant use, the air base said.
[stamp] 162-83894-A
NOT RECORDED
98 AUG 11 1952
[handwritten] Jules [ILLEGIBLE] Efm
Times-Herald
Wash. Post
Wash. News
Wash. Star A-8
N.Y. Mirror
N.Y. Compass
[stamp] 378
68 AUG 12 1952
Date: 7-[ILLEGIBLE]-520-19
Tolson ✓
Ladd
Nichols ✓
Belmont
Clegg
Glavin
Harbo
Rosen
Tracy
Laughlin
Mohr
Tele. Rm.
Holloman
Gandy
[handwritten] Bra[nigan]
They're in the Sky Again
Radar Spots More Mystery Objects Here,
Fliers Report Sighting Glowing Lights
Washington received another visit last night from the unidentified aerial objects similar to those reported here last Monday.
At least a dozen of the mysterious objects were reported to have been seen glowing in the sky within a 30-mile radius of the city. They were all picked up on the radar screen of the CAA Air Route Traffic Control center at Washington National Airport.
At 11:25 p.m., two F-94 jet fighters were sent up by the Air Defense command to investigate the lights. The pilots reported seeing the lights, but were not able to get any closer to them than about 7 miles.
The jet pilots described the lights as hard to see and track down:
At 11:33 p.m., one jet pilot observed four lights in the vicinity of Andrews Air Force base. The lights were about 500 feet above him and about 10 miles away. The pilot said he wasn't able to close on them, and they were "really moving." He lost sight of them two minutes later.
The same pilot observed a steady white light 10 miles east of Mount Vernon at 11:49 p.m. The light, about five miles ahead of him, faded in a minute.
The interceptors did not sight any more lights after that. Although the radar screen still picked up the objects. One plane landed shortly before midnight, and the other about 12:15 a.m.
It was the second time these objects have been picked up by radar. Last night's visitors showed up first on the screen at 9:08 p.m. and remained for some time.
Airline, private and military pilots all reported seeing them. Some pilots said they came within two or three miles of the objects.
They were variously described as looking like blue lights, the lighted end of a cigaret, or a cluster of orange and red lights.
Radar operators plotted their speed at from 38 to 90 miles per hour. They were not able to determine their altitude. Some pilots reported flying over them and some under them.
Before last week's report of the mysterious lights, so-called "flying saucers" are believed never to have been picked up on radar screens. The objects shown on the National Airport radar, however, caused definite "blips" on the screen, which means contact with solid objects, rather than lights or reflections.
A CAA spokesman [said the] objects picked up last night gave off blips similar to those of regular aircraft.
The Air Force has been investigating last week's objects. It said reports of flying saucers this month have been the highest since 1947, when they first were seen.
Times-Herald
Wash. Post 1M
Wash. News
Wash. Star
N.Y. Mirror
N.Y. Compass
[stamp] 319
70 AUG 4 1952
[stamp] 162-83894-A
NOT RECORDED
98 JUL 31 1952
Date: JUL 2 7 1952(SAUCERS)
MIAMI, FLA.--(UNITED PRESS-WCNS)--TWO VETERAN PAN AMERICAN AIRWAYS
PILOTS REPORTED TODAY THEY SAW EIGHT HUGE "FLYING SAUCERS" FLYING AT
1,000-MILE-AN-HOUR CLIP NEAR NORFOLK, VA., LAST NIGHT.
W. B. NASH SAID HE AND W. H. FORTENBERRY SAW SIX OF THE STRANGE
CRAFT, ESTIMATED TO BE 100 FEET IN DIAMETER AND "GLOWING ORANGE-RED
LIKE HOT COALS," FLY IN FORMATION SOME 6,000 FEET BENEATH THEIR DC-4.
THE SIX "THINGS" TURNED WESTWARD SHARPLY WHEN THE PAA PLANE
PASSED OVERHEAD AND WERE JOINED BY TWO OTHER SIMILAR FLYING DISCS,
NASH SAID. THE EIGHT "SAUCERS" ZOOMED UPWARD TO AN ESTIMATED 10,000
FEET ALTITUDE BEFORE THE GLOWING LIGHT EMANATING FROM THE
"PULSATED OFF" AND THEY DISAPPEARED INTO THE SKY, NASH SAID.
NASH, 35, ESTIMATED THAT HE AND FORTENBERRY, 30, "WATCHED THE
WHOLE MANEUVER" FOR BETWEEN 10 AND 12 SECONDS.
"BOTH FORTENBERRY AND I HAVE READ OTHER REPORTS ON SO-CALLED
'FLYING SAUCERS' AND HAVE RESPECT FOR THE JUDGMENT OF SOME OF THE
ASTRONOMERS AND OBSERVERS WHO HAVE REPORTED THEM," NASH SAID. "OUR
EXPERIENCE LAST NIGHT IS IN LINE WITH THOSE REPORTS."
NASH, A FIRST OFFICER FOR PAA AND A FLYING EMPLOYE FOR 10 YEARS,
SAID HE AND FORTENBERRY "WOULD JUDGE THAT THE EIGHT OBJECTS WERE
DEFINITELY INTELLIGENTLY CONTROLLED--WHETHER FROM WITHIN OR WITHOUT,
WE COULDN'T SAY."
"ALSO," SAID NASH, "WE CAN BE REASONABLY POSITIVE THAT NONE OF US
--AS WE KNOW PILOTS--COULD PHYSICALLY ENDURE THE CENTRIFUGAL FORCE
THAT WOULD BE IMPOSED ON THE OCCUPANTS WHEN MAKING TURNS OF SUCH
VIOLENCE AS THESE OBJECTS MADE."
NASH SAID THEIR DC-4, CARRYING 10 COMPANY PERSONNEL, WAS FLYING
SOUTHWARD BETWEEN NEWPORT NEWS, VA., AND NORFOLK WHEN THE FIRST SIX
SAUCERS APPEARED TO THE SOUTHWEST. NASH SAID THEY WERE FLYING IN AN
ECHELON FORMATION--A DIAGONAL STRAIGHT LINE--AB ABOUT 2,000 FEET
ALTITUDE.
7/15--W0932P
[handwritten] Whit[ILLEGIBLE], [ILLEGIBLE] Mossburg, Mossley, p2
[handwritten] Jile 5 EfmADD SAUCERS, MIAMI
"WE FEEL, BECAUSE OF THE WAY THE MISSILES ACTED AND BECAUSE OF ALL
THE OTHER REPORTS THAT HAVE BEEN HEARD, THAT THEY MUST BE FROM SOME
EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL SOURCE," NASH SAID.
"IF EITHER OF US HAD SEEN THE THINGS ALONE, WE WOULD HAVE HESTITATED
TO TELL ANYONE ABOUT IT," THE PILOT SAID. "BUT WE WATCHED THE WHOLE
THING TOGETHER."
NASH SAID THE OTHER PASSENGERS ON THE DC-4 WERE SITTING WHERE THEY
COULD NOT HAVE SEEN THE EIGHT MISSILES.
"GIVING CONSIDERATION TO THE DIFFERENCE IN OUR ALTITUDE AND
THEIRS, WE JUDGED THAT THEY WERE APPROXIMATELY 100 FEET IN DIAMETER
AND BETWEEN 10 AND 15 FEET THICK," NASH SAID.
"AS THEY NEARED US, THEY APPEARED TO BE SOLID BODIES OF LIGHT,
GLOWING ORANGE-RED LIKE RED HOT IRONS," NASH SAID. "BUT THEY HAD
DEFINITE OUTLINES."
NASH SAID WHEN THE STRANGE OBJECTS GOT ALMOST DIRECTLY BELOW THE
PAA PLANE, THEY MADE A SHARP, 150-DEGREE TURN TO THE WEST, THEN
BANKED UPWARD AT AN ALMOST 90 DEGREE TURN. AS THEY GAINED ALTITUDE,
THEY WERE JOINED BY TWO OTHER IDENTICAL "THINGS."
THE LIGHTS OF ALL EIGHT FLICKERED OFF IN SUCCESSION AT "PERHAPS
10,000 BUT THEY WERE GOING SO FAST IT WAS DIFFICULT TO ESTIMATE,"
HE SAID.
SANTOS CEYANES, ACTING OPERATIONS MANAGER FOR PAN AMERICAN HERE,
SAID THE FLYING SAUCERS SEEN BY NASH AND FORTENBERRY "OBVIOUSLY WERE
NOT FIGMENTS OF THEIR IMAGINATION."
NASH, A NAVY TRANSPORT PILOT IN WORLD WAR II, IS A VETERAN OF
10,000 AIR HOURS. FORTENBERRY, FORMERLY A NAVY FIGHTER PILOT, HAS BEEN
AN EMPLOYE OF PAA SINCE THE WAR.
THE REPORT MADE BY NASH AND FORTENBERRY TODAY WAS THE LATEST OF
SEVERAL RECENT REPORTS OF MYSTERIOUS OBJECTS IN THE AIR.
ON JULY 6, FOUR PILOTS FOR A NON-SCHEDULED AIRLINE REPORTED SEEING A
"SAUCER" HOVERING NEAR THE ATOMIC ENERGY PLANT AT RICHLANDS, WASH.
7/15--W0908P
7/15/52 EX.[ILLEGIBLE]
NOT RECORDED
98 JUL 23 1952
[stamp] 65 JUL 28 1952
#16
Washington City News Service0-20 [Tolson] / [Ladd] [signature] Nichols [signature] Belmont [signature] Clegg [signature] Glavin____ Harbo____ Rosen____ Tracy____ Laughlin____ Mohr____ Tele. Rm.____ Holloman____ Gandy____ [handwritten: λ] [handwritten: Brspugon Bogan] (SAUCERS) CHICAGO--O'HARA AIR FORCE BASSE OFFICERS SAID TODAY "FLYING SAUCER" REPORTS HAVE PICKED UP LATELY. THE PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICE SAID IT HAS RECEIVED 16 REPORTS OF MYSTERIOUS OBJECTS IN THE SKY IN THE CHICAGO VICINITY THIS WEEK. BUT OFFICERS DENIED REPORTS THAT A SPECIAL "FLYING SAUCER" ALERT AS BEEN ORDERED. PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICERS SAID JET PATROLS NORMALLY ARE ON THE ALERT "24 HOURS A DAY." OFFICERS SAID THE AIR FORCE ENCOURAGES CALLS ON OBJECTS SIGHTED. THEY AID THE REPORTS ARE "PASSED ON TO HIGHER AUTHORITY" FOR EVALUATION. AN OFFICER SAID SOME OF THIS WEEK'S REPORTS APPARENTLY STEMMED FROM AN ORPHANAGE PICNIC AT WHICH 5,000 TOY BALLOONS WERE RELEASED. 7/3--WO753P [handwritten: Etm Mossburg] 62-83894-A NOT RECORDED 98 JUL 14 1952 229 WASHINGTON CITY NEWS SERVICE
0-20 [Tolson] / [Ladd] / Nichols [signature] Belmont [signature] Clegg [signature] Glavin____ Harbo____ Rosen____ Tracy____ Laughlin____ Mohr____ Tele. Rm.____ Holloman____ Gandy____ [handwritten: λ] [handwritten: Brfngon] (SAUCERS) DENVER--(UNITEDPRESS-WCNS)--FOUR FLORIDA PILOTS, THREE OF THEM WORLD WAR II VETERANS, TOLD TODAY OF SEEING A "FLYING SAUCER" HOVERING OVER THE HANFORD ATOMIC PLANT AT RICHLANDS, WASH. CAPT. JOHN BALDWIN OF CORAL GABLES, FLA., AN AIR FORCE PILOT IN THE PACIFIC DURING WORLD WAR II WHO HAS 7,000 HOURS OF AIRLINE PILOT EXPERIENCE, SAID THE OBJECT HE AND HIS COMPANIONS REPORTED SEEING EARLY TODAY WAS A "PERFECTLY ROUND DISC, WHITE IN COLOR AND ALMOST TRANSPARENT WITH SMALL VAPOR TRAILS OFF IT LIKE THE TENTACLES OF AN OCTOPUS." HE SAID HE WAS FLYING AT ABOUT 9,000 FEET AND SAW THE OBJECT "JUST BELOW A DECK OF WISPY CLOUDS ABOUT 10,000 TO 15,000 FEET DIRECTLY ABOVE US. "ALL OF US HAVE BEEN FLYING A NUMBER OF YEARS AND WE'VE SEEN ALL KINDS OF CLOUDS AND FORMATIONS, BUT NONE OF US HAD EVER SEEN ANYTHING LIKE THIS BEFORE," BALDWIN SAID. "THE OBJECT SEEMED TO BACK AWAY FROM US AND CHANGE SHAPE. IT WAS PERFECTLY ROUND AND STILL AT FIRST. THEN IT SEEMED TO BACK AWAY FROM US AND CHANGE SHAPE. IT BECAME FLAT, GAINED SPEED AND THEN DISAPPEARED QUICKLY." 7/5--N643P 229 62-83894-A- NOT RECORDED JUL 14 1952 [handwritten: Duffly mossling] [handwritten: Jul 5 El[ILLEGIBLE]] 61 JUL 16 1952 WASHINGTON CITY NEWS SERVICE
0-19 Tolson____ Ladd____ Clegg____ Glavin____ Nichols____ Rosen____ Tracy____ Harbo____ Belmont____ Mohr____ Tele. Room____ Nease____ Gandy____ [handwritten annotations right side: signature / Etm Mossberg / O Flying Discs / Jul 5 Etm] Navy Calls Saucers Only Its Big Balloons NEW YORK, Feb. 12 (P).--Flying saucers are real--but they're only huge balloons used in cosmic ray studies, Look magazine will say Tuesday, quoting Dr. Urner Liddel, chief of the nuclear physics branch of the Office of Naval Research. He is in charge of the cosmic-ray-balloon project. The balloons are huge plastic bags, 100 feet in diameter, that may rise 19 miles high--about 100,000 feet. Winds may sweep them along at 200 miles an hour. At dusk, the slanting rays of the sun light up their bottoms, giving them a saucer-like appearance, the article says. They carry instruments aloft to record what happens when cosmic rays hit atoms in the earth's atmosphere. This splitting gives a clue to how atoms are put together, and how to release their energy. "When this project first began it was kept secret," the magazine quotes Dr. Liddel. "Now there is no longer any need for secrecy on a scientific basis. And certainly, there is no longer any need to keep the public in the dark about what flying saucers are." Look says "the Liddel report is considered to be the most authoritative scientific explanation of the flying-saucer phenomenon. As far as Dr. Liddel is concerned personally, he considers his answer incontrovertibly right." The balloons, called skyhooks, were first sent aloft in 1947, and it was then that flying saucer reports began, it adds. There were more balloons in the next two years and more "saucers" seen. There were fewer balloons sent up in 1950, and fewer saucer reports. A picture, taken by telescope of a balloon at 77,0[ILLEGIBLE] feet over Minnesota, convinced Dr. Liddel even more, the magazine says. The photo fits descriptions of flying saucers. At dusk on a cool summer evening is the best time to see the balloon "saucer," it adds. "The lateral rays of the sun at dusk illuminate the base of the balloon. There is no chance of your ever seeing the full roundness of it because you are so far below it. You see only the illuminated cup of the bottom. If your imagination soars, the light reflection on the side may impress you as the exhaust of an atomic engine. The wisp of the balloon's instrument-filled tail may impress you as the exhaust. The sun's rays may suffuse the plastic bag with a fiery glow." "Even seasoned airmen have no way of estimating the size and speed of an object they see. To peg size and speed, the mind must know the nature of the object." Look says Dr. Liddel and associates studied 2000 reports of flying saucers, eliminating those "seeming to be the visions of crackpots or psycopaths" or "clearly the result of inaccurate vision." "This left a solid base of reports from airplane pilots, scientific observers and reliable laymen which could not be brushed aside. After a thorough investigation, Dr. Liddel said: 'There is not a single reliable report of an observation which is not attributable to the cosmic balloons'." It quotes Dr. Liddel as saying that Capt. Thomas F. Mantell, air force pilot found dead in his crashed plane after radioing that he was pursuing a strange sky object, was chasing "a balloon of the skyhook type." There have been several reports of squadrons of flying disks, and "this is explained by Dr. Liddel as clusters of 20 to 30 balloons 10 to 15 feet in diameter, which are sometimes used in place of the huge skyhook." Dr. Liddel checked other Government agencies and "is satisfied that no other research or experimental project has utilized anything even roughly resembling a flying saucer." [bottom left stamp: 7 6 OCT 17 1951 / EX-24] Page Times-Herald____ Wash. Post 6 Wash. News____ Wash. Star____ N.Y. Mirror____ Date: 2-13-51 1/62-93894-A NOT RECORDED 132 MAY 5 1951 INDEXED - 37
[handwritten upper left: g/] [handwritten upper right: KO H/] WHAT FLEW ACROSS ENGLAND YESTERDAY? Football Crowds See 'Flying Saucer' By Sunday Dispatch Reporter THOUSANDS of people in many parts of Britain, including spectators at football matches, saw what many of them believed to be a flying saucer yesterday. In each case the phenomenon—a strange white flash which darted across the sky at terrific speed—was seen about 4 p.m. These reports of the passage of this object through the sky were received by the Sunday Dispatch last night: More than 500 spectators at a Soccer cup match at Chard, Somerset, saw a strange white phenomenon dart across the clear sky high above the grandstand at about 3.45. Within a split second of passing it seemed to disperse on the horizon. Spectators Cried 'Oh' Spectators in the stand cried "Oh!" as the white, liquid form sped inland from the direction of the English Channel. Spectators at a Rugby match two fields away saw it. One, Mr. Arthur H. Jenkins, postmaster of Chard, said: "It was like a diamond flash; its shape was like a big peardrop, with the thin end tapering behind. Suddenly it 'melted' into nothingness." SUNDAY DISPATCH LONDON, ENGLAND DEC. 3, 1950 OFFICE OF THE LEGAL ATTACHE AMERICAN EMBASSY LONDON, ENGLAND 2/5 61 FEB 1 1951 G.I.R.-10 62-83894-[A] NOT RECORDED 47 JAN 27 1951 [handwritten signatures]
[handwritten upper left: partial text] Other people described it as a "blob of brilliant whiteness" and a "sheet of white hot metal." Chairman of Chard F.C., Mr. William Taunton, sitting in the stand, said: "It came right over the top of us like a brilliant streak and then seemed to dissolve before our eyes." Snake-Shape Miss Myra Scott, who was watching a football match at Perry Street, three miles south of Chard, said she saw a "low-flying, silvery star with a tail" shortly before four o'clock. At North Petherton, near Bridgwater, spectators at another match saw an object in the north-west sky shortly before four o'clock. It was described as "a long snake-shape thing which streaked through the sky at a terrific rate." Mr. T. Hollinghurst, of North Petherton, said: "It appeared suddenly and went away suddenly, leaving a creamy smoke. There was no noise and there were no planes about." Channel Explosion A few minutes later a flash, as though from an explosion, was seen at a great height over the Bristol Channel, 50 miles to the north of Chard. Reports from places as much as 130 miles apart were received at the Air Ministry. Portishead (near Bristol) police reported that a white flash was seen between 4.5 and 4.10 p.m. which appeared to be an explosion which turned pink and disintegrated. The estimated height was 20,000ft. Weston-super-Mare police reported to the Air Ministry that they saw a similar flash in the Portishead direction at the same time. Another sighting was reported from as far away as Durham. Airmen Saw It Pilots of four jet aircraft of the Royal Auxiliary Air Force coming in to land at Llandaw, near Cardiff, reported a flash of light at 15,000ft. to the north-east of the airfield. At a football match at Easton-In-Gordano, near Bristol, spectators saw a flash. Mr. M. Y. Perrett, of Ham Green, said: "It looked like a rocket coming down from 2,000ft. There was an intense white flash which left a trail of vapour." Spectators at the match between Shaftesbury and Longfleet St. Mary reported what appeared like a giant rocket. It seemed to fall from the sky. Bovingdon airport in Hertfordshire, 150 miles east of Llandaw, also reported to the Air Ministry that a brilliant white light was seen a long way to the west at 4.5 p.m. Observers estimated that it was at about 20,000ft. and say the phenomenon left a trail of fire in the air. Air Ministry said last night: "A thorough check has been made and no aircraft is missing or believed to have blown up in the air. "It is most unlikely that an unscheduled private flight could have taken place at such a height. We cannot explain the phenomenon. "No aircraft was flying in the Portishead area." Game Stopped At Towyn, near Rhyl, North Wales, Rugby players dropped the ball and, with spectators, stared into the sky as a yellow object th[en] [ILLEGIBLE] flashed across it. It vanished over Tower Hill, Abergele, within ten seconds. At about 4 o'clock spectators at Amersham, Buckinghamshire, football ground saw a brilliant object "like a huge star" flash across the sky, leaving a volume of smoke in its wake. Among people who saw the object at Launceston, Cornwall, were two ex-R.A.F. officers who were watching a Rugby match. The object, which was circular, gave off a bright bluish-white light. Footnote: One theory advanced [ILLEGIBLE] by Professor F. F. F[ILLEGIBLE] (Professor of Chemistry at Durham University and a leading e[xpert] on meteorites) was that the object was a meteorite. "If pieces of meteorite are found," he said, "it will be only the tenth to have fallen in this country. "I would like to appeal to anyone in the areas from which it was reported to report at once if they notice a hole in the ground or a damaged tree that was not there yesterday."
[handwritten upper left: y0+/1] WHAT DID THE PEOPLE OF DEVON SEE LAST WEEK? WAS IT A FLYING SAUCER? By Sunday Dispatch Reporter WEST OF ENGLAND newspapers gave much publicity last week to reports of "flying saucers" over Devon. The saucers were reported by a number of independent witnesses from places as far apart as Woolacombe (near Ilfracombe), Exeter, Cullompton, Sidmouth Junction, and Paignton (60 miles south of Woolacombe). Eye witnesses' descriptions of what they saw are substantially in agreement—there was no noise and a trail of fire streamed from the back. The observations were at about 11 p.m. in all instances. Mr. J. Stewart, 70-year-old Woolacombe pensioner, who has worked in aircraft factories in two wars, was one of the five people who told the Exeter Express and Echo what they had seen. At 10.50 on Monday evening, he noticed an object come inshore from the direction of the north end of Lundy at a "terrific speed." Mr. H. A. Franklin, of Beaconlane, Whipton, near Exeter, wrote the paper that while at Countess Wear (two miles south-east of Exeter) on Monday night, he saw two circular objects. "They were of a brilliant silvery blue, travelling south, one behind the other in close formation," he said. "After passing overhead, the rear object appeared to catch up with the front one and collide, whereon they disintegrated." Bright Disc The object was described by Miss J. Spurway, of Exeter-hill, Cullompton (12 miles north-east of Exeter), as "a bright disc travelling with a circular movement at great speed." Two and a half miles north of Exmouth, the object was seen at 11 p.m. by Mr. and Mrs. J. Mussell, of Hill-crest, Lympstone, who described it as having been in two parts "apparently attached in some way with a lighted tail." The sixth witness quoted in the Express and Echo is Mr. A. J. Powell, of Sidmouth Junction, who, while between Patterson's Cross, Ottery St. Mary and Sidmouth Junction at 11 p.m. on Monday, saw "two brilliant white lights come into view to the north-west, from behind a bank of mi[st]..." SUNDAY DISPATCH LONDON, ENGLAND 11-5-50 51 JAN 13 1951[?] OFFICE OF THE LEGAL [ATTACHE] AMERICAN EMBA[SSY] LONDON, ENGLAND JAN 1[ILLEGIBLE] 1951 G.I.R.-10 62-83894[ILLEGIBLE] NOT RECORDED [ILLEGIBLE] [handwritten: Etm Massburg] [handwritten: Jule 5 Etm]
[handwritten upper left: partial text] 'Long Red Trail' "They passed swiftly," he said, "in a southerly direction and appeared to be 'in line astern' with a long red trail to the rear . . . both lights seemed to fizzle out as I watched them—they were in a clear patch of sky when this happened . . . I heard no sound." "Two large circular objects travelling south in a horizontal position looking something like large white flames" is the description given in the Western Morning News of what Mr. Arthur D. Bearne, 55-year-old estate agent, of Southfield-avenue, Preston, Devon, saw at Paignton at 11 p.m. on Monday. Members of the crew of a liberty boat plying between Flagstaff Steps, Devonport Dockyard, and H.M.S. Defiance are also reported [map of Devon area showing: ILFRACOMBE, WOOLACOMBE, CULLOMPTON, EXETER, SIDMOUTH, EXMOUTH, TORQUAY, PAIGNTON] in the Western Morning News as having seen "circular objects travelling at an incalculable speed and emitting a trail of fire" late on Monday night. The Torquay Herald Express quotes four other people who saw similar objects. Bluish Light Frederick Bray, fisherman, aged 39, was lying in the bunk of his boat in Torquay outer harbour when he saw a "bluish-white light" appear over Princess Pier at about 11 p.m. "I watched the flames for about ten seconds. They seemed to surround a roundish object which was travelling towards Thatcher Rock" (to the East). While walking along the sea front to Torquay Station, Mr. D. Jeffery, of Winsor-street, Paignton, saw something in the sky. "I thought at first it was a rocket firework," he told the Herald Express. "Then I noticed it was maintaining a constant speed at a constant height. . . It was absolutely silent. It seemed to disintegrate suddenly and disappear." A "ball of bluish-white light" was seen at about 11 p.m. in the sky above Paignton travelling south towards Brixham. Mr. Harry Cove-Clark, of Marine-drive, Paignton, said: "The ball of light was preceded by a thin blue blur which was overtaken by the main body." 'Like Feeble Rocket' "Then another bluish-white light appeared and a broken stream of lights seemed to fall from it. They all seemed to be following each other straight across the sky, then there was a spurt of flame from the end of the broken pieces—just like a feeble rocket." The last of the witnesses Mr. H. Warren, of East-street, Torre, Torquay, saw from his bedroom window "an object 'going towards Brixham, due south of Torquay.'" Describing it in a letter to the paper, he said: "I thought it was three stars with a long tail of light trailing behind them . . ."
[handwritten upper left: 15] [handwritten: o Flying Saucers] Tolson / Ladd / Clegg____ Glavin / Nichols / Rosen____ Tracy / Harbo____ Belmont____ Mohr____ Tele. Room____ Nease____ Candy____ [handwritten: Handbruck Mastburg] Reports Plentiful, 'Saucers' Nil By Drew Pearson [B] Though a large part of the American public appears to be convinced that flying saucers do exist, so far the Air Force has not been able to track down a single bona fide saucer. This is despite the fact that United States aviators have spent hour upon hour checking reports not only of flying saucers, but of such weird phenomena as midgets from Venus, shooting stars, and even an old washtub. [photo caption: PEARSON] This column has now been able to examine Air Force files, and it is quite evident that the Air Force has done a painstaking job of trying to establish whether or not flying saucers do exist. These files show that considerable time was even spent checking the report received from Movie Actor Bruce Cabot and the Wyandotte Echo, a newspaper published in Kansas City, that corpses of blond, beardless 3-foot men from Venus had been seen arriving on a flying saucer by a man named Coulter. Dead on arrival, these space-traveling midgets had no cavities in their teeth, and wore shoes resembling human skin according to the story told the Air Force. Furthermore, Coulter was supposed to have as proof of this visit from Venus—a lunar clock operating on a 28-day cycle, a space radio, and gear from the flying saucer, all of them supposedly arriving with the blond midgets from Venus. So the Air Force, as it does with most of these rumors, painstakingly and patiently investigated. The mysterious Mr. Coulter turned out to be George Koehler of Denver, an advertising salesman for radio station KMYR. He had produced the flying-saucer gear, but it turned out to be a mundane product of this planet, stamped with the Roman numeral VI. His space radio was a chunk of metal that utterly failed to pick up a message or even a wheeze from space. In the face of this evidence, Koehler still claimed knowledge of the little men, but refused to divulge his source and drastically revised his story. According to the confidential Air Force report, "Koehler stated that he had no parts of flying saucers in his possession at present. He denied having ever seen any flying saucer or its occupants." Flying Washtub Another hot tip which Air Force investigators patiently tracked down was that a flying saucer had actually crashed near Warren, Minn. The report was traced to Walter Sirek, a service station operator, who directed the investigators to look behind Nish's Tavern. What they saw was summed up in the secret Air Force files as follows: "The machine was obviously made from various objects, such as an old washing machine cover, part of a radio set chassis, and a spent insecticide bomb." It developed that Ted Heyen and Robert Schaeffer, who run the local hardware store, had made the "flying saucer" as a joke. The Air Force has even received pictures of saucers in flight. The most spectacular was a movie of two silvery discs streaking over the baseball park at Great Falls, Mont., sent in by Nick Mariana, park manager. However, investigators found that the pictures were taken between 11:20 and 11:35 a.m. on August 15. By coincidence, two silvery F-84 jet fighters from Ladd Air Force Base, Alaska, flew high over Great Falls at exactly that time. The sun was shining so that reflections from the high-flying jets appeared as two silvery blurs, like saucers. Once the Air Force's own radar screen near Wright Field, Ohio, picked up what appeared to be a flying saucer drifting eastward at 20 miles per hour. But prompt investigation showed it to be only a dense black cloud so charged with electronic particles that it appeared on radar. Meanwhile, flying saucer reports continue to pour into the Air Force at the rate of five or six per day but, so far, not a one has ever materialized. Missing GIs One tragic and unpublicized fact about the Korean war is that at this writing the Army has only been able to release 138 prisoners of war from Korean prison camps. This leaves approximately 4000 Americans still missing. Originally the Army believed that most of these missing GIs had been killed in action. However, since U. N. troops have now traveled the entire length of Korea without recovering the bodies of these missing men, it is believed they must have been taken prisoners and removed to Siberia. So far, Chinese troops have treated American prisoners almost as if they were allies, returning many of them to American lines. But if the 4000 GIs were transported into Siberia by the Russians, the story may be different, this possibility is giving the Army great concern. NOTE—As of the last official count, 4144 GIs were listed as missing. Capital Capsules Lady Diplomats—Madame Minister Perle Mesta put up a gallant fight but she lost. She's going to have to be satisfied with being a plain "Minister" instead of a full-fledged "Ambassador" to Luxembourg. . . . Main reason Perle came back to Washington was to persuade the President to raise her American Legation to a full Embassy. Even though she's a close friend of Mr. Truman's, he said no. . . Meanwhile, the other lady diplomat, Eugenie Anderson in Denmark, will continue to reign supreme as the only lady Ambassador in the United States diplomatic corps. To Aid for Tibet—United States Ambassador Austin has privately advised El Salvador to give up its campaign to get the United Nations to rescue Tibet. The United Nations, Austin said, has enough trouble in Korea without taking on more headaches in the most mountainous and inaccessible country in the world. Treaty for Japan—President Truman has told Secretary Acheson that unless Russia answers within the next month, he is in favor of going ahead and holding the Japanese peace treaty conference without Soviet representatives. The President told this to Acheson and John Foster Dulles during a secret meeting at which they reported that Russia has not yet even indicated it will attend the conference. 62-83294-A [stamp] 8: DEC 19 1950 NOV 2 5 1950
0-19 Tolson____ Ladd [signature] Clegg____ Glavin [signature] Nichols [signature] Rosen____ Tracy [signature] Harbo____ Belmont____ Mohr____ Tele. Room____ Nease____ Gandy____ [handwritten: Rastagm Mossbing] [blue pencil: o Flying Discs] The World Today Four Philadelphia policemen said they saw a saucer-like object land in a field. Before FBI men could join them, however, the six-foot gadget had evaporated. One of the policemen who touched the thing said the portion he handled dissolved at once, leaving a sticky odorless residue. 62-83894-A NOT RECORDED 83 OCT 14 1950 [handwritten: Jile 5-Etm] Page Times-Herald____ Wash. Post____ Wash. News 2 Wash. Star____ N.Y. Mirror____ N.Y. Compass____ Date: SEP 28 1950 50 OCT 14 1950
[handwritten upper left: grt] [handwritten: G.I.R-6 / 2.R-6] Tolson____ Ladd____ Clegg____ Glavin____ Nichols [signature] Rosen [signature] Tracy [signature] Harbo [signature] Belmont [signature] Mohr____ Tele. Room____ Nease____ Gandy____ [blue pencil: o Flying Discos] (SAUCER) POPLAR BLUFF, MO.--FOUR PLANES CHASED AFTER A STRANGE SPHERICAL OBJECT WHICH HUNDREDS OF PERSONS SAW ROARING ACROSS THE SKY, BUT THE PILOTS SAID TODAY THEY COULDN'T GET NEAR IT. POLICE, AIRPORT AND RADIO STATION PERSONNEL SAID "JUST ABOUT EVERYONE IN POPLAR BLUFF" SAW THE MYSTERIOUS OBJECT FOR FIVE OR SIX HOURS YESTERDAY AFTERNOON. CAA WORKERS AT MALDEN, 28 MILES SOUTHEAST OF HERE, PLOTTED ITS SOUTHEASTERLY COURSE FROM 4 P.M. UNTIL DARK. DESCRIPTIONS OF THE OBJECT AND GUESSES AS TO ITS IDENTITY WERE VARIED. NATIONAL GUARD AUTHORITIES AT MEMPHIS, TENN., SENT TWO F-51 FIGHTERS UP FOR A CHECK. A NATIONAL GUARD SERGEANT CONFIRMED THAT THE F-51'S CLIMBED TO 30,000 FEET BUT COULD NOT MAKE CONTACT WITH THE OBJECT. HE DID NOT SAY WHETHER THE PILOTS ACTUALLY SAW THE OBJECT. A CAA OFFICIAL AT MALDEN, WHO MAINTAINED TWO-WAY RADIO CONTACT WITH THE F-51'S, SAID THE PILOT OF THE FIRST PLANE UP REPORTED FROM AN ALTITUDE OF 31,000 FEET: "IT'S STILL WAY ABOVE ME, APPARENTLY MOTIONLESS. I'M NOT GETTING ANY NEARER. FUEL SUPPLY ALMOST EXHAUSTED." THE OTHER F-51 PILOT MADE A SIMILAR REPORT, THE CAA OFFICIAL SAID. THE CAA WORKER ALSO LOGGED A REPORT FROM AN F-80 JET PLANE, BASE AND DESTINATION UNKNOWN, WHICH PRESUMABLY HAD BEEN TOLD TO SIZE UP THE OBJECT. AT 40,000 FEET, THE F-80 PILOT REPORTED HE APPEARED TO BE "NO CLOSER THAN ON THE GROUND." 9/19--TS1022A 62-83894-A NOT RECORDED 4[ILLEGIBLE] OCT 1950 6 6 OCT 6 1950 000 WASHINGTON CITY NEWS SERVICE
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("SAUSAGE")
SPRINGFIELD, ILL--PILOT JIM GRAHAM CLAIMED TODAY THAT A "FLYING SAUSAGE" COLLIDED WITH HIS PLANE AND "EXPLODED LIKE A BOMB"--BUT CAUSED NO DAMAGE.
GRAHAM, CHIEF PILOT FOR THE CAPITAL AVIATION COMPANY HERE, WAS FLYING TO SPRINGFIELD FROM CHICAGO LAST NIGHT WHEN HE SIGHTED THE OBJECT AS HE FLEW OVER WILLIAMSVILLE, JUST NORTH OF HERE.
HE SAID THE OBJECT WAS A "BLUE STREAK ABOUT 10 FEET LONG AND SHAPED LIKE A SAUSAGE." HE SAID IT WAS TRAILING YELLOW FIRE.
THE OBJECT, WHICH WAS SLIGHTLY ABOVE HIS PLANE, DIVED SUDDENLY AND PLOUGHED DIRECTLY INTO HIS PROPELLER.
"IT EXPLODED LIKE A BOMB WHEN IT STRUCK," HE SAID.
GRAHAM MANAGED TO STAY ON COURSE AND LANDED AT CAPITAL AIRPORT HERE. HE EXPECTED TO FIND HIS PLANE EXTENSIVELY DAMAGED, HE SAID, BUT A THOROUGH INSPECTION SHOWED NOTHING.
SEVERAL OTHER SPRINGFIELD RESIDENTS ALSO REPORTED SEEING THE "FLYING SAUSAGE." ONE WOMAN SAID SHE AND HER HUSBAND WERE SITTING ON THEIR PORCH AND SAW IT PASS OVER SPRINGFIELD.
OBSERVERS AT THE WEATHER BUREAU SAID THE ONLY EXPLANATION THEY COULD OFFER WAS THAT THE OBJECT MIGHT HAVE BEEN A METEOR THAT APPEARED TO HIT GRAHAM'S PLANE BUT EXPLODED RIGHT IN FRONT OF IT. THEY SAID THEY DID NOT SEE THE OBJECT.
7/30--LO441P
62-83894-A—
NOT RECORDED
135 AUG 11 1950 1
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WASHINGTON CITY NEWS SERVICE[handwritten upper left: ok] Tolson [signature] [Ladd] [signature] Clegg____ Glavin____ Nichols [signature] Rosen____ Tracy____ Harbo [signature] Belmont____ Mohr____ Tele. Room____ Nease____ Gandy____ (SAUCERS) FARGO, N. D.--FOUR PERSONS REPORTED THEY WATCHED FIVE STRANGE, MOON-LIKE OBJECTS FLYING IN FORMATION SOUTH OF FARGO FOR 34 MINUTES. THE BRIGHTLY-SHINING OBJECTS WERE SPOTTED AT 3:07 A. M. CST BY FARGO WEATHER BUREAU EMPLOYE RAY WILSON. HE SAID HE WATCHED THEM UNTIL 3:41 WHEN CLOUDS OBSCURED VISION. MARIAN EDDY, AN AIRLINES EMPLOYE, AND MIKE ENDERSBY AND MARGARET LAWSON OF THE CAA SAID THEY SAW THE OBJECTS FROM THE FARGO AIRPORT. WILSON SAID ONLY ONE OF THE OBJECTS WAS VISIBLE TO THE NAKED EYE. WITH TELESCOPES AND FIELD GLASSES THE FARGOANS SAID THEY COULD SEE TWO SMALL OBJECTS ON EACH SIDE OF THE "THING." WILSON SAID THE OBJECTS DIDN'T SHOW MUCH SPEED, BUT SHOWED MANEUVERABILITY. ENDERSBY SAID THEY LOOKED LIKE A WHITE FLAME MANEUVERING IN THE AIR. 7/14--T130P [handwritten: o Flying Saucers] [handwritten: Flying Discs file Etm [signature]] 62-83894-A— NOT RECORDED 135 AUG 11 1950 50 AUG 14 1950 WASHINGTON CITY NEWS SERVICE
4-26 Tolson____ Ladd____ Clegg____ Glavin____ Nichols____ Rosen____ Tracy____ Harbo____ Belmont____ Mohr____ Tele. Room____ Nease____ Gandy____ [handwritten: Drady (?)] [handwritten upper left: M] 'Flying Saucer' Tracked on Navy Radar Screen MEMPHIS, Tenn., July 13 (UP). The Navy studied a report today from two pilots and an electronics instructor who claimed to have tracked a flying saucer or some strange craft on a radar screen for eight miles. Both fliers reported seeing a shiny round object whizzing past their training planes, about 10 miles northeast of Osceola, Ark., last night. Electronics technician G. D. Wehner, who was flying with enlisted pilot R. E. Moore, said he "caught it on the radar scope. It was helmet-shaped. The outline of the edges were all right, but glare from the center of it prevented getting a better look." First Thought Jet "At first we thought it was a jet plane distorted by glare off the aluminum body," said Lt. (j.g.) J. W. Martin, the second pilot. "When I first spotted the saucer it was about two miles off and appeared to be a round ball. It was in sight for about three minutes, and at one time we were within one mile of it." Moore said, "It was on our left and traveled across in front of us and disappeared in the distance to our right. I think it would be about 25 to 45 feet across and about seven feet high. "The thing looked like a World War I helmet seen from the side. Or a shiny shallow bowl turned upside down. We wanted to follow it, but our training ships couldn't keep up with the saucer, or whatever it was." The pilots, based at the Millington naval air station near here, estimated the object was flying at an altitude of 8,000 feet at a speed of 200 miles per hour. The navy declined comment. Similar flying saucer stories have been discounted by the armed forces. 62-83894-A NOT RECORDED 76 AUG 19 1950 [handwritten: Jile 5 Etm / Flying Discs] Page Times-Herald 9 sec. m 10-Star Edition Wash. Post____ Wash. News____ Wash. Star____ N.Y. Mirror____ Date: 7-13-50 4 71 5 5 AUG 19 1950
[handwritten upper left: Hm] [blue pencil: o] Mr. Tolson____ Mr. Ladd____ Mr. Clegg____ Mr. Glavin____ Mr. Nichols____ Mr. Rosen[?]____ Mr. Tracy____ Mr. Harbo____ Mr. Belmont____ Mr. Mohr____ Tele. Room____ Mr. Nease____ Miss Gandy____ [handwritten: Etm Mossberg] [handwritten: Jule 5 Etm] [handwritten: Flying Discs] FLYING SAUCER RIDDLE SO far flying saucers have been treated by the majority of British people with incredulity and polite ridicule. But why? I have studied all the reports available. I have seen photographs—those in the Sunday Dispatch last week were particularly clear and I believe they are photographs of disc-type aircraft. Earlier pictures published in the Spanish Press last April, and alleged to have been taken in the Balearic Islands, might have been anything and could have been a leg-pull. It is not always easy to sort the wheat from the chaff. SECRET TRIALS IN all the reports the objects fall into three groups. The most substantial of them come from America. First group are those saucers which are capable of being explained away as glimpses of experimental trials of various devices. Under this heading fall many of the objects seen in Southern U.S. and other areas where secret experiments are in progress. For this group I am prepared to accept the explanation given by the United States Army Air Force as "misinterpretations of conventional objects." These conventional objects are giant experimental cosmic ray balloons which fill out to 100ft. long and 70ft. in diameter as they rise, radar target balloons capable of rising to 70,000ft. and trailing glittering aluminium foil strips, guided missiles, and stratospheric experiments from Los Alamos, which are sometimes stated to have been as high as 25 miles above the earth's surface. Group Two consists of those really mysterious variants which have led to wild surmises about space ships, missiles from other planets and inter-planetary snooping. The descriptions are remarkably consistent and generally the object is either white or silver, darting about without direction[al] control or travelling at prodigious speeds, vanishing suddenly, and associated with brilliant light, fringes of fire or flames of peculiar colour and generally rotating or whirling. From many parts of the world come these reports. The very fact that their descriptions are so consistent has led to their being dismissed as hallucinations, defective vision, or mild hysteria. It might be that the solution of this riddle could lie in a very unorthodox approach, and I have wondered if there could possibly be turbulences set up in our atmosphere which could cause whirling "dust devils" of luminous gases caused by jet or other high speed experiments which might be responsible for the generation of small atomic whirlpools in the atmosphere. Group Three reports suggest that the saucers are high speed aircraft of circular or disc shape travelling at speeds much higher than those attained by normal planes. SAFETY SEARCH THERE is no reason at all why annular and circular disc-like aircraft should not have been common objects at any time during the past 30 years. The early history of these very unorthodox-looking aircraft was, ironically, based on a search for safety. Before 1910 it had been shown that square and circular surfaces had very good non-stalling characteristics up to large angles. But when powered aircraft arrived it was found that the easiest way to minimise the losses due to the end slip of the air from the wing tips was to increase the span of the wings while keeping them narrow. This compromise brought other troubles from early times; they increased their stalling angle at some 15 degrees, and stalling must result in a dive since the only correction of a stall is a flight at some speed greater than the stalling speed. Very early, by the 190[ILLEGIBLE], there were people who would not accept that aircraft SUNDAY DISPATCH JULY 9, 1950 LONDON, ENGLAND OFFICE OF THE LEGAL ATTACHE AMERICAN EMBASSY LONDON, ENGLAND 52 AUG 11 195[0] 37 1 62-83894-A NOT RECORDED 85 AUG 11 1950
[photo: dark oval/disc object, enlargement] [smaller photo: second enlargement] Enlargements from flying saucer pictures—front-paged last week—which set everyone talking. They were taken by Farmer Trent, McMinnville, Oregon, U.S. 'I believe they are disc-type aircraft,' says— G. TILGHMAN RICHARDS, senior Research assistant and official lecturer at the South Kensington Science Museum, London, who has studied all the evidence. must, of necessity, be subject to these dangers. They turned aside to investigate possible wing forms which should be safe from stalling and spinning. Among these "rebels" a few names have become air history. Jose Weiss and Arthur Keith with their completely stable swallow-like monoplanes in 1909. Birch and Wels in Austria in 1911, evolving a stable wingform based on the Zannonia leaf from which Rumpler and the majority of German builders developed the Taube monoplane. Dunne, with his too stable, tailless, back-swept wing biplane in 1912, and the Lee-Richards annular monoplane of 1910-14, with which I was associated. NOT PERFECT WITH the outbreak of the 1914 war research of this type was abandoned, and study concentrated on performance rather than safety. By 1918 the modern plane was established, and earlier research was forgotten. Civil airlines naturally used adapted war planes, and then came World War II. Once more limitations were imposed. In spite of the orthodoxy of design there was throughout the inter-war years, and today there is still, a considerable body of technical opinion not satisfied that perfection has been reached. And here, I think, lies the real answer. This body of opinion has been continually searching for the "safe" design. Designers of many nationalities have been striving since the early 1920's with great success toward a foolproof plane of disc type. In 1934-35 Charles H. Zimmermann, in the United States, built a disc wing airplane combined with a helicopter capable of vertical ascent and descent and a high forward speed. NAVY STEPS IN IN 1937 he granted licences for his patents to the Chance Vought Aircraft Division of the United Aircraft Corporation in the U.S. But at that point the U.S. Navy stepped in, and all further development has been of a secret nature. It has been stated that this combination is capable of speeds from 0 to 500 miles per hour. This performance is in accord with reports that flying saucers travel at great speeds, hover, ascend and descend with little forward motion. It is perhaps, a little hard to believe that there can, as yet, exist enough of these types to meet the many reports. But there is no reason at all why such aircraft should not have been seen providing that full scale work has followed the experimental period. And the secrecy would suggest that this is so. And there could lie the most solid proof that flying saucers do exist.
[handwritten upper left: OK] [blue pencil: o Flying Disc] Tolson____ Ladd [signature] Clegg____ Glavin____ Nichols____ Rosen____ Tracy____ Harbo____ [A]Belmont____ Mohr____ Tele. Room____ Nease____ Gandy____ [handwritten: Disley Mossbing Etm] ADD OBJECT ($14P) THE AIR FORCE SAID IT HAD RECEIVED NO WORD AT ALL ON ANOTHER OBJECT, DESCRIBED AS APPEARING TO BE A GUIDED MISSILE, WHICH THE ALASKA AIR COMMAND SAID PASSED OVER FAIRBANKS, ALASKA, SATURDAY NIGHT. 7/3--WO901P 162-83894-A— NOT RECORDED 135 AUG 11 1950 [handwritten: Jile in Flying Disc file Jiles Etm] 37 51 AUG 14 1950 WASHINGTON CITY NEWS SERVICE
[handwritten upper left: cor chr] [handwritten: Julam Flying Discs] [blue pencil: o FLYING DISCS] Mr. Tolson____ Mr. Ladd____ Mr. Clegg____ Mr. Glavin____ Mr. Nichols____ [Mr.] Rosen____ [Mr.] Tracy[?]____ [Mr.] Harbo____ [various others illegible] Mr. Mohr____ Tele. Room____ Mr. Nease____ Miss Gandy____ [Spanish newspaper clipping image] [Newspaper header: FUNDADO EN MADRID EN 1938 / NUM. 7,545 / LUNES 3 DE ABRIL DE 1950 / PRECIO DEL] [Headline: UNA FOTOGRAFIA SENSACIONAL / MISTERIO EN LAS NUBES / PLATILLOS VOLANTES] [Caption below photo: INFORMACIONES, siempre al servicio de [ILLEGIBLE]... The picture that Spanish newspaper readers saw.] FLYING SAUCERS AS SPAIN SEES IT First picture of a flying saucer comes from the Spanish newspaper Informaciones. DAILY GRAPHIC correspondent in Madrid explains: The caption stated that this picture was obtained at 3 a.m. in the Balearic Islands by Enrique Hausmann Muller, a newsreel cameraman. It added that he and his assistants heard a loud noise and saw a luminous trail crossing the sky. He pulled out his camera and obtained a picture—but expresses no opinion about flying saucers. FOOTNOTE from Texas: Ira Maxey, wartime member of a U.S. bomber crew, photographed two groups of "flying saucers" near Fort Worth. But, he said, "they were more like flying bananas than flying saucers." DAILY GRAPHIC APRIL 20, 1950 LONDON, ENGLAND PC SEALED-62 162-83894-A NOT RECORDED 78 JUL 5 1950 56 JUL 11 195[ILLEGIBLE] OFFICE OF THE LEGAL ATTACHE AMERICAN EMBASSY LONDON, ENGLAND [handwritten signatures and annotations]
[handwritten upper left: Hfo] [handwritten: File m Flying Discs / Etm] [blue pencil: 0 Flying Discs] Tolson____ Ladd____ Clegg____ Glavin____ Nichols____ Rosen____ Tracy____ Harbo____ Mohr____ Tele. Room____ Nease____ Gandy [signature] [handwritten: Etm / Mossbing] [handwritten: Jule 5 Etm] 'Saucer' Denial Held Valuable to Russia New York, April 10 (UP)—Air Force denials that "flying saucers" exist are "worth a billion dollars to the Russians in the 'cold war,'" Radio Commentator Henry J. Taylor said tonight. Taylor said over the ABC network that this country has several unconventional air vehicles that could be taken for "flying saucers." He described one as a fantastic contraption "in pulsating plastic," as tall as an eight-story building and used to record cosmic rays. "What has happened to our brains?" Taylor asked. "These denials are worth a billion dollars to the Russians in the 'cold war'..." President Truman and the Air Force both denied similar reports by Taylor last week that "flying saucers" are top-secret United States military inventions. Taylor warned that if the Russians suddenly announced they were sending "flying saucers" around the world, United States officials would have no way to stem American hysteria. Taylor said the United States should announce: "We have no further comment about anything in the skies except that America is creating many helpful and incredible things. All are harmless and good news for freedom-loving people." And this would be a true statement, the commentator said. Taylor said that at an airfield near Minneapolis and also at other places, the Navy is "launching into our high skies an enormous and fantastic type of vehi[cle]..." "Nobody is in it," he said, "but it carries 70 pounds of instruments to record cosmic rays . . . It is an enormous translucent thing with a long tail and flies up to 100,000 feet in the air. When the weird contraption is launched off the ground, it is filled to only one percent of its capacity with helium. At high altitudes, expansion causes it to blow itself up into a gigantic monster 100 feet tall and 70 feet in diameter, tall as an eight-story building, all in pulsating plastic." Taylor said some of these vehicles travel all over America, 20 miles up in the sky. At sunset, the whole contraption glows and can be seen as long as 30 minutes after darkness. The instruments are floated back to earth by parachute, Taylor said. Then the huge contraption "breaks into pieces in the sky or explodes," showering plastic pieces over the land. 62-83894-A— NOT RECORDED 85 APR 19 1950 65 APR 21 1950 WASHINGTON POST Page____ Date: 4-11-50
Mr. Tolson____ Mr. Ladd____ Mr. Clegg____ Mr. Glavin____ Mr. Nichols____ Mr. Rosen____ Mr. Tracy____ Mr. Harbo____ Mr. Belmont____ Mr. Mohr____ Tele. Room____ Mr. Nease____ Miss Gandy____ [handwritten: G.I.B.A. Etm Mossbing] [handwritten: Jule 5 Etm] [handwritten: M] "FLYING SAUCER" REPORT MAY BE BALLOON From Our Own Correspondent PRESTON, Monday. An object which they thought might have been a "flying saucer" was seen by three girls who were walking along the Preston-Lancaster main road near Preston yesterday afternoon. "It looked like a very bright star in the east, but was brighter than any star," they said. One of the girls, Miss Lillian Spencer, of Pole-street, Preston, said: "It was oval-shaped and resembled the wing of a silver plane caught in the sunlight. There was no sound of an engine and it had a peculiar swinging movement." It was going against the wind. An Air Ministry meteorological official pointed out that it was a common error for people to speak of something travelling in a certain direction when they really meant that it was coming from that direction. If that was the case here it was possible that the object could have been a meteorological balloon blown over from Northern Ireland. Many Londoners reported on April [4?] that they had seen a "flying saucer." The Air Ministry explained that it was a balloon used for parachute jumping which had broken from its mooring at an R.A.F. station in Oxfordshire. DAILY TELEGRAPH AND MORNING POST APRIL 11, 1950 LONDON, ENGLAND OFFICE OF THE LEGAL ATTACHE AMERICAN EMBASSY LONDON, ENGLAND 53 MAY 15 [ILLEGIBLE] A/311 162-83[8]94-[A] NOT RECORDED 76 APR 29 1950
4-26 Tolson____ Ladd____ Clegg____ Glavin____ Nichols____ Rosen____ Tracy____ Harbo____ Moh[r]____ Tele. Room____ Nease____ Gandy____ [handwritten: Betsy Hendrich (or similar)] [handwritten upper left: Vt] [handwritten: File m Flying Saucers Etm] [blue pencil left: o FLYING SAUCERS] TIMES-HERALD Washington, D.C. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 5, 1950 House Member Swears He Saw Flying Saucer By United Press One House member who should know said flatly today there is no such thing as a flying saucer. But another member equally qualified said maybe not, but he has seen one himself. Rep. Mahon (D) of Texas, chairman of the House military appropriations subcommittee, said it just isn't so what they say about those discs. He had no concrete evidence—but the solidest kind of support. President Truman, Defense Secretary Johnson, the Air Force and the Navy all backed him up. They said none of the armed services is messing around with saucers, and that nobody else is far as they knew. The people, they said, are seeing things. He Saw One Rep. Engel (R) of Michigan, is the man who says he saw one. A member of Mahon's subcommittee, he also is a candidate for governor of Michigan when he isn't helping dole out the money it takes to keep the military in business. He said the fact that he saw a flying disc may not be evidence, but it sure was convincing. It happened about 1 p.m. one day last summer at Elsie, Mich. Several other citizens, all of them sober and well thought of, saw it, too. Two of them chased it in a plane, but the thing unfortunately was too high and too fast and got away. Mahon put it this way: "I guess my subcommittee would know if there were anything to this flying saucer business. We even knew about the atomic energy experiments several years before the story was told." Not Informed "I am quite sure the military establishment would have told us if they were working on such a thing as a saucer. But the fact is they haven't said a word about it." As far as Mahon is concerned, the saucer is "just a fantasy." Engel said maybe so, maybe not. It is perfectly true, he said, that none of Mahon's witnesses ever owned up to any connection with saucers. But then, as far as he could recall, nobody ever asked them about it. "I am confident of this," Engel said. "If there are any such things as saucers, they are ours, not somebody else's. If another country were sending them over, I am sure the subcommittee would have heard about it." Denials Repeated Air Force and Navy officials have been denying the existence of "flying saucers" all along. And a Defense department statement late yesterday reiterated the denials. But indications were that reports of the mysterious flying object would continue. L. Nobel Robinson, managing editor of the U.S. News and World Report, said his magazine had expected official denials of its story that the saucers are a "revolutionary type of new aircraft," probably built by the Navy. INDEXED-102 162-83894-A NOT RECORDED 78 JUN 30 1950 [handwritten: FX-16] 85 JUL 14 1950 Page Times-Herald 10 Wash. Post____ Wash. News____ Wash. Star____ N.Y. Mirror____ Date: 4-5-50
[Handwritten top:] "Flying Discs" [Handwritten right:] Mo Stlburg[ILLEGIBLE] BRANIGAN [ILLEGIBLE] BOWLING GREEN, O.--A PRIVATE PLANE PILOT SAID TODAY HE SAW "AN OBJECT BRIGHTER THAN THE SUN FOR ABOUT FIVE SECONDS," WHILE CRUISING AT ABOUT 80 MILES PER HOUR TWO MILES WEST OF HERE. THE PILOT, WHO ASKED THAT HIS IDENTITY NOT BE REVEALED, SAID HIS PLANE WAS AT ABOUT 2,000 FEET THIS MORNING WHEN HE SAW THE UNIDENTIFIED OBJECT. "IT LOOKED LIKE A BALL OF FIRE," HE SAID. "IT WAS BRILLIANT WHITE, LIKE MOLTEN STEEL, THEN IT TURNED BLUE AND TOOK OFF STRAIGHT WEST. IT TOOK OFF WITHIN FIVE SECONDS." THE PILOT SAID THE OBJECT WAS TRAVELLING FASTER THAN ANY JET PLANE AND WAS GOING SOUTH WHEN HE FIRST SAW IT. HE SAID THE SKY WAS CLEAR AND THERE WERE NO OTHER PLANES IN SIGHT AT THE TIME. HE SAID HE DIDN'T THINK IT COULD HAVE BEEN ANY REFLECTION. HE SAID IT APPEARED ABOUT A FOOT IN DIAMETER AND WAS ABOUT THE SAME ALTITUDE AT WHICH HE WAS FLYING. 12/11--TS151P [Stamp:] 62-83894-A NOT RECORDED 191 DEC 16 1953 58 DEC 171953 Washington City News Service [Handwritten right:] Jile5 Ethr
[Routing slip upper right:] 0-19 Tolson ___ Ladd ___ Nichols ___ Belmont ___ Clegg ___ Glavin ___ Harbo ___ Rosen ___ Tracy ___ Gearty ___ Mohr ___ Winterrowd ___ Tele. Room ___ Holloman ___ Sizoo ___ Miss Gandy ___ [Handwritten right:] Branigan McStlburg[ILLEGIBLE] [Left margin:] O Flying Saucers CANADA PLANS FLYING SAUCER OBSERVATORY Not Optical Illusions, Top Experts Hold OTTAWA, Nov. 12 (CTPS)—Establishment of a Canadian government observatory for flying saucers, the first in the world, has been announced here. "There is a very high degree of probability that flying saucers are real objects, and a 60 per cent probability that they are alien vehicles," Wilbert B. Smith, scientist appointed to supervise the new saucer sighting station, told reporters. He said the federal transport department, in which he has charge of the telecommunications broadcast and measurement section, receives constant reports of sighting of flying saucers. The total number, he said, is classified as restricted information. "The optical illusion explanation is lovely," he said, "but in every sighting there is always some factor that precludes this explanation. We have decided to try to learn just what they are." Canada's sighting station will be at Shirley Bay, on the Ottawa river 10 miles west of here. Smith said any one location in Canada is sure to have at least one saucer sighting a year. Associated with Smith in the project, which is under the transport department and the defense research board, will be a theoretical physicist and a specialist in gravitational studies. A 24-hour watch will be kept for saucers. Specially built equipment is wired to alarm bells. The equipment includes an ionospheric reactor, electronic devices for measurement of sounds, a gamma ray detector, a gravitimeter and other paraphernalia. Jet planes may be sent up from the air force field near Ottawa to investigate any saucers reported by the station. Defense research scientists here never have pooh-poohed flying saucers, which have been publicly reported in nightmarish shapes and forms over Canadian cities. Some of them have been described as multicolored cigar figurations. Frequency of the saucer sightings has been noted here to rise with the increase in proximity of the planet Mars to the earth. Smith said he does not rule out the possibility that the saucers may come from outer space. [Stamps:] INDEXED 10 62-83394-A NOT RECORDED 105 JAN 4 1954 50 JAN 7 1954 [Bottom right:] Times Herald P27 Wash. Post ___ Wash. News ___ Wash. Star ___ N. Y. Times ___ N. Y. Compass ___ Date: 11/[1]3/53 [Handwritten right:] Jile5 Ethr
memo The Case for the FLYING SAUCER From America, the 'home' of flying saucers, comes this up-to-the-minute summary of report and rumour about the modern mystery of the skies. by RICHARD GREENOUGH OFFICE OF THE LEGAL ATTACHE AMERICAN EMBASSY LONDON, ENGLAND THE DAILY MAIL APRIL 3, 1950 LONDON, ENGLAND [Routing box upper right: Mr. Tolson ___ Mr. Ladd ___ Mr. Clegg ___ Mr. Glavin ___ Mr. Nichols ___ Mr. Rosen ___ Mr. Tracy ___ Mr. Harbo ___ Mr. Belmont ___ Mr. Mohr ___ Tele. Room ___ Mr. Nease ___ Miss Gandy ___] [Handwritten upper right: Jul 5 Ethr in Flying Discs] [Handwritten lower right: Mr Ethr Mossling] 162-83894-A- NOT RE[CORDED] ['63 APR 20 1960] 5 8 APR 21 1950
rows of lights in the dark and orange flames coming from the tail. Sometimes they have been re- ported shaped like tubes, pillars, spheres. But two facts seem to remain constant. They are all said to be either white or silver, and to move across the sky in an undulat- ing way, tilting first in one direc- tion, then the other, rising and falling, before finally disappear- ing into nothing or over the horizon. Pilot's chase ONE U.S. Air Force pilot, Capt. Thomas Mantell, lost his life some months ago try- ing to catch up with something that looked like "a silver ice dream cone topped with red." An experienced war-time pilot, with several thousand hours flying time, Mantell was in his fighter plane leading two others near Fort Knox, Kentucky, when the control tower at his airbase, Godman Field, radioed him to try to locate a strange object sighted from the ground and moving in his direction. Mantell later called back that he had spotted the "thing" at 12 o'clock high" (directly ahead and above him), and that it looked like a silver ice-cream cone topped with red." His air-to-ground conversation was logged at the air base and I have checked it. He later re- ported: "I'm closing in now to take a good look. It's directly ahead of me and moving at a good speed. The thing looks metallic and is tremendous." New York, Sunday. EVER since Ken- neth Arnold, 30-year-old, ordinary business-man pilot from Boise, Idaho, touched off the "flying saucers" mystery by report- ing, on the afternoon of June 24, 1947, that he had seen "nine shiny discs like metal hub-caps flip-flap- ping along at about 1,200 m.p.h." only one fact seems quite certain. Nobody has yet proved de- finitely that such things do or do not exist. Air Force finding THIS includes the U.S. Air Force, still investigating reports about "celestial crockery," though officially last December, after checking 375 cases, it closed down "Project Saucer," a special investigation group of Intelli- gence officers with headquarters in Ohio. At that time it was stated in a blanket turn-down that all re- ports were: 1. Misinterpretation of "con- ventional" aerial objects. These included giant experimental cosmic-ray balloons, radar target balloons with dangling strips of aluminium foil, meteor trains, wisps of or whole vapour trails from high-flying aircraft, bright planets. 2. Mild form of mass hysteria. 3. Hoaxes. But steadily, from 1947 up till a few days ago, reports of curious objects that "go whizz in the air" keep on coming in from all over the United States. They have now been reported from 43 out of the 48 States, with the majority coming from the south and east and near the Mexi- can border. They have also, of course, been reports from other parts of the world, like Scandinavia, Africa, China, the Far East. The objects allegedly seen here have ranged from the now almost conventional flying disc or "saucer," sometimes with "fuzzy" edges, or lit up at night, to torpedo-shaped wingless "space ships" showing regular
His last report FOR 25 minutes Mantell and the two other pilots tried vainly to close in. Mantell reported the object was climbing at his own, which he gave as 360 m.p.h. In broken cloud at 18,000ft. the other two pilots lost sight of him, later broke off and landed. Mantell called once more to say that if he were no closer at 20,000ft. he'd abandon the chase as he hadn't the oxygen. That was the last heard from him. His body was later found near Fort Knox and the wreckage of his machine scattered over half a mile around. Obviously his plane had disintegrated in mid-air. Official version was that Mantell had probably "blacked out" from lack of oxygen and had not recovered con- sciousness before he crashed, out of control. Still a mystery BUT one of his fellow-pilots later commented: "I think that was a cover-up. Man- tell was too experienced a pilot for that. He was quite familiar with signs of approaching anoxia (lack of oxygen), and would have taken steps to prevent it. "Some of us think he may have collided with whatever he saw and that it knocked him out in the air." Engineers later added that the type of machine Mantell was fly- ing, starting a dive at 20,000ft. would not have disintegrated so thoroughly. During the past two and three quarter years a multitude of people on the ground claim to have seen these "flying saucers" nor have they always been seen with the naked eye; many saw them through binoculars. But the fact that first started the U.S. Air Force to sit up, take notice, and then institute "Pro- ject Saucer" was the large number of apparently responsible pilots and aircrew members who sent in startling reports of what they claimed to have seen. One of the theories along which "P.S." investigators worked was evident from the fact that every plane whose pilot reported close encounters with "flying saucers" was checked with Geiger counters for possible radio- activity. Head-on meeting TAKE the case, for in- stance, of Captain Clar- ence Chiles, former Air Transport Command pilot, and John B. Whitted, who flew B.29 Super- forts during the war. Both are happily married men with fam- ilies, good jobs with no need of apparent desire for publicity. They were flying a scheduled airline service near Montgomery, Alabama, one night last summer, when a brilliant, fast-moving object suddenly appeared ahead of them. "We saw it at the same time," Chiles told investigators later. "Whatever it was flashed down to- wards us and we veered to the left. It veered sharply too and passed about 700 feet to our right and above us." "The thing was about 100 feet long, cigar-shaped and wingless, about twice the diameter of a B.29 without protruding fins," said Whitted. "There was a tremendous burst of orange flame from the rear. It zoomed into clouds, its jet or prop wash rocking our DC3." Seeing's believing? MORE recently, two weeks ago, two other airline pilots, Captain Jack Adams, with some 6,000 hours' flying time, and co-pilot G. W. Anderson reported a "flying saucer" with windows on the bottom and a blinking light near the top as they passed over Arkansas. "It was flying almost due north and we crossed its path at about a 45 degree angle," said Adams. "It was about 1,000ft. above us and travelling at a tremendous rate. It had a peculiarly coloured and very intense light near the top which blinked very rapidly. "We kept the object in sight for about 45 seconds. "I've been a sceptic all my life about such things, but what can you do when you see a thing like that?" he concluded. "We were both flabbergasted."
memo SECRET INQUIRY INTO FLYING SAUCERS U.S. 'LOSES' REPORT BY AIRMEN From ROBERT WAITHMAN, News Chronicle Correspondent WASHINGTON, Sunday. IN the United States in the last month it has become a good deal harder to dismiss as hallucinations reports that flying saucers—or alternatively "flying objects of non-conventional design"—have lately been seen in the skies. It has become harder, first because the reports have been coming in from such sources and with such in- dependent detail that it would be remarkable indeed if they were all the product of too vivid imaginations; and second because there has been some rather peculiar official behaviour in the matter. NEWS CHRONICLE LONDON, ENGLAND APRIL 3, 1950 OFFICE OF THE LEGAL ATTACHE AMERICAN EMBASSY LONDON, ENGLAND [Routing box upper right: Mr. Tolson ___ Mr. Ladd ___ Mr. Clegg ___ Mr. Glavin ___ Mr. Nichols ___ Mr. Rosen ___ Mr. Tracy ___ Mr. Harbo ___ Mr. Belmont ___ Mr. Mohr ___ Tele. Room ___ Mr. Nease ___ Miss Gandy ___] [Handwritten: Ethr Mossling] [Handwritten: Jul 5 Ethr in Flying Discs] 62-83894-A- NOT RE[CORDED] 6[3] APR 20 1950 5 8 APR 21 1950
In the huge Pentagon building in Washington, headquarters of the Defence Department, there is an Air Force major whose duty it is to repeat to all inquirers the substance of the last Air Force statement on flying saucers, issued on December 27, 1949. "Mass hysteria" On the basis of inquiries into 375 alleged occurrences over a period of two years, it was an- nounced: "Reports of un- identified flying objects are the result of misinterpretation of various conventional objects or a mild form of mass hysteria or hoaxes." It was said a continuance of the inquiry was "unwarranted." But in fact it has appeared during the last month that credible witnesses who say they have seen flying saucers are still being examined by Intelligence officers. It was noted, too, how quickly and how thoroughly one of the most comprehensive of the newest reports has been officially "lost." Ours? Employees of the Civil Aero- nautics Authority at work in a control tower at Dayton muni- cipal airport in Ohio, in conjunc- tion with U.S Weather Bureau observers and four pilots of the Air National Guard who took off in fighters to look at the "un- identified object"—they all saw and submitted their testimony to the administrator of C.A.A. The idea—sometimes seriously advanced and often half- believed—that the saucers could be exploratory craft from another planet has infinite possibilities. But until it is proved it may be more profitable to wonder whether there has been de- veloped somewhere a disc-like plane with a circle of swiftly revolving vanes that might enable it to hover or to fly at high speed. If this or something like it turns out to be the answer, there may be good reason for hoping here that it is one of ours.
ffa O Flying Discs File in Flying Discs 'Rocket saucer' ROME, Thursday.—A flying saucer was reported over Milan today. Then later it was discovered that three boys had attached rockets to a large metal disc and set them off from the roof of a high building.—Express News Service. [Handwritten: Ethr Mossling] [Handwritten: Jul 5 Ethr] OFFICE OF THE LEGAL ATTACHE AMERICAN EMBASSY LONDON, ENGLAND DAILY EXPRESS London, England MARCH 31, 1950 162-83894-A- NOT RECORDED 83 APR 19 1950 [Routing box upper right: Mr. Tolson ___ Mr. Ladd ___ Mr. Clegg ___ Mr. Glavin ___ Mr. Nichols ___ Mr. Rosen ___ Mr. Tracy ___ Mr. Harbo ___ Mr. Belmont ___ Mr. Mohr ___ Tele. Room ___ Mr. Nease ___ Miss Gandy ___] 198 82 APR 2[0] 1950
ffr O Flying Discs File in Flying Discs [Routing box upper right: Mr. Tolson ___ Mr. Ladd ___ Mr. Clegg ___ Mr. Glavin ___ Mr. Nichols ___ Mr. Rosen ___ Mr. Tracy ___ Mr. Harbo ___ Mr. Belmont ___ Mr. Mohr ___ Tele. Room ___ Mr. Nease ___ Miss Gandy ___] Flying saucers— N.E., S. and W. ROME, Wednesday. — Flying saucers again—over Italy now. This is what people in five different areas reported: Salo, on Lake Garda.—A disc as large as a full moon streaking towards the north-east. Carrara.—Four three miles up, flying southwards. Calabria.— Disc "like a moon with a wake of fire" speeding westwards. Sardinia. — A flying saucer remained suspended 20 seconds then disappeared to the south. Val d'Aosta.—A disc flying over- head.—Reuter. [Handwritten: Ethr Mossling] OFFICE OF THE LEGAL ATTACHE AMERICAN EMBASSY LONDON, ENGLAND EVENING STANDARD MARCH 29, 1950 LONDON, ENGLAND [Handwritten: Jul 5 Ethr] 62-83894-A- NOT RECORDED 83 APR 19 1950 198 52 APR 20 1950
File in Flying Disc file Flying Discs [Routing box upper right: Mr. Tolson ___ Mr. Ladd ___ Mr. Clegg ___ Mr. Glavin ___ Mr. Nichols ___ Mr. Rosen ___ Mr. Tracy ___ Mr. Harbo ___ Mr. Belmont ___ Mr. Mohr ___ Tele. Room ___ Mr. Nease ___ Miss Gandy ___] Flying Flying fact or flight of fancy? RICHARD GARRETT traces the history of an aerial phenomenon which gave America sky-war jitters Saucery YOU TOO CAN SEE THEM Professor F. S. Cotton, of Sydney University, was discus- sing with his students the mystery of the flying saucers. He asked them to stand still, train their eyes on a point in the sky about a mile away. Within ten minutes 22 members of the class were seeing "saucers." The hallucination was merely the effect of red blood corpuscles passing in front of the eye retina. OFFICE OF THE LEGAL ATTACHE AMERICAN EMBASSY LONDON, ENGLAND SUNDAY GRAPHIC MARCH 26, 1950 LONDON, ENGLAND 62-[8]3894-[A] N[OT] RECORDED 83 APR 11 1950 [Handwritten: Mr Ethr Moseling] [Handwritten: jile 5- Ethr] 56 APR 11 1950
"FLYING saucers" are back in the news. From New York comes a report that Captain Jack Adams, pilot of the Chicago and Southern Airlines, radioed that he and a co-pilot had crossed the path of a large fly- ing saucer, with lighted windows, and a peculiarly coloured blinking light on top and travelling at about 600 m.p.h. over Arkansas. This was followed by a news cable from Lisbon: Scores of flying saucers reported by coastguards of the North Portugal coast flying in line and other formations and moving west "faster than tracer bullets." So the 1950 "saucer season" seems to have opened early. First report of these strange craft came on June 25, 1947, when a Mr. Dahl of Tacoma, Washington, noticed a circular flying machine, like a silver doughnut, cutting capers over his back-yard. Presently he saw five more "planes" rotating round a seventh. Speculations The centre craft then began to shed metallic rain. Most of it fell seawards, but one piece landed in Mr. Dahl's yard. On July 4, the first photo- graph of a "flying saucer" was taken by a Seattle coast- guard. The snap revealed a small white oblong, set against a dark grey background. The U.S. Navy said that the descriptions fitted its new wingless plane—the "Flying Pancake"—but there was only one of these, and it had never ventured outside Connecticut. A meteorologist suggested that solar reflections on low cloud would produce similar effects, and a Los Angeles scientist talked about "trans- mutation of atomic energy." A letter to a San Francisco newspaper hinted at an inter- planetary solution. The San Francisco corre- spondent was soon to find his idea carried a stage further. Mr. Mead Layne, publisher of an occult magazine, pro- duced an article in which he claimed to have received a message, via a medium, that there were people aboard the "saucers." They came from another planet, and wished to try liv- ing on earth. In Britain "saucers" were reported over Brighton beach, and another was seen by a clergyman's wife at Sandwich. Back in America President Truman compared the rumours to the scare of over a hundred years ago, when word got around that there were men and bats living on the moon. The neatest "flying saucer" quipping came from Mr. Gromyko at U.N. head- quarters. "Some," he said, "attribute them to the British for export- ing too much whisky to the U.S., others that it is a Russian discus thrower training for the Olympic Games who does not know his own strength." The first flying saucer fever died down under sheer weight of explanation, but reports still came in. Spain suspected In May, 1948, a U.S. Air Force intelligence officer opined that the "discs" were the work of ex-Nazi scientists in Spain. During Franco's 1938 siege of Madrid his German allies had tried out a circular missile, with an explosive centre and four engines around the cir- cumference. The experiment had failed, but in 1944 the Germans had repeated it, using jet engines. It was believed that the scientists responsible had escaped from the Russian zone, through France, and were now working for the Spanish Government. In December, 1949, the official body which had been established in America to probe the "saucers" was disbanded. It had been in operation for two years, and had investigated 375 incidents. It said that the phenomenon was caused by: (a) misinter- pretation of various conven- tional objects; (b) a mild form of mass hysteria; (c) hoaxes. And there, one might have imagined, the story would have ended. But the "flying saucers" refused to be grounded. Fellow travellers? The present phase of flying saucerism reached its climax on March 9, when a U.S. business man, travelling in Mexico, claimed to have seen a streamlined "disc" in which a 23in. tall pilot had perished. A Mexican denial immedi- ately followed publication of the story, but not before Denver, Colorado, had re- ported that a similar "saucer" had come to grief near by and three little men had been dis- covered inside it. The Defence Department of the U.S., repeating its denial of "flying saucers," said: "If these saucers start landing and little men with radar sticking out of their ears climb out, we shall have to do some- thing about it." "Flying saucers" have now been seen in pretty well every country of the world. They have been chased by jet planes, and observed by satellite and have baffled all attempts to explain them away. Are they sheer fantasy, or is there a grain of truth in the accounts? Your guess is as good as mine.
4-26 Tolson___ Ladd___ Clegg___ Glavin___ Nichols___ Rosen___ Tracy___ Harbo___ Belmont___ Mohr___ Tele. Room___ Nease___ Gandy___ Expert 'Explains' Flying Saucers By United Press ROME, March 25—Prof. Giuseppe Belluzzo, 73-year-old Italian turbine engineer, said today that designs for "flying saucers" were prepared for Hitler and Mussolini in 1942. "According to those designs," he said in an interview, "the disks could carry a cargo of explosives of any kind—and today an atomic bomb—to destroy entire cities." Of the present rash of reports of "flying saucers," which the U. S. Air Force has declared are without foundation in fact, Sr. Belluzzo said: "It has passed my mind that some great power is experimenting with flying disks—without explosives or atomic bombs." DRAFTED PLANS "There is nothing supernatural about flying disks. It's just the most rational use of recently- evolved techniques." Sr. Belluzzo said he personally had drafted plans for a "flying disk" 32 feet in diameter, but claimed they disappeared with Mus- solini when he fled to northern Italy in 1943. "Both Hitler and Mussolini were interested in flying discs," he said. "The principle of the flying disc is very simple. Its construction is easy and can be done with very light metal. "Two jet pipes placed on either side of the rim of the disk, provide the locomotion. The orifices of these jet tubes are adjustable to permit maximum and minimum speeds. PILOT NOT NEEDED "Propulsion comes from a mix- ture of compressed air and naphtha —the same fuel used in modern jet planes. "The air is mixed under pressure and ignited first by cartridges and then by an electrical device. Terrific pressure is set up and the expanding gas forced out thru the jet pipes. "The reaction, coming from the opposing pipes on either side of the disc, start the entire apparatus re- volving, making it airborne. "The missiles could be aimed like the wartime German V-2 rockets, he said, and would descend when the fuel was exhausted or cut off by an automatic timing device. No human pilot would be required. O Flying Discs [Handwritten: Ethr Mossling] 62-83894-A- NOT RECORDED INDEXED - 1335 APR 18 1950 EX-128 [Handwritten: Jul 5 Ethr in Flying Discs] Page Times-Herald ___ Wash. Post ___ Wash. News 4 Wash. Star ___ N.Y. Mirror ___ Date: MAR 25 1950 50 MAY 5 1950
1ST [Routing box upper right: Mr. Tolson ___ Mr. Ladd ___ Mr. Clegg ___ Mr. Glavin ___ Mr. Nichols ___ Mr. Rosen ___ Mr. Tracy ___ Mr. Harbo ___ Mr. Belmont ___ Mr. Mohr ___ Tele. Room ___ Mr. Nease ___ Miss Gandy ___] [Handwritten: file in] VENICE REPORTS FLYING SAUCER Venice, Monday Morning.— A silver-coloured "flying saucer" was reported above the fishing port of Caloggia, near here, early today travel- ling "at great speed" about 6,000ft. up.—Reuter. [Handwritten: Moseling Mg Ethr] 162-83894-A NOT RECORDED 83 APR 12 1950 THE DAILY MAIL FEBRUARY 27, 1950 LONDON, ENGLAND [Handwritten: Jul 5 Ethr] OFFICE OF THE LEGAL ATTACHE AMERICAN EMBASSY LONDON, ENGLAND 5[8] APR 1[2] 1950 3.
D[r.] Ladd [checkmark] Tolson___ Ladd [checkmark] Clegg___ Glavin___ Harbo___ Nichols___ Rosen___ Tracy___ Mohr___ Fletcher [checkmark] [illegible] Tele. Room___ Nease___ Gandy___ [Handwritten: Ethr Massling of Dessly (wfo)] 'Saucers' Spies From Planets, Writer Claims NEW YORK, Dec. 26 (AP)—A monthly magazine says the so- called flying saucers are real—ve- hicles for systematic observation of the earth by visitors from other planets. The conclusions are contained in an article by Donald E. Keyhoe in the January issue of True, pub- lished by Fawcett Publications, Inc. Keyhoe is a former informa- tion chief for the aeronautics branch, U. S. Commerce depart- ment. The magazine said the conclu- sions were based on an eight- month investigation. Keyhoe says True "learned that a rocket authority stationed at Wright Field has told 'Project Saucer' personnel flatly that the saucers are interplanetary and that no other conclusion is pos- sible." Last April the Dayton (Ohio) Journal Herald that the Air Force, although conceding the saucers were no "joke," had discounted the theory that the discs repre- sented visitations from such planets as Mars, where human life is believed by some to exist. Today, an Air Force spokesman said that "Air Force studies of 'flying saucers' lend no support to the view that they come from another planet." O Flying Discs "Flying Discs" 62-83894 [Handwritten: Jul 5 Ethr] Page Times-Herald 4 Wash. Post ___ Wash. News ___ Wash. Star ___ N.Y. Mirror ___ 162-83894-A NOT RECORDED 75 FEB 8 1950 Date: DEC 27 1949 60 FEB 8-1950
[Handwritten top: File in Flying Discs O FLYING DISCS] [Routing box upper right: Mr. Tolson ___ Mr. Ladd ___ Mr. Clegg ___ Mr. Glavin ___ Mr. Nichols ___ Mr. Rosen ___ Mr. Tracy ___ Mr. Harbo ___ Mr. Mohr ___ Tele. Room ___ Mr. Nease ___ Miss Gandy ___] MENU OF THE FUTURE: It's 'Wild New World' Dished Up in Saucers "Flying saucers," observatories on the moon, high-flying rockets and earth satellite vehicles carry- ing weapons and possibly men to whirl endlessly far out in space, today seem like pipe dreams of a mad world of fantasy. They may be harbingers of a wild new world to come. The air force, as early as last spring, said officially that the flying saucers "are not a joke." Air force authorities even now may be preparing an announce- ment stating that the flying discs are real objects, not merely fig- ments of imagination as far as the air force is concerned, The Mirror learned yesterday. That would seem to remove the flying discs from the realm of old wives' tales and the bubble talk of guys who have had one or two shifters too many. Possibilities that the sau- cers are missiles launched from a foreign planet are given serious consideration. The U.S. defense department's announcement of plans consider- ing a super spaceship, to be kept under control while traveling an orbit around the earth, lend cre- dence to reports of satellite mis- siles. No such ship has as yet been built, according to the best informed sources. But ideas for one haven't been forgotten. Gravity gradually falls off far out in space beyond the earth, scientists explain. It never quite ends, they say, but at 5000 miles it is relatively weak. "A spaceship could easily be kept in position there," accord- ing to Dr. Lloyd Motz, a Colum- bia University astronomer. "If left to itself it would gradually return to earth," he said. "But it would take very little thrust, from small rock- ets discharged at intervals to keep it where it was wanted." To get it up there, the space- ship would have to leave the earth at an initial velocity of 25,- 000 miles an hour, to escape the pull of gravity. At such speeds, present known metals would melt because of friction. But in other words, far from our own earth, perhaps better metals have been de- veloped. It is the wildest kind of spec- ulation, but the flying discs may be the first calling cards from an interstellar neighbor. [Handwritten: Mossling Ethr] 125 162-83894-A NOT RECORDED 78 NOV 17 1949 [Handwritten: jill 5-Ethr] THE MIRROR — LOS ANGELES MIRROR 3-26 OCT 7 1949 62 No[v] 301949
Missing Inventor Hunted for Clue to 'Saucers' By United Press Air Force investigators—skeptical but intrigued —are trying today to locate an eccentric inventor who more than 10 years ago built two contraptions that look like "flying saucers." The disc-type ships, battered and damaged, were found yesterday in an abandoned barn near Glen Burnie, Md., where they had lain untended for nine years. "It is apparent that both ships would give the appear- ance of flying discs," an Air Force spokesman said. NO REAL PROOF An Air Force officer last night described the two craft as "definite prototypes of flying saucers," but the service hedged today. A spokesman objected to the word "prototype," saying the Air Force has only reports of what flying saucers look like and has never established that such things ac- tually were seen. The Maryland inventor, Jonathan E. Caldwell, disap- peared in 1940. The only possibility of any connection between his old abandoned devices and the rumored "fly- ing saucers" of recent years would lie in the possibility that he went to some other part of the country, devel- oped better models and flew them successfully. A good many officers find it difficult to believe he could have done that without coming to public attention during the periodic excitement over "flying saucers" in the past two years. But they would like to find out what happened to Mr. Caldwell after he left Maryland and talk with him, if he still is alive. Mr. Caldwell, who would be about 70 today, left the Maryland farm hastily nine years ago, after getting into financial trouble with the state. He took with him his wife and son. Maryland authorities at that time had ordered him to stop selling any more stock in his enter- prise, "Gray Goose Airways, Inc." Previously, he had been ordered to stop selling stock in New Jersey and New York. NOT NATURALLY DISHONEST Robert E. Clapp, who as assistant Attorney General for Maryland, conducted the investigation of Mr. Caldwell's operations in 1940, said in Baltimore today: "Whenever he was exhausted or cut off and sold stock, and he continued to run the business as tho it were his own. He wasn't the ordinary type of frau- dulent stock salesman. I believe he sincerely thought he had something and I doubt if he thought he was being dishonest." For two years Air Force investigators have been run- ning down clues from coast to coast on reports of flying saucers. The Air Force in the main has taken a skeptical attitude toward the reports. Its last official report said it just didn't have conclusive evidence that they either did or didn't exist. ONE TESTED HERE Some of the flying saucers have been reported seen from the air, but traveling at such high speed as to make pursuit impossible. One military pilot crashed to his death, reportedly while chasing a flying saucer. One of the craft found in the Maryland barn reportedly flew here briefly around 1939. It was said to have gotten only 75 feet in the air. One ship resembled a helicopter. But instead of rotor blades it had a disc-like device about 16 feet in diameter. The device resembled two saucers revolving top to top. Small rotor blades jutted from between the two saucers. The other craft, named the "Roto-Plane," looked like a plywood tub about 14 feet in diameter. The pilot sat in the middle. The engine was in the tub. Around the top and bottom rims of the tub were four-bladed propeller- [s] which revolved in opposite directions. Flying Discs INDEXED - 80 62-83894-A NOT RECORDED 84 SEP 23 1949 WASHINGTON NEWS Page 6 file [5 Ethr] Aug 2 0 1949 60 SEP 27 1949
[Two newspaper photographs showing wrecked aircraft remnants in a barn] WASHINGTON NEWS PAGE 6 2-
'Flying Saucer' Story Deflated By Air Force Experimental Craft Will Be Examined For Other Clues The Air Force's long search for "flying saucers" has turned up two contraptions almost as weird as anything yet described by the most wild-eyed "witnesses" of two sum- mers ago. Held for the examination of ex- perts are two weather-beaten remnants of an inventor's dream uncovered yesterday in a tobacco shed near Glen Burnie, Md., an outer suburb of Baltimore. An official Air Force statement issued today said the "two ex- perimental aircraft found near Baltimore yesterday have abso- lutely no connection with the re- ported phenomenon of flying sau- cers." This does not mean, how- ever, that they will not be ex- amined for other clues by Air Force representatives, it was said. The relics are more than 10 years' old, and so far as can be determined, only one of them ever got off the ground under its own power. This occurred in Wash- ington almost 10 years ago, and ended in near-disaster after a flight of about 60 seconds. Pilot Tells of Test Hop. The inventor, Jonathan E. Cald- well, who is now over 70, if still living, and his wife and son left Glen Burnie in 1940 after Mary- land authorities ordered Mr. Caldwell to "cease and desist" from selling stock to finance his aeronautical ideas. None of the neighbors have heard from them since. Willard E. Driggers of 1530 Olive street N.E., now with the Civil Aeronautics Administration at Na- tional Airport, made the first and only test hop in Mr. Caldwell's helicopter, the Gray Goose, at the old Benning Race track in 1940. Mr. Driggers said he helped de- sign the helicopter. The machine rose about 40 feet and after some 60 seconds in the air, Mr. Driggers became aware the controls were not operating properly. He told The Star. He decided if he took it any higher he might not get down safely and he crash landed on the race track. He was unim- jured, but the machine was dam- aged. Lived Here Several Years. Mr. Driggers said the saucer- like rotors was designed to act as a wing after the ship had attained cruising altitude. The rotor would then be stopped and the ship flown with the con- ventional propeller. He explained, however, that this was theory, because the ship was never flown again. Mr. Caldwell lived in Washing- ton for several years before his disappearance, and seems to have returned here briefly from Glen Burnie before dropping from sight. The model tested here was a small helicopter whose rotors was projected from a saucerlike disc mounted on a tripod above the cockpit. Tattered remnants of this disc, covered with cloth, and the bat- tered fuselage were found in the shed, along with a plywood box, like a huge circular cheesebox, whose top and bottom sections were designed to revolve in oppo- site directions with short rotors projecting from the rims. The pilot was to have ridden in the middle, near the motor mount. Capt. Claudius Belk, head of the Baltimore office of Special Investi- gation of the Air Force, revealed that his office has "been investi- gating the machines for months" as possible prototypes of the flying saucers reported so frequently. He said efforts are being made to locate Mr. Caldwell in the hope of getting engineering data on his roto-plane ideas. The remains of the two ma- chines were placed in storage by Maryland State police, who helped locate them at the request of the Air Force. The material will be held, it was said, until it can be determined if experts from the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base at Dayton, Ohio, wish to exam- ine it. Builder Was Carpenter. The helicopter consisted of a light wingless fuselage with a propeller in front and a tripod mounting the saucer-like rotor and its projecting blades. Except for the pancake struc- ture around the inner sections of the rotor, the model was much the same as other experimental jobs of that time. Mr. Caldwell, a former carpen- ter, whose friends said he had studied the science of aeronautics in several books, had a far less practical idea in his "flying cheesebox." The upper and lower lids, con- taining short rotor blades jutting from their outer rims, were sup- posed to rotate in opposite direc- tions, giving the model some stability in flight. Mr. Caldwell's friends said. They admitted the 1,500-pound contraption never flew, but said Mr. Caldwell had claimed that a light model proved successful. The inventor earlier had tried a third model. This looked something like a complicated hay rick on wheels, and had rotors designed to fan the air somewhat after the fashion of the paddle wheels on old steam- boats. There are claims that this machine ever left the ground, and Mr. Caldwell abandoned it in favor of later ideas. Attorney Robert E. Clapp, who was Assistant Attorney General of Maryland at the time of Mr. Caldwell's disappearance, and helped administer the blue-sky laws, conducted a hearing in 1940 into the affairs of two of Mr. Cald- well's companies — Gray Goose Airways, Inc. and Rotor Planes, Inc. He later restrained the firms from selling stock in Maryland. "All he had was models," Mr. Clapp said, "and whenever one failed and he needed more funds, he went out and sold stock." In his report, Mr. Clapp said: "The literature used in connection with these stock sales clearly indicates that the public was led to believe that the invention was on the verge of perfection, and would be completed and ready for general production within a very short time, whereas, the fact as testi- fied by Mr. Caldwell indicate that no machine on which he had ever worked had been successfully flown or was in any condition for manu- facture and sale upon a satisfac- tory commercial basis. "The history of the develop- ment of these companies indicate that they were organized merely for the purpose of raising money to develop the ideas of Mr. Cald- well, and that as soon as this money was raised, it was treated as belonging solely to him and as the subject of any use which he deemed proper. "No meeting of stockholders has ever been held by either company and no financial report to stock- holders has ever come out since organization." Flying Discs INDEXED - 88 162-83894-A NOT RECORDED 84 SEP 23 1949 [Handwritten: Mossling Ethr] WASHINGTON STAR Page A 18 Aug 2 0 1949 35 35 60 SEP 26 [19]49 Tolson___ Ladd___ Clegg___ Glavin___ Nichols [checkmark] Rosen___ Tracy___ Harbo___ Mohr___ Tele. Room___ Nease___ Gandy [checkmark] [illegible] [Handwritten: Mossling Ethr] [Handwritten: file Flying Discs] [Handwritten: file 5 Ethr]
AIR FORCE FINDS 'FLYING SAUCERS'—This is Jonathan E. Caldwell's "Gray Goose" helicopter pictured before it made a near-disastrous test flight of about a minute in Washington nearly 10 years ago. Washington Star Page A 18 AUG 2 0 1949 3-
Troopers J. J. Harbaugh and Peter Kosirowsky of the Maryland State police are shown yesterday looking over remnants of Mr. Caldwell's helicopter, which had a pancakelike struc- ture around the inner part of the rotors. State troopers with the "flying cheesebox" invented by Mr. Caldwell and found with his old helicopter in a tobacco shed on a farm near Glen Burnie, Md., after a search requested by the United States Air Force. Washington Star Page A 18 AUG 2 0 1949 3-
Tolson____ Ladd____ Clegg____ Glavin____ Nichols____ Rosen____ Tracy____ Harbo____ Mohr____ Tele. Room____ Nease____ Gandy____ [handwritten: d] [handwritten: Jelim "Flying Discs"] [handwritten: nel] [handwritten: Whitnalys] [handwritten: Ern Elung] [handwritten: Jul 5 Etm] Glen Burnie 'Saucer' Clips 'Confidential,' but They Aren't Newspaper clips on the "flying saucers" found in a Glen Burnie barn last week have been sent to Washington marked "Classified-Confidential." As part of an OSI report which contains other data, the clips are crammed into a folder marked "Confidential." But that doesn't mean a thing. "You can take that file and pull those clippings out and show them to anybody," an Air Force spokesman said. "But if a folder is marked 'Confidential,' a fellow wants to look out because he knows some of the other stuff in there is a lot more important." 62-83894-A NOT RECORDED 45 SEP 14 1949 WASHINGTON DAILY NEWS FINAL EDITION DATE 8/[ILLEGIBLE]/49 58 SEP 15 1949[ILLEGIBLE]
Mr. Tolson____ Mr. Clegg____ Mr. Glavin____ Mr. Ladd [ILLEGIBLE] Mr. Nichols____ Mr. Rosen____ Mr. Tracy____ Mr. Egan____ Mr. Gurnea____ Mr. Harbo____ Mr. Mohr____ Mr. Pennington____ Mr. Quinn Tamm____ Mr. Nease____ Miss Gandy____ [handwritten: mm Flying Discs] [handwritten: HBF Fletcher] [handwritten: Etm Mossburg] [handwritten: Jul 5 Hm] Researchers' Balloons Mistaken for Discs CHICAGO, July 16 (INS). "Flying discs" and "fast-moving jet planes" that had some Chicagoans worried were identified today as gas balloons used by the University of Chicago for cosmic ray research. Large numbers of Chicagoans reported seeing mysterious objects in the sky yesterday morning. Descriptions varied from jet planes to silvery globules 40 to 50 feet long. 162-83894-A NOT RECORDED 59 SEP 9 1949 JUL 17 1949 WASHINGTON TIMES-HERALD Page 3 Sec. 1 59 SEP 9 1949
[handwritten: k] [handwritten: Julim] [handwritten: O Flying Discs] [handwritten: Kayle] [handwritten: Ern Mossburg] [handwritten: Five- Etm] 'Flying Saucers' On Secret List The Air Force disclosed yesterday that secrecy restrictions have been clamped on certain incidents connected with the mysterious "flying saucers" seen in the skies last year. At the same time, the Air Force admitted it is impossible to "deny categorically" that the weird objects originated in the Soviet Union or some other foreign nation. A statement declared that some incidents linked with the "flying saucers" still are unexplained. A spokesman said some of the "inexplicable" incidents have been placed in the "classified" category, denied to all persons except authorized military personnel. The statement was issued as the Air Force continued to receive inquiries arising out of a commentator's broadcast. The commentator said the "saucers" came from Russia. The Air Force said: "To date there has been no tangible evidence which would support a theory that any of the incidents are attributable to activity of a foreign nation. On the other hand, there is no evidence to deny categorically such a possibility. "Many of the reported incidents have definitely been determined to be meteorological balloons or natural celestial phenomena. However, there are some incidents reported by reliable and competent observers which are still unexplained." 162-83894-A1 NOT RECORDED 45 APR 19 1949 This clipping is from the evening edition of The Washington Times Herald 4-8-49 Date 58 APR 20 1949
Mr. Tolson____ Mr. E. A. Tamm____ Mr. Clegg____ Mr. Glavin____ Mr. Ladd____ Mr. Nichols____ Mr. Rosen____ Mr. Tracy____ Mr. Carson____ Mr. Egan____ Mr. Gurnea____ Mr. Harbo____ Mr. Hendon____ Mr. Jones____ Mr. Pennington____ Mr. Quinn Tamm____ Mr. Nease____ Miss Gandy____ INDEXED - 64 EX-109 [handwritten: D] [handwritten: O Flying Discs] [handwritten signatures] German Spy Calls Self Flying Disc' Inventor RIO DE JANEIRO, Nov. 5 (INS)—Nils Christensen, a convicted German spy in Brazil, claimed today to be the inventor of "flying discs" which have been sighted in many parts of the world, including the United States. INDEXED - 64 162-83894-A EX-109 8 NOV 19 1948 [handwritten: Joh] [handwritten signatures] [handwritten: 5] WASHINGTON TIMES HERALD AFTERNOON EDITION DATE 11-6-48 63 DEC 3 1948
[routing slip, partially illegible] [Mr. Ladd?]____ Mr. Nichols____ Mr. Rosen____ Mr. Tracy____ Mr. Egan____ [Mr. Gurnea]____ Mr. Harbo____ Mr. Mohr____ Mr. Pennington____ Mr. Quinn Tamm____ Mr. [ILLEGIBLE]____ [handwritten: File] [handwritten: nl] [handwritten: GIR[ILLEGIBLE]] Soviet Still Wants Answer To 'Saucers' By DAVID SENTNER N. Y. Journal-American Washington Bureau WASHINGTON, Aug. 14.—Soviet agents in the United States have been ordered to solve the mystery of the "Flying Saucers," it was learned today. While the guessing game in this country has burned itself out, the Soviet Union continues to be acutely interested in the phenomena, according to American investigative agencies. Instructions to Soviet espionage agents in the United States indicate the Kremlin believes the saucers may be connected with Army experiments in devices to decommission enemy radar during bombing raids. RECORDED 62-83894 -A EX-93 48 OCT 10 1947 [handwritten: Whitten] [handwritten: A Fletcher] Soviet Espionage Agents in U.S. Interested in "Saucers" 23/ 31 AUG 23 1947 N. CLIPPING FROM THE N.Y. Journal-American DATED AUG 14 1947 FORWARDED BY N.Y. DIVISION
Mr. Tolson____ Mr. E. A. Tamm____ Mr. Clegg____ Mr. Glavin____ Mr. Ladd [ILLEGIBLE] Mr. Nichols____ Mr. Rosen____ Mr. Tracy____ Mr. Carson____ Mr. Egan____ Mr. Gurnea____ Mr. Harbo____ Mr. Hendon____ Mr. Jones____ Mr. Pennington____ Mr. Quinn Tamm____ Mr. Nease____ Miss Gandy____ [handwritten signatures] [S]aucers'–Some [S]ee 'Em and Some Do[n't] Gander for Saucers VFW Chief Awaiting Message From Capital on Flying Discs The national leader of the Veterans of Foreign Wars said yesterday in Columbus, Ohio, that he was momentarily expecting word from Washington which would explain the "flying saucers" mystery. Louis E. Starr, national commander of the VFW, told the Ohio State encampment of the VFW that he might have "within a few hours" an explanation from Washington. He had expected the message at 3 p.m. but it did not arrive, he said. "Too little is being told the people of this country," Starr told the delegates. Hundreds of persons in about 30 States have reported seeing the silvery saucer-shaped discs speeding through the skies at tremendous speeds. An exhaustive check with the War Department and other agencies disclosed last night that no new formation was available in Washington. No one knew anything. But a new tendency to take the reports a bit more seriously was apparent. As the mystification waxed, the scoffing waned. Some of the mystery missiles may have passed over Washington Friday night at about midnight. David Atamian, 5160 Shoemaker lane, Friendship Heights, Md., reported that he had seen three or four of the flying saucers traveling northward at a rapid rate of speed at about that time. He said they were at an altitude of between 1000 and 2000 feet and appeared to be of a bright, bluish hue. The flying saucers produced a series of speculations and at- See SAUCERS, Page 3, Column 3. Post Staff Photo DAVID ATAMIAN, of 5160 Shoemaker la., Friendship Heights, Md., said he saw three or four flying discs Friday about midnight Associated Press WIREPHOTO IS IT?—Coast Guardsman Frank Ryman, 27, made this picture with a Speed Graphic camera from the front porch of his Seattle, Wash., residence. It shows, says Ryan, a "white saucer" (arrow) that is neither an airplane, a cloud, nor a silver balloon. So, is it a "flapjack" or a saucer? Or maybe a bottle cap? The photo is enlarged about 20 times THIS IS NOT ONE OF 'EM, SAYS THE NAVY—The "flying pancake," a wingless plane developed by the Navy, is the only plane it has which might resemble the reported "flying saucers," but officials in Washington said yesterday that this strange-looking aircraft has never left Bridgeport, Conn. Authorities are still skeptical that the mystery missiles said to [have been] seen in the skies over the West Coast and as far East as the Carolinas are any sort of new airplane RECORDED 162-83894-A EX-31 [4?] JUL 28 1947 WASHINGTON POST Page 1-M & 3-M [5]1 AUG 4 1947 1/2
VFW Chief Awaiting Message From Capital on Flying Discs tempted explanations throughout the country yesterday. A Los Angeles newspaper quoted an unidentified scientist in nuclear physics at the California Institute of Technology as saying the flying discs have resulted from experiments in "transmutation of atomic energy" being conducted at Muroc Lake, Calif., White Sands, N. Mex., Portland, Oreg., and elsewhere. The scientist, whom the newspaper said had worked as a researcher on the atomic bomb "Manhattan Project," was quoted as saying: "People are not seeing things. Such flying discs actually are in experimental existence." "These saucers so-called are capable of high speeds but they can be controlled from the ground." "They are 20 feet in width at the center and are partially rocket-propelled on the takeoff." However, other scientists were skeptical about the claims of the unnamed California physicist. Dr. Harold Urey, famed atomic scientist at the University of Chicago, said the term "transmutation of atomic energy" is "gibberish." "You can transmute metals, but not energy," said Dr. Urey. David Lilienthal, chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, declared the unexplained discs are in no way connected with atomic experiments. Lilienthal said he couldn't shed any light on the mystery and added: "Until someone has the facts about this phenomenon, I can't see how anyone can say anything definite about it." And Dr. C. C. Lauritsen, head of the nuclear physics department at California Institute of Technology, said he was certain nobody in his department, which includes four former Manhattan Project researchers including himself, had made "such a statement." He expressed the opinion that the discs "have nothing to do with nuclear physics." Strangely enough, the Muroc, Calif., Army Air Base, identified as one of the sites where the "secret experiments" are being carried out, announced that it had a P-80 fighter plane standing by to give chase if one of the flying saucers made an appearance. Col. Al Dutton, commanding officer of the Oregon National Guard, announced that the guard's squadron would attempt to photograph any future apparitions of the discs. He said six P-51 fighter planes, equipped with gun and telescopic cameras, would be kept ready to take off on a moment's notice. Col. F. J. Clark, commanding officer of the Hanford Engineering Works in the Pacific Northwest, where the largest saucer influx has been reported, said the saucers were not coming from the atomic plant there. "I have been waiting for someone to tie the discs to the Hanford atomic plant," he said. He declared that as far as he knew no experiments were under way there which would explain the mystery. Two Chicago astronomers said the discs are probably "man-made." "They couldn't be meteors," said Dr. Girard Kiuper, director of the University of Chicago's Yerkes Observatory at Williams Bay, Wis. Dr. Oliver Kee, director of Northwestern University's Dearborn Observatory, said: "We realize that the Army and Navy are working on all sorts of things we know nothing about." He said the mystery disks may represent an accomplishment similar to that of sending radar signals to the moon,' one of the greatest technological achievements of the war and accomplished in absolute secrecy.' Here in Washington, Dr. Newbern Smith of the National Bureau of Standards expressed the opinion that all the excitement is akin to "those Loch Ness Monster stories." The only comment offered by Cap[tain] E. Duvall, assistant superintendent of the Naval Observatory, [said] that the saucer "does not seem to be an astronomical phenomena." Credence in the saucers—widely laughed off at their first reported appearance June 25—grew as hundreds of observers, some of them trained fliers, reported seeing them. A crowd of 200 observed a disc at Hauser Lake, Idaho Friday and a group of 60 picnickers saw them at Twin Falls, Idaho. And in Portland, Oreg., so many residents witnessed them that same day the police department sent out an all-cars broadcast. The crew of a United Airlines plane said several of the round, flat objects were visible for about 12 minutes JUL 6 1947 WASHINGTON POST Page 1-M & 3-M
Mr. Tolson [checkmark] Mr. E. A. Tamm____ Mr. Clegg____ Mr. Glavin____ Mr. Ladd [checkmark] Mr. Nichols [checkmark] Mr. Rosen____ Mr. Tracy____ Mr. Carson____ Mr. Egan____ Mr. Gurnea____ Mr. Harbo____ Mr. Hendon____ Mr. Jones____ Mr. Pennington____ Mr. Quinn Tamm____ Mr. Nease____ Miss Gandy____ [handwritten: Carl] [handwritten signatures] [handwritten: O] [handwritten: July [ILLEGIBLE]] Flying Saucer Found Add latest reports on flying saucers—a garage sign with a garbage can lid and an ingenious "buzzer" found on the lawn of the home of Thaddeus Elder, 111 6th st., Laurel, Md. The "saucer" was discovered Friday night shortly before 10 o'clock. Two small aerials projected from the contraption. It contained a dry cell battery, a flashlight bulb, a camera lens and a ticker that caused the buzzing. The "saucer" was turned over to Laurel police who kept a straight face while informing the FBI of the "discovery." The FBI wasn't interested. 62-83894-A FBI 44 JUL 18 1947 EX-53 [handwritten signature] 63 JUL 22 1947 15 JUL 13 1947 WASHINGTON POST Page 17 M
Mr. Tolson____ Mr. E. A. Tamm____ Mr. Clegg____ Mr. Glavin____ Mr. Ladd [checkmark] Mr. Nichols [ILLEGIBLE] Mr. Rosen____ Mr. Tracy____ Mr. Carson t Mr. Egan____ Mr. Gurnea____ Mr. Harbo____ Mr. Hendon____ Mr. Jones____ Mr. Pennington____ Mr. Quinn Tamm____ Mr. Nease____ Miss Gandy____ [handwritten: Eat] [handwritten signatures] [handwritten: G.I.R 25] [handwritten: k] [handwritten: 4] Boys' Flying Saucer Hoax Stirs Police, FBI and Army By the Associated Press TWIN FALLS, Idaho, July 12.—Four boys with imaginations that run to flying discs may or may not be laughing up their sleeves today after their version of a flying saucer had practically the entire populace, the FBI, Army intelligence officers and police on the run. The boys created and planted in a yard yesterday an object that looked to them, as well as to the Army and civilian officers, just like a flying disc should look. Their hoax was exposed after Assistant Police Chief L. D. McCracken was tipped off that one of the boys knew something about the disc. The creation, which took two days to complete, was made from parts of an old phonograph, burned-out radio tubes and other discarded electrical parts. It had a plexiglass dome, radio tubes, burned wires and glistening gold and silver sides. Since the boys are juveniles, their names were withheld. They will not be prosecuted, Chief McCracken s[aid]. RECORDED 162-83894-A FBI 42 JUL 18 1947 EX-25 [handwritten signature] 137 51 JUL 8[1] 1947 JUL 12 1947 WASHINGTON STAR Page 1
Mr. Tolson____ Mr. E. A. Tamm____ Mr. Clegg____ Mr. Glavin____ Mr. Ladd____ Mr. Nichols____ Mr. Rosen____ Mr. Tracy____ Mr. Carson____ Mr. Egan____ Mr. Gurnea____ Mr. Harbo____ Mr. Hendon____ Mr. Pennington____ Mr. Quinn Tamm____ Mr. Nease____ Miss Gandy____ [handwritten: lP] Juke Box Birthed This Flying Disc, Army Expert Finds By United Press SALT LAKE CITY, July 12—The "Flying Disc" that fell with a thud in the yard of a Twin Falls, Idaho, housewife was found today to have been manufactured by four teenage boys from the parts of a run-down juke box. Discovery of the disc was announced yesterday by an agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, who turned it over to Army officers at Twin Falls. They in turn put it aboard a plane and rushed it to Ft. Douglas near here for examination by experts. The examination showed the fancy gadget—complete with plexiglass dome, three radio tubes, chromium-plated edges and numerous wires—was a hoax and, according to the Army, had "no other function than to be ornamental in a limited manner and to cause considerable expense to Federal agencies investigating it." RECORDED 162-83994-A FBI 44 JUL 18 1947 EX-74 [handwritten signature] 58 JUL 25 1947 /166 JUL 12 1947 WASHINGTON NEWS Page 3
Mr. Tolso[n]____ Mr. E. A. Ta[mm]____ Mr. Clegg____ Mr. Coffey____ Mr. Glavin____ Mr. La[dd] [checkmark] Mr. Nicho[ls] [checkmark] Mr. Rosen____ Mr. Tracy____ Mr. Carson____ Mr. Egan____ Mr. Hendon____ Mr. Pennington____ Mr. Quinn Tamm____ Mr. Nease____ Miss Gandy____ [handwritten: EAh] [handwritten signatures] [handwritten: ls] [handwritten: Flying Saucers] Saucer-Shaped Gadget Found By Californian in Flower Bed By the Associated Press NORTH HOLLYWOOD, Calif., July 10.—A saucer-shaped mechanical contraption, resembling a chicken brooder top with a few gadgets added, was found in a geranium bed at the home of Russell Long, construction engineer, last night, and the first official reaction was from Fire Battalion Chief Wallace E. Newcombe, who looked at it skeptically and said: "It doesn't look to me like it could fly." Mr. Long called the Van Nuys Fire Department and excitedly pointed to the metal saucer, 30 inches in diameter, which he said had been belching smoke from two exhaust pipes and emitting a blue-white glare. The office of Richard B. Hood, Federal Bureau of Investigation chief here, said an FBI man had taken a look at the device and that it would be turned over to military authorities. The FBI office said Mr. Hood had not other comment. Chief Newcombe exhibited the object. A radio tube on top was set down into the upper half of the saucer, which was about 5 inches thick at the middle and tapered to a thin perimeter. There were wires leading to a plug embedded in the center of the lower half. There was a rudder-type wing on top. Mr. Long told reporters he was awakened by a pop, not as loud as an explosion, and rushed outside to find the device. He declared the object had nudged a few bricks out of the border of his flower bed. G.I.R. 6 RECORDED 162-83894-A [F]B[I] 74 JUL 28 1[947] [handwritten signature] 60 AUG 1[1] 1947 JUL 10 1947 WASHINGTON STAR Page [ILLEGIBLE]
Mr. Tolson [checkmark] Mr. E. A. Tamm____ Mr. Clegg____ Mr. Coffey____ Mr. Glavin____ Mr. Ladd [checkmark] Mr. Ni[chols]____ Mr. Rosen____ Mr. Tracy____ Mr. Carson____ Mr. Egan____ Mr. Hendon____ Mr. Pennington____ Mr. Quinn Tamm____ Mr. Nease____ Miss Gandy____ [handwritten: ml] [handwritten annotations] While Science Sneers Air Forces Intelligence Joins Search for Flying Saucers Army Air Forces intelligence yesterday disclosed it has joined the search for a flying saucer. Bizarre reports on the whirling, high-speed discs continued to pour in, drawing an official statement from the AAF, much cynicism from science and the offer of $1000 for the first one downed. The Air Forces, which has jurisdiction over the White Sands (N. Mex.) Rocket Proving Grounds, denied the saucers are any of its doing. "No such phenomena can be explained by any experiments being conducted," the statement said. From the Naval Research Laboratory's Rear Admiral Paul F. Lee came the curt comment: "We concur in the Army announcement." Neither denied existence of the discs, but the AAF said statements of witnesses are being correlated "in an effort to identify the reported objects." With few States in the Nation without at least one flying saucer report, the AAF has a chore. A Navy flier with five years' experience tabbed the discs as "space ships" after at first considering all reports as "crazy." He changed his mind, he said, in Alameda, Calif., yesterday, after he and about 50 other persons saw a group of about "50 of the saucers in triangular formation near Auburn Saturday." One report which won't trouble the AAF is that of a commercially operated, converted P-38, whose pilot said he had knocked one of the "pearl-colored, clam-shaped airplanes" out of the Montana sky. He admitted the story was a hoax. In Washington, Dr. L. R. Hafstad, executive secretary of the Joint Research and Development Board and former director of the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, said: "Poppycock!" Dr. Jesse Sprowls, psychology professor at the University of Maryland, said, "There is absolutely no limit to the delusion that the mind can harbor. A tremendously interesting social psychological delusion," he added. Dr. Ivan E. McDougle of Baltimore's Goucher College, said he guessed "it's one of those psychological epidemics where people see things that aren't there." But C. J. Zohn, 440 Mellon st., se., who works in the rocket-sonde, high altitude research section of the Naval Research Laboratory, yesterday reported he and three other men saw one "saucer" [in] New Mexico June 29. He describ[ed] See SAUCERS, Page 3, Column 6 RECORDED 162-83894-A FBI EX-53 49 JUL 15 1947 15 6 51 JUL 21 1947 JUL 8 1947 WASHINGTON POST Page 1
SAUCERS—From Page 1 Flying Discs Interest AAF it as a bright, silvery disc, traveling at 10,000 feet. "It was clearly visible—and then it wasn't there." The FBI here was noncommittal. In Milwaukee, Wis., the FBI said it was "not interested" in what appeared to be a circular saw, rigged with a few wires, which the Rev. Joseph Brasku said crashed into his yard at Grafton, Wis. He admitted it probably was a joke, but was holding the disc for FBI's attention. Atomic experts in session at Lake Success, N. Y., did not discuss officially the flying saucer Flying Saucers Traced To Wife's Pitching Arm Pittsburgh, July 7 (P).—Many persons have seen the mysterious "flying saucers," but Connie Dunbar, 35, knows the source of the ones he saw. Dunbar, who said he was struck by saucers thrown by his wife, Mrs. Bessie Dunbar, was granted a divorce today by Judge Harry H. Roward. reports, but made no secret of their interest. They were reported as "baffled." Not so was a 34-year-old watchmaker in Chattanooga, Tenn., who said he invented the flying saucer in 1943 but "got tired of the runaround" when he tried to peddle it to the Government or an aircraft concern. His model was powered with a rubber band. A $1000 reward was posted in Northbrook, Ill., "for the capture of a flying disc—or the true explanation of the phenomena." The offer, made by E. J. Culligan, is made "solely through an interest in science." A theory that the saucers might be artificial satellites came from the British physicist Prof. A. M. Low. The artificial satellite, he explained, might be created by unknown scientists and could serve many purposes, such as deflecting television or radar beams. Lester P. Barlow, a Stamford, Conn., inventor, said he believes the discs are jet-propelled missiles being manufactured for the Navy by the Martin Aircraft Co., in Baltimore.
[handwritten: 449 2] [handwritten: GIR 5] [handwritten signatures] Report New Red Planes Resemble 'Flying Saucers' Special to the N. Y. Journal-American LOS ANGELES, July 7.—Federal agents today investigated a letter to The Examiner describing Russian supersonic atom-powered planes resembling the "flying saucers." A top-flight atomic scientist to whom The Examiner referred the letter said it was "not all nonsense," and suggested the matter be turned over to the FBI. The letter writer said he got the information from an officer aboard a Russian tanker recently in Los Angeles harbor. The Russian, he said, also described experiments with controlled radioactive clo[u]ds in the Arctic, where birds, animals and even worms were killed. 18 INCHES THICK. The planes, as described by the Russian to the writer, are only 18 inches thick, with a kidney-shaped outline and no propellors. The pilot lies on his stomach and is artificially cooled against the heat developed by air friction. "The outer surface is highly polished," the Russian said. "Both upper and lower surfaces are convex, like a giant lens. The lifting force is an entirely different principle found about 10 years ago among unpublished papers of a Russian chemist." "Energy is required only for climbing, but no energy is needed for support when the airplane goes along the earth's gravitational contour lines." The writer of the strange letter said he met the Russian officer in Wilmington and, because he wanted to hear about Russia, invited him to be his guest at dinner. DESTROYS ALL LIFE. The Russian first asked where he could sell 18 Polar bear pelts which he received "for very dangerous work." He said he had been assigned to go over the route of the radioactive cloud near Lake Bakal (or Baykal) and pick up dead animals. "They loaded a few small ships with all kinds of animals and directed the cloud over them," the writer said. "During this experiment, a violent storm blew the cloud far north into the tundra, but before it dissipated it destroyed all life on its way. "The cloud may be controlled from land, from a plane or from a robot-piloted 'leader.' As I understand it, the control is based on electro-magnetic waves and the cloud has two components: The carrier and the killer." HAVE ATOMIC ENERGY. "I asked him if the Russians have an atomic bomb. He said he doubted it, because the atomic bomb cannot be used without killing innocent people, such a[s] children and women. But they have atomic energy which they use for propelling supersonic airplanes." The writer said he asked the Russian officer to another dinner, but when he came the second time his tanker was leaving unexpectedly and he could only say goodbye. The nuclear physicist consulted by The Examiner said it was difficult to appraise the value of the letter because of the writer's "technical ignorance." "The remark implying that the Russians wouldn't use the atom bomb if they had it is nonsense. The Russians would like very [much to] have the bomb," the physicist said. Bureau Interest 1 1 6 RECORDED 162-83894 [4]2 JUL [ILLEGIBLE] CLIPPING FROM THE N.Y. Journal-American JUL 7 1947 FORWARDED BY N.Y. DIVISION
[ILLEGIBLE] = N DIVISION OF PRESS INTELLIGENCE GOVERNMENT INFORMATION SERVICE BUREAU OF THE BUDGET Tempo V Bldg. SYM. J Examiner Los Angeles, Calif. 184 DATE JUL 7 1947 FBI CHECKING RUSS DISC TIP Federal agents yesterday investigated a letter to the Examiner describing Russian supersonic atom-powered planes resembling the "flying saucers." A top-flight atomic scientist to whom the Examiner referred the letter said it was "not all nonsense," and suggested the matter be turned over to the FBI. The letter writer said he got the information from an officer aboard a Russian tanker recently in Los Angeles Harbor. DEATH CLOUDS— The Russian, he said, also described experiments with controlled radioactive clouds in the Arctic, where birds, animals and even worms were killed. The planes, as described by the Russian to the writer, are only 18 inches thick, with a kidney-shaped outline and no propellers. The pilot lies on his stomach, the Russian said, and is artificially cooled against the heat developed by air friction. "The outer surface of the plane is highly polished," the Russian told writer said. "Both upper and lower surfaces are convex, like a giant lens. The lifting force is an entirely different principle found about 10 years ago among unpublished papers of a Russian chem[ist] and developed recently at one of Russia's research laboratories." "Energy is required only for climbing, but no energy is need[ed] for support when the airplane goes along the earth's gravitational contour lines." Reports of the flying dis[cs] dropped off sharply in the Lo[s] Angeles area yesterday and po[lice] said they had received no cal[ls] about them in the city or county since Saturday. The writer of the strange letter said he met the Russian officer in Wilmington and, because he wanted to hear about Russia, invited him to dinner. ANIMALS KILLED— "They loaded a few small ships with all kinds of animals and directed the cloud over them," the writer said. "During this experiment, a violent storm blew the cloud far north into the tundra, but before it dissipated it destroyed all life on its way. "The cloud may be controlled from land, from a plane or from a robot-piloted 'leader.' As I understand it, the control is based on electro-magnetic waves and the cloud has two components: The carrier and the killer. "I asked him if the Russians have an atomic bomb. He said he doubted it, because the atomic bomb cannot be used without killing innocent people, such as children and women. But they have atomic energy, which they use for propelling supersonic airplanes." The writer said he asked the Russian officer to another dinner, but when he came the second time his tanker was leaving unexpectedly and he could only say good-by. The nuclear physicist consulted by The Examiner said it was difficult to appraise the value of the letter because of the writer's "technical ignorance." "The remark implying that the Russians wouldn't use the atom bomb if they had it is nonsense. The Russians would like very much to have the bomb." On the other hand, he decried the efforts of some groups who take advantage of "all this flying disc talk" to stir up suspicion of Russia's intentions. The Examiner had two more reports of flying discs yesterday. Fred Dodge of 728 South U[p]land avenue said he was in Wh[ite] Lake Park at 12:02 p.m. when he saw one flying westward at 2500 to 3000 feet. He said it was silent, round and shiny and was not an airplane. Leonard Posella, 14, of 3267 Waverly drive, rep[or]ted a flight of 20 near Griff[ith] Park going west at 500 feet. He said they were round and silvery "with their noses pointing upward," and he watched them for three minutes[.] 162-83894-A RECORDED FBI 48 AUG 4 1947 EX-30 [handwritten signatures] 60 AUG 6 1947 C.E.
[handwritten: [ILLEGIBLE]] Planes to Chase 'Flying Saucers'; 'Something to This,' AAF Feels With aircraft, including a jet plane, alerted along the West Coast in hopes of chasing and explaining the mystery of the "flying saucers," an Army Air Forces spokesman here disclosed today that the AAF believes "there's something to this" but is completely mystified as to just what. Capt. Tom Brown of AAF public relations said the tales of flat, round objects zipping through the sky are too widespread to be groundless. He pointed out that a number of competent airmen that have reported seeing the phenomena that have been the talk of the Nation since June 25. For 10 days, he declared, the AAF has been checking on the stories "and we still haven't the slightest idea what the things can be." And a new wrinkle—the reported landing of a fleet of eight skimming platters—was reported from Idaho in full view of 10 persons. A Dishman, Idaho housewife, said she and others in her party had seen the saucers land on a mountainside near St. Maries, Idaho. She said they came into view at an extreme speed, suddenly slowed and then "fluttered like leaves to the ground." "The mysterious part was that we couldn't see them after they landed," she said. "We could see them flutter down into the timber yet we couldn't see that they did anything to the trees." She said she hoped to hike into the timber tomorrow and search for the objects which she said were saucer-shaped but resembled washtubs more than disks and were "about the size of a five-room house." Locally, Hazen Kennedy of 2615 4th st. ne. reported he had seen one passing over the Northeast section of the city at about 8:40 p.m. This would be the first one reported over the District, although others have been reported over nearby Maryland. Kennedy, who has 125 hours flying time as a student pilot in the Army Air Forces to his credit, said he believed the saucer he had seen was traveling at "well over" 1000 miles an hour at an altitude of between 1200 and 1500 feet. pseudo-scientific explanations of the mystery. David Atamian, 5610 Shoemaker lane, Bethesda, Md., said he saw three or four "flying saucers" traveling north at great speed at 11:45 p.m. Friday. Mr. Atamian, who described himself as a writer of poetry, said he was sure he wasn't mistaken. The discs, he said, were flying at between 1,000 and 2,000 feet and appeared to be of a bright, bluish hue. Government sources denied that any tests are being conducted that might be the answer to the mystery. A Navy official said the Navy had checked all its facilities to determine whether any were sending aloft objects that could account for the strange sights. The answers were negative. David Lilienthal, chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, said (See FLYING SAUCERS, Pg. A-3.) the "saucers" had nothing to do with atomic experiments. A Los Angeles newspaper story quoting an unidentified California Institute of Technology scientist as saying the "flying saucers" must have something to do with experiments in "transmutation of atomic energy" caused a brief flurry by the Institute—quickly denied the report. Dr. Harold Urey, atomic scientist at the University of Chicago, called it "gibberish" and said elements could be "transmuted" but energy could not. P-80 fighter at the Muroc, Calif., Army Airfield in California and six fast conventional fighters at Portland, Oreg., stood ready to take off on an instant's notice should any "flying saucers" be sighted in those areas. Some of the planes carried photographic equipment. Air-Ground Search Slated. An air-ground search was scheduled to get under way today to investigate a report that eight flying discs had landed on a mountainside near St. Maries, Idaho, in full view of 10 persons. Mrs. Walter Johnson, Dishman, Wash., said the "saucers" came down in timber near St. Maries Thursday evening, but were not reported until she returned to her home in Dishman yesterday. She said they came into view at extreme speed, traveling north. Suddenly, she said, they slowed and then "fluttered like leaves to the ground." "The mysterious part was that we couldn't see them after they landed," Mrs. Johnson said. "We could see them flutter down into the timber yet we couldn't see that they did anything to the trees." She described them as "about the size of a five-room house" and shaped more like washtubs than discs. Planes to Comb Area. Col. G. R. Dodson of the Oregon Air Guard announced a patrol would leave Portland, Ore., today to investigate the report and Sherif[f] 162-83894-A NOT RECORDED 100 JUL 11 1947 [handwritten signatures] 15 d [5?] JUL 1[8] 1947 Clipped from WASHINGTON EVENING STAR for 7/7/47
[routing slip, partially torn and illegible] Mr. [ILLEGIBLE]____ Mr. E. A. Tamm [checkmark] Mr. Cl[egg]____ Mr. Gla[vin]____ Mr. [ILLEGIBLE]____ Mr. N[ichols]____ Mr. Rosen____ Mr. Tracy____ Mr. Egan____ Mr. Gur[nea]____ Mr. Harbo____ Mr. M[ohr]____ Mr. Pennington____ Mr. Quinn Tamm____ Mr. N[ease]____ Miss Gandy____ [handwritten signatures] [handwritten: Wf] [handwritten: [ILLEGIBLE]] More About Saucers Priest Finds 'Whirring' Disc In Yard and Holds It for FBI Chicago, July 6 (UP).—A Catholic priest at Grafton, Wis., said tonight that a round, metal disc, which might be one of the mysterious "flying saucers," had crashed into his parish yard and that he is holding it for the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The Rev. Joseph Brasky of St. Joseph's Church at Grafton, 45 miles north of Milwaukee, said he heard a swishing and whirring noise this morning. A second later, he said, he heard a thud and a mild explosion. He investigated and found a sheet metal disc about 18 inches in diameter, resembling a circular saw blade. "The object still was warm, weighed about four or five pounds and was about one eighth of an inch thick," he said. There was a hole about one inch in diameter in the middle of the disc, he said, and in the opening were "gadgets and some wires." The priest said he did not know if his discovery were important or whether it might be an elaborate practical joke. He said he had notified the FBI of his find. H. K. Johnson of the Milwaukee FBI office said he hadn't heard yet about the disc but that an official report might be at his office. The flying discs have been reported "seen" by persons in 30 States, but Brasky's disc was the first one that actually had been found—if that is what was found. His report came a few hours after a military plane made an unsuccessful speed dash in an attempt to track down one of the discs and the Army and scientists sought to ascertain whether coast-to-coast reports about the discs zooming through the sky were fact or fancy. Army planes scoured the northwest Pacific skies for them without success today and one "eyewitness" even reported having seen one of the discs take off in Arizona. A St. Louis railroad man exhibited some paper "discs" he said he had seen floating over St. Louis. The flying saucers which have been reported skimming through America's skies at speeds up to 1200 miles have eluded the usually keen eye of radar. Capt. Tom Brown of the Army Air Forces public relations sta[ff] See SAUCERS, Page 3, Col. 2. RECORDED 162-83894-A [ILLEGIBLE] FBI 44 JUL 18 1947 EX-7A [handwritten signature] THE WASHINGTON POST PAGE 1 & 2 DATE 7-7-47 [ILLEGIBLE] JUL [ILLEGIBLE] 166
SAUCERS—From Page 1 Priest Finds 'Whirring' Disc In Yard and Holds It for FBI said the Army Airways Communications Service had reported late yesterday that so far its radar scopes throughout the country have been unable to pick up any strange objects in flight. And in the Pacific Northwest—where most of the fly-happy platters have been reported—the Army has radar equipment which can pierce fog and darkness and pick up objects in the sky 200 miles away. Even so, Brown acknowledged that the Air Forces had decided "there's something to this" and had been checking it for 10 days. "And we still haven't the slightest idea what they could be," he added. And a new wrinkle—the reported landing of a fleet of eight skimming platters—was reported from Idaho in full view of 10 persons. A Dishman, Idaho housewife, said she and others in her party had seen the saucers land on a mountainside near St. Maries, Idaho. She said they came into view at an extreme speed, suddenly slowed and then "fluttered like leaves to the ground." "The mysterious part was that we couldn't see them after they landed," she said. "We could see them flutter down into the timber yet we couldn't see that they did anything to the trees." She said she hoped to hike into the timber tomorrow and search for the objects which she said were saucer-shaped but resembled washtubs more than disks and were "about the size of a five-room house." Locally, Hazen Kennedy of 2615 4th st. ne. reported he had seen one passing over the Northeast section of the city at about 8:40 p.m. This would be the first one reported over the District, although others have been reported over nearby Maryland. Kennedy, who has 125 hours flying time as a student pilot in the Army Air Forces to his credit, said he believed the saucer he had seen was traveling at "well over" 1000 miles an hour at an altitude of between 1200 and 1500 feet. "The best way I can describe it," said Kennedy, "was that it looked like an orange lamp bulb without the socket. It was going faster than any jet plane I've ever seen." In Hagerstown, Md., Mrs. Madelyn Ganoe, 30, said she had seen five of the discs, racing in 2-1-2 formation at "terrific speed," from her backporch. "They sounded like a faraway train," she said. In the wake of these new eyewitness accounts came a new series of comments, and explanations, but most of them were tinged with a slight tendency to laugh off the whole thing. Dr. Winfred Overholser, nationally known psychiatrist and superintendent of St. Elizabeths Hospital here, said it "has some of the earmarks of being national hysteria." "Everytime someone comes up with a sea-serpent story," said Dr. Overholser, "others with vivid imaginations are sure they have seen the same thing." "The critical faculty in man, the last one he received, is still not very well developed. Scratch the surface and you find the same mass hysteria which predominated during the witchcraft scare. Some persons are quite ready to see things and follow beliefs." Dr. Overholser said that when he made his rounds of the mental patients yesterday at St. Elizabeths not a one commented on the flying saucers story. "I think they may be a little skeptical," he added. However, Dr. Overholser said he wasn't trying to dismiss the matter as a joke "because there are so many strange things going on today that one can't be sure." Maj. Alexander P. de Seversky, noted aircraft designer, told The Post by telephone from New York that until he sees a flying saucer he "wouldn't like to pass judgment." He agreed with Dr. Overholser that much if not all of the story may be because of hysteria. "After all," he said, "we are more or less an hysterical Nation." Major de Seversky said it was possible that the persons who claim to have seen the aerial discs have instead glimpsed the exhaust of jet-propelled planes. He conceded, too, that they might be guided missiles let loose as part of an experiment, but added: "I don't think the Government would fire them so promiscuously. They would test them in one spot, in an isolated area, like they did the atomic bomb." Maj. Gen. Curtis E. LeMay, who was Deputy Chief of Air Staff for Research and Development would know if the saucers involved experiments with guided missiles, commented: "Whatever these people have seen it hasn't been anything resulting from experiments by the Army Air Forces. As far as I'm concerned there's nothing to it at all. The whole thing is unfortunate." General LeMay refused to discuss whether the Air Forces has guided missiles which can attain speeds of 1200 miles. "There's been too much said about guided missiles now," he said. Howard W. Blakeslee, Associated Press science editor, said the whole business may be an optical illusion. "At any distance which is close to the limit of how far a person can see," he wrote, "all objects appear round or nearly so. This law of sight covers both small things seen nearby and large ones at great distances. "The one outstanding fact about virtually all the saucers is that they had no structure—they seemed merely round and flat. That description fits exactly with the tricks that eyes play. This trickiness varies with differences in weather and lighting." However, Nova Hart, St. Louis mechanic who was trained during service in the war to spot all types of aircraft, yesterday offered a minute description of one of the flying patterns which he claimed he saw flying at an altitude of about 800 feet. He described it as circular with a ribbed framework and silver gray in color. He said it appeared to have a motor with a propeller attached in the center and that it kept turning like an airplane doing a slow roll. Although many explanations have been offered, none has been convincing. A Los Angeles newspaper quoted an unnamed nuclear physicist as saying the silvery discs resulted from experiments in the "transmutation of atomic energy." This report was rapidly herded into the hoax column by David Lilienthal, chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, and several prominent atomic scientists. Louis E. Starr, national commander of the VFW, announced Saturday at Columbus, Ohio, that he was expecting "momentarily" information from Washington which would explain the dashing discs. But the message never arrived. The Air Forces said that Gen. Carl Spaatz, Air Forces chief, was in the Pacific Northwest where most of the saucers have been reported, but added that his trip there was planned two months ago, long before the saucers scare. General Spaatz is expected back in Washington late tomorrow. Muroc Army Air Field in California had a P-80 jet fighter standing by, and the National Guard in Oregon had prepared six regular fighters to give chase should saucers be reported nearby. THE WASHINGTON POST PAGE [ILLEGIBLE] DATE [blank]
Acme Telephoto Can This Be the Secret? Under discussion as a possible solution to the "saucer" mystery is the Navy's "Flying Flapjack," shown above. Zipping along with its landing gear retracted, this plane would seem to be a supper plate spinning through the sky. saw in the sky. She is the first known observer to claim what she saw was stationary. All the rest have spoken of tremendous speeds. Mrs. Kole said all she could think of was a blazing disc. Alexandria police looked in the direction she indicated but the disc had gone. Jack Labus, an artist, 3500 block East Capitol St., reported seeing one of the "things" flying over Bethesda. He described it as "a flat disc with a cone shape under it and a stick like a radio antenna projecting from the bottom." The scientist who claimed to know something about the "saucers" was described by a Los Angeles newspaper as a member of the California Institute of Technology staff. May Be Real, He Says He was quoted as saying "transmutation of atomic energy" experiments might be responsible. He was said to have been a researcher on the Manhattan project that made the atom bomb, and was quoted as saying: "These so-called saucers are capable of high speed but can be controlled from the ground. They are 20 feet wide in the center and are partially rocket propelled on the take off. People are not seeing things. Such flying discs actually are in experimental existence." Experiments with these "discs" were reported as being in progress at Muroc Dry Lake, Calif.; White Sands, N.M.; Portland, Oreg., and other places. Dr. Harold Urey, atom scientist at the University of Chicago, commented: "Transmutation of atomic energy sounds like gibberish. You can transmute metals, not energy." Col. F. J. Clarke, in command of the Hanford Engineering works of the atomic energy project, said he knew of no experiments involving "flying saucers." "I have been waiting several days for someone to get the idea the so-called flying saucers were tied up in some way with what we are doing," Clarke said. "But as far as I know, there is no connection." The "piece" found in Ohio was discovered near Circleville. It was a six-pointed star covered with tinfoil and attached to part of a balloon. It was reported to be a device used by the Army air forces in radar research to check on high wind speeds. There was no comment from the air forces. A War Department spokesman revealed Army intelligence has [been] working for a year on [the] ports of strange objects seen in the sky and had reached the conclusion that some sort of meteorites were responsible. Astronomers at the Naval observatory and Georgetown university, who admitted they have been on the alert for flying saucers as they swept the skies with their powerful telescopes, insisted they not only had not seen any but knew of no astronomical theory that might account for the reports. Kenneth Arnold, the private pilot who was first to announce seeing the saucers, expressed gratification at the support he was getting but insisted he still didn't believe he had seen nine discs whizzing by at 1,200 miles an hour, although he had seen them. Arnold started yesterday on a flying fishing trip over the Pacific northwest armed with a new camera in the hope of getting pictures if he encountered any more saucers. He took along Col. Paul W. Weiland, World War II artillery officer, just in case he sees some more and needs a witness. Arnold announced he has been getting tons of letters commenting on his report of the saucers. Many of them predict they are the forerunners of an atom bomb attack. One correspondent blamed them on survivors of the lost continent of Atlantis who are preparing for an atomic war in 1960. Army, Navy and civil aeronautics officials agreed none of the[y] had any reliable information about the discs and would refrain from commenting until they saw one, or at least a picture. JUL 6 1947 WASHINGTON TIMES-HERALD Page 1 & 8 Sec. I
Mr. Tolson____ Mr. E. A. Tamm____ Mr. Clegg____ Mr. Glavin____ Mr. Ladd____ Mr. Nichols____ Mr. Carson____ Mr. Egan____ Mr. Gurnea____ Mr. Harbo____ Mr. Hendon____ Mr. Jones____ Mr. Pennington____ Mr. Quinn Tamm____ Mr. Nease____ Miss Gandy____ Atom Experiments or Bunk? Delusions or Factual, Those Flying Saucers Have Nation Eyeing Skies; 5 Seen in D.C. Area "And there shall be signs in the heavens. And wise men will mock them and the learned revile, but unto the chosen the signs shall be revealed and they will have wisdom and knowledge."—Ancient prophecy. By JAMES COLLIGAN The words of the prophecy were being fulfilled last night in Washington and throughout the nation as thousands of official and scientific observers and just ordinary people searched the skies for flying saucers—and plenty of watchers were seeing them, including five in the Washington area. Scientists, for the most part dismissed the "saucers" as optical illusions, figments of the imagination or "someone having a little fun," but the reports continued to pour in. By now they have been seen in every part of the country, from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico and from the Pacific to the Atlantic. The reports grew in "authenticity" with their increase in volume. A farmer in Ohio came u[p] with a piece of one, a "scientist in nuclear physics (Turn to Page 8, Col. 1) Flying Saucers Intrigue Nation; Five Seen Here (Continued from First Page) threw out hints of mysterious atomic energy experiments, another observer claimed to have a picture to back up what he saw. Louis E. Starr, national commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, announced he expected an "explanation from Washington" within a matter of hours. He hinted to newsmen at Columbus, Ohio, that the Government is holding out on the public about the "saucers," and commented: "Too little is being told the people of this country." Stationary at Alexandria A mother and daughter in Northeast Washington reported yesterday they saw three huge things hurtling through the sky last Thursday but were afraid to say anything for fear of what might be said about them. Even yesterday they asked that their names be withheld. The "things," according to these observers, looked like dishes and made a noise like jet-propelled planes. They were traveling so fast they disappeared an instant after they were observed. Mrs. Martin Kole, 3200 block Valley Dr., Alexandria, called her local police station to ask about the round, flat bright light she I.N.P. Photo by U.S. Coast Guard Is It Saucer, Sorcery, or Just Plain Sausage? Reports of "flying saucers" were laughed off by authorities until many witnesses, including reliable pilots and servicemen, said they had seen the plate-like objects whizzing overhead. Above is the picture Yeoman Frank Kyman, 27, took in the Seattle twilight when he observed what seemed to him to be a flying saucer 10,000 feet high traveling at 500 miles per hour. 134 [handwritten: Ed?] [handwritten signatures] RECORDED 162-83894-A EX-31 1 [ILLEGIBLE] JUL 6 1947 WASHINGTON TIMES-HERALD Page 1 & 8 Sec. I
Mr. [N]elson______ Mr. E. A. Tamm_ Mr. Clegg______ Mr. Glavin______ Mr. Ladd______ Mr. Nichols______ Mr. Rosen______ Mr. Tracy______ Mr. Carson______ Mr. Egan______ Mr. Gurnea______ Mr. Harbo______ Mr. Hendon______ Mr. Jones______ Mr. Pennington______ Mr. Quinn Tamm______ Mr. Nease______ Miss Gandy______ Hundreds in 31 States Report Seeing Weird 'Flying Saucers' By the Associated Press The Nation was baffled today by "flying saucers" reported seen in 31 States by hundreds of persons, and conjectures came from scores of named and unnamed sources throughout the country. Official Government sources took a "Let's see one" stand on the phenomenon, and no scientist offered a detailed explanation. Two Chicago astronomers said the [objects] are probably "man-made," [the] undulating, flashing objects [c]ouldn't be meteors," said Dr. [G]irard Kieuper, director of the University of Chicago's Yerkes Observatory at Williams Bay, Wis. "We realize," said Dr. Oliver Lee, [d]irector of Northwestern University's Dearborn Observatory, "that the Army and Navy are working on all sorts of things we know nothing about." Dr. Lee said the discs might represent the same sort of thing as send- ing radar signals to the moon, "one of the greatest technological achievements of the war and accomplished in absolute secrecy." David Lilienthal, chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, told the Denver Post in a brief telephone interview that the flying saucers were in no way connected with experiments in atomic energy, the transmutation of metals, or similar research. Col. F. J. Clark, commanding officer of the Hanford Engineering Works in the Pacific Northwest where the largest saucer influx has been reported, said the saucers were not coming from the atomic plant there. Credence in the saucers—widely laughed off at their first reported appearance June 25—grew as hundreds of observers, many of them trained flyers, reported seeing them. A crowd of 200 observed a disc at (See DISCS, Page A-9.) of Charleston, S. C.—one of them a newspaper reporter—said a flying saucer passed over Charleston heading east at 7:20 p.m. Saturday at about the same time two men in Albany, Oreg., saw a single disc lash southward, halt, and retrace its course before vanishing into a cloud. An Army Air Forces spokesman in Washington on July 3 said there was not enough fact to "warrant further investigation," but the Air Materiel Command at Wright Field, Dayton, Ohio, said it was making a study. Saturday at Washington an Army researcher admitted "we're mystified" and the Navy said it had no theories. First Reported June 25. The first published report of "flying saucers" came from Kenneth Arnold, Boise, Idaho businessman-pilot, who reported at Pendleton, Oreg., on June 25 that he had seen nine of them flying at 1,200 miles an hour in formation, shifting position "like the tail of a kite" over Washington State's Cascade Mountains. Before scoffers had more than begun to offer explanations such as "reflections," "persistent vision" and "snow blindness," an Oklahoma City private flyer, Byron Savage, said he had seen a similarly shaped object some weeks earlier but fear of ridicule kept him quiet. Then the reports began to filter in, mostly from individuals. The discs were seen in Texas, in New Mexico, in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Missouri, Colorado, California, Arizona and Nebraska. The number varied from one to a dozen, seen mostly by one or two people. Discs (Continued From First Page.) H[a]user Lake, Idaho, on the Fourth of July. A group of 60 picnickers saw them at Twin Falls, Idaho. And in Portland, Oreg., so many residents witnessed them on the Fourth that the police department sent out an all-cars broadcast. A United Air Lines pilot of 14 years experience walked up the ramp to his plane at Boise, joking that "I believe in these discs when I see them." Ten minutes later he radioed, shaken, that he had spotted five of them from his plane. He was Capt. A. J. Smith. His co-pilot, Ralph Stevens, and his stewardess, Miss Marty Monro, told the same story. Witnesses in two points of California and in Spokane—one of them an Army Air Forces sergeant—reported seeing the discs Saturday. Two persons in different sections round or oval in shape, flat and flying with a peculiar undulating motion. Size was moot and expressed by Capt. Smith of United Air Lines as "hard to judge" without knowing the distance from the observer to the objects. 2 D. C. Area Residents Say They Saw 'Flying Saucers' Two Washington area residents today were on record as having observed the mysterious "flying saucers" hereabouts. A Bethesda (Md.) man was reported to have seen three or four of these objects at midnight Friday, while in the vicinity of Friendship Heights, Md. They were described as being rapid, bluish and bright, traveling northward. Mrs. Martin Kole, 3203 Valley drive, Alexandria housewife, said early Friday she saw a large round object floating in the southwest sky. She declared a light shining in her face awakened her about [1] a.m. She went to the window and saw something round and large with [?] [twinkling] tings. It seemed to be standing still. After looking at it a few minutes, Mrs. Kole said she returned to bed. RECORDED EX-31[?] 31 JUL 31 1947 164 62-83894-A F B I JUL 6 1947 WASHINGTON STAR Page A-1 & A-9 [signature]
Mr. Tolson______ [Cal] Mr. E. A. Tamm_ Mr. Clegg______ Mr. Glavin______ Mr. La[dd]______ Mr. Nichols______ Mr. Rosen______ Mr. Tracy______ Mr. Carson______ Mr. Egan______ Mr. Gurnea______ Mr. Harbo______ Mr. Hendon______ Mr. Jones______ Mr. Pennington______ Mr. Quinn Tamm_ Mr. Nease______ Miss Gandy______ [handwritten initials/signatures] 'Flying Saucers' Reported Seen By Scores of 'Eyewitnesses' By the Associated Press The "flying saucer" mystery reached fever pitch today, after "I saw them myself" statements from a veteran United Air Lines crew, scores of Portland (Oreg.) residents, and 60 picnickers at Twin Falls Park in Idaho. The UAL pilot, copilot and stewardess, who had scoffed consistently at "flying saucer" tales, said they saw such objects last night while flying a passenger plane from Boise, Idaho, to Portland. Their statements followed a day during which the "saucers" were reported seen in many parts of the Nation. Many Portlanders—including police, experienced flyers and three newspapermen—declared they saw silvery discs over Portland. In New Orleans, Miss Lillian Lawless said she saw an object, shining like silver or chromium, flying at a great height and at a terrific speed in a northeasterly direction over Lake Pontchartrain. "Pancake Standing on End." Describing what they saw as flat, translucent plates 12 to 15 inches in diameter, several Port Huron (Mich.) residents reported seeing the "saucers." Capt. E. J. Smith, Seattle, a veteran of 14 years with United Air Lines, said he observed the round flat objects—"like a pancake standing on end"—for about 12 minutes while flying from Emmett Idaho, to a point southeast of Ontario, Ore. He radioed the Ontario airport but airport officials saw nothing. Sixty persons picnicking at Twin Falls Park, near Twin Falls, Idaho, said they saw the discs yesterday afternoon. A party of seven first saw some and 10 minutes later, a crowd of 20 or 30 people saw another batch of nine or ten. Word passed around, and soon the waiting crowd saw another batch circling and climbing. At Seattle, Frank Ryman, Coast Guard yeoman, said he took a picture of what some residents north of Seattle thought was a flying disc. The photograph showed a pinhead-size light spot against the dark evening sky. The Oregonian dispatched a plane to hunt Portland's saucers. It found nothing but empty sky. Strange Craft Over Philadelphia. In Philadelphia, Dr. M. K. Leisy, a junior interne at the Pennsylvania Hospital for Mental Diseases, and other persons in the western section of the city, reported seeing strange craft in the skies last night. It was something round with a luminous halo about it, Dr. Leisy declared. It was not shiny, but dark in color and seemed to be propelled by whirling wings. Dr. Leisy said the object he saw was moving at approximately the speed of the wind, below the clouds. It eventually vanished in the clouds, he added. A dispatch from Summerside, Cana. said farmers in the Prince Edward Island region claim to have seen more of the mysterious disc-like missiles reported flying through northern skies earlier this week. James Harris, farmer at Sherbrooke, 1 mile north of here, and his hired man, Herman Linkletter, said they saw one of the objects last night traveling from the northwest toward the southeast. 62-83894-A RECORDED F B I EX-34[?] 41 JUL 28 1947 [stamp] AUG 4 1947 JUL 5 1947 WASHINGTON STAR Page A-7 [signature]
of flying Discs [handwritten at top] Mr. Tolson______ Mr. E. A. Tamm_ Mr. Clegg______ Mr. Glavin______ Mr. Ladd______ Mr. Nichols______ Mr. Rosen______ Mr. Tracy______ Mr. Carson______ Mr. Egan______ Mr. Gurnea______ Mr. Harbo______ Mr. Hendon______ Mr. Pennington______ Mr. Quinn Tamm_ Mr. Nease______ Miss Gandy______ Saucers Here, Saucers There— Including Washington As rumors persisted (and were denied) that the "flying saucers" are radio controlled rocket or jet planes being tested secretly, Washington got in the act today with a report from two District women of strange goings-on overhead. Meanwhile, assorted scientists came up with widely varying theories as to what—if anything—the heavenly wanderers may be. Dr. John G. Lynn, human behavior expert of Valhalla, N. Y., said people have the atomic jitters. Navy Observatory astronomers here said that so far as they can judge from description, the objects are not astronomical phenomena. Another astronomer—civilian— opined that people "are seeing spots before their eyes." But unnamed scientists quoted by Science Service expressed doubt that a purely optical illusion would make people think they were seeing flying disks. Science Service also pointed out that some of the saucers have been reported by "reliable observers accustomed to looking at the sky." 'There Were Three— Shaped Like Dishes' MINNESOTA-AV NE, July 5.—Scientists from many Washington's top-drawer institutions are expected to flock to this street today after the first authenticated report of flying saucers within the city limits of Washington was made by two startled matrons. The ladies spotted the things night before last, but were understandably reluctant to report it at once. "I know what you'll think," the younger one said in an exclusive interview with The News, "but mother saw them, too, and she doesn't drink. "We were shopping on Minnesota-ave ne at about 7 Thursday night," she said, "when I heard a noise like a jet-propelled plane. I looked up and saw these things going thru the air. There were three of them, shaped like dishes and going fast as a jet plane. They were bright golden in color, but that may have been from th sun being reflected from some bright metal objects. "I couldn't estimate the size of the things, but they seemed to be fairly far away. I looked away for an instant to tell mother to look at the things." The witness' mother looked up and also saw the "dishes," then they swished over the horiz[on] and disappeared. The two women asked [that their] names be withheld from publication, lest skeptical neighbors p[o]ke fun at them. RECORDED [stamp] 31 JUL 31 1947 164 [?]62-83894 A F B I 41 JUL 22 1947 JUL 5 1947 WASHINGTON NEWS Page 5 [signature]
'Neither Airplane, Nor Cloud, Nor Balloon' By United Press Coast Guardsman Frank Ryman, 27, had a picture today snapped from the front porch of his home near Seattle which authorities hoped would clear up the mystery of the flying saucers. (It didn't.) He said what he saw was neither an airplane, a cloud nor a "silver balloon." The pilot and co-pilot of a United Airlines plane said they turned their craft off its c o u r s e near Boise, Idaho, and c h a s e d a "strange object" for 15 miles before it outdistanced them or disintegrated in the dusk. Capt. R. E. Smith and Second Officer R. H. Stevens, both of Seattle, said "we can definitely say that what we saw was not smoke, not a cloud, and not another airplane." A similar object was seen by John Corlett, United Press staff correspondent, his wife, and two friends from Mr. Corlett's back yard in Boise. He said it was a white disc flying about 10,000 feet directly overhead. It disappeared in three or four seconds. Two Portland, Ore., police scout cars three miles apart notified headquarters at 1:15 p. m. yesterday that they had sighted a group of strange objects weaving in a "playful manner" 10,000 feet above the ground over the southern suburbs of Portland. Clark County (Wash.) Deputy Sheriff Fred Krives, across the Columbia from Portland, said he saw 20 flying discs "slewing off to one side, almost in single file" over the county court house. T. L. Huckaby of Pine Bluff, Ark., said he saw a flying object "about the size and color of a Bluff area. Decatur, Ill., and Salt Lake City also reported in today. At Philadelphia, Dr. M. K. Leisy of the Pennsylvania Hospital for Mental Diseases, said he saw a big dark saucer-like object move slowly across the sky just before sunset yesterday. He said it was surrounded by a luminous halo and appeared to be propelled by whirling jets. JUL 5 1947 WASHINGTON NEWS PAGE 5