Cas 230-236: 4 juillet, Portland (Oregon)
The first report of disc-like objects seen over the city came at about 1:00 p.m. PST when Jon Metcalfe, employed at
Oaks Amusement Park, said he saw them over the Park and reported the sighting to Park superintendent William LeRoy,
who then notified police headquarters.
At approximately the same time, Patrolman Kenneth A. McDowell, feeding the pigeons in the parking lot behind
Precinct House No. 1, said that he noticed the pigeons "become quite excited over something." Looking up, he saw 5
large, disc-shaped objects dipping up and down in an oscillating fashion. They disappeared quickly, at great speed,
two going south and the remaining three going east. McDowell hurried into the station to report what he'd seen (Case
231). At 1:05 p.m. Dick Haller, Police Radio Officer at headquarters, sent out an all-car alert to all patrolmen to
report any aerial objects seen over Portland. The response was almost immediate.
Across the Columbia River, at Vancouver, Washington, Clark County Sheriff's Deputies Fred Krives, Clarence McKay,
and John Sullivan, having heard the alert, went outside to check. They reported seeing 20 to 30 disc-like objects
streaking over toward the southwest, directly above the Court House. They were "dark, not flashy
," and were
reported to have looked like "a bunch of geese
." They were flying in a single line, Krives said, "strung
out in what appeared to be evenly-spaced intervals
." The objects were breaking formation as they flew
southward, "peeling off to the side
" over Portland, about three to five miles away, deploying to the south
and west. The witnesses described hearing a "low humming sound
," or "drone," as the objects flew over (Case
232).
Dr. McDonald interviewed Krives by phone and learned the following: Clarence McKay (now Sheriff of Clark County)
had not been one of the original witnesses, but seven or eight deputies had been present, including Sullivan, Joe
Kurth, Bill Giles, and a deputy named MacKeag. The objects were seen to the southwest, over the Court House, at an
angular elevation of about 30 to 35 degrees. The objects, about 20 in all, were receding from them, going southwest.
They were in several groups, the first of which had about seven objects in it. The tail end of the formation split
off the main line and formed a separate line, rising above the others. They were round and disc-shaped, and
estimated to be about 1,000 feet high. Their speed was about that of conventional aircraft. He was emphatic in
saying these objects could not have been regular aircraft, however.
Almost simultaneously, sightings were made by Harbor Patrolmen at the Irving Street headquarters in Portland.
Captain K. A. Prehn, Pilot A. T. Austad, and Patrolman K. C. Hoff said they saw three to 6 disc-like objects,
resembling "chromium hub-caps, shining and flashing in the sun
," going south at an estimated altitude of 10
000 feet. They appeared to wobble and oscillate as they flew, "turning and weaving
," so that at times a full
disc was seen, and at others only a "crescent," making it difficult to be certain how many there were. They were
flying at "terrific speeds
" (Case 233).
Dr. McDonald spoke with Prehn by phone and the news account checked out. Prehn was in his office when one of the
harbor pilots called him out. He recalled the afternoon as being clear with a bright sun. He saw three objects, like
hubcaps face-to-face. They were headed south, and seen to the east, sailing along about the "speed of an
aircraft.
" They were close enough to see their shape distinctly; their outlines were sharp, not hazy, and they
looked silvery, metallic. The other two men were Pilot Austad and Patrolman Kent Hoff. None of them were ever
interviewed by the Air Force. Prehn had gone inside to get a pair of binoculars and when he got back, the objects
were gone. He is now retired.
Responding to the all-car alert, according to the Portland newspaper accounts, were Patrolmen Walter A. Lissy and
Robert Ellis, in Car 82, near Oaks Amusement Park. Both were veterans, and Lissy was a private pilot. They described
seeing "three flat, round discs flying at terrific speed in a straight-line formation
" to the south. The last
disc "fluttered rapidly to the side in an arc.
" The objects appeared white against the clear blue sky, with
occasional "flashes," and were estimated to be at 40,000 feet. The 2 witnesses heard no sound, and saw no vapor
trails nor any apparent means of propulsion (Case 234).
Dr. McDonald was able to interview Walter Lissy by telephone and learned there were several substantial errors in
the original news account. Robert Ellis was not the second witness; Lissy was with Officer Andrew Fox at the time of
the sighting. During press interviews later, Ellis had stepped in for the purposes of photographs when one of the
other witnesses was not present, which accounted for the error. It was Lissy's recollection that they had seen six
or seven objects, rather than three, as reported in the press. He and Fox heard the alert and saw them high in the
sky, near the zenith, somewhat west of south. They were zigzagging and making sharp angle turns. As a pilot, Lissy
said he knew these turns were too sharp for any aircraft. He confirmed their position near Oaks Amusement Park.
Another patrolman reporting to headquarters was Patrolman Earl Patterson, in Car 13, who was approximately three
miles from Lissy, in the southern suburbs at Southeast 82nd Avenue and Foster Road. He said he had seen a single
disc come out of the west, going at "terrific speed" at an estimated 30,000 feet. The disc was aluminum-colored, or
"egg-shell white
," and did not appear to reflect the sunlight. It passed under the sun and, without
decelerating, made an abrupt 90-degree turn "with no difficulty
" and proceeded toward the southwest. Because
of its strange behavior, Patterson, a former Army Air Corps pilot, was of the opinion that the object could not have
been a plane (Case 235).
Dr. McDonald spoke with Patterson by phone about the sighting. He was alone in his patrol car at the time, at
Foster Road near 80th. He saw only a single object, as reported, but it did not make any "90-degree turn," as
stated. He said it traveled across the sky from northeast to southwest in an arc at rapid speed. He said it was
aluminum-colored -- not "egg-shell white" -- and it did reflect the sunlight, "like an aluminum plane." It appeared
to be extremely high but he said it was difficult to tell its height. There was no sound, no vapor trails. He told
McDonald that its speed was what had impressed him most.
At about the same time the rest of these observations were being made, Sergeant Claude Cross of the Oregon State
Police Department said that he "plainly saw" two or three objects from his headquarters at 9200 S.E. McLoughlin
Blvd., in Milwaukee, due south of Portland. They were seen to the east at an "undetermined height" and were
following each other in a northeasterly direction at a "terrific speed." He said they looked like "toy balloons,
almost pure white, and (they) traveled sideways with no flashing." Dr. McDonald did not interview this witness (Case
236).
Meanwhile, scores of residents called the newspapers and police stations reporting similar objects (see II-9 and
II-18). In the Air Force files, these sightings are explained as "chaff" - strips of aluminum foil used for
radar interference. While a flight of B-29 bombers, followed by a flight of P-80 fighters, had crossed over the city
a short time before the sightings, there is only one reference in the press that would even remotely suggest that
something resembling chaff had been discharged over the city: Burl Nolisch, 64, of 6604 N. Burrage Street, claimed
he saw a plane fly over at 1:00 p.m. and said he saw foil or aluminum pieces nearby, swirling along on the wind
currents, appearing as if they had been dropped by the plane. Apart from Case 231, the cases contained in the Air
Force files are derived entirely from the accounts found in the local press the following day -- and many of these
were not accurately recorded. If there was any first-hand information on the July 4 sightings over Portland other
than Patrolman McDowell's report, it was not there when the files were examined for the purposes of this report.
: Ce livre a été reproduit (2005) par Jean Waskiewicz et Francis Ridge avec la permission exclusive de l'auteur et est présenté ici dans sa forme mise à jour en tant que projet en cours. Travaillant en collaboration étroite avec son auteur Ted Bloecher et Jan Aldrich du Projet 1947. Toutes informations ou corrections supplémentaires sont les bienvenues, dans le cadre de cette version mise à jour., 1967