A Very Serious Business

The Muroc Sightings were the pivotal event which activated the United States military into concerted action on the saucer mystery. After that point, as Edward Ruppelt recalls, it was indeed a very serious business. In the middle of this was poised Alfred Loedding.

Dayton started to receive firsthand UFO reports by Wednesday, July 9th. One of these came from Idaho when Boise Evening Statesman writer Dave Johnson, who after three days of trying, finally caught a glimpse of a UFO. Flying out of Go wan Field in an AT-6 from his National Guard unit, he observed at 12:17 P.M. MST a strange looking dark object. Johnson tried to make sense of the weird sight as it became silhouetted against the clouds. The UFO then made a half-roll and entered a stair-step climb. Johnson at first thought it might be a balloon. (Many of the early meteorological balloons were made from neoprene which would turn smoky gray or black in the sunlight) s1The Roswell Report, Fact Versus Fiction in the New Mexico Desert. No apparent balloon launches, however, could account for the incident s2Project Blue Book Files, Roll No. 1, Case 53, listed as Incident 83 in 1947 era documents. Later, Johnson learned that three ground observers at Gowan Field who were National Guard pilots had also reported a similar object s3Bloecher, Ted: Report on the UFO Wave of 1947, p. 111-13. Like Johnson, they too were mystified as to what it was they had seen that day.

Another sighting came in from the 1380th Army Air Force Base in Fort Pepperell, Newfoundland. It related a story near Grand Falls, when a police constable's wife and mother-in-law observed four "egg-shaped phosphorus colored discs." Each disc passed over in a side-by-side formation around 11:30 P.M. ADT. Ten minutes later a similar object, which the constable saw himself, darted across the sky with a "jellyfish-like flash" s4Extract from "Weekly Intelligence Summary, ATC, 16 July 1947," Project Blue Book Files, Roll No. 2.

A report that never reached Dayton, but is of interest came from two men flying over Glacier Park, Montana, at 3:53 P.M. MST. They spotted seven flying saucers heading in a northwesterly direction. The two men, Ed Johnson and Joe Dimio, noted that the craft were only visible for a short period?indicating they traveled at a fairly fast rate s5"Kalispell Pilots Sight 'Flying Saucers,'" Flathead, Montana, Monitor, 10 July 1947, p. 1.

Less than three to five percent of UFO incidents were reported to Air Force Intelligence n1Research conducted by Jan L. Aldrich. For example, another very good sighting that was only documented by the newspapers came at 5:45 P.M. CST from the nationally known News-Press editor, Helen Culver Gettys. She witnessed a flying saucer pass over her car near the St. Joseph (Missouri) Country Club. Mrs. Gettys had just left the club with her mother and Mrs. Charles Culver when a flash in the sky caught her eye. All of the ladies were then quite startled to look up and see one of the famous saucers. As it flew northward at about 1,000 feet, they commented on how the sun reflected off its shiny metal surface. The disc appeared in full view for a matter of seconds, indicating it traversed the area at a high rate of speed. All three women possessed solid reputations and Mrs. Gettys stressed in her own article about the incident that prior to the sighting they had consumed only "one bottle apiece of a local bottler's very soft drink" s6"Saucer Seen by Society Writer Near Country Club," St. Joseph (Missouri) News-Press, 10 July 1947, p. 1.

At 8:00 P.M. CST a Liano, Texas, man, T.A. Smith, reported a disc going southeast. Smith described it as a whirling wash tub throwing off sparks s7Austin, Texas, American, 11 July 1947. Finally, that night a West Virginia man decided to do something about the unsettling wave of saucer sightings. When discs appeared over Johnny Johnson's Bluefield home, he fired upon them with his shotgun! The irate West Virginian failed to do any visible damage to the saucers. But if this account is accurate, the UFOs in this case had to have been flying at a very low altitude in order to come into gun range s8"Learns Shots Can't Ground Flying Discs," Bluefield, West Virginia, Sunset News, 12 July 1947, p. 1. -Vi.

Thursday 10 July

Saucer sightings were reported by newspapers on the following morning from Ontario, Canada; Westminster, Colorado; Douglas, Arizona; Burien and Seattle, Washington; and Niwot and Aurora, Colorado s9Denver, Colorado, Rocky Mountain News, 10 July 1947; and Seattle, Washington, Post-Intelligencer, 11 July 1947. That afternoon George Dey and Roy Wilson reported to newsmen that they had seen at 1:20 P.M. MST, seven "flying saucers" over the Joel Hart ranch west of Buhl, Idaho. They said at first the objects were shiny and flying in formation, but then they broke up and sped out of sight s10Buhl, Idaho, Herald, 17 July 1947. At 4:30 P.M. EST a Logan, West Virginia, man, George Vance, observed a "round-shaped object with a sort of a turtle back" glistening intensely as it flew in a straight line s11Logan, West Virginia, Banner, 11 July 1947.

As the sightings continued one of the top US astronomers from the Department of Meteoritics at the University of New Mexico, Dr. Lincoln La Paz, his wife, and two teenaged daughters, reported seeing an elliptical object very high among the clouds. The incident occurred at 4:47 P.M. MST while they were driving from Clovis to Clines Corner, New Mexico.

La Paz estimated, with the aid of a pencil held at arm's length, that the object was 20 to 30 miles from his position, ellipsoidal and rigid, 160 feet long and 65 feet thick, traveling 120 to 180 miles per hour horizontally and 600 to 900 miles per hour vertically. It appeared silent and "self-luminous" against the dark clouds with a sort of "wobbling motion" and no exhaust or vapor trail could be observed. The object had "a sharp and firm regular outline, namely one of a smooth elliptical character much harder and sharper than the edges of the clouds." It remained in view for at least 30 seconds and " then ascended upward and disappeared for five seconds behind a cloud until it **"' reappeared at a two degree elevation and about a five degree elevation north of true west. Finally, it vanished into the clouds for good. La Paz stated that , the ascent he saw the object make "thoroughly convinced me that we were dealing with an absolutely novel airborne device" s12H.B. Darrach, Jr. and Bob Ginna, "Have We Visitors From Space?" Life, 7 April 1952, p. 83.

There is a possibility this sighting could have represented a balloon. Large polyethylene envelopes were just then coming into use for research balloons and could easily reflect the sun's rays, yet would never travel that fast if his calculations were correct s13The Roswell Report, Fact Versus Fiction in the New Mexico Desert. Despite this, interest in the sighting continued for many years. The case was first made public by Life magazine in 1952 but withheld La Paz's name. The sighting was examined by the Air Force and a file compiled, but all evidence of the paperwork was removed before release of UFO files to the National Archive's in late 1975. Today the case is not even listed in the Blue Book Index which is now also a part of the National Archives' collection.

More sightings came from the West that day. In Cheyenne, Wyoming, two silver discs shaped like saucers with a dome on top slowly passed over in a clear sky s14Skylook #27, February 1970, MUFON. In Temple, Texas, a former Army Air Corps colonel, Smith Tarrant, observed two flying "discs" from the door of a local welding shop. He estimated they were at 1,500 feet, flying against the wind, heading along a straight course at about 200 to 250 miles per hour. They headed out of sight over the course of three minutes to the south with no indication of sound or smoke or means of propulsion s15Waco, Texas, Times Herald, 15 July 1947, p. 1.

That same day numerous individuals observed discs fly through the skies of Missouri, although few of these sightings sound like balloons either.

It all began with 60 eyewitnesses at an ice cream social on the John Cox farm six miles northeast of Mercer. They witnessed groups of saucers in twos and threes pass over north to south. Some did fly by themselves, but most were in formation.

A mile south of Princeton, Missouri, (fourteen miles south of Mercer) those same flights of discs were observed by Mr. and Mrs. Dykes and Mr. and Mrs. J.W. Buren and their families while driving down US Highway 65. The sight so startled them that they pulled off the road only to be joined by other motorists. Among those were Mr. and Mrs. W.S. Thompson with their friend, J.M. Beets. Other observers included Mr. and Mrs. Rit Thompson and Mr. and Mrs. W.H. Nell. All gave a similar account to the one that happened at the Cox farm, stating that the saucers came over singularly and in groups for almost a half hour. In fact, on a farm one mile east of Princeton, Mr. and Mrs. Parvin Woodward and their guest, Perry Coon, confirmed this same "saucer show" s16"Saucers Put on Show at Princeton," St. Joseph (Missouri) News-Press, 1 1 July 1947, p. 1.

At 7:00 P.M. MST near Brockton, Montana, Ray Carpenter and his wife observed a shiny object illuminated against a dark cloud bank. A former manager of the Wolf Point airport, Carpenter judged it to be about the same size as a private aircraft traveling very quickly s17Wolf Point, Montana, Herald-News, 17 July 1947, p. 1. Then at 8:00 P.M. a pilot for the Lee Geophysical Company, saw a shiny craft zooming southward near Tulsa, Oklahoma s18Tulsa, Oklahoma, DailyWorld, 11 July 1947. At that same time another Tulsa man, J.C. Penman, reported seeing a "circular fluorescent lamp" move in a northeasterly direction. Penman was a former Army Air Force crew chief and had never seen anything like it before s19Ibid. A half hour later one more disc appeared over a mountainous area northeast of Salt Lake City, Utah. Described as an "aluminum type of thing," it remained in view for two minutes as it moved with a fast but "funny" motion s20Salt Lake City, Utah, Tribune, 1 1 July 1947. Then in Indianapolis, Indiana, Mrs. Bernie Hollingsworth had a sighting at 9:30 P.M. CST. She described a "flying saucer" pass near her home headed east, stating that it looked like a "shining piece of oblong steel" s21"Flying Saucer Is Back Again-Or Something," The Indianapolis (Indiana) Star, 11 July 1947, p. 19. By 11:55 P.M. EST a flying saucer was seen southeast of Dover, Delaware. Mrs. Hilda Dinsmore characterized the object she saw as a round dull colored object "sailing across the sky" s22Dover, Delaware, Index, 13 July 1947.

Another report came from Newfoundland on the 10th from two Pan-American Airways mechanics near Harmon Field, AAFB, Stephenville Cross. At 5:30 P.M. ADT they (and a third man) were driving up a mountain road six miles south-southwest of the base when all three of them, J.N. Mehrman, A.R. Leidy, and I.E. Woodruff, observed a silver circular disc at about 10,000 feet. It passed in horizontal flight along a great curved course. The disc's size, they stated, approximated the wingspan of a C-54 transport aircraft and looked to be cutting a bluish-black trail about fifteen miles long as it literally parted a path through the clouds over Harmon.

The trail passed over the base and out toward the north-northeast?being compared to the afterglow of a powerful searchlight when suddenly switched off. Weather records confirmed scattered clouds between 8,000 to 10,000 feet which supported the original altitude estimate.

Known as the Harmon Field Case, this incident received the first intensive investigation by Army Air Force Intelligence. The sighting became especially relevant to Intelligence officials both at Wright Field and the Pentagon because of the concern of a Soviet connection to the saucer mystery. The reasoning basically followed the assumption that if the USSR was flying spy flights over the United States, the missions would logically have to pass over some area of Canada or the far north. For that reason the sighting just twelve hours earlier in Newfoundland coupled with this one, and a disc report out of Alaska the very next day, stirred up a lot of excitement s24Gross: UFOs: A History, "1947", pp. 44-45; and Project Blue Book Files, Roll No. 2, Case 63, listed as Incident 41 in 1947 era documents.

The initial report was filed by base intelligence officers on the 16th, but by the 21st a more detailed report was forwarded to the Pentagon. General Schulgen then ordered intelligence at Wright Field in Dayton to send a top-level assessment team to Harmon Field "immediately" s25Michael D. Swords, "Project Sign and The Estimate of the Situation." first draft of unpublished article written for 1998 issue of Journal Of UFO Studies.

The T-2 chief, Colonel Howard M. McCoy, dispatched a team by the 30th that may have included T-3 (engineer section) specialist Alfred Loedding. McCoy's team was also asked by Schulgen to report directly to the Pentagon following their investigation. Interestingly, at that time, Schulgen also asked McCoy what the T-2 analysis and the T-3 engineering sections had "prepared" to date on the disc phenomenon. McCoy's notes do not tell us if Analysis Division Chief Colonel William R. Clingerman had any answers or if the T-3 section at Wright Labs had compiled any analysis. McCoy himself was working on the German/Soviet technology angle. He, in fact, had even interviewed the famous successor to Count Zeppelin's dirigible empire, Hugo Eckener. Eckener was then in America consulting with the Goodyear company to try to revive the era of the great airships following WWII s26Ibid.

The T-2 investigation of the Harmon Field Case really shook up their own aeronautical engineers in the T-3 section. Part of the report had the ring of Alfred Loedding's expertise and read as follows:

The bluish-black trail seems to indicate ordinary combustion from a turbo-jet engine, athodyd motor, or some combination of these types of power plants. The absence of noise and apparent dissolving of the clouds to form a clear path indicates a relatively large mass flow of a rectangular cross section containing a considerable amount of heat s27Project Blue Book Files, Roll No. 2, Case 60, listed as Incident 27a in 1947 era documents.

The T-2 team excluded a meteor or fireball scenario in their own minds despite the fact that an astronomical event became the official conclusion on the case file. Behind the scenes, T-2 and Washington were still focused on a Soviet connection. Wright Field investigators spoke with the commander of Harmon Field and others to make sure that no British or Canadian aircraft had been in the area at the time. And since they knew no American aircraft were to blame, they privately concluded something of "foreign origin" made that curious split in the clouds over Newfoundland.

Although, by 1948, "foreign origin" would become a catch word in Dayton to refer to extraterrestrial space craft, these men where only talking about a Russian threat at that time. Their concern grew, In fact, because Newfoundland seemed to be especially attractive to the discs. Early the next morning at 2:20 A.M. Codroy residents reported seeing a "flying saucer" with a cone-shaped tail. Two men saw the object when they were standing outside a local store and had their attention drawn to the sky by a very bright disc streaking across with a yellowish cone-shaped after-glow. They described it as a luminous object traveling at great speed from the northwest and heading east at about 6,000 feet s28"Statement of Mr. ___, Codroy, Newfoundland," Project Blue Book Files, Roll No. 2, Case 60, listed as Incident 27b in 1947 era documents. Both men felt certain they could not have mistaken it for a plane or falling star. A third man then saw the same aerial phenomenon. He had served in the civilian Air Detection Corps during the war and possessed great experience with identifying aircraft. He also became convinced the disc was "not a plane, but definitely some flying object" s29"Army Air Force Intelligence Report," Project Blue Book Files, Roll No. 2. Overseas in Norway, European papers were talking about "flying saucers":

A "flying saucer" was observed Thursday evening near Skotfoss. At about 19:30 my wife told me that she had seen an object in the sky, says one of the three persons who observed "the saucer." It moved in between the clouds at an undetermined altitude, blinking like a star or like a mirror when the sun is reflected in it. As it entered the shadow it became dark and round or oval. It is completely out of the question that it was an airplane. There was no sound from the saucer, which was about the size of an airplane. The object was in view for four minutes and then disappeared towards the southeast s30Smalands, Norway, Dagblad, 11 July 1947.

Before the day was out discs were also seen in Amsterdam, and Leyden, Netherlands; Birmingham, England; Santiago, Chile; Kagoshima Bay, Japan; and then back in North America over New York, California, and Ripley, Ontario s31The New York Times, 11,12 July 1947, pp. 1,2; and Leyden (Holland) Naval Radio Service, 10 July 1947.

Friday 11 July

UFO activity started early in the morning of the llth at 2:30 A.M. MST when Mrs. Anna Potts of Yuma, Arizona, rose from bed frustrated by her barking dog. She got up and went outside to quiet him when suddenly, and to her great amazement, she saw a disc-shaped object go over at high speed with a spinning or rotating motion. The craft passed without a sound in a matter of just five seconds. This suggested that the craft must have been at a relatively low altitude as it became lost from view after crossing the tops of nearby homes. Mrs. Potts reported the event to the Daily Sun, absolutely convinced she had seen a flying saucer s32"Yuman Says She Saw Saucer Friday," The Yuma Sun & Arizona Sentinel, 12 July 1947, p. 3. Perhaps the same object flashed in front of Mr. Ernest Tiffany's bedroom window one hour later in Tulsa, Oklahoma s33Tulsa, Oklahoma, Daily World, 12 July 1947.

In Longview, Washington, at 6:30 P.M. PST two groups of a dozen or more shiny objects were observed flying with bright flashes as they turned and caught the sun's reflection s34McMinnville, Oregon, Telephone Register, 24 July 1947. By 7:20 P.M. EST a report came out of High Point, North Carolina, when pilots flying at 1,000 feet saw a "ball of fire." It appeared as a huge object, round on top with a black band through the center. "The bottom part of the object was revolving, and periodically bursts of fire came from underneath, as if some sort of exhaust" s35Associated Press report, 12 July 1947.

Later that day around 10:00 A.M. GMT while ferrying a Viking transport aircraft to Argentina, Captain Norman E. Waugh of London's Airwork Ltd. had a very interesting UFO sighting over the Bay of Biscay. Waugh was near 8,000 feet when he spotted ahead, and above him, an elongated oval or "tadpole" shaped craft flying at about 16,000 feet. First Officer Peter Roberts and Radio Officer Stuart Chinneck both agreed with Captain Waugh that the object looked grayish in color and of unusual design. At one point they came within five to six miles of the UFO. It then passed the starboard side of their aircraft at lightning speed, leaving a long vapor trail. During that time the flight crew estimated the object to be traveling about 600 miles per hour at 7,000 feet above their aircraft. Waugh, a former Bomber Command and Transport Command pilot with sixteen years flying experience, and Roberts, a former wartime Squadron Leader, knew no aircraft outside the US proving grounds at Muroc had that kind of performance. They later told reporters that neither of them had seen anything like it before s36"Saucer Flew Past Our Plane," London (England) Times, 12 July 1947; and "Man Who Saw a Flying Saucer," (Buenos Aires) Herald, 22 August 1947.

On that same side of the world during a small country fair, a "flying saucer" appeared over the Irish town of Cahirciveen. It approached from the northwest at about 1,000 feet at great speed and appeared to be revolving as if it were on an invisible axis. The craft had a kind of white halo and passed over without making a sound. Many observers were from outside the area, only being in town for the fair. Three names that were recorded as witnesses were Michael J. O'Sullivan, J. Coffey, and Patrick O'Shea, all from Cahirciveen. The total time of the sighting approximated eleven seconds s37"Flying Saucer Seen in Co. Kerry," (Dublin) Irish Times, 12 July 1947, p. 1.

Then, in Italy at 10:30 P.M. local time, multiple "luminous discs" were seen above Garsenda. They flew from north to south as many local citizens watched the spectacle s38"Flying Saucers Above Garsenda," Milan, Italy, IlNuovo Corriere Delia Sera, 12 July 1947. Interesting, cases also came from South America in Paramaribo, Surinam, on the llth s39Paramaribo, Surinam, De West, 11 July 1947. Yet, unexplainably, after this day widespread UFO activity suddenly slowed. Just like turning off a switch, people stopped seeing a phenomenon that had spanned the world and accounted for hundreds of reports. In comparison to the onslaught of sightings from the 4th to llth, less than two dozen good incidents would be reported during the rest of the year. Did the news media simply stop covering the sightings or did the phenomenon actually change in character?

Only a few UFO reports, for example, can be found for the 12th. One comes from Spring Coulee, Alberta, Canada, but sounds suspiciously like a balloon sighting s40Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Times-Herald, 14 July 1947. Then a man reported a "silver ball" flying with a purring noise over Silver Lake, Washington, at noon s41Longview, Washington, Daily News, 12 July 1947. Again in this case, it could be attributed to an IFO or identified flying object ? very possibly a distant jet.

Five incidents were reported in the American West on the 13th. Three came from Grand Forks, North Dakota, in the afternoon. All describe bright revolving objects traversing the sky. Then at 5:15 P.M. CST a Milwaukee Railroad signal crew in Mussellshell, Montana, observed an irregularly moving round white object s42Montana Record-Tribune, 17 July 1947, p. 1. At 7:00 P.M. PST over Baker Valley, near Wingville, Oregon, a round object flying with a "dipping motion" was seen by many witnesses and several aircraft pilots who tried in vain to pursue it s43Baker, Oregon,Record-Courier, 17 July 1947.

On the 14th two reports came from Idaho only ten minutes apart. The first sighting occurred at 7:20 P.M. MST south of Idaho Falls. In this case a man described seeing a turning and twisting craft fly by on an irregular westward course. Ten minutes later, and to the west, in Nampa, Idaho, a dozen "flying discs" were seen by Mr. and Mrs. O.B. Warnock s44"Nampans Report 12 Flying Discs," Nampa, Idaho, Free-Press, 15 July 1947; and Idaho Falls, Idaho, Commoner, 18 July 1947.

Two unrelated reports came from the 15th, although both describe a strange "fiery object." Distantly separated, however, the first incident occurred in Indonesia and the second in Utah s45Paramaribo, Surinam, De West, ISJuly 1947; and Ogden, Utah, Standard Examiner, 15 July 1947. On the 16th a sketchy report came from South America and one from Rugby, North Dakota. In the latter case, a luminous revolving object was seen at 1:00 A.M. CST only 200 feet off the ground s46Paramaribo, Surinam, De West, 16 July 1947; and Rugby, North Dakota, News, 17 July 1947, p. 1.

Just one account is evident for the 17th, but it is a very unique sighting. In that instance multiple objects appeared at various levels above Helena, Montana, from 2:45 to 3:00 P.M. MST. Although, those accounts do liken them to simple balloon clusters known to be in use at the time by the military s47Helena, Montana, Independent Record, 18 July 1947. On the 18th, however, two very notable daylight disc sightings can be found. They begin with Mr. and Mrs. Roger Morin of Arlee, Montana, who spotted two discs at 10:00 P.M. MST heading west. By 11:30 P.M. CST in Joplin, Missouri, one disc zoomed to the southeast looking like a "silver meat platter" s48Missoula, Montana, Daily Missoulian, 22 July 1947; and Joplin, Missouri, Sunday Globe, 20 July 1947. No reports have surfaced for the 19th and only one for the 20th which occurred in Texas at 10:35 P.M. and very likely describes a rocket test s49Laredo, Texas, Times, 22 July 1947. The 21st has just one sighting in Boise, Idaho, describing a fast moving oval object s50Boise, Idaho, Daily Statesman, 22 July 1947. Only one report is of note for the 22nd. That case involves a sighting of a green fireball above Fort McPherson, Georgia. That is of interest because one year later, green fireball sightings would be a widely reported phenomena above many military bases in the West s51Atlanta, Georgia, Constitution, 22 July 1947. Actually, the next day another green fireball did appear "under the clouds" over Belgium around midnight. It is the only reliable UFO report for the 23rd s52Letter to Loren Gross from Belang van Linburg, 1 August 1954, GESAG Files. On the 24th, nighttime disc sightings came ^ from Arvada, Wyoming, and Wolf Point, Montana s53Sheridan, Wyoming, Press, 27 July 1947; and Wolf Point, Herald-News, 1 August 1947, p. 1. Then on the 25th another evening sighting of a "luminous saucer" once again appeared over Montana near Whitetail s54Daniel, Montana, Scobey County Leader, 31 July 1947, p. 1. That day a saucer sighting came from the other side of the Atlantic. In that case numerous witnesses spotted a flat disc-shaped object travel over Odensala, Sweden, flying at about 400 meters altitude in an easterly direction around 5:00 P.M. s55Stockholm, Sweden, Tidningen, 25 July 1947.

26 July

In Washington D.C. at noon President Truman waited on board the presidential aircraft Sacred Cow to sign some important documents before hurrying back to Missouri and his dying mother. Soon a courier arrived at National Airport carrying what proved to be far reaching legislation. With the signing of the National Security Act of 1947 and Executive Order 9877, the Army, Navy, and now the Air Force were coordinated as one military establishment under a single Secretary of Defense, James Forrestal.

This allowed the Army Air Force to become a separate branch of the armed services under a new name, the United States Air Force, or USAF. Stuart Symington served as the first Secretary of the Air Force. (The three departments were separately presided over by a civilian Secretary, each of which became members of the new National Security Council.) On September 26th General Carl Spaatz became the first Chief of Staff of the new USAF. (Each service's chief of staff would become members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.) General Hoyt Vandenberg then became Vice Chief of Staff on October 1st. Symington, Spaatz, and Vandenberg seldom spoke publicly on UFOs, and what they did say seemed to indicate that the sightings posed no defense concerns. Whether they actually believed that may never be known, but the new Air Force via men like Alfred Loedding is known to have had a very real interest by this date in the curious flying disc reports.

28 July

A sighting very similar to the United Airlines Flight 105 Case occurred on this date on the same run as that noted July 4th incident. Captain Charles F. Gibian and First Officer Jack Harvey of this July 28th Flight 105 trip were preparing for a landing into Boise, Idaho, at 8:34 P.M. MST. As they lost altitude over Mountain Home (45 miles out from Boise), Harvey spotted a strange craft far ahead of their DC-3. Just as Captain Smith described twenty-four days earlier, Harvey characterized the bizarre object as silhouetted against a bright western sky. Captain Gibian then noticed the object and accounted that it appeared to be at 9,000 feet as their aircraft began descending from that same height to 8,000 feet. He described it as weaving as if "it was going through choppy air." Gibian also stated that it was "going like hell when it disappeared" toward the northwest. Both pilots agreed the object to be about the size of their own aircraft and about 40 miles distant. They also felt certain what they saw that day could not have been an aircraft. Each stressed that they had never seen such a thing before and publicly expressed concern that possible military experiments were being carried out in commercial air lanes s56Boise, Idaho, Daily Statesman, 30 July 1947; and Bloecher, Report on the UFO Wave of 1947, p. 111-13-14.

29 July

A sighting at Hamilton Field, California, at the end of July represented one of those few truly exceptional cases that finished out the year. It definitely contributed to Loedding's mounting interest in flying discs and determination to investigate deeper.

Known as the Hamilton Field Incident, it began at 2:50 P.M. PST when Lieutenant Ward L. Stewart in the 415th reserve training unit landed in an AT-6 from a routine training flight and parked his aircraft near hangar s57Documents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, dated September 1947. The Assistant Operations Officer, Captain William H. Ryherd, then called his attention to an odd object flying above the hangar. It headed right over a P-80 jet fighter coming in on a preliminary landing approach at around 6,000 feet.

The P-80 flew in excess of 250 miles per hour as the unknowns proceeded to pass by the jet "as if it was standing still." A second object then appeared, flying a left to right "protective" maneuver over the first craft until they each passed southward toward Oakland and then out over the ocean. Both the captain and the lieutenant agreed the objects were 15 to 25 feet in diameter, shiny white in color, and circular-shaped. The total duration of their sighting lasted about fifteen seconds as the craft sped by in a clear sky. No noise could be detected, but the observers felt they could not fairly judge that they were completely silent because of the background roar of the P-80.

Lieutenant Stewart piloted B-29 bombers during the war and had considerable experience as a flyer. He conveyed authority to Intelligence officers when questioned, stating that the objects were "unlike any conventional type of aircraft he had ever seen." Captain Ryherd also conveyed a highly impressive evaluation of the sighting with an extreme degree of sincerity throughout his testimony s58Project Blue Book Files, Roll No. 2, Case 69, listed as Incident 52 in 1947 era documents. Given the opportunity, investigators should scan some of the Oakland papers to see if any other UFO reports were made in connection with the Hamilton Field Incident. Many cases listed in this book have been discovered in just such a way. Uncovered in newspapers from areas near documented sightings, these secondary sources make it all the more evident something truly amazing took place in 1947.

One other good sighting for the 29th is found in the files of the FBI. It is of interest because it also describes an object not too dissimilar than the two objects seen over Hamilton Field that day. Note the similarities in the report:

At or about 12:05 p.m., July 29, 1947, a sedan, driven by Steve Berrmann and carrying R.J. (Bob) Madden in the front seat and Karl Herman in the rear seat, was proceeding northwesterly along the road leading from Canyon Ferry to York, both in Montana some 25 miles N.E. of Helena.

When at a point approximately 1/4 mile N.W. of Canyon Ferry, (as shown on Forest Service Map to be in the NE1/4 of NE1/4 of Sec. 10 TION R1W) Karl suddenly shouted "See it! See it! There's a flying saucer!" Steve immediately slowed down and gradually brought the sedan to a stop, he and Bob meanwhile scanning the sky i in the direction pointed by Karl in an effort to see the "flying saucer," but without success.

Approximately ten seconds elapsed between the time Karl reported seeing the "saucer," coming over the horizon at high speed from the southwest, (Karl first thought it a meteor) and traveling northeasterly, and the bringing of the car to a stop.

As the car came to a stop, Steve, Karl and Bob, simultaneously, saw the following:

Directly ahead, (N.W.) 2 to 3 miles distant and approximately 3000 ft. above the ground, a bright disc hovering and fluttering in the air. Descending and rising through a vertical distance of fifty or a hundred feet for a period of about five seconds then, while at the top of an ascent, the "disc" suddenly swooped to the Northeast at tremendous speed and disappeared into the clear air within a distance of 200 ft. That is to say it did not pass beyond an obstruction to further visibility but "melted into thin air" as if because of tremendous speed.

This disc was, from the viewpoint of the observers, apparently 3 ft. diameter, circular and of no great thickness ? approximately 3 or 4 inches.

The sky was blue with scattered small clouds, the sun was shining brightly and the disc gleamed and shimmered in the bright sunlight as if covered with highly polished nickel.

After the "disc" disappeared from view, the sedan and its occupants proceeded northwesterly along the road, but could discern no evidence of the presence of the "disc" along or adjacent to that thoroughfare.

It is to be remembered that the dimensions as stated above were as they appeared to the observers some 2 or 3 miles from the "disc" and the true dimensions must be considerably greater. 59

/s/R.J. Madden

R.J. MADDEN
Division Plant Engr.
ThePac.Tel.&Tel.Co.

30 July

Ending out the last UFO report for the phenomenal month of July, this particular account deserves to be quoted in full. Although sightings dramatically fell off by this point, the case is extremely note worthy as evidence that very good encounters did occasionally occur during the rest of the year. The witness involved was returning to his home in Estevan, Saskatchewan, from the Canadian town of Torquay:

A motorist driving close to daybreak with his headlights on was watching storm clouds in the northeast. As he watched, something swept out of the clouds and passed overhead moving in a southeasterly direction. It glided down near the ground and then rose again and disappeared at a rapid rate of speed. The unidentified object did not seem to be very high in the air. "At first it looked like an aircraft wing that was on fire at both ends but when it passed overhead I could see that it was circular in shape. It looked to be about the size of a tractor wheel and about four foot thick. It was revolving and appeared to have flames or fire at the outside edges."

I have laughed at the stories of these things, but not any more; I was scared. The object was real. I kept looking around for someone else to witness it but there was nobody else in sight at the time."

The motorist said the object was silent and remained visible for about 20 seconds s59Canduff, Saskatchewan, Canada, Gazette-Post-News, 14 August 1947, p. 1; and Estevan, Saskatchewan, Canada, Mercury, 31 July 1947, p. 1.

The Hoaxes, 1 August

Hoaxes have always existed in connection with any type of mysterious phenomenon. It is regrettable, but that's human nature. Often UFO reports, legitimate or not, tell us more about the observer than the observation they make. Fortunately, because so many dedicated researchers over the years have become interested in UFO activity, most hoaxes are eventually exposed. The serious approach taken by military intelligence in the early years also helped weed out and expose pranksters.

Those investigators were very leery about hoaxes and feared the public, and especially the Pentagon's reaction, if they were found to have been taken in by such a ruse. In typical military fashion intelligence officers did not "fool around," and routinely relied on the FBI for background checks. Alfred Loedding, in particular, was careful to only concentrate on cases involving highly credible observers such as pilots. He also had that scientific knack for looking at data as a whole and not making conclusions based on any one particular event.

Undoubtedly, however, witnesses who produced photos or physical evidence received the most attention by investigators. There are actually a good number of cases in the 1947 files of people claiming to have discovered pieces of "flying saucers" that had supposedly crashed or exploded somewhere near them. Equally surprising is that few of these were attempts to perpetrate a hoax. In almost all of those cases, Intelligence and/or the FBI determined the witnesses were genuinely fooled by objects that were indeed mysterious, but only in the manner in which they were discovered.

There is even reference in both Air Force and FBI files to the Mogul balloon project. This concerned one of those physical evidence cases and referred to several inquiries made by an Intelligence officer, and later FBI field agents, as to whether a particular fragment could have been a piece of debris from a "Mogul" s60Project Blue Book Files, Roll No. 2 (This obviously proves the Mogul project was not as secretive an operation as present-day Air Force officials claim when debunking the Roswell Incident) n2See Appendix V.

The first well-documented UFO hoax in the early files concerns two individuals by the name of Harold A. Dahl and Fred Lee Crisman. They had made the claim that six low-flying UFOs hovered over their boat on June 21st while they were looking for floating lumber off Maury Island near Tacoma, Washington. Subsequently it became known as the Maury Island Incident when they confessed under FBI interrogation to a hoax. This occurred after the Brown and Davidson Army Intelligence team was tragically killed returning from Tacoma after interviewing Dahl and Crisman. Attributed simply to an unfortunate plane crash, their accident had no real connection to the case.

It is also unfortunate that Kenneth Arnold became a victim of these hoaxers. Although he did not lose his life as the result of their ignorant deeds, he did lose something he considered just as valuable, his reputation. This concern for his reputation had made Arnold desperate to learn more about the curious flying saucers following his own sighting in June and a second one on July29th n3Few people have heard the story of Kenneth Arnold's second UFO sighting. It occurred at 6:55 A.M. when Arnold was flying over Union, Oregon. On this occasion he saw 20 to 25 discs which were rough appearing on top and lighter on the bottom. As these objects flew, Arnold estimated them to be 24 to 30 inches in diameter and flying at speeds faster than 200 miles per hour. He also commented that the discs fluttered and flipped on edge as they headed north. Surprisingly, this second sighting by Arnold received almost no news play.

Arnold sought any proof he could and became interested in the Maury Island case after the editor of Amazing Stories magazine, Ray Palmer, agreed to put up $200 to help him investigate their claim. Arnold, however, could not have been kept away from such a story. It was outwardly such a good sighting because the witnesses were actually claiming to have pieces of "slag" expelled by one of the saucers after it had supposedly encountered mechanical problems. They also purportedly captured the saucers on film which captivated Arnold more than anything else. Even Captain E.J. Smith of the United Airlines Flight 105 Case became taken by the hoaxers out of that same need?the need for proof.

Seeking to substantiate any possible proof that did exist, Arnold had personally convinced Lieutenant Brown, who had worked on his case, to travel to Tacoma. Brown and Davidson both took advantage of the offer and flew up to Tacoma to meet with Dahl and Chrisman while they were being interviewed by Arnold and Smith in a hotel room at the Winthrop.

Once on the scene the more experienced Brown and Davidson saw the story as an obvious hoax, but because the officers held such a high degree of respect for both Arnold and Smith, they did not indicate to them their feelings and subsequently allowed themselves to be talked into taking some of the alleged fragments back for study.

Flying back to Hamilton Field to take part in the Air Force Day ceremonies, an engine caught fire and the wing came off of their B-25 near Kelso, Washington, killing both Brown and Davidson. The fragments were recovered from the wreckage, and after careful analysis proved to be simple slag from a local Tacoma steel mill. The military threatened to prosecute Dahl and Chrisman but never carried through with it. But because they hesitated to disclose the case as a hoax while considering prosecution, many thought the sighting to represent a true event.

The press made a lot out of it at the time and for some reason even erroneously stated that the Air Force had ceased disc investigations altogether. When the real story came out months later, buried on the back pages, people missed the explanation. As a result, some still naively detail the Maury Island Incident, alluding that it may not have been a hoax s61Randle, The UFO Casebook, pp. 11-15.

Because of that mistaken perception, so pervasive at the time, the first step had been taken which, over the years, would make the military more and more defensive in regard to the media. Even Arnold, held in high regard by early investigators, is treated only with ridicule following the whole tragic event. Afterward, when an article came out critical of the Arnold sighting, TID clerks automatically added it to his file. Intelligence officers around the country felt they had learned a valuable lesson from the incident?caution.

4 August

Every researcher has their own favorite cases for certain periods. The following sighting from Alaska is a particularly attractive story for two reasons. First, this incident received detailed documentation in the military files which usually was not the case with a sighting in such a distant location. Secondly, the incident is typical of a lot of air-to-air sightings of the early days, not only in the manner in which it occurred, but the description of the object seen. In fact, when compared to the United Airlines Flight 105 Case of July 4th, the similarities are striking. Also comparable is the time of day in which both sightings took place. Surprisingly, this account is seldom mentioned in the popular literature.

The incident began northwest of Bethel, Alaska, when DC-3 Captain Jack Peck and copilot Vince Daly of Al Jones Flying Service were on routine cargo run. At dusk they suddenly sighted a black saucer-shaped object cross their flight path. It had come in at a right angle to their aircraft and Peck instinctively made a precautionary climb from 1,000 to 1,200 feet to avoid any chance of collision. He then swung in behind the disc and chased the peculiar looking craft as it became silhouetted against a brilliant evening sky. Peck pursued at 170 miles per hour until losing sight of it four minutes later.

During the incident they noted that the disc had a smooth streamlined surface with no visible means of propulsion. The speed of the object was subsequently computed at 510 miles per hour, based on the assumption that the UFO traveled 34 miles in four minutes while the DC-3 moved eleven miles in the same period. If correct, this would also infer that the craft was more than twenty miles distant when last seen. To be able to see an object at that distance, it would indicate a diameter of at least 50 feet and suggests a length of about 500 feet.

Aside from such startling figures, the Bethel Alaska Case drew attention within Intelligence among men like Loedding because of the quality of observers. The airline also considered Captain Peck as a man with an "excellent reputation." A letter in the Air Force files speaks to his character, stating "no one here doubts in the least but that he actually saw this object" s62Project Blue Book Files, Roll No. 2, Case 75, listed as Incident 58 in 1947 era documents.

6 August

By the fall of 1947 the FBI had become very active in UFO investigations. The following FBI memorandum was drafted by the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, field office and addressed to FBI Director J. Edgar Hover. It demonstrates that although Intelligence in Dayton would soon begin a twenty-two year investigations into UFOs, other organizations like the FBI did substantial work as well in these early years.

This memo did make it into Intelligence files at Wright Field but not all of the FBI paperwork seems to have been shared with them. Correspondence from August even indicates Loedding urging the T-2 Analysis Division (which he was working for on the disc sighting) to give direction to A-2 Intelligence, Fourth Air Force at Hamilton Field, and via them direction to the FBI. Was this a show of frustration that Wright Field may not have been receiving the cooperation that they should have as directed by Washington following the Muroc Sightings? This memo does shows a sincere and worthy effort by Special Agents to conduct an investigation into this particular sighting:

____________________Philadelphia, who is employed by the _________, Philadelphia, advised as follows:

Between 10:30 and 10:45 p.m. on August 6, 1947, she was sitting on the steps of her home with _______. She was facing north and observed a large white object traveling at a very fast rate of speed to the south. There was a buzzing sound, not too loud but plainly audible, just after this object passed through the air. This white object left in its trail a thin streak of smoke, which was grayish in color.
Miss _____________, Philadelphia, who is employed by the _________, INC., ____________ Philadelphia, stated she was sitting on the steps of __________ home on the evening of August 6, 1947, around 10:45 p.m. engaging in conversation with _______ when ______ abruptly stopped in the middle of her conversation and appeared to be frightened. _________ at that time was sitting in a position in which she was facing south. She did not see any object in the sky after noting _______ change of expression, but she did hear a slight buzzing sound.
__________ Philadelphia, an insurance agent, who was a former pilot of B-24's in the Army Air Corps, advised as follows:
He was sitting on the steps of his home around 10:45 p.m. on August 6, 1947, with his wife; and his neighbors, the ______ family, were sitting on their steps next door to the residence of _________. All of the above parties were facing east. ______ noticed at this time an object, emitting a bluish white flame, passing quickly through the air. The object was traveling from northeast to southwest. Using his experience in the Army Air Corps as a guide, _______ estimated the above object was between 1000 and 3000 feet in the air and traveling at a rate of between 400 to 500 miles an hour. This object did not lose elevation as it passed through the air and left either smoke or a condensation trail in its former path, which lasted for about two seconds. A hissing sound accompanied the passing of this object. This sound was moderate and not nearly as loud as the noise accompanying the passage of a rocket ship.
__________ who is a retired police officer of the Philadelphia Police Department, advised as follows:

Around 10:45 p.m. on August 6, 1947, he and his wife were sitting on the steps of their home, when _____ noticed an object, resembling to him a giant firecracker, pass quickly through the air. _____heard no noise, but the object had completely passed from view in a southern direction within a split second. It left a fiery trail for 100 feet. August 6, 1947, was a clear night, and no storm was brewing. _____ was sure the object he saw was no falling star, and he noticed the above object did not seem to be falling but maintained the same altitude.
The wives of ____ and _______ verified the accounts of their husbands as to the above-mentioned object.

It is to be noted the ______ and the ________ live in Northeast Philadelphia near Oxford Circle, which is about ten miles removed from the residence of ________ . __________ residence is located in the western part of Philadelphia. The _______ and ___________ are not known to the above mentioned _______ and _________ . It is further noted the observation of Miss ________ the _______ and the _____________roughly correspond. All the above persons seem reliable and not the type to seek publicity or to spread rumors.
___________ called the "Inquirer." Philadelphia newspaper, and inquired if it could offer any explanation as to what they had seen. A representative of that paper had advised ___________ that the object they saw may have been some product of an oil refinery or chemical company in their neighborhood.
Both the Offices of Naval Intelligence and Army Intelligence in Philadelphia were requested by the Philadelphia Office to ascertain if either the Army or the Navy was doing any experimental work on new types of planes or equipment, in the vicinity of Philadelphia. Such was done with negative results. The Office of Naval Intelligence indicated that an explosion had occurred at the Charles Lennig Chemical Company on August 6, 1947.

__________, Safety Department of the Charles Lennig Chemical Company. Inc., 5000 Richmond Street, Philadelphia, advised as follows:

The above company is a manufacturer and distributor of chemicals- A fire had occurred on a dump of the company on August 6, 1947, but was quickly gotten under control. Such fire was confined to the company's premises and could not have been observed from outside the plant.
The Charles Lennig Company is about two and one-half miles southeast from Oxford Circle. The account of the fire does not seem to fit into the general pattern of the above-mentioned flying object, for it is noted that the flying object was allegedly traveling from a position northeast of Oxford Circle to a south-westerly direction in Philadelphia. ________ pointed out that, to the best of his knowledge, there are no oil refineries and chemical companies located around Oxford Circle or north of such, but that all of the companies of this type are several miles south of Oxford Circle.
All logical investigation having been conducted, no further action will be taken on the instant matter unless advised to the contrary by the Bureau.

FFB/ctg

98-1762 s63Documentation from the FBI, dated 18 September 1947.

13 August

One of the most interesting features of the 1947 period is the sheer number of disc sightings. This is not to say there was not a diversity of phenomena reported, but many of these "disc or saucer accounts" are extremely noteworthy because few other periods had such high percentages of observations describing true "nuts and bolts" type objects. For example, an above average daylight disc sighting of late 1947 comes from the Smoke River Canyon near Twin Falls, Idaho. On this date at 1:00 P.M. MST a blue disc-shaped object actually flew beneath the walls of that canyon river valley! On its flight, the strange craft sped above a well respected area trout farmer, A.C. Urie. His two sons, Keith and Billy, also witnessed the event as they were coming across the river to meet their father with a boat. All three witnesses then watched it pass about 75 feet over a stand of Mormon Poplars, causing the tree tops to bend and sway as if caught in a vacuum. By that point the craft, which had descended as much as 300 feet below the 400 feet high canyon rim, became silhouetted against its steep walls, resembling an "inverted pie-plate." Urie estimated it to be about twenty feet wide by ten feet thick with a horizontal pipe or pole sticking out which emitted bright flames s64Project Blue Book Files, Roll No. 2, Case 80, listed as Incident 75 in 1947 era documents. The former county sheriff and a county commissioner, L.W. Hawkins, also reported a similar disc sighting at 9:30 A.M. that day about twenty miles southwest of Twin Falls near the Salmon Dam. Eventually FBI investigators checked all of the witnesses and gave them and Urie a very good recommendation s65Research conducted by Jan L. Aldrich. (Interestingly, Guy Bannister, a famed suspect in Jim Garrison's Kennedy assassination trial, was one of the FBI players in the Twin Falls investigation).

That morning another interesting sighting occurred over Redmond, Washington, at 9:00 A.M. PST. The resulting FBI report is quoted here to illustrate that when a UFO report appeared in a news article, there definitely were officials taking notice:

FBI SEATTLE 8-14-47 5-21PM FB
DIRECTOR FBI URGENT
L.R. BRUMMETT. SID DECKER. FLYING DISCS. INTERNAL SECURITY ___. AUGUST FOURTEEN NINETEEN FORTYSEVEN SEATTLE POST INTELLIGENCER PUBLISHED ARTICLE TO EFFECT THAT L.R. BRUMMETT, BOX TWO FIVE FOUR REDMOND, WASH, AND SIDNEY DECKER BOX TWO NINE SIX REDMOND, WASHINGTON HAD SIGHTED TWO DISCS AT APPROXIMATELY NINE AM AUGUST THIRTEEN NINETEEN FORTYSEVEN. UPON INTERVIEW DECKER STATED THAT TWO VERY BRIGHT OBJECTS TRAVELING AT AN EXTREME RATE OF SPEED WERE NOTICED BY HIM AS HE WAS STANDING NEAR THE REDMOND POST OFFICE. DECKER DESCRIBED THE OBJECTS AS HAVING NO WINGS, NO TAIL, AND BOTH ENDS WERE TAPERED. DECKER ADDED THAT THE OBJECTS RESEMBLED A BELLY TANK AND THAT THEY WERE NOISELESS. THE OBJECTS WERE VERY BRIGHT AND TRAVELING IN A NORTHEASTERLY DIRECTION OVER REDMOND, WASHINGTON. ONE A BIT BEHIND AND A LITTLE ABOVE THE OTHER MAINTAINING EQUAL RATES OF SPEED FOR APPROXIMATELY EIGHT SECONDS AT WHICH TIME THEY DISAPPEARED FROM VIEW. DECKER ADDED THAT THEY WERE HIGHER THAN A PLANE GENERALLY TRAVELS. BRUMMETT ADVISED THAT HE NOTICED THE OBJECTS AND CALLED DECKERS ATTENTION TO THEM AND ALSO POINTED THEM OUT TO A MRS MAMIE ENGLISH. BRUMMETT STATED THAT HE SAW TWO OBJECTS FLYING AT A FORTY FIVE DEGREE ANGLE NORTHEASTERLY OVER REDMOND AND TRAVELING AT LEAST THREE TIMES FASTER THAN A PLANE. BRUMMETT ADDED THAT HE WATCHED THE OBJECTS FROM FIVE TO EIGHT SECONDS AT WHICH TIME THEY DISAPPEARED FROM SIGHT. ACCORDING TO BRUMMETT THE OBJECTS WERE DESCRIBED AS BEING NOISELESS, HAVING NO WINGS OR TAIL, LIGHTER THAN ALUMINUM, TAPERED AT BOTH ENDS AND ONE STAYED A LITTLE BEHIND AND A BIT ABOVE THE OTHER AND BOTH MAINTAINED EQUAL RATES OF SPEED. FROM BRUMMETTS OBSERVATION HE WAS UNABLE TO DECIDE WHETHER THE OBJECTS WERE FLAT OR ROUND. MRS MAMIE ENGLISH STATED THAT WHEN BRUMMETT CALLED HER ATTENTION TO THE OBJECTS SHE TOOK A PASSING GLANCE AT THE SKY AND COULD OFFER NO DESCRIPTION OTHER THAN THEY LOOKED LIKE TWO SILVER BALLS TRAVELING AT A FAST RATE OF SPEED
WILCOX
9-28 PM OK FBI WASH DC GAR s66Documents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, dated 14 September 1947

14 August

On the Pacific island of Guam, American enlisted men reported seeing crescent-shaped objects flying past the US military base there. They stated that they flew on a zig-zag course at least twice as fast as a conventional airplane s67Gross: UFOs: A History 1947, p. 58. These authors could not track down the primary source for this account but the incident is listed in an index of sightings in the Fourth Air Force files, although no case analysis is evident s68Founh Air Force Files, "microfilm record 33764-1036," US Air Force Historical Agency, Maxwell AFB, Montgomery, Alabama.

17 August

In the Mt. Josephine, Skagit County forest of Washington State, a ranger observed a flying disc similar to the object seen in Twin Falls, Idaho. That UFO descended rapidly from the northeast and flew with a slight angular pitch, but righted itself as it came lower. Finally the unusual machine flew off to the southeast at great speed s69Jan L. Aldrich, "Filling In The Gaps," Mutual UFO Network UFO Journal 336 (April 1996): 14; and Gross, UFOs: A History 1947, p. 61.

Also that day two army officers at Fort Richardson, Alaska, stated that they saw an unusual object flying above them at a tremendous rate of speed below the cloud layer then at 10,000 feet. The records state that the officers described the craft as sphere shaped?not saucer-like. They noted, however, that unlike a balloon it definitely moved against the wind and had a metallic appearance s70Documents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, dated 19 September 1947.

19 August

Another sighting comes from Twin Falls, Idaho, at 9:39 P.M. MST when numerous people sighted multiple groups of flying objects in the night sky. These formations resembled a "glow in the air" the color of electric lights. The "lights" traveled at "terrific speed" and flew in triangular formations. At one point three of them peeled-off of a larger group of ten and sped away in a different direction. Due to an overcast, the observers felt that they were not astronomical anomalies s71Project Blue Book Files, Roll No. 2, Case 83, listed as Incident 64 in 1947 era documents.

Apparently many agencies were looking into this sighting including the FBI. On August 22nd the following memo was composed by the FBI:

In accordance with your request, this matter was checked with Army Air Forces. Lieutenant Colonel Garrett advised Special Agent _______ that extensive inquiries within the Army Air Forces revealed that no research or experiments were being conducted by the AAF in the vicinity of Twin Falls, Idaho on or about August 19, 1947. Colonel Garrett stated that he had no information which would throw any light on the matter reported in the teletype s72Documents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, dated 22 August 1947.

If, on the other hand, the Idaho UFOs could have been explained away as aircraft or meteors, it would have surprised few. By August the Gallup poll revealed over 90 percent of adult Americans had heard of flying saucers, but that people continued to feel they represented secret military craft or natural phenomena s73George H. Gallup, The Gallup Poll: Public Opinion 1935-1948 (New York: Random House, 1972), p. 666. Thus, even after the summer wave of 1947, the public still looked upon human achievements in science and engineering with the same sense of wonder they had since the beginning of the modern technological revolution around the time of the 1897 UFO wave. Our present-day mind set associating "flying saucers" with extraterrestrial visitors simply had not yet taken hold. It is interesting to note that even research scientist at the Holloman AFB, who worked around the latest technologies, made no conclusions when they had discs sightings themselves that month. The events are detailed by an official statement drawn up by Operations and Projects Group, Electronic and Atmosphere Division personnel which Alfred Loedding spoke to a year later?actually while investigating an entirely different case:

During the latter part of August, 1947, this organization was carrying on several test runs with a modified SCR-270 at this base. I had released a corner reflector and two balloons and was watching them in their flight as they drifted to the southeast from this base. While watching the balloons through a pair of ten power binoculars, a white object, appearing to be round, came into my field of vision, I followed the objects as far as possible but lost it within seconds after picking it up. The object was traveling at an unprecedented rate of speed and appeared to be several thousand feet over the top of the Sacramento mountain range, traveling in horizontal flight south to north ... it was definitely not a balloon and apparently not manned judging from the violent maneuvers which were performed at a high rate of speed s74Project Blue Book Files, Roll No. 2; and Gross, UFOs: A History 1947, pp. 62-63.

3 September

On this day at 12:15 P.M. PST twelve to fifteen circular-shaped objects appeared high above Oswego, Oregon. Each of the strange craft were described as "very silvery in the afternoon sun." While such a report sounds like it might simply be a misidentification of aircraft or meteors, Intelligence officers could find no such solution. They became sufficiently impressed with the observation to list it as unidentified in the Air Force's record system of sightings started by 1948. As stated before, that classification was never lightly given and even exceptional cases such as the DC-3 encounter over Bethel, Alaska, did not receive such a discriminating designation s75Project Blue Book Files, Roll No. 2, Case 85, listed as Incident # 51 in 1947 era documents.

12 September

Although most UFO reports in 1947 do describe saucer-shaped objects, nighttime lights again appeared on this date. This strange incident involved a Pan American flight eastbound from Midway Island to Cahu. Just after passing Necher Island at 1:00 A.M. local time, the crew spotted an intense incandescent white light off the starboard side of their aircraft. At first the pilot thought it might be the navigation lights of another plane, but it was far too bright for that. The flight crew tracked the unknown object and determined it held a true course of 350 degrees while holding at a steady altitude of 9,500 feet.

The captain estimated its distance from their aircraft at five miles. But just as he took the plane off automatic pilot, the light approached within one mile. After that the UFO quickly veered off to a course of 190 degrees at which time the light split into two parts. The two separate orbs then changed to a less bright reddish hue and flew in a side-to-side formation until zooming out of sight at tremendous speed, estimated at over 1,000 miles per hour.

Investigators calculated the total duration of the observation at only six seconds, but as any pilot will attest to, that is a long time when an unknown object is near your aircraft. Despite the brevity of the sighting, Naval Intelligence took a great deal of interest in the case. The pilots were interviewed by Naval officers who tried to find an astronomical solution to their unprecedented encounter but realized the pilots had good familiarity with meteor phenomena. The pilots told Navy officers that they were certain they had not seen a meteor because it consistently held a steady altitude. The captain of the flight had ten years flying experience with Pan American with 7,000 hours in the air, much of it over the Atlantic and Pacific air routes. His second officer had 1,700 hours and eleven years of flying experience?four years of which were spent in B-24s flying East Coast training duty and combat missions in the South Pacific. Both pilots impressed intelligence officers as keen observers s76Ibid., Case 87, listed as Incident 59 in 1947 era documents.