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in the news 1952


PART SIXTEEN


Stalling

Above: July 31, 1952 national newswire photo. Captions for such wirephotos were left to the individual newspapers. In the Kokomo, Indiana Tribune the caption in read... 'SAUCER' BUSINESS SOUGHT. An enterprising restaurant proprietor at St. Petersburg, Fla., stirred by reports of flying saucers in the South Florida skies, has painted this sign on top of his establishment. He offers free coffee to any "saucer" crews. This aerial photograph of the restaurant was taken from a plane -- not a saucer.


NINETEEN FIFTY-TWO might be remembered for many things, large and small. The election of Dwight Eisenhower as President of the United States. Fifty thousand American families afflicted by Polio. The British A-bomb. The first issue of Mad magazine. The theory of the Big Bang.

But for those of a certain bent, 1952 will also be remembered for the second great 'flying saucer flap' which climaxed with the reports of radar and visual sightings over the nation's capital in late July.

Part of the story of that event-filled year is now available in declassified government files. But for the public back then -- at a time when only one in three families in America had a television set -- the story was mostly found in the newspapers and magazines.

This then is a look back at those stories, as they first appeared in print...




JULY 31, 1952:


Ironwood, Michigan Daily Globe - 31 Jul 52



Coffee Free
Three theories have been given regarding the recent flying saucers reportedly seen in many places. Dr. I.M. Levitt, left, director of Philadelphia's Fels Planetarium believes the saucers are merely "mirages" produced under same conditions that cause similar images on television and radar. Robert L. Farnsworth, center, Chicago, president of the U.S. Rocket Society urged restraining from shooting the saucers because "such action might result in the gravest consequences". James T. Mangan, right, Chicago, who has a legal deed to all outer space, regards saucers as "trespassers" and forbids them to enter his domain although he admits "I can't do anything about it." Mangan's theory is that disks may be "superhuman" thought projections. (NEA Telephoto)


Valparaiso, Indiana Vidette Messenger - 31 Jul 52



Believe Heat, Illusions Team To Produce Saucers

By CHARLES CORDDRY

WASHINGTON -- The Air Force offers a combination of summer heat waves and optical and radar illusions as a plausible explanation of the latest flurry of "flying saucers."

Intelligence officers ridiculed the notion that the mysterious objects in the sky hail from other planets or Russia -- or pose a menace to the United States.

They were confident that new scientific investigations with powerful telescopes and special cameras would explain away the objects as "physical phenomena," such as mirages. And, maybe, cure the nation of sauceritis.

As for three flocks of objects sighted by radar over Washington in the past 10 days, Maj. Gen. John A. Samford, Air Force director of intelligence, told a news conference late Tuesday that "my own mind is satisfied" they resulted from temperature inversion.

Explain in Detail

This was explained in detail later by two electronics experts from the Air Technical Intelligence Center, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Dayton, Ohio. They were Dr. B.L. Griffing and Capt. Roy James.

Air temperature, they pointed out, decreases with altitude when a warm air mass passes over a relatively cooler one, temperature temporarily increases and an "inversion layer" of warm air is formed.

This invasion [sic, should be inversion] will cause radar beams to bend earthward. Radar impulses then bounce off ground "targets." What then appear as unidentified "blips" or tiny white lights on radarscopes are not objects in the sky but objects on the ground.

With a large inversion, street or automobile lights may be similarly reflected, as if in formation, on clouds. If there is sufficient wind velocity or turbulence, these lights will appear to dance or "dog fight," with the phenomenal gyrations attributed to "flying saucers."

To Take New Turn

To settle the "flying saucer" mystery once and for all, Samford disclosed that the Air Force investigation is going to take a new, scientific turn.

Now the Air Force is going to concentrate on some precise means of measurement of the eerie objects so that scientists can be handed "manageable material" for analysis, Samford said.

One device to be used is a special camera that will photograph the objects and break into its constituents the light they give off. These basic colors then may be compared with colors cast by known objects -- say, a neon sign or an airport approach light -- so the source of "flying saucer" light can be determined.

Another device is the Schmidt telescope, with which vast portions of the sky and somehow goes on there during the night can be recorded.


Logansport, Indiana Press - 31 Jul 52



New Reports of Saucers Fails to Excite Air Force
Not Convinced Anything Mysterious Is Really Going On

Washington, July 30 -- The Air Force said tonight the current series, of "flying saucer" reports has brought no change in its 24 hour a day program to challenge any unidentified and potentially hostile object in the skies over the United States.

Unidentified objects were spotted on radar screens at the Washington National Airport this weekend. Reports of the sightings reached the Air Force, and jet fighter- interceptor planes made a search of the Washington area. One pilot reported seeing lights which he was never able to overtake.

In the wake of the Washington development there were published reports that the Air Defense Command had been organized on an emergency basis to pursue any unidentified object in the skies.

An Air Force official tonight said its Defense Command has been ready for many months to challenge any unknown object aloft. Air Force interceptors and pilots started the continuous watch on a limited basis before the start of the Korean war, the official pointed out.

Jet interceptors were sent aloft this past weekend after the radar maintained by the Civil Aeronautics Administration near the Washington National Airport showed objects on its screen which should not have been there.

Despite the renewed flurry of excitement about the unidentified objects, the Air Force maintained its stand that it still doesn't know whether any such thing actually exists. For several years Air Force technical and intelligence experts have methodically studied and filed away all "flying saucer" reports that have been passed on to them. The analysis of these studies has come up with no answer to date.


Walla Walla, Washington Union-Bulletin - 31 Jul 52



[No Headline]

SEATTLE -- The top man of the Air Force tossed cold water Wednesday on the latest flying saucer phobia, saying he doesn't believe such things exist.

Gen. Hoyt S. Vandenberg, Air Force chief of staff, said in an interview with a local newspaper reporter:

"I don't believe there is any such thing as a flying saucer. But apparently there are physical phenomena which make people say they have seen the saucers.

"They are not machines flown by men from Mars, nor from any foreign powers. Nor does the Air Force or any U.S. military agency have a flying saucer.

"I don't like this continued, long ranged occurrence of what might be called mass hysteria about flying saucers. The Air Force has had teams of experts investigating all reports for several years, since the end of World War II, and they never have found anything to substantiate existence of such things as flying saucers."

Gen. Vandenberg, recently recovered from an extended illness, was here to confer with officials of the Boeing Airplane Co., builders of the new B-52 eight-jet heavy bomber. He said tests of the two experimental B-52s "have been panning out very well."


Lowell, Massachusetts Sun - 31 Jul 52



Air Force Cure for Flying Saucer Mania Taking Hold
Whirling Discs May Go Away If Weather Bureau Can Dispel Heal Wave

The Air Force detected faint to moderate indications today hat its cure for the "flying saucer" mania was taking hold.

If the weather bureau now can dispel the heat wave that causes optical and radar illusions Air Force officers reflected hopefully the whirling discs may go away entirely -- at least for another season.

Air Force information officers reported that the inquiries have taken a more "reasonable" turn since Maj. Gen. John A. Samford, Air Force intelligence director, described the "saucers" as physical phenomena and outlined scientific studies now in progress to determine the origin of the mirages.

Instead of posing such questions as what planet do the "things" come from, are they secret weapons, or how come they have not been fully explained, enquirers now are seeking information on the technical equipment and processes being used in the scientific investigation.

There seems to be growing acceptance of the theory expounded at Samford's "saucerian" seminar with the press that the flurry of Washington sightings were optical and radar illusions caused by heat wave effects, officers said.

Not so certain, however, was a wag in the air route traffic control center at Washington National Airport -- scene of three saucer" sightings in 10 days. Chances are, said this radar man, that "the objects have just gone away for a couple of days to fuel up."

The air force's scientific diagnosis of the "flying saucer" also met with skepticism in some official quarters. Nor did it still completely the rash of reported sightings in the sky, some of which have become more fantastic than ever.

A civil aeronautics administration official reported that, like the Air Force, the CAA has picked up "clearly identifiable mirages" on its radar sets all over the country. But he wasn't sure at all, he said, that the dancing lights seen visually and by radar over Washington recently all could be explained as mirages. He explained that the "objects" over the capital seemed to give "a more distinct blip" on the radar scope than mirages. He had no alternative solution, however.

The Air Force still was beleaguered by "saucer experts" who wouldn't accept the "mirage" theory. One "expert" advised the Air Force to look into the fact that earth and Mars are closest during the dog days, when the "saucers" are reported in greatest strength.

Another "expert" advanced the theory that the "saucers" came from another universe to investigate atomic explosions.


Cedar Rapids, Iowa Gazette - 31 Jul 52



Radar Experts and Weather Scientists Challenge Air Force Saucer Theories

WASHINGTON -- Radar experts and weather scientists Wednesday challenged the air force theory that flying saucers are ground objects reflected in the sky under freak atmospheric conditions.

Radar crews at Washington National airport, where mysterious "blips" have been tracked three times in the last two weeks, maintained they have recorded "unknown objects" twisting in a weird pattern, and not light reflections, as the air force suggested.

The U.S. weather bureau, while conceding that a "temperature inversion" has existed during the current hot spell, took issue with the theory expounded by Maj. Gen. John A. Samford, air intelligence chief.

A "temperature inversion" is a layer of warm air above cold air, and Samford suggested that under such conditions an auto headlight or airport beam could be reflected in the sky as a flying saucer.

A weather bureau official said however, that reflections due to such an inversion ordinarily would appear on a radar screen as a steady line, rather than as single objects such as were sighted on the airport radarscope.

Other saucer developments included:

1. The air force, seeking an unshakable explanation of the mystery disks, rushed preparations to scan the skies with 200 astronomer-type cameras and powerful telescopes.

2. The Rev. Francis Hayden, director of the Georgetown university observatory, predicted that the saucer season will reach a climax Aug. 12, probable time of the annual Perseid shower of thousands of shooting stars.

3. The coast guard said it will allow the air force to inspect the negative of a photograph purportedly showing five "egg-shaped objects" flying in formation over Salem, Mass. The picture was taken at 9:35 a.m. (EDT) July 16.

4. Two Philadelphia scientists, Drs. I.M. Levitt and T.K. Marshall, agreed with the air force explanation of the mystery visitors and blamed weird reflections resulting from the hot weather.

5. Jet fighter-interceptor pilots at bases throughout the country remained on a 24-hour alert.

6. The navy confirmed that on May 11, 1943, mysterious objects sighted by radar were erroneously identified as enemy ships touching off a salvo of scores of rounds of ammunition fired at a non-existent enemy off Alaska. The navy said the error resulted from atmospheric reflection like that which sometimes makes freak television reception possible.


Abilene, Texas News Reporter - 31 Jul 52



Weather Observers Puzzled Over Radar Sighting Explanation

WICHITA FALLS, July 30 -- Observers at the Wichita Falls U.S. Weather Bureau station today were puzzled over what they termed the delay in explaining radar sightings caused by temperature inversions.

Their comments came alter conjecture that layers of cool air sandwiched between warmer air masses have shown up on radarscopes as "flying saucers."

The Wichita Falls station was one of the first weather bureaus to use radarscopes as a weather aid.

Weather observers here said the local station for the past four or five years has encountered false radar sightings caused by temperature inversions.

In fact, they said, they even photographed the sightings and mailed the pictures to Washington. Their reports said they encountered the puzzling radar waves in a clear sky with no thunderstorms visible.


Phoenix, Arizona Republic - 31 Jul 52



Saucers Find Friend

July 30 -- The flying saucers have found a friend.

The air force received this telegram Wednesday from Cincinnati:

"Urgently request reconsideration of your order to destroy flying saucers.

"Remarkably advanced aerodynamics indicate probably intercelestial origin. Interference without more cause than saucers' friendly curiosity could cause unbelievable suffering and death.

"People much aroused and worried. Respectfully" -- Name withheld.

Air force spokesmen said nobody is going around shooting at strange objects in the sky, but that air defense command planes would attempt to destroy any aircraft or objects definitely identified as hostile and dangerous.


Albuquerque, New Mexico Tribune - 31 Jul 52



[No Headline]

LOS ANGELES, July 31 -- The president of the civilian saucer investigation says there are no more "flying saucers" in the heavens today than there were a year ago, but witnesses now feel safe in reporting them.

"Our offices were founded back in the days when to admit having seen a saucer immediately labeled the observer a psychopath, a drunkard or a profiteer," Edward Sullivan said.

He said the Air Force's action in sending jet planes after "saucers" has encouraged people to report what they spot in the sky.


Walla Walla, Washington Union Bulletin - 31 Jul 52



[No Headline]

WASHINGTON -- The Air Force said Thursday it was getting so many flying saucer queries that regular intelligence work has been affected.

Most of the inquiries are from press and radio, but many are from the public, harassed Pentagon spokesmen said.


Portsmouth, New Hampshire Herald - 31 Jul 52



Local Area Gets in on Act

New Hampshire, a newcomer to the "flying saucer" scene, moved into national contention last night as it reported the only flying saucer of the day in the northeast area.

A South Manchester physician reported to the Grenier Field filter center he saw a bright orange-yellow object, travelling very fast at an unknown altitude for about three seconds.

And Tuesday night, the Portsmouth ground observation post at Pulpit Rock reported what may have been the mysterious "saucers" between 10 and midnight.

The observer, Franklin Webber of Clark Rd., Rye told a Herald reporter today he saw two lights "moving at a good speed" in a southerly direction about a mile ahead of an airplane. He described the airplane as a transport.

Webber said the mysterious lights appeared to be staying ahead of the transport. The only sound heard was the transport's motors, he related. On watch with Webber was Alden F. Dixen Jr. of 94 Rockhill Ave.

Webber said personnel at the Air Force filter center, which receives reports from throughout the Northeast, questioned him at length when he made his report.

The state's third report of flying saucers came from Jaffrey earlier.

An indication of the Air Force's interest in the "flying saucers" was evidenced when it announced that "Aircraft Flash" messages from Ground Observer Corps pasts in New Hampshire have been given priority over all emergency telephone calls with the exception of actual Air Defense warning messages.

A more facetious attitude was displayed by the president of the U.S. Rocket Society in Chicago who urged the nation's defense officials not to shoot at the "saucers," saying that the shooting might alienate mankind from "beings of far superior powers."

Another Chicago man claims he has a legal deed to all outer space and has "forbidden the saucers to fly in his domain."

In any event, earth dwellers throughout the nation are eyeing saucers with new respect.


Lowell, Massachusetts Sun - 31 Jul 52



Coast Guard Picture

BOSTON, July 3 -- Flying saucers may be less of a mystery if a Coast Guard photographer gets permission from the Air Force to show a photograph today and tell how he took it.

A Coast Guard statement issued last night said the Air Force in Washington would decide whether to "declassify the photographs taken at Salem air station last week."

The statement said that if the pictures are released, "a press conference will be called in Boston and the photographer who took the picture will be available for questioning."

This much was learned:

1. The picture was taken with a high speed camera.

2. In it appeared four objects, three above and one below. They were white and irregularly eggshaped.

3. The picture was taken at 9:35 a.m. last Thursday, in broad daylight, and showed a power plant and a number of automobiles in the foreground.


Passaic, New Jersey Herald-News - 31 Jul 52



Herald News

SEEN IN PASSAIC, GARFIELD AND PARAMUS -- This formation of flying objects was drawn for The Herald-News by artist Frank Colangeio according to actual testimony given to this newspaper and police. Observed July 22 and again on Saturday, the squadron of seven saucers travelled very rapidly from horizon to horizon in a minute and a half. The "lead" saucer was slightly larger than the rest and had a slight tail. They were oval-shaped and glowed intense orange. The night was clear and the silhouette was exactly as shown -- even to the outline over the moon.


Whatever's Up There, Many People Are Sighting Things
Survey of Passaic-Bergen Reports Indicate Definite Northeastern Pattern of Disc Flights

By Charles Gregg
Herald-News Staff Writer

The sighting yesterday of a "glowing object, blue-orange colored, flying at terrific speed" over Teaneck by Fire Lieutenant Mowbray Darby, Captain Harry Davis and Fireman Arthur Backer gives more credibility of flying saucer reports over Bergen and Passaic Counties.

Something's "Up There"

Whether hallucination, "top secret" weapon, cold air layers or visitor from another planet -- more have been sighted here during the past 10 days than ever before.

Nineteen persons have reported 26 flying objects since July 22, a week ago Tuesday. More are coming in. And police estimate that 80 per cent of "saucer sighters" do not report what they see for fear of being ridiculed.

With these facts in Monday, a three-man Herald-News team -- writer, statistician and artist -- set out to disprove, debunk or otherwise refute the presence of flying objects in North Jersey skies.

They were unsuccessful. Like the air force, the team today concludes that the mysterious saucers are real and are, or have been, "up there – somewhere".

To substantiate arguments for the saucers, we offer (1.) undeniable similarity of testimony by persons who have "seen" saucers, (2.) undeniable credibility of "cool-headed intelligent" witnesses and (3.) an undeniable northeast flight pattern of 80 percent of saucers sighted.

The following facts could be added:

The air force recently hired a team of scientists to investigate the flying objects; saucers have been picked up on radar screens three times during the past ten days; and there are more than 600 credible and unexplained sightings on file in Washington, D.C.

AP Writer Saw One

Police and newspapers have received reports of saucer sightings in Passaic, Paterson, Garfield, Maywood, Hackensack, Paramus, River Edge, Bergenfield, Midland Park, Waldwick, Park Ridge and Teaneck.

Passaic has had nine objects reported, Garfield, four; Waldwick, three; Paterson, two, and all the rest, one each.

In line with the "80 per cent absentee report" estimate by police, the number of saucers seen would exceed 100 – just in the past two weeks.

Most convincing of the reports is one given by Saul Pett, 220 Adams Avenue, River Edge, and substantiated by his wife. Pett, an Associated press Staff writer, is called "level-headed and not prone to exaggeration".

He was sitting on his front porch early Sunday morning, July 20, had just turned on his radio and was listening to the conclusion of [sentence missing in original] heading off in another direction to the north.

A Park Ridge matron shyly told police she saw an orange saucer six weeks ago but was afraid to say anything.

In Garfield, an 11-year-old child saw one "moving fast in all directions -- like a fly -- then flew away towards new York. Jimmy Rooney, 12, of Paterson and several playmates saw one -- "shaped like a baseball" -- moving fast across the sky.

Herald News

FLIGHT PATTERN REVEALED -- This map shows locations of saucer sightings in Bergen and Passaic Counties and reveals for the first time that the mysterious objects have a general directional pattern away from Washington, D.C. where they have been picked up on radar screens three times. The 26 flying saucers seen here have all been in one of two alleyways of direction and 80 per cent of witnesses say they were headed northeast.


Move In Formation

Mrs. Patrick Blake, 180 Randolph Street, Passaic, saw one with a hazy blue ring around it, suspended in mid-air, then move quickly upwards.

A Hackensack man saw two moving in formation at 3 a.m. Sunday over Paramus and another Hackensacker saw one earlier at 9 p.m. Saturday travelling eastward and "glowing weirdly".

A Passaic woman, who asked to have her name withheld, saw seven flying in formation towards New York. The lead saucer, she said, was bigger than the rest.

In each case, the following consistencies are evident:

1. Saucers sighted were all round and glowed either orange or pale yellow.

2. All have headed in a general northeasterly direction -- away from Washington, D.C., where they have been picked up on radar screens.

3. "Jerky motion", both high and slow speeds.

4. Soundless.

5. No tails except on "lead" saucers in formation.

6. Do not diminish in size.

7. And all were sighted between 9 p.m. and 3 a.m. on clear nights.

The Air Force urges anyone sitting [sic] a "saucer" to report findings to the nearest police station or newspaper.

If you're afraid of Martians, you have one big consolation -- physicists say that the saucers might be part of a natural phenomena never before recorded or explained because, frankly, we don't know much about our solar system.


Washington, D.C. Post - 31 Jul 52



All's Quiet Along the Potomac On the Flying Saucer Front

The "flying saucer" front in Washington was relatively quiet yesterday, although reports of saucers from other parts of the country still come in.

An unidentified object showed up on the radar at the air traffic control tower at the National Airport at 1 a.m. yesterday. A CAA spokesman said the object was regarded as routine, but a nearby plane was asked to check it. The plane found nothing.

Meanwhile, Maj. Gen. Roger Ramey, Air Force operations chief, identified little strips of tinfoil found near the Upper Marlboro race track as "chaff" or "windows" dropped by bombers about 8 a.m. Sunday during the current Air Defense exercises. He said the tinfoil did not cause the "blips" on radar screens here Saturday night.

The report of saucers over Washington has stirred up similar reports from other cities. An orange disk over Baltimore, egg-shaped white objects over Salem, Mass, a yellow-green saucer near Enid, Okla., and an "oscillating star" all have been reported in the past two days.


Statesville, North Carolina Landmark - 31 Jul 52



Strange Glow Seen In Wayne

GOLDSBORO, July 29 -- Four persons have reported in Goldsboro that they, saw a strange, bright red glowing cylindrical object flash through the sky about 9:15 last night.

Mr. and Mrs. Owen Bail and Mr. and Mrs. Fred Griffin said it took about two minutes for the object to pass from horizon to horizon. The object traveled north northeast to south southwest. They said it definitely was not a plane.


Miami, Florida Herald - 31 Jul 52



Mayher Herald

SOMETHING LIKE A "SAUCER" is this glowing disc which was photographed Tuesday night by a Marine Corps photographer as it whizzed over Miami Beach. He used a 16mm. movie camera with a telephoto lens and the five frames shown here were photographed in about one-fifth of a second. The photographer, Pfc. Ralph Mayher, said the object was so high and going so fast that he had difficulty sighting it through his view-finder. "I just pointed the camera in the general direction and hoped I would get something," he said. The object showed up in eight frames of the film. The direction of flight was from left to right. Noticeable is a small "tail" behind each of the discs. The Air Force intelligence office in Washington, D.C., has asked for copies of the pictures for study.


Navy Fliers See Similar Sky Object

By O.J. Smith, Herald Staff Writer

Ralph MayherThe big "flying saucer" talk in Miami Wednesday was about photographs of a glowing disc taken Tuesday night by a Marine Corps photographer from the Opa-locka Marine Air Base.

But even with the disc on film, all sources official and unofficial, were still as far from explaining the phenomenon as ever.

It was certain the photographer, Pfc. Ralph Mayher, caught some moving, shining object in the telephoto lens of his 16 mm. movie camera. He and observers with him say the thing was a clearly defined disc, with a small tail extending from one side.

Three Navy fliers said Wednesday they saw a similar object in about the same location (over Miami Beach), at about the same time, as they were returning to Miami from cross-country flights.

Their impression, however, was that the object resembled a meteor.

Lt. Comdr. Joe Gardner and his co-pilot, Lt. Joe Mills, said the thing they saw was a "greenish and reddish variation." Lt. I.M. Blum said what he saw was a very deep blue. Mayher said the disc he photographed was yellowish.

All declared it couldn't have been a light on the clouds -- "because there were no clouds."

Officials at the Marine Air Base, faced with Mayher's photographs, didn't know just what to do about the whole matter. The photographer was acting with the knowledge of his superiors when he went out to take the pictures, but it wasn't on official duty.

Wednesday the superiors appeared to wish the whole matter never had come up. They didn't feel inclined to make any statement and hadn't decided to forward them to any higher echelon for further study.

Col. W.K. Smith of the Air Force intelligence in Washington, C.D., when notified about the pictures Wednesday afternoon by The Herald, said his department was anxious to get such evidence and [Illegible] immediately [Illegible] copies of the film for close study.

Numerous reports of flying luminous objects in the sky came from other Miamians throughout the day. None could add anything to reports already made, and none was quite as "authentic" as Mayher's pictures.


Smethport, Pennsylvania McKean County Democrat - 31 Jul 52



Sky Mystery Over Kane Has Crowd Gazing

As Jets whined into the air over Washington. D.C., in search of unidentified objects -- Kane residents, at least a half-hundred of them, were pondering a sight in the skies over the Hilltop Saturday morning -- a large cylinder like object which hovered over the air at about 2,000 feet altitude for an hour -- possibly more.

The object was sighted by a car load of workers headed from Kane to the Dresser Mfg. Division plant in Bradford. They stopped and watched it. Not willing to be stuck with a story on their own they flagged other cars and soon a long line of cars was at the roadside on Rt. 6 a few miles east of Kane -- and fully a half-hundred persons viewed the "thing."

The men had to get to work and proceeded east on Route 6 -- keeping an eye aloft at the object. When they reached Lantz Corners, eight miles east they could still see the object -- which then looked about two feet in length. Estimates from original observations indicated the object from 100 to 200 feet in length. One observer said "it looked like canoe, with a couple guys in it." Others agreed.

Early morning light, clear skies and absence of wind in a dead calm seemed to make the object stationary in the skies. From descriptions of the object, it was believed to have been a large weather balloon.

One observer, a scoffer on "flying saucers" and other mysterious objects in the skies said, "I'll believe anything now but I wouldn't have believed what I saw if the others had not seen it too." He said the way cars were stopping on the highway that scores of persons must have seen it and watched its progress.

Maybe it was the "thing" -- maybe not, but Hilltop skies were full of aircraft over the weekend -- some low flying military planes included. The planes continued over the area Sunday and early Monday morning -- two huge "B-36s" moved over the area, going over Kane shortly before 9 a.m. at a very high altitude. One continued directly west, the other changed course to the south. Both were jet equipped.


Indiana, Pennsylvania Evening Gazette - 31 Jul 52



Saucer Rage Reaches Into Indiana Co.

The flying saucer furor reached into Indiana County yesterday.

WDAD announcer Jim Pattison revealed two calls from area residents insisted some kind of flying phenomenon was flitting about the countryside. In one case a picture had been taken.

Pattison rushed to the home of Mrs. W.F. Shields, Clymer R.D.2, whose daughter had just snapped a picture of a "flying saucer" with a Brownie camera. Back to Indiana came Pattison to have Frank Sipos, Gazette photographer, develop the film.

The enlargement revealed a telephone pole in the lower part of the picture and in the middle of the sky -- a speck.

Viewers of the picture have been unable to say the speck is not a flying saucer. But they can hardly insist that it is one.

Mrs. Shields said the picture was taken as the "saucer" sweeped from left to right across the sky.

Earlier Pattison had received a message from a sleepless Kent housewife who said she had watched a strange object in the sky yesterday morning from 2 to 6 o'clock. Her saucer was on the fantastic side. It was triangular, with a red ball on the end. It grew alternately brighter and dimmer. And it puffed smoke -- she said.

The night before in Punxsutawney a newsman chased reports of flying saucers for several hours. Described as a celery dish in form, it turned out to be the tail end of a beam from a searchlight probing the sky from Clearfield County.


Logansport, Indiana Press - 31 Jul 52



Skywatch Parties To Scan Sky For Saucers

And new sport that requires only a flexible neck, unbounded patience and perhaps a little imagination, is sweeping Indiana.

It's the "flying saucer skywatch."

The latest flurry of reports of strange objects flitting through the skies has caused more lifted chins than anything since the last eclipse.

At the little community of Cairo, in Tippecanoe county, personnel at Operation Skywatch have reported seeing "flying saucer" objects almost nightly since July 18.

Hundreds of civilians, military and police observers watched mysterious objects swirling overhead in south central Indiana earlier this week, and many residents of Elkhart county have reported seeing similar phenomena several times.

When Capt. F.R. Shafer, chief of the air force filter center at South Bend, went to Cairo to hunt saucers Tuesday night they failed to show for the first time in several nights.

But just five miles away at Lafayette, Operation Skywatch reported "strange dancing light spots over the city."

The filter center at South Bend brought radar into play and determined the mysterious objects were caused by Purdue University's airport beam meeting another beam of undisclosed sources and reflecting against a cloud bank.

The South Bend Tribune and its radio station, WSBT, are planning "flying saucer" parties between 9 and 11 p.m. Saturday.

Residents of seven northern Indiana counties and two in southern Michigan have been asked to arrange parties to watch for strange objects in the sky.

Those parties are to inform the Tribune of anything sighted and the information will be broadcast over the radio station. Radar "sittings" [sic] also will be made by the filter center.

Indianapolis radio station WISH said it will interrupt programs to relay promptly reports from "Operation Skywatch" of "flying saucer" objects.

The Indiana Astronomical Society plans a "flying saucer skywatch" Sunday night in the parking area in front of Butler fieldhouse in Indianapolis.

The society will supply 10 telescopes for the watch, and will study the planets and stars while waiting for a "flying saucer" to whiz across the sky.


Hopkinsville, Kentucky New Era - 31 Jul 52



Object is Sighted Near Breckinridge

Hard on the heels of reports from Washington of more unidentified flying objects traced on radar screens, and of the sighting of three similar objects in south central Indiana, came a report of one sighted near Camp Breckinridge.

Elmer Chambers, of 125 So. Green Street, Henderson, said he saw the object early yesterday morning while on his way to Breckinridge, where he is employed as a civilian fireman.

Chambers said he saw the object near Waverly, and that he stopped and got out of his car to watch it. He described what he saw as a disc-shaped object. He said the top -- or bottom -- was turned toward him at times.

The object left two large vapor trails with two smaller parallel trails on each side of the larger ones, he stated.

Chambers said he immediately discounted the theory that it might have been a jet plane because it turned almost at right angles.

"It didn't turn in a circle like an ordinary airplane," he stated, "but would almost reverse itself."

Chambers said he watched the object from 8:05 until 8:25 a.m.


Racine, Wisconsin Journal Times - 31 Jul 52



Sight 'Saucers' At Saumico

GREEN BAY -- Two veteran aircraft spotters told the Green Bay Air Filter Center Wednesday that two silvery objects like upside-down bowler hats had streaked across the sky, apparently being chased by a jet plane.

William Vickery and Harvey Pehn were working on a mink farm near Saumico, their home town, when a B-25 bomber attracted their attention. After the bomber came the silvery objects, they told the center. The "hats" moved at a terrific speed, then slowed up until the jet plane almost reached them, then rushed away again.

Within a minute after the objects vanished into the northeast, they appeared again from the east and shot overhead, disappearing into the west. Pehn and Vickery said they agreed not to describe their impressions until they had drawn sketches. Afterward, they said, they compared the sketches and found them almost identical.


Racine, Wisconsin Journal Times - 31 Jul 52



Watertown Spotters See 'Bright Object'

WATERTOWN -- Two Civil Defense air spotters reported a "bright object" over the Watertown Airport early Wednesday.

Spotters Bill Raue and Bill James, a radio announcer, said the object, which traveled westward over the airport, emitted a steady white light. They estimated its speed at more than 200 miles an hour and its height at 6,000 feet. They spotted the object at 2:30 a.m.


Monticello, Iowa Express - 31 Jul 52



Monticello
See Flying Saucers Over Monticello Monday
Ground Observer Corps Notified To Be On Watch Monday Evening
Sighted About 11 p.m. Monday

The nation's "flying saucer" tension became more real for some Monticello folks this week as rumors spread like wildfire.

In Monticello Monday evening at least one group of people reported seeing multi-colored objects in the sky about 11 p.m.

The observers, four girls who are employees of the local N.W. Bell Telephone Co. said that they watched the object from 11 until about 1:30 a.m., but that they made no report to local defense officials. A report was turned in from somewhere, though, because Walter Zubler, head of the Monticello Ground Observer Corps, was alerted to man the local post from 12 until 2 a.m.

No Sight

Zubler said that he and his volunteer observers manned the local post from 12 until 2 a.m. Tuesday morning but saw nothing but several falling stars. He said that he understood all of eastern Iowa had been alerted to be on the look-out for unidentified objects in the sky, but did not know whether any had been sighted.

One local businessman who had been listening to the late radio news stood on his front porch from 11 until 11:10, scanning the skies for possible flying saucers but saw nothing.

Zubler said that he wouldn't be surprised if he received orders to maintain watches at the power plants on coming nights in view of the apparent prevalence of the objects in the sky.

Describe Sight

The girls said for 2½ hours they watched the object move through the skies. They said that it was much larger than any star in the sky and moved in a way not at all like stars.

"As it moved sideways, backwards and up and down, it seemed to turn so we could see at times first the top and then the bottom," one girl told the Express. One side, they said, was red in color and the other side was green. The object appeared to be a long distance away and to be revolving, though they couldn't be sure of that.

During the time the girls watched, the object seemed to travel further and further away and diminished in size as well as get dimmer.

"We tried to stop several cars," they said, "but they must have thought we were crazy." Two more girls joined the four at 12:15 and watched with them until 1:30 a.m.

At Waukon

The Express checked with newsmen at Station WMT in Cedar Rapids Tuesday afternoon to find if reports from other towns had been turned in. They did have a report from an observer in Waukon, but added that "everyone is seeing saucers."

That was the attitude the six girls who saw the saucers here took too. They were almost afraid to mention the occurrence for fear folks would think they were making up the story.

(Tuesday's news reports from Washington, D.C., indicated that numerous "saucers" were shown on radar but that interceptor planes failed to find them in the skies.

(An air force release Tuesday said that some of the nation's top scientists had been called in on the problem and that they were not at this time experimenting with anything that could be interpreted as a flying saucer.)

An Anamosa man, L.L. Fulwider reported seeing a "saucer" Monday evening. He reportedly watched its progress with binoculars as well as with his naked eyes.


Council Bluffs, Iowa Nonpareil - 31 Jul 52



Another Report

LARRABEE, Ia. -- There is another report Wednesday of mysterious flying objects in Iowa skies, this time from Cherokee county.

Six persons reported seeing a number of disc-shaped silver objects speeding high above a farm near Larrabee. The witnesses reported the discs appeared to hover in the sky at times and remained in sight more than an hour before heading northward out of sight.


Graettinger, Iowa Times - 31 Jul 52



Saw Flying Saucer In Eastern Sky

Mr. and Mrs. C.E. Norris saw flying saucers in the eastern sky Tuesday evening. The saucers were over Indiana the previous night. These flying saucers are probably space ships from Mars.


Newark, Ohio Advocate - 31 Jul 52



Sees 'Green Light' Not Traffic Signal

ST. LOUIS -- An object with a greenish light was sighted in the sky south of St. Louis Wednesday night by at least three persons who described it as a "flying saucer." They reported viewing the phenomenon about 30 minutes after a similar "saucer" was reported directly over Hot Springs, Ark.


Albuquerque, New Mexico Journal - 31 Jul 52



Arkansas Residents See "Flying Saucer"

HOT SPRINGS, Ark., July 30 -- The Hot Springs Sentinel Record said tonight that six residents of this resort city reported they saw a "flying saucer" here tonight.

The newspaper said the six people telephoned its office within two minutes about 9 p.m., to report the fiery objects. Two of them gave identical descriptions.

A hotel clerk, said he was sitting in his car at a drive-in cafe when he saw a "white ball of fire with a red tail" pass high over the city. He said the "saucer" was flying north.


Fayetteville, Arkansas Northwest Arkansas Times - 31 Jul 52



"Flying Saucers" Sighted At Various Points Over State

Hospital Springs, Ark. -- "A white ball of fire with a red tail."

That was the description given to the Hot Springs Sentinel Record last night by two excited citizens who claim they saw a "flying saucer" over the resort city.

The newspaper also had reports from four other residents that fiery objects were skimming through the sky about 9 p.m. All reports reached the newspaper office within two minutes.

G. Clark, a hotel clerk, and Don Bigsbee gave identical descriptions of the "flying saucer." Clark said the "saucer" was flying north. Bigsbee said the object remained within his vision for about two minutes and then disappeared into the north.

A third witness, Bill Heard, said the object was flying at about 1,5OO feet and appeared to be either a jet plane or a guided missile. He, too, said it was going north.

Three other persons who witnessed the space object told the newspaper they did not care to give their names.

At Walnut Ridge, Bob Twombly, an auto mechanic and Air Force veteran, said he spotted a round bluish object with an orange tinge at its rear about 8:30 p.m. last night.

An unidentified airline pilot reported to the Adams Field tower at Little Rock that he had seen "something that looked like a shooting star" zoom across the skies at 8:40 p.m. about 80 miles west of Little Rock.

Two Blytheville residents also reported seeing a strange object at that time of the evening which fitted the description given by others.

The 3003rd [sic] Radar Bomb Squadron, National Guard, at Adams Field, reported its screens had picked up nothing unusual.


Emporia, Kansas Weekly Gazette - 31 Jul 52



"Flying Saucer" Is Seen in Lyon County

In connection with reports that flying saucers have been seen in the vicinity of Washington, D.C., it was revealed today that Lyon county also has been visited by strange aerial craft. Reports from Reading said that a plate-shaped object was sighted the other day and observers said it "definitely was not an airplane."

Tom Price and his sons, Dave and Bill, all well-known residents of the Reading area, were setting feed boxes in a pasture two miles south and one west of Reading, when their attention was attracted by a loud noise.

According to Dave Price, a former Army pilot, the noise seemed like a jet ship taking off. There ended the resemblance to any aerial craft he had ever seen, said Dave Price.

The round, plate-like object was to the east of the pasture in which the men were working, Dave said, and appeared to be approximately 10,000 feet high.

"The noise we first heard lasted only a few seconds." Dave Price said. "When we first saw the object it was going only about 100 miles an hour and did not appear to have much directional stability. It appeared to waver from its general northerly direction. After 30 to 40 seconds of this it suddenly began a rapid climb and increased its speed to what I would guess to be about 1,000 miles an hour. It disappeared to the north at an altitude of about 25,000 feet."

The object appeared to be spinning in the air, Dave Price said, and was aluminum in color, "about the same color as the big air liners."

"But it definitely was not an airplane," the former Army pilot said.


Albuquerque, New Mexico Tribune - 31 Jul 52



'Who Dat Up Thar?' - Saucer Pilots Mum

OMAHA, July 31 -- Radio Station KOWH, Omaha, attempted today to make radio contact with any "flying saucers" that might be within range of its transmitter.

The station asked any beings aboard the saucers to transmit signals in the 800 kilocycle band.

A KOWH spokesman, Virgil Sharpe, said employes are monitoring the 800 kilocycle-band, but so far no saucer pilots have made contact with the station.


Austin, Texas Daily Herald - 31 Jul 52



Austin's 'Flying Saucer' Resembles Australia's

By Dick Williams

Well, we are gratified to learn that someone else -- an Australian, no less -- has been seeing "flying saucers" in technicolor.

If you remember, we reported seeing a bright green object streaking through the sky south of Austin at about 9:30 p.m. Tuesday, July 22.

Now comes a report (via the British news agency, Reuters) that one Capt. J. Murray, a pilot, has reported seeing a similar object in the sky south of Darwin, Australia.

The captain, who flies a Constellation, says he sighted a strange, bright green object flashing horizontally across the night sky.

May Have Bern One

A professed believer in flying saucers, the captain said he thinks this may have been one.

Anyway, it changed color to red and then to gold as it disappeared.

Now, to further substantiate that we saw the same thing as the captain but not so much of it, here is a report we received from Ernie Jacob, 301 Cleveland, who called us after reading our previous story.

Jacob said, "I was sitting on the porch watching a ball game at Marcusen park a little after 9 last night (July 22). I saw a sort of ball of fire -- a red light. It didn't seem to be very high. I thought it was about 300 or 400 feet in the air.

Trail of Fire

"It was going south. It looked like a ball of fire up ahead and left a trail of fire behind. It was sort of round.

"Then it changed to yellow and went out. Boom! It was gone. It was too big for a skyrocket or a shooting star. I have my doubts it was a skyrocket because it was going in almost a straight line across the sky when I saw it." Jacob caught sight of it when it shot past the corner of the house.

He said it went out when it was in line with the north side of the grandstand in the ballpark. "I never saw anything quite like it before," he said.

Just a Glimpse

Well, neither did we. We first sighted the object while driving south on Fourth Street. We just caught a glimpse of it as it dove out of sight behind some trees. However, we feel that after our object disappeared from our vision it changed to red and Jacob, sitting on his porch, first sighted it after it had changed its dress or whatever it is flying saucers of this type wear.

Anyway, we like to think that, with Jacob, we sighted the same object -- or type of object -- which Capt. Murray saw way-down-under the following Saturday.

What do you think?


Harlingen, Texas Valley Morning Star - 31 Jul 52



'Saucers' Reported Over Brownsville

BROWNSVILLE. July 30 -- Flying saucers were over Brownsville, residents reported here today. Seven to 10 of the "mystery objects" were seen over the city about 5:40 p.m. Tuesday by a woman and three children who live in the high school neighborhood.

The woman, who preferred her name not be used, said she definitely saw the objects and "they were no birds or planes." She said they spotted the saucers flying southwest in a circular motion. "They were glistening objects and could be seen very clearly," she said. She added the saucers moved very fast and disappeared high in the sky.

The three children, Jeff Warburton, and Diana and Dolores Escobar, said they noticed the "salad plate shaped" objects headed southwest.


Pampa, Texas Daily News - 31 Jul 52



Flying Saucers Confuse Pampans
By Ro Ellison

Latest reports of flying saucers have Pampans pretty well confused. Skeptics, firm believers and just plain, puzzled people were found among a number of local residents yesterday when News reporters asked them, "Do you believe in flying saucers?"

Secret military experiments, formation of the elements, optical illusions and a possibility of space ships from another planet were all given as explanations of the re-appearance of the mysterious objects.

Two Pampans, Mrs. Ralph W. Prock, 1320 Duncan, and her grandmother are in the "I-have-seen-them-I-think" group. Mrs. Prock said she and her grandmother were driving from Miami to Pampa late one evening last summer and they saw two objects, apparently round, spinning and heading west.

They were not too high, Mrs. Prock said, and they couldn't tell whether or not they were moving, but she and her grandmother both thought they were flying saucers at the time.

C.O. Gilbert, south of Pampa, believes if they exist, they are some military experiment, but said his wife is a firm believer in them. "That many people can't be wrong," she says.

C.C. Campbell, 521 Magnolia, doesn't believe in 'em. He says it's just hot or cold layers of the air reflecting light. Mrs. R.L. McDaniel, 508 N. Frost, thinks they are just optical illusions, nothing more, and Jack Robinson, 421 N. West, says firmly, "It's a bunch of hooeey."

Ships From Space

Mrs. R.H. Elkins, 1018 E. Francis, "kind of believes they could be space ships from out of space." She didn't have any special reason for believing it, but it sounds exciting that way.

Mrs. Glenn Ritchart, 1316 N. Duncan, isn't certain about them, but she feels that they belong to either the U.S. Government or to Russia -- probably to our government, she says.

Mr. and Mrs. Delbert Johnson, south of Pampa, were discussing the latest report at the time of the interview and they agreed that if radar screen had picked up images, then they couldn't be entirely imaginary. However, they both feel that the explanation when found will be something pretty natural and not weird.

Not Worried

Mrs. H.S. Bidwell, 1320 E. Frederic, hopes they aren't from another country; Mrs. Artie Rober 217 N. Gillespie, is skeptical about their being from another planet and doesn't worry about it a great deal; and Mrs. Cleo Ruff, 1316 E. Francis, thinks if they actually exist "someone could find them, rather than just see them."

Earl F. Miller, 1120 Garland advanced the theory that they are secret experimental craft designed by the U.S. Navy. He is positive they are not ships from outer space.

Paul Grossman, 1501 Russell saw something peculiar in the sky a year ago, but paid little heed to it. He believes they are something, but doesn't think they are dangerous since no reports of their attacking people or property have come out. Formation in the elements is the biggest possibility, he said.

All in all, Pampans have no solution to the flying saucer problem, but latest reports are provoking a lot of thought.


Albuquerque, New Mexico Journal - 31 Jul 52



10 Flying 'Doodads' Seen Here

An Albuquerque newspaperman saw at least 10 flying doodads "going like a bat out of hell" last night, about three hours after another was sighted over Tucumcari near the Texas line.

Doyle Kline, on the city desk of the Albuquerque Tribune, sighted the objects from his front porch at 9:30 p.m. Tuesday.

"Whatever they were," Kline wrote today, "they made a 'flying saucer' believer out of me. They resembled nothing I had ever seen before."

About 6 p.m., Nella Beth Rothstein and Mrs. E.V. Harris saw an object over Tucumcari. Mrs. Harris said it was a "blue ball."

Mrs. Rothstein said it was a spherical object, which climbed into the sky and disappeared in the north.

Kline said the objects he saw came from the southeast, in no particular formation.

Then, he said, they formed themselves into a V-formation something like a flock of geese, and then into two parallel lines of about five objects each.

Dr. Lincoln La Paz, director of the Institute of Meteoritics at the University of New Mexico, said they definitely were not meteors.

"All through recorded history in August," La Paz said, "man has seen a shower of meteors from the Perseis constellation. But they come from the northeast.

"These came from the southwest -- just the opposite of the meteors."

La Paz's only comment on the "saucers," besides what they definitely are not, is that "it's all very interesting."

Once before, a flight of objects was seen in the sky in New Mexico. In April of 1949, Farmington residents reported seeing some objects flying overhead in broad daylight. There was never any confirmation from official sources as to what these might have been.

Last night's formation of objects over Albuquerque aroused the interest of the Air Force, which asked Kline to report on what he saw to its intelligence officers at Kirtland Air Force Base.

Col. William Matheny, commander of the 34th Air Defense Division, said radar did not pick up the objects nor were they chased by jets.


Berkshire, Massachusetts Evening Eagle - 31 Jul 52



Notes and Footnotes

. . . For several nights, radar has spotted "unidentified objects" over Washington, D.C., and although jet planes sought an interception, they were quickly out-distanced. While the Army release carefully doesn't say flying saucers, we recall a prediction a few weeks ago by Walter Winchell that the Army was preparing for September release the eerie story of how a flying saucer recently swooped down on White Sands Proving Ground, four odd looking men or something got out, cased the area, hopped back in and were gone before you could say Buck Rogers. Winchell's average for accuracy is, however, only about 50 per cent. Probably only two odd looking creatures got out . . . 


Walla Walla, Washington Union-Bulletin - 31 Jul 52



[No Headline]

WENATCHEE  -- Wenatchee joined the nation-wide "sky objects" race Wednesday.

Chelan County Civil Defense Director Lee Klawitter reported a mysterious "something" was seen at an air watch observation post.

It looked like a star to the naked eye but sighted through glasses it seemed to be moving across the sky, he reported.


Kennewick, Washington Tri-City Herald - 31 Jul 52



Believe It Or Not . . . Newsman Sees 'Saucer'

(Eds note: Charles Lamb, Tri-city Herald reporter, was among the latest persons in the Tri-City area to spot what he feels was a flying saucer. Here is Lamb's eyewitness account of what he saw.)

By CHARLES LAMB

I've always wanted to see a flying saucer and Tuesday I saw one. I knew If I kept looking I would see one sooner or later.

My wife saw it too. And so did our little daughter Vicky. But Vicky is only 10 months old and didn't think it was so unusual. It was just another experience for her. She didn't even get excited when she watched the spectacular Fourth of July fireworks display in Richland.

We were driving along Vista Road enroute to Richland at about 5 o'clock Tuesday afternoon. Directly ahead, about 10 miles away and at an altitude of 5,000 feet we saw a disc. It was kind of a silvery color and as flat as a pancake. It appeared to be either traveling away from us or just hanging in midair.

Occasionally it would vary its course and we could see it was round. We watched it for at least two minutes before it finally disappeared behind a hill on the horizon and was gone. It is quite a feat of driving to watch a flying disk, face an afternoon sun and buck the five o'clock stream of workers driving home from Richland.

I am certain it wasn't a plane, and I sent up enough weather balloons during the war to know a balloon when I saw it. My eyes aren't the best, and I have been doing a lot of wishful thinking lately about discs. If I'd seen it alone I would have called it a mirage or a case of wish fulfillment.

But the wife saw it too, and she thinks it was an honest to goodness flying saucer. I can't help but agree with her.


Placerville, California Mountain Democrat - 31 Jul 52



Les Frost Again Sees Mystery Flying Object

Les Frost of Placerville, who sighted flying saucers in the skies some months ago, got more data Thursday night when he witnessed mysterious fire balls in the sky moving in a fashion ruling out the possibility they might be meteors.

Les and Mrs. Frost both saw the objects. One came out of the northeast, glowing in a very brilliant purplish-white hue, at about 11 to 11:15 at night. About three minutes later another similar object came out of the southwest at about 40,000 to 50,000 feet, on a level plane and on a straight course, trailing a luminous tail. The light cut off as though by the operation of an electric switch, Frost said, giving the impression of cutting power off and on to control speed of flight. He saw it a third time, a few minutes later, farther away.

Frost says he sees many meteors from his home, above the city light glare on Sacramento Hill, and recognizes their trajectory and general flight attitudes.


Redlands, California Daily Facts - 31 Jul 52



Former Pilot Puts New Wrinkle In 'Disc' Stories

LOS ANGELES -- A new wrinkle in "flying saucers" -- an object that can split in two and keep right on flying -- was reported in Southern California skies yesterday by a former Air Force pilot and an engineer.

Ted Golin, 28, the former pilot, said he saw the object last night and watched it break into two halves, with both pieces flying independently.

He said the object was oval in shape and looked like an "oscillating star." Several other witnesses also reported watching the object in the sky over nearby Culver City shortly after sundown.

"I know it sounds nuts," said Golin, "but I actually saw it. My eyes are good and my flight experience is enough so that I know it wasn't a hallucination or my imagination running away with me."

He said the object was above clouds which he estimated to be 30,000 feet high and it moved parallel to the earth.

"It suddenly broke in two. Each part zipped about a mile apart and then went straight up and disappeared," he said.

Arnold Dolmatz, who said he was an engineer, supported Golin's account of the spectacle.


Casablanca, Morocco La Vigie Morocain - 31 Jul 52



Cites Several Appearances Of Flying Saucers In Algeria

On the evening of 29 July 1952, two new flying saucers were sighted. The first, appearing at 2050 hours over Mostaganem, was visible only a few seconds. The second one appeared at 2300 hours at Ain Teledes. It flew above the city for about a minute, emitting a whitish trail of smoke. The manner in which it attained various altitudes revealed a surprising maneuverability. When it appeared, it was headed south.

This is the fifth time in a matter of weeks that this phenomenon has been noted in the Department of Oran. A saucer appearing to be about the size of a teacup was observed by two policemen over Frenda (at the east end of Oran Department). It consisted of a dark nucleus within a luminous mass. Near Tlemcen, motorists noted a strange cigar-shaped object at a height of 600 meters. There was a luminous cloud in its wake. And finally, at Lamoriciere, about 40 kilometers from the Abdellys area, motorists saw a phosphorescent disk for a brief period of time.


Oran, Algeria Echo d 'Oran - 31 Jul 52



Saucers Observed In Two Areas Of Oran

After it had received and published a series of flying saucer reports, the newspaper L'Echo d'Oran carried a review of the occurrences, as well as several late reports. The following is a summary of the article.

Our correspondents have sent us word of saucers appearing everywhere in Oran Department during the past few days. This seems to be the saucers' favorite area, one which is no doubt salutary for their development. They have appeared here with greater frequency than in France or the US. It is impossible, moreover, to doubt the veracity of the observers, since they include policemen, colons [sic], a priest, and a cadi [sic].

At 0400 hours today, Raymond Botella, a Public Works Department employee in Tlemcen, saw a flying object moving rapidly north and trailing a whitish smoke cloud. A half hour before, the mysterious saucer had been seen in Oued Taria, traveling at the same speed and, like the saucer observed yesterday, making abrupt turns and changes of direction.

On the night of 30 July, in Sainte Barbe du Tlelat, a police adjutant, two policemen, and a cadi observed a luminous flying object for about 30 seconds. The daily police reports will henceforth include all such observations by the police. In the morning of 30 July, a resident of Algiers saw, for several seconds, a shining black disk on the horizon. It made a rapid vertical descent, then suddenly moved in a horizontal direction.

Two observations were made in Lodi. On 25 July, at about 2130 hours, a yellowish object flew at a dizzy speed in the sky, and on 28 July, at 2150 hours, a much larger object appeared for several seconds; it had the shape of an inverted cone.


Brainerd, Minnesota Daily Dispatch - 31 Jul 52



[No Headline]

DALLAS -- The president of the Texas Astronomical society, E.M. Brewer, said today he believed the flying saucers "may be some sort of space ships from another planet."

But, the Dallas man added, "if there is life on some other planet, and if it is that far advanced scientifically, then surely they're far enough advanced to have learned to live peaceably."


Syracuse, New York, Post Standard - 31 Jul 52



Cornell Professor Spoofs Flying Saucer Reports as Astronomical Phenomena

ITHACA, July 30. -- The flying saucers that are being reported almost nightly from every point in the nation are no more material than the aurora borealis, in the opinion of S.L. Boothroyd, professor emeritus of astronomy at Cornell University.

In fact, he sees possibility of some relationship between the radiation of the sun, and the aurora borealis and the reports of flying saucers.

Dr. Boothroyd does not pretend to be an expert on flying saucers, in fact he says he has never seen one, as such. But, he states, flying saucers, tho they were dubbed as such, were reported more than a hundred years ago.

The characteristics of the objects seen then, match those reported by persons who claim to have sighted flying saucers.

Scientific papers and publications report "eerie looking lights, streaking across the sky, at tremendous speeds and changing direction almost instantly," Dr. Boothroyd recalls.

That sounds almost like the lead paragraph on a news service story relating the sighting of another flying saucer in July, 1952.

The Ithacan says that, in his opinion, the flying saucers being reported now are no more material than the aurora. That phenomena is immaterial in the human sense, he says.

The aurora borealis occurs on a specific day because it is related to the radiation of the sun on its axis. Studies have proved there is a definite relationship between the aurora and the sun spot cycle.

Electrons and hydrogen nuclear protons coming from the sun, spiraling into the atmosphere and ironizing [sic], are generally credited with producing the lighting effects noted when the aurora borealis is visible.

Dr. Boothroyd is of the opinion that some similar occurrence, perhaps related to the short wave radio waves by the sun, the milky way, and some stars, may contribute to the presence of flying saucers in the skies.

The Ithaca astronomist is satisfied beyond any doubt that the flying saucers originate basically from such source. They can not be material in any respect, he contends, because if the objects that are being sighted had a "considerable mass" to them, it would require an "enormous force" to enable them to change direction as quickly and as easily as they do.

There may be some psychological connection too, with the reported sighting of flying saucers, Dr. Boothroyd believes. He has himself, and so have others, he reminds, apparently seen something from the corner of his eye. When the object was brought into clear focus, it didn't exist. That could account for some of the strange objects reported as flying saucers.

Too, he feels there may be a relationship between the fear of any enemy air attack and an exaggerated visualization of what is actually sighted.


Valparaiso, Indiana Vidette Messenger - 31 Jul 52



The Hoosier Day
By Frank A. White

HOOSIERS AGITATED BY FLYING SAUCERS

Many serious minded Hoosiers are not ready to disregard entirely reports of flying saucers over the state, regardless of how fantastic the accounts of these strange objects may sound.

Capt. F.R. Shafer, commanding the South Bend civilian air filter center, reports that scores of reports of flying saucers are coming in from state police, and citizens. Among them are residents of Franklin, Connersville, Camp Atterbury, military personnel and others.

It will be recalled that all this agitation about flying saucers streaking across the sky started five years ago when a report came from two pilots over the Rocky mountain area. Reports welled up within the week in Washington, D. C., as they did in 20 Hoosier counties.

EXPERIENCED PILOTS SAW STRANGE CRAFT

In 1942 U.S. engineers built a flying saucer that competed over 100 successful flights, following similar experimentation in Italy and Germany. The U.S. Navy had Chance-Vought company build the first full scale flying saucer. Then it was announced that the flying saucer construction had been dropped.

However, the navy has the dollars, the scientists and engineers. The flying saucer is most ideally fitted to hover over a fleet, since its combination helicopter-jet engine qualities enables it to rise straight up in the air, to travel at slow speed of some 35 miles an hour or at speeds in excess of 600 miles per hour.

Eastern Airline pilots over Georgia, and others have given a fairly well documented description of the flying saucers. Scientists had some instruments set at White Sands proving grounds to check high flight balloons. What was believed to be a flying saucer got in the range of the radar, sound and other instruments. This and reports of flyers describe flying saucers as being elliptical in shape, 105 feet in diameter and 10 feet high. They are powered by jets arranged around their circular edge.

Paul Janes, private flyer and Hoosier newsman is back from attending an aviation writer's conference in San Francisco. The writers were shown a "bat-shape" plane of new design that could fly slow or fast, ascend perpendicularly and in flight had all the appearance of a flying saucer. My experience of today shows you may start an argument as to whether there are flying saucers at the drop of a hat. Herewith has been presented, the theory that flying saucers are soundly engineered and financed by the guided missile funds of the navy in secrecy.


Albuquerque, New Mexico Tribune - 31 Jul 52



[No Headline]

SEATTLE, Wash, July 31 -- Gen. Hoyt Vandenberg, Air Force chief of staff, says there is no such thing as a flying saucer and believes the present wave of reports of unidentified objects in the sky are the result of "double vision."...


Portsmouth, New Hampshire Herald - 31 Jul 52



Air Force Changes Opinion on Saucers

By Douglas Larsen

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Air Force has the responsibility of finding out what there is to the saucer reports. After two years' study it finally reported in 1950: "All evidence and analyses indicate that the reports of unidentified flying objects are the result of: (1) Misinterpretation of various conventional objects; (2) a mild form of mass hysteria; (3) or hoaxes."

Lt. Col. DeWitt R. Searles, an Air Force press officer was given the job of officially denying the existence of saucers from then on. His file on the subject was labeled "death of the saucers."

On June 17 of this year, however, Col. Searles was forced to reveal a slight alteration in the Air Force stand on saucers. He issued a statement which said:

"No concrete evidence has yet reached us to either prove or disprove the existence of the so-called flying saucers. However, there remain a number of sightings which have not been satisfactorily explained. As long as this is true the Air Force will continue to investigate flying saucers reports."

Air Force reaction to the recent Washington sightings has been curious, and its reports have been conflicting. A few minutes after CAA confirmed its sightings on the 20th it reported the fact to the Air Force in a normal but classified procedure.

For the next several days the Air Force claimed that its radar at nearby Andrews Air Force base did not confirm the findings of the CAA radar. Later, however the Air Force reversed itself and admitted that the Andrews radar did pick up the objects, four hours after the first CAA report.

On July 20, then, the strange objects appeared on three separate radar sets for two hours. A week later the Air Force admitted that its Andrews radar had practically identical sightings to the other two all evening.

The first night no fighter panes went aloft to investigate the sightings. A week later, however, the Air Force sent up jets to try to get a closer look at the objects.

The only report from the fighter pilots was that they saw strange lights, moving too fast for the 600 mph jets to intercept.

Another conflicting Air Force report concerns a saucer expert from the now barricaded unit at Dayton, Capt. E.J. Ruppelt. He "happened" to be in town at the time. An AF spokesman said that he would interview all of the persons involved in the sightings.

A week later, however, Capt. Ruppelt had left town and had not contacted a single one of the CAA persons involved. Col. Searles reported that he had taken a copy of Barnes' brief summary report in long hand over the telephone next day. That constitutes the Air Force's only official recognition of the events of the 20th. The AF, however, now promises to make a thorough investigations of the events of both nights.

In the unofficial category of saucer study is the theory of Dr. Donald H. Menzel, a Harvard professor of astrophysics. It seems to have had most effect in debunking saucer reports among the experts.

He says visual sighting could be ordinary lights which are reflected from warm layers of air. And he says radar can produce a false pip in the same way.

According to several experts in Washington, who asked not to be quoted, Menzel's theory does not account for the simultaneous visual and radar sightings.

Further, it isn't likely that any warm layer of reflecting air would have remained constant, for so long a period over Washington that night.

Coincidental with the recent Washington sightings and increased reports of saucer sightings all over the U.S. this summer, has been increased rumors around the Pentagon and from other government agencies attempting to explain saucers.

And they appear to be coming from more reliable sources, although these sources continue to refuse to let themselves be identified.

Most persistent rumor is that Boeing Airplane Co. in Seattle, Wash., is either making flying saucers or has been in charge of the engineering of the project. The rumor goes that very small parts of the saucers are being made by widely scattered subcontractors and that the finished items are being assembled at some remote site. A Boeing spokesman in Seattle flatly denies this rumor, as does the Air Force.

The descriptions of the saucers which have been sighted indicates that some radically new source of power would be needed to make the objects move as fast as they did.

If this were true it doesn't make sense that the Air Forces would be expending such a tremendous effort to improve its present jet engines, which would be made completely obsolete by the new source of power. Nor would the Air Force be likely to have its saucers practice maneuvers early Sunday morning around Washington.

In the weirder category of rumors is the one that the saucers are either Russian-built or from another planet and that several of them have crashed and have been picked up by the Air Force. It goes on to theorize that the Air Force has been able to repair some of them and make them operate and at the same time is trying to build some of its own just like them.

This would account for the Air Force being extremely interested in some sightings, and apparently very disinterested in others.

Col. Searles, who has had more experience in denying saucer rumors than anyone in the Pentagon, just laughs at this idea.

But nobody is really laughing at the strange objects tracked by radar over the nation's capital.


Lawrence, Kansas Journal World - 31 Jul 52



Saucers With Substance
Daily Oklahoman

One of the more plausible explanations of the recurring mystery of the flying saucers is advanced by Dr. Donald H. Menzel, a professor of astrophysics at Harvard University.

It is his contention that most of these spooky manifestations are displaced images resulting when light from commonplace sources passes through alternating layers of hot and cold air.

"Light moves more rapidly through thin, warm air than it moves in dense, cold air. Accordingly, light rays are bent or broken when they pass from one layer of air to another, and the effect is to produce the spinning discs, the cigar-shaped objects and the globular blobs that cause so much mystification when viewed from the ground."

There is little question that many of the persons who have sighted these heavenly phenomena actually were looking at mirages created by the refraction of light from such ordinary sources as the sun, the moon and automobile headlamps.

It would be a great comfort to suppose all such manifestations were attributable to light refraction. There is one important difficulty, however.

Radar waves won't bounce away from intangible reflections, and the unidentified objects which have appeared over Washington and elsewhere this summer are being tracked by radar.

Whatever they may be these particular objects have substance, and the air force that regarded flying saucers with skepticism heretofore is beginning to take them seriously.


Long Beach, California Press-Telegram - 31 Jul 52



If Einstein's Incurious, He's All Alone

DR. ALBERT EINSTEIN says he is "not curious to know" what the so-called flying saucers really are. He thus sets himself up as practically a one-man minority. Everybody else seems not merely curious but quite eager. In many forums the saucers have supplanted politics as the main item of conversation.

Somewhat belatedly, the Air Force has finally launched an investigation proportionate with the number and lurid variety of objects purportedly seen in the heavens. Maj. Gen. John A. Samford, chief of air intelligence, is heading a force of technical experts who will give full time to the mystery. It's about time, for public interest in the unexplained sky-riders has passed from idle speculation to the beginning of uneasiness. The age of marvels has conditioned everyone to look for the almost unimaginable. It will take more than perfunctory reassurances to change that attitude.

The official line, properly enough, is that natural phenomena rather than manmade contrivances must first be explored. Gen. Samford's own theory is that atmospheric conditions may have distorted the objects as described from radar sightings. Among some of the scientists, however, professional skepticism seems to have been pressed to extreme lengths. Testimony of many credible witnesses disputes the flat dictum of Dr. Harlow Shapley, director of the Harvard Observatory, that "flying saucers are a lot of complete nonsense."

Even Dr. Einstein whose scientific immunity from excitement is beyond question, differs with that opinion. He prefaced his disclaimer of curiosity with the comment: "Those people have seen something," underlining the "something." In that sentence he reversed his role of the unique dissenter. For once, he has reached a conclusion which the majority can understand and accept.


Syracuse, New York Herald Journal - 31 Jul 52



Flying Saucers Serve a Purpose

Been seeing things at night? Flying saucers and such like? That has been by way of becoming the great American game. Everybody loves a mystery, and there has been mystery aplenty about those appearances in the skies. As we pointed out recently, however, there is no record of their having harmed anyone, and now we are told that there have been such goings-on for the past 200 years.

"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in thy philosophy." And such celestial visitors as have been reported give the imagination free rein. We expect sea serpents during the silly season, but the saucer reports have come at all times. And because nerves are jittery some alarming theories were developed.

Forgotten were all the arguments against the existence of life on the other planets. With or without the carbon atom or the existence of seas in which the first germ of life (scientists say) developed on earth, people leaped to the conclusion that we were being invaded by intelligences from afar. That would be a trifle disconcerting. To cope with an enemy whose nature was unknown would certainly call for new textbooks on strategy and tactics. Should we use the atom bomb or DDT? Should we bombard the foe with destructive affirmations by telepathy? Or should we fall back on that historic line from the Orson Welles broadcast, " The Secretary of War says there is nothing to do but pray!"

Well, it seems now that such a crisis can be regarded as nonexistent. The Air Force calls the flying dishware over Washington "natural phenomena." They would have to be that in any case, if your definition of nature is broad enough. But what is meant is that they are reflections of light that does away with any purposive aggression

A change of worries, as most of us knew before Winston Churchill said so, is good for one. The flying saucer complex has served a good purpose. Let's dismiss it, reserving the right to return to it at any future time when we need it.


Mansfield, Ohio News Journal - 31 Jul 52



Flying Saucers, Real Or Not, Inspire Fantastic Thoughts

AT THE MOMENT it appears that your opinion on flying saucers is just as good as anybody else's. Mere mention of the phenomena will elicit comments ranging anywhere from "Pish-tosh!" to "They are something from another planet. They have to be."

Anyhow, they are a fine topic for warm weather conversation --  a pleasant temporary relief from politics at home and international intrigue abroad, and they are timely, now that several have been reported seen in the Mansfield area.

If you are inclined to accept any part at all of the reports about the saucers as truth, it seems obvious that their manipulation is based upon a principle which is not commonly understood by human scientists. That principle is one of motion which has no apparent relation to gravity.

Gravity has been neutralized, so to speak, as far as the saucers are concerned.

While human science has not evolved, or certainly not announced, the discovery of such a principle it is obviously no less fantastic than even our present crude uses of atomic energy would have seemed to the human race a thousand years ago.

And who is to say that somewhere in the universe there are not civilizations many thousands of years more advanced than our own? After all, we haven't even the vaguest idea of how big the universe is! We are only beginning to understand that the segment we can see through powerful telescopes acts very much like the space and matter in a tiny atom.

To pursue this fantastic notion, it would be possible to assume that we are being "inspected" by some kind of visitors from space. Surely, as the Air Force points out, there seems no disposition on the part of the saucers to "attack" us.

Maybe we are just matters of curiosity to our incomprehensible visitors.

By this time, we assume, most skeptics will have quit reading this editorial in sheer disgust. And they may be perfectly right to ignore the whole flying saucer business. On the other hand . . .

The possibility of mortals taking a trip to the moon no longer seems half so fantastic as it did before the advent of atomic power. If man can cruise space, why not other creatures?

We are not assuming here that flying saucers are actually visitors from some other part of the universe. We don't have the faintest idea what they are. They may be many different things; weather phenomena, hallucinations, distorted aerial reflections of real things on the ground or in the sky.

Obviously they are nothing to worry about. Plainly, too, there is no harm in speculation and in actual scientific attempts to find out more about the things, to prove them real or imaginary.

According to the principles of aerodynamics a bumblebee can't fly. But the bee doesn't know that, so he flies.

According to an old story, too, an untravelled lady saw an elephant in her garden. She dismissed the matter by saying, "There ain't no such animal."

Skepticism is healthy, but it's curiosity that supplies the power for the motors of progress.







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Notes:

1. Many of the foreign-language publications quoted in this series come from translations provided within CIA documents of the time, now released under the Freedom of Information Act, as well as translations found in the declassified files of the Air Force's Project Blue Book. A lesser number come from the (now-defunct) French site Ufologie.net.

2. The news article "Whatever's Up There, Many People Are Sighting Things" recapping sightings in Passaic-Bergen, New Jersey was found as part of the Air Force investigation of a different sighting report in the area on July 31, which will be included -- along with Blue Book documents -- in a future post.

3. Pfc. Herman Mayher's film, as told in "Navy Fliers See Similar Sky Object", was the subject of subsequent news stories in the following days which will appear within future posts in the next weeks. Declassified Project Blue Book documents will be included in notes at in the final post.

4. The results of the Indiana-Michigan coordinated watch for aerial phenomenon told in the article "Propose "Saucer Watch" will be included in future posts.









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