in the news 1952
PART THIRTY-ONE
Above: Illustration from Project Blue Book files. Published in American Weekly on April 19, 1953, it told the story of Sonny DesVergers, a scoutmaster who claimed to have been attacked with a burning beam from a flying saucer in Florida. Story below.
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...
AUGUST 21, 1952:
Pinedale, Wyoming Roundup - 21 Aug 52
From The Capitol Steps
with William Henry Harrison
After several years of comparative quiet, flying saucers -- for want of a better name -- again are breaking out like a rash in all sections of the nation. Many, many reports are being received concerning the strange objects, some credible, many incredible. There is evidence, now, that Uncle Sam is taking seriously these reports of mysterious lights in the skies. Jet pilots are alerted to give chase to the objects, and the aid of the nation's top-notch scientists is being enlisted to explain the phenomena.
Chasing saucers has become a popular pastime, both visually and actually. One nationwide TV show, originating in Washington, recently put newsmen aloft and stationed others around to sight the objects. The TV producer's intent: To train the long-range TV camera on the objects if sighted. None appeared during the show.
So far, no concrete, acceptable explanation has been offered to settle once and for all the identity of the objects, although many theories have been advanced by both professional and amateur saucer-chasers.
Albuquerque, New Mexico Tribune - 21 Aug 52
Astronomer Says Some 'Saucers' Are Meteorites
By Science Service
BERKELEY, Calif. -- While it is possible that intelligent beings do exist on earth-like planets in other solar systems, the chances that such beings would have anything to do with the "flying saucer" phenomena are virtually zero. In fact, there is no reason to believe that "flying saucer" phenomena are extra-terrestrial.
These are opinions expressed at the convention here of the Western Amateur Astronomers by Dr. Otto Struve, internationally renowned astronomer at the University of California.
The astronomer said that the "green fireball" type of objects undoubtedly are ordinary meteorites.
Physical Phenomena
As for the shining objects, or lights, Dr. Struve said these must be attributed to some ordinary physical phenomena, either produced artificially by man or explainable in terms of ordinary laws of physics. One possible explanation, proposed by Prof. D.H. Menzel, of Harvard, is temperature inversion in the case of ordinary visible light.
Dr. Struve discounted the idea that he "flying saucers" may be directed by an intelligence that somehow surpasses the intelligence of man and, moreover, is capable of violating some of the fundamental rules of science and mechanics.
He pointed out that evidence is very strong that no planet in the solar system besides the earth is capable of supporting intelligent life. Lichens, a primitive form of life, might exist on Mars; but it is improbable that higher forms exist.
1000 Planets
If we go beyond the solar system. Dr. Struve said, we may find earth-like planets in other star systems within the galaxy. From a statistical knowledge of the universe, the scientist said that roughly 1000 planets may exist in the depths of space which could support life. These planets would be, like the earth, satellites of stars similar to our sun.
Even so, the vast distances in the universe and the laws of science rule against any possibility that there might be communication between the earth and these hypothetical intelligent beings.
The average distance of a star, for example, is about 50,000 light years (one light year is nearly 6000 billion miles).
"Thus," Dr. Struve said, "we receive now the light of the star, possessing one of these planets, which left its source 50,000 years ago and, conversely, any intelligent beings on such an average galactic planet would see the sun, and (if they possess adequate instruments) the earth as it was 50,000 years ago.
Erroneous Speculations
"We see at once how erroneous are the speculations of those who believe that the visitors from another planet might have chosen this particular time to send their flying saucers to the earth because they were aware of the sad state of affairs in the community of nations of the earth.
"If they have any knowledge of human beings, they would be aware now of the type of human beings that populated the earth at the time of the Neanderthal man. Chances are that they would be completely disinterested in what the Neanderthal man was doing or thinking.
"Thus to an astronomer, the evidence of the flying saucers appears to be completely negative. Nevertheless, as astronomers, we are not primarily concerned with the question of flying saucers, and to us it should be a source of inspiration that science now favors the belief that within our galaxy there must be thousands of planets that now support life that is not too different from the kind we observe on the earth."
Long Beach, California Press Telegram - 21 Aug 52
Coast To Coast
by Hy Gardner
Willy Ley, world famous rocket inventor, believes the United States is far ahead of any other nation in development of this weapon. He scoffs at reports that flying saucers are secret weapons of this or any other nation.
Lumberton, North Carolina Robesonian - 21 Aug 52
Saucers Still Unclaimed
A long-awaited report out of the Russian zone of Germany says that the Russians are worried about flying saucers. According to this report, by the escaped daughter of a German scientist, the Russians believe the objects are real and not imaginary, but do not believe they are space ships from another planet. They would be inclined to disbelieve all U.S. reports of flying saucers, but they have heard similar reports from Turkey and Southern Russia.
The Russians are generally expected to accuse the Western powers of experimenting with flying saucers as a devilish device threatening destruction to helpless Russian cities. But so far, there has been no official protest. It may be that the Russians want to avoid getting any such protest on record, because it might affect their chance of taking credit for the saucer. They have distorted history in an effort to show that Russians invented nearly every modern convenience and discovered nearly every natural law. Probably they would like to claim that they made the first flying saucer, too, but they're not sure yet that it exists.
Apparently, the Russians are overlooking a good bet by not claiming to have developed flying saucers already. If any other nation produces such an object, the chances are the Soviets will steal the plane and make one like it, anyway. If not, they can claim that they are holding it in reserve as a secret weapon, and nobody can disprove it.
Syracuse, New York Post Standard - 21 Aug 52
'Saucer' Takes Early Morning Jaunt Over Park
The flying saucers are at it again.
This time an object described as a "white dot" was skimming over Green Lakes Park early yesterday morning.
It was "really moving" according to Tom Burke, night worker there, who said it was smaller than the moon and traveling in a northeast direction.
He said he observed it for about 15 minutes, then "all of a sudden" it disappeared.
Four observers from East Syracuse also called The Post-Standard with reports of white flashes in the sky about the same time.
Albuquerque, New Mexico Tribune - 21 Aug 52
Scout's Honor, Ball Of Fire Was Saucer
Scout's honor, those flying saucers are closing in on us.
Scoutmaster D.S. Desvergers said he not only saw a saucer within arm's reach but also was knocked down by a "ball of fire" immediately afterward.
Sheriff's deputies from West Palm Beach, who investigated the incident, said they could find nothing.
Desvergers left a group of boys to enter a patch of woods, to investigate "flares." He was armed with a machete.
When he had not returned in ten minutes, the boys called the sheriff who found the scoutmaster with three tiny holes burned in his cap and the hair singed off both his forearms.
Desvergers said that soon after entering the woods he smelled "burning metal." A sudden "depressed feeling" made him look up and there, virtually within reach, he said, was a flying saucer.
Immediately thereafter, the scoutmaster related, he was knocked down by a "ball of fire."
Palm Beach, Florida Post - 21 Aug 52
Scoutmaster Tells Of 'Flying Saucer' Attack
"I heard hinges open, and then they shot at me," Scoutmaster D.S."Sonny" DesVergers said Wednesday afternoon in telling of the "flying saucer" which hovered over his head late Tuesday night in a clearing off Military Tr.
DesVergers of 333 Conniston Rd., said he was "still shaky" and had never been so nervous, as he unfolded only a partial story of what happened to him.
He talked in "snatches" between customers where he works at a hardware store on S. Dixie Hwy. near Belvedere Rd. and made it plain from the start he has been requested by military authorities at Palm Beach International Airport to withhold certain information he had given them.
The 30-year-old scoutmaster of Troop 33 said he was driving south on Military Tr. with three scouts at about 11 pm when he noticed a mysterious light in a clearing at a point about one-fourth mile south of Lantana Rd.
He left the scouts in the car, told them to summon help if he did not return in 10 minutes, and entered the woods armed with a machete.
In the clearing, several hundred feet from the road, a dirty-gray colored disc about 30 feet in diameter and about three feet thick hovered in the air, spewing a rapid exhaust, said DesVergers.
He said he stood under it and could almost touch it, when he heard hinges open and was shot in the face with a fiery weapon he declined to describe further.
Asked whether there was anything or anybody in the "saucer," DesVergers replied: "There's something about that but I can't tell you about it because the military officers asked me not to."
He did go on, though, to say the thing definitely was "metal of some type, but had no seams or rivets."
The fuming exhaust, DesVergers said, knocked him unconscious after the shot fired at him burned his face, arms and the cap on his head. The cap, he added, has been sent to Washington. It had three bad burn holes in it, he said.
DesVergers showed singe marks from the "Flare-action" of the shot that he said was fired at him and he had a salve on his arms and face.
Asked if he could compare the smell of the exhaust to Diesel fuel or anything else, DesVergers said, "No, I can't describe it."
He did not know how long he had been unconscious but said he managed to get up and start back toward the Trail before sheriff's deputies arrived. They reported they found the scoutmaster wandering around in the woods.
Four different men from the sheriff's office were named as having gone to the scene Wednesday morning with military authorities to investigate, but three of the four said they didn't go but thought the other went. One could not be contacted.
A military officer at the airport, who asked his name be withheld, said when asked about the investigation: "I can't tell you anything, we're under strict military regulations."
Charles Stevens, 807 Ridgeland Dr., one of the scouts in the car, said he saw a "big glowing white light" in the wooded area and DesVergers turned the car around and went back to investigate.
"It seemed to come down out of the sky, then dim out," young Stevens related Wednesday afternoon. He said he "still feels scared" from the incident.
"After it landed," young Stevens said, "there were about six reddish lights in a circle around it. They dimmed in about eight minutes after Sonny had gone into the woods.
"We waited a few more minutes and when he didn't return we left the car and ran to a nearby house where we called the Highway patrol. They probably called the sheriff's office."
Deputy Sheriff Mott N. Partin and Lake Worth Constable Louis Carroll reported they answered the call, joined the boys and found DesVergers in the woods.
David Rowan, 1001 Paseo Andorra, a scout in the car, said he was looking forward in the car and didn't see the first bright light the others reported, but saw the smaller lights on the thing as it hovered over the woods.
He said the bright flare effect which DesVergers described as the shot taken at him, went off about seven minutes after his scoutmaster entered the woods. He said it showered sparks all over the area like a roman candle.
Bobby Ruffing, Boynton Beach, third Scout in the car, could not be contacted for comment.
DesVergers, who said he was driving the scouts home, and at the time was en route to Boynton Beach, discounted early reports of the incident that the "saucer" exploded. He said "it apparently left" while he was unconscious.
Janesville, Wisconsin Daily Gazette - 21 Aug 52
Firemen Report Flying Saucers
Flying saucers? The fire department is beginning to wonder.
At 10 a.m. Thursday one of the men, Curtis Avery, was looking at the southern-sky where he saw four round shiny objects traveling fast.
He called the other 15 men who rushed outside and watched the objects fly overhead before disappearing north. As they got overhead two of the objects disappeared, according to Chief Alex Andreski, who added that they were very high and looked to be about a foot and a half in diameter from the ground.
Of the 15 men all but one agreed that they were not jets, Andreski said. The next question is -- what were they?
Emporia, Kansas Weekly Gazette - 21 Aug 52
Localettes
Still Pursue Him
The flying saucer talk has finally got one of Emporia's traveling salesmen. Every time he comes in off the road he has another story to tell about the things. It seems these weird phenomena often chase his car, sometimes almost crowding him off the road. They sometimes meet him on bridges and hover there on the road, causing him to slow and come to a stop to keep from colliding with them. His friends always "believe" him, but they are beginning to advocate that he see a psychiatrist.
Fort Pierce, Texas News Tribune - 21 Aug 52
Hurray! Flying Saucers Are Sighted At Fort Pierce!
Having overlooked Fort Pierce for some time, it appears that "flying saucers" have finally made an appearance in this area.
Or at least that is the story of Russell Rogers, a local city fireman. And he claims several witnesses to back him up.
Rogers, his wife, his mother-in-law and her sister and son Ronnie Childress, saw the two "saucers" zoom across the sky around 8 o'clock Wednesday night going from south to north.
The fireman said they all were sitting on the porch of his mother-in-law's home, Mrs. Clyde Childress on Ave. C, when young Ronnie first noticed the two bright balls of light.
Rogers said that a small "saucer" led the way and was followed closely by a much larger one but that both seemed to be traveling in the same path. He said that both appeared to be "very high" in the sky and going at a terrific rate of speed. The witnesses followed the objects from horizon to horizon and it took them only a few moments to make the trip.
The fireman said the "saucers" made no noise at all. "I'm certain they weren't airplanes because airplane lights blink off and on and wouldn't be that big or fast," he commented.
He said they appeared like round lights and were bright like a star, but he was positive they weren't like any shooting star he'd ever seen.
Lubbock, Texas Morning Avalanche - 21 Aug 52
Speeding 'Lights' Are Sighted Again
History does repeat itself, according to Mrs. R.F. Underwood, 2220 Broadway. She and Dr. E.D. Thompson, who lives in the same apartment house, saw a group of flying saucers last night, almost a full year from the time they spotted a group in the early days of last September.
Last night's group was traveling in a "very rigid V formation, clustered and yet not wavering, with the light rather twinkling." They were much further away than the ones last year, Mrs. Underwood said. The two families had been sitting in their backyard looking for flying saucers about 9:20 p.m.
Mrs. Underwood tried to count the saucers on one side of the V and had designated six on one side before the formation passed over. It was moving very rapidly in a northernly direction, she said.
The group last September was in a semi-circle formation, Mrs. Underwood recalled, and was much closer and brighter than last night's. This was one of several such formations which was written up in Life Magazine shortly after it was seen by numerous persons in the area.
Mrs. Underwood, who could now be classed as somewhat of an authority on flying saucers, says that they are not as fast or as bright as meteors and they seem to glow of themselves.
She mentioned that last night's group seemed to have a "nebulous glow about them each one twinkling" and yet, the saucers were
[Note: article unexpectedly ends here in the original.]
Walla Walla, Washington Union-Bulletin - 21 Aug 52
Saucer Probe Sent Planes After Stars
MCCHORD AIR FORCE BASE -- In its investigation of flying
saucer reports, the Air Force has sent airplanes in pursuit of stars.
Maj. Neil A. Vosburgh of the 25th Air Division, the man in charge of running down such reports in the Pacific Northwest, revealed this in commenting on recent "saucer flights."
The major said he thinks more than 90 per cent of these are flights of fancy. Nevertheless, he said, "we are concerned" about
the remaining unexplained phenomena.
"If the Air Force had any information to release on this subject, it would be released," Major Vosburgh said, pointing out the service spends vast sums of money trying to find what the sighted objects are.
As soon as a report is received, the officer said, his men immediately check with meteorological service and usually find that the weather men have had a balloon aloft in the area.
Most of the "saucers", he added, are seen at about dusk, which is when the weather balloons are released. The balloons have a metal-foil fin on them which glints in the sun -- and, Vosburgh explained, when it's dusk on the earth's surface, the sun is still shining in the balloon-saucer altitudes straight above.
Also, he said, many of the reports stem from sightings of meteors or jet planes -- or, occasionally, of stars.
Vosburgh said the 29th division received about 200 saucer reports in July and another big month is expected in November, the height of the meteor season.
Albuquerque, New Mexico Tribune - 21 Aug 52
'Moon Eyes' More Than Expression
The "moon illusion," as astronomers call it, has an important bearing upon the problem of the flying saucers because it is a classic example of the fact that things are not always what they seem.
Everyone is well aware of the fact that the full moon appears very much larger when it is just above the horizon than it does later in the evening when it is high in the sky.
But what is generally not realized is the fact that this is one of the most baffling illusions known to scientists:
There is no satisfactory explanation of why the full moon looks bigger when it is low in the sky.
Dr. I.M. Levitt of the Fels Planetarium, Philadelphia, discussed the subject in a recent issue of Sky and Telescope. Chief among the students of the problem have been Dr. Edwin G. Boring of the Harvard University Psychological Laboratory.
If, when you are viewing the low moon on the horizon, you reach out your arm and pretend to pinch the image of the moon between thumb and forefinger, the moon will instantly seem to shrink to its usual size.
The same thing happens if you turn your back to the moon and view the image in a pocket mirror. It shrinks the same way if you bend down and gaze at the moon between your legs.
Same Size
Finally the fact of the matter is that the camera is not subject to the moon illusion. The moon appears the same size on photographs no matter where it happens to be in the sky.
From a long, series of tests, Dr. Boring thinks the apparent size of the moon depends upon the position of the eyes in their sockets when the moon is viewed.
He believes that the moon looks largest when it is viewed straight ahead with the eyes set squarely in their sockets. When the eyes have to be tilted up to view the moon high in the sky, its size seems to shrink.
At the core of the problem is the way in which the brain interprets an image which falls on the retina of the eye. We are constantly making such interpretations in everyday life.
Changes Greatly
The image of a man on the retina of the eye changes greatly with the distance between him and the observer. But the man always looks the right size to us.
However, if we look down on the street from the top of a 10-story building, the situation changes. Now, for some unknown reason, men on the street look like midgets.
Why does the brain compensate for image size on the retina in one case and not the other?
Psychologists have long been aware of the existence of all sorts of optical illusions. Shading will make lines of equal length seem unequal or straight lines seem bent.
Children's picture puzzles are in point. At first we do not see the figure of the lion hidden in the jungle. But once we have found him, it is impossible not to see him.
Sandusky, New York Register Star News - 21 Aug 52
On The Saucer Trail
DAYTON, O., Aug. 21 -- Results of balloon tests staged in the Dayton area were studied by the Air Force's Technical Intelligence Center today to determine whether "flying saucers" are earthly objects or phenomena from outer space.
The center sent up "balls of fire" -- balloons with lighted flares -- Wednesday night from the Sulphur Grove Weather Station near Dayton. The ascents were recorded by a two-lens stereo model camera and a color camera capable of photographing color spectrum.
From spectrum photos of "flying saucers," the ATIC can make analysis to determine the material in such objects. It thus happens to prove if the saucers are known flying objects, phenomena, or unknown substances from another planet.
Set Other Tests
Also under test is the height at which trial balloons can be photographed from the earth. These results will be used to measure the actual size of saucers when estimated dimensions are given by spotters.
Two jet interceptors took off to see if the lighted balloons could be sighted from the sky. Attached to the balloons were standard flares which burn 15 minutes and which can be seen at heights of 100,000 feet -- nearly 20 miles. Others had 60,000 candlepower magnesium flares which burn for six minutes.
AUGUST 22, 1952:
Long Beach, California Press Telegram - 22 Aug 52

Flying Saucer Motif
THEY DON’T FLY, THOUGH -- Mari Blanchard, a curvy film actress with a flair for "front-page fashions," has adapted the airborne discs to her accessory wardrobe, introducing the "flying saucer" motif in necklace and earrings. She also plans a dinner ring and evening belt to-match. --(Associated Press photo.)
Rocky Mount, North Carolina Evening Telegram - 22 Aug 52
As You Wish It
The Birmingham Post-Herald recently went back to Shakespeare in a discussion of the flying saucer situation.
Here is the excerpt used from Hamlet, Act III:
Hamlet: Do you see that cloud that's almost in the shape of a camel?
Polonius: By the mass, and it's like a camel, indeed.
Hamlet: Methinks it is like a weasel.
Polonius: It is back'd like a weasel.
Hamlet: Or like a whale?
Polonius: Very like a whale.
The Post-Herald then went on to point out that "we cite the bard merely to show that the amazing ability of people to see space ships and saucers, flying in formation, in every stray blob of light or misplaced mirage is a feat of imagination neither new or uniquely American.
"Man can see whatever he wants to see; in 1952, apparently, he wants to see saucers."
Lima, Ohio News - 22 Aug 52
ONU Saucer Project Draws Wide Response
ADA -- Requests ranging across the nation from Chicago to Texas have been received by Ohio Northern university for data sheets on which to report flying saucer sightings.
That was included in an announcement Friday by Dean Warren Hickman, who said more than three dozen queries have been received by the-school's Project A, which was announced last Thursday.
The project is designed to study reports of flying saucer sightings.
Accompanying a report form request from an organization identified as Project Saucer, No. 2 was the notation that it, too hopes to come to some decision as to what the "saucers" actually are.
Dean Hickman said all names of people asking for data forms will be kept confidential, to avoid possible embarrassment.
He also said initial response to the establishment of Project A indicates a widespread interest in the saucers and the ONU investigation.
Lowell, Massachusetts Sun - 22 Aug 52
"Flying Saucer" at Worcester
WORCESTER, Aug. 22 -- The "flying saucer" many Worcester residents reported seeing last night wasn't flying and it wasn't a saucer.
Scores of persons telephoned police and newspapers to report the "flying saucer."
Police and newspapermen found, on investigation, that a new filling station had hired a huge searchlight to attract attention.
Its beam sent a bright disc to low-hanging clouds.
St. Petersburg, Florida Times - 22 Aug 52
Charts Marked With Swastikas Found In Water
WEST PALM BEACH -- Twenty-six German swastika-marked navigation charts were discovered floating in the ocean yesterday to further mystify residents already upset by a Scoutmaster's report of a "flying saucer" Tuesday night.
The charts were picked up by E.W. Symonette, a Riviera Beach commercial fisherman, about three miles from shore off Palm Beach Inlet.
Symonette brought the bundle of charts to the Acme Fish Co. Immigration authorities and members of the Naval Reserve were told of the find.
CHIEF LEWIS NIGHTOWER of the Naval Reserve Training Center, Riviera Beach, said the charts were mostly of South America, about three by five feet in size, and apparently hadn't been in the water more than 10 hours.
Two immigration men examined the charts but said they were not interested because they did not deal with local waters.
Meanwhile intelligence officers of the military Air Transport Service at Palm Beach International Airport were reported still checking the story of a "flying saucer" Scoutmaster D.S. (Sonny) Desvergers said exploded over his head after he followed it into some woods.
Deputy Sheriff Mott N. Partin and Lake Worth Constable Louie Carroll, who questioned Desvergers shortly after the incident, said they had "never seen a man so scared."
Desvergers said he and three Boy Scouts saw "bright red flashes" over some woods at 11 p.m. Tuesday.
THE 30-YEAR-OLD Scoutmaster left the boys in his car on the road and plunged into the woods. A few minutes later he claimed he smelled something "like hot metal and was overcome by a depressed feeling."
He said he looked up and saw a "saucer" almost within arms reach. It was a dirty gray disc-shaped object about 30 feet in diameter and three or four feet thick, he said.
When he tried to run "a ball of fire" came at him and knocked him to the ground, he told the officers. The next thing he remembered was running back to the road.
Partin said he found the clearing in the woods the next day "and the grass was scorched and blistered and the place had a burned smell."
Lubbock, Texas Morning Avalanche - 22 Aug 52
Maybe Shakespeare Had The Right Idea About Saucers
"Tis Wondrous Strange . . ."
It's not known if Bill Shakespeare was referring to "flying saucers" when he put the above line to paper . . . but there a goodly number of Lubbock residents today who probably could have aptly used the line to describe what they saw over the city again Thursday night.
Because those "things" which have gained fame on high were back in the South Plains skies last night . . . and they were seen by at least a dozen persons.
The latest crop of flying saucer reports jibes with other descriptions. They were moving very rapidly . . . "at terrific speeds." They were in ragged "V" formations and were all round objects.
Most of the reports came between 8 p.m. and 10 p.m.
Gallup, New Mexico Independent - 21 Aug 52
Mysterious Light Seen In Gallup
By Al Cross
A mysterious bright light shone in the heavens over Gallup about midnight last night and was observed by at least four persons, including this reporter and his wife.
The light looked something like a star or planet, except that it was much more brilliant than the ordinary celestial body, and it was of a different color. Where a star or planet has a greenish tint, this light was exceptionally white.
It also faded out of sight and then returned while stars in the sky remained constant. It was located due east of Gallup at an angle of about 30 to 10 degrees above the eastern horizon.
My attention was called to the phenomenon by Joe Rivera, of 153 East Sullivan. Rivera said he had seen the same thing the night before and had studied it through a pair of binoculars. He said he saw a small red light nearby and saw the main object move.
I saw no red light and I saw no movement, but I was observing with the naked eye. My wife also saw the light, and Joe McQuade, 206 East Terrace observed it after Rivera called his attention to it. Rivera said the light moved out of sight about 12:15 a.m., but I had quit watching it before then.
Dr. Lincoln La Paz, meteorites expert at the University of new Mexico, questioned me by telephone this morning regarding the object. After hearing a description, La Paz said he did not believe it could have been either a star or a planet. He did not suggest what it might be.
Gallup, New Mexico Independent - 21 Aug 52
Desert Breeze
By Al Cross
As you will probably observe by reading another story on this page, I have just joined that rubber-neck group known as the "Bright Light and Saucer Observers Association."
As a former Missourian who will still admit it, even after Harry Truman, I have always said "you'll have to show me" when mention has been made of mysterious stuff in the skies. Now I am not completely convinced, but I have shed my skepticism.
I will not say that the light which appeared in the eastern sky last night was anything other than a star or planet. But I will say that it behaved very strangely. Roused out of my beauty sleep by Joe Rivera's call, I wasn't inclined to be over imaginative, but I had to admit this body was quite unusual.
The best depiction I can give is to say that it looked like what I used to imagine the "star of Bethlehem" did. It was that outstanding from the rest of the stars in the sky.
I did not see any "flying saucer." That point I want to make quite clear. I have never seen a "flying saucer," and I don't expect to.
Providing I don't criticize my wife's cooking, that is.
Pacific Stars and Stripes, Tokyo, Japan 22 Aug 52
Two Jets Reported In Saucer Pursuit Over Los Alamos
LOS ALAMOS, N.M. -- A Los Alamos housewife said Thursday she saw two jet planes chasing an unidentified "object" over this atomic city Wednesday morning.
The housewife, who said she did not wish to be identified,
said the object came out from behind a cloud between 9:30 and 10 a.m. (MST). The jets apparently spotted it and gave chase, she said.
TWO NEIGHBORS also saw the object, which was "bright and shiny and dome-shaped," the housewife said.
About three weeks ago, another Los Alamos housewife claimed she saw "two objects as round and shiny as brand new pie-plates" soaring over Los Alamos, with three jets in pursuit.
Idaho Falls, Idaho Post Register - 22 Aug 52
They're With Us Again -- Saucers Fly At Twin Falls
TWIN FALLS, Aug. 22. -- A former navy airplane spotter reported seeing nine mysterious objects flying over Twin Falls Wednesday night.
Lt. Ree Montgomery, local Salvation Army commander, said the illuminated objects were travelling at a high rate of speed in two V formations.
"I have always thought these reports were the result of one's imagination," he said. "I got a cold chill looking at whatever I saw."
Walla Walla, Washington Union Bulletin - 22 Aug 52
Two Flying Saucers Seen Here on Friday
Two flying saucers were sighted from the Whitman college campus at 6:05 a.m. Friday morning by Clyde Budd, 648 Locust.
They were flat looking objects and crossed in the wake of a B-36 airplane which was flying over the city at about the same altitude.
"They came out of the north, one banking toward the east, the other toward the west," Budd declared.
"The one toward the east disappeared completely but that which went west reappeared shortly ahead of the B-36.
"The sun shone on the bottom of this object giving an opportunity to see that it was silver colored but a brighter color than the B-36's aluminum exterior. With the sun behind it you could see that it had a definite shape.
"In size it appeared to be about half that of one of the wings of the big plane," Budd declared.
Tangier, Morocco Espana - 22 Aug 52
Observe Two Strange Flying Objects In Spain
Several inhabitants of Puerto Real, 6 kilometers from San Fernando, recently saw two elongated oval objects in the sky approaching each other from opposite directions. When it seemed that they were about to collide, each object made a right turn, picked up speed, and then disappeared. The objects flew at a great height, seemed lead-gray in color, and appeared to be piloted.
Winslow, Arizona Mail - 22 Aug 52
Flying Saucers
One of the most reasonable explanations of many of the so-called "flying saucers" has been offered by Dr. H.H. Nininger of Winslow, owner of the American Meteorite Museum near here.
In a talk at Gem Village, Colo., Dr. Nininger said he firmly believed that many of the strange objects being seen in the skies are actually meteorites, flashing through the atmosphere at such great speeds that they become flaming lights.
Dr. Nininger told of following one such report and finding that a shower of meteorites was found to have fallen in the area. He believes that the same experience might follow other reports if they could be investigated.
But he does not believe all "flying saucers," even if bonafide and real, are meteorites, since some of them remain unsolved and do not seem to indicate meteoritic origin.
Syracuse, New York Herald Journal - 22 Aug 52
Soviets, Too, Are Worried by Saucers
By James Wakefield Burke
BERLIN (NANA) -- The Russians, too, according to reliable information here, are becoming concerned about flying saucers.
A German scientist's daughter who lived in the Russian zone and was conscripted for work in a Moscow laboratory escaped to the Western Zone recently. This girl of 24 told the high commissioner's office that the Russians had come to the conclusion that flying saucers are not figments of the imagination, but something real.
The Russians, she said, are resolved to find out what they are. Her father had worked under the Nazis at Peenemuende, the big Baltic Sea rocket experimental base, during World War II.
IN THE beginning, she said, the Russians dismissed the heavenly objects as propaganda released by the Western world as a scare in the hope of convincing timid persons of the great scientific might of the West. This did not bother them, for they thought the entire program laughable.
Later, however, they began to take a more serious view of the matter when reliable stories of flying saucers were reported over Turkey and southern Russia. They then decided that the flying saucers might be new American weapons to be used against Russia in the event of war.
The fact that numerous flying saucers have been seen over Turkey leads the Russians to become extremely suspicious. They think that maybe the U.S. is experimenting with the missiles preparatory to an attack on the U.S.S.R.
ACCORDING TO the scientist's daughter, the Russians do not believe that the mysterious objects are space ships from another planet.
When in Turkey some months ago, this correspondent saw what was reported to be two flying saucers. The objects appeared over Ankara high in the sky and sped at an amazing rate of speed southward and disappeared in a matter of seconds. I dismissed them as a celestial phenomenon at the time and did not bother to report what I saw, but others saw the objects and their reports were given wide publicity.
According to the German scientist's escaped daughter, the Russians have seen this type of heavenly body or flying object repeatedly, and are genuinely concerned about them. They [Illegible] that they are some dastardly weapon in preparation to be used by the West against the defenseless population. Another propaganda campaign along the lines of the "germ warfare" charges may be in the making.
Lowell, Massachusetts Sun - 22 Aug 52
Dorothy Kilgallen
Broadway Bulletin Board
One of the country's most respected scientists is working for the government on a project that may explain the flying saucers -- and he's not joking about it...
Notes:
1. The story of Scoutmaster D.S."Sonny" DesVergers will be explored in depth on March 23, 2013 in the upcoming post Spotlight 1952: The Scoutmaster's Tale.
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