UFO ENCOUNTERS
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The most important date in the history of UFOs is June 24th 1947. It marks
the beginning of the modern period of UFO observations. It is also the
water shed between the old-fashioned treatment of UFOs as unconnected events
and their much more scientific treatment as probably connected cases of the
same phenomenon. Only since that date have books been written on the
subject of UFOs, have organizations and magazines appeared which are devoted
to them, and have the terms 'UFO' and 'flying saucer' become known to the
public.
What happened on June 24th 1947 was that an American named Kenneth Arnold
saw a formation of nine strange objects flying through the air at a very
high speed. This was not the first US UFO sighting of the post-1945 period,
nor the first involving saucer-shaped craft, nor was it a particularly close
or detailed sighting, and its only witness was Arnold, who had no camera
with him. Yet despite all these factors it received a huge amount of
publicity and has become celebrated as the beginning of an era.
Kenneth Arnold was a successful businessman, aged 32 in 1947, who owned a
company which supplied fire control equipment, based in Boise, Idaho. He
held a pilot's license and was an experienced flier. On the afternoon of
June 24th he was flying his own small, single-engined Callair aircraft
across the Cascade Mountains from Chehalis to Yakima in Washington State, in
the north-western corner of the USA. His nominal flight distance was under
120 miles, but all pilot's overflying the area had been asked to look out
for signs of a large troop-carrying transport aircraft which had disappeared
- believed crashed - in the vicinity of Mount Ranier. That mountain, rising
to 14,410 feet, was close to Arnold's due-east route, and he diverted to
search for wreckage.
A sudden flash of reflected light made Arnold look round. He saw nine
unidentified craft flying towards Mount Ranier from the north. Although
they were some twenty or so miles away from him it was a clear day and he
was able to get a good view of them. One was crescent-shaped with what
appeared to be a central dome, while the other eight - flying behind in a
diagonal formation, like a skein of geese - were flat and shaped like pie
dishes.
None has tails like conventional aircraft. They were very shiny, and they
moved in rather a peculiar jumping manner, 'like a saucer would if you
skipped it across water', to use Arnold's own description. They were flying
at roughly the same height as Arnold's aircraft, 10,000 feet but were
keeping close to the mountain peak's, swerving in and out between them. The
most surprising thing about these craft, though, was their high speed.
Arnold timed them between Mount Ranier and Mount Adams (to the south-east),
and based on this their speed was later calculated at over 1600 mph.
It is tempting to suggest that Arnold was mistaken or made it all up. After
all, he was on his own, the objects were a long way from him, and doubts
have been expressed as to whether the human eye can follow objects
travelling at such a high speed. Yet Arnold was a man of honesty and good
repute. He could not have expected to gain anything by fabricating such a
story. (In fact he did gain financially, but he was the first UFO observer
to do so and no such gain could have been predicted.) Also, he was used to
flying across the mountains of Washington State and knew his route well.
Arnold described his experiences to newspaper reporters, and the story
became headline news across the USA. The flying objects were quickly dubbed
'flying saucers' from their peculiar motion through the air (rather than
from their shape) and they captured the public imagination immediately.
Because of their odd shape and high speed (two and a half times greater then
any man made aircraft of that time) the flying saucers were at once assumed
to be extraterrestrial in origin. The enormous publicity surrounding the
Arnold case brought revelations of similar sightings elsewhere in the USA
over the previous month or two, while new reports came in growing numbers,
almost daily.
SAUCERS ON THE BRAIN
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Although there was much public disbelief and ridicule there was also a sense
of excitement. Undoubtedly many people wanted to see flying saucers, often
so badly that they seized on any slightly unusual aerial phenomena and
called it a flying saucer. Others allowed their imaginations to supply the
phenomena, while some perpetrated deliberate hoaxes, and it became very
difficult to ascertain the validity of trustworthiness of any particular
report. A new wave of sightings had been sparked off by the initial
reaction to the Arnold case. During 1947 there were 853 reported sightings
(Report on the UFO Wave of 1947 by Ted Bloecher, 1967), of which some
occurred before, but none were reported to the press untilafter, June 24th.
Many of the witnesses claimed to have seen flying saucers identical with
those observed by Arnold.
CONTINUED SIGHTINGS
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The most unusual thing about this 1947 wave of saucer sightings is that it
is still continuing: it did not fade out after a few months like all
previous waves but is still with us to this day, gaining a few hundred new
sightings each year.
But what of Kenneth Arnold? He was embarrassed by the notoriety which
surrounded, neither altering nor embellishing, and was unwilling to offer
any explanation of his sighting. In 1950 he published privately a small
pamphlet about his experience near Mount Ranier, and in 1952 he collaborated
with Ray Palmer (editor of Fate and Flying Saucers magazines, an early
enthusiast of UFOs) to produce a book on the subject, The Coming of the
Saucers. Interestingly, Arnold has claimed to have seen several other UFOs
since 1947, and in 1962 (in an issue of Flying Saucers magazine) he asserted
that flying saucers are neither flying vehicles nor extraterrestrial in
origin but 'are groups and masses of living organisms that are as much a
part of our atmosphere and space as life we find in the depths of our
oceans. . . they have the natural ability to change their densities at
will.'
It is worth looking at some of the other 1947 UFO sightings. For example,
on June 21st, three days before Arnold's eventful flight, a group of
doughnut-shaped UFOs was seen just off the coast of Washington State. Four
people in a boat made the sighting, of whom one, Harold Dahi, took photos of
the UFOs. Apparently one of these craft dropped some pieces of metal
overboard before flying off. The USAF investigated this and, although a
statement was made by them to the effect that it had been a hoax, this case
has some unexplained aspects. Elsewhere in the USA quite a few responsible
people, whose evidence could not be ignored, were also seeing strange things
in the sky. Three policemen in Portland, Oregon, saw flying discs. A USAF
pilot saw a formation of five or six aerial discs as he was flying over
Nevada (this was on 28th June). Other Air Force and civilian pilots had
similar experiences. Strangely, there was a UFO wave in Hungary that same
month, with about fifty reports of silvery balls seen in the sky by
daylight.
Such big news did flying saucers become that sightings could not be ignored
by the US government. Towards the end of 1947 steps were taken to set up an
official US Air Force department which would investigate and try to identify
every UFO report. This was inaugurated in January 1948 as Project Sign.
PLANES GIVE CHASE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
That some month a very dramatic UFO case occurred in the state of Kentucky.
Many witnesses on the ground, including officers at Godman Air Force Base,
saw a very large object in the sky. (The time was early afternoon.)
Descriptions varied considerably - it may have been conical, globular or
discshaped, and silver, white or red-and-white in colour. Three P-51
Mustang fighter aircraft gave chase. These were single-seaters, carrying no
oxygen equipment. The senior pilot, Captain Thomas Mansell, disregarded
safety regulations and climbed to 20,000 feet in pursuit. The other two
Mustangs turned back at 15,000 feet. Shortly afterwards radio connect with
Mansell was lost. The wreckage of his aircraft was found later, a few miles
away.
Those are the facts, but much speculation surrounds the case. The official
version is that Mansell was chasing a Skyhook weather balloon (which was
then still on the classified list) and that he blacked out through lack of
oxygen.
Yet Mansell was a very experienced pilot, and the official explanation
satisfied neither the public nor the media. It must go down in the records
as 'not proven' and as the first instance of a UFO leading a man to his
death. It was almost as spectacular and controversial an incident as the
Kenneth Arnold case, and it helped to increase public awareness to the
existence of UFOs.
Within nine months of its foundation the personnel of Project Sign had
prepared a report concluding that UFOs were, possibly, visiting
extraterrestrial spacecraft. This report was not accepted by the Air force
Chief of Staff, and the investigation was reconstituted on different lines
in february 1949 as Project Grudge, which seemed to have been given the task
of debunking any suggestion of extraterrestrial involvement. Later on
(1952) Grudge became the better known Project Blue Book.
From March 1949 the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), too, had
interested itself in UFO sightings. Without doubt this measure was taken
because UFOs were considered to be a possible or potential threat to the
security of the USA. The fact that the USAF and the CIA continue to
investigate UFO reports shows that the threat still exists.
THE ROSWELL SAUCER
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
All post-1945 UfO sightings in the USA have been investigated by one or more
US government agencies. Even before specifically named projects or officers
were set up for this purpose, both the US Air Force and the Central
Intelligence Agency looked into UFO cases to see if there was any
extraterrestrial involvement. Where the reports of these agencies have been
made public (as in the case of the US Air Force's Project Sign, Project
Grudge and Project Blue Book) all UFO sightings have been explained away as
natural phenomena, ordinary aircraft, mistakes or hoaxes, or (in a small
percentage of cases) they have been listed as 'unidentified'. In other
words, no US government agency has ever admitted officially that any
specific UFO was an extraterrestrial spacecraft.
Does this mean that none of the thousands of UFOs seen over the USA since
mid-1947 have been extraterrestrial spacecraft? No, all it means is that the
US authorities have been unwilling to admit to their existence. In fact
there is a considerable weight of evidence which suggests that the US
authorities not only know of the existence of extraterrestrial spacecraft,
but that at least one such craft has been found, complete with its non-human
occupants, and kept hidden behind a tight security screen for over 35 years.
Early in 1950 stories appeared in some US newspapers to the effect that the
US Air Force had possession of the wreckage of a flying saucer and the
bodies if its tiny crew members. Later that year a more detailed version of
the story appeared in the book Behind the Flying Saucer by Frank Scully, a
US journalist. This claimed that three flying saucers had been found
crashed in Arizona or New Mexico, together with bodies of 34 alien crew
members, sometime during the later 1940s. The US Air Force was said to have
removed all physical evidence to a secret location, threatening civilian and
service witnesses with dire consequences if they divulged any details.
Despite this alleged conspiracy of silence, Scully's book contains a
description of the aliens. They were supposed to be small humanoids about a
metre tall and to have come from Venus. Their saucers contained many
mechanisms and materials which could not be identified by the Air Force
scientists, though it was believed that the aliens drank heavy water and ate
small wafers which swelled up in water.
AIR FORCE DENIALS
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Behind the Flying Saucers caused a great furore, even though it was
categorically denied by the US Air Force. About two years after the book's
publication it was condemned as a hoax and Scully was discredited. It seems
to have been true that two of Scully's major informants were confidence
tricksters and that some of the details in the book were exaggerated or
entirely made up. Even so, the central idea of a saucer crash in
south-western USA with all details hushed up by the authorities almost
certainly has some factual basis. In the first place, there have been many
independent rumours of this event, provided by retired Air Force personnel
or their families. Secondly, it is alleged that Captain Edward Ruppelt,
soon after he retired as chief of the USAF's Project Blue Book in 1953, met
FrankScully and told him that Behind the Flying Saucers had caused problems
for Project Blue Book because it was close to the truth. Thirdly, a new
investigation into the subject in 1979 by Charles Berlitz and William Moore
produced a great deal of new evidence for the existence of a conspiracy and
made clear the probable outline of events, though without, it must be
admitted, obtaining any direct physical evidence. Their book is The Roswell
Incident, 1980.
On the evening of July 2nd 1947 a flying saucer was seen to travel over the
small town of Roswell, New Mexico. Near the town it passed through a
thunderstorm and was struck by lightning, suffering severe damage and losing
a lot of material. This debris fell to earth on the Brazel sheep ranch,
about half-way between Roswell and Corona, and it was found by ranch's owner
next morning. It was all in fragments, some pieces of sheet and some pieces
of strut or beam, but all of it very light in weight and extremely strong.
Despite having the appearance of tinfoil, these pieces could not be dent or
dented, even with a heavy hammer. It was a material unknown on our planet.
Personnel from Roswell Army Air Base collected it all up and took it away.
Several days later, on July 8th, the base's public information officer put
out a statement that a 'flying disc' had been found and taken to the base.
But higher levels of command quickly denied this. The debris was flown to
Fort Worth in Texas, where it was declared (at a press conference) to be
just a weather balloon. All relevant witnesses contacted by Berlitz and
Moore agreed that this was a cover-up story.
The damaged flying saucer had struggled on for about 125 miles after the
lightning strike before crashing on the deserted plains of San Agustin, not
far from the town of Socorro, New Mexico. This wreckage, easily
identifiable as a large metallic disc about nine or ten metres in diameter
and with non-human bodies (all dead) visible inside and nearby, was found
the next morning, July 3rd. One witness was a civil engineer who lived
locally; others were members of an archaeological expedition from the
University of Pennsylvania. They barely had time to look at the wrackage
before Air Force officers arrived, telling them to leave at once and say
nothing.
AUTOPSIES ON ETs
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The saucer and its alien occupants (about 30 of them) were transported by
truck the several hundred miles to Edwards Air Force Base in California,
which was the nearest secure site with adequate facilities for scientific
investigation of the saucer and the performance of autopsies on the crew.
By putting together details supplied by several informants, Berlitz and
Moore managed to conclude that the aliens were approximately one metre in
height, humanoid though with a larger head in proportion to body size than
we have, having no external ears or nose, no hair on their heads or bodies,
extremely thin limbs, hands with four fingers but no thumbs, and greyish
skin.
At various times during the late 1940s and early 1950s it was expected by
Air Force officers privy to the secret that the existence of the saucer and
aliens was about to be made public. It is suggested that President
Eisenhower secretly visited Edwards Air Force Base in February 1954 to view
the remains.
Assuming that all the verbal evidence is reliable, the conclusions to be
drawn from this are that Scully's book was at least partly true (his 'three
saucers crashed in Arizona or New Mexico' could refer to the debris and
crash sites in New Mexico and to the fact that the saucer was transported
across Arizona by truck en route to Edwards Air Force Base) and that the
whole affair is still subject to an official conspiracy of silence by the US
authorities.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
UFO Encounters was taken from:
SPACE VOYAGER NO.8 April/May 1984, written by Chris Morgan.
Inputted by Hyperdyne c/o X.A.C.T. 05/07/9.T.3., for the electronic
frontier.
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