PROJECT 1947

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UFO REPORTS - 1950
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Los Angeles, Ca. TIMES - 12 March, 1950
Mexico Sees Flying Saucers
Or Something
MEXICO CITY. March 11 (U.P) The director of a Mexican observatory today produced
a photograph of a flying saucer but it looked more like an amateurs snapshot of
a klieg light.
The photograph was a black square with a diagonal band of light across it. The
caption in the newspaper Excelsior said it was possibly the only picture of a fly
ing saucer which existed outside the larger countries.
Luis Enrique Erro, director of the Tonantzintla Astronomical Observatory where t
he photograph was made, said: The strange object crossed the sky March 2. Since
that day we have wondered what it could have been. We dont know.
Meanwhile, dozens of reports of flying saucers poured into the capital from all
over Mexico. The saucer craze began shortly after a Mexico City newspaper printed
a series of articles which appeared in True magazine.
Little Men Here Again, This Time Over Salinas
SALINAS, March 11 (UP)The little men from Mars were cluttering up the Northern Ca
lifornia skies here tonight.
More than a score of persons reported seeing a flying saucer in the Salinas area
. The various reports had the saucer diving on an automobile, looping the loop,
and/or speeding across the horizon at a low altitude.
The Sheriffs office reported a lot of calls by people claiming to have seen the phe
nomena.
The Sheriff's office said the first call came from Mrs. Sam Raguindin of nearby
Chualar, who said the saucer swooped down over her automobile as she and her mothe
r and two children were driving south of Salinas.
I'm still scared, Mrs. Raguindin said. I hope I never see anything like that again.
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San Francisco, Ca. Chronicle - 12 March, 1950
Many Flying Saucers In Salinas
Salinas, March 11 (UP)The little men from Mars were cluttering up the Northern Ca
lifornia skies here tonight.
More than a score of persons reported seeing a flying saucer in the Salinas area
. The various reports had the saucer diving on an automobile, looping the loop,
and/or speeding across the horizon at a low altitude.
The Sheriff's office reported a lot of calls shortly after 8 p.m. by people claimi
ng to have seen the phenomena. Simultaneously, a number of calls were received
by the Salinas newspaper.
The Sheriffs office said the first call came from Mrs. Sam Raguindin of nearby Ch
ualar, who said the saucer swept down over her automobile as she and her mother an
d two children were driving south of Salinas.
She said she at first thought the object was a falling star, but changed her min
d when it swooped down toward the car.
It looked like two dinner plates placed together, she said. It came down to about
2000 feet, and as it came close it gave off a strong bluish-white light that hur
t our eyes like a welders torch.
She said it seemed to loop the loop and then sped away in a southerly direction at
a great rate of speed.
The saucer was next reported by Hiram Don, a market owner, who said he saw it in
the sky as he left his market to take some groceries to his automobile. He sai
d it appeared bright in front and had a long fiery tail. It was traveling quite
close to the ground, he said.
Another man said it looked like a falling star but not quite the same.
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Dunkirk, NY. Evening Observer - 13 March, 1950
Astronomers Believe 'Flying Saucer
Was Meteor California Persons Saw
Salinas, Calif., (UP) Astronomers said today that was no flying saucer, that was a
meteor which frightened California residents over the weekend.
A score of persons called the sheriff's office and the local newspaper to report
a bright object in the skies Saturday night. Some said it dove on their automo
biles, others said it was looping the loop and another said it zipped across the
horizon.
Must Have Been -
But Dr. Olin Eggen at the University of California observatory on nearby Mount H
amilton said the flying saucer must have been a meteor. He said it must have bee
n a fair sized one, large enough to get down close to the earth before burning ou
t.
The most vivid description of the Salinas saucer came from Mrs. Sam Raguindin of C
hualar, Calif. She said she was driving south of Salinas when it swooped down ove
r her car. She thought it was a meteor at first, but she changed her mind when
it appeared headed for her.
I got scared and stopped the car, she said. The thing looked like two dinner plate
s placed together. It came down to what looked like about 2,000 feet. As it came
close, it gave off a strong light that hurt our eyes like a welder's torch.
Loop - the - Loop
Then, she continued, the saucer seemed to loop the loop and whizzed away southward
s.
Five minutes later, Hiram Don, a market owner, called to report he, too, saw a b
right object in the sky. He said it had a long fiery tail and was traveling "qu
ite close" to the ground. Other witnesses said the object looked like a meteor
or falling star, although not exactly.
In reviewing the reports, Dr Eggen said meteors give off lots of light which incre
ases as they near the earth.
Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, amateur photographer Bette Malles wondered whether sh
e had taken a picture of a flying saucer. She planned to turn over to scientist
s pictures of a disk-like object she said she photographed in a sunset sky.
Got A Picture
Miss Malles said she was about to take a picture of a small plane flying over ne
arby Hawthorne airfield when she saw something shining closer by. She snapped th
e shutter on it.
When she developed the film, she found she had exposed a luminous oblong doughnut
with a dark center, suggesting a hole. Ahead of the disk was a circular blob, s
omewhat resembling a miniature sun.
Lines of light seemed to project backward from the sun toward the doughnut, and a co
ne-like faint light connected with the blob to the disk. Another cone of light
projected backward from the disk to another blob of light.
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St. Louis, Missouri POST-DISPATCH - 15 March, 1950
Illinois Pilot Says He Saw 60-Foot Disk-Shaped Plane
Duquoin, Ill., March 15 (AP)--A Duquoin pilot entered on his air log that he 'en
countered unidentified aircraft' on Feb. 22, but fearing ridicule, he didn't say
much about it until yesterday. Richard Lemmon said friends insisted that he tel
l about the mystery ship.
So Lemmon, a Duquoin airport mechanic, gave this account:
He was flying with his wife from Wood River, Ill. At about 2000 feet over P
inckneyville he sighted a strange object, which appeared to be at about 5000 fee
t. He motioned to his wife and she indicated she also saw it.
He flew higher to investigate and saw what he said appeared to be a disk-sh
aped craft about 60 feet across and 10 feet thick. He said the disk tilted in th
e direction it was going to turn flew away at 'great speed,' leaving Lemmon's cr
aft, which was doing 150 miles per hour."
Possibly further information is available in the Duquoin newspaper and in t
he February newspapers around Pinckneyville.
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Trenton, New Jersey Trenton Evening Times - 3 April, 1950
It's His Job To Debunk Flying Saucers
Searles' Theme Song:
'No, No, a Thousand Times No'
By Douglas Larsen
Washington-NEA-Armed only with an old, dog-eared press release, Maj. DeWitt R. S
earles is making a heroic stand between the flying saucer threat and the whole r
est of the world.
Military unification, operating in its purest, jet-propelled form, has played th
e cruel trick of assigning Maj. Searles as Uncle Sam's official debunker of the
flying saucer. Hour after hour in his Pentagon office, day after day, on the te
lephone, in interviews, at home, before breakfast, on Sunday night, Maj. Searles
keeps repeating:
No, no, a thousand times no.
As far as the Air Force goes there's no such thing as a flying saucer. Further,
there are no such things as flying chromium hub caps, flying dimes, flying tear
drops, flying gas lights, flying ice cream cones or flying pie plates, thank yo
u and good-by.
ALL OF THESE ITEMS have been reported seen by reliable witnesses. Its Searles cor
ollary function to deny their existence.
If the saucer thing turns out as something other than liver spots before the blo
odshot eye, Maj. Searles will automatically become the reddest-faced Air Force o
fficer in history.
Searles saucerful of trouble goes back to a fateful Tuesday, June 24, 1947. A Bo
ise, Idaho businessman, Kenneth Arnold, was flying his private plane over the ja
gged peaks of Washingtons Mt. Ranier.
When he landed, he breathlessly reported having seen a chain of nine saucer-like
objects playing tag at fantastic speeds. What happened after that is a unique ch
apter in American history.
ON JAN. 22, 1948, unification gave the Air Force the job of looking into saucers f
or the rest of the services, and for the rest of the government. On April 27, 1
949, in a lengthy report, the Air Force concluded that the saucers are neither a
joke, nor a cause for alarm. But on Dec. 27. 1949, an AF press release admitted,
in effect, that saucers were a joke after all and that it would have no more tr
uck with the whole business.
When the saucer craze got hot again, Searles found himself in the Air Force sect
ion of the National Military Establishment public relations office, which is how
he inherited his present task. In his thick collection of AF press releases he
has the one of Dec. 27, 1949, tabbed Death of the Flying Saucers. When a questio
ner gets particularly persistent, hell read him the full text of the release.

Maj. Dewitt R. Searles: The text is death of the saucers.
SEARLES FAME is spreading government-wise. Cabinet officers, congressmen, Army ge
nerals and the Navys admirals particularly, take pleasure in referring even the t
op-level and frenzied saucer queries to REpublic 6700, Extension 75131, for the
Searles saucer debunk.
Searles says it's impossible to estimate just how many times in the past few wee
ks he has had to restate the Air Force's position on the flying saucer. But its w
ell into the thousands, he said.
There's even a diplomatic angle to Searles job. A long-distance query concerned
saucers reported seen in Egypt. The Egyptian government wanted to know if the U
SAF thought there was any cause for alarm. Searles read the full text over the
telephone on this one. Similar calls have come on saucers reported in Mexico, C
anada and in Europe.
It is no longer a source of dismay to Searles to know that questions on every sa
ucer reported seen in the world will eventually seep down to him. The same cour
age he showed as commanding officer of a fighter squadron in the Pacific he is c
redited with shooting down three Japs is standing by him in this ordeal. He say
s he doesn't even have any hard feelings toward saucers.
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Dewitt R. Searles retired from the USAF on February 1, 1974, with the rank of Ma
jor General. Read his his USAF Biography
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On April 5, 1950, the United Press carried a dispatch that contained a report of
then Congressman Albert J. Engel of Michigan. The incident happened in the sum
mer of 1949 and had enough witnesses that it might be possible to find an accoun
t in the local newspaper:
Yuma, Arizona, DAILY SUN - 5 April, 1950
Engel Saw One
Rep. Albert J. Engel, R., Mich., is the who says he saw one. A member of Rep. G
eorge Mahan's House Military Appropriations subcommittee, he also is a candidate
for governor of Michigan when he isn't helping dole out the money it takes to k
eep the military in business.
He said the fact that he saw a flying disc may not be evidence, but it was
sure convincing.
"It happened about 1 p.m. one day last summer at Elsie, Mich. Several othe
r citizens all of them sober and well-thought of, saw it too. Two of them chase
d it in a plane, but the thing unfortunately was too high and too fast and got a
way...."
"I am confident of this," Engel said. "If there are such things as saucers
, they are ours, not somebody else's. If another country were sending them over
, I am sure the subcommittee would have heard about it."
[At the time, UFOs were thought by many to be a secret military project.]
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Los Angeles, Ca. Times - 11 April, 1950
SURPRISE IN SKY
Chromelike 'Saucer' Seen Over Monterey
MONTEREY, April 10 (U.P:) A bright, chromelike flying saucer was spotted yesterday
by at least seven persons as it cruised at a high rate of speed over Monterey C
ounty.
Two Sheriff's office patrols reported to Salinas that they had seen the mysterio
us object.
It was definitely some kind of aircraft, but not local, one of the deputies, Ted C
ross of Monterey, said, in fact, nothing like anything seen in this world before.
Cross said the object was about 30 feet in diameter and appeared to be traveling
at approximately 4000 feet. He said the sun reflected brightly from it and tha
t the saucer looked like it was made of a chromelike metal. The object was head
ing in a northwesterly direction.
A Greyhound bus driver, on the early morning Monterey-Salinas run, also reported
seeing the object about the same time.
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Oxnard, Ca. Press-Courier - 11 April, 1950
Flying Saucer Reported Near Fort Ord
MONTEREY. CALIF. (U.P) Sheriff's Deputy Ted Cross insisted today that he saw a f
lying saucer, or something that looked like one, streaking across the countrysid
e Sunday morning.
Cross said he was driving along a 20-mile stretch of highway between Monterey an
d Salinas with deputy James Matney, Matron Barbara Harris and a prisoner when th
e object came into view. The time was 7 a.m.
At first we thought it was a morning star from its brightness, Cross said.
But we looked again and saw it wasn't. It was a round object, about 30 feet in c
ircumference and was traveling at a high rate of speed. I'd say it crossed the
highway at an altitude of about 4,000 feet.
Then it stopped and began spinning. After a minute, it left in a northwesterly d
irection towards Fort Ord.
Fort Ord is a huge army reservation near Monterey. Part of it lies alongside th
e Monterey-Salinas highway.
A few minutes later, two deputies in the Castroville area north of Fort Ord radi
oed they too had seen the mysterious object. Later, a Greyhound bus driver repo
rted seeing it near Salinas.
Cross said the object appeared to be pretty heavy. He said from the way it glitte
red in the early morning sun it looked like it was made of chromium or cast alum
inum.
It gave off no smoke or vapor, he added.
The U.S. Air Force has stated that its investigation of so-called flying saucers
show no basis for the frequent reports of them.
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Long Beach, Ca. Press-Telegram - 11 April, 1950

'Saucer' Report Near Fort Ord Subject of Probe
MONTEREY, April 11. (UP) An Army intelligence agent opened an investigation toda
y into reports by sheriff's deputies and others that they saw a flying saucer near
the Army's huge Fort Ord.
Deputies Ted Cross and Jim Matney, a former aerial gunner, were questioned for m
ore than a half-hour by the agent regarding the object they saw streaking across
the countryside near here Sunday.
The agent told the deputies that all Army intelligence operatives had been order
ed to carry cameras in their cars in an effort to photograph the elusive discs.
But, the agent said, if you had photographed it, we would have confiscated your f
ilm just like that.
The Air Force and other defense officials have continually denied existence of t
he saucers.
Cross said today that he was convinced it came from another world. The deputy add
ed, I dont think anything on earth could have caught it.
The two deputies were driving between Monterey and Salinas with Matron Barbara H
arris and a prisoner when Cross spotted the object directly over the highway. The
time was 7 a. m.
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Los Angeles, Ca. Times - 12 April, 1950
Saucer Visits San Francisco, Schoolboys Say
SAN FRANCISCO. April. 11 (U.P.)-The elusive flying saucers reported playing sky
tag over Monterey yesterday, were skittering around in the sky over San Francisc
o today, according to four observing high school boys.
Mission High School Sophomore Paul Montez reported spotting a saucer while he an
d three other youths were lounging in a park across the street from the school d
uring the lunch hour.
Gleaming Object
I'm positive it wasn't a plane, Montez said. A plane that high would have left a v
apor trail. It was just a gleaming object. At first it was about the size of a
dollar and then it went up so high it was about the size of a penny.
He said the object flew in the direction of Market St. and then disappeared only
to show up again a few minutes later over Twin Peaks.
He said his companions, who also saw the disk, were Richard Ririzary, John Garci
a and Jerry Fletcher.
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Springfield, Ma. UNION - 18 April, 1950
Saucers Fly Tandem Now
Tech High Pupils Report Double-Header Discs
With High-Pitched Noise
Two Technical High School students saw a flying saucer on Breckwood Blvd. last n
ight.
Joseph Dumas of 803 Armory St., one of the students, reported it. He was astoun
ded, shaken, and, until he called The Union to tell about it, speechless.
He and Edward Brogan of 63 Colonial Ave., saw the flying saucer as they were dri
ving along Breckwood Blvd., from Boston Rd., to Wilbraham Rd., about 8:15.
It was 100 feet away from them at its closet point, Dumas said, and when it left
, it shot straight up into the sky and was gone in a second.
Breathless as he told his story, Dumas said in the voice of a man who has seen a
ghost: You don't know how it makes you feel.
He didn't want to get any closer to it than he had to, so didn't get out of his
car, which he had pulled over to the side of the road when he spotted the saucer
so there wouldn't be any collision.
We were riding down the road in my car, Dumas related, when we saw this red thing;
we thought it was a plane with its motor on fire.
I thought it was coming at me so I pulled over to the side of the road and stayed
there. There were two pieces to it, like.
It went up and down about 20 feet each way, and made a weird, high-pitched, whist
ling noise. Then it went straight up and was gone in a second.
"It looked like it was giving off sparks: It wasn't aflame, just aglow. The bot
tom part, the shape of a slice of baloney, was about six feet in diameter. The
top part was convex, like a lens, and about four feet across.
There didn't seem to be any connection between the two discs, but there was a red
dish hue between them. It seemed like one disc was following the other.
There was no one aboard, as far as Dumas could tell. After making a series of t
hose 20-foot hops in the air, the thing shot skyward in an instant and was out o
f sight.
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Fort Worth, Texas Fort Worth Press - 20 April, 1950
Seen Any Saucers Lately? (page 2)
HEADQUARTERS EIGHTH AIR FORCE
Fort Worth, Texas
MEMO TO: All Concerned
SUBJECT: Policy of the Air Force on Flying Saucers
Due to the numerous inquiries received by this office, the following policy on t
he above subject is quoted for the information of all concerned:
There is no intention of reopening Project Saucer, an Air Force special project
officially closed three months ago. However, inasmuch as the air defense of the
United States is an Air Force responsibility, the Air Force has continued and w
ill continue to receive and evaluate through normal field intelligence channels
any substantial reports of any unusual aerial phenomena. There has been nothing
in recent reports to change the finding announced on December 27 to the effect
that there is no evidence that the reports are not the result of natural phenome
na.
Evaluation of reports since that time has re-enforced the conclusion that the re
ports of unidentified flying objects are the results of (1) misinterpretations o
f various conventional objects, (2) a mild form of mass hysteria, (3) or hoaxe
s.
In addition, none of the three services or any other agency of the Department of
Defense is conducting experiments, classified or otherwise, with disk-shaped fl
ying objects which could be a basis for the reported phenomena. As previously r
eported, there has been no evidence that the phenomena are attributable to the a
ctivity of any foreign nation.
C. H. SCOTT
Lt. Colonel, USAF
Public Information Officer
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Albuquerque, New Mexico Tribune - 29 June, 1950
Unidentified Plane Flies Near U. S. Air Base in Japan (Page 10)
ITAZUKE AIR BASE, Japan, June 29(UP)An unidentified plane tonight flew near the U.
S. air base for the American support of South Korea, but disappeared when U. S.
fighters swarmed aloft.
Air raid sirens wailed their spine-chilling alert in Japan for the first time si
nce 1945.
The official account of the alert gave no positive answer whether airmen from th
e Communist side of the Korean battlefront had undertaken their first reprisal a
t U. S. installations in Japan.
It said an unidentified aircraft was picked up, and fighters went up to intercept
it. But it disappeared, the account said. There was no explanation of a bright
flash which appeared on the horizon a few minutes before the all-clear.
When the alarm sounded the lights were doused and U. S. fighters took off like a
flock of startled quail. The men not thrown into counter-moves hurried to shel
ter and the field lay ghost-like and dead under a brilliant bombers' moon.
Occasionally an unseen plane roared overhead. They were American, apparently, f
or no bombs came.
Finally, the all-clear sounded and officers announced that the prowler from Kore
a, if such it was, had disappeared.
The pilots of four American F-80 Shooting Star jet fighter planes shot up by the
Communist North Koreans rode home safely on a wing and a prayer today.
One jet didn't make it. It crashed 20 miles at sea but the pilot was rescued af
ter he bailed out.
Three B-26 medium attack bombers also have been lost in the past two days. But
an air force spokesman said the casualties were surprisingly small considering the
dangerous operations the planes carried out and the condition under which they
operated.
This base now has been alerted against retaliatory night bombings.
New anti-aircraft batteries and night fighter patrols have been set up. But no
blackout has been ordered yet.
Project 1947 Comment: The news article does not refer to any visual sighting or
sound of an aircraft. It says the intruder was picked up. On radar only, perhap
s.
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QUICK Magazine - 10 July, 1950
Flying-Saucer Evidence
Two QUICK and LOOK reporters and passengers on a Northwest Airlines plane observ
ed a flying saucer for almost an hour near Aberdeen, S. D. Ben Kocivar, himself a
pilot, and Bob Sandberg said the object was very high and reflected sunlight wi
th a metallic gleam. It kept pace with the 220-m.p.h. plane, then turned away,
fell behind (p. 63). In the current LOOK, Bruce Bliven says that scientific pro
bability runs very heavily against the existence of flying saucers.
Quick Predicts: - Page 63
Flying Saucers:
The Central Intelligence Agency will publish a report on flying saucers. It wil
l hint at their existence, deny that they are of foreign or outer-planet manufac
ture.
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FLYING (Magazine) - July, 1950
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THE FLYING SAUCERS --
FACT OR FICTION?
By CURTIS FULLER
Editor of FLYING
When observers as experienced as airline pilots say they've seen
strange objects in the sky, they deserve a respectful hearing.
THE night of March 31, 1950, was dark and clear. The Chicago and Southern Air
Lines DC-3 had taken off a short while before from Memphis airport for a regular
ly scheduled flight to Little Rock, Ark. Off in the distance Capt. Jack Adams,
31, a veteran of 7,000 hours and seven years on the airline, could see the glow
of lights that meant Little Rock, 40 miles away.
"There was only a small piece of moon showing," Adams said. "Our altitud
e was about 2,000 feet. Visibility and ceiling were unlimited. We could see
20 or 30 miles easily."
In the right hand seat was Co-Pilot G. W. Anderson, Jr., 30, a 6,000-hour
veteran. Anderson and Adams knew the route perfectly, had flown it many times
together
At exactly 9:29 p.m. Adams' attention was caught by a lighted, fast-moving
object. "My God, what's that?" he asked.
Anderson looked up. "Oh no, not one of those things!" he said.
Unfortunately for his peace of mind it was "one of those things."
The editors of FLYING have followed and investigated reports of "those thi
ngs" for just short of three years -- ever since Kenneth Arnold, a businessman-p
ilot and himself a contributor to FLYING, started the great modern flying saucer
controversy on June 24, 1947.
Since then we have talked with men who believe they have seen flying sauce
rs, with men who are equally sure they haven't, with Air Force investigators, wi
th psychologists. For nearly three years no editor of FLYING has visited an Ai
r Force base or talked with an Air Force officer without asking "What do you kno
w about the flying saucers?"
The results, as you may suspect, have not been very fruitful. The answer
has almost invariably been an unyielding:
"There isn't any such thing."
And yet in the minds of the editors there has always remained an unsatisfi
ed, nagging doubt. If there isn't any such thing, what did Captain Jack Adams
and First Officer G. W. Anderson, Jr., see?
Up to the time of issuing its first report about a year ago, the Air Force
's Project Saucer had investigated 240 domestic and 30 foreign saucer incidents.
FLYING has in its own records reports of more than 40 saucer sightings.
Most of the reports are from crackpots and come under what psychologists c
all "hallucinatory phenomena." But the crackpot reports do not detract from th
e validity of reports from qualified observers any more than the existence of me
dical quacks proves that trained doctors are also quacks.
We have in our files enough material to write a book on flying saucers --
a strange compilation, indeed, of "things that don't exist." Several of the ac
counts are more interesting and inexplicable than those described in this articl
e, but we have confined this to only four reports.
All involve sightings by airliner crews -- in each case by both pilots and
co-pilots. We have confined the descriptions of saucer sightings to these fou
r accounts because we know that airline pilots are trained observers. They are
used to watching and interpreting sky phenomena and would be less likely to err
in their reports than any other group we could think of.
No editor of FLYING has ever seen a flying saucer. But we adopt the posi
tion of Dr. Frank K. Edmondson, director of the Goethe Link Observatory of India
na University at Bloomington.
"I have never seen a flying saucer," said Dr. Edmondson, "but after you di
scount all these explainable reports, there is a residue left that I cannot expl
ain."
The sightings by airline pilots are part of that residue, and the strange
craft that Captain Adams and First Officer Anderson saw near Little Rock last Ma
rch was one of those unexplainable phenomena.
"It was about 1,000 feet above us and about a half mile away," Anderson to
ld intelligence officers. "It zoomed at terrific speed (perhaps as much as 700
-1,000 m.p.h.) in an arc ahead and above us, moving from south to north . . .
"This object remained in full view for about 30 seconds and we got a good
look. It had no navigation lights, but as it passed ahead of us in an arc we c
ould plainly see other lights -- as though from eight or 10 lighted windows or p
orts -- on the lower side.
"The lights had a fluorescent quality. They were soft and fuzzy, unlike
any we'd seen before. The object was circular, apparently, and the lights rema
ined distinct all the time it was in our view. There was no reflection, no exh
aust, and no vapor trail. That's definite."
Captain Adams added that "there was a bright white light flashing intermit
tently from the top of the thing. The speed attracted our attention first, tha
t and the blinking light. It was the strongest blue white light we've ever see
n.
As the object passed, its underside apparently was then exposed to the pil
ots because the blue-white light was obscured. The object then continued in a
straight line and disappeared.
"I've been a skeptic all my life, but what can you do when you see somethi
ng like that?" Adams said. "We both saw it and we were flabbergasted."
The night was so dark that neither Adams nor Anderson could detect any dar
k or solid outline to the object. They assume that it was circular only becaus
e the lighted "portholes" were arranged in a circle.
The two pilots told a Memphis Press-Scimitar staff writer:
"We tried not to be too fantastic in making our report. We sort of figur
ed on the short side of everything. We never had been interested in these thin
gs before. In fact, frankly, we did not believe in them.
"The thing was not a shooting star or a comet. We know a comet, and we s
ee shooting stars between Memphis and Houston all the time."
* * *
It was 2:45 early one July morning in 1948. An Eastern Airlines DC-3 pilo
ted by Capt. Clarence Shipe Chiles and co-piloted by John B. Whitted, was toolin
g along at 5,000 feet about 20 miles south-west of Montgomery, Ala., en route fr
om Houston to New York.
The moon was bright and there were scattered light clouds. Thunderstorms
had been reported en route and Chiles and Whitted were watching faint flashes of
lightning way up ahead.
"We had our eyes focused on the point from which the thing came," Chiles t
old Louis Blackburn, of the Houston Press. "From the right and slightly above
us came a bright glow and the long rocket-like ship took form in the distance.
"It's a jet job," I said to Whitted.
"Then it grew larger and pulled up alongside. It appeared to be about 100
feet long with a huge fuselage three times as large as that of a B-29.
"It's too big for a jet, but what the devil is it?" said Whitted.
"There were two rows of windows and it appeared definitely to be a two-dec
ker. The lights from the side were a ghastly white, like the glow of a gas lig
ht -- the whitest we'd ever seen.
"There was a long shaft on the ship's nose that looked like it might have
been part of radar controls. The ship acted that way too, for just after it pu
lled alongside us it whipped quickly upward at a very sharp angle."
Both craft veered to their respective left. The mystery ship passed abou
t 700 feet to the right and above the airliner. "Then, as if the pilot had see
n us and wanted to avoid us, it pulled up with a tremendous burst of flame from
the rear and zoomed into the clouds, its prop wash or jet wash rocking our DC-3.
"
The wingless craft gave the impression of having a pilot's cabin at the fr
ont of a cigar-shaped fuselage. The cabin was brightly lighted but the fuselag
e itself approximated the brilliance of a magnesium flare.
"We saw no occupants," Chiles said. "From the side of the craft came an in
tense fairly dark blue glow that ran the entire length of the fuselage like a bl
ue fluorescent factory light. The exhaust was a red-orange flame, with a lighte
r color predominant around the outer edges."
Both Chiles and Whitted agreed that the exhaust flame extended 30 to 50 fe
et behind the object and became deeper in intensity as the craft pulled up into
a cloud. They estimated its speed as being about 1/3 faster than ordinary jets
-- that is 700 to 900 m.p.h.
Immediately after the ship disappeared, Chiles turned the controls over to
Whitted and rushed into the cabin to find out if any passengers had seen the ob
ject. He found all the passengers asleep except C. L. McKelvie of Columbus, O.
"I remembered saying to myself 'That's the queerest lightning I've ever se
en,' and I pressed myself closer to the window to see it," McKelvie said. "I w
as amazed at the brilliance of the flash of light."
McKelvie realized it was not lightning when the "light" flashed past in an
unbroken line to disappear in a cloud. "It was much redder in color than ligh
tning," McKelvie said. He did not, however, see any form of a ship.
The light from the object was so brilliant, indeed, that it caused "lightn
ing blindness" to both pilots. They had to turn up their cockpit lights to rea
d the instruments.
* * *
Nine circular disc-like objects were sighted by a United Air Lines plane w
est-bound from Boise, Ida., to Seattle Wash., on July 4, 1947 -- just a few days
after Kenneth Arnold reported the first chain of "discs" over the state of Wash
ington.
There had been many other reports of "flying saucers" in the northwest but
most persons were skeptical. "I'll believe 'em when I see 'em," said Capt. E.
J. Smith of United Air Lines Flight 105. The plane took off at 9:04 p.m. and
was only eight minutes out of Boise when Smith and his co-pilot, First Officer R
alph Stevens, saw five disc-like objects in "loose formation."
At first they mistook the objects for aircraft and blinked their lights as
a warning. It was a dimly twilighted sky and they could see the objects silho
uetted clearly. The two pilots called Marty Morrow, stewardess, to the cockpit
to certify that they were actually seeing the discs and she too saw them.
Then they caught sight of four more of the objects, three clustered togeth
er and a fourth flying "by itself, way off in the distance."
"The discs were flat and roundish," Smith and Stevens said. "They definite
ly were not aircraft. But they were bigger than aircraft."
* * *
The most recent "flying saucer" sighting by an airliner was on the night o
f April 27, 1950, when occupants of a Trans-World Airline plane en route to Chic
ago saw a "round glowing mass" in the air as they flew over South Bend, Ind.
Capt. Robert Adickes, the pilot, and First Officer Robert Manning had the
object in sight for six or seven minutes as it overtook their plane at about 2,0
00 feet and cruised along a parallel course. Adickes has been flying for 13 ye
ars and has been a TWA captain for six years.
He is a cautious man and is reluctant to say that he saw a "flying saucer.
" To him it was an "object" or a "guided missile."
"I had just had my dinner and was wide awake," says Adickes, "when this ob
ject flew alongside. It was definitely round, with no irregular features at all
, and about 10 to 20 per cent as thick as it was round. It was very smooth and
streamlined, and glowed evenly with a bright red color as if it were heated sta
inless steel. It was so bright it gave off a light. It left no vapor, no fla
me. It appeared to fly on edge, like a wheel going down a highway.
"I went back to show the passengers. Most of them saw it but they couldn
't see it as clearly as we [pilot and co-pilot] did because cabin lights were on
and their eyes weren't adjusted to darkness.
"I called South Bend air traffic control and asked if they had any record
of unusual craft in the vicinity. They didn't."
Adickes banked north in an effort to get a closer look. "It appeared to be
controlled by repulse radar," he said. "As I'd turn toward it, it would veer aw
ay, keeping the same distance.
"When I turned directly toward it, it took off at a speed judged to be abo
ut 400 m.p.h., twice my speed. It went down to 1,500 feet and streaked out of
sight northward over South Bend."
Adickes had talked with other pilots who claimed to have seen strange sky
phenomena before he saw the object over South Bend. He is careful to say that
he did not see anything that could not be explained by physics, radar, or known
aerodynamic principles. He examined it as well as he could and even opened the
cockpit window on the right side so that he wasn't looking through glass. Bec
ause there was nothing to compare it with he hesitates to estimate its size or d
istance, but compares it in size and color with an orange about 20 feet away.
"It looked something like a spinning exhaust, all aflame," said passenger
Jacob Goelzer. Another passenger, C. W. Anderson, an International Harvester p
lant superintendent from Springfield, O., said "It looked like a big red light b
ulb, fading off fast. It was moving very fast. I didn't notice any details of
the red ball."
* * *
There is a surprising correlation in all these four sightings. There is
the feeling by several pilots that the objects are under a kind of repulse radar
control. In the two seen closest there appear to be lighted openings or "port
holes."
All the objects have been seen at night, except the United Air Lines group
which was seen at twilight and showed no lights. Otherwise, all objects are a
ssociated with lights, two of them with exceptionally bright white or blue-white
lights, and also with softer fluorescing lights.
Three of the objects were round and disc-shaped. The fourth, that of the
Eastern Airlines pilots was cigar-shaped -- yet it is obvious that a disc seen o
n edge throughout its flight would also look cigar-shaped. None of the three d
isc-shaped objects showed any evidence of reaction propulsion. That of the cigar
-shaped object did.
The attitude of scientists everywhere is in almost universal agreement --
there are no such things as flying saucers. It is a striking fact that astrono
mers and physicists universally discount their existence on the grounds that the
y are hallucinations, but that psychologists are inclined to credit them on the
grounds that they cannot be hallucinations.
Dr. Harlow Shapley, director of Harvard Observatory, says: "No evidence
that flying saucers are other than natural neurotic phenomena has been received
at the Harvard Observatory."
Dr. I. S. Bowen, director of Mt. Palomar and Mt. Wilson observatories says
: "We have not observed objects in the air that could not be explained as natura
l phenomena." And Dr. Robert H. Baker, professor of astronomy at the Universit
y of Illinois in Urbana declares: "I would say it's hysteria. I never saw a sa
ucer, and know of no astronomer who has."
Among physicists, Dr. Arthur Jaffee an atomic scientist of the University
of Chicago, suggested: "Maybe the people who see things have motes in their eyes
." Dr. James Arnold, former Manhattan Project worker and a chemistry professor
at the University of Chicago: "There's no evidence. People can see a lot of t
hings -- some real and some caused by the power of suggestion."
And here's what Dr. Erwin Angres, a psychiatrist replied: "Pilots, who a
re trained observers, are not going to be fooled very often. There may be some
thing to the stories."
There is a striking similarity between the attitude of scientists and news
papers toward flying saucers, and toward man's first attempts to fly.
People simply would not believe that the Wright Brothers had flown. The
most important reason they would not believe it was that they had been told by s
cientists for years that heavier-than-air flight was impossible. Dr. Simon New
comb, the distinguished astronomer and the first American since Benjamin Frankli
n to be made an associate of the Institute of France, declared just a few years
before the Wrights flew that flight without gas bags would require the discovery
of some new metal or a new unsuspected force in nature. Rear Adm. George W. Me
lville, then chief engineer for the U. S. Navy proved convincingly in the North
American Review that the attempts to fly heavier-than-air craft were absurd.
During 1904 and 1905, the Wright Brothers conducted numerous experimental
flights at Simms Station, eight miles from Dayton. They flew from Huffman Fiel
d, alongside the interurban line, and people who watched the flights from the in
terurban cars used to flock into the Dayton Daily News office and demand to know
why there was nothing in the newspaper about them.
Dan Kumler, city editor, explained in 1940 why they didn't publish the sto
ries. "We just didn't believe it. Of course you remember that the Wrights at
that time were terribly secretive."
He was asked: "You mean that they were secretive about the fact that they
were flying over an open field along the interurban line?"
Kumler hesitated and replied, "I guess the truth is that we were just plai
n dumb."
All the evidence suggests that orthodox scientists don't believe there can
be such things as flying saucers because they don't behave in accordance with t
he conventional physics they know -- just as the Wright Brothers plane did not a
ccord with the physics of Simon Newcomb and therefore couldn't exist either.
FLYING does not have any secret sources in the Government who are able to
give us confidential reports on how the saucers are powered, and who is behind t
hem, such as one national magazine has published.
We are convinced that they have nothing to do with the Chance Vought V-173
configuration pictured on the cover of FLYING, nor with the Chance Vought XF5U
(Flying Pancake) as stated by another national magazine. Only one of each of th
ese airplanes was ever built, and the XF5U never even flew. The V-173 did fly
but had no performance comparable with that attributed to the mysterious objects
described here.
We do not believe that the saucers are a Soviet development. If the Russ
ians did have anything so revolutionary they would hardly risk their secret by c
onducting training flights over the United States.
Are they then a United States development?
Airline pilots and businessmen pilots who do a lot of flying, and who talk
with pilots who have seen strange objects in the sky, generally believe that th
ey are. But if so, note these contradictions:
1. If they are indeed a secret U. S. development, that secret has been b
etter kept in peacetime than the atomic bomb was in wartime.
2. They seem to involve a revolutionary type of fuselage, of flight theo
ry, and also perhaps even a revolutionary type of propulsion. This seems to be
the reason the physicists questioned do not believe they exist. The editors o
f FLYING keep well abreast of late aviation developments and know of no airframe
s or power plants, atomic plants included, that perform as these objects are rep
orted to perform.
3. Like the Russians, it hardly seems likely that U. S. researchers woul
d be experimenting with the saucers at random spots all around the country where
there would always be the danger of their secrets becoming known.
4. The Government itself does not just evade answers on flying saucers.
In every case it denies they exist. While certain denials are to be expected,
it seems to the FLYING staff that the type of denials are fairly conclusive.
Before Project Saucer was "officially" terminated it reported that "no def
inite conclusive evidence is yet available that would prove or disprove the poss
ibility that a portion of the unidentified objects are real aircraft of unknown
or unconventional configuration."
This, it seems to us, is an evasion. Even taking the four reports cited
here, it is obvious that skilled pilots, trained observers of sky phenomena, saw
something. If they saw it, it must exist. They are not all victims of hallu
cinations despite the ready explanations of the physicists.
But what the strange phenomena are, the editors of FLYING do not pretend t
o know.
We can only say what they are not. They are not anything the glib radio
commentators and the sensational magazines say they are. They are a mystery an
d a contradiction, and we know little more about what they are than when we star
ted our investigation. But it's been interesting, hasn't it?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
AIRLINE PILOTS' OWN SKETCHES OF WHAT THEY SAW
CAPT. C. S. CHILES
This strange object seen by Eastern Airlines Capt. Chiles is the only one report
ed by airline pilots that had the traditional rocket shape and appeared to have
jet exhaust.


CAPT. JACK ADAMS
C.&S's Pilot Adams would not swear that the ship he saw had circular shape indic
ated, but the circular arrangement of "portholes" seemed to indicate that it was
a disc.

CAPT. ROBERT ADICKES
Imagine a disc, 10 to 20 per cent as thick as it was round and the size of an or
ange at 20 feet -- that describes the object observed by TWA's Adickes.


KENNETH ARNOLD
Idaho businessman-pilot attracted nationwide attention in 1947, with his reports
of "flying discs" seen over the Cascades. All but one of discs Arnold saw were
shaped like the drawings below.
CAPT. E.J. SMITH
United Air Lines captain saw nine strange objects in air near Emmett, Idaho. Sk
etch below by Kenneth Arnold is based on Smith's description of the objects. No
te similarity of profile with that on the left.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Memphis, Tennessee Commercial Appeal - 12 July, 1950
Millington Men Report Seeing 'Flying Saucer And Tracing It
Veteran Pilots Sighted Odd Craft From Plane Near Osceola
Radar Logged It For Eight Miles They Say It Was
Speedy, Shaped Like World War I Helmet
By JAC COOPER
Two Millington Naval Air Station pilots have seen a flying saucer, or some type
of strange aircraft, and traced its course by radar for eight miles.
This startling testimony on the factual side of the flying saucer argument was r
eleased by the Navy yesterday at Millington.
Each pilot was flying a crew on a routine training flight about 20 miles north-n
ortheast of Osceola, Ark., at 3:28 Friday afternoon when the saucer came into vi
ew on the left about three miles away, crossed in front of their planes and vani
shed toward the southwest, they reported.
Lieut. (j.g.) J. W. Martin (16 years in the Navy, 2500 hours logged as a pilot) s
aid: We were flying about 5000 feet and I think R. E. Moore (enlisted pilot) was
the first to spot the thing.
Thought It Was a Jet
At first we thought it was a jet plane distorted by the glare off the aluminum bo
dy. It seemed round at first.
The men in both ships saw it on our left, and as it traveled across in front of u
s and disappeared in the distance on our right.
In the air you have nothing to judge by accurately, but I estimated its altitude
at about 8000 feet and speed at 200 to 225 miles an hour.
After it got closer the thing looked like a World War I helmet seen from the side
, or a shiny shallow bowl turned upside down.
I figured it to be about 25 to 45 feet across and about seven feet high.
Moores Description
Pilot Moore's description tallied with that of Lieutenant Martin.
While the crews of both ships watched, G. D. Wehner, an electronics technician i
nstructing in Moores ship, established radar contact with the saucer and followed
it out of sight with the scope.
At one time the saucer appeared to be only about a mile away, said Lieutenant Mart
in.
We wanted to follow it, but were flying training ships that can't make the speed
the saucer, or whatever, was traveling, and also wed have had to climb about 3000
feet in pursuit. It was a hopeless proposition, he added.
Mr. Wehner reported: I caught it in the scope. It was helmet-shaped. The outline
of the edges was all right, but glare from the center of it prevented getting a
better look.
Contrasts With Navy Policy
The Navys release of the news came in sharp contrast to Air Force policy, which h
as been to discount the many and frequent reports of strange flying craft or mak
e any other comment on the result of investigations.
Experienced airmen have previously reported seeing strange craft in flight.
On March 20 Capt. Jack Adams and his co-pilot, First Officer G. W. Anderson Jr.,
both Chicago & Southern Air Lines pilots here, reported seeing a peculiar saucer
-type craft in controlled flight over Hazen, Ark. The two Memphians are veteran
pilots, with thousands of hours in the air.
Similar instances have been reported in other parts of the Nation.
Henry Taylor, newspaper man and radio commentator, has told audiences in Memphis
and on nationwide hookups that he believes the flying saucers are being develop
ed as a weapon of the United States.
Capt. Jack Adams (right) and his co-pilot, First Officer G. W. Anderson Jr., bot
h of Chicago & Southern Air Lines, discuss their March 20, 1950, sighting over A
rkansas.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Great Falls, Montana TRIBUNE - 5 August, 1950
Mariana Reports Flying Discs
Could it be that even baseballs now come home to roost?
Nick Mariana, general manager of the Selectrics, was asking himself that questio
n this morning. Two objects for all the world like the long gone ball slugged out
of the Twin Falls ball park last night by Lou Briganti and Joe Nally sailed acr
oss the sky at Legion park this morning.
At least so the troubled Brewers general manager reported today even while admit
ting he could have been seeing things. Only he hopes to have photographic proof
for skeptics.
It all happened at 11:30 a. m. while Mariana was out taking a look around the re
served seat section at Legion park and there sailing smoothly above the smelter
stack at the ACM plant were two spherical silvery objects at a height he estimat
ed at 5,000 feet. After a quick double take and a minute lost while he brushed
the cobwebs from his eyes he called his secretary as a witness.
Very opportunely he remembered his movie camera and shot the movies he hopes wil
l verify what he hopes isnt failing eyesight.
No report is available on possible weather balloons floating in the atmosphere t
oday but it is feared that the high-flying baseball version may be more acceptab
le to Great Falls residents than flying saucers.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
New York Herald-Tribune - 17 August, 1950
Flying Saucer Time: 2790 Miles an Hour
Canadian Estimates Its Diameter at 150 Feet
Nanaimo, B. C., Aug 16 (CP)Harry Lowe, assistant manager of Cassidy Airport
here, not only saw a flying saucer today, he timed it.
Mr. Lowe said he was making a routine weather observation when the object a
ppeared from the north at 9:43 a.m. at a height of 30,000 feet.
He figured its speed at 2790 miles an hour, like this: The object was 5,000
feet above cirrus cloud at 25,000 feet. "It appeared at a 45-degree angle from
horizontal and traveled through 90-degrees of arc in twelve seconds." Therefor
e, he said, 2790 miles an hour.
He estimated its diameter at 150 feet.
"It was definitely something I have never seen before," Mr. Lowe said. "It
was not a balloon and not an aircraft, not a normal aircraft anyway."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Great Falls, Montana TRIBUNE - 5 September, 1950
Odd Objects Reported Seen Over City
Two Great Falls air force veterans were pondering today just what the strange ob
jects were which they saw over the city Monday night [4 Sep].
Homer Pike and Vic Kunesh reported they spotted six amber colored objects
flying over the city at about 9:40 Monday night. They were flying in a westerly
direction and seemed to be passing each other at alternate intervals.
Both Pike and Kunesh agreed they looked like colored balloons except for t
heir high speed.
They were faster than any jet planes I've seen, Kunesh said.
The objects were visible about five seconds and were flying at about 5,000
feet. They apparently made no noise.
They were doing quite a bit of maneuvering and seemed to fly directly over
Gore field, Pike remarked.
Pike first spotted the object as he and Kunesh were loading a truck with t
ools. He called Kunesh's attention to the sight.
Pike put in five years' service in the air force and Kunesh completed thre
e years.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Great Falls, Montana TRIBUNE - 11 September, 1950
Flying Saucer Movies to Be Shown Here
Motion pictures of flying saucers taken by Nick Mariana several weeks ago at the
y passed over Legion park will be shown at the Central Round Table meeting tonig
ht at 8 at the Booster clubrooms in the Park hotel. Mariana is general manager
of the Great Falls Selectrics.
Tony Dalich will discuss football rules at the meeting and John Shulz, coach of
the Central High Mustangs, will outline prospects for the Mustang grid season.
Hugo Nelson will preside at the meeting.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pittsfield, Massachusetts Berkshire Eagle - 12 September, 1950
Flying saucer film taken over by AF
GREAT FALLS, Mont. (AP) - Nick Mariana says that the Air Force has taken his col
or movie of two silver disks that buzzed over a baseball park here Aug. 15. He
said he turned the color film over to the air technical command here at the requ
est of a special investigator of the command.
Mariana, manager of the Great Falls team in the Pioneer Baseball League, said, w
hen he saw the disks over the ball park he focused his camera and photographed t
hem.
They appear on the film for seconds he said he was advised by the investigating
officials not to release any further information concerning the film.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Baltimore, Maryland Sunday Morning Sun - 1 October, 1950
Saucers Do Get Around
High-Speed Disk Heads West Over Seoul, Marines Report
Newspaper for schools tells pupils flying saucers
are real and belong to the Air Force..........Page3
By Richard K.Tucker (Sunpapers War Correspondent)
With the United States Marines in Seoul, Sept 30It was sure to happen sooner or l
ater. The first flying saucer was reported over the battle-torn South Korean ca
pital shortly before 1 P.M. today.
The disk was reported by a cold-sober Marine division M.P. officer and at
least a half dozen of his men.
It was considered official enough to be put on the record of the 5th Marin
e Regiment's intelligence officer, who said he was planning to forward informati
on to division officers.
The officer who said he saw the saucer flying high from the east to the we
st over Seoul at 12:37 P.M. was Lieut. E. J. Ambrosia of Monterey, Cal.
Faster Than Any Plane
"It looked to be about as high as bombers I've seen cruising around here,"
he said. "From that distance it looked about 4 feet in diameter. It seemed to
be silvery (in) color and was going two or three times faster than any plane I'
ve seen over here."
Staff Sergeant Robert J. Bowden supported the Lieutenant's statement.
"We all saw it," he said. "There were about a half dozen of us with the l
ieutenant when we went over to check a report by natives that there were four de
ad Marines on a hill.
"We saw a bunch of Korean kids looking up and we looked up too. It looked
more yellow than silver to me, but it was round and really travelling fast."
"Sure Did" Look Like a Saucer
Another man who vouched for the saucer report was Staff Sergeant Franklin
Ryerson of Eagle Rock, Cal.
"Are you sure it looked like a saucer?" he was asked.
"It sure did," he replied.
The position of the lieutenant and his men when the alleged saucer was see
n [was] near an old Japanese prison on the northwest edge of Seoul. They said i
t was visible for about two or three minutes in bright sunlight.
They reported it to Major William Esterline, S-2 officer the 5th Marine Re
giment. Major Esterline smiled over it, but then decided he better pass the inf
ormation on to the division. How far beyond that it got is not known.
Lieutenant More Serious
But Lieutenant Ambrosia was a bit more serious about the whole thing.
"You know," he said, I've heard a lot about those things. I never thought
I'd be one of the people who saw one, I have really believed they existed for so
me time. Too many people like airline pilots have seen 'empeople who know what t
hey are talking about."
"Where was it going?" someone asked.
"Well," he said, "it was going west from here so it wasn't incoming from R
ussia."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pittsfield, Massachusetts Berkshire Eagle - 12 October, 1950
Photos of Saucers?
Spoiled, Says AF
DAYTON, Ohio (AP)No one will ever know if those airborne objects photographed by
a Great Falls, Mont., baseball manager were flying saucers.
The Air Force, which Manager Nick Mariana said confiscated pictures he took, rep
orted the color film was too dark to distinguish any recognizable objects.
The film was viewed yesterday at near-by Wright-Patterson Air Force base.
Mariana said that last Aug. 15 he photographed two objects which flew over the G
reat Falls ball park. Later, he said, an Air Force Intelligence officer took th
e film and told him not to talk about it.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

On the Question of Tampering with the 1950
Great Falls Film
At between 1125 and 1130 AM M.S.T. on August 15, 1950, two witnesses, Nicholas M
ariana, the general manager of the Great Falls minor league baseball team, the "
Selectrics," and his secretary, Virginia Raunig, observed an unusual sight. Whi
le standing in the grandstand of the local ballpark, Mariana saw two peculiar, r
oundish objects moving swiftly out of the northwest and moving southward. When
both objects stopped abruptly, Mariana recalled having a l6mm movie camera in hi
s car. He ran down a stairway in the park to his car about 60 feet away and shou
ted for his secretary in a nearby office. After she ran out, he asked her if sh
e could see anything in the sky. She said yes, two silvery spheres.
Frame showing the UFOs from the Montana Film
When Mariana retrieved the camera, he immediately turned the telephoto lens into
position, set the f-stop at 22 and began filming the objects, which had begun m
oving again. He described what he saw as two discs spinning like a top, about 50
feet across and 50 yards apart. He could see no appendages, wings, fuselage or
exhaust, but he thought he heard a "whooshing" sound when he first noticed the o
bjects.
The UFOs moved southeast behind a General Mills grain building and a water tower
south of the ballpark and disappeared into the distance.
Almost immediately after taking the film, Mariana said that two Air Force jets h
ad flown across the sky east of him and headed in a southerly direction. These
were later identified as two F-94s arriving at Great Falls Air Force Base from t
he 449th Fighter Squadron at Ladd Air Force Base, Alaska. The jets, #2502 and #
2503, landed at 1130 and 1133 AM respectively (Air Force Case Files).
The objects were estimated to be three-quarters of a mile away. Angle of elevati
on: 35 degrees at an altitude of 10,000 feet. Duration of sighting: 45-50 second
s.
Mariana showed the film to a number of audiences in the local Great Falls area b
efore allowing the Air Force to take the film for analysis on October 4, 1950.
The film was retrieved by Captain John Brynildsen, commander of the Great Falls
section of the Air Force Office of Special Investigations and sent to the Distri
ct Commander of the 5th District OSI at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio (O
ctober 6, 1950, Air Force memo).
After informing the press that the film was received (Berkshire Eagle, Pittsfiel
d, Ma., 10-6-50), the Air Force issued an inexplicable press release (Berkshire
Eagle, 10-12-50), saying that the film was "too dark to distinguish any recogniz
able objects."
In fact the film was, and is, very clear in showing two bright objects traversin
g the sky. On October 18th the film was returned to Mariana.
When he received his film back from the Air Force, Mariana was surprised to find
that the earliest, best portion of the film, that showing what he said were the
two objects with a notch or band at the outer edge and an obvious spinning move
ment, was missing. He estimated that about 35 frames were gone.
The film stayed with Mariana until 1952 when the Air Force's new head of Project
Blue Book, Captain Edward Ruppelt, decided to reopen the Great Falls file. Mar
iana was asked to send the film to the Air Force again. The reason being that th
e Air Force lost their copy of the film! He did on October 29, 1952, with the p
rovision that the film not be tampered with again.
In a letter dated November 14, 1952, Colonel William Adams, chief of the Topical
Division, Deputy Director for Estimates, of the Directorate for Intelligence, w
rote Mariana, updating the status of the film's analysis. He alluded to the fac
t that at some point the film had become "torn" and that instead of splicing the
footage together, resulting in lost frames, the film was repaired with cellulos
e tape. Mariana was advised not to run the film with the repair until a more pe
rmanent splice could be done.
Later the abbreviated film would be used in a documentary film, "UFO" (1956). T
hroughout the entire investigation the Air Force denied ever having tampered wit
h the film.
Was the film altered, or was Mariana making an unfounded charge? There are a nu
mber of matters to consider.
I have a copy of the l6mm Air Force color print, ordered from the National Archi
ves almost 25 years ago. The print has 243 frames and there is repaired tear da
mage evident on frames 5, 6, 10, 11, 160 and 161. The film lasts about 15 secon
ds. It begins abruptly with the objects larger and clearer than in the rest of
the sequence. The images under the microscope reveal slightly elliptical object
s with no apparent projections.
The first frame of the sequence has a linear diagonal cut through it, spoiling p
art of the frame. There is evidence of an earlier frame to the first one showin
g the UFO images. How do we know this? In several of the earliest frames, one
can see two dark lines in the upper right of each frame, probably electrical wir
es. The diagonal cut that runs partly through frame one left a tiny portion of a
previous frame, frame "0", as I will call it. One can see the two wires in thi
s fragment of frame 0, positive proof that at least one earlier image existed.
Why is this diagonal cut there? Normal commercial film doesn't begin with a cru
dely appearance as this. Someone had to do it after the film was exposed. Who
are the likely candidates?
1) Mariana: Let us say that the missing film shows images that are identifiable
as jets. There would be every motivation for Mariana to splice away this porti
on of the film before giving it to the Air Force if he were trying to put one ov
er on them. However, it would be very difficult to explain the crude slice as i
t appears and it should have raised immediate suspicion on the part of any Air F
orce investigator that he may have been hiding something. Mariana certainly woul
dn't have received the glowing character assessment that he did from the Air For
ce officer who picked up the film ("He enjoys an excellent reputation in the loc
al community and is regarded as a reliable, trustworthy and honest individual" A
ir Force memo, l0-6-50). And what would be the point of giving the film to the
Air Force in the first place if he knew they were jets? Some might suggest that
Mariana intended to capitalize on the footage. But if the film showed jets, an
d Mariana knew it, the last place to send the footage for analysis would be the
Air Force. They would be the one source most likely to identity the true nature
of the objects as jets and disrupt any attempt to falsely pass off the film as
showing anomalous objects. There is zero evidence, even from the Air Force itse
lf; that Mariana could have been involved in a deception. He showed the film to
local audiences for little or nothing. If the images did show an anomalous obj
ect, why would Mariana cut it out the alleged best part and debased the value of
his own film?
2) The Air Force: Mariana sent his film to the Air Force in October 1950, and u
pon receiving it later in the month, noticed part of it missing, according to hi
s testimony. If the film showed the images to be identifiable as jets, as was l
ater claimed by the Air Force, it would have been pointless for the Air Force to
remove anything. The case would have been closer if the missing film showed an
omalous objects, it would be no great stretch to think that, given Air Force pol
icy on UFOs at the time, i.e. that there was nothing to the phenomena. They mig
ht have deleted what could have been regarded as sensitive material - unknown, e
xotic objects overflying U.S. airspace. Could the Air Force have inadvertently
lost the footage through incompetence and claim that it didn't exist in the firs
t place? Yes, although it would have been risky had Mariana made a duplicate of
the film before handing it over. And it would make no sense for a photo analys
t to separate the original film in the midst of a sequence. At the same time tho
ugh, if the lost footage merely showed jets, then the later attention given to t
he film in 1952 by the Air Force, and by the CIA's Robertson Panel in 1953 would
have been a waste of their time. The Air Force's behavior was such that any mi
ssing footage did not contribute to a mundane explanation of the objects. Did C
aptain Byrnildsen innocently separate the footage from other, unrelated exposed
footage from Mariana's camera before sending it to Wright-Patterson AFB? Marian
a stated in 1967 that there were family scenes prior to the UFO footage. But th
ere is no testimony to this effect. And it wouldn't have spoken highly of an in
vestigative officer to so crudely edit a film about to be analyzed by leaving im
portant early footage behind, as evidenced by the hacking of frame 0.
F-94 Starfire Jet, similar to aircraft Blue Book Identified as being the filmed
UFOs
The evidence for missing footage goes even further. During the Condon Committee
investigations in 1967, the Great Falls case was re-reopened, despite the Air F
orce having already listed the film as "Identified" (the two F-94s) in Project B
lue Book. Investigator Roy Craig located a number of participants in the case w
ho remembered the film before it was clipped. First was John Wuertner, Mariana'
s attorney. In May 1951, Mariana sued "Cosmopolitan" magazine for a story publi
shed in the January 1951 issue called "The Disgraceful Flying Saucer Hoax" by Bo
b Considine. Mariana perceived the negative tone of the article as demeaning hi
s character (the magazine published the opinion that Mariana's UFOs were the two
jets). When interviewed about the film and the later lawsuit, Wuertner said th
at the Air Force kept the film for a long period and with the looming lawsuit, h
is client wanted the film back to use in the case. "...I know doggone well that
that tape when it was returned, was little or nothing to it." Wuertner said th
at he recalled better views of the film in the original cut. "...when I saw it
compared to what came back, it wasn't complete." "The main part that I recall th
at didn't come back was when it was right overhead. Now it started in the east
and as it arose on the horizon then there was a part cut out and all we have lef
t was the part disappearing over the west." He added that there was the appeara
nce of spinning."...if it were uniform, you'd get the same reflection on the sam
e spot. But as it turned, you could get the definite reaction of spinning." Mo
reover, he continued, "If I had to make an estimate of what I thought had been c
ut off, I would say that it was, oh gosh, maybe one-fourth to one-fifth - it wou
ld be hard to say. But it would seem that they cut off the most obvious part.
In other words, the part to me that seemed to bear out his contentions more than
anything else."
Another testament came from E. P. Furlong, managing editor of the Great Falls Tr
ibune. He saw the film originally, then later on TV, feeling that the TV versio
n was considerably shorter. He was likely referring to a broadcast of the film
"UFO" (1956) which included the entire film available after Mariana received his
edited copy.
Tony Dalick [Dalich] ran a sporting goods store where the film had been run befo
re being sent to the Air Force. He testified that there was "a lot missing, per
haps 2-3 feet." He remembered two objects, definitely spinning, shaped like a w
afer of Peppermint candy. The objects were closer and clearer on the unreturned
part of the film.
Craig interviewed Nicholas Mariana 17 years after the event. He clarified some
aspect of sighting detail. On the alleged spinning motion: "You could see the s
pinning action of the center portion in the middle of the film."
On the "notch" allegedly seen as a reference point for the spinning motion: "...
there was a little break between the actual rest of the body of the machine and
this portion of it. You could see there was action. You couldn't see it with y
our eye but you could see it after I got the telephoto film back."
On the diagonal cut at the beginning of the film: "The reason I know it was cut,
too, was that they came back with the original and they had spliced it diagonal
ly. Well, I never used the diagonal splice. I use horizontal splice..."
Let's look more at the film strip itself. As mentioned earlier, I had obtained
a l6mm print of the Air Force's copy years ago from the National Archives. The
Archives no longer makes film prints of UFO footage available, as everything has
been placed onto videotape for sale. The length of the actual Great Falls foot
age is 6 feet, 3/4 inch, with a 42 inch blank lead and a 52 inch blank end. The
total length of the filmstrip is about 14 feet. There is no telling when the b
lanks were added on but they were not part of the original film and they were ce
rtainly added by the Air Force.
According to Captain Byrnildsen's transmittal letter of October 6, 1950, approxi
mately 15 feet of film was sent to Wright-Patterson AFB. But in a clipping cite
d in Jerome Clark's "The UFO Encyclopedia" (2nd Ed. 1998) from the Great Falls T
ribune (October 6, 1950), Byrnildsen is said to have told the reporter that he p
icked up 8 feet of film from Mariana. Unless someone made errors in quoting the
footage, it seems like Byrnildsen picked up eight feet of film from Mariana, ad
ded on the blank footage and sent the finished product to Wright-Patterson. My
copy of the film, with blank filler, is 14 feet, in close agreement with what wa
s sent to Wright-Patterson.
If you've been reading carefully, you can see a problem. The supposedly complet
e copy of the edited Air Force print, that which Mariana received after having h
ad his film "reduced," is nearly two feet shorter than the lowest estimate of wh
at the Air Force had said they had received at Wright-Patterson in 1950! Since
on a viewing of the existing print there are no major jump cuts in the sequence,
which flows rather smoothly, and since the film ends about where the witness ha
s testified (the objects moving into the distance and disappearing), one must co
nclude that about two feet of film is missing from the beginning of the sequence
.
This is exactly what Mariana claims. It is also in good agreement with the test
imony of Tony Dalick, the sporting goods store owner who had seen the footage be
fore and after the claimed editing by the Air Force, saying that he felt "two to
three feet" were missing from the beginning.
In 1956, Dr. Robert M. L. Baker produced an analysis of the Montana film, a trea
tment that was later updated and printed in "The Journal of the Astronautical Sc
iences" for January-February 1968, under the title "Observational Evidence of An
omalistic Phenomena." He concluded that nearby jet aircraft should have been re
solvable on the film, but at greater distances the brightness and speed of the i
mages were too great to have been aircraft. In other words, the objects were un
identified. Of relevance to this article are remarks in Baker's article about th
e filmstrip itself. He said that his analysis focused upon just 225 frames of t
he film because of the presence of foreground objects, by which precise measurem
ents could have been made. 65 frames at the beginning of the film were not used
except for brightness measurements. This gives us 290 frames total that Baker
had available of the UFOs (290 frames? Ed.). The film was given to Baker for st
udy by Greene-Rouse Productions, the makers of the documentary "UFO" mentioned e
arlier. The clip was the end product supplied to Mariana after the 1952 Air For
ce analysis, and supplied to Greene-Rouse Productions when a deal was struck to
use the footage in the documentary. Greene-Rouse arranged an independent analys
is, presumably to be sure that the film showed truly anomalous images.
Now the problem with this is that my copy of the Air Force Montana print is only
243 frames long. 47 more frames had disappeared between 1952 and the time I ha
d obtained the film from the National Archives! Could it have been that the Air
Force clipped the footage again, knowing that the film was to be released publi
cly sometime after the mid-1970s upon the transfer of Blue Book records to the N
ational Archives? We might want to title the remaining sequence of the Montana
footage "The Incredible Shrinking Film!"
The Air Force had already decided that the film had shown two F-94s (see Project
Blue Book's conclusion). This was in spite of the 1952 reinvestigation by the t
hen head of the Air Force's Project Blue Book, Captain Edward Ruppelt, at the di
rection of the Pentagon. Ruppelt had said that in 1950 there was no interest on
the part of the Air Force in UFOs. Their pre-Blue Book program, Project Grudge,
had written off the Montana film as jets after a quick viewing (see "The Report
on Unidentified Flying Objects," page 287). Upon examining the data anew, the n
ew study narrowed down the possible explanations to the F-94s in the area. But
as Ruppelt explained, "First we studied the flight paths of the two F-94s. We k
new the landing pattern being used on the day of the sighting, and we knew when
the two F-94s landed. The two jets just weren't anywhere close to where the two
UFOs had been. Next we studied each individual light and both appeared to be t
oo steady to be reflections. We drew a blank on the Montana movie - it was an u
nknown."
If the head of Project Blue Book decided that the UFOs were unexplained after a
lengthy investigation in 1952, who decided that the conclusion in the Blue Book
files should remain "aircraft?" There were no further investigations of the Mon
tana film. Perhaps it was the same decision making process that performed the f
ilm alterations?
Probably the greatest debunking of UFOs came in the form of the Condon Committee
, which functioned from 1966 to the publication of its report "The Scientific St
udy of Unidentified flying Objects". The project was created ostensibly to reli
eve the Air Force of having anything further to do with UFO investigations. UFO
s had become a nuisance problem for the Air Force, stuck in a no-win situation o
f chasing down mostly ordinary reports, 90% of which were identifiable as mundan
e stimuli. The Condon Report dismissed any notion that UFOs were worthy of scie
ntific attention, or that they posed a threat to national security.
Yet their discussion of the Montana film is curiously less critical than one had
become used to in dealing with the typical Air Force public relations machine a
t the time.
The Committee's investigator of the Montana film, Dr. William Hartmann, said in
the report, "Both individuals (Mariana and Raunig) have recently affirmed the ob
servation, and there is little reason to question its validity. The case remain
s unexplained. Analysis indicates that the images on the film are difficult to r
econcile with aircraft or other known phenomena, although aircraft cannot entire
ly be ruled out."
After summarizing the case, Hartmann, attempting to explain a discrepancy in the
witnesses' estimates of the duration of the sighting, said the discrepancy "pro
bably refers to the fact that Witness 1 (Mariana) made about 20 seconds of film.
" That's 5 seconds, or 80 frames of film, more than the current Air Force print
; or 2 seconds, or 32 frames, more than the Baker copy obtained from Greene-Rous
e Productions. The 2-second difference is in close agreement with Mariana's cla
im that at least an estimated 35 frames were shaved from the original.
Hartmann concludes by summarizing arguments for and against aircraft reflections
being responsible for the images. He states, "While such a hypothesis (the F-9
4 explanation) is tenable, it conflicts with some of the soft data. It is judge
d reasonable only to regard this object as unidentified."
CONCLUSIONS:
A few more things are now more certain about the Great Falls UFO footage than th
ey were before:
1. In spite of the Air Force's claims to the contrary, there is strong evidence
that the film sequence was clipped after it had been sent to the Air Force in 1
950. Witness statements and Air Force documents allude to a longer sequence tha
n currently exists.
2. The film was clipped again between 1952 and 1976, based upon measurements ma
de by the author on his own copy from the National Archives and compared to earl
ier analyses.
3. The Air Force had behaved poorly in their public handling of the story above
the local level. The press release of October 12, 1950 was nothing less than a
lie about the film's quality. After an analysis in 1952, the Project Blue Book
record was not changed to reflect new conclusions determined by the head of the
project.
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Great Falls, Montana, 1950 UFO Footage
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Oak Ridge, Tennessee Oak Ridger - 12 October, 1950 - Page 8
Allen Says
AEC Wants Info On
Flying Saucers Seen Near A-Plants
BY ROBERT S. ALLEN
Flying saucers If you see a flying saucer, or know of anyone who has, the Atomic
Energy Commission wants to be informed about it. Especially, if the incident o
ccurred near one of the commission's plants.
The AEC Security Service has prepared a questionnaire that is being sent to all
who report one of the mysterious discs. The form contains 26 questions, the mos
t curious of which is, "Did the object have an odor, and if so, what was it like
?" Other questions are "luminosity of the object, apparent means of support, an
d propulsion."
This is the first time the AEC has publicly evinced interest in flying discs.
Project 1947 Comment: Allen's syndicated column carried in a number of newspaper
s nation wide sometimes dealt with aviation matters. Allen seemed to have had c
ontacts within the AEC.
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Wire Service copy
(SAUCER)
DENVER--A CONSTRUCTION WORKER AT LOS ALAMOS, N.M., HAS REPORTED THAT A STRANGE "
BLINKING OBJECT" SOARED OVER A HIGHLY RESTRICTED AREA OF THE BIG ATOMIC ENERGY C
ENTER.
LEE ROBINSON OF THE ARMEX CONSTRUCTION COMPANY SENT THE DENVER POST A COPY OF A
MIMEOGRAPHED FORM WHICH HE USED TO REPORT THE OBJECT TO THE AEC.
THE FORMS ARE PREPARED BY THE AEC FOR "REPORTS OF UNIDENTIFIED AERIAL OBJECTS AT
LOS ALAMOS."
THE ORIGINAL THREE-PAGE REPRT, ROBINSON SAID, WAS SUBMITTED TO THE ATOMIC ENERGY
SECURITY SERVICE SEPT. 12., THE DAY ROBINSON AND EIGHT OTHER EMPLOYEES OF THE A
RMEX COMPANY SAY THEY SAW THE OBJECT.
ROBINSON SAID HE AND THE OTHERS WERE EATING LUNCH WHEN THE UNIDENTIFIED OBJECT P
ASSED OVER. HE SAID IT "WAS NOT A BALLOON OR A CONVENTIONAL TYPE OF AIRCRAFT."
ROBINSON SAID THE OBJECT APPEARED TO BE AT AN ALTITUDE OF ABOUT 20,000 FEET. IT
ALTERNATELY FLASHED BRIGHT AND BLACK AT INTERVALS OF TWO SECONDS, HE SAID, AND
WAS VISIBLE FOR THREE MINUTES AND 40 SECONDS.
THE SPECIALLY MIMEOGRAPHED FORMS INDICATED THE AEC IS HIGHLY CONCERNED WITH UNID
ENTIFIED AERIAL OBJECT OVER THE PROJECT. THE FORMS CONTAIN SPACES FOR INFORMANT
S TO REPORT ON LUMINOSITY OF OBJECT, APPARENT MEANS OF SUPPORT AND PROPULSION AN
D "ODOR" OF THE OBJECT.
10-7[?]--E100SA

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