One researcher discovered the name of a woman listed as a secretary at the Pentagon in 1947 and managed to locate her in the early 2000s and she agreed to an interview. She said -
The Pentagon began receiving Flying Saucer reports as early as February of that year and they were filed 'informally' in a folder named Project Saucer.
I can certainly believe that since my database of sightings covers pretty much the entire year of 1947.
So I will now begin with the sightings covered in our local newspaper -
Kenneth Arnold reports his sighting
![[Image: RlbZad9.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/RlbZad9.jpg)
June 24 1947 - Mt. Rainier, Washington - 2:50 P.M. PST
NORMAN TRANSCRIPT (Oklahoma) 6/26
![[Image: dc459605802a.jpg]](http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/dc459605802a.jpg)
Bug-Eyed Salesman Reports Fast-Flying Mystery Planes
PENDLETON, Ore., June 26 -- (U.P.)-- Residents of Pendleton sought an explanation today for the nine strange "saucer-shaped" planes an amateur pilot claimed he saw flying at an estimated speed of 1,200 miles an hour across southwestern Washington.
The story was told by Kenneth Arnold, flying fire extinguisher salesman from Boise, Ida.
He landed here, slightly bug-eyed, Wednesday and told how he spotted the "extremely shiny nickle-plated aircraft" skimming along at 10,000 feet on Tuesday. Arnold was on a search for a missing Marine corps plane at the time.
"They were shaped like saucers and were so thin I could barely see them," he told Jack Whitman, a local businessman.
"There were nine of them and they were flying in a screwy formation about 25 miles away from me. It wasn't any military formation I ever saw before.
"I figure they were moving about 1,200 miles per hour because I clocked them with a stop watch during the time it took them to fly from Mount Rainer to Mount Adams. That's 42 miles and they made it in one minute 42 seconds -- about 1,205 mph."
Arnold said the strange aircraft were skittering across the southwest slope of Mount Rainier when he first sighted them.
Whitman suggested tactfully, that Arnold had been seeing things but the pilot insisted, "I must be believe my eyes."
There was no comment from military authorities on Arnold's story.
Arnold had taken off from Chehalis, Washington, intending to fly to Yakima, Washington. About 3:00 P.M. he arrived in the vicinity of Mount Rainier. There was a Marine Corps C-46 transport plane lost in the Mount Rainier area, so Arnold decided to fly around awhile and look for it. He was looking down at the ground when suddenly he noticed a series of bright flashes off to his left. He looked for the source of the flashes and saw a string of nine very bright disk shaped objects, which he estimated to be 45 to 50 feet in length. They were traveling from north to south across the nose of his airplane. They were flying in a reversed echelon (i.e., lead object high with the rest stepped down), and as they flew along they weaved in and out between the mountain peaks, once passing behind one of the peaks. Each individual object had a skipping motion described by Arnold as a "saucer skipping across water."
During the time that the objects were in sight, Arnold had clocked their speed. He had marked his position and their position on the map and again noted the time. When he landed he sketched in the flight path that the objects had flown and computed their speed, almost 1,700 miles per hour. He estimated that they had been 20 to 25 miles away and had traveled 47 miles in 102 seconds.
June 24 1947 - The Oregonian (Portland) 2:58 p.m. PST (June 26 edition)
Washington - Kenneth Arnold, flying his private plane near Mount Rainier, was attracted by reflected sunlight from nine disc shaped metallic flying objects. He watched as they flashed across the sky, one behind the other, "skipping as saucers upon water." They tilted back and forth as they flew. He clocked them as they flew past Mount Adams, and calculated that they were flying at a speed of 1,500 miles per hour and at an altitude of 9,500 feet. When he landed in Pendleton, Oregon he was interviewed at the local radio station where the term "flying saucer" was first coined.
Washington - Flying near Mount Rainier, in his private plane from Chehalis to Yakima, Kenneth Arnold saw at a right angle to his aircraft nine very bright disc-shaped objects come into view. They were flying extremely fast in a reversed echelon formation north and to the left of Mount Rainier. He detected no tail surfaces or wings, and compared them to "pie-pans," somewhat cloverleaf-shaped, with surfaces so bright they reflected the sun like a mirror. He recalled that one object looked heel- shaped. He then picked up a cowling tool to compare them in size to a DC 4 just off to his upper left at about 1,400 feet. He estimated the discs to be 45 to 50 feet in length, traveling north to south 20 to 25 miles ahead of his aircraft. It was no reflection or mirage because the formation clearly could be seen to weave in and out of mountain peaks at speeds estimated at 1,700 miles per hour!
He derived this velocity by recording the time it took the objects to pass the 47 mile stretch between Mount Rainier and Mount Adams. Arnold reasoned that the disc formation was five miles in length and passed the 47 mile distance in one minute and 42 seconds.
No aircraft in existence flew that fast. Even the new P-80 jets had only reached 623 miles per hour at the Muroc test range in California. Arnold thought that he had witnessed some sort of new military test vehicle. Arnold mentioned his sighting to the ground crew after he landed in Yakima and talked about the incident with Al Baxter, the manager of Central Aircraft. While Arnold talked with Baxter in his office they were joined by pilots Les Mills, Carl Apts, and Jacques Filliol.
By the time Arnold flew on to Pendleton the story had already preceded him. After detailing the sighting to newsmen Bill Bequette and Nolan Skiff at noon on the following day, newspapers soon made famous the term "flying saucer" by a remark of his comparing the objects to "saucers skipping on the water."
His sighting was the first to receive national media attention in more than 150 newspapers, being treated as a serious news story, due to the fact that he an experienced mountain flyer, a licensed air rescue pilot, a deputy sheriff, and respected businessman. Other saucer sightings soon followed. Many of those observers talked about what they saw before ever hearing news of Arnold's incident.
(The Army Air Force soon became interested in Arnold's account. On July 12th intelligence officers Captain William Lee Davidson and First Lieutenant Frank Mercer Brown interviewed Arnold for six hours, taking a lengthy detailed statement from him at Boise's downtown Hotel Owyhee.)
Arnold
Arnold said that one of the objects was rather crescent shaped, while the other eight objects were more circular, but initially Arnold's descriptions were only of the latter disk-like shape. At one point Arnold said they flew behind a subpeak of Rainier and briefly disappeared. Knowing his position and the position of the subpeak, Arnold placed their distance as they flew past Rainier at about 23 miles. Using a zeus cowling fastener as a gauge to compare the nine objects to the distant DC-4, Arnold estimated their angular size as slightly smaller than the DC-4, about the width between the outer engines (about 60 feet).
In the Portland Oregonian on July 11, he was still referring to the shape of the objects as "saucers" or "saucer-like... I actually saw a type of aircraft slightly longer than it was wide, with a thickness about one twentieth as great as its width. ...I reckoned the saucers were 23 miles away."
Arnold also said he realized that the objects would have to be quite large to see any details at that distance and later, after comparing notes with a United Airlines crew that had a similar sighting 10 days later (see below), placed the absolute size as larger than a DC-4 airliner (or greater than 100 feet in length). Army Air Force analysts would later estimate 140 to 280 feet, based on analysis of human visual acuity and other sighting details (such as estimated distance).
Arnold said the objects were grouped together, "in a diagonally stepped-down, echelon formation, stretched out over a distance he calculated to be five miles".
Though moving on a more or less level horizontal plane, Arnold said the objects weaved from side to side "like the tail of a Chinese kite", darting through the valleys and around the smaller mountain peaks. They would occasionally flip or bank on their edges in unison as they turned or maneuvered causing almost blindingly bright or mirror-like flashes of light. The encounter gave him an "eerie feeling", but Arnold suspected he had seen test flights of a new U.S. military aircraft.
The letter with a drawing of flying saucers or flying disks submitted by pilot
Kenneth Arnold to Army Air Force intelligence on July 12, 1947. Credit: USAF
Kenneth Arnold's written report to Army Air Forces (AAF) intelligence, July 12, 1947, with drawing of objects.
![[Image: dvNyN7c.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/dvNyN7c.jpg)
In a written statement to Army Air Forces (AAF) intelligence the following day(July 12), Arnold several times referred to the objects as "saucer-like." At the end of the report he drew a picture of what the objects appeared to look like at their closest approach to Mt. Rainier. He wrote, "They seemed longer than wide, their thickness was about 1/20th their width." (document with Arnold's drawing at right) As to motion, Arnold wrote, "They flew like many times I have observed geese to fly in a rather diagonal chain-like line as if they were linked together. They seemed to hold a definite direction but rather swerved in and out of the high mountain peaks." He also spoke of how they would "flip and flash in the sun."
Few people have heard the story of Kenneth Arnold's second UFO sighting. It occurred at 6:55 A.M. July29th when Arnold was flying over Union, Oregon. On this occasion he saw 20 to 25 discs which were rough appearing on top and lighter on the bottom. As these objects flew, Arnold estimated them to be 24 to 30 inches in diameter and flying at speeds faster than 200 miles per hour. He also commented that the discs fluttered and flipped on edge as they headed north. Surprisingly, this second sighting by Arnold received almost no news play.
Within just days of the publication of Arnold's report, other accounts began to appear. At least twenty people from more than a dozen widely separated places reported that they, too, had seen similar objects. Some of these sightings had occurred -before June 24th-, some had been made on the same day as Arnold's, and a few were made on the days following.
Most of the reports came from the northwest.Of twenty-nine sightings occurring between June 1st and June 23rd, nearly two-thirds were made in the west, and nine in the northeast.
June 24, 1947, an Idaho private pilot named Ken Arnold set off the saucer uproar.
While flying near Mount Rainer, Washington, Arnold sighted nine huge, gleaming discs, racing along in a column. He estimated their size at 100 feet in diameter, the speed at more than 1,200 miles per hour.
Unfortunately Arnold described the discs as "saucer like," and the ridiculous name was born. Had he called them "flying discs," or simply unknown objects, the whole story might have been different. But from the start the "saucers" have been a big joke, a handicap to any serious investigation.
Within a few days after Arnold's story hit front pages, weird objects were reported all over the country. There were a few hoaxes. Many reports were caused by hysteria. But mixed in with these were several serious accounts.
At Muroc Air Force Base, veteran pilots reported silvery discs circling at high speeds. A United Airlines crew, until then hardheaded skeptics, sighted two groups of discs over Emmett, Idaho. Other stories came in from competent, trained observers.
Even then, contradictions were the order of the day. At Muroc and other air bases, commanders worried by the thought of a Russian secret weapon kept fighters alerted.
But when the United report came in to Washington, a Pentagon spokesman quickly debunked the story. "No investigation is needed," he said. "The saucers are only hallucinations."
On that same day officers at Dayton admitted that the Air Materiel Command was seriously investigating the saucers.
(NICAP - Keyhoe)
June 24 1947 - Phoenix Republic (Arizona) morning (June 26 edition)
(AP) Pendleton, Oregon - This morning prospector Johnson in the Hood River region of the Cascade Mountains of Oregon sighted five or six discs flying silently overhead, heading toward the southeast. He noticed that his compass began spinning when the discs passed over. His watch also stopped running.
Fred M. Johnson, who reported a disc sighting to Army officers after returning from the same mountainous area that Arnold had flown over. Johnson made his observation the same day and time as Arnold's when he had his attention drawn skyward by a brief flash and noticed five to six shiny round objects. The craft looked to have "tails" as they silently flew by at about 1,000 feet toward the southeast. They remained in view for about 45 to 60 seconds during which time the prospector examined one of them through a hand-held telescope. With the aid of the spyglass he could tell they were definitely real objects, round and about 30 feet in diameter but "tapering sharply to a point in the head end in an oval shape." He also observed some type of object in their tail shifting from side to side. About that time Johnson looked down at his watch which had a compass attached to it and noticed that its needle fluctuated wildly.
Johnson also confirmed the time to be around 3:00 P.M. PST, the same period in which Arnold made his sighting. Johnson concluded in his statement that they flew off faster than anything he had seen before and resembled no object he had been witness to in his 40 years of prospecting the mountains.
Ironically, while the more famous Arnold sighting was investigated in far greater detail, it would be classified as a mirage. The Portland prospector case eventually found its way into Air Force records as the first unidentified case of an eventual 587 officially given that designation. (At one time Air Force files listed 701 unidentifieds but today only 587 are noted in the declassified index.) The unidentified classification (once termed unknown) was not lightly given and placed only on files that investigators could not attribute to a known cause. Witness reliability also served as a key factor. In this instance the records of both the Army and FBI considered Mr. Johnson of high reliability and character.
(Project Blue Book Files, Roll No. 1, Case 11, listed as Incident 68 in 1947 era documents; and thanks must be given here to Jan L. Aldrich for forwarding documents on the Portland prospector case which are not in the National Archives' Blue Book collection. (See Declassified FBI files and Fourth Air Force Files, "microfilm record 33764-1036," US Air Force Historical Agency, Maxwell AFB, Montgomery, Alabama.)
Sightings in Europe
April 20, 1947
Citizens in Col de Serres, France report seeing disks flying over the valley.
ay 21, 1947
Slow-moving, large cigar-shaped objects are seen in Sweden.
June 10, 1947
Fast-moving flying objects are seen in Finland.
June 1st 1947
Two flying discs accounts are found for the first day of June but like almost all of the early sightings, were not reported until after the Kenneth Arnold incident. Yet these did later make numerous newspaper stories and were undoubtedly read by many including Alfred Loedding on or by the 6th of July. One of these came from housewife Mrs. C.W. Parks in Bakersfield, California, who saw two groups of ten flying discs each moving at high speed in a southeasterly direction on June 1st 1947.
(Grand Rapids, Michigan, Herald, 1 July 1947)
That night (June 1st) another housewife, Mrs. Inez Nostrant, observed numerous bright luminous plate-sized objects flying in groups of twos and fours as high as planes over Grand Rapids, Michigan.
June 2 1947 Waterloo Courier July 10 1947
At 1:30 p.m. (June 2nd) an inverted saucer-shaped disc of brilliant metal was sighted by John Laube and Fred Platte in Waverly, Iowa. It flew just above the top of a 180-foot grain elevator at Waverly Sugar Manufacturing Plant. They had it in sight for five minutes before it was obscured by trees as it flew away.
(Source: Jan Aldrich, Project 1947 Research Notes, Bordentown, New Jersey, April 16, 2005)
June 2 1947 Columbus Citizen (Ohio) 7/8/47
On the 2nd of June private pilot Forrest Wenyon saw a jar-shaped rocket-like object fly across the nose of his aircraft at great speed near Lewes, Delaware, heading in an easterly direction around his own altitude of 1,400 18 Alfred Loedding and The Great Flying Saucer Wave of 1947 feet. Wenyon reported his observation to the CAA, Eastern Airlines, and the FBI because the object was spotted in commercial airline space. There was some speculation on his part that there could have been a connection to a crash of a C-54 from such an object just two days before. The sighting did end up in Air Force records but for whatever reason was not released to the National Archives when other UFO files were made public in 1976. Earlier researchers who had the chance to view that file indicate that the military attributed the sighting to a rocket test. History, however, bears no documentation of rocket tests over that densely populated East Coast area. 14
June 2nd 1947
(Louisiana AAP June 10 1947)
Carl Achee, Jr. and John Scales, Jr. observed one circular flying object over Shreveport, Louisiana, along the Red River.
This event, like others, were not thought by the witnesses to be of significance until they read accounts of the widely publicized Arnold account. For that reason those and reports from June 10th in Douglas, Arizona, (Fort Huachuca - Davis-Montham AFB) and Weiser, Idaho, on the 12th (Nothing nearby, going east out to ocean).
June 7 1947
(Fortean Society's Doubt, 19 (Spring-Summer 1947)
Other early accounts come from overseas. According to the Times of India, flying discs were seen over Bombay as early as June 7th with other saucer-like accounts coming from South America. 16
une 10 1947
At 11:00 p.m. in Agua Prieta, Mexico a glowing sphere was seen as it rose from the ground and flew up into the night sky.
At the same time in Douglas, Arizona
(Fort Huachuca - Davis-Montham AFB)
Coral Lorenzen, the co-founder of the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization in 1952 and future author of seven books on the UFO phenomenon, witnessed an unidentified light land remotely, take on a definite spherical shape, then shoot up rapidly from the ground and vanish in less than ten seconds among the stars.
According to the Air Force files there were more than fifty reports of UFOs seen during the daytime over Budapest, Hungary.
(Sources: Larry Hatch, U computer database; Coral E. Lorenzen, Flying Saucers: The Startling Evidence of the Invasion from Outer Space, p. 16; Jacques Vallee, Anatomy of the Phenomenon, p. 50; Jacques Vallee, Passport to Magonia, p. 191)
June 10 1947
Disc reports outside the United States are very rare prior to July of 1947, but at 3:30 P.M. local time on June 10th, Hungarian citizen Gyorik Ference saw four "yellow-red platter-like objects" fly over Budapest. They were sphere-shaped and silver in color, traveling at high speeds. 17
("Project Sign, Report No. F-TR-2274-IA," Project Blue Book Files, Roll No. 85, Administrative Files, Box 1.)
June 12 1947
A bright metallic ovoid object was seen from the highway in Weiser, Idaho by a Mrs. Erickson and her daughter at 6:15 p.m. The UFO zigzagged to the southwest. It and a second object were in view for three minutes before vanishing.
(Mountain Home AFB)
(Sources: Donald E. Keyhoe, Flying Saucers Are Real, p. 24)
June 13 1947
NUFORC Sighting Report Occurred : 6/13/1947 20:18 (Entered as : 06/13/1947 20:18)
Reported: 2/22/2004 8:27:26 PM 20:27
Posted: 3/2/2004
Location: Oakmont, PA
Shape: Unknown
Duration:approx.10 min.
(Charles E. Kelly Spt facility)
A very brillant blue-white object coming towards us lowering above us and hovering over us a few minutes before shooting straight up.
A few days after we returned from attending my Grandmother's funeral in North Carolina, my husband and I decided to walk down the dirt road leading to my parents home near the Allegheny River. The road cut through nearly thirteen acres of corn and vegetables owned by an elderly couple who raised produced for sale. About half way down the road was a little shanty they called their "garden house" where they cleaned and prepared their produce for market.
As we approached the shanty, we met the elderly woman coming up the road, heading for her home on the edge of town. We stopped to talk, she wanted to express her sympathies ad to ask about the funeral. My husband and I were facing north, the woman facing us, as we talked. We noticed a small bright light coming toward us out of the north. It was moving very slowly, made no sound, but coming down, growing larger and brighter as it decended. The old woman saw the look on our faces, so she turned and looked up. By this time it was very large and a very brilliant blue-white. The old woman fell to her knees, muttering something in her native tongue, Italian, and "crossing" herself. We were paralyzed with fear! Suddenly, after hovering for a few minutes, motionless, it began to go around in wide circles, then shot straight up into the sky, lightening fast and disappeared. The woman ran up the road to her home.
My husband and I ran to my parents' home, where my husband called the Observatory in Pittsburgh to ask what this "thing" was. They could not give an explanation, but that it "could not have been a plane or weather balloon, nor any invention existing at that time that could have done what this object did."
A few weeks later, reports started coming in on radio news about people in the west seeing strange things in the sky. Some were calling them "flying saucers" and "UFO's," and some were wondering if some other country had invented some kind of new scientific weapon.
We never completely got over our fright and have watched the sky ever since. My husband had been in the Navy in the war. We have seen many natural things, such as meteorites, northern lights and man- made objects, but never have seen anything to compare to what we saw that evening.
June 14 1947
Although it was in the United States that pilot Richard Rankin, a veteran flyer with more than 7,000 hours in the air, had the most notable flying saucer sighting prior to Arnold's. As with other early witnesses, he did not report it until others like Arnold had admitted to seeing such strange objects. Contrary to later accounts of the Rankin Case, his observation did not happen on the 23rd, but on the 14th, and did not occur at 2:15 P.M. but at 12:00 noon PST. Nor was Rankin in flight at the time, but saw the objects while watching a boy mow the lawn outside his friend's home in Bakersfield, California. At the time of the sighting it was a clear and sunny day when both he and the boy saw ten round objects or "saucers" fly over in a loose "V" formation with one straggling in the rear." They were heading north, but seven of the discs then reversed direction and came back over them toward the south. Their diameters appeared to be from 30 to 35 feet, and they were traveling at an estimated speed of 350 miles per hour around 8,500 feet. At the time of the sighting Rankin thought the craft must be some sort of new Army or Navy test vehicle much like the oval-shaped XF5U-1 "flying flapjack" and even commented as much to the lad mowing the lawn. Yet, military intelligence concluded Rankin's sighting represented no known aircraft type. 18
(Project Blue Book Files, Roll No. 1, Case 7, listed as Incident 29 in 1947 era documents; and "Pilot Recalls Seeing Discs," The (Portland) Oregonian, 3 July 1947, p. 11; and "Pilot Vet Reports Seeing 'Flying Saucers' June 23," Denver Post, 2 July 1947; and documents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, dated 3 July 1947.)
NUFORC Sighting Report Occurred : 6/15/1947 18:00
Reported: 3/18/2002 8:25:24 PM 20:25
Posted: 3/4/2003
Location: Madison, WI
Shape: Disk
Duration:2-3 min.
Three disks appear in the West, stop at zenith, and proceed Eastward a rapid rate of speed.
While observing the evening sky while fishing on Lake Wisconsin my eye caught a flashing in the clouds toward the West where the sun was setting. Three gold colored disks appeared out of the clouds and slowed to a stop when reaching zenith. They appeared to be looking down at a beautiful scene below of a broad river set in a valley. My grandfather, a friend and myself could detect a slight motion as they stood in rather tight triangular formation above us, kind of wobbling. After some 5 to 10 seconds the lead ship slowing began moving Southeast towards Madison and the others brought up the triangular formation. I would estimate their elevation at about 3-4 thousand feet and they looked about the size of a penny at arms length. They soon accelerated at a tremendous rate and were out of sight on the horizon within 3 to four seconds. It was a daylight sighting I will never forget.
June 17 1947 - Seattle Post-Intelligencer (Washington) (June 21 edition)
"Fast Flying Disks Reported in West,"
(AP) Bremerton, WA - Mrs. Emma Shingler saw more than one plate-shaped object flying west out over the Pacific at tremendous speed.
(Mrs. Shingler had a similar sighting on June 24th at 10:00 A.M. PST.)
(NAVBASE Kitsap Bremerton)
June 17 1947 - The Oregonian (Portland), 6:00 P.M. PST (June 27 edition)
Three flying discs were seen over Bremerton heading west by Mr. and Mrs. H.K. Wheeler.
June 17 1947 - Seattle Post-Intelligencer, (June 26 edition)
Three platter-shaped discs were seen hovering in the sky for a period of three hours over Bremerton, Washington from late in the afternoon until evening. The objects wavered as they flew, and shot off at extreme speeds toward the west.
June 17 1947 - Milwaukee Journal (Wisconsin) - PM (July 1 edition)
June 17 1947 - Wisconsin State Journal - PM (July 7 edition)
Professor Emeritus from the University of Wisconsin Dr. E.B. McGilvery saw a bright round luminous object, about two-thirds the size of the full moon...
...quite rapid...
...left no trail of light as a meteor does,
...did not appear to be fiery
...looked like an "illuminated body."
heading to the northeast
June 18 1947 - Birmingham News & Age Herald (Alabama) 4:00 P.M. CST (July 9 edition)
Green Springs - Mrs. H. Akins with others observed a blinking disc-shaped craft fly westward.
(Anniston Army Depot - Fort McClellan ARNG TC)
June 18 1947 - Oregon Journal (Portland) (June 27 edition)
(AP) - Eugene
E.H. Sprinkler and five other residents of Eugene saw a formation of multiple "saucers racing overhead". Sprinkler had a camera and took a snapshot of the objects as they raced over. Unfortunately, the film revealed only dots because by the time that he had gotten his camera into position, the objects were speeding out of sight at tremendous velocity - 1,700 mph. Enlargements of the photograph showed "seven dots" in a formation "shaped like an X or a Y".
Direction -from SW to NE (Boardman Naval Weapons Training Facility?)
(AP story in numerous papers for 6/27)
June 19 1947
(Des Moines Register (Iowa) night) (July 8 edition)
Cedar Rapids - From his back yard, R.D. Taylor spotted eight to ten discs which were lighted from within as they zoomed over Cedar Rapids.
June 20 1947 - The Oregonian (Portland) (June 28 edition)
Flying Saucer Story Grows
Kelso, Washington - Mrs. Jerry Neels said she saw some "bright and shiny" discs south of Kelso on the 20th.
June 20 1947 - Seattle Post-Intelligencer (Washington) 11:00 P.M. PST (June 26,27 editions)
Moses Lake - Archie Edes and his family saw an oval "flame-like" craft descend at high speed near Moses Lake.
June 20 1947 - Albuquerque Journal (New Mexico) (July 2 edition)
Hot Springs - Mrs. Annabel Mobley reported that she and her daughter Luanne had seen nine discs crossing the sky toward the northeast. These objects were in groups of three triangular-shaped groups of three discs, and each group was revolving about in a "wheel-like circle"... the discs in each group "seemed to be fastened together by invisible cords."
(Los Alamos)
June 20 1947
Source: Twin Falls Times News, Idaho - 4 Jul 47
From Richfield came a report that Mr. and Mrs. Charles Housel and Sherman Coffman, all of that community, noticed one of the "flying objects" on June 20, about one week before the first report on the subject was made by a Boise pilot.
The Richfield residents said it was headed west at a high rate of speed and seemed to be whirling. A thin trail of white smoke was left behind the "flying disc" as it skimmed extremely high through the air, they reported. They declared they were "certain it was not an airplane."
June 21 1947 - Idaho - 11:55 a.m.
A Spokane woman saw eight discs the size of a house flying at 600 mph, descending with a "dead leaf motion", and landed before ten witnesses near the shore of the Saint Joe River in Idaho.
Mrs. L.M. Wagoner and her eight-year-old son of Sherman, Texas reported they saw a flying disc about 7 p.m. Sunday while traveling between Dallas and Corsicana. Mrs. Wagoner said the disc, about the size of a man's hat, was traveling northward and disappeared in a few seconds.
A shiny disc, traveling about 150 miles per hour, was seen over El Paso, Texas, at 3:30 p.m. MST, Sunday, June 22, by Dr. G. Oliver Dickson, an optometrist. He said it was shaped a little like a blimp, coming to a point at each end. The sun's rays were not reflected on it, he added.
June 22 1947 - Weekly Intelligence Summary, ATC - 11:30 A.M. EST (July 30 edition)
Greenfield, Massachusetts - Edward L. de Rose reported seeing a "brilliant, round-shaped silvery-white object" moving in a northwesterly direction over Greenfield. It traveled at a high rate of speed somewhere at around 1,000 feet of altitude and "streaked across the sky" in a matter of only eight to ten seconds before vanishing from view. He felt certain the mysterious craft could not have been a balloon and represented something very real when later filing this report with the A-2 section of Army Intelligence of the Atlantic Division.
(Case secretly investigated by the FBI)
June 22 1947 - Baker Democrat Herald (Oregon) daytime (June 27 edition)
Radium Springs, New Mexico - A "flying pie-plate" disc was seen while swimming by H.E. Hammond and his son L.V.W. Hammond, the secretary manager of the Eastern Oregon Federal Savings and Loan Association.
June 22 1947 - Tucson Daily Citizen (Arizona) (July 1 edition)
Tucson - Walter Laos spotted a very strange-looking flying object.
June 23 1947 - Huntsville Times (Alabama), (July 1 edition)
Hazel Green - E.B. Parks and a dozen other witnesses saw two illuminated discs fly at terrific speed low over Hazel Green.
June 23
Thus, neither of those sightings made the papers before Arnold's account, but one story was actually reported to newspapers on the 23rd. The tale came from a railroad engineer in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. As he was climbing off his engine, he observed ten shiny disc-shaped objects flying in a string-like formation, "like wild geese." The six line story it generated produced little attention at the time.
![[Image: 24Jd57I.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/24Jd57I.jpg)
24 June 1947 - Chicago Times (Illinois) 1:50 P.M. CST (June 27 edition)
Joliet - Railroad engineer Charles Kastl saw a peculiar formation of nine flat, circular objects "going faster than any planes I ever saw” in a stretched out line formation at about 4,000 feet flying north to south. "I could see no connecting link between them," Kastl reported, "but they acted as though the leading disc had a motor in it to power the others, because when it flipped, the others would, too. When it would right itself, the others would right themselves."
When asked by newsmen if he had been drinking, he answered sternly, "I was on my way to work, and you know a railroad man never touches the stuff on or before duty hours."
His friends and neighbors all agreed that Kastl was not the sort of man given to telling tall stories.
June 28 1947 - Waterloo Courier (Iowa) 1:30 a.m. (July 6 edition)
Waterloo - A shiny disc-shaped object descended into the backyard of a Mr. Johnston and hovered less than 25 feet away from him. He experienced a number of physical complaints as the result of his close encounter, including numbness, chest pain, and difficulty breathing. The disc made a swishing sound as it flew away.
June 28 1947 - Lake Mead, Nevada - 2 p.m.
A formation of five to six white circular objects approached an F-51 aircraft being piloted by an airman named Armstrong while he was flying thirty miles northwest of Lake Mead.
This case was investigated by the FBI at the time.
June 28 1947
June 28, 1947 edition of the Boise, Idaho Statesman...
Harassed Saucer-Sighter Would Like to Escape Fuss
PENDLETON. June 28 (UP) -- Kenneth Arnold said today he would like to get on one of his 1200-mile-an-hour "flying saucers," and escape from the furor caused by his story of mysterious aircraft flashing over southern Washington.
"I haven't had a moment of peace since I first told the story," the 32-year-old Boise, Idaho, business man-pilot sighed...
"This whole thing has gotten out of hand," Arnold went on. "I want to talk to the FBI or someone."
"Half the people I see look at me as a combination Einstein, Flash Gordon, and screwball. I wonder what my wife back in Idaho thinks."
WON'T CHANGE MIND
But all the hoopla and hysterics haven't caused Arnold to change his mind or back down. He doesn't care if the experts laugh him off. He said most of his aviator friends tell him that what he saw were probably either one of two things: new planes or guided missiles still in the United States Army air forces' secret category. Some theorized they were experimental equipment of another nation, probably Russia.
"Most people," he said, "tell me I'm right."
June 28, 1947 edition of the Tucson, Arizona Daily Citizen...
Flying Disc Tale Stands
BOISE, IDA., June 28. (U.P.) -- Kenneth Arnold, businessman-pilot who made the headlines with his story of sighting strange disk-like flying missiles in southern Washington, was back in his home town of Boise Saturday -- and his story hasn't changed a bit.
"I saw what I saw," he said, "No one can change my mind.
"I'll match my judgment, position, and everything on what I saw with my own eyes. I never suffered from snow-blindness, spots before my eyes, or hallucinations. Physically, I'm 100 percent. I'll submit to any kind of test. I only reported what any pilot would report. I certainly have nothing to gain in a business way with all this hullaballoo."
Arnold resides on a ranch near here. He uses a hayfield for an airport. He sells fire-control equipment.
Arnold said he saw strange "flying saucers" -- nine of them -- near Mt. Rainier while flying to Yakima, Wash., this week.
He said he is more concerned with the fact that neither the FBI nor the Army appears interested in his story.
"If I were running the country," he said, "and someone reported something unusual, I'd certainly want to know more about it."
June 28
Within a few days of Arnold's sighting, others began to come in. On June 28 an Air Force pilot in an F-51 was flying near Lake Mead, Nevada, when he saw a formation of five or six circular objects off his right wing. The time was about three fifteen in the afternoon.
(NICAP - Ruppelt)
That night at nine twenty, four Air Force officers, two pilots, and two intelligence officers from Maxwell AFB in Montgomery, Alabama, saw a bright light traveling across the sky. It was first seen just above the horizon, and as it traveled toward the observers it "zigzagged," with bursts of high speed. When it was directly overhead it made a sharp 90 degree turn and was lost from view as it traveled south.
(NICAP - Ruppelt)
Other reports came in. In Milwaukee a lady saw ten go over her house "like blue blazes," heading south. A school bus driver in Clarion, Iowa, saw an object streak across the sky. In a few seconds twelve more followed the first one. White Sands Proving Ground in New Mexico chalked up the first of the many sightings that this location would produce when several people riding in an automobile saw a pulsating light travel from horizon to horizon in thirty seconds. A Chicago housewife saw one "with legs."
(NICAP - Ruppelt)
June 29 1947 - Organ, New Mexico - 1:15 p.m.
Four rocket experts saw a silver saucer in the sky over Organ. It flew off to the north at 9,000 feet altitude.
June 29 1947 - Medford, Oregon - 2:00 PM PST
Nine white saucers flying in V-formation flew over Medford, Oregon at a speed of 120 mph. They flew in a spiral over the airport, and appeared to make a cloud.
June 29 1947 - Clarion, Iowa - 4:45 p.m.
Between 13 and 18 white oval and disc-shaped objects flew over Clarion. They made a noise like that of a dynamo.
June 29 1947 - The Oregonian (Portland), 11:00 A.M. PST (July 1 edition)
Pendleton - Mrs. Morton Elder observed seven umbrella-shaped objects south of Pendleton, Oregon, flying north and emitting a humming noise. Other independent witnesses reported a similar sighting in the area.
June 29 1947 - NICAP files - Jacksonville, Oregon - 1:00 p.m. PST
Jacksonville - Peter Vogel, M.D., and his wife, eight other members of the Vogel family, and about ten others saw a V-formation of oval objects in the sky above Ashland, 15 to 20 miles southeast of Jacksonville. The formation was traveling northwest toward Medford. There were nine objects. According to Dr. Vogels' wife, when first seen the objects were "as white as snow geese", as they came closer they became blue-white, "like a fluorescent-bulb light." They were sharply outlined and seemed to be solid; "also translucent, like a light, pebbled, frosted bulb." The size of the individual objects was estimated as more than twice the diameter of the full moon (presumably when the objects were nearest to the witnesses). There was no sound, and no vapor trails...When the objects seemed to be over the tower of Medford airport, they each made a spiral ascent, one after the other, and each went behind a cloud that had not been there before and which the objects themselves "seemed to produce."
The objects did not reappear, but the cloud "stayed an oval and stationary shape for over an hour."
June 29 1947 - Spokane Daily Chronicle (Idaho) - 1:30 P.M. PST (June 30 edition).
Moscow - Numerous people in Moscow, Idaho, report seeing a single "flying disc".
June 29 1947 - Tucson, Arizona, Daily Citizen, 1:30 P.M. MST (July 4 edition)
Tucson - Charles Weaver and his wife saw one of the famous formations of discs just as Kenneth Arnold did five days ago.
June 29 1947 - The Evening Star (Washington DC) 1:30 P.M. MST (July 9 edition)
Saucer Seen By Rocket Expert, Flight Over Desert Described
White Sands, New Mexico - Three naval research scientists involved in guided missile development were all in a car headed northeast down Route 17 to the White Sands proving grounds to examine a launching site for a July 3rd V-2 test, when they had their attention drawn upward by a flash. All three men, and Curtis Rockwood' s wife who was in the car, observed "a silvery disc whirling through the unclouded sky." Kauke was driving and became so overwhelmed by the site that he stopped the car. They then estimated the disc's altitude between 8,000 and 10,000 feet and were especially attracted by its bright surface. They agreed its shape appeared elliptical and flat. Dr. Zohn, a well-known rocket expert, stated that the object did not look like any rocket he had ever seen and that it could not have been a balloon. Dr. C.J. Zohn reported their observation to Army Intelligence with supporting testimony from fellow scientists Curtis C. Rockwood and John R. Kauke.
This report was studied by Wright Field Intelligence and Alfred Loedding although the investigation was instigated by Lieutenant Colonel George D. Garrett of the Pentagon Intelligence Collections branch.
June 29 1947 - USAF Files 4:45 P.M. - CST
Bus driver Dale Bays, traveling from Des Moines to Mason City, Iowa, observed flying discs outside Clarion. At first he saw only one oval object pass across the sky moving south-southwest at about 1,200 feet. Then four similar objects followed. Bays quickly stopped and got out for a better look. Taking in the view of the countryside, he turned around and spotted in the opposite direction a flight of thirteen more discs. This formation was at about the same altitude as the first objects and judged to be traveling 300 miles per hour. They looked like "inverted saucers," "oval" in appearance. He guessed that they were anywhere from 175 to 250 feet in diameter and around twelve feet thick. Their color appeared a "dirty white" and he said they made a "motor or dynamo" type of noise while passing overhead. After a couple of minutes the discs were then lost from sight to the north-northwest.
June 29 1947 - Richland Villager (Washington) 3:00 P.M. PST (July 3 edition)
"Flying Disks Are Seen Here"
Mr. and Mrs. James Harbor of Richland, Washington, and many local residents saw a very similar shiny disc with a type of halo around it. Most agreed that its outer edge seemed to be spinning around a stationary center section.
June 29 1947 - Miami, Florida, Herald (Florida) 5:15 P.M. CST (1 July edition)
Sioux City, Iowa - H.F. Angus and his wife, saw a silvery disc move rapidly to the south at high altitude.
June 29 1947 - St. Joseph Gazette (Missouri) 5:30 P.M. CST (July 8 edition)
Motorist Mrs. E.D. Butts, her husband, and son all observed a bright object fly low over St. Joseph, Missouri. Traveling relatively slow, it headed southward. They described the event just as if they were looking at the sun peering through the overcast on a very cloudy day or like seeing a bright moon. But the day was very cloudy, too cloudy to be the moon. And because the object appeared from the north and moved continually to the south, it came nowhere near where the sun was positioned.
June 29 1947 - St. Louis, Missouri, Post-Dispatch (Missouri), afternoon (July 8 edition)
Mrs. HJ. Beckmeyer and her brother E.W. Brown, in St. Louis accounted a similar story that afternoon but in this case they saw three bright discs.
June 29 1947 - San Francisco Examiner (California) 8:05 P.M. PST
"Flying Saucers Seen in Oregon,"
Mrs. Sidney B. Smith in Seaside observed a round silent object pass over very high, just east of the city.
June 29 1947 - New York Herald Tribune, 9:07 P.M. PST (July 1 edition)
San Leandro, California - Frank M. King, his wife, and their three guests, watched an oval gleaming disc fly over San Leandro at great speed between 4,000 and 5,000 feet headed on a northerly course.
June 29 1947 - Associated Press reported dozens of flying saucer sightings from Vancouver, British Columbia to El Paso, Texas.
The stories all involve:
-fast moving objects shaped like discs or saucers,
-traveling at high rates of speed.
-They made little or no noise
-and each of the objects were said to have a surface that gave off a blinding reflection from the sun.
June 29 1947 - Albuquerque Journal (New Mexico) daytime (June 30 edition)
(AP) Silver City - A rancher near Cliff, named Arthur Howard, reported that he had seen a round, shining object fall to earth in broken country near his ranch some time during the day. Later, two pilots, Bud Hagen of Hurley and Ed Nelson of Cliff, made an aerial search of the location. They found nothing, but they reported that at one point while flying over the reported landing site their plane flew through a layer of "stinking air" - something for which they could find no explanation.
4 Jul 47 Twin Falls Times News, Idaho
Reports were received earlier this week of a formation of the mystery craft flying over Galena summit and of a lone "flying disc" sighted near Malta, both on Monday.
June 30 1947
Occasional mention has been made in this text about Edward Ruppelt. He is of such interest because his landmark book, The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects, documents not only the great UFO flap of 1952 but also gives many insights on the 1947 saucer wave. This is ironic because during the summer of 1947 Ruppelt hoped he had seen the last of the Air Force. In WWII he served a long stint as a bombardier and radar operator during the entire B-29 bombing offensive against Japan. He certainly had earned his GI bill that he was then going to school on—having survived some hard combat and winning a fist full of medals the hard way. Now he was working just as hard toward a degree in aeronautical engineering at Iowa State College—a happy civilian.
That day Ruppelt was in Yellowstone Park, enjoying the first lazy holiday in a long time. That's when he heard the new word "flying saucer." Just outside the lodge kids were sailing paper plates into the air yelling "saucer, saucer!" He soon read the news reports which filled him in on the unusual phrase, but little did he realize that three years later he would be back in the Air Force as project head of UFO investigations in Dayton. 64
(Edward J. Ruppelt, "Why Don't the Damn Things Swim—So We Can Turn Them Over To The Navy?" The True Report on Flying Saucers, 1, Fawcett Publishers, Inc., Louisville, Kentucky, 1967, pp. 39, 57.)
June 30 1947 - Salt Lake City Desert News (Utah) 2:30 P.M. MST (July 1 edition)
Hailey, Idaho - Several observers saw a flight of eight to ten objects in a V- formation near the town of Hailey flying toward Galena Summit. Witness Walter Nicholson stated that the left wing of the V formation contained five disc-shaped objects in perfect line but the ones on the right "seemed to weave." Forest ranger Hunter Nelson, who was marking trees with Nicholson three miles from Galena Summit, counted seven to nine objects in the V- formation. He stated that they were moving extremely fast and were as high as 10,000 feet heading northeast.
(Although both men said the objects were so high that they only looked like shiny specks in the sky, years later they elaborated that they had never seen anything like it before or since and were positive they had not seen conventional aircraft. Both men stressed that point, stating that they flew "-much- faster than any aircraft of that day.")
June 30 1947 - The Oregonian (Portland), evening (July 6 edition)
Rogers, Arkansas - Real estate dealer J.P. Grumpier, watched the approach of a strong wind storm. As he stepped out onto his porch, the clouds became even more dark and ominous. Suddenly a disc appeared out of the northwest and vanished rapidly into the southwest.
June 30 1947 - Little Rock Gazette (Arkansas) 6:00 P.M. CST (July 2,3 editions)
Tupelo, Arkansas - Three men observe a silver disc fly toward the northeast at a high rate of speed and great altitude.
June 30 1947 - Knoxville Journal (Tennessee) 8:00 P.M EST (July 1 edition)
Knoxville - ...a round bright object flashed westward over Knoxville
![[Image: e44fdde719b8.gif]](http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/e44fdde719b8.gif)
06/26/47 - OREGON JOURNAL - Flying Disk Mystery Grows
-2 Midwest Men Support Boise Flier
-Descriptions tally On Fast - Flying Pie Pan Objects
-Nine mysterious objects hurtling through the air
06/26/47 - OREGON JOURNAL - Oklahoman Sees Strange Objects
-SPEED TERRIFIC
-WIFE CONVINCED
06/26/47 - OREGON JOURNAL - Carpenter Reports 'Discs' in Midwest
-...Nine shiny objects flying at a high rate of speed
![[Image: d719dc72729b.gif]](http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/d719dc72729b.gif)
06/27/47 - OREGON JOURNAL - Arnold Insists Tale Of Flying Objects O.K.
-..."It's God's truth - I will swear it on a Bible."
06/27/47 - OREGON JOURNAL - SALEM WOMAN SIGHTED DISKS
-...sighting the mysterious silvery disks sailing along in the sky...
06/27/47 - OREGON JOURNAL - Picture of '7 dots' proves latest in flying disk case
-PICTURE SHOWS DOTS
-MANY SEE DISCS
-ILLUSION POSSIBLE
06/27/47 - OREGON JOURNAL - Objects Seen Several Times
-...traveling at an unbelievable speed
06/30/47 - OREGON JOURNAL - Lads Declare They Saw "Flying Disks"
The Pentagon began receiving Flying Saucer reports as early as February of that year and they were filed 'informally' in a folder named Project Saucer.
I can certainly believe that since my database of sightings covers pretty much the entire year of 1947.
So I will now begin with the sightings covered in our local newspaper -
Kenneth Arnold reports his sighting
June 24 1947 - Mt. Rainier, Washington - 2:50 P.M. PST
NORMAN TRANSCRIPT (Oklahoma) 6/26
Bug-Eyed Salesman Reports Fast-Flying Mystery Planes
PENDLETON, Ore., June 26 -- (U.P.)-- Residents of Pendleton sought an explanation today for the nine strange "saucer-shaped" planes an amateur pilot claimed he saw flying at an estimated speed of 1,200 miles an hour across southwestern Washington.
The story was told by Kenneth Arnold, flying fire extinguisher salesman from Boise, Ida.
He landed here, slightly bug-eyed, Wednesday and told how he spotted the "extremely shiny nickle-plated aircraft" skimming along at 10,000 feet on Tuesday. Arnold was on a search for a missing Marine corps plane at the time.
"They were shaped like saucers and were so thin I could barely see them," he told Jack Whitman, a local businessman.
"There were nine of them and they were flying in a screwy formation about 25 miles away from me. It wasn't any military formation I ever saw before.
"I figure they were moving about 1,200 miles per hour because I clocked them with a stop watch during the time it took them to fly from Mount Rainer to Mount Adams. That's 42 miles and they made it in one minute 42 seconds -- about 1,205 mph."
Arnold said the strange aircraft were skittering across the southwest slope of Mount Rainier when he first sighted them.
Whitman suggested tactfully, that Arnold had been seeing things but the pilot insisted, "I must be believe my eyes."
There was no comment from military authorities on Arnold's story.
Arnold had taken off from Chehalis, Washington, intending to fly to Yakima, Washington. About 3:00 P.M. he arrived in the vicinity of Mount Rainier. There was a Marine Corps C-46 transport plane lost in the Mount Rainier area, so Arnold decided to fly around awhile and look for it. He was looking down at the ground when suddenly he noticed a series of bright flashes off to his left. He looked for the source of the flashes and saw a string of nine very bright disk shaped objects, which he estimated to be 45 to 50 feet in length. They were traveling from north to south across the nose of his airplane. They were flying in a reversed echelon (i.e., lead object high with the rest stepped down), and as they flew along they weaved in and out between the mountain peaks, once passing behind one of the peaks. Each individual object had a skipping motion described by Arnold as a "saucer skipping across water."
During the time that the objects were in sight, Arnold had clocked their speed. He had marked his position and their position on the map and again noted the time. When he landed he sketched in the flight path that the objects had flown and computed their speed, almost 1,700 miles per hour. He estimated that they had been 20 to 25 miles away and had traveled 47 miles in 102 seconds.
June 24 1947 - The Oregonian (Portland) 2:58 p.m. PST (June 26 edition)
Washington - Kenneth Arnold, flying his private plane near Mount Rainier, was attracted by reflected sunlight from nine disc shaped metallic flying objects. He watched as they flashed across the sky, one behind the other, "skipping as saucers upon water." They tilted back and forth as they flew. He clocked them as they flew past Mount Adams, and calculated that they were flying at a speed of 1,500 miles per hour and at an altitude of 9,500 feet. When he landed in Pendleton, Oregon he was interviewed at the local radio station where the term "flying saucer" was first coined.
Washington - Flying near Mount Rainier, in his private plane from Chehalis to Yakima, Kenneth Arnold saw at a right angle to his aircraft nine very bright disc-shaped objects come into view. They were flying extremely fast in a reversed echelon formation north and to the left of Mount Rainier. He detected no tail surfaces or wings, and compared them to "pie-pans," somewhat cloverleaf-shaped, with surfaces so bright they reflected the sun like a mirror. He recalled that one object looked heel- shaped. He then picked up a cowling tool to compare them in size to a DC 4 just off to his upper left at about 1,400 feet. He estimated the discs to be 45 to 50 feet in length, traveling north to south 20 to 25 miles ahead of his aircraft. It was no reflection or mirage because the formation clearly could be seen to weave in and out of mountain peaks at speeds estimated at 1,700 miles per hour!
He derived this velocity by recording the time it took the objects to pass the 47 mile stretch between Mount Rainier and Mount Adams. Arnold reasoned that the disc formation was five miles in length and passed the 47 mile distance in one minute and 42 seconds.
No aircraft in existence flew that fast. Even the new P-80 jets had only reached 623 miles per hour at the Muroc test range in California. Arnold thought that he had witnessed some sort of new military test vehicle. Arnold mentioned his sighting to the ground crew after he landed in Yakima and talked about the incident with Al Baxter, the manager of Central Aircraft. While Arnold talked with Baxter in his office they were joined by pilots Les Mills, Carl Apts, and Jacques Filliol.
By the time Arnold flew on to Pendleton the story had already preceded him. After detailing the sighting to newsmen Bill Bequette and Nolan Skiff at noon on the following day, newspapers soon made famous the term "flying saucer" by a remark of his comparing the objects to "saucers skipping on the water."
His sighting was the first to receive national media attention in more than 150 newspapers, being treated as a serious news story, due to the fact that he an experienced mountain flyer, a licensed air rescue pilot, a deputy sheriff, and respected businessman. Other saucer sightings soon followed. Many of those observers talked about what they saw before ever hearing news of Arnold's incident.
(The Army Air Force soon became interested in Arnold's account. On July 12th intelligence officers Captain William Lee Davidson and First Lieutenant Frank Mercer Brown interviewed Arnold for six hours, taking a lengthy detailed statement from him at Boise's downtown Hotel Owyhee.)
Arnold
Arnold said that one of the objects was rather crescent shaped, while the other eight objects were more circular, but initially Arnold's descriptions were only of the latter disk-like shape. At one point Arnold said they flew behind a subpeak of Rainier and briefly disappeared. Knowing his position and the position of the subpeak, Arnold placed their distance as they flew past Rainier at about 23 miles. Using a zeus cowling fastener as a gauge to compare the nine objects to the distant DC-4, Arnold estimated their angular size as slightly smaller than the DC-4, about the width between the outer engines (about 60 feet).
In the Portland Oregonian on July 11, he was still referring to the shape of the objects as "saucers" or "saucer-like... I actually saw a type of aircraft slightly longer than it was wide, with a thickness about one twentieth as great as its width. ...I reckoned the saucers were 23 miles away."
Arnold also said he realized that the objects would have to be quite large to see any details at that distance and later, after comparing notes with a United Airlines crew that had a similar sighting 10 days later (see below), placed the absolute size as larger than a DC-4 airliner (or greater than 100 feet in length). Army Air Force analysts would later estimate 140 to 280 feet, based on analysis of human visual acuity and other sighting details (such as estimated distance).
Arnold said the objects were grouped together, "in a diagonally stepped-down, echelon formation, stretched out over a distance he calculated to be five miles".
Though moving on a more or less level horizontal plane, Arnold said the objects weaved from side to side "like the tail of a Chinese kite", darting through the valleys and around the smaller mountain peaks. They would occasionally flip or bank on their edges in unison as they turned or maneuvered causing almost blindingly bright or mirror-like flashes of light. The encounter gave him an "eerie feeling", but Arnold suspected he had seen test flights of a new U.S. military aircraft.
The letter with a drawing of flying saucers or flying disks submitted by pilot
Kenneth Arnold to Army Air Force intelligence on July 12, 1947. Credit: USAF
Kenneth Arnold's written report to Army Air Forces (AAF) intelligence, July 12, 1947, with drawing of objects.
In a written statement to Army Air Forces (AAF) intelligence the following day(July 12), Arnold several times referred to the objects as "saucer-like." At the end of the report he drew a picture of what the objects appeared to look like at their closest approach to Mt. Rainier. He wrote, "They seemed longer than wide, their thickness was about 1/20th their width." (document with Arnold's drawing at right) As to motion, Arnold wrote, "They flew like many times I have observed geese to fly in a rather diagonal chain-like line as if they were linked together. They seemed to hold a definite direction but rather swerved in and out of the high mountain peaks." He also spoke of how they would "flip and flash in the sun."
Few people have heard the story of Kenneth Arnold's second UFO sighting. It occurred at 6:55 A.M. July29th when Arnold was flying over Union, Oregon. On this occasion he saw 20 to 25 discs which were rough appearing on top and lighter on the bottom. As these objects flew, Arnold estimated them to be 24 to 30 inches in diameter and flying at speeds faster than 200 miles per hour. He also commented that the discs fluttered and flipped on edge as they headed north. Surprisingly, this second sighting by Arnold received almost no news play.
Within just days of the publication of Arnold's report, other accounts began to appear. At least twenty people from more than a dozen widely separated places reported that they, too, had seen similar objects. Some of these sightings had occurred -before June 24th-, some had been made on the same day as Arnold's, and a few were made on the days following.
Most of the reports came from the northwest.Of twenty-nine sightings occurring between June 1st and June 23rd, nearly two-thirds were made in the west, and nine in the northeast.
June 24, 1947, an Idaho private pilot named Ken Arnold set off the saucer uproar.
While flying near Mount Rainer, Washington, Arnold sighted nine huge, gleaming discs, racing along in a column. He estimated their size at 100 feet in diameter, the speed at more than 1,200 miles per hour.
Unfortunately Arnold described the discs as "saucer like," and the ridiculous name was born. Had he called them "flying discs," or simply unknown objects, the whole story might have been different. But from the start the "saucers" have been a big joke, a handicap to any serious investigation.
Within a few days after Arnold's story hit front pages, weird objects were reported all over the country. There were a few hoaxes. Many reports were caused by hysteria. But mixed in with these were several serious accounts.
At Muroc Air Force Base, veteran pilots reported silvery discs circling at high speeds. A United Airlines crew, until then hardheaded skeptics, sighted two groups of discs over Emmett, Idaho. Other stories came in from competent, trained observers.
Even then, contradictions were the order of the day. At Muroc and other air bases, commanders worried by the thought of a Russian secret weapon kept fighters alerted.
But when the United report came in to Washington, a Pentagon spokesman quickly debunked the story. "No investigation is needed," he said. "The saucers are only hallucinations."
On that same day officers at Dayton admitted that the Air Materiel Command was seriously investigating the saucers.
(NICAP - Keyhoe)
June 24 1947 - Phoenix Republic (Arizona) morning (June 26 edition)
(AP) Pendleton, Oregon - This morning prospector Johnson in the Hood River region of the Cascade Mountains of Oregon sighted five or six discs flying silently overhead, heading toward the southeast. He noticed that his compass began spinning when the discs passed over. His watch also stopped running.
Fred M. Johnson, who reported a disc sighting to Army officers after returning from the same mountainous area that Arnold had flown over. Johnson made his observation the same day and time as Arnold's when he had his attention drawn skyward by a brief flash and noticed five to six shiny round objects. The craft looked to have "tails" as they silently flew by at about 1,000 feet toward the southeast. They remained in view for about 45 to 60 seconds during which time the prospector examined one of them through a hand-held telescope. With the aid of the spyglass he could tell they were definitely real objects, round and about 30 feet in diameter but "tapering sharply to a point in the head end in an oval shape." He also observed some type of object in their tail shifting from side to side. About that time Johnson looked down at his watch which had a compass attached to it and noticed that its needle fluctuated wildly.
Johnson also confirmed the time to be around 3:00 P.M. PST, the same period in which Arnold made his sighting. Johnson concluded in his statement that they flew off faster than anything he had seen before and resembled no object he had been witness to in his 40 years of prospecting the mountains.
Ironically, while the more famous Arnold sighting was investigated in far greater detail, it would be classified as a mirage. The Portland prospector case eventually found its way into Air Force records as the first unidentified case of an eventual 587 officially given that designation. (At one time Air Force files listed 701 unidentifieds but today only 587 are noted in the declassified index.) The unidentified classification (once termed unknown) was not lightly given and placed only on files that investigators could not attribute to a known cause. Witness reliability also served as a key factor. In this instance the records of both the Army and FBI considered Mr. Johnson of high reliability and character.
(Project Blue Book Files, Roll No. 1, Case 11, listed as Incident 68 in 1947 era documents; and thanks must be given here to Jan L. Aldrich for forwarding documents on the Portland prospector case which are not in the National Archives' Blue Book collection. (See Declassified FBI files and Fourth Air Force Files, "microfilm record 33764-1036," US Air Force Historical Agency, Maxwell AFB, Montgomery, Alabama.)
Sightings in Europe
April 20, 1947
Citizens in Col de Serres, France report seeing disks flying over the valley.
ay 21, 1947
Slow-moving, large cigar-shaped objects are seen in Sweden.
June 10, 1947
Fast-moving flying objects are seen in Finland.
June 1st 1947
Two flying discs accounts are found for the first day of June but like almost all of the early sightings, were not reported until after the Kenneth Arnold incident. Yet these did later make numerous newspaper stories and were undoubtedly read by many including Alfred Loedding on or by the 6th of July. One of these came from housewife Mrs. C.W. Parks in Bakersfield, California, who saw two groups of ten flying discs each moving at high speed in a southeasterly direction on June 1st 1947.
(Grand Rapids, Michigan, Herald, 1 July 1947)
That night (June 1st) another housewife, Mrs. Inez Nostrant, observed numerous bright luminous plate-sized objects flying in groups of twos and fours as high as planes over Grand Rapids, Michigan.
June 2 1947 Waterloo Courier July 10 1947
At 1:30 p.m. (June 2nd) an inverted saucer-shaped disc of brilliant metal was sighted by John Laube and Fred Platte in Waverly, Iowa. It flew just above the top of a 180-foot grain elevator at Waverly Sugar Manufacturing Plant. They had it in sight for five minutes before it was obscured by trees as it flew away.
(Source: Jan Aldrich, Project 1947 Research Notes, Bordentown, New Jersey, April 16, 2005)
June 2 1947 Columbus Citizen (Ohio) 7/8/47
On the 2nd of June private pilot Forrest Wenyon saw a jar-shaped rocket-like object fly across the nose of his aircraft at great speed near Lewes, Delaware, heading in an easterly direction around his own altitude of 1,400 18 Alfred Loedding and The Great Flying Saucer Wave of 1947 feet. Wenyon reported his observation to the CAA, Eastern Airlines, and the FBI because the object was spotted in commercial airline space. There was some speculation on his part that there could have been a connection to a crash of a C-54 from such an object just two days before. The sighting did end up in Air Force records but for whatever reason was not released to the National Archives when other UFO files were made public in 1976. Earlier researchers who had the chance to view that file indicate that the military attributed the sighting to a rocket test. History, however, bears no documentation of rocket tests over that densely populated East Coast area. 14
June 2nd 1947
(Louisiana AAP June 10 1947)
Carl Achee, Jr. and John Scales, Jr. observed one circular flying object over Shreveport, Louisiana, along the Red River.
This event, like others, were not thought by the witnesses to be of significance until they read accounts of the widely publicized Arnold account. For that reason those and reports from June 10th in Douglas, Arizona, (Fort Huachuca - Davis-Montham AFB) and Weiser, Idaho, on the 12th (Nothing nearby, going east out to ocean).
June 7 1947
(Fortean Society's Doubt, 19 (Spring-Summer 1947)
Other early accounts come from overseas. According to the Times of India, flying discs were seen over Bombay as early as June 7th with other saucer-like accounts coming from South America. 16
une 10 1947
At 11:00 p.m. in Agua Prieta, Mexico a glowing sphere was seen as it rose from the ground and flew up into the night sky.
At the same time in Douglas, Arizona
(Fort Huachuca - Davis-Montham AFB)
Coral Lorenzen, the co-founder of the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization in 1952 and future author of seven books on the UFO phenomenon, witnessed an unidentified light land remotely, take on a definite spherical shape, then shoot up rapidly from the ground and vanish in less than ten seconds among the stars.
According to the Air Force files there were more than fifty reports of UFOs seen during the daytime over Budapest, Hungary.
(Sources: Larry Hatch, U computer database; Coral E. Lorenzen, Flying Saucers: The Startling Evidence of the Invasion from Outer Space, p. 16; Jacques Vallee, Anatomy of the Phenomenon, p. 50; Jacques Vallee, Passport to Magonia, p. 191)
June 10 1947
Disc reports outside the United States are very rare prior to July of 1947, but at 3:30 P.M. local time on June 10th, Hungarian citizen Gyorik Ference saw four "yellow-red platter-like objects" fly over Budapest. They were sphere-shaped and silver in color, traveling at high speeds. 17
("Project Sign, Report No. F-TR-2274-IA," Project Blue Book Files, Roll No. 85, Administrative Files, Box 1.)
June 12 1947
A bright metallic ovoid object was seen from the highway in Weiser, Idaho by a Mrs. Erickson and her daughter at 6:15 p.m. The UFO zigzagged to the southwest. It and a second object were in view for three minutes before vanishing.
(Mountain Home AFB)
(Sources: Donald E. Keyhoe, Flying Saucers Are Real, p. 24)
June 13 1947
NUFORC Sighting Report Occurred : 6/13/1947 20:18 (Entered as : 06/13/1947 20:18)
Reported: 2/22/2004 8:27:26 PM 20:27
Posted: 3/2/2004
Location: Oakmont, PA
Shape: Unknown
Duration:approx.10 min.
(Charles E. Kelly Spt facility)
A very brillant blue-white object coming towards us lowering above us and hovering over us a few minutes before shooting straight up.
A few days after we returned from attending my Grandmother's funeral in North Carolina, my husband and I decided to walk down the dirt road leading to my parents home near the Allegheny River. The road cut through nearly thirteen acres of corn and vegetables owned by an elderly couple who raised produced for sale. About half way down the road was a little shanty they called their "garden house" where they cleaned and prepared their produce for market.
As we approached the shanty, we met the elderly woman coming up the road, heading for her home on the edge of town. We stopped to talk, she wanted to express her sympathies ad to ask about the funeral. My husband and I were facing north, the woman facing us, as we talked. We noticed a small bright light coming toward us out of the north. It was moving very slowly, made no sound, but coming down, growing larger and brighter as it decended. The old woman saw the look on our faces, so she turned and looked up. By this time it was very large and a very brilliant blue-white. The old woman fell to her knees, muttering something in her native tongue, Italian, and "crossing" herself. We were paralyzed with fear! Suddenly, after hovering for a few minutes, motionless, it began to go around in wide circles, then shot straight up into the sky, lightening fast and disappeared. The woman ran up the road to her home.
My husband and I ran to my parents' home, where my husband called the Observatory in Pittsburgh to ask what this "thing" was. They could not give an explanation, but that it "could not have been a plane or weather balloon, nor any invention existing at that time that could have done what this object did."
A few weeks later, reports started coming in on radio news about people in the west seeing strange things in the sky. Some were calling them "flying saucers" and "UFO's," and some were wondering if some other country had invented some kind of new scientific weapon.
We never completely got over our fright and have watched the sky ever since. My husband had been in the Navy in the war. We have seen many natural things, such as meteorites, northern lights and man- made objects, but never have seen anything to compare to what we saw that evening.
June 14 1947
Although it was in the United States that pilot Richard Rankin, a veteran flyer with more than 7,000 hours in the air, had the most notable flying saucer sighting prior to Arnold's. As with other early witnesses, he did not report it until others like Arnold had admitted to seeing such strange objects. Contrary to later accounts of the Rankin Case, his observation did not happen on the 23rd, but on the 14th, and did not occur at 2:15 P.M. but at 12:00 noon PST. Nor was Rankin in flight at the time, but saw the objects while watching a boy mow the lawn outside his friend's home in Bakersfield, California. At the time of the sighting it was a clear and sunny day when both he and the boy saw ten round objects or "saucers" fly over in a loose "V" formation with one straggling in the rear." They were heading north, but seven of the discs then reversed direction and came back over them toward the south. Their diameters appeared to be from 30 to 35 feet, and they were traveling at an estimated speed of 350 miles per hour around 8,500 feet. At the time of the sighting Rankin thought the craft must be some sort of new Army or Navy test vehicle much like the oval-shaped XF5U-1 "flying flapjack" and even commented as much to the lad mowing the lawn. Yet, military intelligence concluded Rankin's sighting represented no known aircraft type. 18
(Project Blue Book Files, Roll No. 1, Case 7, listed as Incident 29 in 1947 era documents; and "Pilot Recalls Seeing Discs," The (Portland) Oregonian, 3 July 1947, p. 11; and "Pilot Vet Reports Seeing 'Flying Saucers' June 23," Denver Post, 2 July 1947; and documents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, dated 3 July 1947.)
NUFORC Sighting Report Occurred : 6/15/1947 18:00
Reported: 3/18/2002 8:25:24 PM 20:25
Posted: 3/4/2003
Location: Madison, WI
Shape: Disk
Duration:2-3 min.
Three disks appear in the West, stop at zenith, and proceed Eastward a rapid rate of speed.
While observing the evening sky while fishing on Lake Wisconsin my eye caught a flashing in the clouds toward the West where the sun was setting. Three gold colored disks appeared out of the clouds and slowed to a stop when reaching zenith. They appeared to be looking down at a beautiful scene below of a broad river set in a valley. My grandfather, a friend and myself could detect a slight motion as they stood in rather tight triangular formation above us, kind of wobbling. After some 5 to 10 seconds the lead ship slowing began moving Southeast towards Madison and the others brought up the triangular formation. I would estimate their elevation at about 3-4 thousand feet and they looked about the size of a penny at arms length. They soon accelerated at a tremendous rate and were out of sight on the horizon within 3 to four seconds. It was a daylight sighting I will never forget.
June 17 1947 - Seattle Post-Intelligencer (Washington) (June 21 edition)
"Fast Flying Disks Reported in West,"
(AP) Bremerton, WA - Mrs. Emma Shingler saw more than one plate-shaped object flying west out over the Pacific at tremendous speed.
(Mrs. Shingler had a similar sighting on June 24th at 10:00 A.M. PST.)
(NAVBASE Kitsap Bremerton)
June 17 1947 - The Oregonian (Portland), 6:00 P.M. PST (June 27 edition)
Three flying discs were seen over Bremerton heading west by Mr. and Mrs. H.K. Wheeler.
June 17 1947 - Seattle Post-Intelligencer, (June 26 edition)
Three platter-shaped discs were seen hovering in the sky for a period of three hours over Bremerton, Washington from late in the afternoon until evening. The objects wavered as they flew, and shot off at extreme speeds toward the west.
June 17 1947 - Milwaukee Journal (Wisconsin) - PM (July 1 edition)
June 17 1947 - Wisconsin State Journal - PM (July 7 edition)
Professor Emeritus from the University of Wisconsin Dr. E.B. McGilvery saw a bright round luminous object, about two-thirds the size of the full moon...
...quite rapid...
...left no trail of light as a meteor does,
...did not appear to be fiery
...looked like an "illuminated body."
heading to the northeast
June 18 1947 - Birmingham News & Age Herald (Alabama) 4:00 P.M. CST (July 9 edition)
Green Springs - Mrs. H. Akins with others observed a blinking disc-shaped craft fly westward.
(Anniston Army Depot - Fort McClellan ARNG TC)
June 18 1947 - Oregon Journal (Portland) (June 27 edition)
(AP) - Eugene
E.H. Sprinkler and five other residents of Eugene saw a formation of multiple "saucers racing overhead". Sprinkler had a camera and took a snapshot of the objects as they raced over. Unfortunately, the film revealed only dots because by the time that he had gotten his camera into position, the objects were speeding out of sight at tremendous velocity - 1,700 mph. Enlargements of the photograph showed "seven dots" in a formation "shaped like an X or a Y".
Direction -from SW to NE (Boardman Naval Weapons Training Facility?)
(AP story in numerous papers for 6/27)
June 19 1947
(Des Moines Register (Iowa) night) (July 8 edition)
Cedar Rapids - From his back yard, R.D. Taylor spotted eight to ten discs which were lighted from within as they zoomed over Cedar Rapids.
June 20 1947 - The Oregonian (Portland) (June 28 edition)
Flying Saucer Story Grows
Kelso, Washington - Mrs. Jerry Neels said she saw some "bright and shiny" discs south of Kelso on the 20th.
June 20 1947 - Seattle Post-Intelligencer (Washington) 11:00 P.M. PST (June 26,27 editions)
Moses Lake - Archie Edes and his family saw an oval "flame-like" craft descend at high speed near Moses Lake.
June 20 1947 - Albuquerque Journal (New Mexico) (July 2 edition)
Hot Springs - Mrs. Annabel Mobley reported that she and her daughter Luanne had seen nine discs crossing the sky toward the northeast. These objects were in groups of three triangular-shaped groups of three discs, and each group was revolving about in a "wheel-like circle"... the discs in each group "seemed to be fastened together by invisible cords."
(Los Alamos)
June 20 1947
Source: Twin Falls Times News, Idaho - 4 Jul 47
From Richfield came a report that Mr. and Mrs. Charles Housel and Sherman Coffman, all of that community, noticed one of the "flying objects" on June 20, about one week before the first report on the subject was made by a Boise pilot.
The Richfield residents said it was headed west at a high rate of speed and seemed to be whirling. A thin trail of white smoke was left behind the "flying disc" as it skimmed extremely high through the air, they reported. They declared they were "certain it was not an airplane."
June 21 1947 - Idaho - 11:55 a.m.
A Spokane woman saw eight discs the size of a house flying at 600 mph, descending with a "dead leaf motion", and landed before ten witnesses near the shore of the Saint Joe River in Idaho.
Mrs. L.M. Wagoner and her eight-year-old son of Sherman, Texas reported they saw a flying disc about 7 p.m. Sunday while traveling between Dallas and Corsicana. Mrs. Wagoner said the disc, about the size of a man's hat, was traveling northward and disappeared in a few seconds.
A shiny disc, traveling about 150 miles per hour, was seen over El Paso, Texas, at 3:30 p.m. MST, Sunday, June 22, by Dr. G. Oliver Dickson, an optometrist. He said it was shaped a little like a blimp, coming to a point at each end. The sun's rays were not reflected on it, he added.
June 22 1947 - Weekly Intelligence Summary, ATC - 11:30 A.M. EST (July 30 edition)
Greenfield, Massachusetts - Edward L. de Rose reported seeing a "brilliant, round-shaped silvery-white object" moving in a northwesterly direction over Greenfield. It traveled at a high rate of speed somewhere at around 1,000 feet of altitude and "streaked across the sky" in a matter of only eight to ten seconds before vanishing from view. He felt certain the mysterious craft could not have been a balloon and represented something very real when later filing this report with the A-2 section of Army Intelligence of the Atlantic Division.
(Case secretly investigated by the FBI)
June 22 1947 - Baker Democrat Herald (Oregon) daytime (June 27 edition)
Radium Springs, New Mexico - A "flying pie-plate" disc was seen while swimming by H.E. Hammond and his son L.V.W. Hammond, the secretary manager of the Eastern Oregon Federal Savings and Loan Association.
June 22 1947 - Tucson Daily Citizen (Arizona) (July 1 edition)
Tucson - Walter Laos spotted a very strange-looking flying object.
June 23 1947 - Huntsville Times (Alabama), (July 1 edition)
Hazel Green - E.B. Parks and a dozen other witnesses saw two illuminated discs fly at terrific speed low over Hazel Green.
June 23
Thus, neither of those sightings made the papers before Arnold's account, but one story was actually reported to newspapers on the 23rd. The tale came from a railroad engineer in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. As he was climbing off his engine, he observed ten shiny disc-shaped objects flying in a string-like formation, "like wild geese." The six line story it generated produced little attention at the time.
24 June 1947 - Chicago Times (Illinois) 1:50 P.M. CST (June 27 edition)
Joliet - Railroad engineer Charles Kastl saw a peculiar formation of nine flat, circular objects "going faster than any planes I ever saw” in a stretched out line formation at about 4,000 feet flying north to south. "I could see no connecting link between them," Kastl reported, "but they acted as though the leading disc had a motor in it to power the others, because when it flipped, the others would, too. When it would right itself, the others would right themselves."
When asked by newsmen if he had been drinking, he answered sternly, "I was on my way to work, and you know a railroad man never touches the stuff on or before duty hours."
His friends and neighbors all agreed that Kastl was not the sort of man given to telling tall stories.
June 28 1947 - Waterloo Courier (Iowa) 1:30 a.m. (July 6 edition)
Waterloo - A shiny disc-shaped object descended into the backyard of a Mr. Johnston and hovered less than 25 feet away from him. He experienced a number of physical complaints as the result of his close encounter, including numbness, chest pain, and difficulty breathing. The disc made a swishing sound as it flew away.
June 28 1947 - Lake Mead, Nevada - 2 p.m.
A formation of five to six white circular objects approached an F-51 aircraft being piloted by an airman named Armstrong while he was flying thirty miles northwest of Lake Mead.
This case was investigated by the FBI at the time.
June 28 1947
June 28, 1947 edition of the Boise, Idaho Statesman...
Harassed Saucer-Sighter Would Like to Escape Fuss
PENDLETON. June 28 (UP) -- Kenneth Arnold said today he would like to get on one of his 1200-mile-an-hour "flying saucers," and escape from the furor caused by his story of mysterious aircraft flashing over southern Washington.
"I haven't had a moment of peace since I first told the story," the 32-year-old Boise, Idaho, business man-pilot sighed...
"This whole thing has gotten out of hand," Arnold went on. "I want to talk to the FBI or someone."
"Half the people I see look at me as a combination Einstein, Flash Gordon, and screwball. I wonder what my wife back in Idaho thinks."
WON'T CHANGE MIND
But all the hoopla and hysterics haven't caused Arnold to change his mind or back down. He doesn't care if the experts laugh him off. He said most of his aviator friends tell him that what he saw were probably either one of two things: new planes or guided missiles still in the United States Army air forces' secret category. Some theorized they were experimental equipment of another nation, probably Russia.
"Most people," he said, "tell me I'm right."
June 28, 1947 edition of the Tucson, Arizona Daily Citizen...
Flying Disc Tale Stands
BOISE, IDA., June 28. (U.P.) -- Kenneth Arnold, businessman-pilot who made the headlines with his story of sighting strange disk-like flying missiles in southern Washington, was back in his home town of Boise Saturday -- and his story hasn't changed a bit.
"I saw what I saw," he said, "No one can change my mind.
"I'll match my judgment, position, and everything on what I saw with my own eyes. I never suffered from snow-blindness, spots before my eyes, or hallucinations. Physically, I'm 100 percent. I'll submit to any kind of test. I only reported what any pilot would report. I certainly have nothing to gain in a business way with all this hullaballoo."
Arnold resides on a ranch near here. He uses a hayfield for an airport. He sells fire-control equipment.
Arnold said he saw strange "flying saucers" -- nine of them -- near Mt. Rainier while flying to Yakima, Wash., this week.
He said he is more concerned with the fact that neither the FBI nor the Army appears interested in his story.
"If I were running the country," he said, "and someone reported something unusual, I'd certainly want to know more about it."
June 28
Within a few days of Arnold's sighting, others began to come in. On June 28 an Air Force pilot in an F-51 was flying near Lake Mead, Nevada, when he saw a formation of five or six circular objects off his right wing. The time was about three fifteen in the afternoon.
(NICAP - Ruppelt)
That night at nine twenty, four Air Force officers, two pilots, and two intelligence officers from Maxwell AFB in Montgomery, Alabama, saw a bright light traveling across the sky. It was first seen just above the horizon, and as it traveled toward the observers it "zigzagged," with bursts of high speed. When it was directly overhead it made a sharp 90 degree turn and was lost from view as it traveled south.
(NICAP - Ruppelt)
Other reports came in. In Milwaukee a lady saw ten go over her house "like blue blazes," heading south. A school bus driver in Clarion, Iowa, saw an object streak across the sky. In a few seconds twelve more followed the first one. White Sands Proving Ground in New Mexico chalked up the first of the many sightings that this location would produce when several people riding in an automobile saw a pulsating light travel from horizon to horizon in thirty seconds. A Chicago housewife saw one "with legs."
(NICAP - Ruppelt)
June 29 1947 - Organ, New Mexico - 1:15 p.m.
Four rocket experts saw a silver saucer in the sky over Organ. It flew off to the north at 9,000 feet altitude.
June 29 1947 - Medford, Oregon - 2:00 PM PST
Nine white saucers flying in V-formation flew over Medford, Oregon at a speed of 120 mph. They flew in a spiral over the airport, and appeared to make a cloud.
June 29 1947 - Clarion, Iowa - 4:45 p.m.
Between 13 and 18 white oval and disc-shaped objects flew over Clarion. They made a noise like that of a dynamo.
June 29 1947 - The Oregonian (Portland), 11:00 A.M. PST (July 1 edition)
Pendleton - Mrs. Morton Elder observed seven umbrella-shaped objects south of Pendleton, Oregon, flying north and emitting a humming noise. Other independent witnesses reported a similar sighting in the area.
June 29 1947 - NICAP files - Jacksonville, Oregon - 1:00 p.m. PST
Jacksonville - Peter Vogel, M.D., and his wife, eight other members of the Vogel family, and about ten others saw a V-formation of oval objects in the sky above Ashland, 15 to 20 miles southeast of Jacksonville. The formation was traveling northwest toward Medford. There were nine objects. According to Dr. Vogels' wife, when first seen the objects were "as white as snow geese", as they came closer they became blue-white, "like a fluorescent-bulb light." They were sharply outlined and seemed to be solid; "also translucent, like a light, pebbled, frosted bulb." The size of the individual objects was estimated as more than twice the diameter of the full moon (presumably when the objects were nearest to the witnesses). There was no sound, and no vapor trails...When the objects seemed to be over the tower of Medford airport, they each made a spiral ascent, one after the other, and each went behind a cloud that had not been there before and which the objects themselves "seemed to produce."
The objects did not reappear, but the cloud "stayed an oval and stationary shape for over an hour."
June 29 1947 - Spokane Daily Chronicle (Idaho) - 1:30 P.M. PST (June 30 edition).
Moscow - Numerous people in Moscow, Idaho, report seeing a single "flying disc".
June 29 1947 - Tucson, Arizona, Daily Citizen, 1:30 P.M. MST (July 4 edition)
Tucson - Charles Weaver and his wife saw one of the famous formations of discs just as Kenneth Arnold did five days ago.
June 29 1947 - The Evening Star (Washington DC) 1:30 P.M. MST (July 9 edition)
Saucer Seen By Rocket Expert, Flight Over Desert Described
White Sands, New Mexico - Three naval research scientists involved in guided missile development were all in a car headed northeast down Route 17 to the White Sands proving grounds to examine a launching site for a July 3rd V-2 test, when they had their attention drawn upward by a flash. All three men, and Curtis Rockwood' s wife who was in the car, observed "a silvery disc whirling through the unclouded sky." Kauke was driving and became so overwhelmed by the site that he stopped the car. They then estimated the disc's altitude between 8,000 and 10,000 feet and were especially attracted by its bright surface. They agreed its shape appeared elliptical and flat. Dr. Zohn, a well-known rocket expert, stated that the object did not look like any rocket he had ever seen and that it could not have been a balloon. Dr. C.J. Zohn reported their observation to Army Intelligence with supporting testimony from fellow scientists Curtis C. Rockwood and John R. Kauke.
This report was studied by Wright Field Intelligence and Alfred Loedding although the investigation was instigated by Lieutenant Colonel George D. Garrett of the Pentagon Intelligence Collections branch.
June 29 1947 - USAF Files 4:45 P.M. - CST
Bus driver Dale Bays, traveling from Des Moines to Mason City, Iowa, observed flying discs outside Clarion. At first he saw only one oval object pass across the sky moving south-southwest at about 1,200 feet. Then four similar objects followed. Bays quickly stopped and got out for a better look. Taking in the view of the countryside, he turned around and spotted in the opposite direction a flight of thirteen more discs. This formation was at about the same altitude as the first objects and judged to be traveling 300 miles per hour. They looked like "inverted saucers," "oval" in appearance. He guessed that they were anywhere from 175 to 250 feet in diameter and around twelve feet thick. Their color appeared a "dirty white" and he said they made a "motor or dynamo" type of noise while passing overhead. After a couple of minutes the discs were then lost from sight to the north-northwest.
June 29 1947 - Richland Villager (Washington) 3:00 P.M. PST (July 3 edition)
"Flying Disks Are Seen Here"
Mr. and Mrs. James Harbor of Richland, Washington, and many local residents saw a very similar shiny disc with a type of halo around it. Most agreed that its outer edge seemed to be spinning around a stationary center section.
June 29 1947 - Miami, Florida, Herald (Florida) 5:15 P.M. CST (1 July edition)
Sioux City, Iowa - H.F. Angus and his wife, saw a silvery disc move rapidly to the south at high altitude.
June 29 1947 - St. Joseph Gazette (Missouri) 5:30 P.M. CST (July 8 edition)
Motorist Mrs. E.D. Butts, her husband, and son all observed a bright object fly low over St. Joseph, Missouri. Traveling relatively slow, it headed southward. They described the event just as if they were looking at the sun peering through the overcast on a very cloudy day or like seeing a bright moon. But the day was very cloudy, too cloudy to be the moon. And because the object appeared from the north and moved continually to the south, it came nowhere near where the sun was positioned.
June 29 1947 - St. Louis, Missouri, Post-Dispatch (Missouri), afternoon (July 8 edition)
Mrs. HJ. Beckmeyer and her brother E.W. Brown, in St. Louis accounted a similar story that afternoon but in this case they saw three bright discs.
June 29 1947 - San Francisco Examiner (California) 8:05 P.M. PST
"Flying Saucers Seen in Oregon,"
Mrs. Sidney B. Smith in Seaside observed a round silent object pass over very high, just east of the city.
June 29 1947 - New York Herald Tribune, 9:07 P.M. PST (July 1 edition)
San Leandro, California - Frank M. King, his wife, and their three guests, watched an oval gleaming disc fly over San Leandro at great speed between 4,000 and 5,000 feet headed on a northerly course.
June 29 1947 - Associated Press reported dozens of flying saucer sightings from Vancouver, British Columbia to El Paso, Texas.
The stories all involve:
-fast moving objects shaped like discs or saucers,
-traveling at high rates of speed.
-They made little or no noise
-and each of the objects were said to have a surface that gave off a blinding reflection from the sun.
June 29 1947 - Albuquerque Journal (New Mexico) daytime (June 30 edition)
(AP) Silver City - A rancher near Cliff, named Arthur Howard, reported that he had seen a round, shining object fall to earth in broken country near his ranch some time during the day. Later, two pilots, Bud Hagen of Hurley and Ed Nelson of Cliff, made an aerial search of the location. They found nothing, but they reported that at one point while flying over the reported landing site their plane flew through a layer of "stinking air" - something for which they could find no explanation.
4 Jul 47 Twin Falls Times News, Idaho
Reports were received earlier this week of a formation of the mystery craft flying over Galena summit and of a lone "flying disc" sighted near Malta, both on Monday.
June 30 1947
Occasional mention has been made in this text about Edward Ruppelt. He is of such interest because his landmark book, The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects, documents not only the great UFO flap of 1952 but also gives many insights on the 1947 saucer wave. This is ironic because during the summer of 1947 Ruppelt hoped he had seen the last of the Air Force. In WWII he served a long stint as a bombardier and radar operator during the entire B-29 bombing offensive against Japan. He certainly had earned his GI bill that he was then going to school on—having survived some hard combat and winning a fist full of medals the hard way. Now he was working just as hard toward a degree in aeronautical engineering at Iowa State College—a happy civilian.
That day Ruppelt was in Yellowstone Park, enjoying the first lazy holiday in a long time. That's when he heard the new word "flying saucer." Just outside the lodge kids were sailing paper plates into the air yelling "saucer, saucer!" He soon read the news reports which filled him in on the unusual phrase, but little did he realize that three years later he would be back in the Air Force as project head of UFO investigations in Dayton. 64
(Edward J. Ruppelt, "Why Don't the Damn Things Swim—So We Can Turn Them Over To The Navy?" The True Report on Flying Saucers, 1, Fawcett Publishers, Inc., Louisville, Kentucky, 1967, pp. 39, 57.)
June 30 1947 - Salt Lake City Desert News (Utah) 2:30 P.M. MST (July 1 edition)
Hailey, Idaho - Several observers saw a flight of eight to ten objects in a V- formation near the town of Hailey flying toward Galena Summit. Witness Walter Nicholson stated that the left wing of the V formation contained five disc-shaped objects in perfect line but the ones on the right "seemed to weave." Forest ranger Hunter Nelson, who was marking trees with Nicholson three miles from Galena Summit, counted seven to nine objects in the V- formation. He stated that they were moving extremely fast and were as high as 10,000 feet heading northeast.
(Although both men said the objects were so high that they only looked like shiny specks in the sky, years later they elaborated that they had never seen anything like it before or since and were positive they had not seen conventional aircraft. Both men stressed that point, stating that they flew "-much- faster than any aircraft of that day.")
June 30 1947 - The Oregonian (Portland), evening (July 6 edition)
Rogers, Arkansas - Real estate dealer J.P. Grumpier, watched the approach of a strong wind storm. As he stepped out onto his porch, the clouds became even more dark and ominous. Suddenly a disc appeared out of the northwest and vanished rapidly into the southwest.
June 30 1947 - Little Rock Gazette (Arkansas) 6:00 P.M. CST (July 2,3 editions)
Tupelo, Arkansas - Three men observe a silver disc fly toward the northeast at a high rate of speed and great altitude.
June 30 1947 - Knoxville Journal (Tennessee) 8:00 P.M EST (July 1 edition)
Knoxville - ...a round bright object flashed westward over Knoxville
06/26/47 - OREGON JOURNAL - Flying Disk Mystery Grows
-2 Midwest Men Support Boise Flier
-Descriptions tally On Fast - Flying Pie Pan Objects
-Nine mysterious objects hurtling through the air
06/26/47 - OREGON JOURNAL - Oklahoman Sees Strange Objects
-SPEED TERRIFIC
-WIFE CONVINCED
06/26/47 - OREGON JOURNAL - Carpenter Reports 'Discs' in Midwest
-...Nine shiny objects flying at a high rate of speed
06/27/47 - OREGON JOURNAL - Arnold Insists Tale Of Flying Objects O.K.
-..."It's God's truth - I will swear it on a Bible."
06/27/47 - OREGON JOURNAL - SALEM WOMAN SIGHTED DISKS
-...sighting the mysterious silvery disks sailing along in the sky...
06/27/47 - OREGON JOURNAL - Picture of '7 dots' proves latest in flying disk case
-PICTURE SHOWS DOTS
-MANY SEE DISCS
-ILLUSION POSSIBLE
06/27/47 - OREGON JOURNAL - Objects Seen Several Times
-...traveling at an unbelievable speed
06/30/47 - OREGON JOURNAL - Lads Declare They Saw "Flying Disks"