PROJECT 1947

Men Report Big Ball In Sky

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. — Six workmen, who had gathered late last night at a rural home near here to ride to work, told a reporter they watched a mysterious gleaming ball over the house for 20 minutes.  One of the men, Les Reatherford, said the ball once dived toward him, and that he had to duck to avoid being hit.

      "If I hadn't ducked it would have hit me sure," said Reatherford.

      The men, all employees of a Reynolds Metal Co., aluminum plant, described the white ball of light as about 10 feet in diameter.  They said it circled the house slowly, stopping for a moment at irregular intervals.

      One of the witnesses said the ball followed the men when they left in a station wagon.

      "We tried to put a spotlight on it," said one of the men, "but everytime it would dodge the beam."

      Besides Reatherford, those who saw the object were Harley and Fred Skeets, Tom and Dayton Henderson, and John Vaughn.

'STRANGE OBJECT' SEEN BY OTHERS

Five Citizens Back Marine On Sighting Flying Saucer

By LARRY BIRGER

Miami Dally News Staff Writer

       Spotting a “flying saucer” is one thing.

       Making your friends believe it is quite another, a Marine flier — who “saw” the first one this young spring season — has discovered.

       But even though most of his buddies are skeptical, Capt. Robert Holland, 32, has received “fan mail” from five citizens who are certain the pilot’s eyes haven’t gone bad.

       Holland several days ago spotted a “strange object” about 25,000 feet up over the ocean east of Fort Lauderdale, and quickly reported it to his superior officers.

Expected Ribbing

       “I’d never have reported it if I didn’t believe there was something in the sky,” he explained, “because I knew I’d be in for a big ribbing.

       “Two pilots have told me that on another occasion they saw what they thought was a saucer but didn’t report it because of the razzing they knew would come.“

       Fortunately, Holland’s wife already believed in flying saucers before her husband did, so he didn’t have any trouble convincing her he’d seen the real thing.

'Something Up There'

       “She really believed in them,“ Holland related.  “But I didn’t until I saw one.  It didn’t look like a saucer, but there certainly was something up there.“

       Holland, in drawing what he saw, described the “strange object“ as a round, silvery-white ball with a golden platform circling the lower half of it.

       “The thing was flying away from me, at double my speed.  I called to the other pilots in the formation, but it was gone before they could spot it,” he said.

Nothing Like It

       In his more than 2,800 flying hours, the captain, who won six battle stars and two Distinguished Flying Crosses in the Korean War, said he’d never seen anything like it.

       “I don’t have the slightest idea what it was. I’d sure like to know, though,” he said.

       “As soon as I hit the ground the ribbing began. Some of the fellows have kept it up, but after I reported it to Washington, most of the razzing stopped.

       “I’ll bet there are quite a few of them out here now that believe I saw one.“

Others Saw It

        Since the incident, five persons in the vicinity of Fort Lauderdale have written Holland saying they saw something in the air the same day.

       “An old lady of 68 wrote me,” the captain said.  “'People thought I was crazy’,” she related, “‘until they saw the story in the paper.  Now they believe me’.”

       A school teacher said that her students saw something, and an elderly man wrote the same thing, Holland added.

       “Maybe we’re not so crazy after all.“

800 Biharis See Flying Saucer

          Calcutta, October 2:   A flying saucer was reported to have been seen recently by about 800 people living in three adjoining villages in Manbhum Bihar.

      Mr. Ijapada Chatterjee, 60-year-old manager of a mica mine, "Kadori", owned by a Calcutta business man, Mr. S. N. Gnose, told The Times of India News Service here today that he was sitting in the verandah of his house on the afternoon of September 15, when he saw a disc-like object descending about 500 yards away.

     Villagers came out from their huts to see the strange sight. Shaped like a saucer, it came down to a height of about 500 feet above the earth making a sound like the whirring of motor-car engine. It hovered for a few minutes; then, suddenly, the two sides seemed to get inflated. This was followed by what looked like smoke billowing from the two ends. Immediately the object soared upwards at an incredible speed.

GREY IN COLOUR

     Mr. Chatterjee said that the object was about 12 feet in diameter and dull grey in colour. At the centre of the side visible to him was a black patch that resembled an aperture. "As it soared upward, there was a tremendous gust of wind which caused doors and windows to rattle," he said.

     Later, the people from the adjoining villages of Borsi and Managalda also said that they had seen the same object.

     A local holy man interpreted the UFO as "something from heaven." The mine also produced berylium for the Atomic Energy Commission.

The mystery of a flying object which pupils and two teachers at Jerome School saw in the sky back in Oct. 22, l954 has never been solved, says Robert C. White who was at that time, chief of the Air Forces "flying saucer division."

     The teachers, Mrs. George Dittmar, of Marysville, and the late Rodney Warrick, of Raymond, and their pupils saw what they described as a "cigar-shaped silver object travelling at a terrific speed, that wafted a blanket of angel hair for at least three miles."

     Within a minute after the substance was touched, it would disappear, leaving a green stain on the fingers of whoever touched it.  This stain did no apparent harm and could be washed off. Warrick said at the time, “I have never seen anything like it or heard of anything like it. It was the most unusual sight I evee saw."

     White, who is winding up a two-year tour as public information officer at this giant U. S. Air Force base 18 miles southeast of Casablanca, will shortly head for a top Pentagon assignment in Defense Department information work.

     Bob White, as he has become known to scores of U. S. and foreign newsmen who have been his guests in this land of mint tea, camels, and palm trees, will be no stranger to Washington.

     From 1953 to 1956, when flying saucers first sailed into the news, White worked in the Pentagon as de facto chief of the "flying saucer division" of the Air Force’s central information services.

     This was no hush-hush, top secret research project, as it sounds. It was, however, a job which called for top-level diplomatic skill and the judgment of a King Solomon.  Bob had to painstakingly investigate all reports of flying saucers or “unidentified object” sightings.

Heard Bizarre Tales

     An occasional writer of fiction himself, Bob encountered some saucer stories which, in his words, [missing text].

     The one saucer scare which he never could clear up, Bob says, was the one at Jerome school.

     But White is convinced that there never was a single saucer which was not either a hoax, the figment of imagination or which could not be rationally explained.

     "Its just a matter of getting enough information promptly," he says.

Began Writing in Brazil

     He began his Air Force career during the war in 1941 as an enlisted man and won his pilot's wings in 1944.  While serving in Brazil he began to write.  Several of his short stories have appeared in national magazines since.

     Trying out postwar civilian life, Bob found his taste for unusual places and situations Ieading him from a schoolteacher's job in Toledo, Ohio to four months of writing at Nogales, New Mexico - which he compares with Morocco in the fantastic beauty of its arid, landscape - and finally to a year on an Indian reservation at Pueblo Pintado, N. M.

     At Pueblo Pintado, Bob was a teacher, counselor and all-around sage to the small community.

     Back in the Air Force, he went to Madrid, Spain for a short tour of duty after completing the saucer assignment at the Pentagon.

     Bob met and married his wife Alice, of Livermore, Calif., in 1946.  The Whites have a daughter, Monica, 4, a blue-eyed blond adopted in Germany, whom they hope to take back with them at the end of June.

More 1954 Reports from India and Australia can be found online here:
http://www.noufors.com/the_hindustan_times.html

and here:

http://www.auforn.com/1954.htm