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Here is some data from USAF Project SIGN/Grudge Incident #5 on USAF CHECK-LIST — UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECTS. This form was originally classified Confidential.
(Page 1. Same story in both Edition I and Edition II.)
A more detailed account with drawings may be found in
The Project
1947 Preliminary Report on the 1947 UFO Sighting Wave.
More importantly, the two pilot witnesses, Ed Lewis and Dick Milsaps
worked for SOUTHERN WINGS, a regional aviation magazine, as editor
and writer respectively. One would expect that after this sighting
by two staff members the magazine might have some interesting ufo
accounts.
Project 1947 requests any information visitors might have on
SOUTHERN WINGS or this UFO report.
Reference Officer McDowell's experience while feeding the pigeons, a
newspaper clipping from the Namaino, BC, newspaper which told of a
somewhat similar incident. Here is an account from the Vancouver
(BC) SUN of 3 September, 1947:
Johnson Sees Dark Circular Object In Sky
By DAVE JOHNSON
(Idaho Statesman Aviation Editor)
Boise, July 9 -- AP -- Three days of aerial search
on an assignment to find a flying disc paid off today when for 45 seconds
I watched a circular object dart about in front of a cloud bank.
The object was round. It appeared black,
although as it maneuvered in front of the clouds I saw the sun flash from it
once.
I was flying at 14,000 feet west of Boise, near the
end of my third mission in search of the flying discs which have been
reported over the northwest and elsewhere in the nation.
Frankly, I had given hope of ever seeing one of the
objects. I turned the airplane toward Boise to begin a circular
let-down over Gowen field, and over the nose of the aircraft saw the object.
It was rising sharply and jerkily to the top of
the towering bank of alto cumulus and alto stratus clouds. At
that moment, it was so round in shape that I thought it was a balloon.
Not A Weather Balloon
I opened my radio and called Boise CAA
communications station. The log shows the call was made
at 12:17 p.m. I asked if the weather bureau had just released
a balloon.
The answer was no, that a balloon had not been
released for several hours. With that I snatched my camera out
of the map case and began firing. I held the button down for about
10 seconds, and then looked again.
The object was turning so that it presented
its edge to me. It then appeared as a straight black line.
Then, with the edge still toward me, it shot straight up, rolled over at
the top of this maneuver, and I lost sight of it.
I asked the CAA and the Gowen field control tower
if there were any aircraft in the vicinity. There was a P-51 fighter
plane in the area, but it was behind me. There was a Fairchild
C-82 packet flying over Boise , but I watched it pass beneath me.
Distance Unknown
I saw the circular object east of the city, toward
the Anderson Ranch dam. I do not know how far away it was.
It had the relative size of a quarter.
The clouds against which I saw the object were
forming in the Gamas prairie region about 50 miles east of Boise.
I had flown around them about an hour before.
The base of the clouds was at 13,000 feet.
Their tops must have extended to 18,000 or 20,000 feet.
The object could have been 10 miles away, or 40.
I do not know. If it was a great distance from me, its speed
was incredible. The greater distance an object is from the watcher,
the slower its speed should appear. This circular thing was
maneuvering very swiftly.
The P-51 that was in the area was instructed
to scout the region, and its pilot went there. He landed shortly
after I did to report he had not seen anything.
P-51s Join Search
Patrols of P-51s were ordered into the area to
keep searching until darkness. I had the airplane fueled and
took off again for two more hours of flying in the same area, and then
went over Gwyhee reservoir, where discs had been reported earlier
in the day, but did not see anything more.
I do not know if the pictures will turn out.
They have been flown to San Francisco for processing at the Eastman
plant there, since they are in color and require special handling.
Now, about myself. I have flown 18
hours in the last three days looking for discs. I have chased and
discarded as nothing several flashes I believed I saw in the sky.
Much of my flight today was above 12,500 feet and I may have been
tired from lack of oxygen. But I saw something round.
It appeared black against the clouds. The sun flashed from it once.
It turned its edge toward me and vanished.
He Saw Something
I do not believe I was self-hypnotized into seeing
anything actually not there. I'm in the same spot as Kenneth
Arnold. the man who first reported discs, and Capt. E.J. Smith of
United Airlines, whose entire crew watched circular objects near a
twin-engined transport one evening at dusk.
What I saw was no airplane. It
was moving fast, but I don't know how fast. I don't know
how big it was. If it was scores of miles distant, it was very
large.
Now for the kicker.
When I landed from today's second mission,
three men of the Idaho national guard were waiting for me in the
operations room. They said that they had seen an object
performing similar maneuvers, round and black in appearance,
against the clouds, and that it disappeared "very fast".
It was in the same area where I saw the object.
Their names are Warren Noe and Bob Ayres,
crew chiefs, and Ferm Sabala, national guard photographer.
While I am writing this, in comes William W. Hunt
of Blackfoot who was driving 14 miles east of Boise when he saw an
object from his automobile. He just wanted to tell me about it.
I thanked him.
Dave's Pix Fails To Show 'Flying Saucers'
By DAVE JOHNSON
(Idaho Statesman Aviation Editor)
Boise, July 10 -- AP -- Eastman laboratories
in San Francisco reported today that film sent them by the Idaho
Statesman failed to show any trace of the object I saw and attempted
to photograph during my third aerial search for a flying disc.
The laboratory, speeding the processing on the
motion picture film , had it ready by noon. It as projected before
an audience of three persons. Nothing was apparent in the
screening, and the film was then examined by magnifying glasses.
E.W. Stohr, manager of the laboratory's cine service
division, said that it was doubtful the camera could have caught the object
at the distance attempted.
Getting Technical
The film used was eight millimeter, about the width
of a finger nail. For those interested in the technical side of the
subject, the exposure was F 16 at a speed of 16 frames per second.
The object I saw could have been anywhere from
10 to 15 miles away. Its apparent size to me was that of a
twenty-five cent piece. The picture was made from an
altitude of 14,000 feet. The object was maneuvering against
a background of towering alto cumulus and alto stratus clouds.
I am now in the position of having seen an object
which might have been a flying disc, but without photographic proof
of it. A constant patrol by 190th fighter squadron P-51 fighter
planes from three p.m. until dark yesterday failed to result in sighting
one of the objects which people throughout the nation claim to have
seen.
Saw Something Anyhow
I can only reiterate that I saw something, that
I do not believe I was seeing it through the power of suggestion, and
that what I saw was definitely not an aircraft. It was not a
balloon.
The Statesman assigned me to an
aerial patrol to search for flying discs until I found one or thought I
should give it up. Just before I saw the object, I was
convinced the time had come to give up.
But despite the fact nothing could be seen on
the film, I'm not so sure now about calling off the hunt. I'll
sleep on it a couple of days.
Phone Starts Ringing
Speaking of sleeping, I was snoring away at a
great rate last night when an insistent clamor began to break through,
dispelling great clouds of flying discs whirling through my nightmares.
It was the telephone. It was midnight
here, but only 11 p.m. in Pendleton, Ore., and it was Kenneth
Arnold on the line. He heard about my joining the "I saw the
disc" club and wanted to talk about it. He was paying for the
call, and I propped myself against a bookcase and tried to tell him
what I saw. He hoped the pictures would turn out.
Arnold is the man who first reported to the nation that he saw
flying discs.
Thinking about the pictures, I went back to the hay, and soon was
drenched in perspiration, running away from discs, but not getting
anywhere.
At one a.m., the telephone jumped off the stand
again. I knocked the electric clock off the bed table, dropped
a flashlight -- I dunno why I picked the damned thing up -- and
grabbed for the phone.
This time it was Paramount newsreel man by the
name of Edwards talking. He wanted to buy the film, provided it
showed a disc -- or anything. We yammered about that for a
while, I promised to call him later, hung up, and staggered back to
bed.
He Hadda Theory
An hour later, the telephone went crazy again.
"Hello?" I blubbered.
"Shay, I dowanna bother you thish late, or
ish't early, but I gotta theory."
I gritted my teeth, hung up, turned on the
lights, went into the kitchen, and ate a plate of green apple pie.
I thought I might as well get some nourishment.
Well, that's about the size of it.
Some of my friends are jovial about it. Others are downright
sympathetic. I don't know which I prefer.
Learns Shots Can't Ground Flying Discs
Johnny Johnson, employee of the E. L. Mansure company on the Virginia
Side made a vain attempt to ground the 'flying discs' with his shotgun
Wednesday night when they were sighted by his wife on the Brush Fork road.
Johnson explained that his wife and some friends were on their way
home from church about 10 p. m. when the objects were first sighted. At
that time he was asleep but when his wife awoke him, he grabbed his
shotgun and shot into the sky several times.
However, the only thing that fell was Johnson's hope of capturing one of
the nationally-known curiosities.
He says the discs were saucer-shaped objects and appeared to be a
short distance from the ground.
They flew around for about thirty minutes, stated Johnson, and
after several tries, he admitted defeat and returned to his bed to dream
of such things as pink elephants and flying disks.
Army, FBI Police in Circles
Hoax With Galloping Disc
Admitted By Idaho Youths
Twin Falls, Idaho, July 11, --AP-- Four teen
age boys skimmed a "flying saucer" into this town today and before
the turmoil died down tonight with their admission it was "all a
joke," the FBI, army intelligence and local police spent a dizzy day
trying to figure out their gadget.
The home-made disc, replete with a plexi-glass
dome, radio tubes, burned wires and glistening sides of silver and
gold was discovered in the yard of the T.H. Thompson residence this
morning by Mrs. Fred Easterbrook.
Assistant Police Chief L. D. McCracken withheld
the names of pranksters because they were juveniles and no court
action will be taken against them. He said they admitted the
hoax after he was "tipped" that one of the boys knew something about
the case.
Made In Two Days
The boys aged from 15 to 16 years were quoted
by Mr McCracken as saying that they spent two days making the disc
which measures 30 1/2 inches across.
It resembled two band cymbals put together. However, the disc
looked "real" enough that an FBI agent took
one look, notified his district office in Butte, Mont., and three
army officers came post haste from Fort Douglas, Utah, in a military
plane furnished by the state national guard.
The practical joke started the biggest wave of
speculation over flying discs this town has witnessed since about 30
residents reported 10 days ago they saw the galloping discs swishing
overhead.
Two narrow strips of turf on the Thompson lawn
were torn up as if the disc had ploughed into earth.
Officers Puzzled
Officers were puzzled at first -- until the
hoax was discovered -- how the metal object could have sailed to the
ground through a maze of overhead telephone and power wires.
Mrs. Easterbrook, the Thompson family and
neighbors in reviewing events last night, speculated today that
they heard a "thud" during the night -- probably about 2:30
a.m. But the boys told police they planted the disc about 10
p.m.
A plane load of army officers -- two lieutenant
colonels, two first lieutenants and a civilian -- arrived in a Utah
national guard plane shortly after noon to inspire a new round of
speculation. The army men refused to divulge their names
to newsmen and kept distant from any persistent interviewers.
While speculation was highest, the army group
slipped away from police headquarters with the saucer about the size
of a bicycle wheel -- and whisked back to Salt Lake City.
Shortly after their departure, McCracken announced the whole thing
was a hoax.
The boys told officers they used parts of an
old phonograph, burned out radio tubes and various discarded
electrical parts to manufacture their device.
FBI Releases "Story"
Following the army's departure an FBI agent
came into McCracken's office in the presence of reporters and asked
"have you released the news?"
"What news?" countered McCracken.
"Well," the federal agent said, "the army
intelligence man said you could tell the press that four teen age
boys confessed making the object and throwing it into the yard."
McCracken then related the whole story of the
hoax.
"YEP, THEY'RE REPORTED AGAIN"
Two High Point Pilots Report Seeing One Headed Over State
Associated Press -- High Point, North Carolina, 12 July.
Two pilots flying in a plane at 1000 feet about 10 miles south of
High Point at 7:20 pm on the 11 July saw a "ball of fire,"..."a huge
red object traveling at a rapid rate of speed,....they noticed a
glare to the left of their plane. Glancing to their side they saw a
huge object, round on top with a black band through the center,
flying in a northerly direction at a rapid rate of speed.
"The bottom part of the object was revolving, and periodically a burst
of fire came from underneath as if from some sort of exhaust."
...[the pilot] said when he noticed the object he swung his
small, two-place plane to the left in the direction of the 'thing'
but that before he had travelled far in that direction, the object
passed him and disappeared in a northern direction. The path it was
traveling, he said, indicated that it was headed in the direction of
Winston-Salem on a route leading between High Point and Thomasville,
he added.
'Flying Saucers' Stampede Pigeons
Special to The Vancouver Sun
NANAIMO, Sept. 3--Flying saucers wheeling back into the news
stampeded a flight of pigeons here and sent them racing back to their
coops in fright.
Thomas Naylor, well-known West coast pigeon fancier, reported the
phenomenon Tuesday.
Mr. Naylor swears he saw one the whirling discs scatter his
Birmingham rollers, which were flying at great height.
No Air Warning
System in U.S.WASHINGTON, Nov 13.–(AP)
–Dr Vannevar Bush, scientist, disclosed
today that the United States has no system operating to warn
of a sudden air attack.
He told a news conference that a study of the
whole subject of "early warning" radar nets is being
considered by committee of his research and development board,
a unit of the national military establishment. The committees
are exploring the relationship of civilian airline navigation
aids within the country to the existence, either in peacetime
or wartime, of a radar warning network.
Mystery Of 'Flying
Discs' Unsolved
Six months after the first "flying disc"
report the elusive "aircraft" are as much a mystery as
ever – to civilians at least.
There was some indication that the army air forces, which made
an exhaustive study of the various reports, knew more of the
objects than it would divulge.
Dave Johnson, Boise, Ida., Statesman
aviation editor, recently wrote:
The air material command at Wright Field,
where the air force develops its top-secret weapons, said Sunday,
approximately six months after reports of flying discs first
swept the nation, that it still doesn't know the answer to
the saucers.
A spokesman for the military experimental
center near Dayton, Ohio, told The Statesman by
telephone that the air material command "knows of nothing by
which flying discs could be attributed."
Military Still Interested
However the spokesman said military authorities
are still interested in the discs, and Wright field will still
make prompt investigation of any "tangible evidence"
concerning them.
The spokesman said that the air force is not
conducting experiments with any objects that would resemble
flying discs.
In response to a question suggesting that he
might be attempted to keep from the public any information
about a "secret weapon resembling flying discs or being
flying discs" the spokesman said.
"I believe the air force is entirely
honest about this. I don't believe the air force is playing
innocent about it."
FBI Bows Out of Picture
It has been learned, meanwhile, that the
federal bureau of investigation, which conducted extensive
investigation into the flying discs and collected statements
from persons who said they had seen the objects, has turned
back to the military all further work along that line.
There has been no official explanation from
the FBI as to why this was done.
In response to a request from The
Statesman for access to files containing the results
of the Fourth Air Force's investigation of flying discs,
Brig. Gen. Ned Schramm of Hamilton field, Calif., commanding
officer of the Fourth wrote:
"I am bound by the directive from
higher headquarters not to release the information obtained
through our interest in the flying discs."
Feels Files Uninformative
Although he said he was not permitted to
release the information, Schramm added in the same
communication that "I feel our files would not
contain anything that is not already generally known
to the public."
A list of eight questions concerning the
source of the discs (providing discs existed) was submitted
by The Statesman to headquarters of the air defense
command at Mitchell Field, New York.
The air defense command replied that "due
to lack of complete details your query has been referred to
the air force's headquarters in Washington for reply."
That was on Nov 20. There has been no
reply forthcoming.
Believed Story Had Basis
Previously, The Statesman had been
informed by an intelligence officer of one of the air force
divisions under instructions "to run down the discs,"
that he, personally, was "convinced" something out
of the ordinary had been flying over the U.S. continent,
but that he could not speak thus for official quotation.
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