Visible on Radar Screen, Flying Saucers Are Real

WASHINGTON (AP) - The United States Air Force today investigated reports that several "flying saucers" been spotted by radar visually in its own back yard on the outskirts of the country's capital.

Not only were unidentified objects seen on radar - indicating actual substance instead of mere light - but two airline pilots and a reporter saw eerie lights fitting the general description of flying saucers the same night.

Officials could not immediately agree on whether this was the first time radar has picked up flying saucers. All agreed it was unusual.

The objects also were different from the average reported saucer in that they travelled at a relatively slow speed, as well as later disclosing the customary burst that far outspeeds normal planes.

One thing was certain: A thorough investigation is being made by the air technical intelligence centre, Wright-Patterson air force base, Dayton, Ohio, which has been set up to look into flying saucer reports.

The saucers over the capital were reported late Monday, about 36 hours after the incident actually occurred.

This is the story as pieced together from air force reports, persons involved, and other sources:

An operator at Washington National Airport spotted eight unidentified images on one of his radars. The images were going probably 100 to 130 miles per hour. That was around midnight.

Capt. S. C. Pierman of Detroit, piloting Capital Airlines flight 807, soon reported seeing seven objects between Washington and Martinsburg, W.Va. He said they changed pace, sometimes moving at tremendous speed, at other times hanging almost motionless.

Another airliner, Capital-National Airlines flight 610, also reported seeing a light following it from Herndon, Va., to within four miles of Washington.

Saul Pett, an Associated Press reporter, said he saw a "flying saucer" that same night near River Edge, N.J., outside of New York. It was orange-colored, round, moved swiftly and soundlessly, and he did not think it could have been a plane, balloon, or meteor.

At Cleveland, a control tower operator said today "golden lights" have been sighted over Cleveland, and on one occasion he sent an airliner to look for something that appeared on a radar screen.

George Beers, senior operator on the midnight shift of the control tower at Cleveland Hopkins Airport, said "one night six of us watched from the darkened tower room while a light hovered north of the field. We don't know what it was but all six of us saw it."

"Another time I personally saw a light making a circular pattern over or nearby Elyria. I picked it up on the radar screen and watched it."

"I sent an incoming airliner over to take a look and the thing disappeared from the screen."

Kirkland Lake, Ontario, NORTHERN DAILY NEWS, 28 July 1952, page 1

U.S. Jet Fighters Hunting 'Saucers'

WASHINGTON (AP) - Radar - which normally doesn't show something that isn't there - has picked up "flying saucers" near here for the second time within a week.

Jet fighter pilots searched the skies Saturday night and early yesterday without directly contacting anything during the six hours that four to 12 unidentified objects intermittently appeared on radar screens at Washington National Airport and nearby Andrews air force base.

One pilot said he saw four lights approximately 10 miles away and slightly above him, but they disappeared before he could overtake them. Later, the same pilot said, he saw "a steady white light" five miles away that vanished in about a minute.

So far as could be determined, this was the first time jets have been sent on the trail of such sky ghosts.

Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, DAILY STAR, 28 July 1952, Page 1

Air Force Jet Aircraft Scour Sky For 'Saucers' picked Up on U.S. Radar

WASHINGTON (AP) - Radar - which normally doesn't show something that isn't there - has picked up "flying saucers" near here for the second time within a week.

Jet fighter pilots searched the skies Saturday night and early yesterday without directly contacting anything during the six hours that four to 12 unidentified objects intermittently appeared on radar screens at Washington National Airport and nearby Andrews air force base.

One pilot said he saw four lights approximately 10 miles away and slightly above him but they disappeared before he could overtake them. Later, the same pilot said, he saw "a steady white light" five miles away that vanished in about a minute.

So far as could be determined, this was the first time jets have been sent on the trail of such sky ghosts.

Officials carefully avoided mentioning "flying saucers," just as they did when radar picked up seven or eight unidentified objects near Washington last Monday. But the U.S. Air Force was expected to add the report to its long list of saucer sightings, which officials say are coming in faster than at any time since the initial flurry in 1947.

An air force spokesman said all necessary steps are being taken to evaluate the newest phenomenon.

Radar normally does not register anything without substance - such as light. But it can pick up such things as a bird in flight or a cloud formation. And one expert said radar is not infallible.

RADAR SPOTS 12 OBJECTS - ALL INVISIBLE

WASHINGTON (AP) - Radar showed the air over Washington was full of flying objects early Tuesday but an airliner directed to one of the radar sightings could not find a thing.

The Civil Aeronautics Administration radar at Washington National Airport, which reported scores of sightings from 2:30 to 6 a.m. EDT., refrained from transmitting its findings to the air force at nearby Andrews Field because "no visual sightings were made."

The air force said its Andrews Field radar showed nothing.

Meanwhile, the Air Research and Development Command is continuing its upper-air research studies with a new type camera used in determining the source of light from luminous bodies.

A C.A.A. spokesman said the latest sightings showed as many as 12 unidentified objects on the radar screen at one time.

Sudbury, Ontario, DAILY STAR, 31 July 1952, page 10

Gives Full Details Of 6 Hours Work Tracking 'Saucers'
By BARRY G. BARNES

WASHINGTON (NEA) - Shortly after midnight on July 19, Ed Nugent called me over to the radar scope and laughingly said:

"Here's a fleet of flying saucers for you."

As it turns out now, Ed could very well have been stating an absolute fact.

I am a senior air route traffic controller for the Civil Aeronautics Administration and was in charge of the air route traffic control centre that particular night at National Airport. Briefly, part of our job is to constantly monitor the skies around the nation's capital with the electronic eye of radar for purposes of controlling air traffic.

Our shift had been on duty about 40 minutes. Eight men were on this particular shift. It was a normal night for both flying and weather. The sky was cloudless, no storms were approaching. Air traffic was light, as usual for that period. I think those facts are important in connection with what came later.

The "things" which caused Ed to call me over to the scope were seven pips clustered together irregularly in one corner. The scope is 24 inches in diameter and the pips show up as pale violet spots. Ordinarily they represent aircraft in the air. The radar we were using scans a 70-mile radius.

Not Aircraft

The seven pips indicated that the objects or whatever they were, were in the air over an area about nine miles in diameter, 15 miles south-southwest of Washington. We knew immediately that a very strange situation existed. First, from all the information we had at hand, we knew that the spots were not aircraft - at least not friendly aircraft.

That left three possibilities, enemy aircraft, some unexplained flying objects or something wrong with the radar. We tracked the seven pips for about five minutes and quickly determined that they were moving between 100 and 130 miles per hour while we could observe them.

But their movements were completely radical compared to those of ordinary aircraft. They followed no set course, were not in any formation, and we only seemed to be able to track them for about three miles at a time.

The individual pip would seem to disappear from the scope at intervals. Later I realized that if these objects had made any sudden burst of extremely high speed, that would account for them disappearing from the scope temporarily. Our radar is only designed to track known types of aircraft or objects in the air at speeds known to all of us.

Findings Confirmed

After five minutes of watching the strange pips, I asked Jim Copeland and Jim Ritchey, two experienced radar controllers, to check our observations. They confirmed our findings. Then I called the airport control tower to see what the radar showed there. The radar operator verified the same thing instantly.

At this time I notified the air force of our observation. This is a regular procedure but some parts of it are secret and I am not at liberty to explain it in detail. But we kept the air force informed of subsequent observations which continued for approximately the next six hours, until after daylight when we could no longer distinguish the objects from other aircraft.

Early Sunday morning is an especially busy time for both private flying and military reserve flying.

Before notifying the air force of our findings, our technicians had carefully checked the equipment to make certain that it was operating perfectly.

These are the important events of the next six hours:

During the first hour the objects had moved over all sectors of our scope. That meant that they had been over the restricted areas of Washington, including the White House and Capital.

Pilot Joins Probe

At the first opportunity Ritchey contacted Capital Airline pilot Captain S. C. Pierman, a veteran of 17 years of flying. Shortly after taking off, Ritchey asked Pierman to look for the objects we were watching on the scope. He agreed to do this.

All of a sudden his voice came over the radio, which we could all hear, with the words:

"There's one, and there it goes."

He described it as just a bright light, moving faster than a shooting star at times.

His subsequent descriptions of the movements of the objects coincided with the position of our pips at all times while in our range.

During the next 14 minutes he reported that he saw six such lights. He said they had no tail, no recognizable shape and were just bright lights in the dark sky.

Each sighting coincided with a pip we could see near his plane. When he reported that the light streaked off at high speed, it disappeared on our scope, for the apparent reason I cited.

While he was giving us reports of his sightings, he was on a course from Herndon, Va., to Martinsburg, W. Va.

Some of the other pilots we contacted reported that they were unable to see the objects. I had the distinct feeling that some of them were just unwilling to discuss the subject over the radio.

However, one other commercial pilot did flatly confirm seeing a light off his left wing, which we saw as a pip on the scope. He was coming in for his landing and the tower scope reported the same radar sighting. The light disappeared on our scope and from his view about four miles before he touched his wheels down.

Active Near Planes

During the whole period of observation we could detect no pattern to the movement of these objects. However, they did seem to become most active around the planes we saw on the scope. We did not see the pips in any recognizable formation at any time.

The radar we were using does not show altitude and it is faintly possible that the objects could have been in a vertical formation without our recognizing it.

At one time toward daybreak we counted 10 objects over Andrews Field, just outside of Washington. We sighted seven originally. Most of the time we could count eight of them.

The only recognizable behavior pattern which occurred to me from watching the pips was that they acted like a bunch of small kids out playing. It was helter skelter, as if directed by some innate curiosity. At times they moved as a group or cluster. Other times as individuals over widely scattered areas.

Other than some information in connection with our communications with the air force, which is classified, the above is a complete factual description of the important events which took place during those six hours. These facts I have set forth in my official report to CAA.

Speaking personally, and not officially for CAA, I would like to make these additional comments:

Equipment Perfect

Radar is strictly an electronics device. It has no imagination. It reports only what it "sees." The equipment was in perfect operating order during that period.

There is no other conclusion I can reach but that for six hours on the morning of the 20th of July there were at least 10 unidentifiable objects moving above Washington. They were not ordinary aircraft. I could tell that by their movements on the scope.

I can safely deduce that they performed gyrations which no known aircraft could perform. By this I mean that our scope showed that they could make right angle turns and complete reversals of flight.

Nor in my opinion could any natural phenomena such as shooting stars, electrical disturbances or clouds, account for these spots on our radar.

Exactly what they are? I don't know. You now know as much about them as I do. And your guess is as good as mine.

These "Saucers" Can't Be Brushed Off
_______

AIRLINE PILOTS SEE THEM AND RADAR CONFIRMS IT ALL
Part One

By DOUGLAS LARSEN
NEA Staff Correspondent

WASHINGTON (NEA) - The flying saucers are back. And their return to the headlines has been the result of a startling new development:

For the first time, numerous and simultaneous visual sightings have been positively confirmed by official Civil Aeronautics Administration radar observations. This has happened twice under almost identical circumstances on two successive Saturday nights.

Up until now, official and unofficial saucer debunkers have produced credible theories to explain away reports of visual sightings as natural phenomena. They have done the same for individual radar sighting reports.

But none of this reasoning satisfactorily explains away visual sightings absolutely confirmed by radar.

This remarkable new chapter in the weird flying saucer story was written in the skies over Washington for six hours before dawn on Sunday, July 20. and again one week later. The details and implications of what took place are now confirmed by CAA and the Air Force.

Since then, the Air Force has quietly said it was closing to the press its special section at Wright Field in Dayton, O., which has been studying flying saucer reports. In addition, all information concerning that group's personnel, activities and budget is now strictly classified.

Full details of what happened the first night are being revealed for the first time by NEA Service.

These are the facts:

Beginning shortly after midnight, and continuing until dawn, eight experienced CAA radar operators and technicians, manning the air route traffic control center in hanger No. 6 at National Airport, tracked from seven to ten unidentifiable and mysterious objects performing strange gyrations in the skies in a 30-mile radius above Washington.

Harry G. Barnes, who has been with CAA for nine years, mostly in radar work, was in charge of the group. After making sure that the objects were not known aircraft and that the radar was operating perfectly, he checked his findings with the radar operators in the control tower. They instantly confirmed what he saw, and continued to do so. The two radars are completely separate units.

Later, the radar at nearby Andrews Air Force base also confirmed the sightings.

When the center radar showed one of the unidentified objects in a low position in the northwest sky, the operators in the tower were able to see it. One of them, Howard Cocklin, who has been with CAA for five years, describes it:

"It was a good-sized light, yellow to orange in color. At first, it looked like a great big star. Then it began to move in a manner which made you realize it couldn't be a star. There was no unusual high speed about its movements and at times, it seemed to hover. We could see it moving around like that for about 15 minutes. It just disappeared into the northwest sky."

There are no windows in the center Barnes was operating. None of the eight men could leave to go outside to try to check their own radar sightings visually.

As is normal at that time, air traffic was very light. But at the first opportunity, an operator in Barnes' office contacted Capital Airlines pilot Capt. S. C. Pierman shortly after he took off and asked him to look for the objects.

For about 14 minutes, Pierman was in direct, two-way communication with Barnes. While he was within radar range, Pierman was able to see six objects which showed up on the path indicated by the center's radar. Pierman's sightings reported to Barnes coincided exactly with the radar sightings, Barnes reports.

Pierman is a 17-year veteran of commercial flying and is described by Capital Airlines officials as very level-headed and "taciturn." After he landed in Detroit, Pierman had this to say about the sightings:

"In my years of flying, I've seen a lot of falling or shooting stars - whatever you call them - but these were much faster than anything like that I've ever seen. They were about the same size as the brighter stars. And they were much higher than our 6000-foot altitude. I couldn't estimate the speed accurately. Please remember I didn't speak of them as flying saucers - only very fast moving lights."

Charles Wheaton, first officer on the flight with Pierman, a veteran of 12 years of flying confirms Pierman's sightings and adds:

"Before the other night, I always discounted alleged flying saucers as atmospheric phenomenon. But now I feel I have actually seen some active strange objects which defy explanation."

Another Capital Airlines pilot also reported seeing a light off his wing, which showed up in that position on the radar scope. Other pilots in the air that night, Barnes reveals, appeared to be reluctant to discuss the subject with him on the radio.

The mystery of the flying saucers had its start on June 24, 1947, when a Boise, Idaho, businessman, Kenneth Arnold, flew his private plane over the jagged peaks of Washington's Mt. Rainier. When he landed, he breathlessly reported having seen "a chain of nine saucer-like objects playing tag at fantastic speeds."

Since then, there have been thousands of sightings all over the world, many obviously reported by crackpots. But a substantial number have been so strange ands reliably described, even the Air Force has had to admit that they were unexplainable.

Many books have been written on the subject. Hundreds of magazine articles have treated all aspects of the question. However, a review of most of what has been written and officially reported on the subject points up several unique aspects to the recent Washington sightings:

It's the first time that three separate radar sets have reported identical sightings.

It's the first time they have remained under observation in one area for so long a time.

It's the first time so many completely responsible men, including radar operators and pilots, all observed and reported the same thing at the same time, with all reports checking so accurately.

Both nights, there were scores of unofficial stories of persons in the area who claim to have seen one or more strange lights moving about in the sky.

Saul Pett, a news service reporter in River Edge, N.J., wrote a detailed story on one that he saw just before seven objects appeared on the CAA radar screen at National Airport. He said:

"It looked like a sphere, so deeply orange colored that it appeared almost the shade of rust. It was silent as death. It was moving too fast and evenly to be a balloon. I saw a flying saucer and you can't convince me that there is no such animal."

He said it disappeared in the direction of Washington.

Air Force Not Laughing At "Saucers" Any More
Part Two

By DOUGLAS LARSEN of NEA Service

The Air Force has the responsibility of finding out what there is to the saucer reports. After two years' study, it finally reported in 1950:

"All evidence and analyses indicate that the reports of unidentified flying objects are the result of: (1) Misinterpretation of various conventional objects; (2) a mild form of mass hysteria; (3) or hoaxes."

Lt. Col. DeWitt R. Searles, an Air Force press officer, was given the job of officially denying the existence of saucers from then on. His file on the subject was labeled "death of the saucers."

On June 17 of this year, however, Col. Searles was forced to reveal a slight alteration in the Air Force stand on saucers. He issued a statement which said:

"No concrete evidence has yet reached us to either prove or disapprove the existence of the so-called flying saucers. However, there remain a number of sightings which have not been satisfactorily explained. As long as this is true, the Air Force will continue to investigate flying saucers reports."

Air Force reaction to the recent Washington sightings has been curious, and its reports have been conflicting. A few minutes after CAA confirmed its sightings on the 20th, it reported the fact to the Air Force in a normal but classified procedure.

For the next several days, the Air Force claimed that its radar at nearby Andrews Air Force base did not confirm the findings of the CAA radar. Later, however, the Air Force reversed itself and admitted that the Andrews radar did pick up the objects, four hours after the first CAA report.

On July 20 then, the strange objects appeared on three separate radar sets for two hours. A week later, the Air Force admitted that its Andrews radar had practically identical sightings to the other two all evening.

The first night, no fighter planes went aloft to investigate the sightings. A week later, however, the Air Force sent up jets to try to get a closer look at the objects.

The only report from the fighter pilots was that they saw strange lights, moving too fast for the 600 mph jets to intercept.

Another conflicting Air Force report concerns a saucer expert from the now barricaded unit at Dayton, Capt. E. J. Ruppelt. He "happened" to be in town at the time. An AF spokesman said that he would interview all of the persons involved in the sightings.

A week later, however, Capt. Ruppelt had left town and had not contacted a single one of the CAA persons involved. Col. Searles reported that he had taken a copy of Barnes' brief summary report in long hand over the telephone next day. That constitutes the Air Force's only official recognition of the events of the 20th. The AF however, now promises to make a thorough investigation of the events of both nights.

In the unofficial category of saucer study is the theory of Dr. Donald H. Menzel, a Harvard professor of astrophysics. It seems to have had most effect in debunking saucer reports among the experts.

He says visual sightings could be ordinary lights which are reflected from warm layers of air. And he says radar can produce a false pip in the same way.

According to several experts in Washington, who asked not to be quoted, Menzel's theory does not account for the simultaneous visual and radar sightings.

Further, it isn't likely that any warm layer of reflecting air would have remained constant for so long a period over Washington that night.

Coincidental with the recent Washington sightings and increased reports of saucer sightings all over the U.S. this summer, has been increased rumors around the Pentagon and from other government agencies attempting to explain saucers. And they appear to be coming from more reliable sources, although these sources continue to refuse to let themselves be identified.

Most persistent rumor is that Boeing Airplane Co. in Seattle, Wash., is either making flying saucers or has been in charge of the engineering of the project. The rumor goes that very small parts of the saucers are being made by widely scattered subcontractors and that the finished items are being assembled at some remote site.

A Boeing spokesman in Seattle flatly denies this rumor, as does the Air Force.

The descriptions of the saucers which have been sighted indicates that some radically new source of power would be needed to make the objects move as fast as they did.

If this is true, it doesn't make sense that the Air Force would be expending such a tremendous effort to improve its present jet engines, which would be made completely obsolete by the new source of power. Nor would the Air Force be likely to have its saucers practice maneuvers early Sunday morning around Washington.

In the weirder category of rumors is the one that the saucers are either Russian- built or from another planet, and that several of them have crashed and have been picked up by the Air Force. It goes on to theorize that the Air Force has been able to repair some of them and make them operate, and at the same time, is trying to build some of its own just like them.

This would account for the Air Force being extremely interested in some sightings, and apparently very disinterested in others.

Col. Searles, who has had more experience in denying saucer rumors than anyone in the Pentagon, just laughs at this idea.

But nobody is really laughing at the strange objects tracked by radar over the nation's capital.

KOREA, JAPAN JUMP INTO ACT, SEE SKY SAUCERS

SEOUL - (AP) - Those "flying saucers" have popped up in Korea and Japan.

A Canadian destroyer recently reported sighting two such objects and recorded them on its radar, it was learned here today.

A navy report said 40 officers and crew members of the destroyer Crusader saw the "saucers" the night of July 10. All had the familiar qualities of the puzzling flying discs.

The report, addressed to the commanders of the far east naval forces and the fifth Air Force, said the ship's radar registered "fixes" on the objects. It placed them two miles high and seven miles away. The report said the objects disappeared before dawn.

A second report, a day or two later, dismissed the radar find as the planet Jupiter. One officer commented, however: "Jupiter doesn't come in pairs and it is several million miles out of range of our radar."

Sudbury, Ontario, DAILY STAR, 2 August 1952, page 2

Seen by Radar Observers, 'Saucers' Hard to Debunk
By DOUG LARSEN

WASHINGTON (NEA) - The flying saucers are back.

And their return to the headlines has been the result of a startling new development:

For the first time, numerous and simultaneous visual sightings have been positively confirmed by official U.S. Civil Aeronautics Administration radar observations. This has happened twice under almost identical circumstances on two successive Saturday nights.

Up until now official and unofficial saucer debunkers have produced credible theories to explain away reports of visual sightings as natural phenomena. They have done the same for individual radar sighting reports.

But none of this reasoning satisfactorily explains away visual sightings absolutely confirmed by radar.

This remarkable new chapter in the weird flying saucer story was written in the skies over Washington for six hours before dawn on Sunday, July 20,and again one week later. The details and implications of what took place are now confirmed by CAA and the air force.

Since then the air force has quietly said it was closing to the press its special section at Wright Field in Dayton, O., which has been studying flying saucer reports. In addition, all information concerning that group's personnel, activities and budget is now strictly classified.

First Full Details

Full details of what happened the first night are being revealed here for the first time.

These Are the Facts:

Beginning shortly after midnight, and continuing until dawn, eight experienced CAA radar operators and technicians, manning the air route traffic control center in hangar No. 6 at National Airport, tracked from seven to ten unidentifiable and mysterious objects in the skies in a 30-mile radius above Washington.

Harry G. Barnes, who has been with CAA for nine years, mostly in radar work, was in charge of the group. After making sure that the objects were not known aircraft and that the radar was operating perfectly, he checked his findings with the radar operators in the control tower. They instantly confirmed what he saw, and continued to do so. The two radars are completely separate units.

Later the radar at nearby Andrews air force base also confirmed the sightings.

When the centre radar showed one of the unidentified objects in a low position in the northwest sky, the operators in the tower were able to see it. One of them, Howard Cocklin, who has been with CAA for five years, describes it:

"Couldn't be Star"

"It was a good-sized light, yellow to orange in color. At first it looked like a great big star. Then it began to move in a manner which made you realize it couldn't be a star. There was no unusual high speed about its movements and at times it seemed to hover. We could see it moving around like that for about 15 minutes. It just disappeared into the north-west sky."

There are no windows in the centre Barnes was operating. None of the eight men could leave to go outside to try to check their own radar sightings visually.

As is normal at that time air traffic was very light. But at the first opportunity an operator in Barnes' office contacted Capital Airlines pilot S. C. Pierman shortly after he took off and asked him to look for the objects.

For about 14 minutes, Pierman was in direct, two-way communication with Barnes. While he was within radar range, Pierman was able to see six objects which showed up on the path indicated by the centre's radar. Pierman's sightings reported to Barnes coincided exactly with the radar sightings, Barnes reports.

Pierman is a 17-year veteran of commercial flying and is described by Capital Airlines officials as very level-headed and "taciturn." After he landed in Detroit Pierman had this to say about the sightings:

Fast-Moving Lights

"In my years of flying I've seen a lot of falling or shooting stars - whatever you call them - but these were much faster than anything like that I've ever seen. They were about the same size as the brighter stars. And they were much higher than our 6000-foot altitude. I couldn't estimate the speed accurately. Please remember I didn't speak of them as flying saucers - only very fast moving lights."

Charles Wheaton, first officer on the flight with Pierman, a veteran of 12 years of flying confirms Pierman's sightings and adds:

"Before the other night, I always discounted alleged flying saucers as atmospheric phenomena. But now I feel I have actually seen some active strange objects which defy explanation."

Another Capital Airlines pilot also reported seeing a light off his wing, which showed up in that position on the radar scope. Other pilots in the air that night, Barnes reveals, appeared to be reluctant to discuss the subject with him on the radio.

The mystery of the flying saucers had its start on June 24, 1947, when a Boise, Idaho, businessman, Kenneth Arnold, flew his private plane over the jagged peaks of Washington's Mt. Rainier. When he landed, he breathlessly reported having seen "a chain of nine saucer-like objects playing tag at fantastic speeds."

Since then there have been thousands of sightings all over the world, many obviously reported by crackpots. But a substantial number have been so strange and reliably described, even the air force has had to admit that they were unexplainable.

Many books have been written on the subject. Hundreds of magazine articles have treated all aspects of the question. However, a review of most of what has been written and officially reported on the subject points up several unique aspects to the recent Washington sightings:

It's the first time that three separate radar sets have reported identical sightings.

It's the first time they have remained under observation in one area for so long a time.

It's the first time so many completely responsible men, including radar operators and pilots all observed and reported the same thing at the same time, with all reports checking so accurately.

Both nights there were scores of unofficial stories of persons in the area who claim to have seen one or more strange lights moving about in the sky.

Saul Pett, a news service reporter in River Edge, N.J., wrote a detailed story on one that he saw just before seven objects appeared on the CAA radar screen at National Airport. He said:

"It looked like a sphere, so deeply orange colored that it appeared almost the shade of rust. It was silent as death. It was moving too fast and evenly to be a balloon. I saw a flying saucer and you can't convince me that there is no such animal."

'Saucers' Moved Too Fast for U.S. Jets

EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the second of two NEA articles on recent "flying saucer" sightings at Washington, D.C., which were confirmed by radar sightings of unidentified objects in the air near Washington.
______

WASHINGTON (NEA) - The U.S. air force has the responsibility of finding out what there is to the many saucer reports, which have broken out on a large scale once again. After two years' study it finally reported in 1950:

"All evidence and analyses indicate that the reports of unidentified flying objects are the result of:

(1) Misinterpretation of various conventional objects; (2) a mild form of mass hysteria; (3) or hoaxes."

Lt. Col. DeWitt R. Searles, an air force press officer, was given the job of officially denying the existence of saucers from then on. His file on the subject was labeled "death of the saucers."

On June 17 of this year, however, Col. Searles was forced to reveal a slight alteration in the air force stand on saucers. He issued a statement which said:

"No complete evidence has yet reached us to either prove or disprove the existence of the so-called flying saucers. However, there remain a number of sightings which have not been satisfactorily explained. As long as this is true the air force will continue to investigate flying saucers reports."

Air force reaction to the recent Washington sightings has been curious, and its reports have been conflicting. A few minutes after CAA confirmed its sightings of the 20th it reported the fact to the air force in a normal but classified procedure.

For the next several days the air force claimed that its radar at nearby Andrews air force base did not confirm the findings of the CAA radar. Later, however, the air force reversed itself and admitted that the Andrews radar did pick up the objects, four hours after the first CAA report.

On July 20, then, the strange objects appeared on three separate radar sets for two hours. A week later the air force admitted that its Andrews radar had practically identical sightings to the other two all evening.

The first night no fighter planes went aloft to investigate the sightings. A week later, however, the air force sent up jets to try to get a closer look at the objects. The only report from the fighter pilots was that they saw strange lights, moving too fast for the 600 mph jets to intercept.

Another conflicting air force report concerns a saucer expert from the now barricaded unit at Dayton, Capt. E. J. Ruppelt. He "happened" to be in town at the time. An AF spokesman said that he would interview all of the persons involved in the sightings.

A week later, however, Capt. Ruppelt had left town and had not contacted a single one of the CAA persons involved. Col. Searles reported that he had taken a copy of Barnes' brief summary report in long hand over the telephone next day. That constitutes the air force's only official recognition of the events of the 20th. The U.S.A.F., however, now promises to make a thorough investigation of the events of both nights.

In the unofficial category of saucer study is the theory of Dr. Donald H. Menzel, a Harvard professor of astrophysics. It seems to have had most effect in debunking saucer reports among the experts.

He says visual sightings could be ordinary lights which are reflected from warm layers of air. And he says radar can produce a false pip in the same way.

According to several experts in Washington, who asked not to be quoted, Menzel's theory does not account for the simultaneous visual and radar sightings.

Further, it isn't likely that any warm layer of reflecting air would have remained constant for so long a period over Washington that night.

Coincidental with the recent Washington sightings and increased reports of saucer sightings all over the U.S. this summer, has been increased rumors around the Pentagon and from other government agencies attempting to explain saucers. And they appear to be coming from more reliable sources, although these sources continue to refuse to let themselves be identified.

Most persistent rumor is that Boeing Airplane Co. in Seattle, Wash., is either making flying saucers or has been in charge of the engineering of the project. The rumor goes that very small parts of the saucers are being made by widely scattered subcontractors and that the finished items are being assembled at some remote site.

A Boeing spokesman in Seattle flatly denies this rumor, as does the air force.

The descriptions of the saucers which have been sighted indicates that some radically new source of power would be needed to make the objects move as fast as they did.

If this were true it doesn't make sense that the air force would be expending such a tremendous effort to improve its present jet engines, which would be made completely obsolete by the new source of power. Nor would the air force be likely to have its saucers practice manoeuvres early Sunday morning around Washington.

In the weirder category of rumors is the one that the saucers are either Russian-built or from another planet and that several of them have crashed and have been picked up by the air force. It goes on to theorize that the air force has been able to repair some of them and make them operate and at the same time is trying to build some of its own just like them.

This would account for the air force being extremely interested in some sightings, and apparently very disinterested in others.

Col. Searles, who has had more experience in denying saucer rumors than anyone in the Pentagon, just laughs at this idea.

Can't See Them
"FLYING SAUCER" FLEET FILLS WASHINGTON SKY

WASHINGTON (AP) - The heaviest concentration of unidentified objects yet observed in the skies here - a veritable fleet of "flying saucers" - moved across radar screens early today.

A spokesman at Andrews air force base said the blips were observed late last night, and that early today they were still moving slowly and steadily across the screens.

Planes were directed to intercept the objects, but reported they were unable to see anything.

See Mysterious Flying Objects In Air Over Northern Japan

U.S. AIR BASE, Japan (AP) - Mysterious flying objects - "rotating clusters of red, white and green lights" - have been sighted over northern Japan by United States airmen, the air force disclosed today.

Intelligence reports placed the sightings close to Russian territory in the Kurile islands and Sakhalin. They added:

"There are too many indications of the presence of something . . . to be considered an observation of nothing." And they discounted the possibility the sighted objects were mere "reflections of light."

Col. Curtis R. Low, commander of the northern division of the Japanese air defence force, said the flying clusters were seen by fighter pilots and ground personnel and were tracked on radar.

The reports were similar to those describing "flying saucers" in the U.S. One said the lights appeared to hang motionless at times, and at other times disappeared with blinding speed.

Sightings were made by many persons at many points over northern Japan last Dec. 29. On Jan. 9, a rotating cluster was spotted by two fighter pilots and was tracked on radar.

The sightings occurred over the frozen, ice-locked reaches of northern Japan, a land tense with continued air harassment by near-flying Russian fighter planes.

Russian territory in the Kurile islands is only 4½ miles northeast of Hokkaido, Japan's northernmost island. The Russian island of Sakhalin is only 30 miles north of Hokkaido. The reds have dozens of air bases on Sakhalin and the Kuriles.

The clusters were seen Dec. 29 by two crew members of an F-94 interceptor for about 40 minutes, by two crew members of a B-26 bomber for five to seven minutes, and by five different airmen on the ground, intelligence said. They were also seen by a pilot who tried to get close to one.

The five ground observers said the objects "were circular ferris wheel disc types with rotational red, green, and white lights."

Intelligence said the ground observers watched the objects "for varying times, ranging from 30 minutes to three hours."

North Bay, Ontario, DAILY NUGGET, 20 April 1953, Page 1

Watch Saucer Over Red Lines

SEOUL (AP) - Four U.S. Army airmen Sunday reported seeing a small "white, rounded, delta-shaped object" flying at 60 to 80 miles an hour over Communist territory on the Korean western front.

An official intelligence report said the sighting was made north of Pork Chop and Old Baldy hills where heavy fighting has raged the last few days.

OTHERS OBSERVED

An officer with a front-line division who asked not to be identified by name told The Associated Press that other luminous objects, travelling at super-sonic speeds of 800 miles per hour, had been observed in the Baldy-Pork Chop area and tracked on radar - also within the last few days.

However, the official G-2 report made no mention of these other incidents.

The release said:

"At approximately 1 p.m. today (Sunday) aerial observers in two separate planes flying routine reconnaissance missions, observed a white, rounded, delta-shaped object."

"It was estimated to be five to seven feet in diameter. The observers had no idea of its depth or thickness."

"It was travelling between 60 and 80 miles per hour in a vibrating motion. The course of flight was north northeast to south southwest over enemy territory."

U.K. RADAR TRACKS GIGANTIC SKY BALL
_______

Object Seen By 2 Pilots

LONDON (AP) - A huge glowing object described by observers as metallic has been tracked by radar high over England twice this month, the war office disclosed Wednesday night.

Official reports of the sightings were made by members of two army radar crews who estimated the height of the object as 60,000 feet.

The first report came from Sgt. Harry Waller and three other witnesses who were making a test of a radar set for the 256th heavy anti-aircraft regiment in southeast London Nov. 3.

The report said the object was kept in sight for 40 minutes. Then it moved out of range.

"There was a strong echo on the screen, so I looked through the telescope and there it was, just like a tennis ball," Waller told reporters. "It was dead white and completely circular. I couldn't see it with the naked eye."

"The sky that day was very clear and blue with only a few high clouds. The object was stationary for about 15 minutes. Then it started moving off."

NOT A BALLOON

"It couldn't have been a balloon. To get the kind of signal we got, it must have been metallic. It must have been huge, because the signal was three or four times as large as that received from the biggest airliner."

A similar report was made Nov. 3 by FO. T. S. Johnson and FO. C. H. Smythe of the RAF. They were at 20,000 feet in a jet plane, they said, when the object passed far overhead at "tremendous speed."

An air ministry spokesman said every such report is investigated "but we are not prepared to comment on individual reports."

5 PER CENT PUZZLERS

"About 95 per cent are found to be due to natural phenomena," he added. "About the others, the experts can reach no conclusions."

Over London, the object was practically motionless, the war office said, and had an altitude of 61,000 feet. Its slowness excludes a plane and its height, nearly 11½ miles, excludes a helicopter.

'Greenish-Blue Thing' Puts Radar on Alert

OTTAWA (CP) - RCAF radar Friday night was watching for a "thing" after a "greenish-blue" light was spotted over Lake Ontario by a Trans-Canada Air Lines flight.

The pilot and co-pilot of TCA Flight 402, bound from New York to Toronto, reported about 9 p.m. that the light illuminated the overcast as it descended slowly.

Similar reports of a "greenish-blue" light came from Smiths Falls, some 40 miles south of here.

Radar Picks Up Mystery Object Flying Over Italy

ROME (Reuters) - The Italian Air Force announced today that one of its radar stations had tracked for 39 minutes a big cigar-shaped object seen by thousands of Romans Friday night.

The air force said the object was shaped like a cigar cut in two, with a big antenna amidships. A trail of luminous smoke poured from the pointed rear.

The object flew slowly at first, then darted off at great speed and disappeared. It flew at 3,600 feet along a 15-mile stretch of coast west of the capital.

Track Seven Objects Flying over Superior

HOUGHTON (UPI) - Personnel at the U.S. Air Force radar base on the Keweenaw Peninsula today reported "solid radar contact" with 7 to 10 unidentified flying objects moving in a "V" formation over Lake Superior Wednesday.

The objects were moving out of the southwest and were heading north-northeast at about 9,000 miles per hour, the men said. They were at an altitude of 5,200 to 17,000 feet.

One of the men at the base said three other radar stations - in North Dakota, Minnesota and Luther Air Station in Canada - also reported spotting the objects. He said the Luther Air Station reported electronic jamming of its radar.

Seven other objects were spotted over Duluth and jet interceptors gave chase, he said, but could not maintain the speed of the UFO's and were easily outdistanced.

The radar personnel, Air Force enlisted men, asked that their names not be disclosed.

Radar Technicians in Soviet Union Also Puzzled by Origin of UFO Blips

MOSCOW (AP) - A Soviet scientist says there may really be such things as flying saucers from outer space.

Soviet radar screens have detected unidentified flying objects for 30 years, he says.

But Soviet scientists, like their colleagues in the West, are still puzzled about what such UFOs really are.

The scientist, identified only as F. Zigel, was writing in the current issue of the illustrated Soviet youth magazine Cmena.

He offered five possible explanations for UFOs, including visitors from outer space. He called this alternative "extremely speculative."

Zigel was identified as one of the editors of a book, Inhabited Cosmos, being prepared for publication here. The book will discuss the possibility of living beings in space and efforts to communicate with them.

In his magazine article, Zigel said the Angel Echo a UFO detected by radar, is constantly observed by scientists at the Central Aerological Observatory near Moscow.

GLOBAL SIGHTINGS

Similar observations, he said, have been made in the United States, Australia, India and Japan.

He rejected the idea that birds, insects or plant seeds could cause such reactions on radar screens.

Zigel said there could be no doubt that UFOs exist "but the nature of these objects is still not understandable today."

Then he listed these five possible explanations:

1. Nonsense or invention. He said there was some untruth here, citing reports of people who claimed to have ridden in flying saucers and others who threw hats in the air and then photographed "saucers." But he rejected this alternative as killing the question rather than solving it.

AN ILLUSION?

2. An optical illusion related to the distribution of light in the earth's atmosphere, such as a rainbow. The UFO, he said, is more complicated than that, however.

3. A new secret flying apparatus of one of the military powers on earth. "No one holds this view now," he said.

4. An unknown phenomena of nature, just as radioactivity was unknown until the end of the last century. In this context, ionized particles and charged particles of dust in the atmosphere were given as a possible explanation. But, Zigel said, this does not explain the color or manoeuvrability of UFOs or their appearance in good weather.

5. Space ships from an advanced civilization on another planet. Zigel said the speed of UFOs supports this theory. So does what he called "the fact" that no UFOs were ever reliably reported to have landed.

Radar Station Didn't See UFO

OTTAWA (CP) - The Canadian forces radar station at Sioux Lookout, Ont., did not record any unidentified flying object on the night of Nov. 27, David Groos, parliamentary secretary to Defence Minister Leo Cadieux, said in the Commons Thursday.

He was replying to John Reid (L - Kenora-Rainy River) who said several people in the town saw a strange light in the sky that night.

Radar didn't identify UFO

The Canadian Forces Base, SAGE complex, was asked to assist OPP officers to identify a UFO hovering over Iron Island Thursday night.

The OPP detachments in North Bay and Sturgeon Falls observed the bright white light from about 10 p.m. to 1 a.m., when the light went out.

Capt. E. Philip Ripley, 22nd NORAD Region Control Centre, told The Nugget Friday the SAGE complex did not track a UFO on its radar.

He said this particular sighting, like most others, was a stationary object in a low-lying area. The radar equipment is designed to pick-up relatively slow-flying aircraft above geographical obstructions.

The object could be mistaken for heavy cloud cover or part of the landscape. One-half-inch on a radar screen covers about a ten-mile radius, giving a wide area in which to focus on such a small object. Also adding to the difficulty of tracking is the fact that most of these objects move vertically, out of the radar scope, at a tremendous rate of speed, he said.

Radar base, police see UFO here
By ROB ROWLAND, Star Staff Writer

Unidentified flying objects were sighted over Sudbury and Haileybury early this morning.

At least seven regional police officers, one Ontario Provincial Police officer and the staff at Canadian Forces Station Falconbridge saw the objects. The UFOs were also spotted on the Falconbridge radar screens.

Four people at the radar station at Falconbridge saw the UFOs in the sky and tracked something on radar. But a spokesman for CFS Falconbridge would only say there was no apparent correlation between police sightings and anything that might have appeared on radar.

CONFIRMED

In Ottawa, National Defence Headquarters confirmed that four people at the radar station, alerted by the police, saw three bright circles with two black dots about 6:15 a.m. The objects were photographed by the base staff.

The UFOs picked up on radar were moving upward between 42,000 and 72,000 feet. They were visible at about 30 nautical miles from the station for about 14 minutes. Other objects, too far away to be observed were also seen by the station staff.

First to see the UFOs here were regional constables Bob Whiteside and Alex Keable.

They spotted three objects in the sky about 4:50 a.m. and drove to a vantage point on Logan Ave. in the west of the city. There they saw four objects; the brightest in the eastern part of the sky. One, in the southwest moved at times and seemed to jerk, another in the northeast remained stationary throughout the time the two officers were observing.

The objects were still visible when the two officers went off duty at 7 a.m. By that time, their report said, the sun was coming up and the stars were gone.

Another officer saw an object north of the city moving at a high rate of speed toward the northwest for about a minute.

Cons. John Marsh, on patrol on Highway 17E near Coniston, said in a report the sky was cloudy but he was able to observe lights in the sky toward the southwest. Those objects too, moved in a jerking manner and were pulsating. "It was different from what you would normally call a star," Cons. Marsh said in his report.

Between 5 a.m. and 7:15 a.m. Cons. Gary Chrapchynski and policewoman J. B. Deighton watched an UFO in the west part of the city.

They said they saw an object lighting up the clouds and obtained a pair of binoculars to watch the UFO. Their report said the object was cylindrical and bright. It remained in the sky until after the sun rose and the stars had gone.

The Sudbury provincial police office said it was called by regional police but saw nothing. One officer at the Dowling detachment who wouldn't give his name said he followed a bright object down Highway 144 and Errington St. in the Chelmsford area.

In Haileybury, more than 100 miles to the east on the Ontario-Quebec border, provincial police reported a civilian radio dispatcher, Fred Sauve of New Liskeard, spotted a bright object over Lake Timiskaming, about 5 a.m.

An OPP spokesman said a report was not ready on the sighting but the object was bright, white and larger than a star, according to Mr. Sauve.

UFOs sighted at Haileybury

HAILEYBURY (Staff) - Rumors of unidentified flying objects continue to circulate in the Tri-Town area. The Nugget's Northern Bureau has received several reports during the past week.

Early this morning, an OPP civilian radio operator was reported to have seen a bright white object in the sky, but OPP officials here were reluctant to confirm or deny the sighting pending further investigations.

U.S. jets scrambled on UFOs
More sightings reported; radar base won't comment
By ROB ROWLAND, Star Staff Writer

A squadron of U.S. Air National Guard F-106 interceptors were scrambled Tuesday morning to check the skies over Sudbury for UFOs spotted on radar, The Star learned today.

The jet fighters were sent aloft several hours after the last Sudbury Regional Police sighting at 7:15 a.m. A North American Air Defence (NORAD) command spokesman in North Bay said the fighters were scrambled from the U.S. Air Force base at Selfridge, Michigan, at 12:50 p.m. local time.

In Colorado Springs, Del Kindschi, a public information officer for NORAD, confirmed something had been tracked over Sudbury.

He said an object was picked up on the Falconbridge radar about 30 nautical miles south of the station. He added that whatever was spotted visually by the station personnel - three glowing lights with dark centres - was not necessarily the same thing seen on radar.

The U.S. fighters did not find anything when they reached here, Mr. Kindschi said.

In North Bay, the public affairs officer for 22nd NORAD division said North Bay-based aircraft did not respond. Sudbury is part of the 23rd division and for a routine scramble, such as the one on Tuesday, the response comes from bases in the 23rd Division.

In a real emergency, planes from North Bay would come, he said.

Another UFO was reported last night by Sudbury Regional Police. Two officers, whose names were not released saw a lighted, blinking object while on patrol on Highway 69 north, from 1:40 a.m. to 2:20 a.m.

The officers said in a report the object was definitely not a star and displayed different changing colors.

In Nairn Centre, Theresa Bouillon reported she and her two sons, Roger, 14 and Claude, 13, saw several objects over their home between 10 p.m. and midnight Tuesday.

The first object was bright yellow and orange and was seen in the eastern sky, towards Sudbury.

Later, another object, bright enough to hurt their eyes, was seen to the east, over Espanola, Mrs. Bouillon said. She said she called provincial police in Espanola but an OPP spokesman said no other reports were logged at that time.

FOUR AT ONCE

At one point, Mrs. Bouillon said, she and her sons saw a total of four objects in the sky at once. At midnight because it was cold and they were frightened they went in to go to bed.

"It's the first time I've seen one and I hope it's the last," she commented.

A spokesman at CFS Falconbridge had no comment today and referred The Star to NORAD when questioned about last night's sightings. In Colorado Springs, Mr. Kindschi said he had not yet received a report on the Tuesday night sightings.

NORAD-tracked UFO was no hoax, says United States expert
By ROB ROWLAND, Star Staff Writer

An unidentified radar blip seen at the same time as Sudbury regional police saw an unidentified flying object Tuesday apparently was on the radar screens at CFS Falconbridge for several hours, The Star has learned. And a top U.S. civilian authority is convinced the object was "no hoax."

The U.S. fighter-interceptor sent here were scrambled, a North American Air Defence command (NORAD) spokesman said, because the blip was "a persistent phenomenon."

NORAD wouldn't say just how long the blip was visible. The first police sighting came at 4:50 a.m. and the Falconbridge personnel saw an object south of the station at 6:15 a.m. At the same time an object was picked up on radar 30 nautical miles south of the station, going upward between 42,000 and 72,000 feet.

The last sighting by regional police was about 7:30 a.m. and almost six hours later at 1:50 p.m. The 171st F-106 squadron of the Michigan Air National Guard was scrambled, apparently because radar still was tracking the UFO. They found nothing when they got here.

NO HOAX

There is still no explanation of what the unidentified object might be.

Dr. J. Allen Hynek, chairman of the astronomy department at Chicago's Northwestern University and who heads an official, U.S. government-sponsored UFO information service, said what was seen over Sudbury is called a "radar-visual" UFO, meaning it is picked up on radar and seen visually.

"When a radar-visual fits a pattern, it's not unusual," Dr. Hynek said. "But when NORAD confirms something, that is unusual. It rules out a hoax."

"The critical thing in the visual sighting is motion," Dr. Hynek said. "If the UFO doesn't move over a long period, it is likely the object is a bright star. Both Venus and Jupiter are very bright right now," he pointed out.

SUSPECTS PLANET

Dr. Hynek, who vacations each summer in the Blind River area, said he was aware that there had been interesting UFO sightings in Sudbury in the past.

Canada's UFO expert, Ian Halliday of the Hertzberg Institute of Astrophysics at the National Research Council in Ottawa said what the police officers saw was likely Venus or Jupiter.

"At this time when the planets are bright in the sky we expect a lot of UFO sightings and we do get them," Mr. Halliday said.

Venus rises around 3 a.m. high in the southeast and is still bright and high in the sky after sunrise, Mr. Halliday said. Jupiter is also bright and sets about 4:30 a.m. Mars, the red planet, is getting brighter, he added.

One problem with the reports he received from the Sudbury Regional Police is that they are too vague to tell if what the officers saw on Tuesday night are actually Mars, Venus or Jupiter, he said.

COINCIDENCE

Asked about the sightings on radar, Mr. Halliday said: "As near as we can tell, it is a coincidence. We have no way of knowing of any connection between the visual and radar sightings."

"This sort of thing is not uncommon on radar. They just happened to see one at the same time," he added.

The fact police said the UFO lighted up the clouds did not necessarily rule out stars. Venus can light up thin clouds, Mr. Halliday said.

Latest sighting of UFO easily explained Friday

Sudbury Regional Police received a flood of calls reporting unidentified flying objects over Sudbury about 5:30 p.m. Friday. All the calls said the UFO was in the southeast.

That UFO, however, turned out to be the planet Jupiter, which is the first star visible after sunset, at 4:51 p.m.

Regional police sources meanwhile disputed a contention by National Research Council UFO expert Ian Halliday that what policemen saw Tuesday morning were the planets Jupiter and Venus. Police said the objects were too big and too bright to be a star.

Alaska radar, pilot spot speedy UFO

ANCHORAGE (AP) - Unidentified flying objects have been reported over the Chugach Mountains slightly east of here by a Northwest Orient Airline crew and a radar approach controller at Anchorage International Airport.

Cliff Cernick, U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) spokesman, said Friday that one of the controllers reported that on April 23 he saw "four blips which gyrated on his radarscope in an unusual manner."

"The controller, Terry Siegrest, saw the blips settle downwards, and then move across the scope at a rapid rate of speed," Cernick said.

Siegrest said the objects first appeared about 30 miles from Anchorage, moving slowly and eventually stopping completely. When they resumed movement, he said, they picked up speed and "zipped off to the east."