.
Chapter Four
The Onslaught

      Maybe it all could just be chalked up to fireworks, but on Loedding's day off on Friday, July 4th, Independence Day, a nationwide rash of saucer sightings hit the headlines. New Jersey residents started off the long list when "balls of fire silently darting through the air at high speed" were reported between 1:00 and 3:00 A.M. EST. 1  During those same early morning hours, further west, Mrs. B.B. Connor of Bartlesville, Oklahoma, saw a group of star-like objects fly through broken cloud layers. She described them as maneuvering in an erratic manner. 2  From sun rise to mid afternoon discs sighting came from Virginia, Idaho, Colorado, Texas, California, Louisiana, and Arkansas. 3
      At 11:00 A.M. PST a carload of people driving near Portland, Oregon, spotted four disc-shaped objects streaking past Mount Jefferson. Just before that Harry Hale, production manager of the Portland Oregonian, saw a shiny disc-like object in the sky west of Beaverton while driving to work that morning. 4  (Interestingly, around that same time a private pilot flying over Idaho saw a similar disc speeding toward Oregon as a V-shaped object was spotted by ground observers in Troutland, Oregon.) 5
      These were only the first few of many Oregon reports. The next came at 1:00 P.M. from a Portland radio station employee, Frank Cooley. He and many of his co-workers saw disc-shaped objects from the windows of the International News Service office in the Journal building. 6 Don Metcalfe, an employee at the nearby Oaks Amusement Park saw the same discs. His superintendent, William LeRoy, also saw them and made a report to police. 7
      Five minutes later a Portland policeman, Kenneth McDowell, had a sighting. While feeding pigeons behind Precinct House No. 1, he became surprised to see them suddenly startled away. McDowell looked up and to his




Chapter Four------The Onslaught   49

amazement observed five large oscillating discs, two going south, three east. They were traveling at a high rate of speed and looked like nothing he had seen before.
      This prompted an all-car police alert to report any aerial objects. Five minutes later the first of many responses came back into headquarters. 8  At 1:10 P.M., for example, two Portland policemen in car 82 near Oaks Amusement Park, Walter A. Lissy and Andrew Fox, who were both civilian pilots and WWII veterans, reported six or seven "flat, round discs. They were flying at terrific speed in a straight-line formation" headed south within 30 seconds of one another. Lissy said they zig-zagged and made turns so sharp that he knew they could not be aircraft. Each of the objects headed east over the park at great height estimated as high as 40,000 feet. No engine noises or vapor trails were noted, but they did see "flashes" of light. The last disc "fluttered rapidly to the side in an arc" and they all appeared white against the clear blue sky. 9  In Car 13 officer Earl Patterson, at SE 82nd and Foster Road (three miles from Lissy), saw something too. He reported an "oval whitish aluminum-colored object" coming out of the west heading southwest at terrific speed at about 30,000 feet. Patterson, who was a former Army Air Force veteran, stated that it resembled no plane he had ever seen. 10
      Then harbor patrolman, Captain K.A. Prehn, boat pilot A.T. Austad, and patrolman Kent C. Hoff reported to Portland police headquarters that they had seen three to six oscillating, flashing discs. These were described as being "shaped like chrome hubcaps" traveling very fast and high at about 10,000 feet toward the south over the Globe Mills. The men were uncertain of the exact number of objects because the flashes from the objects were so bright that they could not stand to stare at them. They did agree that the objects wobbled and oscillated as they flew with turning and weaving motions. 11
      Numerous Portland citizens also reported sightings. At 2:00 P.M. "metallic discs glinting in the sunlight" were seen across the Williamette River near the Rose Island bridge. Picnickers and a woman pilot saw silvery "spinning discs." One woman at 4:30 P.M. described viewing an object like "a new dime flipping around" over the Sandy District. Two white or silver objects flew over Portland at 4:58 P.M. heading southeast, and a third passed over at 5:30 P.M. KOIN radio station employee, Frank Cooley, a former Marine Corps observer, confirmed numerous disc sightings around Portland throughout the day. Cooley, as stated, saw a formation of twelve discs himself as high as 20,000 feet at 1:00 P.M. He declared that they were "operated and




50. Alfred Loedding and The Great Flying Saucer Wave of 1947

maneuverable devices," indicating that the objects were larger than many believed. He continued: "They plainly experienced maneuvers in the sky. . . At one time a number of the discs would get into formation and fly circles around another disc. It was hard to follow their behavior exactly because of the great height, their gleaming surface and their nature." 12
      In Milwaukie, Oregon, (due south of Portland) three discs in a line formation were observed flying in a northeasterly direction by State Police Sergeant Claude Cross during that 1:00 P.M. flurry of sightings. Also across the Columbia River from Portland near Vancouver, Washington, Clark County Sheriffs Deputies John Sullivan, Clarence McKay, and Fred Krives reported up to 30 such flying objects. Their sightings (which actually involved eight deputies but not Krives) began after hearing reports of flying discs broadcast on the police radio. The deputies then went outside of the sheriffs headquarters to have a look for themselves and soon caught sight of "round" objects flying over high and fast in a straight line toward the west and south. As they passed, a low humming noise could be detected. Witnesses told the International News Service that "they were there and no mistake about that." 13  They explained that the objects appeared in the southwest over the courthouse heading southwest at about 1,000 feet. The deputies saw numerous flights of discs—the first of which had seven objects in it. The tail end of that formation split off the main line to form a separate group rising above the others. They were described as disc-shaped with speeds approximating an aircraft. 14
      To date no has been able to determine exactly what all of these Portland and Washington State sightings represented. It should be noted, however, a flight of B-29 bombers followed by group of P-80 jet fighters did fly over Portland just before 1:00 P.M. at high altitude. Later, Army Air Force investigators made an assumption that they may have dropped "chaff strips of aluminum foil which were used in exercises and during wartime to jam enemy radar. This, in fact, may not be too far-fetched of an explanation as Burl Nolisch of 6604 North Burrage Street did tell reporters that day that he saw an aircraft fly over at 1:00. He mentioned this fact only because he saw pieces of aluminum foil swirling around afterwards—assuming they may have been dropped by the aircraft. 15
      Elsewhere in the country that afternoon at 3:00 P.M. MST, 38 miles south of Great Falls, Montana, Mr. and Mrs. Curt Dennis were enjoying the holiday by fishing off a bridge. Then, as in so many other cases, they were attracted by a flash in the sky. Above them twelve silver-colored objects flew over in a




Chapter Four----The Onslaught    51

single file formation headed northwest. 16  On the Sacramento River near Broderick, California, another family was enjoying a picnic when a shiny disc appeared far above. Mrs. Clarence Henn and her son, Robert, commented at the time that whatever it was, its surface must have had a highly polished finish to reflect the sun so brightly. When the object did leave, it did not gradually move out of view, but just vanished. 17  In Pocatello, Idaho, that afternoon R.A. Seymour observed seven high-flying star-shaped or spoked discs revolving around their own axis. They moved in steady flight, about four times the speed of a conventional aircraft. 18  In Richland, Washington, Mrs. Nordman saw a similar "flying disc" zoom northeast with a "turning motion." She commented that it was only by chance that she glanced up to see it—indicating the craft emitted no noise  19
      Two separate disc sightings came at 6:20 P.M. EST from Charleston, South Carolina, then one from T.L. Huckaby in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, describing a grayish "wash tub" shaped object. Also in Arkansas, near Fayetteville, farmer Henry Seay had his livestock badly spooked by three low flying yellow discs. 20  In Santa Monica, California, at 5:00 P.M. PST pilot Dan J. Whelan and another flyer, Duncan Underbill, witnessed a "flying saucer" 40 to 50 feet in diameter "catapulting across the sky" at about 450 to 500 miles per hour toward the northwest on a steady course at 7,000 feet. 21  After a similar report from Mr. Nova Hart near St. Louis, one came from the Clark County Building Inspector of Las Vegas, Nevada, O.J. Morling. He stated that he and his wife saw up to two dozen "discs" pass over in a loose formation. They estimated the objects were traveling at about 100 miles per hour, at 500 feet of altitude heading toward the northeast.
      Private pilot Raymond Harris also saw saucers over Nevada. From his 150 Voyager he and a friend observed five discs below them—so bright they were hard to look at. He turned his aircraft to give chase but could not intercept the saucers which were zipping off toward the southwest. After the incident he described the objects to his father, a deputy sheriff, as circular and brilliant. 22   
      Around twilight at 5:30 P.M. PST while near his home in the Seattle




52. Alfred Loedding and The Great Flying Saucer Wave of 1947

suburb of Lake City, Coast Guardsman Yeoman Frank Ryman captured a saucer on film. Initially he spotted it at a fair distance away, flying over the north end of Lake Washington. Before taking the photo he had a chance to view the disc through binoculars and estimated it to be traveling northward at about 10,000 feet - - - somewhere around 500 miles per hour. At least twenty other individuals watched with Ryman as he lowered his field glasses and replaced them with a camera. His photos were developed at the local military intelligence office but showed only a sharp point of light. The military attributed the image to a balloon, but the report, and its supporting evidence, is claimed to have been lost. 23  (Two other independent sets of observers in other parts of Seattle reported seeing multiple discs about a half an hour before Ryman took his photos.) 24
      That night an incident occurred which was second only to Arnold's sighting in terms of media coverage. Captain E.J. Smith and First Officer Ralph Stevens of United Airlines Flight 105 were the chief witnesses. Shortly after takeoff from Boise's Gowan Field at 9:04 P.M. MST, they observed from their DC-3 airliner five discs "silhouetted against the sunset in a loose formation." When Smith asked Stewardess Marty Morrow to come forward, she confirmed the observation. Ironically, before the crew boarded the plane, someone had asked them if they had seen any flying saucers—as the disc sightings were by then starting to receive more and more publicity. Smith snapped back with a smile that, "I'll believe them when I see them."
      In that dark cockpit Smith remembered his famous last words as they watched the mysterious sight for several minutes as four more discs joined the group just as the original five faded from sight. The second group flew in a straight line formation of three together with the fourth one off by itself. Smith said "this group seemed to be higher than our flight path," [then at 7,000 feet] "and when they did leave, they left fast!"
      The sightings lasted twelve minutes and covered 45 miles as the unknown objects moved in a northwesterly direction across Idaho. At one point Smith recalled that it looked almost as if some of the discs merged together. Reaching a cruising altitude of 8,000 feet, Smith had attempted to close in for a better look as the discs neared Oregon but could not attain an airspeed much above 185 miles per hour. At that point he contacted the nearest observer he could reach—the radio tower at Ontario, Oregon. The attendant there could not see anything, yet neither could the pilots by that point. The objects had suddenly sped out of the area at tremendous speed. 25




Chapter Four----The Onslaught   53
  


      This sketch depicts the only details the crew could definitely give to Intelligence officers—thin oval craft "smooth on the bottom and rough on top." Smith told the International News Service that the mysterious objects "were as big as an airplane but definitely were not aircraft." This sighting ended up in Air Force files as the third of nine in 1947 records to receive the sparingly-given designation "unidentified." Known as the United Airlines Flight 105 Case, it was second in fame only to the Kenneth Arnold Sighting during 1947. This would be only the first of four cases involving United Airline flights over the following six weeks.




Captain Smith and Stewardess Marty Morrow.




54. Alfred Loedding and The Great Flying Saucer Wave of 1947

      The news media was already waiting at Pendleton for a scheduled landing of the plane because many people had overheard the radio transmissions back and forth between Ontario tower and Flight 105. As a result, the story became an immediate sensation. Both Naval Intelligence and Brown and Davidson from Army Intelligence interviewed Captain Smith.
      The Brown and Davidson interview occurred on July 12th just after they had finished talking with Kenneth Arnold at the Hotel Owyhee about his incident. Arnold then invited them to his home for coffee and sherbet. While at Arnold's house they heard Smith was in Boise for a layover, so they all went out to the airport to talk to Smith and were joined by Dave Johnson from the Boise Evening Statesman.
      Alfred Loedding probably would not have had the fine details of the interview via the Fourth Air Force until several months later. Coordination until at least September of 1947 was very haphazard, not only between the 4th AAF but with Dayton and Washington. Yet, because he was a Pentagon liaison, Loedding probably knew more at any one given time that summer than any single group doing investigations. Edward Ruppelt later wrote about those days: 

       At first there was no co-ordinated effort to collect data on the UFO reports. Leads would come from radio reports or newspaper items. Military intelligence agencies outside of ATIC [Dayton] were hesitant to investigate on their own initiative because, as is so typical of the military, they lacked specific orders.
       When no orders were forthcoming, they took this to mean that the military had no interest in UFO's. But before long this placid attitude changed, and drastically. Classified orders came down to investigate all UFO sightings. Get every detail and send it directly to Wright Field. The order    j carried no explanation as to why the information was wanted.
       This lack of an explanation and the fact the information was to be sent directly to a high-powered intelligence group within Air Force Headquarters stirred the imagination of every potential cloak-and-dagger man in the military intelligence system. Intelligence people in the field who had previously been free with opinions now clammed up tight.  26

      On that same night the manager of the Idaho United Press and a fifteen-year veteran reporter, John C. Corlett, had a sighting that seemed to confirm the presence of something strange near Right 105.
      While relaxing at home in his garden, he and his wife with their dinner guests, famed Boise artist V.H. Selby and his wife, all had a disc sighting. It occurred around the same time as Captain Smith's encounter when the couples observed a white disc zoom across the sky in a matter of just seconds. The object came from the northwest and traveled southeast as it passed




Chapter Four----The Onslaught   55

silently overhead at an altitude of about 10,000 feet in a clear sky. 27
      Earlier that afternoon in Idaho, disc activity had been observed near the Twin Falls area. 28  Between 2:30 P.M. MST and 3:10 P.M. three groups of discs ranging from twenty to nine objects were seen by over sixty persons enjoying the 4th of July celebrations in the local park of Twin Falls. 29  At 7:00 P.M. PST as many as 200 people observed a disc at Hauser Lake, Idaho, just a few miles northeast of Spokane. George Aster described that event, stating, "I pointed it out to the others and they all stood around and followed it for about 30 minutes while it hovered at about ten degrees above the horizon." The witness saw the craft while celebrating the holiday at the lake and agreed that it must have hovered at about 20,000 feet until an aircraft came into the area and all of a sudden it shot straight up into the sky and vanished in "a fraction of a second."
      Observers gave a host of physical descriptions ranging from a shiny aluminum disc-shaped craft to having the appearance of a silver dollar approximately 30 feet across. UFO researcher Dr. James McDonald tracked down George Aster in 1967 and confirmed the details of this remarkable event. He also learned from the interview that while the disc had hovered, it slightly wobbled. Aster said that this behavior completely discounted in his mind the possibility the object was an aircraft—due to these peculiar lateral oscillations. 30
      The Independence Day Sightings may have just been due to mass hysteria. Although contrary to popular belief, many people who reported "flying saucers" on the 4th had not yet heard the term. Soon, however, the phrase would become a household word as hundreds started seeing an onslaught of flying saucers.




56. Alfred Loedding and The Great Flying Saucer Wave of 1947

Saturday 5 July

UFOs proved even more persistent the day following the Independence Day Sightings. In Augusta, Maine, at 1:15 P.M. EST dozens of reports came into the Civil Aeronautical Administration describing unidentifiable flying objects over the city—all heading in a northerly direction. Dan Kelly, program director at the local radio station WRDO, personally saw twelve of the discs.
      By 8:00 A.M. PST on the other side of the country in Sacramento, California, Dr. A.K. Carr had a remarkable sighting of two disc which may have been seen by others shortly afterwards. The local newspaper detailed this his sighting:
      
      They came in from the west, Dr. Carr said, one was at about 10,000 feet, I would say and the other was traveling at about 10,000 feet, I would say and the other was traveling at tremendous speed at about 5,000 to 6,000 feet. We could see streams of vapor behind them. The lower one continued in an easterly direction, but the other, which I was observing through 12 power field glasses, banked sharply over the city and flew north. It seemed to stand on one edge as it turned.  31

      Just 30 minutes later two similar discs were seen far to the south near Dana Point, California, by Mr. and Mrs. John K. Street. Street was an insurance company executive and he and his wife were spending the weekend at the beach side town enjoying the long holiday. At the time of the incident they were sight seeing just a few miles inland at the Capistrano Mission. Mr. and Mrs. Street described the objects they saw as two "saucer-like" craft which slowly flew up the canyon from the beach in a northerly direction toward the Capistrano Mission. 32
      Then about 50 miles north northwest of Dana Point two discs were once again seen by a third independent witness over Eagle Rock, California. Donald Levine, ten years old at the time, described them as yellowish and traveling at a high rate of speed flying straight toward the north. 33  About that same time a fourth observer just a few miles north of Eagle Rock saw disc-like objects over Glendale, California. In that case, however, observer Donald Dwiggins reported seeing four discs which changed shape and flew at 8,000 to 9,000 feet. 34
      A series of sightings occurred in Washington State around Spokane and Seattle that also involved independent observations of similar flying objects




Chapter Four----The Onslaught   57

between 10:45 and 11:00 A.M. PST. 35  In Covington, Kentucky, that afternoon, two women described seeing a flying saucer with "legs." Interestingly, that same day a Chicago woman reported an identical feature on a flying disc, stating: "it had legs." 36
      In Bethesda, Maryland, Jack LaBous, a visual artist, saw a very unusual flying object. He said it looked like a dome with an antenna protruding from beneath. This is of note because a Sioux Falls man described seeing an identical sort of disc the next day — also describing some sort of pole-like appendage sticking out of the bottom of the craft. 37
      Other reports on the 5th came from St. John, New Brunswick; Sherbrooke, Quebec; Port Huron, Michigan; Anaconda, Montana; Hollywood, California; Waterloo, Iowa; Akron and Cincinnati, Ohio; Portland, Oregon; South Bend and Huntington, Indiana; New Orleans, Louisiana; Albuquerque, New Mexico; Denver, Colorado; Seattle, Washington (where a "flying football" appeared); Wisconsin, Minnesota, Maryland, Connecticut, Utah, and Chicago, Illinois. 38
      Of special interest, around 11:00 A.M. PST in San Jose, California, Sergeant Charles R. Sigala of the Army Air Force said he and three others observed a "silvery" flying disc near his home. Sigala was on leave from Hamilton Field at the time and saw the object fly by in clear view. It circled around over some nearby mountains at about 5,000 feet, dipped several times, and then headed toward the sea. Sigala estimated the object to be as large as an automobile. 39  Further north in Albany, Oregon, at 3:20 P.M. PST ex-sailor Ted Tannish and his friend Bill Lemon observed a similar circular-shaped object rapidly flying south. They then watched it slow down before heading northward — finally disappearing into a cloud bank. 40
      At 7:00 P.M. EST TWA pilot Captain John L. Dobberteen and First Officer Frank Corwin, observed a strange looking object while over Neapolis, Ohio. They were on a ferrying mission from the East Coast with an empty airliner at about 4,000 feet when the unknown object came into sight. Both pilots described it as a "whirling fan blade" about the size of a small private plane and moving at an estimated speed of 200 miles per hour. The Captain stated that it definitely resembled no plane or auto gyro he had ever seen and felt it may have resembled a flying disc if seen from the ground.




58. Alfred Loedding and The Great Flying Saucer Wave of 1947

      Dobberteen deviated slightly off course and followed it for a short time before correcting back to a heading for their destination in Chicago. After landing Dobberteen made a point of reporting the incident to air traffic control as the event had occurred in commercial air lane space and he feared that the mysterious object may pose a hazard. 41
      At sunset, two miles north of Fayetteville, Arkansas, Henry Seay (who had a sighting the night before) claimed he saw a ten to twelve foot wide luminous disc briefly land on his farm! Very conservative and set in his ways, Seay described the event to UFO researcher Dr. James McDonald years later.
      He had been driving his cattle toward the barn for milking at the time. As he moved them up a road leading to the milking barn, a disc-like object flew over him and showered down an array of sparks. The sparks landed on Seay's bare arms but did not burn. The whole incident, however, badly frightened his cattle. For the next ten minutes Seay scurried around attempting to gather them up—being more concerned about his livestock than looking at the bothersome disc. Finally getting them rounded up to drive back toward the barn, he saw the disc again. This time it had touched down between him and the barn at a distance of 200 yards across the pasture. As he gazed at the object Seay could discern a round flattened shape that was luminous but not too blinding to look at—just too bright to clearly make out any distinct edges. Within seconds the craft silently rose up vertically to almost 40 feet and zoomed off horizontally at a speed around 50 miles an hour. As it did so, it again dropped a shower of sparks which fell to the ground but did not seem to damage his nearby oat field. Only ashes were evident from the event and Seay could not even find a mark on the ground to prove where the disc had landed. Yet, like the night before, his cattle remained badly spooked by the whole event. 42
      We know that Alfred Loedding was investigating such landing cases by at least 1948—the files of which have never been released by the Air Force. 43  But there is no indication Mr. Seay was ever contacted by anyone other than Dr. McDonald, although Seay did say his neighbors saw the disc too.
      That night at 10:30 P.M. EST many Canadian residents of Wallaceburg, Ontario, observed two large formations of luminous discs traversing a wide area of the nighttime sky. 44  Back east in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts, Mrs. Jessie F. Willis reported that she saw eight blue flying discs heading in a northerly direction about 7:30 P.M. EST. She then observed others in groups of




Chapter Four----The Onslaught   59

twos and threes. 45  By 9:30 P.M. MST Mrs. Shirley Hefferon and her sister Lois Mae Gadbaw of Butte, Montana, saw several strange craft pass overhead in a northerly direction.  46  At 10:00 P.M. MST lights were reported on the horizon by Evanston, Wyoming, residents but these may have been attributed to searchlight beams from the fairgrounds in Salt Lake City. 47  By 9:45 P.M. EST Mrs. Scott Jones, daughter, and children witnessed a "shooting star" turn and float toward the Phillips Packing Company in Cambridge, Maryland. It then turned again in an opposite direction. 48  Around 10:00 or 10:30 P.M. PST in Longview, Washington, Mrs. Margaret Carter told of seeing a spherical, aluminum-colored object in the southwestern skies headed northwest." The object "dipped" several times while it was in view for up to five minutes. 49
      In Norwalk, Ohio, that night two Huron County farm families saw saucers. They noted that "one disc over-lapped the other and traveled in the opposite circular directions." 50  At 12:23 A.M. EST the next morning, a sighting occurred in Paterson, New Jersey. Across the country John Neisswanger of Eugene, Oregon, was returning home on a dark and lonely road about 12:30 P.M. MST. Suddenly, he became startled by a slowly-moving aerial object. His description compared it to a child's drawing of the sun with lines around it. He then stopped the car, and he and his wife and another passenger watched the weird phenomenon until it passed. 51

Sunday 6 July

By the end of the long three-day holiday, flying saucer incidents were still increasing in number. That Sunday morning began with one of the most unique cases for the year. Following is a complete account by the witness of a remarkable UFO encounter in Omaha, Nebraska:

      Although I am in the greatest of hurries, being on my way to Omaha to go to the bedside of a sick relative, I must hasten to write you a few lines to describe an incident that took place only a little while ago. My boy and I have been driving steadily since we left Seattle yesterday, and came into this city only a little over an hour ago. It was just daylight, and as we drove down Main street, I happened to glance down one side, and saw a disc about the size of a farm wagon wheel float lightly to the middle of the street, and come to a stop. Instantly I put on my brakes, but I had to back up to get




60. Alfred Loedding and The Great Flying Saucer Wave of 1947

into the street where this thing lit. It stopped for only a few seconds, but I did get a good look at it, for it was only about 30 yards away, and almost still. It was not a saucer, but a disk. This was surrounded by a tube that had an enlarged opening at one end, like a funnel, and ended in a tapered point at the other. In the middle of the disk I could make out a bulge, as if a plate had been welded on the disk, and there were two narrow strips of metal running almost parallel to each other above and below the midsection.
       I started to get out of the car thinking that this queer object would fall over and give a chance to examine it closer, but something was holding it up. Something held it upright, and then the strangest thing took place. The disk was being subjected to a number of short jerks, moving forward each time a foot or two. The funnel part of the tube was set into the disk's rim so that the latter could roll freely, and after moving a distance of about 20 yards it rose easily and began at once to climb. I thought for that it was transparent, but no, that was due to the reflection of the light. The sun was not yet up, but this shimmering effect marked the upward climb of the disk. Once it seemed to stand still in midair, spinning rapidly, then it veered of [sic] to what I would say must have been northeast, and soon disappeared from view.
       The entire incident lasted only about forty seconds. I went over and examined the place where it had landed, but it seemed to have touched the ground so lightly that it left no mark. I am convinced beyond doubt that the disk's flight was controlled, that it gave out signals indicating its position, and also that it is harmless.  52

      About 6:00 A.M. EST that day near Miami, Florida, multiple unidentified aircraft were seen. Observers, Fred Walsh and his wife described them as "round, silver objects which were about ten to fifteen feet across." Those UFOs first appeared out of the Everglades and headed due south. 53  At 9:30 A.M. one disc appearing larger than an airliner flew over Tampa, Florida, headed southeast. 54  Then by 10:00 A.M. CST a similar disc was seen over Alexandria, Louisiana. In that case four people tracked the unusual aerial object heading northwest. 55  Four discs were seen about that time over New Orleans by US Army private Robert G. Hellman on leave from Camp Bliss. Hellman was on his way to his hotel room that morning when he spotted the discs high above Canal Street. He described them as flashing whirling colored saucers, pink and silver in appearance—flying in a V formation on a steady course. 56  And around that time of day sightings of more than one disc came out of Texas. 57




Chapter Four----The Onslaught   61

      Further west at 8:20 A.M. PST a veteran World War I pilot, Frank Tylman and his son, saw a disc shaped object while driving two miles west of Pittsburgh, California. Tylman sated that "It was shooting toward Mount Diablo. . . It revolved in a counter-clockwise direction, as we viewed it." Tylman estimated the height of the object at about 3,000 feet and definitely moving "faster than jet planes," although he did state that it approximated the size of a P-80 jet. 
      The object appeared "circular" and "it had a definite thickness, being curved outward on both upper and lower surfaces." He went on explaining that unlike an aircraft, it left no smoke or vapor nor made any sound that could have been heard above the noise of his own car and the wind. The sighting lasted only 30 seconds as the disc soon disappeared into the southern horizon. 58
      As that notable day went on, eight saucers were seen near a mountain in Washington State and Francis Howell claimed one "landed" very briefly near Tempe, Arizona. 59  The military apparently collected a file on this particular incident, but researchers found only an empty file folder when allowed to review Air Force records on UFOs in the late 1960s. By 1976 when those files had been turned over to the National Archives, no indication of any kind remained that this sighting had ever been investigated. After talking to Alfred Loedding's son Donald, it is believed this may have been one of the "landing cases" he remembers his father talking about. 60
      Earlier that morning at 10:00 A.M. MST well known University of Arizona football coach Niles (Mike) Casteel had reported seeing a flying disc pass over Tucson, Arizona. This same object was reported by Wallace B. Magness of the Air Materiel Command from Davis Monthan AAFB. When describing the incident to UFO researcher James McDonald in 1967, Magness characterized the object he saw as a round light—brighter than he had ever seen before. 61  Also in Tucson the same day, a highly respected attorney, Joseph Hendron, and his wife observed three "silver colored discs" fly over at about 5:00 P.M. Three other Tucson witnesses reported discs just 30 minutes before. Among them, was Walter Laos who estimated their speed at 200 miles per hour and altitude between 5,000 to 6,000 feet. 62  (Laos had an earlier sighting on June 22nd.)
      Arizona is also of note because on the evening of the 6th a series of strange sightings began in Tucson describing large discs accompanied by a




62. Alfred Loedding and The Great Flying Saucer Wave of 1947

group of smaller objects. These were seen to merge with, and later separate from, the larger "parent craft." Amazingly, these same types of observations then moved clockwise around the circumference of the United States until almost the same time the following night. Cities accounting for sightings of "companion ships" associated with larger "mother discs" included Palmdale, California; Tacoma, Washington; Cicero, Illinois; and Manchester, Maine. 63
      Jumping back into the chronology of July 6th, at 1:00 P.M. Paul R. Bates, a passenger on an airliner ten miles southeast of Boise, Idaho, witnessed a "flying saucer" flash against a mountainous background. He called a stewardess, who ran back to try to see it, but by that point the craft had disappeared to the southwest. 64
      Only forty-five minutes later, at 1:45 P.M CST, an Army Air Force B-25 crew reported a similar sight during a flight from Ogden, Utah. It became one of the few incidents where a UFO was seen from above. Their plane was 100 miles west of Kansas City, Missouri, at 10,000 feet when the pilot, Archie B. Browning, caught sight of a very bright object. He described it as "shaped like the top of a water tank"—some 30 to 35 feet in diameter. Weather conditions were clear with unlimited visibility when the disc first came into view ten miles ahead and below the left side of the B-25. The UFO may have initially been hovering because as the pilot closed to within one or two miles, the disc began to parallel their eastward bound course and speed of 210 miles per hour. Browning turned toward the strange craft, which was climbing to 11,000 feet. Yet, just at that moment, it accelerated off at great srjeed and virtually disappeared.
      Although this report found its way into numerous Air Force files and was periodically commented on over the years, it did not receive an unidentified classification. Today the case has a notation on it attributing the event to a possible "reflection." Actually many such cases were earmarked with astronomical or meteorological explanations simply because Air Force consulting astrophysicist Dr. J. Alien Hynek, hired in 1948, would make comments to that effect on the case files he reviewed for the military.
      In other words, remarks of his alluding to only one possible explanation were often seized on to complete the paperwork on an open case file. It is quite true that in those early years Dr. Hynek did not believe that there was much to the disc sightings. He, in fact, felt it could all be attributed to simple "post-war nerves." But his rather careless examination of the early cases was not due to any intentional debunking on his part or conspiracy on the military's behalf. Unfortunately we have no real knowledge of the interaction between Hynek and Loedding. Loedding entered the picture before Hynek but




Chapter Four----The Onslaught   63

obviously would have been used to brief him once the Air Force contracted for his consultations. Hynek's overall role during the early days of UFO investigations, in retrospect, seems minor.
      Yet it must be kept in mind that many of these sightings from early July were never investigated by the military—less than three to five percent. 65  There were simply too many to ever be tracked down and studied. For example, numerous sightings were reported around different areas of the country that day which at best were only gleaned through newspaper accounts by Loedding and other investigators. This is regrettable because some, like the following, occurred around the same time of day. These may have been proved to be connected in some way if they had been investigated as a whole. The best of these sightings took place from an aircraft around 2:30 to 3:00 P.M. MST over Colorado and Kansas and is detailed by the Bartlesville, Oklahoma,  Daily Enterprise:

      John Phillips, Jr., of Phillips Petroleum aviation department and Henry Barbarick, company pilot, were flying at 10,000 to 12,000 feet. "Phillips who was piloting the plane saw the first 'flying saucer.' He yelled to Barbarick who was reading maps, but Barbarick said the 'saucer' went by so fast that he was unable to see it.
      A few minutes later Phillips saw another one of the strange flying objects which he said looked like a large 'hangar door' on the horizon but again Barbarick was unable to catch sight of it. 
      A moment later another appeared in front of the plane and then shot up and over the plane, and this time Barbarick caught sight of the object.
      Phillips said that at least nine of the 'saucers' [appeared] in a space of fifteen minutes. Both men said the discs were flying at such a tremendous rate of speed that they were unable to get a good look at them. They tried unsuccessfully to clock them once when one flashed by. Phillips turned the plane to get a better look at it, but it had disappeared by the time the plane came around.
      Phillips said the discs varied in size of a small plane up to a large transport. He said they looked saucer shaped with the front tilted up. He said they were definitely made of metal, since they glistened like silver in the sun. They appeared to be revolving, he said.
      Barbarick said that it gave you a feeling "like someone was shooting flak at you."  66 

      Also in that area of the country at 2:45 P.M. MST a metallic disc moving very fast was spotted over Denver, Colorado, while one appeared at the same time over south central Wyoming. 67  Fifteen minutes later and 100 miles to the




64. Alfred Loedding and The Great Flying Saucer Wave of 1947

north at 3:00 P.M. MST Casper, Wyoming, residents Mr. and Mrs. G.W. Gibson had a sighting of a single glittering disc. 68  Simultaneously, a very fast disc appeared over Santa Rosa, California. Observers Calvin McEntire and his brother Jack thought it to be the fastest thing that they had ever seen. 69  Four other sightings of a single metallic disc took place in California around that same time in Long Beach, Mill Valley, Hamilton Field, and Fairfield-Suisun ArmyAFB. 70
      The incident at the Fairfield-Suisun base involved Army Air Force Captain James H. Burniston and his wife who spotted from their back yard an object traveling three quarters of the way across the sky in a matter of only 60 seconds. He noted an oscillating motion to the mysterious craft as it traveled in a southeasterly direction at about 10,000 feet, rolling from side to side three times, with one side strongly reflecting the sun. As it rolled it became harder to see, suggesting the object was thinner in one dimension than the other. Its    j size was compared to a DC-3 and because of other aircraft noises in the j vicinity, Burniston could not ascertain if the object emitted any noticeable -j sound. This case did end up in Air Force records and became considered by j investigators like Loedding to be one of the truly unexplained cases. To this day it remains officially stamped unidentified in Air Force Files. 71
      At 3:00 P.M. EST a Clearwater, Florida, woman reported "tumbling objects that looked like pie pans traveling very high in the air and at a very fast rate of speed." As the discs passed over on a west to southeast course, "trees bowed" from a strong gust of wind assumed to be caused by their passing. 72  At 4:00 P.M. CST, twelve people in Throckmorton, Texas, saw a disc that produced a "sizzling noise."  73
      An hour and a half later in Emporia, Kansas, a silent UFO shaped like a dirigible "floated" low over a wheat field. This object approached three women working in the field from the south, but then veered off slowly toward the southwest. 74  Only half an hour later at 6:00 P.M. EST two shiny disc-shaped objects zoomed over Cincinnati, Ohio, traveling south to north  75
      Proving to be the busiest day to date, the saucers' activities even made the front page of the New York Times and would do so for the next three days. UFOs also drew the attention of the military who had Army, Navy, and




Chapter Four----The Onslaught   65

National Guard aircraft patrolling the Pacific coast regions for flying discs despite what some officials feared were low fuel reserves. 76
      At Manhattan Beach, California, A.W. McKelvey flew a P-51 fighter on patrol over Van Nuys at 35,000 feet. Five P-51s of the Oregon National Guard cruised the Cascade Mountains and a sixth over Portland—all without success. A new P-80 jet fighter at Muroc Army Air Field and six P-51s at Portland stood ready, but no sightings occurred. 77  An Air National Guard air unit at Sioux Falls, North Dakota, had a little more excitement when a report came in of a "silvery disc with a short tail." One of its pilots on patrol that afternoon received the call to intercept, but he could not locate the UFO. Back in the northwest, the Oregon Guard put eight P-51s in the air and three A-26 bombers armed with telescopic cameras. General Irving O. Schaefer of Colorado's Air National Guard told reporters that he had his fighter planes on    ;; standby ready to make an intercept at a moment's notice. 78
      Military intelligence units also began to meaningfully enter the scene, making files on some sightings and even conducting a few low level investigations. 79  On that day the Army Air Force intelligence group under the Air Materiel Command in Dayton, Ohio, did feel the need to make a statement to the press, but could only say it had not collected any "reputable information." 80  (Loedding at this early date may have not even been consulted about the sightings.) Then, for some reason, Major General Curtis E. LeMay made a statement. LeMay had been the famed leader of the strategic bombing campaign of Japan but by then headed up research and development of all new technology at the Pentagon for the Army. He gave no real insight to military thinking on the phenomenon, simply stressing that the reports were nothing to worry about. 81  Thus, by July 6th, it is still too early to document Alfred Loedding as being involved in any meaningful way with the disc inquiries. However that would soon change.
      Anyone involved with military matters that weekend would have been very curious about all the reports which continued coming in on the 6th. By evening a disc appeared over Beverly, Massachusetts. That night in Massachusetts two very similar discs were seen in Wenham. 82  At 5:15 P.M. EST Patrolman Frederick Schlauch of the Elizabeth, New Jersey, police department told of seeing two "shiny objects" flying toward the northeast.




66. Alfred Loedding and The Great Flying Saucer Wave of 1947

      He had just finished changing a tire when he caught sight of the objects. Schlauch stated that they were very shiny and moved erratically. Schlauch compared them to "chrome plates" which were "diving in a fluttery fashion." He estimated the speed of the objects close to that of a fighter plane—around 400 miles per hour but stressed they "were not planes." 83
      In Washington D.C. at 8:40 P.M. EST, former Army flying Cadet Hazen Kennedy glimpsed an "orange-colored" object flying at 1,000 to 1,500 feet moving at over 1,000 miles per hour. 84 In Rochester, New York, at 8:30 P.M. EST Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth Ohley observed from their back yard a white disc "zipping" eastward.  85  A man in Glen Falls had a similar sighting but noted red and blue fire-like lights on the object that he had seen. 86  In Valley Stream, New York that evening John Heathcote, fourteen years of age, saw three "plate-like" objects flying in a V formation toward the west. 87
      The night's activities continued with a sighting in Missouri at 6:00 P.M. CST near Mound City, when a Mr. and Mrs. Dunn and their children were taking a car ride with Mr. and Mrs. J.W. Hendrix and their children. The couples spotted what they described as a flying saucer about three to four miles east of Mound City. They then pulled off the road and Mrs. Hendrix noted that it had a silver hue and seemed to be of good size as it passed slowly toward the west. But after about five minutes an aircraft came into the area from the northeast causing the saucer to suddenly change direction and head off rapidly to the north.
      Thirty miles away in Industrial City Mr. and Mrs. George Painter reported seeing through field glasses an odd object traveling very quickly to the east at high altitude. It looked like a shiny light from the ground, but aided by his binoculars Mr. Painter could make out a disc surrounded by "a dark shadow-like haze." Around 7:00 P.M. W.C. Miller of St. Joseph and five other persons observed a bright flying disc very high in the sky traveling in a southwesterly direction. They had it in sight for about two and a half minutes. Around that same time the J.E. Johnson family of the 2900 block of Jule Street reported a flying saucer traveling over from the northeast to the southwest. It remained in sight for about five minutes. 88  The C.D. Frank




Chapter Four----The Onslaught   67

family and Ernest Smith and his wife also saw a silver disc while driving south of St. Joseph at 7:00 P.M. 89
      At 7:45 P.M. Dr. Walter Hoefer, with his son and daughter, reported seeing six round oval objects flying just west of St. Louis. Mr. Hoefer stated that they silently flew south at a very high altitude. He was able to run and grab his binoculars before they were out of sight. With the aid of the field glasses he noted a light spot in the center of the objects. 90
      At that same time several miles away in Shrewsbury, Mr. and Mrs. George Willson and their daughter and Mr. and Mrs. Charles Downs reported seeing two groups of three discs zooming eastward. 91  Just to the east in St. Louis, Mrs. N.P. McDonald and her daughter Nancy and Mrs. Walter Simonds at Scanlon Avenue saw an eastward bound flight of six objects in two groups of three each. 92  Another St. Louis resident, Miss Lois Bogner, confirmed the same sight from Sutherland Avenue as did Leonard Coleman and his sister from another part of town at Pershing Avenue. 93  Finally, in Ferguson, Missouri, William A. Good and his wife saw a disc at that same hour. 94
      At 8::55 P.M. CST Staff Sergeant Ira L. Livingston in Birmingham, Alabama, reported that he and his neighbor, Herman M. Sockwell, and others noticed a round object in the western sky heading south in an arched flight path. After it passed, they observed six more, one at a time, traversing the same course. Livingston, who had 250 hours as a pilot and aerial gunner, estimated that the objects were traveling 500 to 600 miles per hour at around 2,000 feet with a dim glow.
      The Air Force file detailing Livingston's sighting fails to make any mention of the vast multitude of other sightings simultaneously going on around the city and in that whole area of the country like those from Missouri. In fact, hundreds of other Birmingham residents observed discs as the local radio station logged as many as 400 calls on the strange lights between 8:00 and 9:00 P.M. 95  One Birmingham witness, Marvin Pharo, said the objects steadily increased in numbers and seemed to "go over the mountain" to the south. J.H. Chatham, a state mine inspector, along with his neighbors, described seeing "egg-shaped" fluorescent discs flying "fairly low against the mountain" outside of Birmingham.




68. Alfred Loedding and The Great Flying Saucer Wave of 1947

      Other city residents like Mr. and Mrs. J.R. Martin described them as "saucer-like." Miss Connie Murdock on 512 South 10th Court Street observed nine objects that she could only characterize as "like gobs of light moving around in the sky." 96  Robert Crossland of the Birmingham Age-Herald captured two photographs of the strange objects. Army Intelligence did analyze the photos and agreed with professional Birmingham photographers that it represented "an actual image of the mysterious discs." 97
      Others back in St. Louis, Missouri, may have had still more sightings up to 8:00 P.M. CST. 98  As late as 9:30 P.M. at least one more Missouri report came in 50 miles to the south of St. Joseph. Filed to newspapers by S.D. Wilson of Independence, he told of spotting a "row of saucers" flying in single file in a northerly direction over Gardner Lake. They traveled at a high rate of speed in a straight line. Each appeared to have a bright light on their undersides. 99
      Aside from the various accounts of the disc sightings, the national media via the newspapers and radio were also running stories by the 6th on possible explanations for the phenomena. Many theories were expressed including a possible link to nuclear testing and even a suggestion the sightings could represent physical manifestations of signals from Mars. Most scientists, however, chose to ignore the subject and those that would comment, suggested a connection to military testing.
      Two of the country's leading astronomers were quoted by the press on that point. Dr. Gerard Kuiper, head of the University of Chicago's Yerkes Observatory at Williams Bay, Wisconsin, and Dr. Oliver Lee, head of Northwestern University's Dearborn Observatory at Evanston, stated that the curious discs were "man-made" and probably "radio-controlled." Lee said that "the Army, Navy and Air Force are working secretly on all sorts of things." 100  Ironically, many in-the military by that date were themselves starting to wonder if some other branch of the service had an experimental test vehicle undergoing secret trials. Time, however, would prove no such domestic program ever existed. Although that was one theory the early investigators, like Alfred Loedding, had to examine.

Monday 7 July

Sightings were already worldwide by Monday. In England a clergyman's wife had her attention drawn skyward by "a dark ring with clear-cut edges"



Chapter Four----The Onslaught   69

speeding across the sky. 101  In Mexico five discs were spotted over Mexicali and two over Ciudad Juarez. 102
      Back in the United States at 2:30 AM. PST in Tacoma, Washington, two police officers saw glowing, turning, discs moving overhead on an erratic course. At first the objects would glow red, then turn purple, and work into a blue-white hue before returning to a red color. They noted one "central saucer" which appeared to act as a sort of "flagship." Around it, smaller saucers were said to make repeated "sorties" to the larger disc. 103  This same type of strange phenomena was then repeated by a woman in Palmdale, California. She also described seeing a "mother saucer" with a "bunch of little saucers playing around it." 104  At Riverside, California, an even more fantastic report came to light. There, a man stated that he saw six discs the size of small plates hovering over a power line while he was outside trying to find the cause of the static on his radio. 105  By 6:21 A.M. PST yet another case comes from Colton, California, where eight silvery "egg or disc-shaped" objects were observed silently flying by in a straight line. One of the craft was described as elliptical-shaped and "flashing." 106
      About two hours later a disc was sighted in Lawton, Oklahoma, headed west. Then just five minutes later near San Carlos, California, at 10:35 A.M. PST Stanley Miramon and his mother observed 30 strange objects circle overhead at about 2,000 feet. Miramon compared them to the size of an automobile and round and silvery in appearance. 107  By that afternoon near Glenn, California, two farmers harvesting barley noticed the sun reflecting off three "rows" of discs flying overhead. They estimated that there were at least twenty-five craft flying at great speed, moving with an up and down and side to side tipping motion. Before they passed out of sight the three row formation changed into a perfect V formation. 108  Still another sighting occurred near Sacramento:

      William Smith, a photographer for the Bee, saw a round object which appeared to be tumbling over and over, alternately showing a dark and a bright side. It was unlike any plane he had seen as a former Naval aviator. He went for his camera, but when he returned it was gone.  109

      Another very interesting article describes a disc sighting that morning




70. Alfred Loedding and The Great Flying Saucer Wave of 1947

at the Rodgers Airport in Springfield, Missouri:

      A flying saucer was spotted over Springfield yesterday by three observers at the Rodgers airport, a city policeman reported last night.
      The officer, Frank Walker, who flies a plane in his spare time, said he took off from the Rodgers airport yesterday morning, bound on a short pleasure cruise toward Ozark and back.
      Walker said his trip was uneventful, and he didn't sight any of the shiny discs personally, but when he returned to the airport later three friends who had watched his takeoff told of seeing an object "trailing" him for some distance.
      "They said it was flat-shaped and shiny," Walker said, "and that it appeared to have some sort of fins on it" The fellow who first saw it thought I was towing a target of some kind. Altogether, three persons saw it, I believe.
       Walker said the men told him the object appeared to be rolling over steadily. He said the observers reported that the discs followed him for some distance toward the northeast and vanished as Walker's plane turned toward the southwest.  110

      In Los Angeles, California, pilot Vernon Baird, while flying a war surplus P-38 fighter for the Fairchild Photogrammetric Engineers Company, told of a very close aerial encounter he had with a UFO. Baird and an assistant, George Suttin, were mapping the region between Helena and Yellowstone Park for the Reclamation Bureau. They were at 32,400 feet traveling at 360 miles per hour when a flying disc appeared 100 yards behind their aircraft. It had a pearl gray color and looked to be around fifteen feet in diameter and four feet thick with a type of plexiglass canopy or dome on top. When the disc started to overtake the P-38, Baird took evasive action, causing it to be suddenly buffeted with strong air currents or propwash. Baird believed the saucer may have broken up during the maneuver because after the encounter it appeared to split into two clamshell-like sections and lose altitude over the Tobacco Root Mountains of western Montana. 111 
      Although unheard of at the time, many UFO reports in later years would describe similar aerial separations. Often appearing as if an aircraft had broken-up in flight—rather, they seem to indicate some sort of complex change or maneuver. Interestingly, after this sighting made headlines, the Fairchild Company became so inundated with phone calls that a plant spokesman soon stated the incident had never really happened and was just the result of some wild talk. But it was JJ. Archer, Baird's boss, who branded it a hoax, not Baird or Suttin. 112




Chapter Four----The Onslaught   71

      That is not an infrequent problem with UFO reports. After the fact, some witnesses, or their friends, will make a similar claim simply to put an end to the nuisance of public interest. Sorting out the actual reports from the hoaxes in such a case, especially after so many years, is often impossible.
      Another air-to-air sighting took place that morning seven miles north of the Shreveport Municipal Airport. The Shreveport, Louisiana, Times, states:

Sgt. Marvin V. Thomas, 26, of Squadron K, Barksdale Field was flying when he saw a bright silver object shaped like a saucer. Thomas said that he flew toward the object for five minutes, and then veered to the right and left, trying to determine his distance from it but without success. It looked about the size of the moon and looked thin as it turned."  113 

      Boise Evening Statesman aviation writer Dave Johnson became keenly interested in such sightings. He was friends not only with Kenneth Arnold but came to know Captain Smith of the United Airlines Flight 105 Case too. In fact, up until 1953 when unnamed military officials suggested he tone down his enthusiasm, Johnson investigated many of the more significant UFO sightings. The following article is very revealing because it documents his first efforts to learn more about this strange phenomenon:

Idaho Newsman-Pilot Given 'Dream Assignment'
'Get Picture of Saucers Or Bring One Back Alive'

By DAVE JOHNSON 
(Idaho Statesman Aviation Editor)

Boise—July 6--AP--FIew instruments this afternoon for a couple of hours with the Idaho national guard. A lieutenant colonel sat up in front and watched for discs while I struggled with the gauges and the radio beam. We got back into Gowen field's pattern, and the control tower called to report some people in Ontario, Ore., had told the CAA they saw some saucers wheeling through the sky.  Now, there's one thing about these saucers. I've never seen one, so on the way home I dropped into the Statesman office with an idea. That was to take the Early-Bird No. 3, our airplane, and be up tonight and prowl around the airways, just looking.
Gets Expense Dough
      I broached that to the city editor and blew the foam off of it, and a you-know-what look spread over his face, just like somebody had tossed a brick into a mud puddle. He talked for a few minutes and I listened. The upshot of it was that I walked out of the office with expense dough in my pocket and a date with Kenneth Arnold, the Boise man who two weeks ago saw the discs come roaring around Mt Rainier in Washington.




72. Alfred Loedding and The Great Flying Saucer Wave of 1947

      I have one of those things called a general assignment. I'm going disc hunting with Arnold in the Statesman plane.
      Started In Idaho
The city editor had said:
      "Dave, I was just about to give you a call and discuss this damn saucer business with you. The thing started here in Boise with Arnold and it is getting out of hand. The wire services are moving more copy on it than any single story in years except the war, and no    ' one knows any more about it now than when they were doubting this fellow Arnold who first reported seeing whatever it is that is being looked at, real or imaginary."
       "As I said before, this business started in Boise and it is up to us if we can do it to help get it brought down to earth. I hope you can lasso one of the damn things and bring it in for display, but on the other hand, it might be a good idea to be ready to duck if you see something skipping along."
Dream Assignment
I might interject here that the boss doesn't fly.
      "Crank up your airplane," he said, "and go up around the Hanford atom plant area in Washington and stay there until you either find something or give it up. See if this fellow Arnold wants to go along (he jumped at the chance) and take the best camera equipment you can find and stay as long as you want to."
       Such an assignment- stay as long as you want to- is not to be accepted lightly. "Fly around that area," said the city editor, "because my hunch is that if these things can come from any place they are coming from some project like Hanford. The army has denied this possibility but the army has been making denials a major business for years. In one case an Army man said there's nothing to get excited about, "if there were anything to the saucers the army would have notified us."
       Also... Good Luck!
       If you see anything that answers the description—or the hundreds of descriptions-- grab a picture and high-tail for Boise." "Oh yes," he added. "Good luck to you."
They take the insurance out of my check.I phoned Arnold. We are taking off bright and early in the morning. Arnold has a new movie camera with a telephoto lens and we're fortified for pictures. From somewhere up in eastern Washington tomorrow night you'll hear from us, providing, of course, we don't run into something that proves these reports to be the McCoy and it runs over us.
       The city desk says he'll stand behind us."  114

      Saucer sightings also came from Spokane, Washington; Cambridge, Massachusetts; Osburn, Idaho; Lakeview, Oregon; Rutland, Vermont; Wisconsin; and 17 cases originated in Illinois. 115




Chapter Four----The Onslaught   73

      A very notable incident on the 7th, for example, occurred around noon near Willow Springs, Illinois, when Robert Meegan and his 14 year old son John heard a buzzing noise overhead. They were working in the fields on their farm near the Des Plains River not far from the Argonne National Laboratories. Looking up they saw "13 round objects all going east, single file in a straight line." They described the objects as round with flat bottoms estimated about as big as a house and bluish-grey in color. They stated that the craft flew on a straight and level course toward the east. 116
      By noontime that day Deputy Army Air Force Chief of Staff Hoyt Vandenberg gave up any hope of getting to regular business. His entire day proved to be dominated by phone calls on the sightings. In fact, while at Hensley Field in Dallas, Texas, that afternoon, he stated publicly that the Army Air Force was receiving thousands of queries on the disc sightings. 117
      The discs reports that came out of Wisconsin, via Boiling Field and the state's Civil Air Patrol, were even more stunning than those in Illinois and must have attracted the General's attention. The first began at 11:45 A.M. CST when a flight instructor, Kenneth Jones, and his student in a private aircraft at 800 feet spotted a "saucer" near Koshkonong, Wisconsin. It descended from the clouds vertically and edgewise until stopping to hover at 4,000 feet. The craft then took off at a speed estimated at 6,000 miles per hour—calculated by the 25 mile distance the object covered between Koshkonong to Elkhorn in fifteen seconds. At the end of its speedy run the object suddenly stopped and hovered, then disappeared in the distance.
      At 2:30 P.M another set of airborne witnesses reported a saucer near East Troy, Wisconsin. Pilot Wing Supply Officer Captain R.J. Southey (Burlington Civil Air Patrol) and a passenger, Clem Hackworthy, were at 3,500 feet when they saw a flying disc below them at 2,500 feet. It then covered the 22 mile distance between Eagle to Muskego in twenty seconds, placing its speed at 3,960 miles per hour. These two cases represent the best sightings of 1947, but are never discussed because their investigative case files are today missing from the Blue Book files released to the National Archives. Further information may never be found although the few details presented here come from a recent discovery by researcher Jan Aldrich. 118
      An early investigated case from 1947 that did survive the years, reports a sighting at 4:00 P.M. MST in Phoenix, Arizona. In this instance William A. Rhodes captured two photographs of an elliptical, flat, gray, heel-shaped object flying between 400 and 600 miles per hour.




74. Alfred Loedding and The Great Flying Saucer Wave of 1947

      The images reveal a dark irregularly-shaped disc that looks surprisingly like the description of a sighting made between 1:00 and 4:00 P.M. EST that same day, but on the opposite side of the country just east of Lakeland, Florida. That report came from a man who heard a swishing noise followed by the appearance of five shiny unidentifiable objects moving northeast. After the encounter, the observer made a model of one of the objects. The photo of his replica, although of very poor quality, is still in the archival files and shows a cloverleaf-shaped craft with a small vertical fin and a dome on top. 119


Researcher Dr. James McDonald interviewed Rhodes in 1968 and expressed some concern in a letter to NICAP acting director Richard Hall over Rhodes' credibility. McDonald did, however, say the circumstances of Rhodes' photographs, one of which is depicted above, checked out. Alfred Loedding also interviewed Rhodes in 1948, becoming impressed by his story. And prior to that, the Brown and Davidson Army Intelligence team interviewed Rhodes in late July, 1947 as did the FBI somewhat later. Brown and Davidson even talked in confidence with Kenneth Arnold and Captain Smith about the case on July 31st—showing them the photo. Arnold then responded, to their surprise, that the Rhodes' heel-shaped image looked like one of the nine disks he saw. Arnold stressed that point because only one of the "saucers" he observed on June 24th looked distinctively different—in fact it looked heel-shaped! Up until that point Arnold had confided that detail to no one because he had not even remembered it himself until hearing the description of the Rhodes' sighting from Brown and Davidson. The Rhodes photo, however, was printed by the Arizona Republic as early as July 9th. The original negatives were later turned over by Rhodes to representatives from Army Intelligence and the FBI but he was never able to get them returned. Ironically, Arnold was given a copy of the photos by an official at Hamilton Field which he later gave to UFO researcher Dr. James McDonald.




Chapter Four----The Onslaught   75




The archival photo of the model made from the Lakeland, Florida, sighting.


      California produced more sightings by late afternoon: The most notable involved two teenagers. At 3:10 P.M. PST they observed a "flat glistening object" fly in from out over the ocean. It then rapidly lost altitude and dove into the water about 400 yards from shore. As it hit, a tall column of water rose up, and the unknown craft could momentarily be seen on the surface before it disappeared beneath the turning waves. 120  Another good sighting that day occurred around 4:40 P.M. MST. This report should have made it into Air Force files with an accompanying investigation but did not. Thus, all we have is a newspaper clipping. The most interesting aspect of the account tells of possible electromagnetic disturbances being generated as a result of the UFO encounter. Termed EM effects, it is a common component of later sightings but rarely documented in the earlier incidents:

       Sergeant C.F. Clifton, Bergstrom Field aerial radioman reported seeing one of the flying saucers bound toward San Antonio as his plane was leaving there. Other members of the crew also saw the disc. "I think it was about 18 feet in diameter and looked as though it was made of glass," Sgt. Clifton said. "It was extremely bright and kept flashing." Sgt Clifton said that the crew figured that it must have been flying 1,440 miles an hour because it overtook and passed their plane in such a short time. It was round and was flying at a slightly tilted angle. "The disc seemed to be spinning as it flew," Sgt.   Clifton  reported.  "It  blurred  radio  reception  slightly." Lieutenant Charles O. Anderson was piloting the plane which the disc passed about 4:30 p.m.  121




76. Alfred Loedding and The Great Flying Saucer Wave of 1947

      Another interesting EM effect befell the town of Acampo, California, the night before around dawn. Citizens of that community noted a "spectacular glow in the sky" accompanied by a loud roar just before a complete area-wide power failure. Not long after that a mysterious flying object was seen at low altitude over the nearby town of Lodi. In later years very similar UFO related blackouts have occurred, but this is one of the earliest examples of such an event. 122  One curious discovery from interviews conducted with Alfred Loedding's relatives, reveal that he was one of the first officials to recognize this important facet. Other early investigators only theorized about nuclear propulsion as a possible power plant for the discs. Loedding, for whatever reason, seemed to have a very clear understanding that many of the UFOs displayed electromagnetic properties.
      Around 5:20 P.M. a secretary in the Engineering Department of Dupont's Chester, Pennsylvania, division had a more common encounter when witnessing five dull gray objects fly over in a V-formation. 123  Much further south a strange encounter occurred over the Gulf of Mexico:

       Captain Marian Ruffner of Midnight Pass was proceeding in her deep sea fishing boat when she saw something that she first thought was a dirigible heading out over the Gulf. It was heading southwest, moving fast and appeared to be round and flat. It appeared and disappeared as she watched. "It flashed in the sun and appeared to be silver in color." Mrs. Ruffner described herself as "flabbergasted" by the sight of an object that she had previously taken as a joke. She reported that she was cold sober at the tirne.  124

      That night at 6:30 P.M. EST a Tampa, Florida, man, George Gortez, and several others saw a V formation of three "golden colored" objects slowly flying overhead. 125  Further west at 8:30 P.M. CST John W. Hawkins and Virgil Ashley reported seeing a "flying disc" pass over St. Joseph, Missouri, at a high speed heading toward the north. They noticed the craft while sitting out in the back yard of the Ashley home, one mile north of the city. The UFO appeared luminous and disc-shaped with a silver glow. Estimated to have been around 300 feet in the air, it gave off a faint buzzing sound. Then at 9:17 P.M. a phone call came into the St. Joseph Gazette, stating that a flying disc had just been spotted over the city. Reporters looked outside but did not see anything. 126  Around that same time period a single disc was seen over St. Louis, and University City, Missouri. 127




Chapter Four----The Onslaught   77

      Back east on the Atlantic coast at 9:30 P.M. EST a "flying saucer" zoomed over Wilmington, North Carolina heading north.. Witnesses noted its high rate of speed and unusual brightness with an orange tint. 128  About the same time two college kids, Albert Dugan and Charles Cross, reported seeing a large luminous object speed overhead just ten miles outside of Raleigh, North Carolina. They initially thought it to be a star, but then realized the object was an elliptical flying machine that radiated blue lights from its edges as it moved in a circular orbit. After about three minutes it vanished into the clouds which were later confirmed by the Weather Bureau to be at a ceiling of 5,500 feet. An independent observation also described a luminous object moving north over Asheville, North Carolina. 129  Before the day was out, Mexico City claimed several saucer sightings, reporting discs identical to those seen all over the United States. 130

Tuesday 8 July

Early the next day around 7:05 A.M. CST a private pilot viewed a very strange sight from his small aircraft while over Cook Springs, Alabama. Silhouetted against a nearby mountain, he noted a circular object with a mirror-like finish. The pilot attempted to close in, but its speed was so great, it soon flew out of sight. 131
      At 8:15 A.M. Arizona State Highway Department workers Henry Varela, R.N. Villa, and Henry Hodges observed two "flying saucers streak high over the city of Yuma." Villa and Hodges saw them first and when Varela heard his friends talking he thought they must be describing aircraft. But Varela had seen an aircraft pass over just moments earlier and what he then witnessed looked nothing like it. All three men described the objects as saucer-shaped. They stated that they were silver in color and appeared to be just alike with one flying behind the other. The one thing that so amazed the men concerned the absolute lack of sound associated with the incident despite the fact the objects were at a fairly high altitude. The actual altitude could not be estimated, but all agreed the saucers were very high and traveled extremely fast in a straight line until they disappeared out of sight to the northeast. James Gordon of the US Weather Bureau suggested that the men could have simply made a misidentification of the planet Venus despite the fact that two distinct objects were seen in the same area of sky at the same time. 132




78. Alfred Loedding and The Great Flying Saucer Wave of 1947

      Around 9:30 or 10:00 A.M. PST at Muroc Army Air Force Base, California, (today Edwards AFB) Lieutenant Joseph C. McHenry viewed with three other witnesses, two silver spherical objects traveling about 300 miles per hour in level flight. The unknown craft moved northward toward Mojave, California, against the prevailing wind at 8,000 feet when a third object appeared—heading in the same direction but making several tight circles.
      McHenry told intelligence officers that no aircraft he knew of could have performed such sharp maneuvers. Yet that was not the end of the story that day at the super secret Muroc test grounds. 133  By 11:50 A.M. at nearby Rogers Dry Lake, two technicians observed another strange event. They reported seeing a luminous round object for about 90 seconds. The men had been watching two P-82 fighters and an A-26 attack plane that were preparing for a seat ejection test when the UFO came into view. At first the men thought the object might be the parachute from the test, but that occurred later. The object did, however, very much resemble a fabric-like object not quite as dense as a parachute canopy with a white aluminum color. It flew silently at a little under 20,000 feet until descending at about three times the rate of the parachute, which was visible during the ejection test. As it came lower its silhouette presented a distinctive oval shape with two projections on the upper surface which seemed to slowly oscillate. The UFO moved against the wind in a northwesterly direction toward Mount Wilson until it was lost from sight as it descended level with the tops of a nearby mountain range. 134
      Still later at 3:50 P.M., 40 miles south of Muroc, a P-51 pilot at 20,000 feet spotted a wingless, tailless "flat object of light-reflecting nature." He twice attempted an intercept but could not climb high enough. Intelligence later took great note of that incident because they determined that no military or civilian aircraft were in the area. 135
      That night at 9:20 P.M. spherical objects were again seen in the area, this time at 8,000 feet still moving against the wind at around 300 miles per hour. This was reminiscent of a sighting just the day before at 10:10 A.M. when Muroc test pilot Major J.C. Wise, while preparing his XP-84 aircraft for takeoff, observed one yellowish-white spherical object traveling at 200 to 225 miles per hour at 10,000 feet. It headed east with an oscillating motion. 136
      These disc sightings over Muroc really shook-up the Pentagon. Known collectively as the Muroc Sightings, the incidents led the Army Air Force to issue classified orders requiring reports of any "saucer-like" objects to be




Chapter Four----The Onslaught   79

given to the T-2 branch (the Technical Intelligence office—redesignated the Technical Intelligence Division or TID in August) of the Air Materiel Command at Wright Field in Dayton, Ohio. A post-war version of the highly secret T-2 wartime intelligence group, the Technical Intelligence (later Division) specialized in collecting data on enemy aircraft.
      T-2 at the Air Materiel Command had been "unofficially interested" in the disc reports which had filtered in via the Pentagon and various Air Force commands—namely the Fourth Air Force. 137  In fact, beginning with the July 4th Independence Day Sightings a directive came down from Army Air Force Chief of Staff General Carl Spaatz who wanted the 4th AAF Intelligence at Hamilton Field to "open a file," although he specified that they should then report their findings to the Air Materiel Command. Yet the Muroc incidents threw matters into high gear and motivated the Pentagon to ask for a maximum effort from intelligence units around the world. Orders were then sent to all US Army air bases requiring sightings near their area to be investigated and reports sent directly to Wright Field with paperwork also going to the Pentagon. Actually, research shows that most of the early casework went directly to the Pentagon, and Wright Field did not get a complete set of files until September of 1947—by which time Loedding was working in a meaningful way with the investigations and personally lobbying for the reports.
      By July 8th investigators from Wright Field, along with Alfred Loedding, began to speculate the flying disc phenomenon may be advanced German Third Reich weapons and/or aircraft being designed and flown over the United States by the Soviet Union's military forces. Specifically suspect were the wartime designs of flying-wing style aircraft inspired by the Horten brothers, Reimar and Walter of-Goettingen. One of their jet propelled flying wing designs had made its way to Wright Labs after the war and was undoubtedly studied by Loedding and the T-2 office.
      Shortly after July 8th Technical Intelligence at Wright Field requested that the US Army Counter Intelligence Corps-Europe, or ECIC, help in the investigation. 138  Their agents in Germany scoured the allied occupation zones for clues to the existence of any models of Horten-like aircraft but found nothing. 139  Thus, without doubt, the government already began feeling pressure to solve the saucer mystery as early as July 8th. Although, it is unknown just how much reactive concern the Truman administration placed on the Pentagon and subsequently to Intelligence. Yet, between July 8th and




80. Alfred Loedding and The Great Flying Saucer Wave of 1947

July 9th, the wheels began turning very fast. Washington released the following statement:

Washington, July 9 (UP)—Official Washington was sure today that it knew what the flying saucers were not-but it hadn't the faintest idea what they were. The Army Air Forces said they had the matter under investigation. Preliminary study has disclosed that the flying discs are not:

1. Secret bacteriological weapons designed by some foreign
2. New-type Army rockets.
3. Spaceships.  140

      In reaction, Army Air Force Requirements Intelligence branch chief, Brigadier General George F. Schulgen, called on the FBI to give additional assistance. Schulgen also brought in one of the Muroc pilots to the Pentagon to be interrogated by a host of generals, scientists, and even psychologists. Despite a thorough grilling, the pilot remained convinced that he had seen a "flying disk." 141  (See Appendix II.)
      Schulgen also worked on the flying disc phenomenon with Pentagon Intelligence Collections branch executive Colonel Robert Taylor and his right-hand man, Lieutenant Colonel George D. Garrett. It was Garrett and the Collection branch that Loedding would coordinate with in his liaison work. But, documents do show Loedding had meetings in person with Schulgen as well. Taylor and Garrett were also the military connection to the FBI. They utilized FBI Special Agent S.W. Reynolds for the first inquiries into the by-then nation-wide rash of disc sightings.
      In late July, Colonel Garrett, perhaps after networking with Loedding, decided to write up a report and send it to both the FBI and the upper echelons of the Pentagon. His memo basically served as a preliminary estimate of the current UFO situation. The intention in compiling the paper may have also been to bring the issue to a head.
      In other words, this report hoped to establish a position on the phenomenon. Garrett, and certainly Loedding, first of all wanted to know if the discs represented a secret American project. (See Appendix III.) After that their more overwhelming fears centered around something of foreign—namely Soviet origin. All of these men, however, quickly became frustrated with the higher echelons of the military in their attempts to crack the mystery. Distinguished UFO researcher Professor Michael Swords writes in reference to this:




Chapter Four----The Onslaught   81

      As July wore on into August, Garrett, Schulgen, and Reynolds became confused by a void of interest or pressure emanating from the high echelons of the Pentagon. They had gone through an investigative furor, which they considered to be similar to the flying disks, the previous year when hundreds of "ghost rocket" reports were made in Sweden and other European countries. In the 1946 experience, though, the top brass had exerted continuous pressure to find an answer. But here, the brass had gone completely quiet. This puzzling void has been termed "the Silence from Topside." It was very peculiar to Garrett and the FBI. Their mutual suspicion was that the very highest brass knew what this phenomenon was already.  142

      The Silence from Topside refers to a connection to the Roswell Incident. Some researchers feel that physical evidence was recovered during that event, proving the flying discs to represent a real technology. The assumption is of course that the "technology" was of extraterrestrial origin and that the "top brass" were involved in a cover up of evidence. Others feel that if there was a suspicion that the high brass "knew the real answer," it involved the idea of a secret insight into captured Nazi technology. The FBI simply wanted to know up front if the phenomenon was something that actually required their expertise as the Bureau's manpower was limited. In other words, as Loren Gross wrote in his book on the 1947 wave: "If the saucers were not due to Communist agents making false reports, there wasn't much to keep the FBI busy." 143  (See Appendix IV for example of FBI memos expressing concern.) Yet, the military was truly concerned about a Soviet link. Even as late as 1952, some Pentagon officials would be speculating about a German/Soviet connection to the disc mystery. Following is an intriguing letter which came into Air Force Intelligence in 1952. It would seem to support such an assertion if it is indeed a genuine account:

Rudolf Goy
Menehek-Power
P.O. Box 2000
Mont Joli, P. Q,Canada            5 September 1952
Vice-Chief of Staff of U.S. Air Force
Gentlemen:
I'm sorry if I send this letter to you, but I have something to tall (sic) you about the "Flying Saucers." I am a German, and my trade is Aeronautical Engineer. Please dont(sic) think I look for a job in this trade. No, I just wont (sic) tall (sic) you, was happend (sic) about this plane before all is over. I am sorry if I writh (sic) in the German laguage (sic) below, my english grammar is too bad to tall (sic) you right." [Translator's note: these first three paragraphs are

 


82. Alfred Loedding and The Great Flying Saucer Wave of 1947

in English in the original text and I have copied them verbatim.] I would like to stress once more that by writing you this letter, I am not looking for a position nor do I want to make my name famous in an easy way. To start with, I would refuse this. Since there is so much clamor going on, I think it is time for me to tell you something about it and for this reason I am writing you a few lines. All this noise about these flying apparatus is known to you, but I would like to tell you not to believe in the visits from other planets or in the meteorological phenomena, because I believe that all this is a big mistake. In 1944 I worked with a small group of scientists and technicians on flying apparatus which resembled exactly this "Flying Saucer." Due to the air raids our group was sent to Silesia in order to work undisturbed. The experiments were only model tests and they were supposed to be realized in great haste since, according to Teich Marshal Goring's directive, this was Hitler's "Mystery Weapon." We were subordinate directly   to   him   (Goring)   and   cut   off  from   every   outside communication. Even the letters which I wrote to my wife had to be  addressed via Berlin where they were subject to censorship. The end came in 1945. We wanted to save at least something, so we separated and tried to reach the west individually. As I found out, not everyone succeeded because three of our group were captured and with them a part of the test results as well as some technical drawings. This was reported to me by a colleague who succeeded in escaping at the last moment. This is what I have to say on this point. Now, let's go to the apparatus itself. After the wind-tunnel tests, an experimental model was built of 3.6 m (in diameter). The driving motor was the same as " the one used for the experimental rockets. The steering gear was remotely controlled and similar to the FX-Bombs, which I know you are familiar with. From the aerotechnical standpoint, the results were amazing and they surpassed all expectations. However, it would take too long to give you all the details. You have a staff of scientists and technicians and I can only advise you to work a full steam so that the  technique will not be 10 years ahead in a certain part of the world,  while you believe yourselves to be in the first place. I am thinking of the jets in Korea. But please, do not think that I, as a small man, would like to propose something. I don't. But do not be misled about things which do exist. Perhaps you will say: "Who does he think he is, this German guy, he can't teach us, Americans, etc. ..." Please, gentlemen, the question now is not "who invented this thing," the only thing that matters now is not to be the last one and, at a decisive moment, find oneself confronted with the facts. By then, of course, it would be too late. Just look at 1939-1945, and I believe we learned enough. I hope that you do not misunderstand me. Even though my duty is not to gossip about these things, nevertheless, the existence of these things released me from the secrecy-oath given at that time to the constructor. I wish you every success in this work and I remain Sincerely, Rudolf Goy

P.S. I am reported the same to the Vice-Chief of Staff of the Royal Canadian Air Force.  144




Chapter Four----The Onslaught   83

      In late July Colonel Garrett finished his preliminary estimate of the current UFO situation:

From detailed study of reports selected for their impression of veracity and reliability, several conclusions have been formed:
(a) This "flying saucer" situation is not all imaginary or seeing too much in some natural phenomenon. Something is really flying around.
(b) Lack of topside inquiries, when compared to the prompt and demanding inquires that have originated topside upon former events, give more ordinary weight to the possibility that this is a domestic project, about which the President, etc. know.
(c) Whatever the objects are, this much can be said of their physical appearance:
1. The surface of these objects is metallic, indicating a metallic skin, at least.
2. When a trail is observed, it is lightly colored, a Blue-Brown haze, that is similar to a rocket engine's exhaust. Contrary to a rocket of the solid type, one observation indicates that the fuel may be throttled which would indicate a liquid rocket engine.
3. As to shape, all observations state that the object is circular or at least elliptical, flat on the bottom and slightly domed on the top. The size estimates place it somewhere near the size of a C-54 or a Constellation.
4. Some reports described two tabs, located at the rear and symmetrical about the axis of flight motion.
5. Flights have been reported, from three to nine of them, flying good formation on each other, with speeds always above 300 knots.
6. The discs oscillate laterally while flying along, which could be snaking.  145

      The report did force the Pentagon to start eliminating possibilities. The Chief of Research and Development, General Curtis E. LeMay, dispelled the first assumption. He stated, that "the Army Air Force has no project with the characteristics similar to those which have been associated with the Flying Discs." 146  Nevertheless, something from somewhere was definitely flying over US air space that July. The people concerned, like Loedding, had but one other possibility to eliminate—a Soviet connection.
      On that watershed day of the 8th of July, UFO activity proved active elsewhere in the country. At 1:00 P.M. PST in Avalon, California, several hundred witnesses on Santa Catalina Island off Long Beach observed a formation of "saucers." Most observers agreed that there were six disc-shaped objects in the formation which passed over the island. Among those were Army Air Corps veterans Bob Jung, Kenneth Johnson, and Alvio Russo. Jung




84. Alfred Loedding and The Great Flying Saucer Wave of 1947

actually got a photo of the objects as did Alvio Russo. Russo, who had piloted 35 combat missions over Europe, estimated their speed at 850 miles per hour. Jung clarified the details by stating that they were flying in two elements of three each about as fast as a Navy Tiny Tim rocket. He said the formation came in from the northeast and disappeared over the hills to the south of AvalonBay. 147
      By 3:30 P.M. PST in Seattle, Washington, a "very shiny" oval-shaped disc with a "glass dome on top" flew in a northwest direction over the city. 148  In St. Joseph, Missouri, at 4:20 P.M. CST Mrs. La Verla McCord and neighbor Mrs. Frances Illines reported a white luminous round object traveling slowly to the northeast. The craft seemed to be high, but the women were surprised that it made no noise. Many tried to convince them that they had seen a balloon despite the fact that the wind at that time was from the east. Weather Bureau observer Arthur Van Cleave confirmed this although admitted winds above 8,000 feet were from the northwest, but did not think they could have been capable of blowing a balloon northeast. Then, just as the excitement over the first sighting died down, another disc report came at 6:00 P.M. from St. Joseph. 149
      One of the most credible accounts of the early sightings came out of an incident over Alton, New Hampshire, at 4:26 P.M. EST. The report was made by private pilot Thomas Dale, the son of noted Governor Charles M. Dale and a highly respected pilot during WWII. For that reason the press took great interest in his story and undoubtedly accounts of the incident were monitored by Loedding and others in Dayton as well as the Pentagon. Furthermore, Dale was not alone at the time. His friend Jere Stetson was in the aircraft with him and both told an identical account.
      They stated that while flying southwest over Alton at an altitude of 2,800 feet, a strange object appeared two miles to the east and some 1,500 feet below their plane. It then approached them at "excessive speed" in a matter of 15 to 18 seconds as it veered north over Alton Bay and Lake Winnipesaukee, toward Moultenboro. Both men were careful not to assume anything. Dale, in fact, stated that "I'm not saying it was a 'flying saucer,' or disc." But the men did agree that it did not "in any way, shape or manner" resemble any type of known aircraft. They then went on to stress that it was definitely of metal construction, about 20 feet long, and "not exactly round in shape." When they first spotted the object it was observed in profile against the trees below. They said the sight left them "flabbergasted."  150




Chapter Four----The Onslaught   85

      That evening numerous sightings came from Philadelphia and southern New Jersey. Although only a few reports were printed by area newspapers, hundreds of witnesses in the city and area suburbs saw a huge flying cone-shaped object that was colored gray. 151  Researchers, however, are always hesitant when reading accounts of cone shaped objects simply because that is a prime characteristic of the large research balloons—just starting to come into use at that time.
      Around 9:50 P.M. PST a huge formation of luminous "flying saucers" were spotted over Fraser Valley, British Columbia, heading west at great speed. 152  Finally at 11:05 P.M. PST, UFOs appeared over Chino, California which topped a list of dozens of sightings in the state that day which involved hundreds of witnesses. 153
      Other headlines from the 8th came from all over North America, but exact times for the sightings are hard to pin down. Saucer reports, for example, came from parts of Ohio, but no times were recorded. 154  Similarly, a very good sighting came from Corapeak, North Carolina, that day. Many valuable details were provided by a news article—all but the time of sighting:

       A Farmer saw an object shaped like an enormous pancake, something like a flounder with its tail cut off. It appeared to be about 20-30 feet in diameter and moving about 800 miles per hour at about 2,000 feet. The object had two window-shaped openings. The body seemed to be of stainless steel or aluminum with a glow. The witness heard an almost inaudible sound as the object passed out of his sight in three or four seconds. It had several protruding pipe-shaped extensions which emitted vapor.  155

      A report from Norfolk, Virginia, places other strange aerial phenomena over the East Coast:

       Lt. Cmdr. L.D. Patterson of the Naval Station reported five yellowish discs like the moon, flying in formation over the Air Station from the West. Patterson said the formation was surrounded by a mist, and the bodies each left trails.
      Walter Hurst who telephoned the Ledger-Dispatch for Patterson, said that Patterson, a pilot of considerable time in the air, was unable to establish the altitude having no point for calculation.  156




86. Alfred Loedding and The Great Flying Saucer Wave of 1947

      Even far distant American bases experienced UFO incidents during the summer wave. It was on the 8th at 5:33 P.M. HST that one hundred Navy men at Pearl Harbor witnessed a mysterious "silvery colored" object with no wings or tail sail over Honolulu at rapid speed in a zig-zagging flight heading east. Five of the observers familiar with weather balloons commented that it just could not have been any type of balloon. Yeoman 1st Class Douglas Kahcerle of New Bedford, Massachusetts, stated: "It moved extremely fast for a short period, seemed to slow down, then disappeared high in the air." 157
      On the other side of the world in Australia, "flying saucers" were reported over Sydney on the 7th and 8th. The sightings occurred at night over the suburb of Kensington when two "white shiny discs" traveled quickly to the west toward Parramatta at about 10,000 feet. "Flying saucers" moving in a V formation were also reported over South Africa by Johannesburg residents. 158




1. International News Service reports, 5 July 1947. 
2. Bartlesville, Oklahoma, Daily Enterprise, 1 July 1947, p. 1.
3. Bloecher, Report on the UFO Wave of 1947, Index.
4. The (Portland) Oregonian,5 July 1947.
5. Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Sentinel, 6 July 1947; and Chicago, Illinois, News, 5 July 1947.
6. Bloecher, Report on the UFO Wave of 1947, p. II-9; and Los Angeles, California, Herald-Express, 5 July
1947.
7. The (Portland) Oregonian, 5 July 1947.
8. Bloecher, Report on the UFO Wave of 1947, p. 111-15.
9. Detroit, Michigan, Free Press, 5 July 1947; and Cleveland, Ohio, Press, 5 July 1947; and The (Portland) Oregonian, 5 July 1947.
10. Project Blue Book Files, Roll No. 1, Cases 28-32, listed as Incidents 5-16 in 1947 era documents.
11. Portland, Oregon, Journal, 5 July 1947.
12. Bloecher, Report on the UFO Wave of 1947, p. II-9; and Los Angeles, Herald-Express, 5 July 1947.
13. Project Blue Book Files, Roll No. 1, Cases 28-32, listed as Incidents 5-16 in 1947 era documents.
14. Bloecher, Report on the UFO Wave of 1947, p. ffl-15.
15. Ibid., p. 111-16; and Ruppelt, Report on Unidentified Flying Objects, p. 36.
16. Helena, Montana, Independent-Record, 5 My 1947. 
17. Sacramento, California, Bee, 5 July 1947.
18. Pocatello, Idaho, Tribune, 6 July 1947; and Salt Lake City, Utah, Tribune, 1 July 1947.
19. Richland, Washington, Villager, 10 July 1947, p. 1. 
20. Little Rock, Arkansas, Gazette, 6, 7 July 1947; and Little Rock Arkansas Democrat, 1 July 1947; New Orleans, Louisiana, Times Picayune, 1 July 1947; and Spokane, Washington, Spokesman-Review, 1 July 1947; and Bloecher, Report on the UFO Wave of 1947, p. IV-1.
21. The Yuma Sun & Arizona Sentinel, 5 July 1947, p. 1; and Hollywood, California, Citizen-News, 5 July
1947.
22. Sacramento (California) Evening Bee, 5 July 1947; and Boulder City (Nevada) Daily News, 1 July 1947, p.1; and Elko, Nevada, Daily Free Press, 1 July, 1947.
23. "Coast Guardsman Snaps Photo of Flying Saucer," St. Joseph (Missouri) Gazette, 5 July 1947, p. 5.
24. Bloecher, Report on the UFO Wave of 1947, p. IV-4.
25. Project Blue Book Files, Roll No. 1, Case 34, listed as Incident 10 in 1947 era documents; and The New YorkTimes, 6July 1947, pp. 1,36.  
26. Ruppelt, Report on Unidentified Flying Objects, p. 23
27. John Corlett, "Newsman and Wife See Idaho Discs," United Press news story, 5 July 1947; and The (Portland) Oregonian, 5 July 1947; and Boise, Idaho, Daily Statesman, 5 July 1947; and San Francisco, California, News, 5 July 1947; and Detroit, Michigan, Free Press, 5 July 1947; and Cincinnati, Ohio, Post, 5 July 1947; and Boston, Massachusetts, Traveler, 5 July 1947; and Windsor, Ontario, Daily Star, 5 July 1947.
28. In his book on the 1947 wave, Bloecher tells of another sighting of a V formation of discs in Auburn, California, just an hour earlier to the Twin Falls case. Bloecher wrote: "Kjell Qvale, an automobile salesman in Alameda and a former Navy pilot for five years, reported that he and a group of 50 other witnesses had watched a triangular formation of disc-like objects near Auburn at 2:30 P.M. PST, flying south. Qvale said that the discs, seen first directly overhead, 'appeared to be made of metal and looked like bright silver,' He added that their round outline was clearly distinguishable. The objects were in view 'for three or four minutes,' he said. 'I have seen a lot of airplanes, and these were not airplanes. The only clue I could get as to their height, size and speed was the fact that they disappeared one at a time, high in the sky, and not over the horizon. This effect would be caused if they were very, very large and very high, and flying at a terrific speed—1,000 miles an hour,' he said." Bloecher also sites a sighting of a V formation of discs that night in Denver, Colorado as well as two sightings of similar V formations over New Orleans on July 6th.
29. Seattle Post Intelligencer, 5 July 1947; and Bloecher, Report on the UFO Wave of 1947, p. II-7. 
30. Spokane, Washington, Daily Chronicle, 5 July 1947.
31. Ibid.
32. Bloecher, Report on the UFO Wave of 1947, p. III-l.
33. Ibid., Index.
34. Ibid.
35. Ibld.  
36. Ibid., p. 11-15.
37. Sioux Falls, Idaho, Daily Argus Leader, 1 July 1947; and Pierre, South Dakota, Daily Capital-Journal, 1 July 1947; and Denver, Colorado, Post, 1 July 1947; and St. Paul, Minnesota, Dispatch, 1 July 1947; and Bloecher, Report on the UFO Wave of 1947, p. 11-15.    OH-JJ
38. The New York Times, 6 July 1947, pp. 1, 36; and Bloecher, Report on the UFO Wave of J 947, Index.
39. The (Portland) Oregonian, 6 July 1947.
40. Albany, Oregon, Democrat Herald, 1 July 1947.
41. Bloecher, Report on the UFO Wave of1947, p. 11-17. 
42. Ibid., p. IV-1.
43. Interview with Donald Loedding by the authors. (Donald stated that his father spoke many times of the landing cases he had investigated.)
44. Associated Press news service report, 7 July 1947.
45. Aldrich, Project 1947: A Preliminary Report On The 1947 UFO Sighting Wave, p. 80.
46. Helena, Montana, Independent-Record, 6 July 1947.
47. Wyoming, Unita County Herald, 11 July 1947, p. 1.
48. Cambridge, Maryland, Daily Banner, 1 July 1947.
49. Longview, Washington, Daily News, 8 July 1947.
50. Sandusky, Ohio, Register-Star-News, 8 July 1947.
51. Corvallis, Oregon, Benton County Herald, 10 July 1947.
52. Pocatello, Idaho, Tribune, 1 July 1947.
53. Miami, Florida, Herald, 1 July 1947, p. IB.  
54. Bloecher, Report on the UFO Wave of 1947, Index.
55. Lake Charles, Louisiana, American Press, 1 July 1947.
56. Bloecher, Report on the UFO Wave of 1947, p. II-5.
57. Ibid
58. Bloecher, Report on the UFO Wave of 1947, p. Ill-17.
59. St. Joseph (Missouri) News-Press, 1 July 1947; and Boulder City (Nevada) Daily News, 1 July 1947, p. 1; and The (Portland) Oregonian, 1 July 1947. 
60. Interview with Donald Loedding, 22 August 1998.
61. "Bloecher, Report on the UFO Wave of 1947, p. II-7. 
62. "Six Tucsonians Say They've Seen Flying Saucers," The Yuma Sun & Arizona Sentinel, 9 July 1947, p. 1.
63. Bloecher, Report on the UFO Wave of 1947, p. I-11
64. Aldrich, Project 1947: A Preliminary Report On The 1947 UFO Sighting, p. 83.
65. Research conducted by Jan L. Aldrich.
66. Bartlesville, Oklahoma, Daily Enterprise, 1 July 1947, p. 1.
67. Denver, Colorado, Post, 1 July 1947; and Denver, Colorado, Rocky Mountain News, 1 July 1947; and Bloecher, Report on the UFO Wave of 1947, p. 111-17.
68. Casper, Wyoming, Tribune-Herald, 1 July 1947.
69. Sacramento, California, Bee, 1 July 1947.
70. Los Angeles, California, Examiner, 1 July 1947; and San Francisco, Chronicle, 1, 8 July 1947; and Salt Lake City, Utah, Tribune, 6, 7 July 1947; and San Francisco News, 1 July 1947.
71. Project Blue Book Files, Roll No. 1, Cases 39 and 36, listed as Incidents 89 and 47 in 1947 era documents.
72. Bradenton, Florida, Herald, 8 July 1947; and Clearwater, Florida, Sun, 1 July 1947, p. 1.
73. Lake Charles, Louisiana, American Press, 10 July 1947.
74. "Emporia Women See Flying Saucer Floating Slowly Over Flint Hills," Emporia, Kansas, Gazette, 7 July
1947, p. 1.
75. Cincinnati, Ohio, Enquirer, 1 July 1947.   
76. Actually the National Guard units had ample fuel surpluses but the Army Air Force had a perceived need to conserve aviation gasoline for upcoming demonstrations dedicating Air Force Day.
77. "Sky Disc Hunted By Coast Planes," The New York Times, 1 July 1947, pp. 1,3.
78. Robert W. Fenwick, "Fast Buckley Plane Waiting to Chase Disk With Camera," The Denver (Colorado) Post, 1 July 1947.
79. Associated Press news service, 6 July 1947. 
80. Chicago (Illinois) Tribune, 1 July 1947, p. 8.
81. Ibid.
82. Salem (Massachusetts)Evening News, 1 July 1947, p. 1.
83. Newark, New Jersey, Star-Ledger, 7 July 1947; and Newark, Evening News, 7 July 1947; and Trenton, New Jersey, Evening News, 1 July 1947; and The New York Times, 1 July 1947; and New York Sun, 1 July 1947; and New York World-Telegram, 1 July 1947.
84. Washington, DC, Post, 1 July 1947; and Baltimore, Ohio, Sun, 7 July 1947; and Chicago (Illinois) Tribune, 1 July 1947; and Atlanta, Georgia, Constitution, 1 July 1947.
85. Rochester, New York, Democrat-Chronicle, 1 July 1947; and Albany, New York, Knickerbocker News, 1 July 1947; and New York World-Telegram, 1 July 1947.
86. The New York Times, 1 July 1947, pp. 1, 5.
87. New York World-Telegram, 1 July 1947; and Windsor, Ontario, Daily Star, 1 July 1947.
88. "Flying Disc Is Seen Near Here," St. Joseph (Missouri) Gazette, 1 July 1947, p. 1; and "Flying Saucers Seen by Three Groups," St. Joseph (Missouri) News-Press, 1 July 1947, p. 1.
89. Kansas City, Missouri, Times, 1 July 1947. 
90. St, Louis, Missouri, Globe-Democrat, 1 July 1947; and St. Louis, Missouri, Post-Dispatch, 7 July 1947;
and Bloecher, Report on the UFO Wave of 1947, p. III-8-9.
91. Ibid.
92. Ibid.
93. Ibid.
94. Ibid.
95. The (Portland) Oregonian, 7 July 1947.
96. Birmingham, Alabama, News & Age-Herald, 1 July 1947; and Bloecher, Report on the UFO Wave of 1947, p. III-4. 
97. Project Blue Book Files, Roll No. 1, Case 40, listed as Incident 56 in 1947 era documents.
98. "More St. Louisans See Discs In Air, Like Flying Piepans," St. Louis (Missouri) Star-Times, 1 July 1947.
99. "Big Little Stories Picked Up In a Day's News Run," Independence (Missouri) Examiner, 9 July 1947, p. 3.
100. Bloecher, Report on the UFO Wave of 1947, p. MO. 
101. The New York Times, 9 July 1947, p. 10. 
102. Panama City, Panama, StarHerald, 8 July 1947.
103. Ted Morello, "Tacoma Police Sight Soaring Discs," Tacoma (Washington)Times, 1 July 1947, p. 1.
104. Palmdale, California, South Antelope Valley Press, 10 July 1947, p. 1.
105. Riverside, California, The Riverside Daily Press, 8 July 1947, p. 1.
106. Redlands, California, Daily Fact, 1 July 1947.
107. Sacramento, California, Bee, Associated Press news story, 7 July 1947.
108. Willows, California, The Willows Journal, 9 July 1947, p. 1.
109. Ibid.
110. "Flying Saucer Seen Near City," Springfield, Missouri, Daily News, 8 July 1947.
111. "Pilot Says He Knocked Down Disc," St. Joseph (Missouri) News-Press, 1 July 1947, p. 1; and The New York Times, 8 July 1947, pp. 1, 46.
112. Captain Kevin D. Randle, The UFO Casebook (New York: Warner Books, 1989), p. 220.
113. Shreveport, Louisiana, Times, 8 July 1947.
114. Lewiston, Idaho, Daily Tribune, 1 July 1947.
115. "Who Has The Saucer? 40 States Join Game," Associated Press news story, 8 July 1947; and St. Louis
(Missouri) Post Dispatch, 8 July 1947.
116. Chicago (Illinois) Times, 1 July 1947.
117. Austin, Texas, Statesman, 1 July 1947, p. 1.
118. Declassified FBI files and Fourth Air Force Files, "microfilm record 33764-1036," US Air Force Historical Agency, Maxwell AFB, Montgomery, Alabama. 
119. Project Blue Book Files, Roll No. 1, Cases 46 and 43, listed as Incidents 40 and 84 in 1947 era documents.
120. San Rafael, California, The Willows Journal, 9 My, 1947, p. 14.
121. "In Air, On Ground, They're Everywhere," Austin, Texas, American, 8 July 1947.
122. United Press article, 7 July 1947; and Lodi, California, Lodi News-Sentinel, 1 July 1947, p. 1.
123. Wilmington, Delaware, Journal Every Evening, 11 July 1947.
124. Sarasota, Florida, Herald, 8 July 1947, p. 1.
125. Winter Haven, Florida, Daily Chief, 8 July 1947, p. 1.
126. "Newsroom Deserted as a Saucer Skims Overhead," St. Joseph (Missouri) Gazette, 8 July 1947, p. 3.
127. St. Louis, Missouri, Post-Dispatch, 8 July 1947.
128. Raleigh, North Carolina, Times, 1 July 1947, p. 1.
129. Asheville, North Carolina, Citizen, 8 July 1947.
130. The Yuma Sun & Arizona Sentinel, 8 July 1947, p. 1.
131. Birmingham, Alabama, News, 8 July 1947, p. 1.
132. "Two 'Flying Discs' Reported Seen Over City By Three Highway Dept. Men," The Yuma Sun & Arizona Sentinel, 9 July 1947, p. 1.
133. Project Blue Book Files, Roll No. 1, Case 51, listed as Incidents 1-le in 1947 era documents.
134. "Project Grudge, Final Report No. 102 AC 49/15-100," Appendix B and Appendix I, Final Report by J.A. Hynek, Project Blue Book Files, Roll No. 85, Administrative Files, Box 1, listed as incident 4 in 1947 era documents; and Project Blue Book Files, Roll No. 1, Case 52, listed as Incident 4 in 1947 era documents.
135. Edward J. Ruppelt's personal papers, File R104 and R105, courtesy of Professor Michael Swords.
136. Ibid.; and Project Blue Book Files, Roll No. 1, Case 44, listed as Incident 3 in 1947 era documents.
137. Thanks goes here to technical assistance from UFO researcher Joel Carpenter.
138. Jan L. Aldrich, "The Horten Brothers, Air Materiel Command and UFOs: Perspective Thinking." 1998 Project 1947 web page article—first draft. (May be viewed at http://www.iufog.org/project 1947/.)
139. United States Army Intelligence Command (INSOM) documents, dossier 198239. (May be viewed at http://www.blackvault.com/foia/army. html#l.)
140."Army Tells What Discs Are Not," St. Louis (Missouri) Post-Dispatch, 8 July 1947.
141. Documents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation; and George M. Eberhart, ed., The Roswell Report, A Historical Perspective (Chicago: J. Alien Hynek Center for UFO Studies, 1991), p. 11; and Ruppelt, Report on Unidentified Flying Objects, pp. 22-23.
142. Michael D. Swords, "Project Sign and The Estimate of the Situation," first draft of unpublished article
written for 1998 issue of Journal Of UFO Studies.
143. Gross, UFOs: A History 1947, p. 53.
144. Thanks to Jan L. Aldrich for allowing the authors to photocopy a large selection of former Air Force files which contained this letter and are now held in private hands.
145.Wendy A. Connors, Anatomy of a Project (unpublished manuscript, 1998).
146. Ibid.
147. Los Angeles, California, Examiner, 9 July 1947.
148. Seattle, Oregon, Post Intelligencer, 9 July 1947.
149. Balloon Disc Theory Isn't Applicable Here, "St. Joseph (Missouri) Gazette, 9 July 1947, p. 5.
150. Manchester, New Hampshire, Morning Union, 9 July 1947; and Boston, Massachusetts, Globe, 9 July 1947.
151. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Inquirer, 9 July 1947; Springfield Illinois State Journal, 9 July 1947.
152. Vancouver, British Columbia, Sun, 26 July 1947.
153. Chino, California, Campion, 11 July 1947.
154. Cincinnati, Ohio, Enquirer, 8 July 1947; and Cincinnati Post, 8 July 1947; and Sandusky, Ohio, Register-Star-News, 8 July 1947.
155. Norfolk Virginia Pilot, 9 July 1947.
156. Norfolk, Virginia, Ledger-Dispatch, 8 July 1947. 
157. "Flying Disc Tales Decline As Army, Navy Crack Down," Las Vegas, Nevada, Review-Journal, 9 July 1947.
158. "Anyone Can See Hying Saucers!," Wellington (New Zealand) Post, 8 July 1947; and The (Dublin) Irish Times, 9 July 1947. (Many other reports were made in foreign countries over these July dates and it is apparent that much research still needs to be done to document them all.)


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