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VISITORS FROM ANOTHER WORLD
Two facts seem to have been established:
THE HISTORY of the flying saucers, an specially American history, until now, illustrates
the saying (which was used as title to the famous novel by James Cain); "the mailman
always ring twice." Before the research which has just led to the revelations
diffused by Life, the erudite world of the United States had dealt with
mysterious celestial phenomena on a first occasion.
By a hot afternoon of summer, June 24, 1947, pilot Kenneth Arnold [businessman and private pilot]
brought back his airplane to his base close to Washington after a training flight [searching
for a lost airplane]. Suddenly, for the snow-covered crater of mount Rainier, of which
slopes became a resort area reknowned in all United States and poetically dubbed "Paradise valley,"
the pilot discovered with incredulity initially, with stupor later, nine "things" which
resembled " saucers " [which rebounded in the air like saucers on water] coming from his
left at approximately 30 kilometers and moving as in a formation of ducks towards the mount.
Their speed, estimated Arnold, was approximately 1.800 kmh. The "things" passed between
the peaks which surround mount Rainier and disappeared in the distance.
He told his adventure to the local newspaper. All the Press of the United States, then
the Press of other countries, jumped on that. Within a few days, the whole world knew the
new expression of "flying saucers." By a well-known phenomenon, in the following months,
police stations, observatories and air bases received hundreds of "testimonies" on
the famous saucers. One wonders today, with some regrets, if among all these testimonies
of which the majority obviously related to collective hallucination and were treated as
such, i.e. were thrown in the trashcan, there could not have been one or several
observation which, today, could help scientists.
New facts force America
to repoen the file
TEN months after the stunning adventure of pilot Kenneth Arnold, a new spectacular, and this time
dramatic demonstration of the saucers [of a Skyhook balloon]: three aircraft from Fort Knox
air base flew one morning of January in the pure and frozen sky of Kentucky. Almost at
the same time [nor exactly what happened], their three pilots discovered opposite them
a strange object resembling an ice cream cone with red at the top. One of the "F.51"
[F-51] controlled by captain Thomas F. Mantell, rushed to
the object which started to take altitude. The two others pilots, breathtaken,
witnessed the infernal pursuit. In a few seconds [several minutes] the apparatus
chased by their comrade disappeared [lost out of sight] in the sky. They watched
for his return and went to search for him. In vain. With fuel running low, they returned
to their base. There was no news of captain Mantell [lost consciousness]
until the evening when his body was found in the middle of the remains of
his plane whose parts had flown up to 800 meters around.
With this drama, the first chapter of the saucers cases finishes. The world followed
with passion, scepticism or irony. Before folk singers made it their own, the Secretary for
the Defense, Eric Johnson, then president Truman himself, had been interested in them -
one and the other stated solemnly that the flying saucers were not an American secret weapon.
On top of that, the eminent personalities of the aviation of the United States declared the
incident closed by classifying the file on a shelf already loaded with "scientific fiction",
i.e. scientific imagination in Wells style. that was in December 1949.
Since then, nothing official appeared anymore in the Press concerning the mysterious celestial phenomena.
It is only last Thursday that, alerted by full pages of publicity in the daily newspapers, the
American public learned though Life that a center of investigation devoted to the problem
of the " not identified air objects " existed at the military base of Wright Patterson, Dayton
(Ohio), and that the United States Air Force solemnly reopened the file hastily closed in 1949.
Because reports of the flying saucers continue to flow at the rate of one per day.
What is strikening with the new observations - and up to now held secret - which forced official
circles to reconsider their position, it is that the more stunning are also the least debatable.
One of the most disconcerting recent appearances of the saucers had for witnesses men of science
who cannot possibly be suspected of bad faith and who are accustomed to rigur and precision.
In the evening of last August 25, Doctor Robinson, professor of geology at the Texas University,
chatted on the terrace of his house of Lubbock with two of his friends, Doctor Oberg, professor of
chemistry, and professor Ducker, a specialist in oil matters. Suddenly, Doctor Robinson saw in the extremely clear sky,
something which intrigued him. He pushed an exclamation and stood up. His two friends followed his glance:
from one end of the horizon to the other end, at an incredible speed, but without any noise, a formation of
luminous spots crossed the sky. The phenomenon lasted only a few seconds. The three scientists confronting their
impressions described this formation as a score of luminous spots laid out in a V formation like a flock of ducks.
While they discussed with animation, a second formation of luminous objects crossed the sky. Thereafter, between
November and August, professor Ducker observed twelve similar flights. In the area, hundreds of people were
witnesses of these astonishing facts. It was easily proven that they could not be jets. The investigators
established that when these phenomena were noted, no plane of the U.S. Air Force flew over the area.
These mysterious flights could be filmed [photographed]. An eighteen year old young amateur, student Carl Hart,
succeeded in picturing them on August 30 with a 35 millimeters camera. Five [four] images
accounting for eighteen to twenty luminous objects more brilliant than planet Venus, were printed
on his film. These extraordinary documents (see preceding page) were examined attentively by the
engineering departments of the U.S. Air Force which was obliged to recognize that no faking was possible
[that possible faking could not be reproduced].
Other strange phenomena were personally noted by an astronomer of worldwide reputation, Clyde W. Tombaugh.
One of his claims to fame is to have discovered planet Pluto. Nobody can question the testimony of such
a major scientist [...]
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