Flying Disk Gives Army Dizzy Whirl!
ARMY EXPERTS TAKEN
FOR 'RIDE' BY A SKY DISK!
They Find a 'Saucer' Is Just a Balloon
Fort Worth, Tex. -- July 8 (Special) -- A disk-jittery nation was treated to a two
hour step-up in its platter panic today when an army press agent mistook remnants
of a weather balloon for one of the mysterious sky saucers hundreds of persons
recently have reported they thought they saw in the air.
The press agent put out an unequivocal announcement that flying disk had been
found on a New Mexico ranch and was in army possession. He touched off a wave
of excitement which traveled by radio and newspaper bulletins thruout the country.
Newspapers were flooded with telephone calls. High army officers in Washington
leaped for telephones. For an hour or so the object found on the ranch became
a great whatisit [sic], its size, appearance and construction details matters
for horrific speculation.
Weather Man Takes Look
By this time the object - a mass of broken wooden stays wrapped in tinfoil - had
been sent to 8th army air force headquarters here. Maj. Gen. Roger M. Ramey,
commander, who wasn't sure exactly what it was, advanced a theory it might be
a meteorological device. He ordered it flown to Wright field, O., for examination
by experts of the AAF materiel command.
Before this could be done, however, Warrant Officer, Irving Newton, a forecaster
with the army weather station here, sidled up for a look.
"That's what's left of a ray wind [Rawin] target," Newton said. "They are being
used by some 80 weather stations in the United States, and this one could have
come from any one of them."
Brass Hats Relax
Newton's words flashed over the wires to bring relief to a worried public.
Brass hats in Washington put down their telephones, their faces reportedly
somewhat red. At a late hour no further bulletins had been issued by the
press agent who put out the first one.
He was Lt. Warren [Walter] Haught, public relations officer at Roswell air field,
Roswell, N.M. The way he told it in his original announcement was as follows:
"The many rumors regarding the flying disk became a reality yesterday when the
intelligence office of the 509th [atomic] bomb group of the 8th air force Roswell
army air field, was fortunate enough to gain possession of a disk through the
cooperation of one of the local ranchers and the sheriff's office."
Rancher Hears the Story
Haught added the "disk" had been examined at Roswell field and forwarded
to higher authorities. Events leading to the issuance of Haught's bulletin
were pieced together as follows: W. W. Brizzell, a rancher, found the remnants
of the balloon last week. In near-by Corona, N.M., Saturday he heard about the
national disk epidemic. He decided to notify the sheriff.
Sheriff George Wilcox relayed the information to Roswell field, where Maj.
Jesse A. Marcel was assigned to investigate. The major went to the ranch and
took the collection of sticks and foil into the custody of the army.
Newton explained the object, when rigged up, looks like a six pointed star,
is silvery in appearance, and rises in the air like a kite, mounted on a 100
gram balloon. He said a radar set is used to follow the balloon and winds
aloft are charted through a triangulation process. He added he had used
similar balloons during the invasion of Okinawa to get ballistics information
for heavy guns.
SIGHT THEM IN AFRICA
The mysterious flying disks or twirling saucers, which have been reported
speeding thru the skies above 44 of the 48 states and in Canada during
the past week, yesterday leaped the vast expanses of the Pacific and
South Atlantic oceans. Observers in both Sydney, Australia and Johannesburg,
South Africa, reported having watched them in formation flights during the
day or night.
And on this continent hundreds of persons turned in new accounts of having
witnessed "balls of fire" flashing across the night sky or gave equally
well-documented reports of having seen whole groups of saucers hanging
motionless, spinning, or dancing in fantastic patterns before disappearing.
There were hundreds of explanations but all were purely conjecture,
theory, or merely judgment. Some theorizers said it was probable that
persons on the ground had seen sunlight winking on the wings of real
airplanes flying high in the air.
Offers $1,000 Reward
In Washington Presidential Press secretary Ross told reporters a west coast
professional juggler had telegrafed [sic] President Truman that the saucers
were part of a stack of clay plates he used in his act and that they "had
gotten out of hand." Ross added that the President has not ordered an
investigation into the matter of the disks.
In Los Angeles the World Inventors' congress posted a $1,000 reward for
delivery of a flying disk to the congress' exposition, which opens there
July 11. The army air forces said none of its many radar stations had
"sighted" any mysterious disks but a spokesman added that at present
army radar does not blanket the entire nation.
Two residents of Johannesburg told Reuters News service they had seen
the "flying saucers" early yesterday over that city. They said the objects
were about as big as "gramaphone records" and were revolving at a great
speed in a V-formation. They disappeared in a cloud of smoke, the observers said.
Prof. Frank S. Cotton, physiology department at Sydney university,
conducted an experiment with 22 students, most of whom afterward reported
having seen flying objects. What they really saw were red corpuscles of
the blood passing in front of the retina of the eye, the professor
afterward stated.
Denies Canadian Origin
OTTAWA, July 8 -- (Chicago Tribune Press Service). -- A definite denial that
the flying disks, if there are such, originate in Canada was made tonight by Brooke
Claxton, minister of defense. Asked if the disks might originate from a joint
United States-Canadian proving grounds in western Canada, he said they did not.
"There is only one United States-Canadian testing ground in Canada and that is
at Churchill," he said. "they certainly do not originate there. The suggestion
is as silly as most of the others and you can quote me on that." The Churchill
station was opened up some months ago to visits by newspapermen and foreign
observers, including military attache of the soviet embassy here.
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