Saucers and the Sunflower State: Author Marilyn A. Hudson Shares Experiences and Historic Accounts

 Born and raised in Kansas, author-researcher Marilyn A. Hudson, has added two titles to her collection of UFO/UAP related works.  

SUNFLOWER SAUCERS gives an overview of the historic cases reported in Kansas since the days of the Air Ships. A chronology of events with historic context and important details often ignored.

ENCOUNTER IN KANSAS is the author's own experiences and the results of her research into the time period for other - similar - accounts in the region fitting her personal experiences. 

Previous works include Oklahoma Bad Girls, Bars and Bawds of Early Oklahoma, Sooner Saucers (vol, 1 & 2), UFOS over Oklahoma: a Short Guide to Route 66, and 1947: Those Saucy Saucers.  Fictional works such as The Mound, Foul Harvest, and The Sword of Anath. 

All available on Amazon. Author-researcher available for Zoom or phone interviews/presentations. Use the contact form.

A Spy Plane, A UFO, and Some Near Misses: The RB-47h Incident (Kansas, Texas, Oklahoma)

 1957, July 17, Forbes AFB, Topeka, Kansas.

“A Spy-Plane, A UFO, and Some Near Misses: The RB-47h Incident.”

In a year that would turn out to be truly amazing in regards the unidentified, this case and those surrounding it rank as a truly important and classic case. Better known as the “RB-47h Case” this is very impressive case. Forbes was home to a special plane loaded with some new and hush-hush electrical counter-measures equipment. 

Flying out of Forbes AFB that day the task was simple. It was a standard weapons and systems proficiency assignment that included the new counter-measures. They would fly south over Oklahoma, cross into the Dallas-Ft. Worth area in Texas, and then head east toward Louisiana (toward Jackson and Meridian in Mississippi to be precise) and then south to Gulfport. 

Finally, they would go out into the gulf to practice some predetermined weapons maneuvers to add to the previous testing of both ground equipment and the onboard gear.

Mission completed, the plane simply reversed its course. That was when things became … a little interesting. The craft (the RB-47h) was crewed by pilot Lewis D. Chase; co-pilot James H. McCoid; navigator Thomas H. Hanley; #2 Monitor Operator, Frank B. McClure; #3 Monitor Operator, Walter A. Tuchscherer; #1 Monitor Operator, John Provenzano.

Coming home, the first contact was equipment based over the region of Gulfport, Mississippi. This was followed by a visual sighting by the crew of RB-47h over western Louisiana (southeast of Jackson, Mississippi). At about 5:10 am, the aircraft commander observed a very bright white light tinted by blue. It was at an 11 o’clock position and crossed right in front of the plane at about the 2:30 o’clock position. At 1039z the aircraft commander sighted a huge light estimated 5000 ft. below the aircraft at about the 3 o’ clock position. The crew clearly recalled a light emanating from its top portion. These air reports were being verified by the ground units.

Later experts would describe the actions of this “light” as traveling faster than an airplane, nothing that it “emitted, and reflected, 2800 megahertz radio waves…it displayed behavior indicative of intelligent control.” (Craig, pg. 143).

At about 5:40 a.m. the #2 Monitor Operator reported two signals (i.e., two objects) at 40 and 70 degrees. At this time, the aircraft commander and co-pilot saw two objects with red color. There was no discernable shape to the red glow. At the time they were approaching the Dallas area and received approval to ignore their flight plan and pursue the mystery objects. Sources diverge as to the source of the approval. One indicates it was the FAA (then called the CAA) and another that it was the military authority who granted this pursuit action. One crew member recalled seeing the lights moving abruptly starboard to port side and then back; in other words the lights were actively moving. The ground sensing equipment was with several designated radar stations involved in the exercise with RB-47h. Several of these had tracked the objects. One, code named UTAH, had not been on or its settings had not been calibrated because it did not track the objects until further into the incident. When they came online it was after the objects had turned northward and reappeared visually as well on the radar screens. 

The “unknown” turned north between Ft. Worth and Dallas.  It was while in that general area that chief pilot Chase received permission to go after it from an authority (CAA or military). One source said they had “told all jets to get out of the way.”

 

The plane went toward Mineral Wells (west of Ft. Worth) before making a turn back toward the Ft. Worth-Dallas air corridor.  At about 5:42 a.m. the crew reported an object ten nautical miles northwest of Ft. Worth.  ADC’s “UTAH” station confirmed it on their ground scopes.  One of the Monitors on the RB-47h regained the object on their scope at 5:58 a.m. when it was some 25 nautical miles northwest of Ft. Worth. It was at again at a 2 o’clock position relative to the RB-47h.

At this time, the crew was beginning to fear they would run low on fuel and not make it back to their home base in northern Kansas.  So at 6:20 a.m. they took up a heading for home station at Forbes. Heading into southern Oklahoma, at 20,000 ft., they once more tracked an object (the same or similar).  Some unofficial reports indicate that the object may have been seen by people on the ground near both the Ardmore and Oklahoma City area. Just as the RB-47h was nearing Oklahoma City the object was permanently lost.  The plane continued on to Topeka, was debriefed, audio wire recordings and images from the equipment and the interviews was collected and the crew believed all reports had been filed by their superiors. 

Well, at least that was way it was supposed to happen.

That same early morning just fifty miles east of El Paso, over an area called the Salt Flats, in the far southwest corner of Texas, an American Airlines commercial plane had a near collision with a “mysterious unidentified object.” The incident made headlines – complicating things for many agencies involved in answering the mystery.

It was only fast action that kept AA Flight # 655 from having a more serious encounter than it did that morning of July 17, 1957. I was about 4:00 a.m. when Captain T. ‘Ed’ Bachner, a 15 year pilot veteran, saw a “green light” ahead. The plane was a DC-7 air coach with 85 souls (80 passengers and 5 crew). Presuming the light was the left wing running light of another aircraft while flying at 14,000 ft., he veered right. At the same time, he sent the plane into a sharp 400-500 drop. Some passengers injured, two of them seriously enough to require an unscheduled stop at the El Paso airport.  AA Flight 655 was heading west on a flight from, newspaper accounts vary, from either New York to Los Angeles from Dallas to Los Angles. His position of 50 miles east from El Paso was tracked by the beacon towers at Salt Flats and the Waco Tower.

The year would see many problems for commercial flights with numerous crashes making headlines.  That was one reason why the mysterious near-misses caught people’s attention. Add in the mysterious unknown craft angle and there was a much stronger interest. Were UFO’s causing these near collisions? Commercial pilots, crews and passengers had been among some of the earliest, and best, cases reported about unidentified flying objects. The pilots were great witnesses – smart, experienced, calm under pressure.  When the explanation that the “discs” were secret test projects one disgruntled pilot asked a still unanswered question: “why fly in commercial air space and endanger the public?”

The next week (July 22, 1957) near Amarillo in the Texas panhandle a Trans World Airlines Flight #21 had a similar encounter. It was about 10 p.m. when a Captain Schamel of TWA was flying at 18,000 ft. when, in the darkness ahead he saw, unexpectedly, what looked like “running lights.” Again, an emergency dive by an experienced pilot, created chaos in the cabin, and a few minor injuries,  but a collision was averted.

Then on the night of July 29 and early morning of July 30 in Ohio the pilots of Capital Airlines # 841 observed an object suddenly appear out of the north and passed their path some 40-50 miles out of Akron. The aircraft gave chase and the object sped up ahead of it and then disappeared northwest over the horizon of Akron itself. Both pilots were very sure the object was not a star and not jet. They described this object as large, yellow-white light, no sound, very fast, light would go brilliant then dim and then brighten once more in a cycle. It hovered at one point over the area of Cleveland and then moved northwest at a 20 degree angle.  The pilots had it view for about eight minutes.

Further north on July 30, an object was seen east of Rockford, Michigan about midnight.  It was described as three walnut sized, round, objects changing colors from red, green, and to yellow. There were three in the west and one object in the northeast. When they moved they left a small red tinged “exhaust.” The objects remained stationary and moved in bobby motion. They remained in place in the sky for some thirty minutes. The conclusion of the Air Force? The witnesses had seen the “aurora borealis” then “visible in the United States.”

This case, involving as it did a virtual “spy-plane” with electronic counter-measure equipment and a specialized crew did not even reach Project Blue Book until November of 1957. The file was classed “Secret” according to documents because of that special aspect to the equipment. To further muddy the waters the report was dated for September and as a result all weather reports and other data accessed to investigate this case were invalid.  September and as a result all weather reports and other data accessed to investigate this case were invalid. 

The CAA handed the Air Force a solution when they sent a letter to Project Blue Book saying they had proven the Aircraft (AA Flight 655) had encountered another aircraft (AA Flight 966). The TWA flight on July 22 had, it was “assumed” encountered a U.S.A.F. KC-97 aircraft “which was known to be operating in the area at the time of the incident.” “The true identify,” wrote A.L. Coulter and Ray Keeley, Director, Office of Flight Operations and Airworthiness for the Department of Commerce, Civil Aeronautics Division in a November 1957 letter to ATIC at Wright-Patterson AFB, “of this aircraft was never determined, however…”   An incident endangering civilian lives in commercial airspace was solved by an “assumption.”

The reason for this delay may have been the highly classified nature of the equipment. Just the month before the Russian launching Sputnik I there may have been concerns about leaking information. It could also have been that the incident was one big puzzle and those in “intelligence” had no clue what had happened or what had been seen by the crew over some 700 nautical miles.

In 1971, Dr. James McDonald, a rare scientific proponent of the need for serious investigations into such things, led an academic sub-committee report on this case. He and his committee noted it had been studied by the Condon Report. 

In McDonald’s group they had uncovered that (a) the case was misfiled due to the wrong date being assigned to the case. It was labeled as 18 September 1957 (Craig, pg. 134) and not 17 July 1957 ;(b) as a result of that error all the radar and weather reports analyzed by Condon’s team had used the incorrect event date thus invalidating all of their conclusions; (3) the audio interview made of the crew on landing at Forbes, the reports, and a lot of other materials were “misplaced.”

McDonald, so often horribly ridiculed and attacked by his peers and professional debunkers such as Phillip Klass and Dr. Donald H. Menzel, arranged for new interviews with the crew to replace the “lost” (or simply never generated reports of the event), he saw that the dating was corrected in the record, and made sure the scientists who were members of the AIAA were heard. For more information see “UFO Encounter 1: Sample Case Selected by the UFO’s Sub-committee of the AIAA” Astronautics and Aeronautics (July 1971) and Scientific Studies of Objects Unidentified Flying Objects (Boston 1969). 

Despite the odd conclusion found in Project Blue Book, namely agreeing with the CAA statement that the incident was caused by a near collision with an American Airlines Flight #655, later research pointed out the impossibility of that given their relative locations.  Also, the alleged AA Flight #966 was reportedly grounded at the time. So the whole solution becomes a bit sticky the closer it is examined.

Debunkers Klass and Menzel, among others, would assert “ball lightening” but when the University of Colorado committee heard the report and talked with the crew all but the diehard skeptics lost interest in that as a viable cause.

Charges of problems with the electronic countermeasure equipment would be made, as they often were, on any radar based sightings. The problem was the objects were seen by both human eye and electronic equipment.  Later, the Wing Reconnaissance Director had no question that the electronic signal they had picked up had come from the mystery object.

An excellent summary of the importance of this event is found on NICAP’s 1957 Chronology page: “1. The RB-47 case is the first known case of a UFO transmitting its own radar beam (several other cases are now known but the RB-47 was the first to become public).  Not only was the UFO tracked by an air defense radar on the ground near Dallas and by the RB-47 spy plane's airborne radar, but the UFO itself was sending out radar signals.  It is the only known radar-visual-ELINT case on record (a few radar-ELINT cases with no visual sightings, and a few visual-ELINT cases, with no radar tracks, are known too); 2.  The UFO's radar signals were picked up on special highly classified Electronic Intelligence (ELINT pronounced "EL-int") equipment aboard the RB-47. 

The RB-47 normally flew missions on the periphery of the Soviet bloc, using its spy gear to locate enemy radars.  In this case, on July 17, 1957, the RB-47 flew out of Forbes AFB, Kansas, on a training mission out over the Gulf of Mexico.  On its return leg, the UFO was detected on the spy plane's ELINT gear.”

What was scheduled to be a run-of-the-mill practice mission that day in July 1957 became much more. Although authorities attempted to hide the information, lose the evidence, and divert attention the truth did emerge.  The shell game aspect, however, leaves the possibility of other evidence lost, misplaced, and intentionally obfuscated in those years – and perhaps – still today.

Sources: Include, NICAP http://www.nicap.org/reports/rb47_update_sparks.htm’; Roy Craig, UFO’s An Insider’s View of the Official Quest for Evidence (UNT, 1995); “Airliner Misses Mystery Craft in Darkness” (The Daily News-Telegram, Sulphur Springs, TX (July 17, 1957); Project Blue Book files; “UFO Encounter 1: Sample Case Selected by the UFO’s Sub-committee of the AIAA”, Astronautics and Aeronautics (July 1971) and Scientific Studies of Objects Unidentified Flying Objects (Boston 1969). 

[From “Kansas Encounters”, Marilyn A. Hudson, 2022]

ENCOUNTERS IN KANSAS: UFO'S AND THE SUNFLOWER STATE, LATE 1960'S AND 1970'S. MARILYN A.HUDSON

Do you have stories of these times or more recent events? 

6  the 1960’s – part 2

 1965-

1966-

1967-

1969-

7 - the 1970’s

 Delphos – November 1971

 Larnered, Kansas and March – February, 1972

Minneapolis – July 1972

Colby – August 1972

 Dighton – 1972 

 

ENCOUNTERS IN KANSAS: UFO'S AND THE SUNFLOWER STATE, "The Lake", PART , 1965-66. AUTHOR'S PERSONAL ACCOUNT. MARILYN A. HUDSON

  Copyright, 2021/ Marilyn A. Hudson.

ENCOUNTER: THE LAKE: 1965-66

[Sumner County, Kansas; Date: 1965-1966; 4-5th grade time frame; Residence(s): Sanford Hughes Place, and the Pettigrew Place on N HWY 81.]

At Wellington Lake, west of town, there were small dirt tracks meandering through stands of pine and other trees planted much earlier to stop erosion rather than provide an attractive lake view. I recall being with some of my family, perhaps for a picnic or church event or just a happenstance of a pleasant day, but definitely something where other people were present.

Again, there was the odd silence that muffled sounds and a cloudy caste to the sky I would swear had been sunny – lighter- a short time earlier.

The silence was that cotton-in-your-ears kind of absence of sound.

I could hear the throb of my heart and the tide – the ebb and flow  of  blood flowing - - of my breath.

Movement is next. I recall a slow speed movement in myself and slower than normal movement in others I saw.

The sky draws my attention and I gaze upwards. It is a dome. I seem to recognize that or have some familiarity with that notion. No words just a concept of a hazy clear bowl upside down overhead. There is a hazy and gray cast to it that seems to explain the decrease of light and the muting of the hues and colors seen earlier. The wind has died down to utter stillness and the sweater I had worn because of the cool breeze now needless.

I glance upwards again. Something is up there.  I sense it and feel it to be there. Something is ahead as well. The sandy road seems very detailed to me as if I can count and touch every pebble and grain. The road stretches out in infinite detail and dimension yet nothing changes.  My soundless steps in the sandy loam of the road is distinct and I can feel the shifting as my feet move forward. I move yet do not actually progress forward.

Then there is a memory of cars and other people crowded to the side of the narrow curving lane. Tall pine like trees beyond them. Everyone is standing as if frozen. I walk past them... They stand motionless looking toward something and do not see me. One is a young woman in a wide floral skirt who is half in and half out of an old car (similar to an old converted hotrod). 

I was scared...but it was – distant, as if I was drugged or cut off from all emotion...

As I dug through some old family pictures to scan and preserve, I ran across several showing a trip to the lake in the fall of about my 5th grade year.  They appear to be early fall and there is no memory associated with the circumstances of the pictures being taken.

Oddly, for many years, the night sky would seem to call to me. There was a strange longing as I gazed into the inky blackness dotted by small glittering lights. That feeling, unlike the memories enumerated here, faded after some years. All I know is these were my experiences as completely and as factually detailed as I can make them. Perhaps it is all, as Charles Dickens, once suggested in ‘A Christmas Carol’ all caused by an undigested portion of poor beef or perhaps it is caused by some undiagnosed brain malady.

 Some might say the over active imagination of a child. Yet, it is the nature of the memories that give pause. They are sharper, clearer, and more significant seeming than any other memories of dreams or childhood play.

The Reports 1965 [fourth grade- fifth grade]

In Kansas July 22, 1965 a report of military witness (es) from Forbes AFB covered 13 pages in Blue Book. The trend seemed to be tossing out scientific terms to impress and astound. At a stop sign the witnesses got out to observe the object described as a small elongated object looking like a dime on its narrow side was observed and estimated to be about 15 miles away. It was shiny silver in color and the left side was brighter than the right side although the sun was shining on the right of the stationary object. It was finally obscured by clouds moving in and the witness left noting that there had been no motion and familiar with celestial bodies and aircraft could not identify the thing, Winds were clocked at 16 knots from 050 degrees. Inside the report the noted that no weather balloons had been reported by Topeka or Forbes. Small showers were west of Kansas City but did not show on radar. There was seven miles visibility and 6/10 cloud cover. Investigation had no scientific or technical background which would aid evaluation. Object was one half the size of a dime (held at arm’s length), was seven degrees above horizon. The summary conclusion for this sighting was “object astronomical (perihelia). Object was stationary. Position of sun in relation to reported object consistent with perihelion sighting.” Just what was in perihelion is unnamed. Perihelion denotes the time when an object is closest, or aphelion, to the sun (planet, asteroid, and comet) which occurs in December at the solstice and furthest in June. So the use of the term appears incorrect without naming what was close to the sun; what they end up saying is basically something was close to the sun. Well, duh.  Also, unaddressed is the fact that the side of the object opposite to the sun shone brighter (65-07-7437955 Forbes AFB,KS. PBB).

August 1, 1965 was a Sunday and reports of UFO’s cropped up over eight western states and Monday officials at Wright Patterson said they and Project Blue Book they represented were “satisfied they were the result of natural phenomena,”  except for one radar blip in Wichita, Kansas. The military spokesman from Tinker in Oklahoma City also had a blip but indicated that what hundreds of people saw had been the planet Jupiter or assorted stars. The writer added, “Ordinary radar does not pick up planets or stars.” Local planetarium director in Oklahoma also noted the stars and planets suggested were not in the sky to be seen at the time.

Closer to home on that first Sunday of August 1965, however, was the report that a Deputy Sheriff Everett Tucker of Wellington, Kansas, along with his wife had seen a “cigar shaped silvery thing in the sky” about 4:50 a.m. CST. It had a reddish vapor trail and moved rapidly to the north. A Wellington police officer had observed one object through binoculars and said it was about the length of three cars, was egg-shaped, and moved in an erratic manner along a straight path.”^[i]

Again as evidence of strange things in the neighborhood - August 8, 1965 ten miles east of Seneca, Kansas a 22 year old from Kansas City, Missouri observed an object for about 1-2 minutes. It was described as oval-fat, almost round object grey-white in color noted because it was a light object in a night sky and because it remained near the ground. Estimated it to be about a half mile away from observer but moving toward him to within ten yards. Object then made a sharp turn to the right and disappeared suddenly. Size of an automobile about ½ mile away. Windy, cloudy with moonlight. Noted inversion at 8000 feet. Summary conclusion was “insufficient data” since FORM 164 sent but not returned with further information. (1865-08-7472489 Seneca, KS. PBB).

As summer was winding down in 1965 and the first days of August arrived headlines bloomed with the news “Flying Objects Zooming Over State” by a Bill Stevens from an Oklahoma City paper informing readers of sightings from Purcell (southcentral), to Tulsa (northeast), and to Guymon (in the panhandle). A similar article by a Jack Taylor in an unidentified newspaper was “Sky Objects Excite Region.”

In northeastern Kansas and the community of Prairie Village on August 10th something strange happened when a civilian witness saw an object for 3-5 minutes.  The night was clear with a moon when the witness saw a silver-white triangular object- with a red glow above the triangle. Red light appeared larger than an airplane. It came from the SE then turn sharply north before it disappeared from sight. An airplane was seen a few minutes after the object disappeared. Plane was clearly visible and contrasted with object. (1965-08-7473144, Prairie Village, Kansas, PBB).

In mid-September near Lyons in central Kansas an observer sighted an oval-shaped silver object with white lights extending out in all directions. The summary page of the Blue Book file read a “single object” and it was labeled with ‘insufficient data” and a probable sighting of Venus except for the duration and positional data omitted because the witness had not filed a FORM 165. Inside the report was a letter the witness had sent to someone at the Department of Defense (dated 14 September) “I saw aircraft which was unlike anything that the general public is aware of…This was witnessed by thirty other people…one was a police officer… I am very concerned...” and the President (dated 15 September 1965) where the witness stated “…three round objects flew over my community…not airplanes.”

These letters earned a response that would become standard with requests to fill out the FORM 165: “In 18 years of investigating over 9000 reports” the Air Force was noted as the report agency for such phenomena, “the evidence has provided almost conclusively that “they are “objects either created and sent aloft by men, generated by atmospheric conditions, or caused by celestial bodies or residue of meteorite activity…” (1965-09-8677117, Lyons, Kansas. PBB).

 

ENCOUNTERS IN KANSAS: UFO'S AND THE SUNFLOWER STATE, "The Scar" 1960'S cont. Author's Personal Accounts. Marilyn A. Hudson

Copyright, 2021. Marilyn A. Hudson

ENCOUNTER: THE SCAR, 1963-64

[323 South Ash Street, Wellington, Kansas; 1963-1964, 3rd Grade, Roosevelt]

My father had taken an older bike he had acquired somewhere and had plans to refit it for me to use.  It was still a little tall for me and I had been told not to ride it yet. He still wanted to make adjustments. The temptation was simply too much.

We had moved from the 412 E. 4th address to south Ash Street  late spring of 2nd grade and I looked forward to 3nd grade. That year, however,  is largely a blank to me. I had my tonsils taken out. That is about all I remember of that school year. 

On the west side of Ash was a huge wheat elevator and the streets on the east ended there. Just to the north of our house was 4th Street (several blocks removed from the old house) and a delightfully scary hill all the kids loved. It ran straight down into Ash Street in a T-bone. If you missed the turn, you bounced over the curb, and either crashed into the grass or the ten-foot chain link fence around the grain elevator.  Either one was a mark of accomplishment for neighborhood children.

I pushed the bike up the 4th street hill, took the bike to the curb, leaned it enough to hoist a leg over and – wobbling – pedaled to the middle of the street. A deep breath and I was off!  My too short legs did me in and my feet slipped off the pedals. I just did not have legs long enough to grip and gain control of the bike. I tried to turn enough to sort of slide but instead I bumped into the curb at nearly full speed and sailed over the ground to slam against the chain link fence. Clutching the chain link, feeling the fence shudder from the impact, I slowly slid down into the grass and kicked away the bicycle.

As I sat there in the dead grass and collected myself, feeling tender and a little stupid, I saw I sported a faint pattern of a chain link fence – reminded me of a waffle - on the front of my thigh.  It had broken the skin slightly in a few places but was not bleeding.  All I had on my legs were shorts because my first grade pants and dresses did not fit anymore and- hey – it was summer! In the fall new school clothes would be coming but for summer the shorts were what I wore.

As I sat there getting over the exciting and scary incident I noted a scar just behind my knee. I admit to being much more flexible at that age and could easily see the scar when I lifted my leg up and twisted around to view the back of my leg. Lifting my white tennis shoe clad foot upward and twisting around I could see the skin just behind and above the crook of my knee.  On closer inspection I saw it looked a lot like the scar a friend at school had after cutting her hand and needing stiches. This was exciting!

I had a friend who had fallen off their new bike and had an impressive cut.  This scar had tiny web marks as if skin had grown together as if knitted by a loom and around the edges tiny mark that looked like suture marks. 

I had seen those scars before from friends at school and church who had made exciting trips to the emergency room or a doctor’s office for stitches. I admit I was a little jealous; the second grade equivalent of tattoo envy.  Excitedly, I jumped up and ran home to query my parents and my much older siblings. What had happened? To leave a scar like that something had happened! When? What is the story behind this scar?

The Scar (not to scale)

No one could remember any such injury. Not my elder siblings, some with children of their own, none of my neighbors, teachers, or church friends. In fact, my parents swore there had never been such an injury. I must have just scratched myself. Did you look at the scar, I asked, that did not come from me scratching myself!

No one knew?  My mother’s frown showed her total puzzlement. No one else knew anything about it. I had not been injured. I had no stitches (would not have until several years later). 

It was not long, it had a center section that looked like tiny lines of skin and joined together the cut. Around it were tiny holes similar to the stitch marks seen on my school friend’s scar. Surely an injury requiring stitches would have warranted remembering – by someone.  It was toward the outside of the back of my thigh, right leg, just above the knee bend.

The incident might have been forgotten as just another childhood event but it stayed with me because a week later I found this amazing stuff called “angel hair.” Someone had thrown out with old Christmas decorations this glittering and magical stuff. I picked it up, amazed at the scintillating nature of the fiberglass, and learned that “angel hair” and open scrapes (even ones looking closed on the back of a leg) when they met produced an uncomfortable and unforgettable discomfort. It seemed weeks before all that glass was removed from those exposed bits of skin.

Bike rides down hills, chain link fences, and close encounters of the angel hair kind all served to bring one thing in my mind and that was the question, ‘where did I get the scar?’

I remember this house on Ash Street because it was across the street from a huge concrete grain elevator. It was there that I was diagnosed with asthma.

ENCOUNTER OVER KANSAS: UFO'S AND THE SUNFLOWER STATE. 1960'S CONT. WITH AUTHOR'S PERSONAL ACCOUNTS. MARILYN A. HUDSON

  Copyright, 2021. Marilyn A. Hudson

ENCOUNTER: THE RED GLOW, 1962-63

[1407 N. Jefferson Street, Wellington, Kansas; Washington School], 1962-63, 2^nd Grade]

I ran across a class photo from 1962-1963 for Washington Grade School, Second Grade with teacher Mrs. Long and a total of ten students. Some of the faces look familiar but I can’t recall any names. I remember sitting at my desk listening to a story being read by the teacher.  I recall working through copies of the “Weekly Reader” newsletter we used to improve reading and comprehension. I recall the fun little cellophane wrapped ‘bricks’ of gray art clay in class. I had a colorful collection of ‘Capri Pants’.  I walked blocks to and from school.  I remember the playground on the west side of the school but not a lot more. I was given my first ‘perm’ that year and went from a shoulder length straight bob with bangs to a curly head. With bangs; my mother seemed to feel a naked forehead was mortal sin. My mother continued her work as a Nurse’s Aide, a brother married and joined the Army, and I enjoyed going to the roller rink to practice falling down. I became very good at that part. The skating not so much…

I do remember, however, playing with neighborhood kids at this address, they were both energetic and creative! One had found an open ended oil drum and we rolled it across the billiard table flat yard into the ditch with one or more of us laying inside. If you were lucky it stopped in the ditch and if you were really lucky it bounced across the street and into the empty field there. Crawling out, staggering like a drunk after a long weekend, you joined the whoops and hollers and felt proud to have answered the dare.

Another time, the brilliant older kid decided we needed a hide-out so he purloined his father’s shovel and some boards. We went into the empty lots across the street (street on one side and the far side a railroad track) and we dug.  When finished we had a 4 x4 hiding space. We crudely nailed the board’s together, stuck dirt and grass clods on it and tied a rope for access through the trap door.

A few weeks later, in a fit of anger at my mother, I “ran away” from home and sat in my hiding place with a hobo scarf filled with crackers and cookies and listened as my family called for through the neighborhood. I got thirsty and decided to go home and face the music.  Another time, our “leader” – who wanted to design things when he grew up – led us in collecting bricks, pieces of boards,  and anything else to craft a futuristic city. When completed the city was a least ten feet long and five feet wide. The streets were wide enough to drive all sizes of toy cars and trucks. Landing zones for airplanes and  helicopters noted our awareness of the aerial craft flying over our heads all the time with Boeing Aircraft and McConnell Air Force Base just thirty some miles to the north. Many of the parents in town worked for one or the other.   Our leader-architect created tiny trees from weeds and twigs and he found a piece of blue flooring and created a “lake”.

Then, one summer evening, several family members were present. I remember catching fireflies earlier in a jar with holes cut into the top and watching them glow.

We had gone inside from visiting outside so we could enjoy some ice cream. A sound or a light drew our attention and they went to the side door that looked out into the yard.  I recall standing behind them, craning, trying to catch a glimpse between jean clad legs of older males at whatever they were seeing through the old wooden screen.  I could see, high over their heads, the dark of the sky and a something else.

Then as they moved further from the opening, I saw – the light. A red light. Similar to the dark room light used by my brother. Red, but muted with hints of yellow or orange, shining down on the back yard. I recall the squeak of the screen as first one and then another of the adults moved back to the yard to stare upwards murmuring words of wonder and confusion.  The light was a soft but very bright red and seemed low to the ground but taller than my height. Once outside, I sensed others but see only shadows in my memory.

The drawings are some attempts to capture the sense and the scope of the event remembered. These are close-but-no-cigar as the saying goes.

  Then it was gone, like a light being switched off. Details of the source were not visible; you could only see the red-orange round source of the light itself. I remember looking out the screen door, walking outside, looking up and then the next thing I remember is looking back into the house with the light gone.

That is where the memory ends and the next memory is being back in the house.  People are gathered round the small kitchen table and eating slightly melted ice cream or making ice cream sodas from bottles of soda.   No one in the family ever recalled that night. They never accused me of making up tales or dreaming. They just moved on as if I had not spoken. I admit that I was used to that. Being the baby in a family spread out over three decades I was conditioned to being “seen and not heard.”

Not until later did I realize that they did not have any memory of the light. When I asked them, right after and then years later, they vaguely recalled an evening together…but nothing of what I saw.

Fearful Dreams

One of the worst punishments was to be sent to bed with no television or fun times outside. At some times it could be a severe punishment indeed.  An odd thing during this year was the extreme – almost phobic – reaction I had when school started whenever I saw the deep red cover on the “Big Chief” writing tablet.

This red covered notebook filled with lined newspaper print paper was a staple of every school child’s life. This red covered tablet was sold in department stores such as the local Woolworth’s, the office supply store and small local mom and pop stores (they were sidewalk walk-in convenience stores minus the fuel pumps).  I had begun to have dreams featuring the “Chief.” I do not recall the content of the dreams merely the anxiety and fear they engendered. My mother was working nights in a local nursing home and this might have been worrying to me somehow.

I do remember that after weeks of these night terrors that something gave me the key to making the nightmares stop. “Something” told me that I had to confront the scowling, serious faced man in the headdress. I had to say I was no longer afraid of him. I had to let him know he had no power over me anymore and there would be no more bad dreams about the “Chief” on the red cover of the tablet. Ever.

The next dream was different. It was as if part of my mind remained awake to remind me of the advice. The dream surged back to the camp, with a raging fire, and a circle of tall, pristine white tepees. The “Chief” stepped forward but this time I was awake (in a manner of speaking). I looked at him, held up my hand, and repeated the directions I had been given. Suddenly, the entire dream morphed into a calm scene where the Chief and I were sitting in a friendly manner on a log beside a blazing fire, the tepees around us and misty lavender mountains with tall pines in the distance.  All about us people were talking, eating, and having a good time in a normal manner.

The dreams stopped that night and never again did I ever have nightmares of the serious faced man on the intensely red tablet. No longer did the very sight of a “Big Chief Tablet” bring a wave of alarm, anxiety, and apprehension.

It was not until many years later that I realized that prior to this time red had been a prominent color in my life. When my grandfather asked me to select a small wooden chair from several he had made and painted, I chose the red chair.   I loved my bright red rain boots and wore them constantly. I loved my bright red corduroy jumper dress, a sweater, and many other items of red. Yet, strangely, at the start of this particular school year, I had a such deathly fear of the red writing tablet I would walk away from it in the store, even, going around aisles, to avoid getting too close. My clothes turned drab with my once favorite red sweater becoming one I detested. 

It lingered too, I recalled in sixth grade music for a concert my mother had purchased a trendy dress with gold buttons and draping chain detail in a red so infused with yellow it bordered on orange. Wearing that dress – every time – made me ill. An anxiety so fierce it made me feel nauseated resulted.  I ended up wearing it only a few times and then pushing it to the back of the closet.

I never did go back to loving red the way my younger self did.  Now, well, now I wonder if it is connected to the night when the red glow filled the back yard.

 

Reports from 1962-1963 [2nd grade school year]

The next two years (1962-1963) would continue accounts of high strangeness over the skies of Kansas, Oklahoma and elsewhere.

Two from Oklahoma are especially interesting given how they reflect elements of my own accounts and their proximity to where I lived in Kansas. I did not discover them until recently as I began to pinpoint dates of the events.  In June of 1962 (an approximate date) a person in the Bartlesville, Oklahoma area reported that they had been visited and had experienced a series of strange thing. These included a “possible implant”, “small creatures”, an intense “light” and a “scar” (MUFON/NICAP reports). Another report for early June or late May of 1962-1963 was from Pittsburg, Oklahoma of a red, circular, silent object (MUFON/NICAP). Also, in Oklahoma City that year 3-5 objects buzzed over the city (MUFON/NICAP).

August of 1962 was a time of sightings across several states. One in Liberal, Kansas on 2 August 1962 was of multiple objects, initial report of blue-green moving west at terrific speed in sight for a mere 3 seconds. The second report was an extremely bright light comparable to landing light brightness only stationary in eastern sky. Comments on the summary page indicate the objects were “probably meteors” and the stationary object was deemed as “Jupiter”.  That planet, it was noted, was at the time at its maximum (-2.4 magnitude).  As repeatedly is the case while pursuing these files, a look inside showed there was both more and different inside.

Inside the report it was noted that similar reports had come in from Pueblo in Colorado, Garden City, Kansas, New Mexico and Oklahoma. The objects were moving E-W at great speed. As part of the file was a newspaper clipping from an unnamed source, “Liberal, Kansas Sighting” that added details absent from the report. The event occurred at 8 p.m., the objects were higher and faster than airplanes and lights were auto headlight size. The colors varies from blue, white, green and orange but brilliant. There were four objects seen at the airport in Liberal with one object becoming stationary over the airport with a landing light type of beam under it.  One description was of a silver object with white lights extending out in all directions. The summary page of the Blue Book file read a “single object” and it was labeled with ‘insufficient data” and a probable sighting of Venus ‘except for the - -.’

ENCOUNTERS OVER KANSAS: UFO'S IN THE SUNFLOWER STATE, THE 1950'S. Marilyn A. Hudson.

 4 THE 1950’S

The fifth decade ushered in a time of prosperity, a modern era in mode and thinking that was often at odds with a post-war rush to embrace the reassuring familiarity of the way things “used to be.”  The fifties will see “hyper-femininity” and “hyper-masculinity” and a focus on the new demi-god of science. As a result new ideas, philosophies, lifestyles and values were being tried on. Overhead, in 1952, 1954, and 1957 there will be major flying saucer, or as they were now being called “unidentified flying saucer” flaps. To further confuse the issue, there will emerge the “Contactees” who will report travels to Venus, visits with the “Space Brothers,” and tended to share a prevailing message of peace.

These “contactees”, some experts believe, are not really part of the UFO phenomena but belong to something seen throughout human experience. In a previous age, these were simple, often misguided or mentally disturbed, people who would have used the imagery of Gods, Angels, Fairies, magic,  animals, or other sacred symbols of religion to speak of some needed apocalyptic or transformative change.  They saw saints, deities, and other mystic apparitions (such as Joan of Arc). Some “contactees” were often also simple charlatans or con artists.  

As a general rule, even though they can be entangled in the literature of the UFO phenomena, it may be wise to view them as an aside. This work will largely exclude them for the reason that they may not truly be a part of the modern history of UFO’s and because there are some convincing arguments that they represent an aberration of human mental health. For that reason, with an assumption that other UFO sightings fall into a different category, they will be considered separately and not really part of the main body of unidentified flying objects of the 20th century.

Post WW-2, however, anyone who saw anything in the sky that was questionable was often met with accusations of being drunk, mentally damages, mistaken, or suffering from hysteria left over from war-time tensions.  Sometimes the labels fit – often, however, they did not fit at all.

The Kansas Clergy and the UFO – Kingman, Kansas area 1950.

Heading due west out of Wichita along Highway 54 several small communities are passed: Cheney, Kingman, Pratt and others. These are all towns south of Hutchinson, one time home to a Naval facility and frequent locale of weather balloon launches. On Thursday evening June 30, 1950, two family groups would witness something remarkable.

The Rev. Ross Vermellion, age 26, and his wife were two witnesses. Ross was pastor of the Cheney Christian Church. The other witnesses were a druggist, Dwayne Mulnix, and his two daughters from Meade, Kansas. 

Newspaper accounts provide two slightly different perspectives on the sighting. One news account from the UP said the sighting was 9 miles west of Kingman just minutes after midnight. The minister’s wife was asleep and he awakened her as the object came closer in the moonlight sky.  It came almost 500 feet from the minister and his wife and the light of the night gave them a good view of this strange whirling object. Another version clarifies that a central rim around the object was moving in a counter clockwise rotation.

 Vermillion slowed his car to about 20 mph and they practically drove right under the object. The B-17 veteran pilot quickly noted there was no flame, no interference with the radio that was playing, and its lights did not tally with required U.S. aircraft markings or lights. There was a light – a white one – east side of the object and stationary lights on the west that were red and white. 

The minister, along with another driver, stopped their cars to better see the odd object. The other driver was Dwayne Mulinex, Meade, Kansas and his two daughters.  After observing it briefly, the minister said he decided to turn his car around and see if he could drive back under the object and before he could do so the object took off “in a hurry.”  Witnesses noted its terrific rate of acceleration and the ex-pilot noted he had never seen anything like it before. 

Other accounts indicate that the object was first noticed as just a very bright vivid red light in the sky near the community of Cunningham just east of Pratt.  Then as a bright white light that was apparently moving. Vermillion, a WW2 veteran B-17 pilot, described it as displaying a “rotary movement” on what appeared to be an outer ring.  The object was about 250 feet in diameter, about 10 feet thick, and having what appeared to be a small canopy on the top.

Awed and intrigued they stopped the car on a bridge over the Ninnescah River (probably a bridge near the area of Cunningham and Calista on Hwy 54). At that time, the show apparently ended as the craft abruptly shot up at a 45 degree angle and disappeared. Witnesses theorized this was accomplished either by attaining incredible speeds or by dimming its lights making it no longer visible. This was the view the pastor leaned towards as he thought he observed a dimming of the lights conjointly with its intense acceleration. 

Since the local Hutchinson paper did not carry this story until its Sunday edition (July 1) some sources have that date for the event. The story clearly notes it was on the previous Thursday (June 30). 

This year of 1950 would have numerous such curious reports. Many of them are from the month of June. A b-29 was dispatched at Roswell, New Mexico and reports came in from many locations.

Although this event about the Veteran pilot turned minister who observed a strange object appeared in various UFO publications and even in a graphic booklet in the early years of the decade, it is not a familiar one in many of the more formal topic resources. 

The reason it is absent, along with many other reports from the early ears, may be found in a letter that is part of the official file (06-9615158): “As a matter of fact, the details of individual sightings reported during the 1947-1950 period are no longer available since this data has been thoroughly analyzed.” The letter was written by a Wallace W. Elwood, First Lt., Assistant Adjutant USAF, 17 May 1956 to someone in Santa Ana, California.  That individual had apparently written for information about confirming one or more reported sightings from those years. The letter also mentions a witness named Ross Vermillion, Cheney, Kansas, 29 June 1950.  Thursday was the 29th of June and the sighting in one source was alleged to be minutes after midnight the confusion as to dates becomes clear. Further confusing the issue was the early July newspaper stories that led some to place the sighting in that month.

THE SWALLOW AIRCRAFT EVENT – 1952, WICHITA

In the mid-forties Wichita emerged as a significant manufacturing center for aircraft and all related industries as the war effort heated up.  Several important plants in the early days included Swallow Aircraft Company, followed later by Beech, Cessna, Boeing, and similar companies building, testing, or repairing aircraft for the war. 

The wide open plains had been long recognized as highly suitable for pilot instruction, paratrooper training, and testing of new designs. Many people – men and women – eagerly headed to Wichita to get one of the better paying jobs with these industries.

In April of 1952, several employees of Swallow reported seeing something moving south-southeast and this was labeled a meteor in the report.  A second sighting was described as moving very fast to the southwest and was brilliantly illuminated. Witnesses described it as being an unknown yellow object with something resembling a huge kite with a tail. The date was April 15 and the time of the sighting was 10:45.

TOPEKA – THE RED GLOW AND THE PINK UFO - 1952

Later that same month on the 29th in Topeka was another report.  This time the object was oval, pink in color, and it a straight and level path at great speed.

Details are a bit lacking illustrating the value of detail in understanding what has been seen. Although both of these events occurred during the annual Lyrid meteor shower, the lack of clear times, location, altitude, direction, and other details generate problems.

It was easy for such vague sightings to be labeled something natural and normal (which they might well have been) but the one on June 27 at Topeka, at 6:50 p.m. near Forbes Air Force Base was a little harder to explain. The object seen by 2nd Lt. K.P. Kelley and his wife was a pulsating red object that changed shape from circular to vertical oval as it pulsed, as it remained stationary, and as it then moved away.

WICHITA – 1952

A listing for July 29 for Wichita, Kansas is one of many in one file and a typed list of current reported sightings for that window of time. These included sightings for July 29, 1952 from Osceola, Virginia (listed as unidentified with a photo); one from Langley, Virginia; and one from Otis Air Force Base in Massachusetts (source for these was a Dayton, Ohio file for July 1952 in Project Blue Book).  Aside from any commonalities as to the actual sighting details which might exist they do share one common feature: all were listed as having their “cards” – those summary cover sheets – missing. In its earliest incarnation the card was an oversized index type card that evolved into a form sheet but still retained the same blanks for information on date, time, location, type of sighting, direction, a summary account and a possible explanation for the event. For some cases that “card” was all there was and so for them to go missing is very interesting. 

The summer of 1952 was when the nation’s capital itself saw strange things being reported.  Radar screens in several states, aboard planes, and in air control towers reported objects.  Some pilots and people on the ground reported seeing “lights.”   The Air Force quickly presented the twin explanations of “radar angels” – ghost blimps caused by a) malfunctioning equipment or ill-trained users or b) temperature inversions that reflected objects in such a manner they were read as objects in the sky when they were not. 

Those who noted that temperature inversions occurred on other dates with so attending objects seen or reported but nobody was paying much attention by then. The military had found a trendy explanation in the temperature inversion story.

THE UFO AT PITTSBURG, KANSAS – AUGUST 25, 1952

This was a case that Dr. Allen J. Hynek would note later in his career that set him to thinking that more study needed to be conducted on some sightings. It was one that left an impression for years but one that was largely forgotten by many.

A local man William Squyres reported seeing a strange object about 5:30 a.m. on August 25, 1952 outside the community of Pittsburg in southeastern Kansas. He described the object as about 70 feet long, metallic, and most bizarre of all, was his report of seeing at least one occupant in the craft.  He assumed it to be some experimental aircraft and thought the “man” was working the controls. He also noted through the slightly opaque window like openings movement as if there might be others inside the object.

A co-worker of the man returned with Squyres to the location about 10:00 a.m. and collected soil samples. Squyres had an artificial leg and could not go out into the field but his friend followed directions and took samples as he was directed. 

Squyres, a professional musician who worked for a local radio station providing music for programs, reported it to his bosses.  The Air Force only learned of the event when the soil samples arrived at ATIC at Wright-Patterson AFB in Dayton, Ohio.

Mention of the report was included in a November 1951 ATIC report of over ten pages regarding “CONTRACT AF -19741, PPS-100.”  In this contract were several test results of samples collected from various reports.  The scope of the contract included analysis of existing sighting reports, analysis of soil and vegetation samples, a consultant on astronomy, interrogation forms and something labeled merely ‘future work.’

Among those soil samples were those from Pittsburgh, Kansas. The tests made included those for beta, gama, and alpha radiation. Results indicated “no difference” between those in the area of the object and the area outside that area. An attached note indicated the “samples of “Kansas” soil and vegetation will be returned to WP-AFB in the near future.”  The wording is strange as such samples, once tested, seem unimportant. It can also be noted there was no use of any term indicating the results were normal. If unaffected, why, one wonders, return or keep them?

The consultant on astronomy may have been Dr. Hynek. This may be what he birthed his later comments about this case being deserving of greater investigation and study.  On October 11, 1952, Dr. Hynek presented a paper at the convention of the Optical Society of America in Boston on “Unusual Aerial Phenomena.”

Some researchers have noted that during 1952-1953 Project Stork was focused on addressing the apparent lack of physical evidence.  Also noted is that due to the “packing” and “swirling” of the weeds and grasses in the area where the object was seen hovering this could be an early crop circle.

All in all this often overlooked story may have had a lot more in it than was first believed. Another odd tale of things seen in the skies over Kansas.

In May of 1953 a military service member at Marshall Air Force Base near Fort Riley, Kansas observed an object in the sky. On the 25th of the month at 10:45 to 11:45 CST (25/1645 zulu) a bean shaped object was seen moving at a high rate of speed. It was estimated at 600 mph at a low altitude on a 57 degree heading. The report was deemed lacking sufficient data for an investigation. Of course there is the possibility that this “bean shaped object” might have been an experimental craft, balloon or something else.  The shape, depending on perspective, could be used to define a delta wing craft or a weather balloon losing its shape while moving through a swift upper air current. The estimated speed was well within the upper test ranges of military craft of the time (in use and in development).

It could, however, have been something else. Calendar year 1952 had been a peak year for radar and electrical interference by apparent UFO’s.  As May 1953 arrived it looked to be a continuation of that type of encounter as objects were seen at Goose AFB in Labrador, Canada. A jet plane flown by a USAF pilot, radar and control tower all reported an object. Visually it was one white light that evaded interception during a 30 minute observation.

The sightings in the skies, the fact that there was a lack of agreement about the nature of the things being seen in the skies among military leaders, and the stunning awareness that they were not just a product of United States culture or anxieties was becoming more apparent. As a result, people were watching the skies in greater numbers.

On the night of April 3, 1954, a man was in a car on Market Street in Wichita, Kansas. The car was facing south late night at “37 degrees, 38 degrees North, 16 degrees West.”  The witness said he observed the moving objects for about 10-12 seconds.  There were 7-9 lights moving in a “V” formation.  One of the lights periodically dropped back and then would resume its earlier position.

He estimated the speed of the objects as very fast and said their brightness was that of a 2-3 degree magnitude star. The lights were a bright white. Their size he estimated as being that of the head of pin held at arm’s length.  The Air Force conclusion was that the individual had observed a flock of birds.  Demonstrating, how global sightings were becoming was the fact that the file also contained a clipping from a NICAP publication about an April 4, 1954 sighting in Scotland. The British Ministry had reported a UFO in Scotland and the noted UFO organization added it to their monthly newsletter of events and reports.

People seeing something they have never seen before will search for similarities to known forms or sounds. As a result there have been some strange terms used when attempting to explain what was seen: upside down washtub, bean shaped, ice cream cone, stick of dynamite, platters, saucers, football with the center squashed down, and other terms. And, one time, a cucumber.

In Comanche County, Kansas near the community of Coldwater a 12-year old John Jacob Swaim (some sources have Swain) reported seeing something very unusual when he was running a tractor in a field toward the end of day in September.

The tale was shared by Wichita Eagle writer Don Pinkston and picked up by several newspapers and UFO group publications. The young man had seen something odd – a small, “gnome-like” wrote one account, being about the size of five year old child. Swaim noted it had what appeared to be a “weird flying machine” and a being with pointed ears and a pointed nose and wore a shiny or light reflective suit or outfit. This creature had what appeared to be tanks on his back and seemed to glide as he moved back to the craft that resembled a “flying saucer” or as one said a “cucumber” with several lights.  The craft lighted, rose and hovered and then sped off very fast. Accounts of the size of the object vary by sources: some say it was about 3 feet by 3 feet and others that it was 50 feet in diameter (see the Wichita Eagle, September 8, 1954). 

The local law enforcement did report there were small “pear shaped” footprints found in the area where the small being and craft had been sighted. It should be noted that during this year there is an increase in reports of humanoid beings associated with the presence of a UFO.

There were many top secret projects from this time period for which records no longer exist. Was this an early attempt to see if a primate might been able to pilot a small craft, a test of physical endurance in a testing of possible new flight technologies or something similar?  Or, was it really another example of an increase in attempts to contact human beings by creatures who were from someplace farther away?  Were the authorities correct when in a very Kansas manner remarked the boy had a strong imagination? 

OVER KANSAS SKIES: 18 JULY 1956

On the night of July 18, and early morning of the 19th, people were seeing things in the skies near Arkansas City (known locally as Ark City), Hutchinson, El Dorado, Wichita and Wellington. All located primarily in central and southeast Kansas.

Near Arkansas City observers viewed for some forty minutes an object drifting to the southeast. It was described as an orange light bulb with green points of light at about 500-600 feet altitude and 80 degrees azimuth. Authorities from several locales indicated the movement of this object concurred with the winds aloft at this time. 

The suggestion was that this was “probably a balloon” released from Dodge City in southwest Kansas or Wichita in south central Kansas. Some have argued that the winds aloft direction referred to would seem to indicate that a Dodge City balloon should have angled more on a south east trajectory leading to Oklahoma. This object was observed by several witnesses as moving to the north just before midnight.

The light had what appeared to be prongs or rays of light, very bright, that sprayed downward to the ground. This object was described as “teardrop” shape. Its size – seen at a distance – was considered to be big and appeared as bright as a 200 watt bulb held at arm’s length.

In Arkansas City, the object was viewed by three police officers and two civilians for some five hours from various points over their community. The descriptions included seeing “dangling tentacles.” Witnesses in Wichita (northwest of Arkansas City), Hutchinson (west of Arkansas City), El Dorado (northeast of Arkansas City) and Wellington (west of Arkansas City) also reported seeing what appeared to be a large light bulb “dancing in the sky.”

One state patrolman reported seeing “objects” moving eastward from Hutchinson at a high altitude and a fast rate of speed. These were, according to reports, also caught on area radar screens there as well.

At some point, McConnell AFB sent up a B-29 bomber out of Wichita and the Smokey Hills AFB, Salina sent out two jets. At the time, Smokey Hills (later Schilling AFB) was a Strategic Air Command (SAC) facility. Forbes AFB in Topeka may have also sent up planes or contributed in some manner according to records.

One of these pilots fly over the oil fields near El Dorado and saw one of the burn-off pipes with its blue-green head and yellow flare and declared an answer to what everyone was seeing. 

Considering the distances involved, however, and the time span, coupled with other descriptions of size, direction and colors it becomes clear that there were at least two different objects being sighted in these reports.

The high flying, fast paced objects heading due east reported by the state police and caught on radar constitute one event.

The large light bulb shaped object with slow pace and dangling parts seen “drifting” southeast and observed for hours from Hutchinson to Wellington and Arkansas City as it moved into northeastern Oklahoma appears to be a second event. This sighting was first noticed before midnight “in the north” but moving on a southeast trajectory.  This appears to match the object reported northeast of Wellington and northeast over parts of Arkansas City.

The El Dorado burn off explanation is an odd explanation. It is, if visible, far north of Arkansas City and stationary. In addition, it would not be an abnormal or unusual occurrence unfamiliar to area residents and police.  Although El Dorado sits on an elevation of 1312 feet and Arkansas City sits at 1125 feet and in 1956 the line of sight might have been obscured. 

Making it fit all descriptions becomes problematic. A size of a 200 watt bulb held at arm’s length would not have consistently been reported by witnesses from different locations and distances. The “teardrop” shape had dangling tentacles but an oil field burn off flare would not reveal “dangling” but instead bursts of flame upwards – opposite to the description. The light bulb was further seen to have moved both vertically and horizontally by witnesses.

Donald H. Menzel in his 1963 work The World of Flying Saucers mentioned a case of “radar angels” or “ghosts” at Schilling AFB in Salina, Kansas September 10, 1956.  A photograph of the radar screen is included in the book, co-authored with Boyd, and is part of an effort on the part of Menzel to debunk many ‘flying suacer’ cases. Interestingly enough, the event falls between two Project Blue Book “unknowns” (September 4 in Dallas, TX and September 14 in Highland, NC). 

As the decade was winding down, things in space and politics were gaining momentum. Early in the fall of 1957 would spark the attention or the imagination of people all over the globe. On October 4, Russia shot the first man-made craft, Sputnik 1, into orbit around the Earth.  As a result, fear and anxiety increased for many as they realized the potential of such technology coupled with missiles and atom bombs. October through December would see people having watch parties and local newspapers would print schedules of when to go out and view the mighty achievement from the front yard.

Looking into events of the year reveals, however, that people were seeing things in the sky long before Sputnik launched.

In Kansas in January was a report from Russell, Kansas of a “V” shaped lights similar to lights reported in similar places. In March a sighting from Herrington, in May one from Kansas City, and then in July one from Forbes AFB, Topeka, Kansas. Apparent weather balloons resulted in August reports from Wichita. Mid-October a reported sighting of three objects in Haviland, and one object on Halloween from Kanapolis – all deemed to be clusters of weather balloons. In November reports from Hill City and Salina will be blamed on misidentifications of the planet Venus.

THE RB-47 AND AMERICAN AIRLINES #655 CASE - 1957

A 56 page report from July 17, 1957 for Forbes AFB at Topeka will encompass several states and generate ongoing interest from several agencies and scientists. Inside the file is a photocopy of an article added later from a July 1971 issue of Astronautics and Aeronautics, “Sample Case Submitted by the UFO Subcommittee.” The piece was co-authored by Dr. James E. McDonald, an American physicist and vocal advocate of studying the UFO phenomena.

Home to the RB-47h aircraft, with its array of counter measure equipment, was Forbes Air Force Base, Topeka, Kansas. Their mission that July was to fly over a preselected area of ground stations so that both the aircraft equipment and the ground equipment could demonstrate “their stuff.”  Their course was to fly south across Kansas, into Oklahoma, and down toward the Dallas area, turn east over Louisiana, then toward Jackson and Meridian in Mississippi and then south once more to Gulfport on the coast. Once out in the Gulf the aircraft turned back west and headed toward the Texas gulf coastline before turning back and retracing their previous route.

That was when the trip got really interesting.

The aircraft was crewed by pilot Lewis D. Chase; copilot James H. McCoid; T.H. Henley, navigator; and operating the special onboard equipment was J.T. Provenzano, monitor #1; Frank B. McClure, operating monitor #2; Walter A. Tuchscherer,  operating monitor #3.

Coming home the “first contact” with airborne unknown was equipment based over Gulfport in southern Mississippi on their return leg.  

This was followed by a visual sighting by crew over eastern Louisiana, southeast of Jackson, Mississippi. At 1010z (5:10 a.m.) the aircraft commander (Chase) observed a very intense white light with a blue tint. It was at an 11 o’clock position and cross in front of the plane at about a 2:30 o’clock position.

Then, at 1039z (5:39 a.m.) the aircraft commander sighted a huge light estimated to be 5000 feet below their aircraft at about a 2 o’clock position. The crew members clearly remembered a red hued light emanating from the top of this object. These air born visuals were being confirmed by ground based units.

Monitor operator # 2 at 1040z (5:40 a.m.) reported tracking two signals (2 objects) at 40 and 70 degrees. At this time the aircraft commander and co-pilot saw two objects with red color.  At this time they were approaching the Dallas area (possibly around Tyler) and received permission to ignore their flight plan and pursue the mystery objects. One crew member recalled seeing the strange objects moving abruptly from starboard to port and back again.

Although some of the more sophisticated ground tracking equipment had been on (code name for one was “UTAH”) they were not able, at first, to track the objects being seen. That came later. After the objects had turned northward and was tracked visually and by equipment. The “unknown” turned north between the area of Dallas and Ft. Worth.

While the RB-47h was in that general area pilot Chase received permission to go after the object from the FAA and to aid that they ordered all jets to get out of the way.  The plane went toward Mineral Wells (to the west of Ft. Worth) before making a turn back toward the Ft. Worth-Dallas corridor.

At 1042z (5:42 a.m.) the crew of RB-47h reported the object 10 nautical miles northwest of Ft. Worth and the ADC’s ‘Utah” station confirmed it on their own ground scopes.

The second monitor operator regained the object on the aircraft at 1058z (5:58 a.m.) at 20 nautical miles northwest of Ft. Worth at an estimated 20,000 feet altitude and at a 2 o’clock position relative to the RB-47h.

About that same time, the aircraft was running low on fuel and the crew grew concerned about being able to make it back to home base at Forbes AFB in Topeka. So, at 1120z (6:20 a.m.) the aircraft took up a heading for its home station, but they tracked the object into southern Oklahoma in the process. Some other reports indicate that the object may have been seen by witnesses in southern Oklahoma including the Ardmore and Oklahoma City environs.

This case, involving as it did possibly classified counter measure EMC equipment, did not even reach the desk of Project Blue Book until November of 1957. In October, the Russians launched Sputnik into orbit and so there may have been concerns about leaking information about USAF capabilities to locate, track the locations of craft or their abilities to obscure their own presence. There may, given the number of highly intriguing UFO cases from that year, also have been something the higher ups wanted to cover up – even from their own investigative arm charged with explaining just such events as the July 17, 1957 flight of the RB-47b out of Forbes AFB when an “unknown” paced the plane and its crew for some 700 nautical miles. 

In 1971, Dr. James MacDonald, a rare outspoken proponent of the serious investigations of the possibilities the UFO Phenomena presented, led a subcommittee of the AIAA (American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics) in publishing a case study of the RB-47h case. 

He and his colleagues on the committee noted it had been one studied by the recent Condon Report and in their research they had uncovered that a) the case was misfiled due to a wrong date being assigned the case (September 19 instead of July 17), b) as a result, the weather and radar analyzes had been conducted for the wrong date and the Condon report had been working with September 19 information rather than the correct date.

MacDonald, horribly ridiculed by the press, the military, his peers and professional debunkers such as Philip Klass and Dr. Menzel led the effort to correct the record so that date reflected actual events, replaced or created new witness reports (he had found that some reports were never generated and some “lost”) by re-interviewing crew members and others. Most importantly he allowed a scientific voice – from some heavy hitters in their fields – minimized through the efforts of the Condon Report to be heard.

Despite the odd explanation offered by Project Blue Book that the entire incident had been determined to have been caused by a near collision with an American Airlines Flight # 655, the Wing Reconnaissance Director of Intelligence had stated that he had no question that the electronic signals verified over the Tyler area and another near Granbury (D and F positions on the MacDonald article map) had been generated by the “object.”

So, where does that American Airlines Flight 655 fit into things – or does it?

American Airlines Flight # 655 – July 17, 1957

Fifty miles east of El Paso, Hudspeth County, Texas (far southwest Texas) over what is now a ghost town called Salt Flat a DC-6 with 80 passengers and 5 crew members had a hair raising experience in the early morning hours of July 17, 1957.

Captain T. “Ed” Bachner, a 15 year veteran pilot, was heading west on a flight that was variously described as a “nonstop from New York to Los Angeles” and a plane “enroute from Dallas to Los Angeles” (both terms appear in news and other reports).

At that approximate 50 mile point just east of El Paso the Captain saw a green light that abruptly appeared just ahead of him. Thinking he was seeing the safety light on the tip of the left wing of an oncoming aircraft (as standard aircraft regulations required placement of such lights in that manner), the Captain turned the plane to the right and dove the airliner down (by most accounts 14,000 feet). The passengers, most not strapped in, were immediately tossed about the cabin creating several injuries. This necessitated the pilot making an unplanned, emergency landing at the El Paso International Airport.  Some twenty or so passengers suffered mild injuries and two passengers going home to California were hospitalized for neck dislocations.  Reports vary as to how far he dropped the plane with some saying he was flying at 14,000 and others saying that was the altitude he dropped the airliner to avoid collision. 

There may have been passengers who also observed whatever the object was that nearly collided with Flight 655. There were comments later from the injured that they believed the Captain’s skills had prevented a tragedy.

Early newspaper accounts favor the time of “about 3:00 a.m.” or “about 3:30 a.m.” for the time of this incident in far west Texas on July 17, 1957.  Some accounts include a quote of an “airline spokesperson” as saying the incident occurred at 4:30 “Texas time” over Salt Flats “about 50 miles east of El Paso.” One source does say it was only “30 miles.”  A UP story hit the wires of “Passenger Tells of Panic as Plane Suddenly Dives” that says the event occurred about 3 a.m.  This, according to signals tracked by the Salt Flat and Waco towers (beacons) of the airliners passage.

El Paso and nearby Salt Flats are sandwiched between Mexico to the south and New Mexico to the north.  El Paso is as far west as Albuquerque, New Mexico. As such the area falls under Mountain Time Zone (MST) and all the rest of Texas are under Central Time Zone (CTZ).  So the encounter with American Airlines Flight # 655, according to the airline spokesperson and other accounts occurred about 3:00 to 3:30 a.m. on Wednesday, July 17, 1957.

Now, let us go back to that Forbes AFB RB-47h coming back from its test jaunt over the Gulf of Mexico. The testimony of the crew and supporting evidence from the ground units indicate they first encountered something in the area of Gulfport, Mississippi at about 5:00 a.m. and another encounter going into Louisiana and then as they approached the Dallas area. The objects that paced that aircraft then turned NORTHWEST heading into Oklahoma.

Now the Project Blue Book report card form states the location was “Forbes AFB, Kansas/Oklahoma City/Ft. Worth, Texas” and it occurred at “Local time of 0350 AM” or “GMT 17/1050z” and it was summarized as “a blue light was seen in sky that stayed with a/c for 420 NM. Object was picked up by B-47 radar but could not be seen by ground radar.”  In the comments section it states “Identified as American Airlines Flight 655” and a handwritten notation says “See article by Dr. James MacDonald – Astronautics and Aeronautics, summer of 1971”. 

The military craft only went as far west as Mineral Wests, just west of Ft. Worth before it looped back around and then swung north toward home base in northern Kansas. The American Airlines Flight # 655 encountered the mysterious craft some 500 air miles away from the course of the RB-47h.  It appears both time and miles preclude the airliner from having encountered the RB-47h in flight.

Something else to think about is that there is no story of the repercussions of another aircraft flying “out of nowhere” that close to the airliner necessitating such drastic evasive maneuvers by Captain Bachner.

Oddly, a similar incident occurred later in that same month. On July 22,  in the Texas panhandle, a TWA (Trans-World Airlines) Flight #21, a four engine Constellation flying non-stop from Chicago to Tuscan and piloted by a Captain Schamel or Schemel was flying over Amarillo at 10 p.m. to 10:15 p.m. when “unexpectedly” running lights from another craft were just ahead of him. 

He did not have even time to flash the seatbelt warning sign for the 36 passengers before he dropped 500 feet to avoid certain collision. He would later say he thought the craft was an Air Force plane but not a jet and later records would suggest he had encountered an USAF KC-97 but with no supporting evidence.

Again several of the 34 passengers were tossed about but only one passenger, a 68 year of Massachusetts woman and a “hostess”, Dorothy Rekow, suffered significant injuries.  The plane landed at Amarillo so that injuries could be treated and then proceeded onto Tuscan.

Unsupported accounts suggest the pilot described the lights of the sudden craft as “bluish-white with a reddish tint” and that its speed was fast. It disappeared as if the lights were simply switched off and similar terms. Attempts were made to blame all of these type of accounts on faulty radar equipment. The year was a bad one for airplane collisions (nearly a thousand) so there were some problems being worked out.

It was also an interesting year for UFO related events across the nation: Carswell AFB (Ft. Worth) and Knoxville, Tennessee in January, Great Falls, Montana and Malstrom AFB in June, White Sands Proving Grounds in July, and in November Levelland, Texas, Amarillo, Texas and Kirtland AFB in New Mexico.  Most of which are considered some of the stronger and most interesting of cases related to the studies of the UFO phenomena.

As the RB-47h made its way home to Topeka that day, after being paced by an “unknown”, for some 700 nautical miles, one wonders just where their thoughts journeyed. 

Fall of 1957 would spark a great deal of excitement across the globe. On October 4, Russia launched Sputnik I into orbit around the earth. It was a major flare up during an icy Cold War generating a great deal of dear and anxiety. Looking into that year, however, it was clear there were things in the sky before Sputnik.

In Kansas alone, there was a report in January of “V” shaped lights. In Herrington in March something was seen and in Kansas City in May.  In July from Forbes AFB came a report that is explained as an aircraft (which must have been hard to handle given that Forbes was an Air Force Base and should be expert at identifying aircraft overhead). In August is a sighting in Wichita labeled a weather balloon. In Haviland on October 22, three objects seen in the sky will join an object reported from Halloween in Kanapolis under the umbrella of a sighting of weather balloons. November will bring reports from Hill City and Salina were a misidentification of the planet Venus will carry the day.

As 1958 arrived the world had moved into a new realm of realizing that space travel was not just the stuff of science fiction, Those satellites orbiting around the earth, the United States’ efforts to launch their satellites, and a new focus on the importance of having science based education in schools and colleges.

The reports of things odd and out of the ordinary in the skies continued. May 15, 1958 in Coffeeville, Kansas in southeast Kansas (just northeast of Parsons) came a report. The object seen was cigar shaped, there were small creatures associated with the craft and the witness reported to a UFO investigative site that there was a sensation of “time freezing” which may be a way of expressing the concept of “lost time.” 

A few days later on May 18 in Greenburg, Kansas in Kiowa County in west central section of the state another report emerged. The object moved from northwest to southwest, it was ball shaped with a bubbly looking surface that looked hot and was orange to red in color. The witness said it looked like a quarter moon too low in the sky and was about tree top level. The object stopped in the sky and descended vertically to the ground for about 3-4 minutes. Then the object rose vertically in a northwest direction and then turned to the southwest again. It then disappeared from view. 

The possible explanation offered was the witness had seen “static electricity.”   

A witness had stopped their car on HWY 57 and the UFO had stopped some 25 feet in front of the car, 4 miles west of Greenbrush. They described the object as ball shaped and it moved across the road ditch-to-ditch (covering a 2 lane and 30 foot wide space).  That night they reported there was clear ground visibility, winds were North Northeast at 6 mph.  Chanute and distant towns to the northeast reported “occasional lightening.”

In July observers in Wichita reported on July 12th an shiny, metallic object that was moving very fast.

As summer was winding down on August 21 in Kansas City witnesses were “Sputnik watching” when they saw something else moving from the northeast to the southwest “very fast.” They observed flashes of light, at 8:45 p.m.,  a few seconds apart, that spanned the entire sky in six flashes (under a minute and estimated 45 seconds observation). There was a slight arc to its travel across the sky.

They thought it was the rocket of Sputnik going over but then a neighbor who had observed the satellite before this called them a few minutes later to observe that object. The object looked the size of a half dollar. The explanation the Air Force offered was a B-47 from Salina was in the area and may have flown by and its wings tilted to provide the “flashes” seen.

The B-47 had a top speed of 587 mph and the fast clip of the object reported seems to rule it out as the source.

As 1959 arrived there were more reports with one of the most significant in January from Dodge City, Ford County, Kansas. It was a report that reflected a future trend in many UFO reports and that was the emergence of the young, intelligent and often college educated witness.  

A saucer shaped object, the size of basketball held at arm’s length, was observed circling the community of Dodge City about 8:45 p.m. It appeared to have giant sparks shooting out all around the object.

In the comments section of the Project Blue Book report form had been written “probably aircraft” and “several inconsistencies between original letter and FORM 164 later submitted.”  In all the report was 12 pages long and inside the object was described as being at tree top level, rising, looping up and at an angle.

The object was observed through a windshield by an engineering student from the college at Manhattan, Kansas and was 26 years old. The object was reported as moving south southwest over his stopped car. The object gave off sparks in a circular pin-wheel like movement. It increased and decreased in brightness in 6-7 cycles.

As he was observing all of this he could hear the dogs in the community barking. It appeared in the southern sky and moved to the east. 

The differences between the two accounts of the letter and the later FORM 164 appear minor and have little significance to the event. The “first report” was an informal letter. The second, a multi-page report that demanded a deeper level of detail and thought, he has moved into full “student mode” as he answers in formal, academic, scientific and factual manner.  In one instance he reported the object “blew” overhead and rotated emitting sparks in a circular manner, then it moved due east and circled Dodge City before disappearing into the south.

The sketch inside the report showed a circular object with a domed shape, pinpointing bands of light and dark on it, and where the sparks were on the object. He concluded, when form asked for a guess: “no sensible guess…ruled out airplane, helicopter and balloon because object moved too fast.”