Dr. Menzel's UFO Report (1963)

 The document is labeled "UFO SIGHTING BY DHM, September 8, 1963:

"From a jet plane flying at an altitude of about 30,000 feet over eastern Kansas, September 8 1963, I saw a remarkable and realistic UFO, quite unlike any that I had previously noted. I was seated on the northern side of the plane The time was around noon, local time, and the sun was shining very brightly at that altitude. I suddenly became aware of a bright object, broken in two by a  horizontal dark line. It closely resembled the Saturn shaped saucers frequently reported. It seemed to be pacing our plane at a distance of several miles and at an appreciably lower altitude, I almost immediately recognized it for what it later proved to be though its physical appearance was certainly very different. It was indeed a jet plane, the silver body brilliantly illuminated. There was no trace of wings.

The double line was a reflection effect between the double windows and I was actually seeing two reflections, themselves very bright, separated by a region in between that seemed dark by comparison. It did give the effect of a single Saturn -shaped ship following along. While I was trying to conform this by detection of the plane itself, to my amazement a second similar apparition came flying by at an enormous speed in the opposite direction. It was, of course, a jet and the relative speeds of the plan were about a mle in three seconds. Another jet, of course.  The saucer shaped illusion continued for at least ten minutes. And then, with gradual changing illumination or something, the brightness of the reflection must have concentrated rather sharply toward our plane, diminished and I could then see the form of the plane itself.  You will recall these windows are truly double with a considerable air spacing between them. This gives rise to the multiple effect. I could not help but think of the Chesapeake Bay Case in this connection and again keep wondering if you could not build up a reflection from outside in some such fashion by repeated reflection between the double windows. I do not know, however, whether there are actual double windows in the DC4 and if the spacing of them would give rise to such reflections."

---1963 09 9733827 EasternKansas.

One of the astounding things in this narrative is that this is a man, it is suspected, who left his impression on many, many case files by the presence of acerbic, sometimes slightly sarcastic, and imperative commands concerning the quality of witness statements, data collection, what was not asked, etc. The impression was those heavy, black, and sternly made notes and comments is of a man with little tolerance or patience and who did not suffer fools gladly. His multiple "??!!!" are very different from the notes left by others identified by name or initials. This individual NEVER left any sign of who he was.

If that man was this man, Donald H. Menzel, he had been involved with the "project" for many years, mostly in the shadows.  Had he been reading his own report I would expect those heavy, impatient, "!!!" because there is no mention of the type of plane he was in at the time, no clear indication about where he was over "eastern Kansas", there is no indication of which direction the plane was flying. Both of those details would have a lot to say about the quality of his sighting, the quality of his suggested explanation, and that seriously limits the ability to verify what other planes were in the air at the time to support his claims. 

In 1963, Menzel published his second book on the topic of "flying saucers" - a term he used as both label and laugh line - with Lyle G. Boyd. The book, THE WORLD OF FLYING SAUCERS (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1963) can be found in gallery format and photocopies in more than a dozen Project Blue Book files. It, literally, appears to have been the "bible" for assigning solutions to cases and probably contributed greatly to the shifting of cases from the "Unknown" columns into the "probable". He was, however, very selective in stories he presented, how much he presented, and how he formed the narrative about the people, the events, and the explanations. 

According to his 1963 book preface several things stand out:

"At a conference with Air Force officials in Washington in April 1952, He [Menzel} presented his idea that planetary mirages, sundogs, reflections and other atmospheric, and optical phenomena probably accounted for a large percentage of the mysterious UFO's.  This suggestion met with strong skepticism from some of the conferees who at that time were sympathetic to the interplanetary hypothesis."  I wonder if this was one of the planning meetings with the AF, CIA about the "study" then being planned, i.e., The Batelle Institute study (the results would not be published until 1955).

Sexism In Early UFO Investigation

An early ad affirming the frailty of women

The very word "hysteria" comes from an sexist belief that women were more emotionally and labeled "female hysteria" (nervousness, anxiety, emotional responses, having ideas or opinions, seeking legal or political redress, questioning male authority - these were all symptoms that led to a diagnosis of 'female hysteria').  Sadly, this type of thinking can be seen in some cases of investigations into unidentified flying object reports. Often, by men who labeled themselves "scientists" and should have known better.
mentally unstable due to their biology. The word comes from the Greek for "uterus."  It was bad science that led to worse science and guided far too much thinking about women, their intellect and emotional structure well into the 20th century.  A large group of symptoms were used to define something broadly believed to be a female condition and something that made her inherently inferior in mental capacity, physical stamina and emotional stability.

In Sheffield Lake, Ohio, 21 September 1958, one of the most aggressively sexist of all reports appeared with the story of a woman who reported an unidentified flying object in her front yard. The part that rankled the Air Force was that a local UFO group jumped in and issued a paper on the sighting making claims they could not and would not support. The rivalry between the AF and civilian UFo investigative groups (often mocked with the title 'saucerians') fills many pages throughout the Project Blue Book ( and its predecessor names) records. Some reports to government and military agencies are nothing but pages outlining the numerous civilian periodicals and/or groups in the nation at that time. At one time over fifty national organizations existed and this, it was clear, was just too much.

In short, the witness described an object seen for five minutes has having a side view of a round "saucer shaped object" with smoke coming from the two far "ends" of the thin rim aspect of the "saucer". In other view it was round with a projection on the top. It followed a course across her front yard, appeared 8 feet diameter. The object crossed her driveway, becoming lower, about a foot off the ground - then object turned east to center of lawn, hovering there releasing a grayish-pink smoke- while visible a humming or whirring sound.

The air force explained this away, despite the attempts of the local and national UFO organization to present it as a viable unidentified sighting.  The AF said the combination of events leading to her sighting were:
1. Coast Guard boat using a searchlight to signal another boat at that same time
2. Train with an oscillating headlight and a tail light at that same time
3. Rain and mist with smoke and haze at that same time

1936 film that led to witness emotional vulnerability

4. Witness had just finished watching a horror movie...leaving her emotional vulnarable at that same time.

Believe me, having seen said movie,
it would hardly leave anyone emotional vulnerable let alone overly imaginative about  UFO's.


There was a tendency for some groups to equate any and all unidentified objects with "flying saucers', i.e. craft from other worlds. There was ,also, a tendency by the Air Force and its scientific supports - such as Dr. Donald H. Menzel and Dr.  J. Allen Hynek (although he would later adjust his views to a belief there was much to investigate in the subject) -were less open minded scientists as avid (in Menzel's case, rapid) debunkers. A skeptic is one whose mind is open and will accept what the science, evidence, and witnesses have to say in making a decision. A debunker has already has made up their mind and will only consider the aspects, evidence, and witness statements that support a predetermined belief or supposition.

The tendency is made clear in this case in both Dr. Menzel's book The World of Flying Saucers but in the actual file itself, that includes a letter from Project Blue Book administrator Robert J. Friend to Menzel sending the man a report of recent cases and a copy of statistics. The cozy letter sent to the residence of Menzel in Cambridge, Massachusetts (Menzel worked at Harvard) starts out with a salutation to the man and his family for the recent holiday and then launches into apology that he had been unable to send the agreed upon 'bi-weekly' reports on cases and would begin attempting a 'bi-monthly' report "of our activities" instead. ["0800z 21 September 1958, Sheffield Lake, Ohio"]

Friend wrote out a detailed, point by point response and exception report concerning the "Fizgerald Case" by local UFO group (17 Dec. 1958) in which among the many "omissions, errors" etc. he lists "3....a. No mention of the horror movie (Dracula's Daughter) which the witness was viewing before the sighting. It is the opinion of ATIC [Air Technology Intelligence Center in charge of Project Blue Book] that this was a contributing factor to the emotional vulnerability of Mrs. [blanked out name of witness]."

This them of emotional instability and vulnerability fills the pages of Menzel's almost verbatim report of the sighting in The World of Flying Saucers (pg. 279- 283 in the chapter Investigations - Air Force and Civilian). Menzel summed up the Air Force stance by saying the UFO was an illusion "produced by a combination of factors: an excited frame of mind induced by Dracula's Daughters, the spotlight on a Coast Guard cutter, the rotating headlight of the train and the noise of its engine, drifting smoke and the haze of thedrizzly night."

In September of 1960 a Tulsa, Oklahoma woman came in for this treatment after reporting something she and her husband had observed at the nearby airport around August 1, a finally felt it was important enough they should report what had been seen. They lived near an airport and had lived in such a location most of their adult lives.

"Mrs. [Blanked out name] is a heavy set woman about fifty years old. Her husband is a barber in Tulsa..." A notation about her health and eyesight continue the details about one  half of the pair having shared the sighting experience. The investigator was an O.S.I. officer (Office of Special Investigations).  The physical description of the woman and her age are mentioned while the spouse is labeled merely by an occupation. Both were totally irrelevant to the report.

1947 Hoax - File Mentions "Mogul"

The FBI snagged this one first and then forwarded it to the OSI who kicked over to Army Air Intelligence.  They identified the bits and pieces as mundane enough materials of earthly origin.  It was the notation 'Mogul' in handwriting that drew attention.

A closer examination of the file for this find from Hackensack, New Jersey revealed that someone had gone through it at a later date. The notation of 'Mogul' appears to be from that later date. I found myself wondering if the notation was from the time when the Project Mogul was declassified. Or was it just before the Air Force released their 'final answer' in "Roswell: Fact vs Fiction" report from the early 1990's.

Project Mogul only ran from 1947 to 1949 before its work was taken up by Skyhook and Moby Dick High Altitude balloons. 

Project Blue Book Closed in 1969 : Final Cases Say It All

The last case listed on an online database of Project Blue Book cases is for December 1969 and is classified as "INSUFFICIENT DATA."  This despite the fact the report is 22 pages in length.  The fact is that in that two word label the Air Force, the U.S. Government and others were like Pilate wiping their hands of all responsibility. "See," they are saying, " if we had straw we could make bricks. See, if we just had enough information we could explain it all away. See...not our fault."

The case from Roundlake, Illinois had a serious minded witness who observed the round to eggshape (on its side) object for 30 minutes, saw it move from NNE to E on a level plain before making a sharp upward movement. When it made that upward turn, it revealed another circular object matching the other moving in tandem with the first.

Two months before  n October 23, 1969 came a report from Vandalia, Ohio of an object described as a brown ball 8 feet in diameter with flashlight light . The abrupt conclusion was a balloon or garment bag balloon. They noted the observed was a twelve year old. The report was 12 pages long (an average report was 2-4 pages).

The secret to exploring the cases of Project Blue Book is to not accept at face value the conclusions o the top/first summary page.

Inside the actual words of the witnesses may be starkly at odds with the descriptions and summaries of that cover sheet. There may - and often was - selective editing of information and the selective ignoring of data.

Inside the Vandalia, Ohio report was a memo page showing that a lot of things were happening at the time the report was being explored: The Oklahoma Air Force Station reported  someplace (redacted information) had picked up UFO in radar at Wink, TX and followed it to Salt Flats, NM.

Note: from earlier reports it was categorically stated that weather balloons do not show up on radar.

The Flats was noted as being 95 miles from Wink, TX.  It was noted there had been a power outage at Tinker AFB, OKC; Nellis AFB reported a downed F-4 near Nevada Test Site. The ' object'  was tracked to NM at 2500 knots (pretty equivalent to a record breaking F-4 jet speed). At Salt Flat it STOPPED and was seen for 4 sweeps of the radar before it grew smaller and faded out.  Zuni, NMEX was noted as reporting a UFO - seen low to horizon surface with oscillating lights. UFO demonstrated ability to move in any direction slow or fast. Observed via binoculars. No aircraft in area.

Inside the report of the original Vandalia, Ohio sighting was a drawing showing a sharp elevation of object and a movement straight line straight up-straight line-straight down (box like shape) from point A to B.

It is sublime irony that these two cases close out the Project Blue Book (1952-1969) that replaced Project Grudge (1949-1952) and the earlier Project Sign (1948 -1949).  The intent of the Projects was to primarily collect data as to threat these unknowns represented and to observe information about the technology used for translation into military technology. Along the way the projects were used to covertly hide secret projects, experimental aircraft ,and other technology. The fallout was that to maintain the high levels of security and secrecy those demanded meant that everyone - civilian and military - were painted as fools.

Highly trained military, pilots, police officers, scientists, educated amateurs, and simply curious and intelligent people who trusted their government to hear their concerns and respond in respect were portrayed in negative ways.  To hear the AF version most of their airmen were ignorant of all things flying (be they natural objects such as meteors or manned craft or unmanned satellites) and were subject to seeing things at a dangerous rate. One wonders how we ever survived with such incompetents wearing the uniforms of our military, law enforcement, or teaching in our schools. A wide class of highly trained spotters had served to protect our shores and skies during WW2 by being able to identify EVERY aircraft by size, shape and sound. They were going to be used in the early days of rocketry as a whole new civilian force of Ground Observer Crops to search the skies  through OPERATION SKYWATCH. 

Skywatch functioned in WW2 and then later as a Cold War program (ending in 1958). This group was trained for speed and accuracy because they wanted to help their country. Their country, however saw them and thousands others as pawns to label as hallucinating, nervous, vision impaired and fantasy prone.

I challenge researchers to dig deeper in these files and not be content - as many others have been - to accept the summary conclusion of the cover sheet. Read the words of witnesses, examine their drawings, explore the content of memos, letters and other data found in the report file. Then, and only then, make a decision about the quality, validity and honesty of the work we call Project Blue Book.