ENCOUNTERS OVER KANSAS; UFO'S AND THE SUNFLOWER STATE: 1960's, part 1. Marilyn A. Hudson

 Copyright, 2021/ Marilyn A. Hudson.

5  the 1960’s – part 1

The decade brought in vast changes across the country as well as a new youthful feel based on the vast numbers of children, teens and college age people. In Kansas there were also come very fascinating cases of the strange and the bizarre.  One was even labeled “UNKNOWN” by Project Blue Book.

On August 23, 1960 at 3:34 a.m. an aeronautical engineer with Boeing Aircraft manufacturing company, C.A. Komiske, saw something he could not explain.

He reported a large sphere with lighted openings (windows), dull orange with yellow light coming through what appeared to be three triangular shaped opened low on the sphere toward the bottom. His sketch is very clear and he noted it was moving in an arc for about two minutes.

The Project Blue Book report form states the object was, according to the witness, the size of a golf ball held at arm’s length. This was the standard format for describing size for most of these years. According to the summary cover sheet the object was a yellow light that came from the three sources. These “sources” were windows that were described as being 1/10 the size of the total sphere. The overall color of the object was dull orange and the appearance similar to a Japanese lantern. It appeared from the north at 40 degrees and disappeared to the north at 45 degrees. It was noted it flew a pursuit curve on ECHO.

ECHO was launched that month destined to attain an orbit of one thousand miles.  ECHO was a massive (a balloon as big as a ten story building, especially constructed to withstand that altitude, and serve as the first telecommunications satellite).

The explanations offered in the conclusion included the statement, ‘witness could see light source to details suggest it was a tanker with its special lights on while the crew was trying to get a better look at ECHO.”  In view of the fact that the witness should have been familiar with such an object, “this case class unknown.” In view of the fact that a refueling tanker would not gain much advantage in trying to get a better glimpse of a satellite orbiting that high the answer falls a little flat. Consider, as well, that this excuse of refueling missions will be used in the noted Exeter, New Hampshire UFO case as well and others in Michigan and Missouri.

 

The tone of the paragraph in the report is intriguing because a refueling tanker would never appear as a sphere, had no triangular lights according to sources consulted, no “special lights” and, as noted, an aircraft crew would  have little better view by plane than someone on the ground for an object orbiting at 1,000 miles.

Also inside was a delightfully peevish comment that may speak more to the frustration and desperation of the investigators: “the object was in sight two minutes and must surely have been traveling great speed, but the witness didn’t note this fact?” Is it possible an engineer – one who was around fast planes all the time – might not have considered that the most unique feature of the object viewed?

It should also be noted that the prevailing winds at the time were only 6-7 knots from the southeast. At the conclusion of one page was a notation that suggested a “possible satellite other than ECHO.” To date no evidence of such a low orbiting and/or large object has been found to support that suggestion.

A story comes with some vagueness from the witness. Around September 10, 1960 in the Wichita area a young girl recalled playing in her backyard in Wichita, just north of Friends University, when she observed an object overhead that was multi-colored and about 75 feet in diameter hovering by a tree. She called for her mother and the object flew off. She said that the next day there was a story in the local paper (Wichita Eagle and Beacon) about a “Businessman and Farmer See UFO.” 

As September rolled around came another report, this one from Salina in north central Kansas’s Saline County.  An experienced pilot reported seeing something odd in the skies. He acknowledged he thought it was probably a bit of space debris returning to earth or maybe a meteor. He described a silver flash but something about it appeared “off.” The object displayed a wide array of colors so he was curious.

The final notations in the report are clear that this sighting was most probably the re-entry of “Kappa (Discoverer XVI)” that “reentered that date.”

Inside of the report someone – where the consultants often wrote notations – had penciled “probable meteor.”  This, however, was obviously rejected because the cover sheet went with the Discoverer XVI explanation.

There is, however, a problem with that because the NASA records note that Discoverer XVI (16) was “lost in launch 26 October 1960.”  It could not have been versions # 13 or #14 either, because they were lofted and lost on re-entry in August.

Discoverer XV (15) burned up on re-entry on 17 October 1960 as did Discoverer XVI (16) (Corona 9011),”lost in launch failure” on 26 October 1960.  “Kappa” may have been a corruption – intentional perhaps to cover some secret aspect – for the Corona 9011 but the date of the sighting does not correspond to lift-off and re-entry. One source indicates that there was a recovery of a ‘Discoverer XV’ about September 16 from the ocean.[i] Other sources have no mention of that date related to any re-entry of craft.

How could the T-33 pilot have seen a re-entry that had not yet happened for a craft that had not yet been sent aloft?  More importantly, why provide such an explanation when one had been suggested already in the report?  A meteor would have made sense, explained the colors, the movement in general, and been a simple way to close this particular case.

One possible explanation presents itself. At the time of this sighting the majority of those satellite launches were labeled “secret.” In filing this sighting under that heading there was a stronger probability of the report being unavailable to researchers, reporters, politicians and others with a “need to know.” Categorizing this as one of the top clearance projects insured that it was kept deep in the files.  At the time Air Force regulations only allowed the release of information by approval of higher ups and only if there was an explanation for the sighting.

Some might easily theorize that for some reasons, this report and this sighting needed to be kept under tighter control than others. Since only recently have many of the records of those once top secret projects been opened for public consideration the answer to the questions raised by this case may yet be answered.

 

 

 

HOW MUCH TO PARK A UFO? Wichita, November 1960

In early November a UFO with lights “parked” near Wichita all night. The object was witnessed by several people as it rapidly descended from the northwest on Thursday evening, November 3, 1960.

Sheriff Patrol Officer Lt. Hollis Nichols approached within a quarter mile of the lights around 4 a.m. the morning of November 4. He noted three lights that winked out just north of 37^th Street North, west of Andover Road in eastern Sedgewick County.

Other witnesses were all agreed that they thought a plane was crashing because the object came fast out of the northwest. Witnesses included Edgar Boslaugh of 1519 Lulu, Wichita, Kansas and Mrs. George Enlder of 1753 E. 24^th Street North, Wichita. They saw blue-green lights and thought it must be crashing.

Ernest Feeler, 2206 W. McArthur Road, also reported seeing three lights in a field: one was blue, one in the middle was a vivid purple, and one was yellow.  The lights were described as being ten feet apart and setting about ten feet above the ground. The lights Feeler saw were stationary as if the mysterious object had parked in the field.

A police officer also reported seeing the lights. Boslaugh, who had pilot experience, thought it had crashed as he was driving eastward in the 2400 block of East Harvey at about 7:50 p.m. on November 3^rd. His brother-in-law Marvin Wray of 6602 E. 9^th, was looking at the full moon that night when his attention was diverted to a bluish-green light. He too thought he was seeing a plane that was in the process of crashing somewhere north of Harvey and to the east.

Mrs. Enlder (also spelled Enlertin) was driving east on 24 North at Minnesota Street at the same time.  She rolled down her window to see if there was a crash.

Ernest Feeler said he saw a falling star. “Brightest one I’ve ever seen.”  The light was gone in three seconds. That light began at 60 degrees above the horizon and fell down over the area of the Boeing Aircraft Company plant. It stated the “falling star” had a tail ¾ of a mile long.

Many calls came into local authorities including one from a Derby Man. Derby is a suburb of Wichita to the southeast. He was driving east of Beech Aircraft’s plant in east Wichita when he saw the object. He reported it to the Sheriff’s dispatcher, Frank Hensley. Other calls were also received about the same object.

The pulsating glow emanating from the mysterious object resulted in emergency calls to the Butler County (to the east) and to the Sedgwick County (where Wichita sits) about concerns of a large fire. Patrol cars from Augusta, El Dorado, and Andover all responded and began searching the area for a large fire.

Lt. Nichols, Sheriff’s Department, said it was the glow that attracted his attention. As he approached the object, it appeared to die down in intensity. He observed three lights in the field: one bright blue, a middle one that was the “most vivid purple” he had ever seen, and one a bright yellow.

He too noted that the lights were about ten feet apart and about ten feet off the ground.  He and another officer watched the lights as he was driving until he nearly went into a ditch in the pre-dawn darkness. When he got himself and his vehicle back under control on the road he glanced back to where the object lights had been but the lights were either off or the object had left.

Elsewhere about that time, numerous authorities had been searching for a fire to explain the vivid pulsating glow people were reporting. No house, building, field, vehicle, oil well, or other structure could be found on fire. When the lights disappeared, the fire reports ceased from the area. The sirens went off and puzzled they all went back to their various stations.

Meanwhile, the officers who had seen the odd lights up close realized “something”, they had been unable to make out any shape or form beyond the bright lights.

As dawn brought clarity and a means to get closer to the location, all that could be seen was a normal and empty landscape. The source of the mysterious pulsating lights was gone.

This story appeared in a Wichita newspaper in the file of Project Blue Book for a different case. It is filled with specifics, names, addresses, and similar details.  It has been suggested that this was an experimental craft from one of the aircraft development plants or from McConnell or some other base.

Boeing in the 1960’s did have a secret stealth plane, “Quiet Bird” but from information found it never took flight. Its size was approximately 33 feet by 33 feet and stood about 7 feet tall. This craft, Model 853 only began in 1962 and only a half-size prototype was ever produced. The existence of this project, however, does not exclude the possibility that another or different craft might have set down in a field east of Wichita that November evening.

The fact that no “cover story” emerged to prevent the needless response and investigations of local law, fire, and rescue units and the apparent absence of a guards or similar barriers is perplexing. And those lights; top secret experimental craft goes down in a field – maybe because it was too big for the local runways? – and leaves all those attention grabbing lights on. That does not seem to make sense.

There were numerous secret projects developed under the auspices of the CIA, the DOD, military branches and several other agencies so a top secret project may be an explanation. Note too that this event occurred in the backyard of McConnell Air Force Base, Forbes Air Force Base, Schiller (old Smoky Hills) Air Force Base, Ft. Riley and old Marshall Air Field, as well as the Naval Weather Tracking center at Hutchinson and a busy municipal airport – someone had to have known company had come to the county.

Yet, according to the news article, it remained unchallenged and unexplained several days later.

The purple light is also worth noting because in 1965 in Damon, Texas and in Exeter, New Hampshire reports by police of mysterious objects will include similar purple to purple-red descriptions. Those cases will be marked “unknown.”

On November 11, 1960 a report was filed from 30 miles west of Goodland in north western Kansas, near the Colorado border.

A civilian pilot in a Beech Bonanza was flying at 8,520 feet at night when he observed an object the size of a half dollar held at arm’s length. The object had what appeared to be a blue-green tail and was traveling to the west faster than a jet on a level flight path. It disappeared instantly into the west at about 45 degrees.

The weather was clear with winds from the south at 12 knots. Witnesses included air crew officers, the pilot and two passengers. The conclusion offered was that the 4 second sighting by “duration” and “descent” were characteristics of a meteor sighting.

On November 23, a surveyor in Kansas City reported seeing three objects moving north to south for 20-25 minutes. Inside the eight page report were statements that the observer saw three disc shaped objects about 100 feet long, black against the light. Two of the objects were in front, one object traveling 1,000 feet behind the other two. The original observation was due west of the observer. Objects were only visible with naked eye but the trail was visible through the transit and appeared orange. Estimated speed was 300-400 mph and the time was dusk looking into the west at about a 10 degree elevation.  Witness estimated altitude to be 1500 feet. All estimates were made through the transit.  The explanation offered was the man had seen “contrails.”

Mid December near Hutchinson a round, bluish-white, pear to egg shape object was sighted 060 above the horizon by a witness. It then disappeared at 20 degrees, azimuth 160 degrees. The explanation offered was that the witness had seen a “meteor” but inside the report was an odd comment “estimate…sightings were one of the many satellites now in orbit ...non—existent.” There was no explanation for this odd statement in the eight page report.

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[i] See “Corona Launches” at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corona_(satellite)#Launches

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.”

ENCOUNTERS IN KANSAS: UFO'S OVER THE SUNFLOWER STATE - 1940'S. Marilyn A. Hudson.

 

3 THE 1940’S

The forties are marked by a global war, the development and use of nuclear weapons, and a post war
explosion of scientific and technological advancements. The backdrop was the rapid drop on temperature between one time allies and the United States. Post-war the reality that the Soviet Union was as large and potentially dangerous an adversary as the United States caused tension, anxiety, and fear. The warmth of comradeship when fighting a common foe was now in the deep freeze as a new era called The Cold War began.

On the home front of the United States the people were adjusting to brand new changes. Advancements made by women in the work place, people of color, and similar societal strictures viewed as flexible in war time were now snapping back into their earlier, and often rigid, shape. The guiding need post war was normalcy. 

So everyone set about putting things back in place the way they were: Mother and children in the home and Father off to work. One area that was not going back into place was the areas where new ideas, scientific discoveries and technological innovations generated in the war effort on both sides might now be put to work in a challenging future.

The late forties saw the top-secret projects of several countries striving to make planes fly higher, faster, and with fewer fueling stops. The largest groups of the Nazi scientists had been divided up between the Americans, the Russians, and the British.  In some cases, such as the flights by Chuck Yeager some critical flight records were broken in top secret and no one knew it for decades.

The creative energies unleashed by war were being pursued at top speed and with the same willingness to achieve what had seemed impossible in a dozen scientific fields.

In the spring of 1947 people all around the country were reporting seeing odd and strange objects buzzing past in the skies. They were fast moving, shiny and often performed a-typical maneuvers. They were seen mostly during the day with some night time reports. Many were reported by police, military personnel, business people, civic leaders, and normal people who would be, for any other purpose, termed “reliable” and “reputable.”  Some of those early descriptions were of shiny objects, lights, “upside down washtubs”, and “discs.” 

So when the Roswell story first broke and said one of the flying discs had been captured they were referring to these other accounts.  Finally! Because the truth was no one knew to whom those flying craft belonged and that according to records included the military and the FBI.

On June 22, 1947 Kenneth Arnold joined in an air search for a downed plane and in the process saw something very unusual. Nine shining objects flowing each other like a “string of pearls” were zipping in and out of nearby mountaintops. The sun catching their shining surfaces drew the eye and then the speed raised eyebrows. Arnold attempted to describe the motion of the things through the air as being similar to a saucer – many would have said a rock - being skipped across the surface of water. When he finally landed for the day his description had morphed into “Flying Saucers” and the rest, as the saying goes, was history.

On July 6, 1947, another pilot (Army) would also recount at approximately 1:45 p.m. (1345) that he observed one disc shaped object 30-50 feet diameter traveling east. It was very bright in color. The pilot estimated it was moving at 210 mph. at an estimated altitude of 11,000 feet. This object seemed to accelerate to very high speed. Additionally, it appeared to fly a parallel course with the observer.

This pilot first observed this object as a “flash” low in his field of vision that caught his attention. Then he noticed a “disc” 1000 feet above the aircraft. 

This case from the files of Project Blue Book’s predecessor, Project Sign concerned Army Air Force pilot Major A.B. Browning as he was flying, with a crew, a B-25 toward Kansas City, Kansas. They observed a silvery, circular object some 30-50 feet in diameter first at a little lower altitude than their own craft. The unknown object then shot off at a high speed going to the east at an estimated 11,000 feet and approximately 210 mph speed.

The wording on the file’s cover sheet and the incident report are a little misleading. This is not unusual for these records as there is often evidence of missing information, information that does not sync with the official explanation or incorrect (or incomplete) information.  The cover sheet for this file, for example, reads the date of the episode as “July 16, 1947” well past the explosion of events in and around the nation’s birthday. Inside, however, all papers reflect a July 6, 1947 date for the events. Since many times the only portions of these files allowed to be viewed were these cover sheets this is a significant issue. The cover sheet was a precis of the entire case giving date, time, location, summary of witness statements and possible or probable explanations. Since military and Air Force regulations clamped down access to the files and forbid sharing of case details except for those the Air Force had explained, the result was that tabulations, statistical studies, and various other projects based on studying these cases were in slanted, and thus, the results should be questioned. 

On July 7th a news release from the Army Air Field at Roswell appeared. One of the mysterious flying “discs” had apparently been collected. 

Agencies all across the government were salivating. FBI archival records of a teletype of July 8, 1947 to the Dallas-Ft. Worth area make that clear. The 8th Army Air Force has the “disc” which as described as “hexagonal in shape”, suspended by balloon cables, 20 feet in diameter…”object found resembles a high altitude weather balloon with a radar reflector.”  Elsewhere in the missive “But that telephone conversation between their office and Wright Field had not [text is marked out] borne out this belief.”

So, in essence the FBI is saying that after a phone conversation to the people at Wright Air Field, the idea of the object being a high altitude weather balloon had not supported this belief.  Bad phrasing or something more? Wright Air Base was home of the Air Technical Intelligence Center (ATIC) under the AMC wing of the Army Air Force. Wright will be better known soon as Wright-Patterson and the home offices of those in charge of the future Project Blue Book.

The short lived excitement was dead within 48 hours. The saucer theory was “emptied” as one wit termed it on July 8 when the big brass at Ft. Worth, where part of the debris from Roswell had been sent, announced the only thing found was a mundane weather balloon.

With this ending everyone laughed, closed their newspapers, and shook their heads. What many, many newspapers, and many successive works, ignore is the host of other stories reported. 

There was a story about one of the leading “rocket experts” and his team who saw a “saucer.” Leading naval scientists involved in rocket experiments in the New Mexico desert witnessed in April, in May and then in June, an object over their test site. Also, of note was that one of those man will be called upon decades later to represent the Air Force’s explanation of Roswell as part of “Project Mogul.” He was in New Mexico at White Sands in 1949 and reported seeing something “non-balloon.” 

 That event – with its diverse and expert witnesses - from the spring was picked it up and newspapers across the county carried it (one of many such articles was “Saucer’ Seen by Rocket Expert: Flight over Dessert Described” in The Evening Star out of Washington D.C.). 

The U.S. Navy attempted to explain it away as “revolutionary” aircraft with diameters of 105 (+/-), jet nozzles around the edges, ten feet in thickness, able to land a speeds as low as 35 mph and attaining speeds  of 200-600 mph.

Was this an early experimental aircraft? Witnesses claimed the object seen was elliptical, white, 100 feet long or 105 feet in diameter, 300,000 feet (57 miles) altitude, 5-7 miles a second, and able to make very sharp and fast turns. 

Whatever happened at Roswell aside, there was a lot going on in the skies over the United States in those early years and a lot of it was a mystery to even those charged with dominating and guarding the skies overhead.  The response to the event at Roswell was a response to a host of unknowns from across the nation. They gave birth to a separate arm of the military in the United States Air Force, the rise of several federal level intelligence agencies, and to much more.

 

ENCOUNTERS IN KANSAS: UFO'S OVER THE SUNFLOWER STATE. MARILYN A. HUDSON (Part 1)

ENCOUNTER IN KANSAS:  UFO’s Over the Sunflower State.  Marilyn A. Hudson. Author of Sooner Saucers, Oklahoma Bad Girls, The Mound, and others… Copyright 2021. Marilyn A. Hudson.

The following series was originally destined to be a book but after some consideration I decided to simply post it for those looking for more Kansas information. As part of this series my own, never before totally detailed, encounters in Kansas are included. 

Overview of the segments :

1 Kansas - Then 1

2 Before 1947 Pg #

3 The 1940’s Pg #

4 The 1950’s Pg #

5 The 1960’s- Part 1 Pg #

6 The 1960’s – Part 2 Pg #

 AMENDED TEXT:

 2 BEFORE 1947

The episodes called “flying saucers” or “unidentified flying objects (UFO)”, contrary to popular belief, did not originate with the sightings in Washington in June 1947.  The term can be found in the Denison Daily News of January 25, 1878 and a local farmer named John Martin. Early one morning he observed a dark object high in the sky to the south. Its shape, size and speed caught his eye. It was orange size and continued to increase in size as it neared and its brightness was disturbing. It swiftly came over his head and seeing it from that angle and closeness he noted it was the size of a large saucer at a great height.  Mr. Martin thought it resembled a balloon – as far as his knowledge of such went he admitted. Its speed was, he would repeatedly remark, truly amazing.

From earliest days there have been reports of strange objects in the sky and they have been interpreted in various ways depending on the time and the cultures. Domed looking craft surrounded by what look like stars or lights in a prehistoric cave painting in France, odd beings in ancient murals in Germany and strange cigar shaped things in the skies in medieval paintings Add to this tales from a dozen or more global cultures of beings from the stars who came to earth and the truth is clear humans are not new to “seeing things in the sky or on the earth.”  If these are an archetype of human existence just what do they mean and what causes them? 

In the early 1890’s newspapers were filled with tales of mysterious “airships.”  Although some people places these stories into the early UFO timeline, not all of them should be, and for two very good reasons.  

April 18, 1897 in LeRoy, Kansas a tale shared by Alexander Hamilton of being awakened by his cows, seeing a cigar shaped object, and small ‘aeronauts’ was proved to be a hoax. A signed affidavit published in the local newspaper confessed to the hoax as part of a tall tale competition.  In a similar manner, various editors from Chicago and elsewhere would later confess that in those days, papers held ad hoc competitions to see how many papers they could sell by one outlandish – and totally fabricated – tale or another.

SIGHTINGS OF 1947

What follows is a collection of sightings garnered from newspapers, books, and records for the sightings prior to the summer of 1947 and the Arnold and Roswell cases. I had originally collected these from various reports and articles. There are probably others hidden away in smaller old newspapers no one has yet uncovered. 

Jan 16, 1947 – Norfolk, England, Project Sign Incident # 54 [will be classed as an aircraft]

April – France. Disk with cupola

April – Richmond, VA. Silver disc with dome

May 5 – Washington State. Silvery object fell from sky & disintegrated

May 17 – Oklahoma City, 8:30-9:00 pm Field Engineer Savage saw a frosty white, round and flat object, with diameter/thickness ration of 10:1; size of a B-29 (140 ft.), traveling N at 350 degrees at 10,000-18,000 ft.; 3x jet speed (or 1,800 mph); slight ‘swishing sound’ (Source was various newspapers, Keyhole book, and NICAP)

May 18 – Richmond, VA – a flat, white object, cigar shaped that moved N-W

May 19 – Manitou Springs, Colorado, Silvery object halted, danced, flew against the wind

June 10 – Douglas, AZ, a spherical light rose up to disappear into the sky around 11 p.m.

June 10 – Hungary, silver balls

June 12- Weiser, ID, ‘chain of lights/UFO’s’ observed

June 14- Over Bakersfield, CA at 2 pm triangular formation of saucer shapes (10 of them) (observed while in plane)

June 21 – 11:50 am, 8 discs near Spokane, Washington. Fell with a ‘falling leaf motion” [note this term appears elsewhere in some reports as late as 1965].

June 21 – Yukon, OK. 6 objects like upside down wash tubs (a domed silver shape), high and moving fast

June 24 – Arnold sighting in Washington State (Project Sign Incident # 17); Fred John sighting in Cascade Mountains of 6 discs; 3) light blue and purple lights performed aerobatics over Seattle. [Note the purple lights – very rare and seen in 1965 Damon, TX and Wichita, KS]

June 27- Formation of discs, wavering, and changing formation over Cascade Mts.

June 28- Lake Mead, NV, 5-6 white discs seen 2 p.m. [Will be classed as a balloon]

June 28 – Rockfield, IA 3:45 p.m.

June28 – Montgomery Al, Maxwell AFB, 9:30 p.m. object observed and made a 90 degree turn

June 29- White Sands – Silver disk

June 29 – Des Moines, IA, 4:45 5 UFOs white, oval, N-W direction

June 30 – Portland, OR, 5 shiny silver disks like a hubcap

June 30 – White Sands, NM, Navy pilot, 9:10 a.m., 2 gray spheres appeared to land south of Grand Canyon.

June 30 – Wire services carry a map of “Where the ‘Flying Saucers’ Play” and noted the sightings of the objects as beginning on June 24 in Boise, Idaho; a U.S. Meteorologist in Louisville, Kentucky; an alleged photo taken in Seattle, Washington; an airliner that chased a “gang” of them fifteen miles between Boise and Portland. 

July 2 – Roswell, NM area – objects observed, oval, inverted saucer shapes [dating for event taken from the book UFO Crash at Roswell, 1991 by Randle and Schmitt]

July – Tempe, AZ (case file missing) ‘insufficient data.’ Interesting to note a photo of a craft looking very similar to the delta shapes reported by Arnold are labeled a “hoax” and in the area of Kingman, Arizona will emerge a Roswell-like crash story.

July 4 – Emmett, Idaho, United Airlines Capt. reported 9 circular objects, merged, split and disappeared. Classed as Unidentified.

July 4 – Twin Falls, ID 35 discs like objects are observed during the afternoon

July 4 – 800 sightings, by 400 people in 24 states. ½ single objects; ½ in formation; 2/3 daylight sighting; shapes round, spherical, disc.

July 5 – “Saucers” sighted in area of Boise, Idaho reported a UP headline from a Seattle newspaper. Flight #105 (8:04 p.m. Boise, ID) observed 4-5 “somethings.”  One larger than the others with thin and smooth looking “skin” on the bottom of the craft and a rougher look on top. (“Follows Flying Saucers in Plane”, Sapulpa Herald (Oklahoma), July 5, 1947)

July 5 – Portland, Oregon at 1:06 p.m. “disks” were reported overhead by police and other witnesses according to the Oregon Journal.  There were 3 objects, no noise, and they appeared aluminum or eggshell white but did not flash or reflect light. They made a 90 degree change of direction. They oscillated showing first a full disk and then a half shape. There were planes in the air but witnesses where emphatic these where not airplanes. Other witnesses observed 5 objects moving south and then three headed east and they were large. 

July 6 – Clay Center, Ks. Later explained as a solar flare or “reflection.”

July 7 – Brighton, Sussex, UK

July 7 – Phoenix, AZ (Project Blue Book Incident # 40 in 1947-07-9669017). Gray, elliptical 20-30 ft. moving NE to West, speed about 400-600 mph, altitudes Est. at 2000-5000 ft. sound like a jet approaching. The file is 55 pgs. “Probably a hoax” is penciled in but the file contained a photo of the object (Declassified photos Program No. 6-109) 12 June 1952; photos turned over to 4th AF Intelligence July of 1947. Note in the file includes other leads to investigate the photograph and a letter indicating the photos – hoax images - had not been returned to the person.

July 7 – Del Salton Observatory, Chile

July 7 – Naples, Italy

July 7 – Japan

July 7 – Holland

July 7 – Army Air Force Press Release of a “captured” flying “disc” at Roswell Army Air Field in New Mexico.

July 8 – Murdoc Field (now Edwards), 3 silver colored UFO’s heading west. At 9:20 am armed a Republic XP-84 Thunder- jet was scrambled when two yellow-white or white-aluminum spheres were seen moving against the wind. Witnesses included a crew of technicians and they reported a distinct oval shape. Unidentified.

July 8 – White Sands, NM 11:50 a.m. white, clear, aluminum to white object. It climbed, it dove, and oscillated over the field. A test pilot also saw the object and he may be the pilot of a F-51 who watched a flat object of “light reflecting nature” pass above his plane. No known aircraft were in the area. “It was manmade, as evidenced by the outline and functional appearance.”

July 7-8 – South of Muroc, California 3:50 p.m. piloted sighted a wingless, light reflecting, object too high for his Mustang to close the gap and moving into the distance XP-84 Thunder- jet when a yellow-white sphere was seen moving northwest against the wind. Classed as Unidentified. Incidents # 2, 2A are included in a file of some 83 pages and an interesting quote: “no astronomical explanation…object’s slow speed and apparent size suggest aircraft under unusual light conditions, but the tactics argue against this interpretation.” (see file 9669025, Project Blue Book).

July  8 – White Sands, NM 11:50 a.m. white, clear, aluminum looking object

July 8 – Ft. Worth photos with “Roswell Saucer” that debunked the press release claim of the previous day. According to the officials there, the object debris recovered in New Mexico, was just a “weather balloon.”  This morphed in the early 1990’s into a temporarily top secret project of the late 1940’s called “Project Mogul.” Later aspects of the story were explained by the Air Force as high altitude dummy drops related to high altitude testing in the 1950-1960 decades. People just confused the time line for what they claimed to have witnessed. Numerous and significant questions remain unanswered.

July 23 – NJ, strange craft observed

July 23 – Brazil

Aug 4 – Bethel, Alaska (Northwest of there) (Incident # 68) Notation “no astronomical explanation. Similarity to Incident # 10, in which several objects silhouetted against the sunset, is striking.”

Aug 13 – Twin Falls, ID, sky blue plate like object

Aug 13 – Ravello, Italy, a disc and beings 3 feet tall with large heads, large eyes, and 8 taper like fingers.

Note, by September – the Air Force was “forced to take official cognizance of the “flying discs…increasing demand from the public for an explanation”; as a result they begin using the term “Unidentified Aerial Objects “or UAO. [From Project Blue Book report documents]. General Nathan Twining will write his communication of the situation, common descriptions, etc. at this time. Ultimately, this report (along with possibly others) will be largely dismissed by General Hoyt Vanderburgh, Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force. He publically minimized the import of the subject and numerous times publically minimized the subject matter. 

To put even more historical context into play. At Muroc in southern California from April through October various tests of new experimental and high powered craft were being tested: X-1 Northrup YB-49 and earlier it was the sight of early tests for the YP-84 Thunderjet in 1946 and the Lockhead P-80 Shooting Star. The area was well acquainted with experimental aircraft of common design, form and function. So the July 1947 sightings created some apparent consternation, especially when couple with all the other strange sightings of the year and the press release from Roswell. Everyone was playing a hasty game of “catch-up” and nobody knew who carried the ball.

Twining’s memo of September 23, 1947, was clear in stating “the phenomenon reported is something real and not visionary or fictitious."  

A tug-of-war, of sorts, was going on in the brand new Air Force (and other military units) as to the strange objects being manmade or “interplanetary craft.” The Air Force as the agency charged with knowing what was in the skies felt especially pressured. Twinging’s superior General George Schulgen will repeat his comments in his own report from that time and send it out as general communication. 

SOONER SAUCERS READ BY MUFON/OK

The good people at the Oklahoma MUFON had this to say about SOONER SAUCERS: 

"I just finished reading the recently published "Sooner Saucers" written by Oklahoma resident and MUFON member Marilyn Hudson. She has done a fantastic job pouring through the Project Blue Book files for Oklahoma cases and organizing them into an easy to read format. This book goes into great detail about the Oklahoma UFO flap of the mid-1960s and there are sure to be cases that most have never heard about. If you are an Okie with an interest in UFOs, you will want this one for your library!"

Appreciate the good words! You can find your copy via Amazon in, I believe, two formats.  

In Oklahoma You Get Your Kicks on Route 66

Several times in Oklahoma history, UFO's followed that idea as they traveled over Oklahoma skies. In the 1960's they followed the corridor of northeast route 66 around Sapulpa, Cushing, Bristow, and Tulsa.

I share some of these in my book "SOONER SAUCERS" (see link on sidebar).   A visit to the museum of the Route in Clinton, Oklahoma found a newspaper article and photo about UFO's. A treat!