The following image/files contain the
press reports in reference to the Woodland man and are
now housed on the NICAP site for security reasons.
The news clippings were provided by Mary Castner and the
text file was provided by Rich Vitello. http://www.nicap.org/articles/470627woodland_man.jpg
http://www.nicap.org/articles/470627oregon1947.pdf Woodland Man Sights Disks at Close Range
The far-famed "flying objects" were seen at close
hand over Woodland, Wash., Friday afternoon. In
two groups, numbering either 9 or 10 in all, and
soaring between 1000 and 2000 feet, they skimmed
silently as clouds from north to south making a
southeasternly turn as they disappeared. There
was no sound, no vapor trail, only the very thin,
pie-plate affairs now reported as having been seen in
several Western states, which, as they "undulated" in
the air, flashed the rays of the sun like the
reflection from mirros.
REPORT TELEPHONED
This is the report, telephoned in a matter-of-fact
tone to The Journal late Friday by Clyde Homan, who
lives in Woodland and is manager of Tulips, Inc., a
bulb-growing property about, two miles south of that
city in Southwestern Washington. Homan said the
objects also were seen by the farm foreman who was in
a warehouse but ran to the door as Homan called and
glimpsed them just as they were disappearing in the
southeast. "I was sitting at my desk in the
office when a bright flash came in the window," Homan
reported. "I looked up at the sky and saw these
things in two groups pretty close together. I
didn't get an exact count there were four or
five in the first bunch, and the same number in the
second, which was behind the first some 400 or 500
yards.
"I couldn't see shapes much either because they
were very bright, reflecting the sun like from
metal not glass mirrors - and the flash was so
bright I couldn't make out the shape behind it.
They were going fast, but not 1200 miles an
hour. I'd say about twice as fast as an ordinary
airliner, maybe 600 miles an hour. There were no
particular formation except that they were bunched.
"The peculiar thing was the way they moved
along tilting back and forth, tipping up and
down, undulating and every time they reached the
right reflection angle, the flashes came"
Homan ventured the opinion the objects might have
been the new type of tailless aircraft know as flying
wings.
DAY WAS CLOUDY
Homan was reminded that the day was mostly cloudy
and he replied, "It wa pretty cloudy here, with
sunshine occasionally through the clouds. There
were 'holes' of blue sky. And, anyway, the
clouds were high and these things weren't over 1000 to
2000 feet up and were flying under the clouds.
"And there wasn't a sound, not a trace of vapor
trail just these things sailing along. As
soon as I saw them, I ran to the warehouse and called
the foremen, and he got to the door just in time to
see them. They came over the hill back of us
here from the north and they were following straight
along the Pacific highway. Just south of here
they veered off sharply to the southeast.
"Shape? Very flat, very very thin,
particularly when you saw them on edge as they were
banking, as very bright." Homan said he had
flown many times, feels he knows pretty well the speed
of planes, and is confident these "objects" were going
just about twice as fast as airliners and judge them
to be jet-propelled, but he was puzzled by absense of
vapor trail.
"And I am not too excitable and I have good
eyesight and I know what I saw this afternoon," he
said in conclusion. "I'm surprised you don't
have reports from others of having seen them
today." Meanwhile, other reports of the flying
saucers continue to come in.
United Press reports that Charles Kastil, railroad
engineer of Jollet, Ill., said he spotted "about nine"
of the things as he walked along a highway at 1:50
p.m. Central standard time Tuesday. If these are
the same ones seen by Kenneth Arnold, Boise, it means
they must have covered the distance from Seatle to
Chicago about 2000 miles in 50 minutes.
FLIPPED TOGETHER
Kastl said he could see no connecting link between
them, but they acted as though the leading disk had a
motor in it to power the others because when it
flipped, the others would too. When it would
right itself, the others would right themselves.
Archie Edes of Wenatchee said he saw one explode
about 200 feet from the ground near Moses lake last
Friday night. He said there was no blinding
flash, but a great shower of sparks and flames seemed
to hurtle to the ground.
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