Ted Bloecher:
July 4, Lake City, Washington:
Alerted about 5:30 p.m. PST by a group of neighbors who had spotted a
disc-like object approaching the northern Seattle suburb from the
south, Yeoman Frank Ryman, of the Coast Guard Press Information office
in Seattle, dashed into his house at 12321 22nd Street N.E. and grabbed
his Speed Graphic camera. He waited until the disc was directly
overhead before taking a photograph, using Super XX film, shutter speed
set at 1/50 and an F 22 lens opening.
Using binoculars, he observed the object closely. "The disc came
over at about 9,000 or 10,000 feet. It was flashing silver in the sun,
(and was) about one-tenth the apparent size of a full moon," he
reported later. He said the gleaming disc appeared to change course
slightly in its northern flight. "As the object hurtled through the
sky," he said, "it seemed brighter at certain times than at others. I
believe it was the way the sun hit it." Ryman heard no noise, no sound
of engines. "I am positive there were no wings or fins in sight. It
definitely was not a plane," he asserted. "I looked for wings and other
possible projections as I watched it through the binoculars. I thought
it conceivably could have been a weather balloon being blown along by a
high wind. The Navy told me there was very little wind --about 10 to 12
knots at most. The object I photographed appeared to be traveling over
500 miles an hour."
Ryman said that the object was in sight for four or five minutes
and was observed by at least 20 others in the neighborhood. He
contacted the Post-Intelligencer immediately, and the film was
developed in the newspaper's darkroom. It showed a small, blurred white
oval against the background of the sky. Enlarged, it is quite distinct
(see reproduction), and the enlargement was reprinted widely by the
wire services. The importance of this photograph is not so much what is
shown on film, but in the circumstances under which it was taken -- one
of the rare cases in which a photograph is made with numerous
eye-witnesses who not only saw the object in the sky, but saw the
photograph being taken as well.
Case 257 - July 4, Lake City, Washington (Ryman)
In the Air Force files the Ryman sighting is
explained as a
"weather balloon," although the speed of the object, as well as
information on the wind at the time, appear to make such an explanation
doubtful. The Air Force report on this sighting gives the duration of
observation as ten minutes. In the newspaper accounts -- both local and
wire service versions -- Ryman specifically says the object was in view
for "four to five minutes." Whether or not Ryman changed his estimate
of the duration in his official report is unknown, but it is perfectly
clear that a ten-minute duration would be more acceptable to the Air
Force in proposing a balloon explanation.
Source: Case 257 - Report on the UFO Wave of 1947
