rockford 1952 Aug 11

Fifty - four "flying saucers" were sighted streaking over Rockford Sunday evening by at least 14 persons.

Two U.S. air force F-86 Sabrejet interceptors based at O'Hare Internationa Airport near Chicago came here seeking the strange objects, but the pilots didn't see them.

The report of the saucers here may be the most detailed of all, and probably more of the objects were seen consecutively than ever before anywhere in the nation.

Roy E. Munson, 1231 Witlergren Drive, Rockford businessman and veteran of 20 years as a private pilot, sighted the first of the saucers at 5:38 p.m., as he lay in a hammock in his back yard, looking into the clear sky.

At first Munson said he wasn't sure that he was seeing the objects that so many have reported sseing throughout the nation since the spring of 1947.

The flying saucer mystery has been the subject of much detailed investigation recently, but it remains a mystery, as far as the general public is concerned.

Munson summoned his family of three after sighting the first of the objects. Within a few minutes, another apperaed. Across the street, at the Eugene Leander home, there was a picnic inprogress, and soon 10 to 11 other persons joined in the almost fantastic sightings.

Munson called the CAA operator at Greater Rockford airport, who relayed the Rockford man's

Two of the top air force jet planes capable pf 670 mile-an-hour flight took off and the pilots started to hunt for the strange objects.

The two swept-wing fighters circled Rockford at an altitude of 2,000 feet several. Radio contact with the Greator Rockford airport was established and during part of the ime Munson was connected to the CAA office by telephone while the operator relayed his information to the jet pilots.

Munson said the two jets appeared just as the last of 54 objects disappeared from view. By the radio-telephone relay, Munson directed the jet pilots to the area where he had seen the other queer discs.

Lt. Robert Jordan, O'Hare military public information officer, verified the reports today. He said the two pilots were here for 20 minutes or more, but sighted no saucers or other strange objects. The pilots filed reports after returning to their base late Sunday evening.

Munson and other persons about his east side home near East high school, watched the eerie objects for more than 90 minutes. There was a regular procession of the objects, following, for the most part, a seemingly fixed path, each appearing on the west horizon, streaking across the sky, and disappearing in the east horizon about six seconds later.

" If those jets were going 500 miles per hour," Munson said, "the saucers were going 2000 miles per hour. These objects could never be overtaken even by these ultra-fast jets."

Munson, an experienced pilot never fully discounted the flying saucer reports of the past, because he respects the integrity of the private, transport and the military pilots who at one time or another have reported sighting saucers.

"They saw something," Munson said, "and we saw something here." Munson said the objects he and the others saw Sunday evening were "as real as those jets , which were seen by a great many."

He described the objects as being surrounded by a haze that prevented seeing detailed outlines. The objects appeared rather dark on their approach, and then became brilliant as they neared and passed overhead. Disappearing, they again looked darker.

Of the 54 objects, 36 appeared larger that the others and moved faster. Fifty followed the straight west-to-east path out of sight. Three according to Munson, deviated from the path to the north. One deviated to the south.

"The entire sighting defies description," Munson related. "We were in a good position to see, staying in the shade looking up into the clear sky. All of us saw the same thing. Through low-powered binoculars, the objects appeared to take on a toadstool shape, but without the thick stem."

Munson could not estimate the altitude of the objects. He said the indefinite shape and haze prevented such an estimate. "There is no doubt, however," Munson said, "that they were very high."

The roaring jet planes aroused much interest in Rockford as they swept low and circled the city area, then climbed within a few minutes to 20,000 feet or more.

Lieutenant Jordan, the air base spokesman, said the planes are fully armed and are the same as are now being used in Korea.

The planes were not here giving a demonstration, as some thought, and it wasn't a home town boy giving his family a thrill, as others thought.

The two pilots were about their deadly serious business of hunting strange , unidentified objects. "That is why we are here," Jordan said. The planes were of the 4706th air defense wing.

It could not be recalled today when, if ever, anyone ever reported a sighting of such duration, in such detail and of so many "flying saucers."

I could not locate a Witlergren Drive in Rockford, but there is a Wintergreen Drive in Rockford, Illinois.