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THE UFO EVIDENCE,  published by the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena, Copyright 1964

SECTION VII

Officials & Citizens

The reports of technically trained observers, military and civilian pilots, in themselves are sufficient to make a strong case for UFOs. However, when we also realize that a broad cross- section of reputable citizens has described identical phenomena, it seems incredible that UFOs are not an acknowledged fact. The disc-shaped, elliptical and other main types of UFOs observed by pilots and scientists have been reported with great frequency by such responsible persons as judges, civil defense officials, professors, lawyers and clergymen.

Some of these individual observer categories could fill another complete section of this report. From the hundreds of cases on file, the following have been selected to provide a survey of what has been seen by officials and private citizens of various back grounds.

LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS

Police switchboards normally and logical are the first to be swamped with calls during concentrations of sightings, since there is no established procedure for citizens to follow when they see a UFO. Examples abound of cases in which police responded to citizens' reports of UFOs, and saw the objects for themselves. Police Officers on patrol duty, too, have observed unexplainable objects maneuvering overhead.

During a six-day concentration of UFO sightings in northern California, August 13-18, 1960, at least 14 police officers were among the numerous witnesses. At 11:50 p.m. (PDT) August 13, State Policeman Charles A. Carson and Stanley Scott were patrolling near Red Bluff when they noticed an object low in the sky directly ahead of them. (Their report of the sighting was put on the police teletype, a copy of which was submitted to NICAP confidentially by a police source. Later, NICAP Adviser Walter N. Webb contacted Officer Carson and was sent another copy of the teletype report, a sketch of the UFO, and a letter giving additional information.)

Verbatim text of the police teletype report to the Area Commander:

"STATEMENT MADE BY OFFICER CHARLES A. CARSON CONCERNING OBJECT OBSERVED ON THE NIGHT OF AUGUST 13,1960.

Officer Scott and I were E/B on Hoag Road, east of Corning, looking for a speeding motorcycle when we saw what at first appeared to be a huge airliner dropping from the sky. The object was very low and directly in front of us. We stopped and leaped from the patrol vehicle in order to get a position on what we were sure was going to be an airplane crash. From our position outside the car, the first thing we noticed was an absolute silence. Still assuming it to be an aircraft with power off, we continued to watch until the object was probably within 100 feet to 200 feet off the ground, when it suddenly reversed completely, at high speed, and gained approximately 500 feet altitude. There the object stopped. At this time it was clearly visible to both of us. It was surrounded by a glow making the round or oblong object visible. At each end, or each side of the object, there were definite red lights. At times about five white lights were visible between the red lights. As we watched the object moved again and performed aerial feats that were actually unbelievable.

At this time we radioed Tehama County Sheriff's Office requesting they contact local radar base. The radar base confirmed the UFO - completely unidentified.

Officer Scott and myself, after our verification, continued to watch the object. On two occasions the object came directly towards the patrol vehicle; each time it approached, the object turned, swept the area with a huge red light. Officer Scott turned the red light on the patrol vehicle towards the object, and it immediately went away from us. We observed the object use the red beam approximately 6 or 7 times, sweeping the sky and ground areas. The object began moving slowly in an easterly direction and we followed. We proceeded to the Vina Plains Fire Station where it was approached by a similar object from the south. It moved near the first object and both stopped, remaining in that position for some time, occasionally emitting the red beam. Finally, both objects disappeared below the eastern horizon. We returned to the Tehama County Sheriff's Office and met Deputy Fry and Deputy Montgomery, who had gone to Los Molinos after contacting the radar base. Both had seen the UFO clearly, and described to us what we saw. The night jailer also was able to see the object for a short time; each described the object and its maneuvers exactly as we saw them. We first saw the object at 2350 hours and observed it for approximately two hours and 15 minutes. Each time the object neared us we experienced radio interference.

We submit this report in confidence for your information. We were calm after our initial shock, and decided to observe and record all we could of the object.

Stanley Scott 1851
Charles A. Carson 2358."

Extracts from Officer Carson's letter of November 14, 1960, in answer to Adviser Webb's questions:

"We made several attempts to follow it, or I should say get closer to it, but the object seemed aware of us and we were more successful remaining motionless and allow it to approach us, which it did on several occasions.

"There were no clouds or aircraft visible. The object was shaped somewhat like a football, the edges (here I am confused as to what you mean by edges, referring to the outside visible edges of the object as opposed to a thin, sharp edge, no thin sharp edges were visible) or I should say outside of the object were clear to us . . . [the] glow was emitted by the object, was not a reflection of other lights. The object was solid, definitely not transparent. At no time did we hear any type of sound except radio interference.

"The object was capable of moving in any direction. Up and down, back and forth. At times the movement was very slow. At times it was completely motionless. It moved at high (extremely) speeds and several times we watched it change directions or reverse itself while moving at unbelievable speeds.

"When first observed the object was moving from north to south [patrol car moving almost due east]. Our pursuit led in an easterly direction and object disappeared on eastern horizon. It was approximately 500 feet above the horizon when first observed, seemingly falling at approximate 45 degree angle to the south.

"As to the official explanation [See Section IX.], I have been told we saw Northern lights, a weather balloon, and now refractions.

"I served 4 years with the Air Force, I believe I am familiar with the Northern lights, also weather balloons. Officer Scott served as a paratrooper during the Korean Conflict. Both of us are aware of the tricks light can play on the eyes during darkness. We were aware of this at the time. Our observations and estimations of speed, size, etc. came from aligning the object with fixed objects on the horizon. I agree we find it difficult to believe what we were watching, but no one will ever convince us that we were witnessing a refraction of light.

/s/ Charles A. Carson
Calif. Highway Patrol." [1]
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Police In Four Counties Sight UFOs

Six police officers in four adjoining counties of Northeast Ohio, in five separate locations, independently observed UFO activity within a 15 minute period September 18, 1962. The officers were: State Policemen Roger A. Stinard, and David McCurry; Mahoning County Deputy Sheriff Donald E. Corey, Carroll County Police Officers James Nelson and Delmus Early, Patrolman Dave Richey of Canal Fulton. All reported a generally north east or east direction, but in two of the observations the UFOs maneuvered across the sky. Comparison of the reports strongly suggests that associated phenomena were observed.

(1) State Policeman David McCurry, chasing a speeding car about 5:00 a.m. in the vicinity of Minerva, intermittently watched two white oval-shaped objects which he had noticed hovering in the sky just before the speeder came by. When he looked again he saw that one of the UFOs had descended and was glowing brilliantly. Suddenly the object took off at high speed to the NE. Later Officer McCurry checked with a patrol just across the County line in Carroll County, and learned they had seen essentially the same phenomenon.

(2) Patrolman James Nelson and Delmus Early, opposite Minerva across the County line in Carroll County, were cruising north on route 80 checking out various business establishments. Between 5:00 and 5:10 a.m., they noticed two UFOs, widely separated but apparently maneuvering in unison. The objects descended, seemed to stop momentarily, then accelerated and sped away NE. In a taped interview, the officers described the UFO closest to them as cone-shaped with a fiery exhaust, leaving a trail of smoke. The sighting lasted 4-5 minutes.

(3) Deputy Sheriff Donald E. Corey, Mahoning County, was cruising near Poland, about 35 miles north and east of Minerva at 5:00 a.m. he noticed a very bright light source hovering or floating slowly to the NE. The light disappeared in 30 seconds.

(4) Patrolman Dave Richey, Canal Fulton, about the same time sighted a stationary UFO, also in the NE sky. It was cone-shaped with a bright blue-white light on one end, visible about 45 seconds. After parking his car, Officer Richey looked again about a minute later and the object was gone.

(5) State Policeman Roger A. Stinard was cruising near Hudson, about 45 miles NNW of Minerva; it was cloudy and drizzling. He places the time at 5:15 a.m. A bright light in the sky attracted his attention, and he looked toward the E. Visible through the clouds was an "extreme white light, brighter than headlights." The light was completely stationary as long as he watched it, for 2-3 minutes. [2.]


Northeast Ohio

September 18, 1962 5:00-5:15 a.m. EDT
1. Patrolman McCurry 2. Patrolman Nelson & Early 3. Deputy Corey 4. Patrolman
Richey 5. Patrolman Stinard

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Dispatcher, Officers, Watch Flashing Objects

Over the western slope of the Rocky Mountains, in an area about 60 miles in diameter, UFOs were seen on several occasions during the week of October 21-27, 1962. On the night of the 25th between 6:40 and 8:15 p.m., police officers in Delta and Cedaredge observed two bright objects "shaped like an inverted umbrella with a number of bright tail-like appendages." [cf., September 24, 1959, Redmond, Oregon; Section V.] Cedaredge Marshal Ed Marah and State Policeman Richard Kuta (who later declined to answer NICAP questions) watched the UFOs through binoculars, and said they changed color, at various times appearing blue, white and orange.

The sighting was confirmed to NICAP by another witness, Mrs. Helen G. Mitchell, Police Dispatcher at Delta County Court House. [3.] At 6:40 p.m., while on duty, she received a call from the Civil Defense Coordinator advising her to look out to see an object in the sky. Through the window of the Dispatcher's office she saw to the NE a bright white object, which changed color rapidly, "flashing or blinking."

"Since I was on duty in the Radio Room," Mrs. Mitchell told NICAP, "and under the rules of the F.C.C., I am unable to give any information which I received via short wave radio from Units reporting to me on these sightings."

The object she saw turned reddish, then to dark glowing red, and back to "dazzling white." It rose and lost altitude jerkily while moving slowly SW toward her position, then stopped and hovered for about 25 minutes. Finally it drifted out of her line of sight to the SE. She thought it might be some type of balloon "because of the jerky way in which it rose and lost altitude." However, weather balloons are only faintly visible, rise quickly and burst, and do not hover for 25 minutes. Larger high-altitude research balloons do remain in flight for days, but are not brilliantly lighted. Nor do they normally operate in pairs, as reported by Marshal Marah and Officer Kuta.

Disc On Edge Reported

During the early morning of September 26, 1963, a UFO was sighted by people in scattered locations around the San Francisco Bay area. Paul Cerny, Chairman of the Bay Area NICAP Sub committee, conducted an investigation and located nine witnesses. (The sighting was reported September 26 in the San Jose Mercury News Los Altos Times and the San Francisco Chronicle.) A particularly detailed report was obtained from officer Galen Anderson of the Sunnyvale Police Department, who observed the UFO for about 45 seconds.

About 4:20 a.m., Officer Anderson was patrolling the streets in a squad car. A radio call from other officers alerted him, and he stopped to watch the UFO. The object was traveling from east to west at an elevation angle of about 45 degrees, at about the speed of a propeller-driven aircraft. The leading edge was brightly illuminated, the main body grayish in color, with a small point of light visible on it. (See sketches and description prepared by Bay Area Subcommittee). The UFO then made a turn toward the northwest, was momentarily visible edge-on, then quickly disappeared from view.

In nearby Monta Vista about 4:15 a.m., George W. Scott was on the job as a supervisor at the Permanente Cement Company. One of the work crew called his attention to a strange object in the sky, and he watched its flight for about a minute. To him, it appeared that the UFO stopped briefly each time the small body light pulsed, then moved 3 to 4 degrees between pulses. The UFO continued on a westerly course, disappearing behind the coastal mountains.


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This object appeared larger than a full moon, according to Officer Anderson, about basketball size at about 8 feet away. It appeared as a disc on edge, with about 3/4 or more of its outline showing. The trailing 1/4 of the circle, if it were there, appeared more or less invisible. Police Officer Lt. Haag told Anderson that he saw what appeared as heat waves in this quarter area and further to the rear. The disc appeared grayish in color except when the small spot of light ("A") lighted up about every 3 to 4 seconds. The color then changed to yellowish - white, some trace of orange, but predominately along the front leading edge portion ("B"). This produced a pulsing effect every three or four seconds. This, in turn. gave an eerie lighted haze or mist illumination of the area just outside the disc circle itself as if it were glowing or surrounded by a gas, or thin cloud, halo, etc. At each 3-4 second pulse, the small inner bright light would move around erratically to various new positions within the disc area.

The object was visible about 45 seconds to Officer Anderson and traveled in a perfectly straight line over Sunnyvale toward Los Altos, then suddenly made a turn and was momentarily edgewise and vertical to Anderson's vision, then immediately disappeared from sight. Officer Anderson and Lt. Haag were only about a third of a mile apart at the time and Officer Girard was perhaps a mile to their northeast. Speed of the object was about that of a propeller driven military aircraft, elevation about 45 degrees from Officer Anderson, estimated altitude 4000-6000 ft., visible about 45 seconds. Brighter than full moon.

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(Names and addresses of other witnesses on file at NICAP.)

A somewhat similar case during the winter of 1943 or 1944 was reported by Harry G. Barnes, then a member of the Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police Department stationed at No.1 Precinct. About 3:00 p.m., Barnes saw three oval-shaped UFOs in V-formation speed eastward across the NE sky. The objects had pulsating greenish-red "exhausts", which occasionally flared and curled around them. [5.]

State Policeman Fred Porcello, Portville, N.Y., saw two UFOs of uncommon configuration July 24, 1960. He described the sighting to Olean, N.Y., newsman Bob Barry who relayed the report to NICAP.

While Officer Porcello was playing in the yard with his children between 8:30 and 9:00 p.m., his youngest son, Fred Jr. (age 7) pointed to the sky and said: "Look Daddy, two light bulbs in the sky." He looked and saw two glowing reddish objects which did resemble light bulbs, moving toward them in the southern sky.

As the UFOs changed angle relative to the sun, they appeared silvery and metallic (suggesting that the glow was reflected sun light). They changed course to the NNW, then stopped and hovered for a short period of time. Then the objects made a fairly sharp right turn, heading east, swung back toward the south and moved out of sight in the distance. They had been visible 4-5 minutes. When not glowing, the UFOs appeared to be dumbbell-shaped, round on the ends with an oblong section between.

(On August 21, 1956, J. Gordon Campbell observed similar objects while flying between Sheridan, Wyoming, and Billings, Montana. Mr. Campbell is president of a Minneapolis machine tool and industrial supply company. Shortly after 8:00 p.m., a dark elongated object with knobs at each end rapidly approached his plane, hovered, then sped away. Seconds later, four similar objects maneuvered near his plane).

Other Police Cases (Chart)

CIVIL DEFENSE, GROUND OBSERVER CORPS

The Ground Observer Corps was created in January 1950, and inactivated January 31, 1959. By that time the improvement of electronic detection equipment reduced the need for civilian volunteer observers to supplement the air detection network of the Air Defense Command. During the period of its operation, the GOC made a great contribution to the security of the United States. It also logged hundreds of sightings of unexplainable aerial phenomena.

NICAP Adviser Leonard H. Stringfield, during this period, was Director of an effective world-wide organization (C.R.I.F.O.) in Cincinnati, Ohio, which sifted and publicized reliable UFO in formation. In September 1955, the Air Defense Command Filter Center in Columbus designated Stringfield's home as an official "UFO reporting post." Thereafter, when UFOs were observed in the skies above Cincinnati, Stringfield would check out the reports. If the objects did not appear to be anything conventional, he would alert the Filter Center. On several occasions, Stringfield helped vector in jet interceptors to track down unidentified objects in the skies.

A similar incident occurred August 23, 1955. In a privately published book, [22.] Stringfield described what happened:

"About midnight, residents throughout the city were jarred by the roar of jets. From S.A.C., Lockburne AFB, south of Columbus, the Air National Guard jets were alerted, scrambled and were over Cincinnati in 12 minutes. The alert began when three UFOs were sighted and confirmed by radar somewhere between Columbus and Cincinnati.

"In the meantime, Walter Paner, Supt. of Hamilton County GOC, on duty at the Mt. Healthy Post, phoned the author of the existent alert and relayed the word that jet interceptors were due over the area. He said the UFOs had been active over Mt. Healthy and could be seen clearly by observers from the tower. In a short time, the jets, at approximately 20,000 feet, were over Cincinnati, but poor visibility prevented me and a visiting friend from Toronto, Canada, from seeing the UFOs which had deployed over a wide area. According to radar, the interlopers had extended   37 miles south, 24 miles north of the city, and as far as 10 miles east of Mt. Healthy.

"A later call from Paner disclosed that a UFO was seen hovering in pendulum-like motions directly over the tower. At about 12:10 a.m., the interceptors made contact, and swooping in, chased the UFO - which disappeared at incredible speed. In the meantime, the Forestville and Loveland GOC Post reported the erratic flights of UFOs to the Air Filter Center describing them as round brilliant white spheres and discs."

The Cincinnati-Columbus, Ohio, area has long been a scene of extensive UFO activity. During 1953 and 1954, another NICAP member, Don Berliner, logged UFO sightings at the Columbus Filter Center. A selection of the reports indicates the flavor and frequency of UFO observations:

July 9,1953; Columbus, Ohio. "Circular, silver" object traveling at terrific rate of speed" at very high altitude seen by accountant at North American Aviation plant.

July 24, 1953; Mt. Vernon, Ohio. 0900 EST; "large silver object" circles over town and then leaves in SW direction at speed slightly faster than clouds. Altitude estimated at 30,000 ft.

July 31, 1953; Port Clinton, Ohio. White light; going east 45 degrees in 30-40 seconds; viewed through 7x field glasses; ceiling was 15-20,000 feet. 2050 EST.

August 1, 1953; Toledo, Ohio. 0030 EST; "amber to green or blue;" ... "flickers and jumps."

August 14, 1953; Columbus, Ohio. 2030 EST; lighted object came straight down out of the sky, stopped, then sped out of view; in sight 30 seconds; observed by two young boys. (From Ohio State Journal; 8-15-53).

August 15, 1953; Crestline, Ohio. 2030 EST; light: white, red, green; circling; clear and calm.

August 21, 1953; Maumee, Ohio. 2200-2300 EST; Black oval, beads of light with green and red around perimeter; going NW, 20 degrees above horizon.

August 23, 1953; Columbus, Ohio. 0415 EST; red and white, half dollar [apparent size], moving very slowly upward; observed 1-1/2 hours.

September 24, 1953; Columbus, Ohio. 1027 EST; round disk, silvery, few seconds, following plane.

October 30, 1953; Mt. Vernon, Ohio. 1725z; round, silver, did not look like plane; heard motor sound; low altitude; circular motion; clear.

November 14, 1953; vicinity of Toledo, Ohio. 2330z; orange, white, blue and red flashing; gaining altitude; very clear.

December 13, 1953; Central Ohio. 0030 EST; long with white lights at both ends. Altitude approx. 5000 feet. Clear.

December 16, 1953; Toledo, Ohio. 1920 EST. Small group of lights changing from red to white, each appearing to revolve; altitude very high. Disappeared to NW a few minutes prior to arrival of seven aircraft from east. Seven were in loose formation, 1 mile apart and at different altitudes. Four miles from point of observation, broke formation and flew off in different directions.

GOC, Radar, Track UFO Across New York

From 1951 to 1955, NICAP Adviser James C. Beatty served as a civilian leader at the Air Force Filter Center in White Plains, N.Y. The Center covered parts of three states: A portion of southern New York, about one-half of Connecticut, and most of New Jersey. Approximately 15,000 Ground Observer Corps spotters reported to this Center. During this period, Beatty served as an instructor, a team supervisor, and also as alert crew supervisor. In the latter capacity, he would have been the civilian in charge at the Filter Center if New York had actually been attacked. In a tape recorded talk to the New York NICAP Affiliate, Beatty said that UFO sightings reported by GOC spotters were numerous; "It was a fairly frequent occurrence."

Beatty recalled in particular one sighting in which he helped track the UFO. It was late August or early September 1954, on the 8:00 p.m. to midnight shift. At first, all was quiet. Then about 9:30 p.m. a post about 20 miles southeast of Poughkeepsie, N.Y., reported that "a large round orange object" the apparent size of the moon had appeared suddenly in the sky. The moon was also visible in another sector of the sky, and was not full that night.

For 20-30 minutes, the ground observers watched the UFO. At first it appeared stationary, except for an oscillatory effect as if it were about to start moving. Then it began moving slowly in a southeasterly direction. As it moved the color changed slightly from orange to a more yellow-orange.

"During the next hour," Beatty reported, "our team at the Filter Center plotted the progress of this object across the board... This track as it began to evolve had a southeasterly direction. During this whole period of an hour it was under constant observation.

"While the object had been progressing across our board, I at that particular time was on the hot-line at the Filter Center... Two radar stations we were hooked into confirmed at that time that they had been holding an electronic fix on this same object... It coincided in position and movement with the object we had seen visually."

Over the hot-line, Beatty could hear the various ground bases talking to each other, and heard the "scramble" order go out from two different Air Force bases. Two jets were scrambled from Stewart AFB, Newburgh, N.Y., and two from the base at Newcastle, Delaware.

"At the time I was hearing the scrambles in the background, the plot was progressing more in a direction toward the state of Connecticut. ..then we began to pick up the jet patterns, coming in from the south in the case of the scramble from Delaware, and from the west in the case of the scramble from Stewart Field... We could track the jets as they closed in on this object.

"Shortly before the interception occurred, a strange thing happened to the orange object. This was reported both by the ground observer posts and by the pilots of the jets. It seemed to speed up in its motion - it had been oscillating or pulsating and moved rather slowly - and it changed to a rotational effect with

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also a change of lights. By this time the reports came in that it was a whirling combination of red, green and yellow lights....sort of a rainbow effect.

"Then at almost the same time we got reports from the posts which had been holding this object under ground observation, and jets themselves, that the object disappeared straight upward in a burst of speed... At that moment it also became apparent that not only the ground observers, but also the aircraft and airborne radar had lost visual and electronic contact with the object as it zoomed upward and vanished in the night sky."

Later the witnesses were requested by the Air Force to fill out standard UFO report forms. [23.]

Other GOC Reports

August 22, 1952; Chicago, Illinois. Associated Press reported (Chicago, August 23): "Two Air Force jet fighters, directed by ground observers, chased a yellowish light in the sky last night but reported that it blinked out when they started closing in on it. Air Force officers in the Chicago filter center said the blink-out of the light over nearby Elgin, Illinois, was reported simultaneously at 11:48 p.m., last night by the pilots and by D.C. Scott, Elgin, Supervisor of the Center's ground observers in the Elgin area... Ground observers said that when the planes gave up the chase the light reappeared and ascended rapidly in the night sky." A few minutes later, another GOC post about 20 miles to the NW reported a glowing object which hovered blinked twice, and ascended out of sight.

August 9, 1953; Moscow, Idaho. Mr. L.E. Towner, supervisor, and other GOC observers reported a large glowing disc. As three F-86's closed in to investigate, the UFO abruptly sped up and left the jets behind.

August 12, 1953; Rapid City, S.D. Two GOC posts observed a UFO which was chased twice by F-84 pilots, tracked by ground and airborne radar. [Section I]

March 24,1954; Baltimore, Md. A formation of UFOs was observed at night by a Civil Defense official. Adolph Wagner, Deputy Coordinator for the area, saw 13 sharply defined triangular objects in a V moving from west to east. They were glowing a fluorescent blue. From the north, a larger object approached and stationed itself in front of the V. At this point, Wagner noticed a commercial airliner approaching the airport. Suddenly the UFOs split formation. Six executed a sharp turn, their color turning to purplish, and headed toward the airliner in single file. The other 8 objects continued on to the east. [25.]

June 12 & 14,1954; Nr. Baltimore, Md. On two nights, Ground Observer Corps spotters and radar tracked a large glowing object hovering at over 75,000 feet. Jets circled below, unable to reach the object's altitude. Reports of the UFO came into the Baltimore Filter Center for about an hour the first night; two hours the second night. The object alternately moved in a square pattern at high speed, and hovered. [See Wilmington (Del.) Morning News; July 9, 1954].

July 29, 1955; Cincinnati, Ohio. A Ground Observer Corps post at Loveland, and many others in Cincinnati proper, saw a round UFO at 1:00 a.m. The bright ball-like object made a penetrating shrill sound, as it zigzagged across the sky making sharp turns. (cf., July 26, 1958 case following) [26.]

November 23, 1955; Spirit Lake, Iowa. Earl Rose (a biologist) and Gay Orr (superintendent of schools) were on duty at the GOC post about 5:45 p.m. Attracted by a multi-motor sound on their amplifying pickup system, the two men scanned the sky with binoculars. A brilliant object at low altitude was visible maneuvering erratically to the southwest. As it moved, the UFO changed color from white to bluish-white to green and red. For about twenty minutes, Rose and Orr watched the gyrating object as it moved forward, up and down. At one point, the UFO hovered over Center Lake for about 10 minutes. Its maneuvers were totally unlike an aircraft, and it moved against the wind. [27.]

July 29, 1956; Pasadena, Calif. A brilliant white light moving at variable speeds was observed from Ground Observer Corps posts by Homer Clem, Ray LaRoche and others at 8:43 p.m. The UFO appeared in the south sky, and moved northeast, alternately hovering and speeding up. According to a press report, "The Air Defense Filter Center at Pasadena reported that the mysterious object had been trailed with radar Screens." [28.]

November 5 1957; Haverhill, Mass. At 4:30 p.m., Kenneth Chadwick, Walter Downey and others at a GOC post saw a circular or spherical object hovering high in the sky. Lining the UFO with a chimney, they verified that it was vibrating up and down, and from side to side. This continued for 3 or 4 minutes. The object then disappeared, but reappeared quickly in a new position. The UFO was observed intermittently afterwards, at times resembling a cigar in shape. [29.]

November 22, 1957; Canutillo, Texas. The supervisor of the GOC post, Mrs. G.A. Baker, saw a UFO which appeared "metallic, like silver" about 4:00 p.m. When first noticed, the UFO was nearly stationary in the south sky. Then it "flew west rapidly," stopped, sped back toward the east, and finally zoomed upward out of sight after three minutes. [39.]

July 26, 1958; Durango, Cob. Another post supervisor, Mrs. Elton Highland, observed a spherical UFO about 9:45 a.m. The UFO, resembling a silver ball, was headed northwest "at a tremendous rate of speed" making a noise similar to a jet. It appeared to be at 35,000 to 40,000 feet. Within 45 seconds, the UFO had vanished in the distance. [31.]

PROFESSIONAL AND BUSINESS MEN

July 13, 1947; Gardner Mass. A disc-shaped UFO which accelerated with a burst of speed was observed at 5:48 p.m. by Warren Baker Eames, A.I.D. Mr. Eames, president of an interior design company, is a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard University. While driving west on Route 2, Eames noticed a large bright object in the sky. The UFO seemed to be traveling in the same direction. It was "round, disc-shaped, exactly like a silver dollar in shape... silver, aluminum color."

After a few seconds, "the edge of the disc nearest me appeared to dip slightly down toward my direction, and then it sped off to the WNW with a huge burst of speed. When it dipped, I could see the edge very clearly," Eames said. [32.]

April 26, 1954; Newburyport, Mass. Russell M. Peirce, Architect, reported a circular object which made a right-angle turn.

"The time of day was between three and four o'clock in the afternoon, and the sky was clear overhead. I was standing at the rear of the local High School building talking with two friends... Suddenly we all heard a very loud deep roar as of many motors, which accelerated very rapidly and then faded out just as rapidly. The direction of the sound was from the sky and I instinctively turned my head and eyes upward. It just happened that the line of my vision was such that my eyes were almost instantly focused on the object, which was east, perhaps a little to the SE, from where I was standing. It was up high overhead, and from the angle at which I was looking up, about 60 degrees, with the earth, I would say that the object could have been out over the ocean as we are in about 4 miles from the coast...

"The object as I first saw it appeared as a flaming ring. The color was a little on the whitish tone but also had some suggestion of the orange-yellow of the common flame of burning wood, say. At the lower left quadrant of the ring there appeared a small, bright disc tangent with the ring, same color as the ring. The center of the remainder of the ring appeared dark. The object was headed earthward, not quite in a direct line toward me, but sort of downward and a little to the right. This direction was indicated by a short, grayish trail upward to the left. Then the object seemed to waver and 'skid around' for just a few seconds, apparently reversing its direction, because it next went upward and to the right, disappearing from sight very quickly.

"As it disappeared the appearance changed from that of a ring and internal concentric disc, to a solid silvery colored disc. . . The sound came and went synonymously with the object's appearance and disappearance. The size appeared slightly smaller than a full moon would appear high in the sky... The time of observation was short, say twenty seconds, but long enough to get a good clear view of what was visible... My daughter heard the roar from inside our home, and three other people called me, after seeing the newspaper article, to tell me they had heard the unusual sound from the sky at the same time I had heard it...

"It appeared as though the object were traveling earthward at a terrific speed, and then as though a tremendous force were applied to arrest the earthward direction and send the object

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back upward, and consequently it went rapidly out of sight and out of hearing distance... What the object was, where it came from, and where it went, are all a complete mystery to me but the sighting was as clear as a picture on a wall." [33]


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July 31, 1957; Calistoga, California. William J. Besler, president of Besler Corporation, Oakland, California, was relaxing in the natural hot springs mineral bath at Calistoga, about 9:30 a.m. "I happened to glance out the window," Besler said, "and was attracted by a very bright light behind a poplar tree on the top of a nearby knoll at an angle of about 20 degrees from the horizon. The light was climbing behind the branches and I thought it might be a brilliantly white bird, but discerned in a matter of seconds that it was ascending too slowly and deliberately for any bird. The bright light rose above the tree, and it was then apparent that there were two objects approximately a thumb-nail's height at arm's length above the tree and completely stationary. I wondered what kind of jet-jobs or objects could be reflecting the sun's light and remain so completely stationary but so brilliantly white and maintain such a fixed position relative to each other.

"The objects then started to rise higher above the tree and I began to wonder, so I got out of the tub and proceeded to the window for a better look, by which time the lights were no longer in their previous position relative to the tree. I looked around the horizon, left and right, and up; and there they were - now almost due north and at an angle of about 70 degrees from the horizontal, describing antics which no jet-jobs, guided missiles or airplanes could accomplish.

"I pushed the window open... and got a good look at the two bright lights which can be described as the size of the tip of a blue-head wood stick match at arm's length at a distance from each other equal to about 6 or 7 times their diameter. No better description can be given than that they were brilliantly white lights against an azure blue cloudless sky...

"To describe the antics they were going through is to first state that they made no pattern nor any sense. One could climb above the other, then the other would climb above the first, the lights sometimes blinking on and off at a surprising frequency of four blinks per second as they climbed. When the lights would blink out, there was absolutely nothing to see, indicating that they could hardly have been a somersaulting disc, black on one side and white on the other, as something would have shown up against the clear azure sky.

"The two lights then circled around each other twice and began moving in a more or less straight line due west and continued in this path at a speed I would estimate at 200 mph., for an arc of perhaps 15 degrees requiring some 8 seconds... as I was watching them intently they mysteriously and instantaneously went out... I looked in all directions for the next 30 seconds but they didn't reappear...

(Mr. Besler added a note about the natural tendency for a person to try to account for unusual observations in terms of familiar experiences. "I was aware from almost the first of the 18 seconds I had them in observation that these could well be UFOs. Nonetheless my mind was struggling at all times to identify them as planes, birds, pieces of tinfoil in the wind, or something familiar to this planet. Even after they disappeared my mind kept searching for an explanation other than the obvious that there had been a couple of brilliant flying unidentified objects (saucers?) under observation by the rare chance of a glance out of a window.") [34]

November 11, 1957; California Desert. During the surge of sightings in November 1957 [See Section XII; November 1957 Chronology], a silvery elliptical UFO was sighted flying below an airliner. Robert D. Hahn, a jewelry designer, was flying from Minneapolis to Los Angeles aboard Western Airlines flight #61.

"Flight #61 was over desert country approximately 30 to 45 minutes before landing at Los Angeles International Airport," Hahn reported. The sighting occurred approximately seven to ten minutes before we passed what appeared to be an Air Force base. My seat was just above the leading edge of the wing next to the window on the right side of the plane. We were at about 14,000 feet, or so it had been announced some time previously. I was observing several jets making vapor trails at high altitude, crossing and criss-crossing. The earth seemed rugged and deserted with no sign of roads or cultivation, with the exception of a meandering, apparently dirt, road approximately 10 to 12 miles to the right angling away from our line of flight.

"My first observation of the object struck me as a large, roughly elliptical, metallic building on the ground at the base of a hill that seemed to have dark patches, like brush or small trees. I wondered what such a structure was doing out there with no roads or sign of access appearing near it - it was, I should judge, eight to nine miles ahead and to the right of the plane. Suddenly, I observed it was moving.

"Dark patches on the hill, probably scrub trees, were passing beneath it. It went up and over the hill angling toward the road. Its course was extremely erratic, seeming to zigzag two or three hundred feet in an instant to the right or left while maintaining a general direction angle of about 45 degrees away from our course. Its overall speed seemed to me (pure 'guesstimate') about one-third our own. It eventually disappeared from my view behind and under the wing, paralleling the road about a mile to the right...

"I would judge the size of the object to be approximately 200 to 250 feet in diameter - its height off the ground to be only a couple hundred feet as it went over the first hill and never over 1000 feet during my observation."

Mr. Hahn added that the UFO's surface resembled "sand- blasted aluminum," and was not shiny. He saw no trail or exhaust from the object. [35.]

(That afternoon a group of Rocketdyne engineers sighted three elliptical UFOs over the San Fernando Valley; See Section VI).

September 7, 1958; Mission, Kansas. The publisher of The American Hereford Journal, Hayes Walker, Jr., and his wife saw a white disc speed across the sky about 5:30 p.m. The UFO, round and flat, passed nearly overhead traveling from southwest to northeast, disappearing over the horizon in 12-15 seconds. It was "more distinct than the daytime moon," Walker reported. [36]

Rendezvous of Two UFOs

February 16, 1960; Laguna Beach, Calif. Mr. Earl T. Ross, retired chemical manufacturing company executive (industrial chemist and engineer) reported the following case to NICAP.

"At 9:15 a.m., Tuesday, February 16,1960, from my home... I saw, in a very clear and cloudless blue sky, an oval, light colored object move steadily toward the east from a point a little south of overhead. Then, perhaps two seconds later, I saw another similar object approach and overtake the first from a position lower in the southern sky; the second object wobbled or rather nodded, (on an axis through its center and at right angles to its

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course, the axis being parallel to the earth's surface), as it slowed down to join the first, and it altered its course and speed so as to take up a steady position that appeared to be behind and to the right of the first.

"The first object maintained its flight path steadily, without nodding, and after joining up the second object stopped its nodding; both objects then moved rapidly, that is, in a period of perhaps eight or ten seconds, to the local horizon which is a range of hills along the coast back of this town. I saw no vapor trails and heard no sound. There was no wind.

"The objects each appeared to be about a third of the apparent diameter of the full moon. They were sharply defined and had some sort of surface structure that made it appear to me as though they were flattened spheres having a thickness of about one-third their diameter. The objects were an off-white color, not silvery.

"During this sighting the sun was in the southeast, above the path of the objects, and as they moved along past the sun's apparent position, I observed a most peculiar darkening - to almost black - of the side of the objects that faced the sun, so that each object took on the appearance of a crescent. This dark crescent developed and moved around over the surface of the objects as they passed under the sun.

"The original light color of the objects then appeared to be come transparent as the dark crescents developed. The appearance of the dark crescents on the sunny side of the objects of course seems to be at variance with our normal experience.

"The above account is from the detailed notes I made a few minutes after the sighting." [37.]

October 27, 1960; Lexington, Kentucky. B.L. Kissinger, Jr., Attorney, and his wife at 5:50 p.m. watched a circular object hovering in the sky to the southwest. After about ten minutes, the UFO took off toward the northwest (the shape changing to elliptical), at a speed "faster than a jet." The UFO departed on a rising course, leaving a visible trail. [38.]

February 7, 1961; Kennebunkport, Maine. During a flurry ot sightings in northern New England, the president of an advertising agency was among the numerous witnesses. At 10:30 p.m., H. David Walley was returning home from a Chamber of Commerce meeting. As he rounded a curve in the road, he saw "what appeared to be the lower half of an orange-red ball in the sky. It was of such unusual brightness that I stopped and got out of my car to observe more closely," Walley said.

"My first impression was that this was a harvest moon because of its size and color. I observed this stationary object for at least two minutes and then saw it disappear at a tremendous speed, far in excess of the capabilities of any of our military aircraft.

"The object was at an angle of 20 to 30 degrees above the horizon and traveled in an easterly direction... As the UFO disappeared I could hear no sound or saw no contrails, or smoke of any kind." [39]

PUBLIC OFFICIALS

Carl J. Henry
Chairman, Industrial Commission of Missouri
Department of Labor and Industrial Relations

March 29, 1952 - 6:40 p.m. Butler, Missouri (65 miles south of Kansas City
Mr. Henry, along with several others, saw a silver-colored cylinder-shaped object in the sky almost directly overhead. The object was moving slowly in a northwesterly direction leaving no trail or exhaust. It was definite and fixed in shape, and moved end-ways with a steady motion. The observers watched the object for approximately 2 minutes. Mr. Henry estimated its length at about 100 feet. The sky was clear and not yet dark at the time of the observation. No sound was heard. [40]

Marvin W. Skipworth
District Judge
District Court for , Oregon

1954 or 1955 - day Coos Bay, Oregon
"I was idly gazing at the blue sky and scattered clouds to the south, or maybe a little west of south. The sky was very blue and the air very clear, except for the scattered clouds, which were practically motionless. My attention was directed to two white irregular roundish clouds and the sky beyond.

"Suddenly, what appeared to be a huge aluminum discus appeared coming on a decline from above and beyond the cloud to my left and when it appeared to be about midway between and beyond the clouds and about even with the bottom of each cloud it suddenly turned a little to the left (my right) and soared upward and backward at a terrific speed... (cf., April 26, 1954 report above; Professional Men.)

"As it reversed and started up and back it flattened again so that it was traveling with its perimeter longitudinal to its diameter in my line of sight. The sun was to the right of the clouds and as I remember they may have been slightly pinkish on their western sides, but the object was remarkably clear and well defined - no fuzzy edges or vapor streaks, and it appeared to have ridged or terraced sides. An ordinary track and field discus describes it perfectly as to shape, as I saw it.

"I am not capable of judging how far away nor how high it was, but as I remember it appeared to be about two-thirds or three-fourths the area of the usual appearance of a full moon."  [41]

Arnold W. Spencer
Former Town Selectman (12 years)

April 25, 1960 - 9:00 p.m. Plymouth, N.H.
Mr. Spencer watched a bright hovering cigar-shaped object, "dark scarlet as the deepest red in a rainbow," with blunted ends. The UFO hung stationary low in the eastern sky, vertical bands of pulsating light visible along its length. (cf., Mt. Kilimanjaro sighting, 1951; Section X.) After about 25 seconds, the UFO suddenly moved off toward the south at high speed, illuminating the branches of trees as it passed. It left no trail and made no sound. [42] 

Patrick McAley
Deputy Inspector, Weights & Measures
City of Chicago

October 3, 1962 - 9:25 p.m. Chicago, Illinois
While watching for the Echo satellite, McAley and his son saw a domed disc cross the face of the moon traveling in a westerly direction'. The object, tilted at an angle, "seemed to be floating." It appeared to be a small fraction of the apparent size of the moon and gave the impression of being far out in space. [43]

PROFESSORS AND TEACHERS

May 20, 1950; Flagstaff, Arizona. Dr. Seymour L. Hess, Head, Department of Meteorology, Florida State University. Observation of "powered" disc. [Section I]

July 27, 1952; Ann Arbor, Michigan. Dr. Charles H. Otis, professor emeritus of Biology, Bowling Green State University. Formation of elongated objects leaving constant length trails. [Section VI.]

November 26, 1954; Manasquan, N.J. Confidential report (certified by NICAP Director and Assistant Director); College professor with M.A. degree, from Columbia University. V-formation of 15-20 round luminous objects which moved overhead, north to south. (witness stated: "For professional reasons, I do not want my name used. I feel strongly that you are fighting something that should be fought, but at this time I cannot expose myself as a fellow combatant.") [44]

June 18 1957; Jackson Miss. Prof. Henry Carlock, Physics Department, Mississippi College. Reddish oval-shaped object with three "portholes" observed passing over city. [Section VI.]

August 26, 1960; Mesa Arizona. Mr. Clete L. Miller, Science Department Head and Chemistry Teacher, Mesa High School. (Holds M.S. degree, served in Army Air Corps 1942-1946, single engine pilot.) At 8:00 p.m. Miller and his wife saw a hovering object in the southeast sky, emitting four beams of light; flashes of light, apparently from a beacon on top of the object also were visible. "Suddenly all four lights went out simultaneously,"

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Miller said, "and reappeared in a like manner - standing still - much farther to the north." A rumbling noise appeared to be associated with the UFO.

When the local newspaper printed Miller's report next day, several other citizens called to confirm his sighting. Miller called nearby Williams Air Force Base, and determined that there were no unusual aircraft in the area at the time. [45]

CLERGYMEN

A formation of UFOs which paused, made a sharp turn, then sped away, was observed February 20, 1952 by Rev. Albert Baller, NICAP Board Member. Rev. Baller currently is pastor of the German Congregational Church, Clinton, Mass.

...[it] was an exceptionally beautiful day at Greenfield, Mass. There were no clouds and the sky was a 'cobalt blue." Also, no wind. At three o'clock p.m., I boarded the New York train at the Greenfield station, took a seat away from the station and near a window opening onto a vast expanse of sky to the north and east. A minute or two afterward my attention was drawn to the sky by a sharp flash of light about 35 degrees or more above the horizon. Looking carefully toward this flash, I was quite astonished to see three, perfectly circular, silver objects approaching in V- formation...

[In an accompanying diagram, Rev. Baller added that the UFOs were "like highly polished silver; appeared approximately 2/3 size of a full moon."].

"They moved without vapor--or smoke--trail and at approximately the speed of a second hand on a watch. At this speed and in this formation they came to a point almost overhead but not quite, since I could still watch them from my window. There they stopped and hovered for perhaps ten seconds. Then I noted that the lead object was slowly reversing and appearing to pull into a line with the other two between them. After this brief shift, there was another quick motion by all three (I am not too sure just what) and they began to depart in a direction at right angles to their approach...

"My astonishment increased as I saw them leave, because they went with such speed that they dwindled to specks and were out of sight in not more than six seconds. I could not tell whether they made any noise, as there was such a racket about the station. However, I doubt that they did, since nobody standing on the station platform seemed to be aware of them...

"I first tried to fit it into the conventional--balloons, jets, etc. But it just would not fit. Obviously they were not planes, and on second thought, they were just as obviously not balloons,..[40]

Between 6:00 and 6:30 p. m., November 5,1955, Rev. and Mrs. Kenneth R. Hoffman saw a large elliptical UFO, with light shining from square "ports" like windows. At the time, Rev. Hoffman was pastor of the Grace Lutheran Church, Cleveland, Ohio. Rev. and Mrs. Hoffman were interviewed by C. W. Fitch, NICAP member in Cleveland.

"We were driving south on Lee Road on our way to the Cleveland-Hopkins Airport just at dusk... Shortly after crossing Fairmount Boulevard our attention was attracted to a row of bright lights in the sky directly ahead over Lee Road... Mrs. Hoffman saw them approaching on an arc course and stop...

"We watched the lights as we drove, speculating the while on what they were and continued on across North Park and Shaker Boulevards. At a point on the south side of Shaker Blvd., we stopped the car in order to get a better look at them. We could then discern that the lights were coming from a huge oval-shaped object, similar in appearance to two saucers, the uppermost inverted and resting on the edges of the lower one. Around the portion of its perimeter visible to us were eight large windows from which shone an intense white light. It was the light shining from these windows that we had first seen.

"Viewed from this point the strange object appeared to be hovering almost directly over the Van Aken-Lee intersection at a height we estimated as not being over five hundred feet. From the fact that it filled the sky above the highway beyond the width of the street we felt it must have been close to one hundred feet in diameter.

"At this point, which was our closest approach to the craft, we were, in all probability, not more than half a mile away from it. The body appeared to be metallic and was of a light gray color, similar in appearance to weathered aluminum. Mrs. Hoffman described it as being a pearly aluminum color.

"The windows were clearly defined as were the dark spaces between them. We estimated that each window must have been at least 8 feet by ten feet in size with a two foot space between them. An intensely white glow or beam of light shone steadily downward from each window at about a 45 degree angle. The light rays were so bright that we could see the air dust in them.

"We watched it for about ten minutes, then started the car and drove south on Lee Road hoping to get under it. When we were at Fernway Road, it began to slip westward over the tree tops. It moved slowly and noiselessly and did not appear to rotate. It disappeared from view, the trees blocking our vision. When we reached the Van Aken intersection, which is an open area, within a matter of a minute or less, the object had completely disappeared."

(Rev. Hoffman then described their mental reactions to the experience: "We decided it would be best to keep the matter to ourselves since we felt it might have certain undesirable repercussions if it were made public, our principal concern being the possibility of ridicule and disparagement. As time passed and we heard and read of other persons having seen strange lights and objects in the skies, our feelings underwent a change. We hereby grant permission to publish or use this account, all or in part, as you may see fit to inform or enlighten others.") [47]

Rev. Jack L. Sanford, First Congregational Church, was among a group of people who witnessed an elliptical UFO October 9, 1960, in Longpoint, Illinois.

"When we turned west onto Longpoint Road [about 6:30 pm.]." Rev. Sanford said, "It was very bright and clear and attracted our attention readily." There hovering in the sky in a tilted position was a football-shaped object. Its lower portion was distinct and golden-colored; the upper portion "hazy as when steam heat rises from a radiator." The bottom portion was tilted toward the observers.

Stopping the car, the group got out and watched the UFO for 8-10 minutes as it hung motionless. "Then when it pulled up horizontal," Rev. Sanford continued, "it began to become smaller. We knew it was moving, so we chased it in the car. It just pulled away rising slightly until it was too small to see any more. We chased it 3-1/2 miles." [481

NEWSMEN

After a three day aerial search during the first widespread UFO sightings in the United States, Dave Johnson, aviation editor of the Idaho Statesman, observed a maneuvering disc July 9, 1947. Ground observers at Gowan Field confirmed the sighting.

"For 45 seconds, I watched a circular object dart about in front of a cloud bank," Johnson reported. [49]. The object was round... it appeared black, altogether, as it maneuvered in front of the clouds. I saw the sun flash from it once. "I was flying at 14,000 feet west of Boise, near the end of my third mission... Frankly, I had given up hope of ever seeing one of the objects. I turned the plane toward Boise, to begin a circular let-down over Gowan Field, and over the nose of the aircraft I saw the object... clearly and distinctly. I turned the plane broadside to it and pulled back the Plexiglas canopy so there would be no distortion. The object was still there.

"It was rising sharply and jerkily toward the top of the towering bank of alto-cumulus and alto-stratus clouds. At that moment it was so round I thought it was a balloon. The object was turning so that it presented its edge to me. It then appeared as a straight, black line. Then, with its edge still toward me, it shot straight up, rolled over at the top of the maneuver, and I lost sight of it.

"The object could have been ten miles away, or forty, I do not know. If it was a great distance from me, its speed was incredible.. This circular thing was maneuvering very swiftly."

In a story datelined Albuquerque, N.M., August 2, 1952, Scripps - Howard Staff Writer Doyle Kline detailed a personal UFO sighting which "made a flying saucers believer out of me. " [50]

At 9:50 p.m., August 1, Mr. Kline observed about 10 glowing objects which "resembled nothing I had seen before. Their flight was soundless and graceful." The UFOs shifted formation in a coordinated maneuver as they passed overhead, Kline reported. They appeared to be about 1/3 the size of the full moon.

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At first the UFOs were clustered together, heading north. "Then they shifted to a perfect V. The shift was done with precision," Kline said. Within seconds, the objects took up a new formation: Two rows, with the UFOs in one row spaced evenly between those in the other row.

Assuming the UFOs were about 2500 feet above the city, Kline concluded their speed would be about that of an F-86 Sabre-jet. But "their shifts in position were incredibly swift and fantastically violent--in terms of our experience." If the UFOs were higher than they appeared to be, Kline continued, "their performance takes on even more incredible aspects."

Mr. Kline reported his sighting to the 34th Air Defense Division, and was asked to describe the maneuvers to intelligence officers.

"I have witnessed both day and night rocket flights at White Sands... The saucers were something different altogether," he concluded.

A formation of 12 UFOs passing over Philadelphia was observed by photographers of the Inquirer and the Bulletin, and many others, November 9, 1955.

At 6:08 p.m., Charles W. James, of the Philadelphia Enquirer, saw a V-formation of round, silvery-white objects pass overhead. During the observation, the objects shifted into an A-formation. The UFOs made no sound. The color did not change. (James was interviewed by a correspondent of C.R.I.F.O., headed by Leonard H. Stringfield, now a NICAP Adviser. See Ground Observer Corps, this section).

CROSS-SECTION

After the many sightings in 1952 [See Section XI, Chronology], UFO reports began to be publicized less and less. However, over the following years there was no lack of sightings. Of the many hundreds reported since 1952, the following selected cases comprise a cross-section of reports from observers of various backgrounds, from 1952 to 1962, inclusive.

1953: Cleveland, Ohio; Don P. Hollister, a technical writer for the Goodyear Aircraft Corporation, saw a UFO pass overhead about 6:30 p.m., September 7. While waxing his car in the back yard, Hollister happened to glance up and noticed a grayish- blue object directly overhead, headed north. The sky was completely overcast, and the UFO appeared to be at less than 3000 feet altitude. It was shaped roughly like an equilateral triangle, but rounded somewhat on the sides and angles, and was rotating around a central axis. The UFO continued on over the visible horizon at constant velocity, disappearing from view after about 5 seconds. [51]

1954: Grand Canyon, Arizona; Elbert Edwards (Superintendent of Schools in Boulder City, Nevada) and John Goddard (professional explorer)  saw a cigar-shaped UFO April 16 about 10:20 p.m. While camped above Havasu canyon in the Grand Canyon, they noticed a very bright light approaching at high speed. For the next minute, Goddard studied the object through 8x binoculars. It was cigar-shaped and had a row of five bright lights along the side "like portholes." The brilliant light which they had first noticed was on the front of the object. The UFO traveled from north to south-southwest, in the direction of Mexico. [52]

1955: Ohio: UFO activity was observed over a wide area, October 2, by many witnesses in separate locations. So-called "angel's hair" fell the same day. (Walter N. Webb, NICAP Adviser, interviewed several of the witnesses and wrote the following report. Another Ohio report for the same day, discovered later, is appended.)

"A remarkable local [Alliance, Ohio] UFO sighting took place at sunset on Sunday, October 2, 1955. The sighting was confirmed by at least eight witnesses who saw the same object around the same time from three widely separated areas. Six of the eight observers were interviewed.

"I first received word of the UFO from a close friend of mine, James Ansley (Jr.) who called me right after he and his family had returned home from a drive in the country. Jim was an Alliance High School student and an amateur astronomer and photographer whom I consider to be an accurate observer. Two days after the sighting and Jim's report, Wilma Faye Barker, a chemistry major in her junior year at Mount Union College in Alliance, told me of the sighting she and her boy friend had made that Sunday. Finally, in late November I was visiting another UFO investigator, Fred Kirsch of Cuyahoga Falls, and learned that an Akron couple, Donald J Karaiskos and his wife, had also seen the same strange object at the same time, October 2. Mr. Karaiskos had phoned his uncle, Mr. George Popowitch, after his sighting, and several days later Mr. Popowitch in turn called Kirsch.

Ansley Report
"The Ansleys were driving west (more exactly, WSW) from Alliance on West Main Street when Jim noticed an orangish object hanging in the sky about 15 degrees above the west horizon. It was 6:10 p.m. (EST) just after sunset, and the sky was clear. At first Jim thought it might have been Mercury or Venus, but he soon realized that it could be no celestial object. The tiny round object was as bright as Venus. Everybody in the car saw it -- Mr. and Mrs. Ansley, Jim and his brother, Dave. After they turned north on the Sawburg Road, the UFO appeared to move south slightly but Jim couldn't be sure (probably an illusion of movement since the car itself was in motion and also had to make a turn).

When they pulled out on the Harrisburg Road, Route 173, the thing was hovering over the road straight ahead (far away) and soon began to change size and shape, becoming a darker orange, then lighter in color again. It changed from a small disc to an ellipse to a thin crescent and finally to a very thin, pointed cigar- like object perpendicular to the horizon. Jim estimated the cigar was 3/8" long, with dividers held at arm's length against the sky. This agrees with the Akron observer's estimate - 1/3 the length of a pin which is 3/8".

When the crescent stage was reached, the object began to straighten out to become the vertical cigar. To Jim, the whole change resembled the phases of the moon. It remained perpendicular for about 7 seconds (timed on Jim's navigators watch), then it started tilting downward, halting momentarily at an estimated inclination of 20 degrees. It then tipped to a level position, parallel to the horizon, and faded from view in this position-- like a plane vanishing behind a cloud, said Mrs. Ansley... Most of the phases were watched along Freshley Road, and the Ansleys saw it disappear from there.

The sighting lasted 10 minutes, from 6:10 to 6:20.

The observers said the cigar appeared solid and sharply defined.

Barker Report
Wilma Faye Barker and her boy friend, Rudolph Holloway, saw the same object. They were driving home from Guilford Lake, southeast of Alliance, around 6 p.m. and first noticed the thing at North Georgetown. She saw it as a very bright silver line or needle, solid and sharply outlined. She could not estimate its angular size or altitude except that it was big and low in the western sky, tilted slightly toward the north... and standing still all the time. They continued to watch it now and then as they drove along U.S Route 62 into Alliance. Then they noticed that the thing had changed shape, to a flattened oval, roughly triangular, still hanging at a slant (Faye said they did not see the actual change in shape occur). The oval was not as sharply outlined as the needle and was duller in color. Driving north on Union Avenue (Route 80) she lost sight of it at intervals because of trees and finally discovered it was gone. She arrived home at 6:20. The object was probably observed during a 15 or 20- minute period.

Karaiskos Report
"In Akron a Kent State University student, Donald J. Karaiskos, 25, and his wife were driving west along Cole Avenue near Hammel Street at approximately 6 p.m. when they noticed a bright white sharply outlined cigar-shaped object (also described by him in his report as "rectangular, proportions of 1/3 the length of a pin") about 10 degrees above the horizon. It was tilted at a 45-degree angle and motionless. The sky was clear except for some clouds along the horizon below the object. The setting sun was partially obscured by the landscape and houses. Mr. Karaiskos drove about three blocks, then turned around and came back to the original spot to see if the object was still there. It was, so he parked the car, got out, and watched it for 5 minutes. They then went to his wife's sister's house in the nearby Cole Avenue housing project where he phoned the post supervisor of the Akron GOC, a Mrs. Sutter, and also called his uncle, Mr. George Popowitch (who later notified Fred Kirsch). Following the

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two phone calls, Karaiskos and his brother-in-law went outside to see if the object was still there. It was dark. The UFO was gone. Karaiskos called Mrs. Sutter again, but she said no one at the GOC post had seen the object.

"The UFO was in view for approximately 10 minutes, according to the report, and was motionless the whole time.

"Mr. Karaiskos concludes: 'The object was definitely not a balloon nor a blimp. My first logical explanation was that it was a vapor trail. This theory was dispelled as it was too low in the sky to be a vapor trail, and it retained its shape for 10 minutes. A vapor trail would have scattered in a few minutes. It is the firm belief of myself and my wife that it was not any known object.'

"If the angular altitudes and azimuths given were absolutely dependable -- and they are not -- it might be possible to discover the object's actual size, distance, arid height. It must have been huge - - several hundred feet in diameter - - to have been seen over such a wide area. Using the times and descriptions of all three groups of observers, it is possible to work out a continuous change-of-phase pattern for the UFO (see diagram). This apparent change in shape and size could have been due to a disc turning vertically in flight and presenting its edge to the observers. Or it may have been a real alteration... Whatever the explanation, it is evident that eight persons did see a UFO -- an extraordinary UFO - - from three different areas around the same time..."


Click here for better drawing

OHIO: OCTOBER 2, 1955
1. Ansley; driving west and north of Alliance
2. Barker; driving northwest toward Alliance
3. Karaiskos; driving west in Akron

Addenda
Later two additional reports for the same date were uncovered. Mrs. Albert Fanty, and her mother Mrs. Della Burroway of Uhrichsville (south of Akron and southwest of Alliance) reported two UFO sightings during the day.

In the morning, Mrs. Burroway saw seven disc-shaped objects bunched together at high altitude. About 1:00 p.m., Mrs. Fanty arrived for a visit. As her mother described the discs seen earlier, they searched the sky. Then they saw three or four silvery objects traveling at high speed in an irregular line. Shortly afterwards, the air was filled with 'fine silken-like silver cobwebs which floated everywhere,' Mrs. Fanty said. [53]

1956: Los Angeles, California; about 1:50 p.m., December 27, three silvery, spherical UFOs were observed by Jack Telaneus, a Real Estate Investor. Chancing to look up, Telaneus noticed the objects at about 60 degrees moving westerly. The sides of the UFOs toward the sun were reflecting sunlight brightly; the other sides were shadowed. The objects moved on a slightly rising course. Two did not alter their velocity, but one reversed direction, seemed to speed up, and headed back toward the east. All three objects moved out of sight in the distance after about two minutes. [54]

1957: Toronto, Ontario, Canada; On the night of August 1, a hovering UFO was observed by many residents and a telescopic view of it broadcast on television. One of the witnesses was Eric Aldwinckle, a professional artist, who reported the sighting to NICAP. At 9:10 p.m., Aldwinckle saw the brilliant orange-yellow object, appearing as a sizeable light source, and studied it carefully for 20 minutes. In the center were two adjoining oblong orange lights, and these were surrounded by a paler yellow glow. The UFO then began moving toward the northwest, climbing "upward and outward" at "great speed" (estimated 2000 m.p.h.) [55]

1958: Nantucket Channel, Mass.; Joseph Gwooz, Master of the S S. Nantucket, reported an October 7 sighting to NICAP (quoting from the ship's log): "Time 1455 (2:55 p.m. E.D.T.), entrance Nantucket Channel, while outbound from Nantucket for Martha's Vineyard, Woods Hole and New Bedford. Sighted unknown object hovering in the sky, estimated height 8,000 to 10,000 feet at an angle of about 160 degrees. Object remained stationary for a minute or more, then shot up and away to the N.E. and disappeared out of sight at a rapid rate of speed. Color of object grayish. Oval Shape." A sketch with the report shows an object approximately 2-1/2 times as long as its central width. [56]

1959: Henderson, Nevada; Ed D. Arnold and Berdell S. Haycock, security officers for a metal company, watched a formation flight of four elliptical UFOs about 7:45 p.m., June 11. While on duty at the plant, Arnold noticed the objects and pointed them out to Haycock, who confirmed the sighting. The objects were silvery-white and moving slowly from WSW to ENE, remaining visible about 5 minutes. Arnold, a former Navy air identification and anti-aircraft gunnery control officer, said the UFOs changed formation twice before disappearing. When first observed, the objects were in a circular pattern. "They changed from circular formation to in-line formation, held for two minutes, then back to a circular formation," Arnold stated. During the formation changes, two of the objects dipped slightly below the others. Arnold estimated that the UFOs were about 100 feet long and 25-30 feet in diameter, assuming they were within two miles distance. [57]

1960: Intervale, N.H.; At 8:53 p.m., February 3, William M. Kendrick (former PT Boat Commander) spotted three lighted objects traveling in an in-line formation. The first two were yellow-orange, the third brighter and pulsating from red to orange. As Kendrick continued to watch, the bright UFO appeared to launch a fourth object which joined the formation, which then moved quickly out of sight behind Mt. Washington and Mt. Adams. (Next night, three UFOs were seen near East Madison, N.H., traveling in line, about 7:00 p.m. The third object pulsated from yellow to bright red). [581

1961: Blue Ridge Summit, Penna.; Mrs. James W. Annis, librarian, in the early afternoon of June 4 noticed a large, narrow elliptical object hovering low in the sky to the north. Farther to the east, a cluster of smaller objects hovered. The UFOs were just above treetops on the visible horizon. Mrs. Annis then saw the smaller objects "streak across the sky to the large one." All of the UFOs quickly moved out of sight behind trees to the NNW. Mrs. Annis said the UFOs "were extremely faster than any aircraft I have observed." The weather was clear, with bright sunlight shining on the objects from behind the observer. The large UFO "appeared like the flat end of a clam shell, seen in profile [i.e., elliptical]." [59]

1962: Pompano Beach, Fla.; Mrs. Elizabeth Scott, a house wife and college graduate, saw a hovering cigar-shaped object May 18. The UFO was first noticed about 7:00 p.m. in the northwest sky. The underside was brilliantly lighted, the top dark. For about 9 minutes, the object remained motionless." Then it moved very slowly south for 30 seconds, and then speeded up and disappeared into the southwest very rapidly," Mrs. Scott reported. As it sped away, the lighted underside dimmed suddenly. When it accelerated, it moved "like a flash of lightning," she said. [60]

71

Law Enforcement Officers
1. Teletype report and letter on file at NICAP
2. Reports obtained by Cleveland and Akron UFO groups, on file at NICAP
3-6. Reports on file at NICAP
7. Saturday Evening Post; April 30, 1949. Popular Science; August 1951
8. Seattle Times; July 7, 1947
9. Associated Press; July 28, 1952
10. International News Service; August 28, 1952
11. Washington Times-Herald and Washington ____________ September 22, 1952
12. Los Angeles Daily News; September 15, 1953
13. Associated Press; November 1, 1955
14. Associated Press; November 26, 1956
15. Chicago Sun Times; November 5, 1957
16. Chicago Sun Times; November 8, 1957
17. Hammond Times; November 11-13, 1957
18. Santa Ana Register; April 10, 1958
19. Bergen Evening Record; August 25, 1958
20. Chicago Daily News; October 13, 1958
21. Report on file at NICAP

Civil Defense, Ground Observer Corps.
22. Stringfield, Leonard H.; Inside Saucer Post... 3-0 Blue. (Privately published, 1957; 4412 Grove Avenue, Cincinnati, Ohio), p.26
23. Tape recorded report on file at NICAP
24. Keyhoe, Donald E., Flying Saucer Conspiracy (Holt, 1955), p.30
25. C.R.I.F.O. Newsletter, L.H. Stringfield, Ed.; July 2, 1954 (See address above)
26. Ibid., September 1955.
27. Des Moines Register; November 24, 1955
28. San Bernardino Telegram; July 30, 1956
29. Haverhill Gazette; November 6, 1957
30. El Paso Times November 24, 1957
31. United Press International, July 26, 1958

Professional and Business Men
32-39. Reports on file at NICAP

Public Officials
40-43. Reports on file at NICAP

Professors and Teachers
44-45. Reports on file at NICAP

Clergymen
46-48. Reports on file at NICAP

Newsmen
49. Associated Press; July 10, 1947
50. Scripps-Howard newspapers; August 2, 1952

Cross-Section
51. Report on file at NICAP
52. Las Vegas Sun; April 22, 1954
53. Uhrichsville Evening Chronicle; October 6, 1955
54-60. Reports on file at NICAP

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Section VIII, Special Evidence (pages 73-103)
NICAP Home Page