- Note - Thanks again to Frank Arnold for sending us another
interesting, historical UFO news story. It is important to note the national
wave of UFO sightings reported below were occurring at the exact time of
the Roswell event/s. -ed
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- SAN FRANCISCO, July
7th - Military aircraft hunted the skies over Pacific Coast states today
for the "mysterious flying saucers" that for 12 days have puzzled
the entire country.
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- Early reports of results were negative.
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- Five P-51s of the Oregon National Guard cruised over
the Cascade Mountains of Washington-the area where the strange objects
were first reported. A sixth circled over Portland in constant radio contact
with the other five. All carried photographic equipment.
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- Col. G. R. Dodson, commanding, described their flight
as a "routine patrol," but said they had been instructed to watch
for the "flying discs."
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- At Manhattan Beach California, W Mckeivey took a Mustang
fighter plane up above Van Nuys. For two hours he cruised 35000 feet, but
"didn't see a thing."
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- Gen. Carl Spaatz, commandant of the Army Air Forces,
was on a Pacific Northwest fishing trip. He denied knowing anything about
the flying discs-or of plans to use AAF planes to look for them.
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- JET FIGHTER SET
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- "I've been out of touch with things for four or
five days," he said.
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- Louis E. Starr, national commander-in-chief of the Veterans
of Foreign Wars, yesterday in Columbus O., said he understood Spaatz had
a "group out right now" looking for discs.
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- At Muroc Army Airfield in California a P-80 jet fighter
stood ready to take off the moment any flying saucers are seen in that
area.
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- A cautious attitude marked both military and scientific
comments, but Capt. Tom Brown of the Air Forces Public Relations Staff
in Washington had acknowledged the Air Forces had decided"there's
something to this" and had been checking up on it for 10 days.
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- SEEN IN 36 STATES
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- First sighted June 25th, and greeted with scornful laughs,
the objects have been reported every day since by observers in 36 states.
Most of the objects were reported July 4th. A few were reported yesterday.
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- Such competent observers as airline pilots say they have
seen totally unexplained discs or saucers, larger then aircraft and flying
in "loose formation" at high speeds.
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- David Lilienthal, chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission
said they had nothing to do with "atomic experiments," and Army
and Navy officials also entered positive disclaimers.
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- Newspaper stories quoting an unidentified California
Institute of Technology scientist saying the phenomenon might have something
to do with experiments in " transmutation of atomic energy" caused
a brief sensation late yesterday. The institute quickly denied the report.
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- Reports generally agreed the objects were either round
or oval. Estimates of their speed ranged from about 300 to 1200 mph. They
were described as flying with an undulating motion at heights of 10,000
feet and less. Some described them as glowing, or luminous.
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- Nova hart, a ST Louis mechanic who was trained during
service in the war to spot all types of aircraft, said he saw one of the
strange objects near Pattonville yesterday. It was flying at 300 ft, he
said.
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- He described as circular, with a ribbed framework and
silver in color. Hart said it appeared to have a motor with a propeller
attached to the center, and it kept turning like an airplane doing a slow
roll.
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- First published reports occurred June 25th. Kenneth Arnold,
Boise Ida., businessman pilot, told of seeing nine of the discs flying
in formation at 1200 mph over the Cascade Mountains in Washington.
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- SEEN BY 200
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- Arnold's account was taken lightly.Various explanations
were offered-"reflections," "persistent vision," "snow
blindness."
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- Soon afterward other individuals-in New Mexico, Missouri,
California and other states-reported they had also seen the flying objects.
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- Then on Independence Day, 200 persons in one group and
60 in another saw them in Idaho. Hundreds of others in Oregon, Washington
and other Western states reported seeing them.
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- July 4th also brought the first reports east of the Mississippi.
Since then they have been reported seen in widely separated sections of
the country in 36 states in all.
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