Vol. 1, No. 1, 15 July 1952

The Saucer Bandwagon

Publications including Life, Look, Reader's Digest and Argosy are jumping on the "flying saucers are interplanetary" bandwagon by printing articles dealing with what has heretofore been regarded (by them) as a controversial subject, and with the sanction of the Air Force have planted the seed that the saucers could very well be interplanetary or interstellar vehicles.

It seems quite apparent that the government is stepping up its program of slow enlightenment of the American people to the idea that entities of some kind of extra-terrestrial origin have beat us to the punch where space travel is concerned. In our mind, the recent article by Dr. David H. Menzel in the 17 June issue of Look should be taken apart and carefully analyzed. Diligent picking will show that Look, after "looking" long enough, finally dug up a man who does not want the saucers to be what they appear to be, and spent a lot of time to find another feasible answer to the enigma.

It is very probable that the Menzel theory is the answer to a few of the thousands of sightings, but very doubtful that it could be the explanation of many of them. The atmospheric conditions Menzel describes would have to be almost 100% perfect to produce saucer-like light inversions.

Public Apathy Toward Skywatch

The Air Force at the present time seems peeved with the public because of its lack of cooperation in the coming Skywatch program, to be instituted 15 July. The purpose of the watch, according to the paper and the Air Force, is to provide complete protection for the country, filling in where the radar blanket is incomplete.

This sounds all very well to the unpracticed eye, but to anyone who is at all familiar with plane spotting and has had the opportunity to compare the 27 states that the Air Force is most interested in, and the states over which saucers have been most frequently sighted, the fact that the list is the same sticks out like a sore thumb.

Join the Skywatch in your community. Two or three hours a week is little to give to your country, and it may pay off in the dividend of actually seeing a saucer yourself. You can bet if a saucer is sighted by an observation post the information will not be made public. However, if you're on the job, you may chart the course of a saucer after it has been sighted, and thereafter alert anti-aircraft installations along the route.

Some of the things the Air Force evidently hasn't considered, or are too thick-headed to give much thought to, is the rumoured toughness of the skin of the saucers, their high altitude flying rendering them inaccessible to anti-aircraft, and the probable danger involved in shooting down and therefore injuring those who in the past have shown no signs of aggression or hostility. Besides, do they think they'll hold still for that kind of greeting?

The SF editor under FBI surveillance

The rumour that the editor of a science-fiction magazine is in contact with space spies, and because of this is under constant surveillance by the FBI, is an interesting tidbit. Our informant, a well-known man in his vicinity, asserts that this is true, and that said editor will soon have his personal freedom greatly curtailed. One indication that this may be partly true is that there has been a large influx of saucer sightings in the vicinity of that editor's home town since he moved to that location. Of course, names cannot be given for obvious reasons. We are checking.

The Winchell broadcast

The rumour referred to by Walter Winchell and taken up elsewhere in the bulletin could very well have some basis, for many rumours similar to that one have been circulating. The latest relayed to us by a member is to the effect that a saucer of some type had landed in Texas and that people disembarked. At this writing we are still checking.

The Frank Edwards broadcast of 11 April

Frank Edwards, Mutual news analyst sponsored by the AFL, in his 11 April broadcast announced that he has it from the authority of the big brass at the Pentagon (Air Force) that the general belief is that the saucers are extra-terrestrial in origin (this has not been denied), so it must be treated as a rumour.

The astronomer's claim: Mars, Venus, Saturn and Wolf 359

The following rumour was forwarded by a well-known astronomer who in our mind is a fine, honest and intelligent man. We have reason to believe that he is probably as close to contact with the space men as anyone, but his statement to one member was that he had on reliable information that the space-ships come from three planets in our solar system, Mars, Venus and Saturn, and a planet in the Wolf 359 system.

He also said that the men range in size from 3 to 6½ feet in height, depending on where they come from, and are well developed physically and mentally. They can speak the major languages of the world, learned by monitoring our radio broadcasts, and have their own men spotted here and there all over the Earth, undetected by earthmen.

The New York City "space spy" approach

Another member of APRO, residing in New York City, wrote that he has reason to believe that he contacted a "space spy" at an atomic energy exhibit in New York a year ago. He said the man tried to give him some sort of message which he did not comprehend. He is still checking and has had the person under close watch for the past year.

The Wright-Patterson rumour

An Air Force man at Wright-Patterson Field, in a letter to an APRO member in Canada, stated that a rumour making the rounds at the field is that two saucers and the entire occupants of one (intact, but dead) had been brought to the base for examination. The same source says that the bodies are very small, no more than four feet in height, and that the ship was disabled by hitting a power line.

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 7 May 1952

Much has been said about the famous Rio de Janeiro saucer of 7 May, and it is doubtful that the blue-grey object could have been one of Menzel's reflections or a cosmic ray balloon or conventional aircraft, and certainly not hallucination, for the thing was seen by hundreds, and the camera faithfully recorded what was seen.

An INS report printed in many newspapers throughout the country read thusly:

"(INS) 8 May. Pictures of a 'flying saucer' which appeared near the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro were published in the newspaper Diário da Noite. At the scene were two photographers from the newspaper O Cruzeiro. They were at Barra da Tijuca Beach on another assignment Wednesday when they saw what appeared to be an airplane coming toward them. Photographers Ed Keffel and João Martins shot five pictures. The pictures as published show an object appearing somewhat at first like an aircraft coming at them, while they were on the outskirts of Rio. As the contraption neared, it looked like a plane flying sideways. The photographers then said that as it approached closer it was an object, perfectly round, wingless and absolutely noiseless."

Col. Hughes expressed special interest in the photographers' statement that it was noiseless and concerning its tremendous speed. He added: "I have no doubts on the authenticity of the photos taken by Keffel and Martins. There is no trick in them."

Jamestown, North Dakota, Monday night (early July 1952)

JAMESTOWN, N.D. (UP). "Flying saucers" were reported over North Dakota again Monday night. Mr. and Mrs. Carl Hohn, Jamestown, reported they saw a strange object flying very high over Jamestown airport Monday night.

Door County, Wisconsin, 22 May 1952

The flying saucer that brought shivers to the backs of many who observed it. First spotted by a tavern owner at Fish Creek, Wisconsin, at about 9:30 pm, it was offically logged by the Door County Advocate, a semi-weekly newspaper of Sturgeon Bay, 17 miles south of Peninsula State Park.

Editor Chan Harris, on his way to Egg Harbor on a hunch, was 7 miles north of Sturgeon Bay when he heard the saucer report on his car radio (taken from the news source of a Sturgeon Bay station). He turned around and at the corner of Cedar and Third noticed a group of people in front of the Advocate office looking to the northeast. One person was the Director of APRO. (Harris told a representative of the Press Gazette later: "I didn't commit myself until I had called the man at the police transmitter, and had him notify county officers in the northern part of the county.")

The officers, Dan O'Hern of the Door County Police and Harry Londo of the Sturgeon Bay City Police Force, reported back that the thing was at a 60 degree angle northeast of them, but fairly clear. With the aid of a pair of binoculars they observed the object and described it as being almost round with a pair of round, what appeared to be ports, emitting brilliant red light that hurt the eyes when watching them. At Sturgeon Bay the thing was at a 45 degree angle, oval in shape with a red glow along the belly of it. The object was proceeding northeast.

Mr. L. J. Lorenzen, a radio engineer and no slouch at mathematics, made a conservative estimate of about 500 miles per hour for the speed and about 1,500 feet for the altitude. This was widely seized upon by the disbelievers, but he was convinced that what he saw was no illusion. He truly had the know-how to set this kind of flying saucer down on figures.

An interesting sideline on this sighting: as if someone is trying to prove we're nuts up here, a balloon-shaped thing of flimsy plastic composition landed in Sturgeon Bay on Wednesday, 2 July, six weeks after the saucer was seen. No identification marks, just a big blob of plastic full of what looked like bullet holes. Is the Air Force sending out cheap imitations just to lend credence to their hackneyed explanation that the saucers are nothing but big balloons?

J. J. Kaliszewski (General Mills balloon supervisor), October 1951

The 13 April issue of the Milwaukee Journal carried a news story of objects sighted by J. J. Kaliszewski, supervisor of balloon manufacture for the General Mills research laboratories, in October 1951.

He said: "I'm not going to say what they were because I haven't the slightest idea. I can't say there were flying saucers, and I can't say they were space-ships. All I can say is that they were strange. I had never seen them before and, so far as I know, they have never been identified."

Kaliszewski's first sighting was at 10 am on 10 October 1951, about ten miles east of St. Croix Falls, Wisconsin. With Kaliszewski was Jack Donaghue, member of the General Mills flight operation crew. Kaliszewski knew that this object was not a balloon, jet, conventional aircraft or a celestial star.

Kaliszewski's second sighting was made at 6.30 am on 21 October 1951 and he was accompanied at the time by Dick Reilly, crew member. They were flying at 10,000 feet, observing a balloon, when they saw a brightly glowing object to the southwest of the university airport. Kaliszewski and Reilly were a few miles north of Minneapolis and heading east. The object was moving from east to west at a very high rate of speed and very high. They tried keeping the ship on a constant course and using the reinforcing member of the windshield as a point. The object moved past this member at about 5 degrees per second. It seemed to have a halo around it and a dark undersurface.

It crossed rapidly and then slowed down and started to climb in lazy circles slowly. It was like a falling oak leaf inverted. It went through these gyrations for a couple of minutes. Kaliszewski and Reilly watched it for approximately five minutes. They could not describe its size because at the time they did not have the balloon in sight for a comparison.

Shortly after this sighting, Kaliszewski and Reilly saw another saucer which approached from the west and disappeared into the east. It left no vapor trail and neither did the other. The tracking station at the university airport was called and the observers there got a glimpse of the objects, but they couldn't keep the theodolites going fast enough to keep them in the field of their instruments.

Kaliszewski concluded: "I realize the people have been calling such objects flying saucers, and I am not too sure about it. All I can say is that I saw something which I cannot explain." The object he and Reilly had tracked hovered in the sky for approximately one hour and was seen by hundreds of observers across the Minneapolis area.

The above report was one of many that Frank Edwards (the Mutual news analyst) brought forward on his broadcasts and that received little or no play in the conventional press.

Bay Shore Drive, Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, 23 June 1952

At 12 o'clock on the night of 23 June, four young people driving along the Bay Shore Drive just out of Sturgeon Bay observed a brilliant blue light and a red one going through queer manoeuvres in the sky. The persons who made the observation said that the lights, which appeared in the southeast, were hovering together in the sky when they were first spotted, and at minute-and-a-half intervals (they timed them) would separate, go to opposite horizons (northeast and southwest), disappear and then reappear again. This procedure kept up for about twenty minutes, then the lights just "went out".

Members of national headquarters have questioned the witnesses to this phenomena, and as nearly as can be ascertained, the only deviations in the stories of the young people (17, 18, 18 and 19) was that one of them maintained that one light was red and one light white, which can be accounted for by the difference in colour comprehension among different individuals.

Wisconsin firebell, 26 June 1952

A "firebell" seen from Milwaukee and Stevens Point, Wisconsin, has been causing considerable speculation throughout Wisconsin of late. The following, regarding the phenomena, was taken from the Green Bay Press Gazette, 28 June:

"The Milwaukee Astronomical Society, in cooperation with several other groups, is attempting to trace the movement of a fireball reported seen over northern Wisconsin Saturday night at approximately 11 o'clock."

In contacting Mr. Dalbach of the Astronomical Society, the National Director found his analysis of the article, to be a sound one. Mrs. Lorenzen offered the cooperation of APRO in any of the future sightings, and by means of radio and newspaper tried to contact anyone who might have seen the fiery object. This brought no results, and leads one to the conclusion that the firebell was controlled, for it came over Milwaukee from the northeast, and would have passed over the Door Peninsula, and should have been seen by someone in the vicinity. The object was large, as indicated by the fact that it was seen from Stevens Point, which is about 60 miles northwest of the Door Peninsula. The National Director is planning a trip to Milwaukee shortly to confer with Dalbach on several sightings in and around Door County.

Ross Graham, Los Angeles, 30 December 1951

The following was submitted by Ross Graham, APRO member of Burbank, California:

30 December 1951 at 11.30 pm at Venice Blvd. and Flower St. in Los Angeles, I saw a fast-moving blue light flash on and off once only. Speed much greater than airplane, perhaps as much as meteor. Appeared as a line, due to visual persistance. Colour clear intense blue, exactly that of a blue neon tube half a block away, and having noticeable width. The turning on and off was sharp (no fading out).

Length of path (while lit) about 8 degrees (a four-inch pencil held at arm's length, or 27 inches). No curvature of path seen. Apparent angle of path about 30 degrees from horizontal, downward to the right. Direction about southwest and 45 degrees above the horizon. Nothing heard (city noises very low). A subsequent flash would be hidden by buildings if more than about 15 degrees beyond the end of observed flash, and there might have been more than one. Mr. Graham added that the object was banked at a 30 degree angle.

Otto Schopf, Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin

The colour, he said, was aluminium, and Mr. Schopf further described the thing as having the appearance of a lightbulb painted silver, with light shining through. It disappeared out over Lake Michigan.

Harlow Nelson, Sister Bay, Wisconsin, July 1951

In July 1951, Mr. Harlow Nelson of Sister Bay, Wisconsin observed an orange-red fireball going in an easterly direction about noon. The object was round, appeared to be about ten inches in diameter, with glasses, and two inches without. The speed of the object was very fast and the thing was easily seen against a clear blue sky.

Did You Know?

...that on the same day the water tank at Tucumcari, New Mexico exploded (last 13 December) mysterious explosions were felt over Dallas, Texas, and that it was later established that there were no jets in the air to produce shock waves, which have at times been blamed for the mysterious explosions?

Explanation Needed

What became of the "celestial body" seen out in space last summer by astronomers, which, if it kept to its course, would strike Earth? It was judged to be at least 300 miles in diameter. Rumour has it that this "planet" has now been sighted in our own solar system, but due to its "erratic" course could not be a "celestial body" as formerly assumed.

Strange Disappearances

Where is Mr. Beloe of Shawano, Wisconsin who disappeared about 6 weeks ago? Beloe was on his way north of Shawano to deliver a reconditioned car. It's not so hard for a man to disappear, but a car?

What about the two "meteors" that exploded over Seattle lately? No fragments have ever been found. And two of them, yet.

And what about the strange disappearance of the lifeboat full of survivors of the freighter Pennsylvania? A mystery dot on the radar screen was the only clue. It's pretty inconceivable that 15 men and a boat got lost in the short time between the disaster and when aid arrived, especially since aid was almost there. Could the radar "ghost" have been a saucer? We wonder.