The Air Force, to its lasting regret, got in on the ground floor of the UFO phenomenon. USAF and the

UFOs By John T. Correll

he Unidentified Flying Object (UFO) era began with a bang on the afternoon of June 24, 1947, in the Cascade mountain range of TWashington state. Private pilot Ken- neth Arnold, bound for Yakima in his light airplane, was approaching Mount Rainier when nine disk-shaped objects, flying in formation, shot by in front of him. The disks resembled “saucers skip- ping across water,” Arnold said, flashing in the sun as they flitted between the high peaks. He timed them as they sped from Mount Rainier to Mount Adams and estimated that they were moving at 1,700 mph. When Arnold landed, he told friends at the airport what he had seen. Word spread rapidly and “before the night was over, I was receiving telephone calls from all parts of the world,” he said. In

Illustration by Zaur Eylanbekov

68 AIR FORCE Magazine / June 2011 the next six weeks, 850 additional sight- The story would lie dormant for 30 Grudge and then Project Twinkle before ings of flying disks were reported, no years before rising again to become the settling down as Project Blue Book in doubt inspired by Arnold’s story, which most famous UFO incident of them all. 1952. Capt. Edward J. Ruppelt, the first received prominent play in newspapers. The Air Force, to its lasting regret, director of Blue Book, introduced the In the spring 1948 issue of Fate, a got in on the ground floor of the UFO term “Unidentified Flying Object” as magazine devoted to the paranormal, phenomenon. The Pentagon, worried more accurate than “flying saucer.” An Arnold called the disks “flying saucers.” that what Arnold saw might be some kind astronomer named J. Allen Hynek joined He is often credited with coining the of secret Soviet reconnaissance craft, the program as a technical consultant. term, but the term had appeared previ- directed the Air Technical Intelligence Hynek would go on to become a famous ously. “RAAF Captures Flying Saucer Center at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, figure in the world of UFOs. in Roswell Region,” proclaimed the to investigate. In 1952, there were 1,225 sightings front page headline of the Roswell, The scientific consensus was that Ar- to investigate. By then, two notions had N.M., Daily Record for July 8, 1947, nold had seen an inversion of refracted taken hold. UFO buffs, suspicious of the just two weeks after Arnold’s sighting light—commonly known as a mirage— Air Force, were convinced that UFOs in the Cascades. “RAAF” was Roswell but the frenzy was not to be contained. were of extraterrestrial origin and that Army Airfield, and the “flying saucer” The Air Force was stuck. Previously, the government was lying about them. was wreckage from a crash in the desert no government agency had been in Several books appeared, notably Fly- 75 miles north of the base. charge of such things and none now ing Saucers From Outer Space (1953) There was a flurry of interest, but wanted to take it off USAF’s hands. The by Donald E. Keyhoe, a retired Marine it faded quickly when the Air Force Air Force effort to collect and evalu- Corps major and the soon to be leader announced the debris was from a high- ate flying saucer data began in 1947 of NICAP, the National Investigations altitude weather balloon experiment. as Project Sign, evolved into Project Committee on Aerial Phenomena. UFO

AIR FORCE Magazine / June 2011 69 with a kitchen scouring pad National Academy of Sciences endorsed and four knitting needles. the Condon report, but UFO true believers It demonstrated that each denounced it. landing leg would have had In December 1969, the Air Force an- to be of a different length, nounced with barely concealed relief the each extending out and end of Project Blue Book. Of the 12,618 down at a different angle, sightings reported since 1947, only 701 with the craft perched awk- were categorized as “unidentified,” and wardly above. In addition to most of those were cases where the his duties at the magazine, available information was not sufficient Klass wrote four books on for analysis. The records of Blue Book UFOs, explaining that many were shipped off and archived. sightings could be explained Nevertheless, the Air Force continued by plasmas, ball lightning, to draw sporadic fire on the UFO issue. coronas, and saucer-shaped In 1974, a UFOlogist accused the Air clouds. Force of keeping two saucers and 12 In 1966, 87 students at alien bodies from a saucer crash in New Hillsdale College in Michi- Mexico in Hangar 18 at Wright-Patterson gan saw UFOs in flight from Air Force Base. their dormitory windows. However, there is no Hangar 18 at Michigan Rep. Gerald R. the base. Reporters were invited to tour Ford demanded a “full- Building 18, which housed the Aero blown” investigation by Propulsion Laboratory, but no UFOs or the House Armed Services aliens. Concurrently, Sen. Barry Gold- Anthropomorphic dummies such as Committee. Being the House minority water complained that the Air Force had these were used in high-altitude balloon leader, Ford got his investigation but denied him access to a “Blue Room” at crash testing over White Sands Proving it lasted only an hour and 20 minutes, Wright-Patterson where UFO artifacts Ground, west of Roswell. long enough to take statements from were supposedly stored. stories were regular fare not only in the the Secretary of the Air Force and Blue Meanwhile, Hynek, a regular spokes- sensationalist tabloids but also in the Book officials. man for Project Blue Book since its mainstream news media. In 1969, Gov. Jimmy Carter of Georgia, inception, crossed over to the other side, preparing for a speech in the small town declaring his conviction that “the UFO Airmen From Outer Space of Leary, saw a “self-luminous” object in phenomenon is real.” He founded the Twice in the middle 1950s, the govern- the western sky. He reported the elevation Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS), which ment convened outside panels to review angle and other details of his sighting to purchased the NICAP archives when that sightings and investigations. The panels NICAP. What he had seen was the planet organization folded. Hynek served as a agreed that no threat to national security Venus, which that day was in precisely consultant to the 1977 Steven Spielberg from UFOs was uncovered, and there the position Carter specified. Over time, movie, “Close Encounters of the Third was no indication of technology that more than 10 percent of the sightings Kind.” The title came from Hynek’s tax- transcended current scientific knowledge. investigated by Blue Book were gener- onomy of encounters, indicating a sighting It did not help when the Central Intelli- ated by stars, planets, meteors, and other that included creatures or crew on the gence Agency insisted one of the panel bright celestial bodies. UFO (Hynek had a bit part in the film). reports be classified, lest it reveal names Aircraft and balloons also accounted and positions of CIA representatives who for substantial numbers of UFO sightings. Roswell Resurgent attended some of the meetings. According to Klass, an elderly woman The Roswell crash in 1947 had been “UFOlogy” moved into the new re- who said she saw three flying saucers forgotten. It did not appear on a list of the gime of abductions in 1961 when Betty in formation was asked to describe their most important UFO cases published by and Barney Hill of Portsmouth, N.H., appearance. “They looked just like jet NICAP in 1966. Three decades after the were—according to their later hypnotic fighter planes,” she said. fact, however, the story would be resur- regression—taken aboard a UFO and The Air Force finally figured out a rected and developed into the best-known examined. However, for all of the saucer way—or so it thought—to get rid of the UFO incident of all time. sightings, no one had yet seen an actual UFO albatross. In 1966, it engaged the In July 1947, W. W. Brazel had found alien. This first happened in April 1964, University of Colorado to conduct an “a large area of bright wreckage” on his when a police officer in Socorro, N.M., independent investigation, led by noted ranch and reported it to the county sheriff chased a flame in the sky to a mesa south physicist Edward U. Condon. “Our general in Roswell, who passed the information to of town where an egg-shaped craft landed conclusion is that nothing has come from Maj. Jesse Marcel, an intelligence officer and two strange figures got out. The craft the study of UFOs in the past 21 years at the airfield. Marcel and an assistant roared away as he approached but the land- that has added to scientific knowledge,” drove to the ranch and picked up the ing gear left indentations in the ground. Condon reported in 1968. “Careful con- wreckage, which Marcel took to Eighth Among those studying the evidence sideration of the record as it is available Air Force headquarters at Fort Worth, from Socorro was Philip J. Klass, a to us leads us to conclude that further Tex., for examination. senior editor of Aviation Week. Based extensive study of UFOs probably can- Meanwhile, the base public information on the wedge-shaped depressions left not be justified in the expectation that officer, Lt. Walter G. Haut, delivered a on the mesa, Klass built a scale model science will be advanced thereby.” The press release to the local newspapers and 70 AIR FORCE Magazine / June 2011 radio stations, saying the base had gained restal’s suicide in 1949 was a cover story partner opened the International UFO possession of a “flying disk.” Only two and “the reason for his murder was that Museum in Roswell. Haut was the first weeks had elapsed since Kenneth Arnold’s he was no longer trusted by those within head of the museum. He and his wife saucer sighting in the Cascades. The the security services who had control over had car tags that read, “Mr. UFO” and Associated Press picked up the Roswell the captured saucer,” according to Rupert “Mrs. UFO.” story and inquiries poured in from all Matthews in his 2009 book, Roswell: Although it was not apparent at the over the world. Uncovering the Secrets of Area 51 and time, matters were approaching reso- At Eighth Air Force, weather officer the Fatal UFO Crash. lution. In 1993, Rep. Steven Schiff of Irving Newton identified the debris as parts The Majestic 12 story had several New Mexico made inquiries about the of a high-altitude balloon and a metallic weaknesses. The typewriter used for the Roswell incident. Careless handling of target that helped radar track the balloon 1947 document was a Smith Corona model his questions by the Pentagon prompted assembly in flight. Photos were taken and that did not exist until 1962. Formats and him to conclude he was getting the run- announcements made. The news media date styles were wrong for the period. around so he called for an investigation lost interest and the case lay dormant The National Archives acknowledged the by the GAO (then the General Account- for 31 years. third document was in its files but did not ing Office, since renamed Government In 1978, UFO researcher Stanton Fried- know how it got there. The document did Accountability Office). Since the GAO man discovered Jesse Marcel in Houma, not have a register number and it bore a reported to Schiff’s Government Opera- La., where he had retired and was running National Security Council marking that tions Committee, he got swift attention. a radio-TV repair shop. Marcel said that did not come into use until the Nixon The Air Force heard about the in- in 1947, he had been ordered not to talk Administration. vestigation from the newspapers and about the true nature of the debris, which decided to move on its own. This time, he described as “nothing from this Earth.” The Undertaker’s Story USAF pulled out all the stops, digging In the photographs, phony wreckage In the summer of 1947, Glenn Dennis deep into old records and hunting down was substituted for the actual materials. was an apprentice mortician at Ballard persons, long retired, who had taken Among the items not revealed, he said, Funeral Home in Roswell, which had a part in events of many years ago. This were wooden beams “with some sort of contract with the air base for mortuary led to lengthy reports (one of them hieroglyphics on them that nobody could and ambulance services. In 1989, he told almost 1,000 pages long) in 1994 and decipher.” his story to Friedman, the same researcher 1997, filled with extraordinary details Marcel’s revelations were reported in who found Jesse Marcel in Louisiana. and photographs of the incidents in and an article in the National Enquirer tabloid Friedman was referred to Dennis by around Roswell. in 1978 and achieved warp speed with the Walter Haut, who had put out the Roswell The wreckage at the Brazel ranch in 1980 publication of The Roswell Incident flying saucer press release in 1947 and July 1947 was the remains of a 60-foot- by Charles Berlitz and William Moore. who said he was “a friend of many, many long train of 23 weather balloons and Berlitz and Moore also recounted UFO years” of Dennis. a cluster of metallic targets to enable crashes elsewhere in the New Mexico Dennis recalled a night in July 1947 tracking by radar. It was launched the desert in 1947 where dead aliens were when he accidentally got close to an previous month from Alamogordo Army seen at the crash sites. The witnesses, autopsy in progress at the Roswell base stumbling upon the scene of the mishap hospital. Before he could learn much of Maj. Jesse Marcel displays the de- bris found northwest of Roswell in by chance, were chased away by military what was going on, a redheaded captain 1947. USAF says the debris is from a personnel before they got a close look. (or, in some versions told by Dennis, a standard radar target used in Project (With only one exception, the “witnesses” redheaded colonel) had him ejected from Mogul. were repeating accounts they had heard the building, but not before from others.) The aliens were hairless, he encountered a nurse friend had pale complexions, wore one-piece who was visibly upset. She silver-gray suits, and had only four fin- had entered a room to get gers on each hand. They were only about supplies and saw two doctors four feet tall. she didn’t know conducting The Roswell story gathered momentum an autopsy on three small, in books, articles, TV specials, and mov- black, mangled bodies, one ies. One of the strangest segments was of them with an exception- the “Majestic 12” episode in 1984-1985. ally large head. The nurse Filmmaker Jaime Shandera received in the disappeared from Roswell mail two rolls of film from an anonymous within a day. Dennis was un- sender. They held images of two docu- able to get in touch with her ments from 1947 and 1952 in which the despite attempts to help by White House appointed 12 individuals the chief nurse, Capt. “Slatts” (the “Majestic 12”) to guard the secrets Wilson, who was known to of Roswell. Shandera and a colleague them both. He remembered “discovered” a third document, dated in “Slatts” as unusually tall, 1954 and confirming the first two, in the 6 feet 1 inch or taller. The National Archives. missing nurse became part Among the Majestic 12 was Secretary of the UFO canon. of Defense James V. Forrestal. In the In 1991, Glenn Dennis, interpretation of some UFOlogists, For- Walter Haut, and a third AIR FORCE Magazine / June 2011 71 Sam” crash test dummies was not removed because of something used in high-altitude bal- she had seen. loon drops over White In 1996, Glenn Dennis succeeded Sands Proving Ground Walter Haut as head of the International west of Roswell. As seen UFO Museum in Roswell. The cur- in the photos in the USAF rent director is Haut’s daughter, Julie reports, the dummies were Shuster. The museum attracts about hairless, chalky pale, wore 150,000 visitors a year, and a second silvery one-piece suits, and UFO museum has opened in town. Lamp were often shortened by posts, street signs, and shops display an loss of arms, legs, and fin- alien motif with bubble heads and big gers from landing damage. eyes. The annual UFO festival over the Former undertaker Den- July 4 weekend is one of New Mexico’s nis may likewise have time- premier tourist attractions. shifted and jumbled events Suspicions about Roswell never die. In that he did not understand, 2007, when running for the Democratic perhaps combining bits nomination for the presidency, New and pieces of unrelated Mexico Governor (and former Secretary things that happened over of Energy) Bill Richardson promised, if a spread of 12 years or elected, he would work on reopening so. In 1956, a KC-97 air- the files on a case that had never been craft crashed near Walker adequately explained. (formerly Roswell AAF) UFO country in the southwestern AFB, N.M. The autopsy United States includes the Air Force’s of three of the casualties fabled Area 51, a classified development The aeroshell of a NASA Voyager, was performed at Ballard area on the shore of the Groom Lake shown here being prepared for a high- Funeral Home where Dennis worked, salt flat in Nevada. UFOlogists claim altitude test flight. Space probes, such not at the base, and was performed by the crashed saucer from Roswell was as this one, suggest a “flying saucer” two out-of-town specialists. The bodies taken there and the Air Force uses the shape common among UFO sightings. were badly burned, black and mangled, site to reverse engineer UFOs and hold and shortened by the loss of lower meetings with extraterrestrials. UFO Airfield (now Holloman AFB, N.M.) as extremities. The hospital commander sightings have been reported around part of the “Project Mogul” program to at the time was a redheaded colonel, the perimeter. develop a capability for high-altitude Lee Ferrell. Among the aircraft tested at Groom monitoring of Soviet nuclear tests. The In 1959, two pilots were injured in a Lake were the SR-71 Blackbird, the objective of this particular flight was balloon gondola accident northwest of F-117 stealth fighter, and the B-2 stealth to perfect the handling and use of large Roswell and were treated at the Walker bomber, which looks something like a balloon trains. Air Force Base hospital. The “alien” saucer if seen from certain angles. The with the big head may have been Capt. UFO reports “made it easier to conceal Big Balloons and Bald Aliens Dan D. Fulgham, whose head was so what we were doing,” says one Area 51 The USAF report included statements swelled by hematoma that he could not old-timer. “We were the UFOs.” from the two scientists who launched open his eyes and his wife did not im- Polls find more than half of the adult the balloon train and photos of it on mediately recognize his face. The team American population believes the gov- the ground and in the air. There were leader on the scene was Capt. Joseph W. ernment is concealing information about also statements from the assistant who Kittinger Jr., who had red hair. UFOs. Almost half of the public believes accompanied Jesse Marcel to the crash The Air Force accounted for all of that aliens have visited the Earth. site and from the weather officer who the nurses who had been at Roswell. Last year, seven former Air Force of- identified the debris at Eighth Air “Slatts” Wilson may have been another ficers, including the former deputy base Force headquarters, as well as photos composite. The only nurse known as commander from RAF Bentwaters in of Marcel and others with samples of “Slatts” was Capt. (later Lt. Col.) Lucille England, held a news conference at the the wreckage. Slattery, who did not arrive until after National Press Club in Washington to The “hieroglyphics” were easily the July 1947 crash and who was 5 feet 3 tell about UFO visits to Air Force bases. explained. The radar targets were pro- inches, not 6 feet 1 inch or taller. There They said that in 1967, UFOs disabled duced by a firm that also made toys. was a nurse Wilson, but her first name ICBMs at Malmstrom AFB, Mont. Their The manufacturer used some in-stock was Idabelle and she had never heard program was mostly a pastiche of stories plastic tape on which were pink and of Dennis or the events he reported. that had been told before. purple geometric designs and flower The only nurse who left Roswell on Nobody paid them much attention. and heart symbols. short notice went to San Antonio for Perhaps, in the context of the world today, Reports of the short four-fingered special medical treatment, which led there are more disturbing and important aliens at the other crash sites may to her eventual medical retirement. She things to worry about than UFOs. n have sprung from events glimpsed at a distance in the 1950s, not in 1947 as John T. Correll was editor in chief of Air Force Magazine for 18 years and is now the witnesses said. The “dead aliens” a contributing editor. His most recent article, “The Poltava Debacle,” appeared in resembled anthropomorphic “Sierra the March issue. 72 AIR FORCE Magazine / June 2011