26 February 1951
(The Times-News, Hendersonville, North Carolina)
The whole article:
“Dr. Anthony O. Marrachi [sic] (Mirarchi), former Air
Force scientist, urged today that radar and spotter observation posts be set up
to track down flying saucers ‘that may lead to another Pearl Harbor.’
Dr. Mirarchi, who investigated more than 300 reports
of flying saucers as chief of the Air Force’s atmospheric composition bureau of
the Geophysical Research Division in Watertown last year, brushed aside recent
statements by Dr. Urner Liddell, a navy scientist.
He said Liddell’s conclusion that flying saucers
really were plastic balloons sent into the upper atmosphere by the navy for
radiation research ‘does not tell the whole story.’
‘The results of my own investigation,’ he said,
‘indicate that we cannot exclude the possibility that the so-called flying
saucers is the result of experiments by a potential enemy of the United
States.’
‘If they were launched by a foreign power, then they
could lead to a worse Pearl Harbor than we have ever experienced,’ he said.
Dr. Mirarchi urged that a ‘considerable appropriation
be granted the Air Force to set up photographic, radar and spotter tracking
points to study the mysterious phenomena.’
He said he had issued a report to the Air Force on his
findings last year, but did not know whether the inquiry had been continued.
‘The Navy’s report is erroneous. It lulls people into
a false sense of security,’ he added.
Asked about an Air Force statement that more than 500
investigates were made without one bit of concrete evidence to back up reports
of flying saucers, Dr. Mirarchi said, ‘I thought I was the only one making such
an investigation. And as far as I’m concerned, there certainly was evidence to
back up my conclusion.’ ”
NOTE: The newspaper date is 26 February 1951.
(wikimedia.org image)
