UFO News Article: “Pilots Ordered to Shoot Down ‘Saucers’ in Range”

29 July 1952

(The Charleston Gazette, West Virginia)

Source: NICAP.org

The whole article (text written by NICAP.org):

“The Air Force disclosed today that jet pilots are under orders to maintain nationwide 24-hour ‘alert’ against ‘flying saucers’ and to shoot them down if possible.

The Air Force expressed the belief the unidentified flying objects and not a threat to the United States and stated also they are not a secret U.S. military development.

It added, however, that jet pilots are under standing orders to pursue all unidentified flying objects, especially and eastern seaboard, and if necessary, force them to land. The alert is applicable to ‘flying saucers.’

The Air Force admitted, however, that no jet pilot has yet gotten close enough to take a shot at a ‘flying saucer.’ One pilot estimated that he was within five miles of a mysterious light over Washington last weekend, but the light disappeared when he tried to draw close.

The Pentagon issued a statement in an effort to quell public excitement over the latest rash of mysterious objects sighted in the skies.

The USAF insisted that preliminary investigation, including hot aerial pursuit of the mysterious ‘discs,’ indicates that the latest saucer fleet does not constitute a ‘threat’ to this country.

Air Force headquarters stated:

‘During the past few years, more than 1,000 sightings of unidentified flying objects have been reported to the Air Force. Of this number, only a small percent of those received from reliable sources remain unexplained.

‘The remainder of these sightings could be accounted for as misinterpretations of various conventional objects, a mild form of hysteria, meteorological phenomena, or hoaxes.

‘Of the unexplained sightings it can be stated that they appear in haphazard fashion and show no pattern which would indicate that the objects are being controlled by a reasoning body.

‘Due to the recent publicity given to Flying Saucer sightings, a large number of reports have been received by the Air Force during the last few months.

‘Preliminary evaluation of the reports do not indicate that they differ from those received in the past few years or that they actually represent a threat to the United States.

‘Nevertheless, each report is being given a most careful and complete analysis.’ ”

My comment: This article reveals a lot about how high-ranking U.S. Air Force officials viewed the UFO phenomenon in 1952.

First of all – they ordered USAF pilots to try to shoot down UFOs. That means, of course – that the Air Force viewed the UFOs as a threat.

And – we see that they looked down on good, honest Americans – when they said that some of the citizens had a “mild form of hysteria.” The only thing the UFO witnesses had said was that they had observed unknown flying objects.

Every UFO report is “being given a most careful and complete analysis,” the U.S. Air Force said. We have seen what Dr. J. Allen Hynek, Dr. James E. McDonald and other highly respected U.S. UFO researchers have said about the last statement.

http://nicap.org/articles/520729_charleston_gazette_article.pdf

NICAP.org’s comment on the article:

“This is interesting in the light of what Captain Edward J. Ruppelt of Project Blue Book wrote in his book,

THE REPORT ON UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECTS

Excerpt from: http://www.nicap.org/rufo/rufo-12.htm

Edward J. Ruppelt July 1952:

In some aspects the Washington National Sightings could be classed as a surprise - we used this as an excuse when things got fouled up --- but in other ways they weren’t. A few days prior to the incident a scientist, from an agency that I can’t name and I were talking about the build-up of reports along the east coast of the United States. We talked for about two hours, and I was ready to leave when he said that he had one last comment to make - a prediction. From his study of the UFO reports that he was getting from Air Force Headquarters, and from discussions with his colleagues, he said that he thought that we were sitting right on top of a big keg full of loaded flying saucers. ‘Within the next few days,’ he told me, and I remember that he punctuated his slow, deliberate remarks by hitting the desk with his fist, ‘they’re going to blow up and you’re going to have the granddaddy of all UFO sightings. The sighting will occur in Washington or New York,’ he predicted, ‘probably Washington.’ ”

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The Pentagon (2008), Arlington, Virginia

(wikimedia.org photo)