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.
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
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
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 theUnited States Washington or New York ,’ he predicted, ‘probably Washington
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
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The
Pentagon (2008), Arlington ,
Virginia
(wikimedia.org photo)
