Aliens On Earth.com Resources for those who are stranded here Our Bookstore is OPEN Over 5000 new & used titles, competitively priced! Topics: UFOs - Paranormal - Area 51 - Ghosts - Forteana - Conspiracy - History - Biography - Psychology - Religion - Crime - Health - Geography - Maps - Science - Money - Language - Recreation - Technology - Fiction - Other - New Search... for keyword(s)   in Page Titles in Book Title/Author in Contents of Pages ---other searches--- Metacrawler Yahoo FAST Search Google Altavista Dogpile Inference Find Northern Light IWon.com MSN Search Las Vegas Sun Location: Mothership -> UFO -> Updates -> 1997 -> Jun -> 1947, Era of Confusion

UFO UpDates Mailing List

From: jan@cyberzone.net (Jan Aldrich)
Date: Tue, 03 Jun 1997 12:07:36 -0700
Fwd Date: Tue, 03 Jun 1997 19:55:28 -0400
Subject: 1947, Era of Confusion

The best overall book still available on the general
situation in 1947 is:

UFOs A History:  1947 by Loren Gross.  It is not new.
So some things are out of date.

It is still available from Arcturus.  It is written from
a historian's point of view.  I recommend it highly as an
introduction.  Several times Arcturus has tried to publish
Gross' complete history series.  The interest is about zero.
Arcturus still has the booklets from 1949-1951.  Sadly he
can't give them away.

Generally, I would say the less people know about this era,
the more confidently they speak about the situation.  Ruppelt
called it the Era of Confusion.  Understatement if there
ever was one.

There are plenty of myths or touchstones in the UFO field.  It
borders on sacrilege to question any of them.  However, here is
one.  Ruppelt said he estimated he got 10% of the reports in the
United States.  This was off the top of his head and part of the
absolutely >!*MEANINGLESS STATISTICS*!< (if I could put this in
six inch letters I would) put out by the Air Force , the Air
Ministry and scientists who should and do know better.  In 1952
Ruppelt's had data that indicated this was incorrect.

For 1947 the Air Force list 122 incidents in Project Blue Book
files.  After surveying 40% of the North American newspapers for
about 21 days the official cases are less the 4% of the known
cases.

If the finding rate continued in the other 60% of North
American newspapers, the Air Force percentage of reports would
fall below 2% of the reports in the newspapers.  Of course, some
newspaper from ample evidence, I have collected, would have
nothing to do with UFOs.  And many people did not report
their sightings.  Officials were basing their decissions
on less than 5% and more probably 1% or 2% of the available
data.  Statistics cut both ways don't they. <g>

When you are dealing with phenomena seen by chance observation,
you need all the data you can get because a high percentage
of your data will be considered useless.

Despite post to the contrary the military does not speak with
one voice on this subject in the early part of this wave.
Sometimes one spokesman will contradict another.  High ranking
officers were all over the map as were personnel from other
agencies.

The military did not make an concerted effort to gain control
of the situation or speak with one voice until after Ramey's press
conference.  Some military UFO reports found in the press are not
in official files.

Many hoaxes during this period are not in Project Blue Book files.
About the 10th of July two boys in Twins Fall, Idaho make a flying
disc and drop it near a house.  It is reported widely in the
press and the FBI steppedin to investigate.  The hoaxers
confessed and the fake disc is turned over to the Army
at Fort Douglas, Utah.

Even though the military took possession of the object there
is nothing about it in Project Blue Book files.  A number of
cases which caused worldwide attention are also not mentioned
in the Project Blue Book files.  (If it wasn't in the Dayton,
Ohio newspaper or if one of the local military posts did not
investigate it, it did get noticed. <g>)

The FBI was quick off the mark to investigate a number of cases;
unlike the lagging military.

After the 4th of July weekend, the biggest sky watch since the
Aircraft Warning Service shut down in May of 1944 began.  People
were out all over the place look for "flying discs."  The mayor
of Hartford, Connecticut, made national new by telling everyone
to get back to work.

Balloons are a big part of this era.  There are weather bureau
and other civilian agencies launching balloons on a regular
schedule.  (Usually two a day at 0600 and 1800.)
Army Field Artillery and Air Defense launch balloon
for firings, but the meteorological sections of these units also
exchange weather observations with other services and agencies.
Beside Mogul, Princeton was working on high altitude balloons.
The Weather Bureau records were not helpful.  There was probably
a major weather research project going on at the time.  There were
over 100 pibal stations in AAF, Col. McCoy did not get a complete
list until 1948.

There were also a lot of surplus balloons and other devices
like moored balloons on the surplus market.  Later, in
September 1947, the Civil Aviation Administration would asked
the war surplus administration to stop selling weather balloons.

There were flood in the Missouri area, and there must have been
an increased sounding schedule as weather instruments were coming
down all over the state of Missouri.  The Circleville, Ohio,
incident was just one of over a hundred radar target,
radiosondes, and pibals found around the country.  Many were
headlined as "flying discs," but unlike Circleville, they did
not make it into the national news.

An easy local news story was for the local reporter to go out
with a photographer to the weather station and report on the
balloon release.  However the General Yates head of the Weather
Service said his balloons were not responsible for the furor.
*After* General Ramey's press conference, the Army and the Navy
invited press and wire services to balloon releases and they
became national stories along with a debunking story that
generally was under the headline of "Army, Navy Take Steps to
Still Saucer Rumors."

Also, following fast on the heals of various rewards totaling
$3000, all kinds of crude hoax discs were found around the
country.

Capsule:

24 June  Kenneth Arnold's sighting.

25 June  First reports reach the press and Associated Press
carries the story that appears in mostly western newspapers.

26 June  AP, UP, INS all carry stories on Arnold which appear
all around the country.  Other UFO stories also come out.

27 Jun-3 Jul Sighting continues.  Lots of foolish enters:
Wire story about beer bottle cap, comments in the press about
saucers with cups on them, or saucer sighters are in their
cups.  Various official statements mostly skeptical and
several which are contradictory.  Howard Blakeslee, AP Science
Editor writes his first debunking article.  AAF spokesman
in Washington, DC says AAF not interested.

4-6 July, Independence weekend.  United Airlines sighting
by Captain Smith.  Numerous other sightings. The Coast
Guard photograph.  Twining tells Dave Johnson he is
interested and wants reports.  Wright Field spokesman
echos this to INS.  Some National Guard and later CAP
and private fliers organize air patrols for discs.

7 July probably the peak of serious interest.  Blakeslee's
second article on the fictious "Laws of Eyesight."  Many of
the weekend reports are detailed.  Flying "Yo-Yo" hoax tale
comes out of Bozeman, Montana and is carried world wide.
First rewards offered for flying discs.  "Flying pancake"
is suggested widely as disc explanation.  Balloon start being
seen in local press stories.  Also, searchlights are reported
by many as flying discs.

8 July Foolishness start to get the upper hand.  International
story branding the Bozemen flying yo-yo as a hoax.  Most of
the newspapers that carry Hal Boyle print his first story about
being kidnapped by a Martain.  Boyle's two humor stories have big
influence and appear in over 1,000 newspapers.  After this story
many people, especially women, feel compelled to discuss there
drinking habits when reporting UFOs.  The first reports of Roswell
in the western press.  "Dust mote" theory gets big play from a
number of scientists and a military doctor in Germany.
DeWitt Miller suggest ET saucers in an article on historical
sightings carried worldwide.

9 July  This is about the center point for coverage of the
the picture of the catholic priest with the circular saw
blade.  Hal Boyle's second column appears in many papers.
Roswell--many times married up with reports of Ramey's
press conference appear. Foolish is at its height pushing
out good stories.  At 1:00 p. m. local time reporters are
watching the release at Alamogrodo of a balloon.  This is
not widely reported and not until the next day in most cases.

10-11 July  Reports on wire services showing Army and Navy
balloon releases.  The wire service storys nearly end except
for foreign and humor stories.  Bloecher ceases his newspaper
search around these dates.  Local press reports continue.
"Rumor" story.  Hoax discs in Hollywood and Twin Falls widely
reported.  (Sort of the Coup de Grace of press coverage.)

12-15 July.  Press accounts rapidly fall off.  The 15th was
the limit for Barry Greenwood's searches.  Generally this was
my limit East of the Mississippi River.  South American
stories are reported.  Overseas report seem to increase.
4th Air Force gets around to interviewing Arnold.

16-20 July  Reports are down to two or three a day.  On the
19/20 Blakeslee third articles as a rap-up appears.  He
predicts that the flying saucer will become a huge folklore
in America.

29 July  Second United Airline sighting which is mostly reported
in the west.

31 July-7 August The Muary Island story/AAF crash is reported in
newspaper mostly in the west.  Muary Island was reported in June
by Reuter, but that was only overseas.  The story was not well
known in the US until these dates.

August 8  LTC Springer discussed with the coverage of case and
the crash tells the press that UFO investigations are at an end.
The story is carried worldwide, but says that the AAF has
drop all investigations.  Springer writes apolligies to the Air
Defence Command and AMC, but he or no military correct the
press story.


Now do you notice any debunking campagne using weather balloons
prior to 9 July?  I didn't.  Neither did Bloecher nor did
Gross. There are indeed stories about balloons and theories
about balloons, but not an official effort to debunk UFOs
as balloons.  Yates' statement is completely out line with
an such alledged campaign.

Jan Aldrich
Project 1947