Seaman Harold Dahl was on his boat near Maury Island, in Washington State on June 21, 1947. Dahl and others were scavenging for drifting logs in Puget Sound. The men said that they witnessed "four, five or six doughnut-shaped objects" flying in formation over their boat.
Dahl reported that one of the strange craft appeared to be malfunctioning and began to eject metal debris. The seaman recovered some of the debris, describing it as "sheaves of white, lightweight metal that fluttered down like newspaper".
Mr. Dahl later told FBI investigators that a man wearing a black suit and driving a brand new 1947 Buick invited him to breakfast at a nearby diner the morning after the incident. The seaman said that the stranger issued unspecified threats to Dahl and his family if they reported seeing the flying craft.
Despite the threats from this original member of the "men in black", Dahl told a co-worker about the sighting.
The co-worker's name was Fred Crisman. FBI investigators believe that it was Crisman who began leaking the Maury Island story to the media and shipped some of the debris Dahl recovered to the University of Chicago for study. The story of the mysterious flying objects spread rapidly. FBI and US Army Air Corps investigators quickly arrived on the scene.
Two US Army Air Corps investigators were returning to their base at Hamilton Field, California, bringing with them samples of the debris Dahl recovered. In an odd turn of events, the two investigators were killed when their B-25 crashed shortly after taking off from Tacoma, Washington. Conspiracy theories abounded, including a claim that their B-25 had been shot down by 20mm cannon fire.
There are some reports claiming that Harold Dahl admitted that the Maury Island Incident was a hoax. Dahl disputed those reports, saying that any contradictory statements he made were a result of the threats he had received from the "man in black". The seaman steadfastly maintained that he was attempting to protect his family.
Interestingly, the Maury Island Incident took place just three days before pilot Kenneth Arnold's famous flying saucer sighting near Mt. Ranier, Washington State and twelve days before the alleged UFO crash in Roswell, New Mexico.. Arnold's sighting is the one credited with beginning the modern UFO era. What happened at Roswell continues to be a mystery. The Maury Island Incident remains a hotly disputed argument over whether Dahl and his companions witnessed a flying saucer, a classified early aerospace project or were perpetrating a hoax.
Clyde Tombaugh is best remembered for his discovery of the dwarf planet Pluto on February 18, 1930. Tombaugh also discovered nearly 800 asteroids, mostly during his years working at the Lowell Observatory. The astronomer also had a very active interest in UFOs.
Tombaugh's first brush with extraterrestrial mystery took place on August 27th, 1941, when he reported seeing a bright flash on the surface of Mars. In 1949 he told Commander Robert McLaughlin, the Naval Missile Director at White Sands Missile Range, that he attributed the Martian flash to an atomic blast.
Pluto's discoverer reported witnessing a formation of six to eight rectangular-shaped objects racing across the skies of Las Cruces, New Mexico on August 20th, 1949. Tombaugh did not jump to any extraterrestrial conclusions about this sighting, believing what he witnessed may have been the result of thermal inversion. Nevertheless, the astronomer admitted to being "petrified with astonishment" as he observed the objects in the sky.
Tombaugh also reported witnessing three of the mysterious green fireballs that were frequenting the skies over New Mexico in the late Forties and early Fifties. Once again, the astronomer refused to leap to the conclusion that this phenomenon was the result of visitors from outer space. But he did write that it was actually "unscientific" for reputable scientists to refuse to entertain the possibility that the green fireballs were intelligently controlled craft of extraterrestrial origin.
Tombaugh was quoted in an Associated Press article in 1957 on his sightings and opinion about them. "Although our own solar system is believed to support no other life than on Earth, other stars in the galaxy may have hundreds of thousands of habitable worlds. Races on these worlds may have been able to utilize the tremendous amounts of power required to bridge the space between the stars..." Tombaugh stated that he had observed celestial phenomena which he could not explain, but has seen none personally since 1951 or 1952. "These things, which do appear to be directed, are unlike any other phenomena I ever observed. Their apparent lack of obedience to the ordinary laws of celestial motion gives credence."
Project Blue Book was launched in early 1952. This new effort was a direct result of the dissatisfaction being expressed by several high-ranking USAF generals over the "nuthin' but debunkin'" efforts of Project Grudge. These generals and many others believed that the wave of flying saucer sightings at that time might represent a serious threat and that a sober examination of the phenomena was vital.
Captain Edward J. Ruppelt was the first head of Project Blue Book. Ruppelt streamlined UFO reporting in hopes of eliminating the stigma that was often attached to those who reported sightings. A standard questionnaire was developed that enabled Project Blue Book to compile consistent information that would be subject to statistical analysis. Ruppelt was also given the unprecedented permission to directly interview witnesses and military personnel free of the Air Force chain of command. Astronomer Dr. J. Allen Hynek was also retained to serve as Project Blue Book's scientific advisor.
Ruppelt and his Project Blue Book team were put to the test almost immediately. They were assigned to search for explanations of the mysterious Lubbock Lights and for what came to be know as the Flying Saucer Invasion of Washington DC in July, 1952. Their work received high praise for its seriousness and objectivity.
The ongoing wave of sightings prompted the CIA to form what became known as the Robertson panel to address the rapidly growing public interest in the flying saucer phenomena. The panel held its initial meeting on January 14th, 1952. Strangely, several members of the panel finally recommended that public opinion about flying saucers should be controlled through propaganda and spying. Why? There has been a general mistrust towards official government explanations of UFO sightings for many years in part because of the work of the Robertson panel.
Project Blue Book itself reverted to the old ways of "nuthin' but debunkin" not long after Captain Ruppelt left Project Blue Book in the mid-1950's. The project officially ended in January, 1970. Its final evaluation concluded that UFO sightings generated as a result of:
- A mild form of mass hysteria
- Persons who fabricate a sighting to perpetrate a hoax or to gain publicity
- Psychopathological persons
- Misidentification of conventional objects.
Despite Project Blue Book's certainty, 22% of reported UFO sightings remain unexplained.
There were reports of strange lights in the skies in all World War II theaters of operations. These lights eventually became known as "Foo Fighters". While there were many theories attempting to explain the Foo Fighter phenomenon, no definitive explanation has ever gained wide acceptance. In short, the Foo Fighters remain a mystery.
1947 brought a huge surge in reports of unexplained aerial phenomena. USAAF General Nathan Twining requested the initiation of an official investigation because of deep concern about the source and mission of what had been dubbed "flying saucers". Twining's request was quickly approved and Project Sign went to work on January 22nd, 1948, one week after the Air Force was officially separated from the US Army. Project Sign was headquartered at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio.
USAF Captain Edward Ruppelt wrote Project Sign's initial intelligence estimate in the late summer of 1948. Ruppelt coined the term "UFO", initially pronounced U-FOE. Ruppelt's report concluded that "flying saucer", or UFO sightings were of real craft, were not made by the US or Russians and were likely EXTRATERRESTRIAL IN ORIGIN.
The report was forwarded to the Pentagon and ordered destroyed by Air Force Chief of Staff General Hoyt Vandenberg. Vandenberg also quickly dismantled Project Sign.
Project Sign was replaced by Project Grudge in February, 1949. Grudge was given the mission to debunk all UFO reports. Captain Ruppelt described the brief life of Project Grudge as "The Dark Ages" of Air Force UFO investigation.
NEXT UP: Project Blue Book
