By this rebuttal, I hope to raise from the dead, (where ever Captain Joe Hull has buried them) the flying saucers.
I refer to his article (“OBITUARY OF THE FLYING SAUCERS”) published in the September, 1953 issue of THE AIRLINE PILOT.
Captain Hull has chided all of us who have believed and do believe in flying saucers by his assumption that historians will look upon these “flying saucer years” as, to quote him, “a ludicrous period in World History when men of all nations — but notably America — were agog with excitement over an apparition as nonsensical as the witches of Salem in the 17th Century.”
This attitude more than vaguely reminds me of an article I once read in a 1910 copy of one of the first aviation magazines; a publication called AIRCRAFT. The article was entitled “Aerial Warfare” (spelled just that way) and was written by Hudson Maxim. Mr Maxim's theme was “the aerial bomb, dropping from the high air, will never be widely destructive, reports of imaginative writers notwithstanding.”
We were just as stupid in 1926 when we persecuted Billy Mitchell for opposing this unprogressive doctrine, in spite of the fact that in 1921 he blew the hell out of the battleship “Ostfriesland” with 2000 pound bombs.
Captain Hull claims to have been an implicit believer in flying saucers, and to have done tireless research on the subject for six years. THEN came Dr. Donald H. Menzel's book called FLYING SAUCERS, where-in for 319 pages and $4.75 you can find out that saucers don't exist except as ice-crystals, mirages, moonlit cloud formations or some other form of visual deception.
Egad! What a convincing writer this Menzel must be: Either that, or I’m afraid that Captain Hull's “tireless research” was not painstaking enough to cover the many sightings which involved human senses other than the sense of sight, for it is only “sense of sight” observations that are allegedly “explained away” by the good Doctor. This book is as foggy with evasions as a gambler's tax return, and completely ignores the great mass of undeniable evidence on record that does not agree with its theories. Unfortunately, it has gotten much more attention than it deserves, because people as a whole do not wish to believe in anything they do not understand. Psychologists say that this is a result of the pace of modern civilization which is creating feelings of insecurity among us; that we reject things we do not understand because it is more comforting to do so — hence the great appeal of Dr. Menzel's book, which does away with those nasty saucers.
The Air Force orates like a clam on the saucers to the general public, but if Captain Hull had wanted to know how they regard Dr. Menzel's book, he could have read the comment in a recent National magazine by Major General John A. Samford, Chief of Air Force Intelligence. Major Samford is in charge of “Project Saucer”. He said, when asked about Dr. Menzel's theories, “the Air Force cannot yet accept it as a satisfactory explanation. Furthermore, it would not account for all reports, by any means.”
In a recent Air Force briefing given to Reserve Air Officers by an Air Force Major, the Major was asked about Menzel's book. He replied that it was beautifully written, but the Air Force didn't think anything of it. He proceeded to quote one instance which ruled out Menzel's theories.
The Major said that even a beginning radar operator can detect the effects of temperature inversion, which must be severe to create the condition to which Menzel refers. On a night when no temperature inversion existed strange things occurred at the Washington airport in July of 1952.
Early in the evening, and lasting until five A.M., clusters of unidentifiable objects appeared on all of the military and civilian radar screens in the area. Two interceptor planes were brought in from an airfield 50 miles away in Delaware. They saw the objects on their own radar screens and also located their lights visually. But, as they flew into the area all of the objects disappeared instantly. The interceptors flew about looking for them until their fuel ran low, and had to return to the airfield, whereupon the objects again reappeared, in greater numbers than before. The interceptors returned and reported by radio that they had sighted the objects. Ground observers could also locate the objects with the naked eye in the heavens.
One pilot secured a radar fix on an object and began to close in on it. He suddenly reported that at least a half a dozen of these lighted objects were converging on him. His plane could be seen on the ground radar screens along with the mysterious objects rushing toward him, just as he had reported. Suddenly he cried out, “My God, they're gone!,” and as he said this, ground observers saw these objects disappear from the radar screens.
The only theory that the Air Force can advance about this rapid disappearance is that the objects went straight up or reversed directions with such inconceivable speed that neither radar nor the human eye could follow them.
This occurred on July 29th. I can readily believe that these objects travel that fast, because on July 14, Bill Fortenberry and I watched eight 100 foot discs cover 50 miles in 12 seconds only 2000 feet above sea level near Norfolk, Virginia. When someone says “reflections” to us, we feel like batting them in the head, but then we remember that they didn't see them with us, so we proceed to explain why they could not have been reflections in spite of the fact that we knew they were not at the moment we saw them.
First of all, their light, which was a 100 foot diameter of bright red-orange, was too brilliant to be a reflection, which is always dimmer than its source. Two; they passed over part of a brightly lighted city, and were twenty times the brilliance of any lights below them. Three; there was no inversion or haze layer, and the nearest clouds were at twenty thousand feet. Visibility was unlimited. Four; they turned on edge, and when we last saw them they must have been at least twenty thousand feet high. Five; they blinked off and on when they were only a mile from us straight down. Six; try to imagine a being in a nearly pitch dark room, then suddenly have someone open a coal stove that had been air blasted to full brilliance inside. Then let some astronomer tell you that you saw a reflection!
As far as photographs of these objects are concerned, they have been photographed many times. (Those radar screens were photographed thoroughly, too) Of course, Dr. Menzel has chosen to disregard them. He is on safe ground here, because the best photographs are in Air Force possession, and they are not about to share them, for a while, at least. It appears that astronomers only believe other astronomers. Very few of them have ever seen the planet Pluto, but none of them doubt its existence.
Saucers have been smelled, heard, (even before they were seen by the observer) and in a sense, felt, in that human beings have been physically moved by them and burned by them. Also their pungent odor has made people sick and their throats burned for several hours after the lnhalation. There have been many reports like this, and they have been public record. How could Dr. Henzel ignore these experiences? The Air Force does not classify them as hoaxes. They couldn't very well do that after having carried away from one scene samples of grass burned to a white ash around a circular impression in the ground. They measured this depression and also took samples of grass containing an oily smelly substance, just as the observers had described. Quite a capable mirage!
The Air Force tells its personnel that they have investigated over 3000 sightings, 25% of which have been ruled as authentic and inexplainable. They have said, and I quote directly, “The study prepared by noted scientists and Air Force experts expresses the belief that some of the mysterious flying objects are genuine and that they originate from sources outside of this planet”. How could any statement be plainer?
However, they tell the general public that saucers must be balloons or other “air-junk”, for which, I believe, they have a very good reason. I know the Air Force is interested. They flew five investigators from Washington to Miami to interview us after our sighting - and the interrogation lasted two hours - in separate rooms, and they worked from a long printed questionaire.
Near the end of 1952, the Air Force was about to publish part of their findings, but they pulled their gear up again and never did so. I quote here part of what they did publish in Robert S. Allen's column of Sept 26, 1952; “Chiefly deterring the Air Force from publishing certain portions of their report is fear that the sensational nature of the findings may cause undue public alarm.” These findings were described as, “fantastic, but true.”
The flying saucers are the biggest thing that has happened to this old globe since B.C became A.D., and it would be a pity to miss any of it.
There are so many arguments and such an avalanche of evidence against Dr. Menzel's theories that it would take many books the size of his to counter the damage he has done.
What I want to get across is this. Don’t be a sucker and believe him. He’s one hundred and eighty degrees wrong.
— William B. Nash
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