Four days later, a much-discussed and certainly authentic photograph of a disc-shaped UFO was taken over Rouen, France, by a French fighter pilot. Close analysis showed it to be nearly identical to the object photographed by the Trents in McMinnville, Oregon, back in 1950. Unfortunately, no CIA records have surfaced regarding this photograph, even though the agency was clearly following French UFO sightings at this time. Incidentally, two Blue Book unknowns occurred in French Morocco during March. At 8 P.M. on March 5, the same day as the Rouen photograph, crews of USAF KC-97 aerial tanker planes over Nouasseur, French Morocco, saw an object or light make several passes at their aircraft. Another unidentified object flew nearby. On March 12, again at Nouasseur, an air force lieutenant flying an F-86 chased an object at more than 530 mph for thirty seconds, but was unable to catch it. The object appeared to be the size of a fighter plane but had neither tanks nor trails. The CIA recorded more UFO sightings in France through April.58
The United States had a few interesting reports. At 11 P.M. on February 4, 1954, a UFO sighting occurred over Carswell AFB in Texas. About fifteen miles from the base, ground control radar detected the object. The “mystery aircraft” then passed over the Carswell tower at a little over three thousand feet, where personnel saw it through binoculars. The object was like nothing they had ever seen: long fuselage, elliptical wings, some kind of stabilizer, and no visible means of propulsion. The object had a bright light on its nose and tail, two yellowish lights on the bottom of the fuselage, with possible lights on each wing tip. No one heard a sound. The report was sent directly to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the CIA, the NSA, and other leading intelligence groups. This showed again how little even the official new system of UFO reporting meant with sightings that mattered.59
The South and West were the main areas of American UFO activity in early 1954. On March 8, a pilot at Laredo AFB in Texas reported a glowing red round object moving at tremendous speed, then vanishing. On March 24, a Marine Corps jet pilot in Florida saw a round object streak downward, stop, then speed away after he pursued it. Then, on March 29, a CIRVIS report described an “unidentified object glowing bright green” seen in Wyoming by a United Airlines pilot, and confirmed by another airliner. Recipients of the report included the CIA and DIRNSA.60
Leaks, rumors, and odd news items continued to appear. In April, Wilkins heard of an alleged visit by Dwight Eisenhower to Edwards AFB in California, where Ike saw alien bodies and debris. This was said to have occurred from February 17 to 20, 1954. The public explanation was that Eisenhower saw a dentist named Purcell. The story lay dormant for decades, until William Moore (of MJ-12 fame) interviewed the dentist’s widow. While vague about Eisenhower’s dental treatment, she provided explicit detail about a presidential reception they attended during that time. Moore found no evidence at the Eisenhower Library that Eisenhower was treated by a dentist at that time. He also found no thank-you messages, although Eisenhower tended to be scrupulous in such matters. On the other hand, Eisenhower’s secretary did mention the event in a diary.61
Few UFO stories received any media attention, although several interesting cases took place. Late on April 14, a United Airlines plane over Long Beach, California, narrowly missed a collision with an unknown object that came “out of nowhere” at five thousand feet. The captain turned the wheel hard and brought the plane up so fast passengers were thrown to the floor, and a stewardess and one passenger sustained broken legs and ankles. On April 22 at San Nicholas Island in California, American servicemen saw a gray cigar-shaped object descend. Smoke rose where it landed, but a search yielded no results. On the twenty-third, two Pan Am airliners, about two hundred miles apart, each sighted a UFO between Puerto Rico and New York. The object pulsated an orange-greenish light and streaked past both planes. On the twenty-ninth, three members of the Second Army Radio Station at Fort Meade, Maryland, saw an unidentified round, brilliant, blinking object, three or four times the size of a large star, moving across the sky in a straight path. As it arrived above Fort Meade, it disappeared by shooting straight up. Eastern Air Defense Command and army intelligence were notified of this sighting.62
