More controversial is a March 22, 1950, memo addressed to Hoover by FBI Agent Guy Hottel of the Washington Field Office. It was titled “Flying Saucers—Information Concerning.” According to the memo:
An investigator for the air forces stated that three so-called flying saucers had been recovered in New Mexico. They were described as being circular in shape with raised centers, approximately fifty feet in diameter. Each one was occupied by three bodies of human shape but only three feet tall, dressed in metallic cloth of very fine texture.... 49
UFOs continued to vex American pilots. One January night on the Seattle-Anchorage route, an air freighter was paced for five minutes by an unidentified flying object. The pilots decided to close on the object, which then zoomed away. The airline head was later questioned by intelligence officers for four hours. In his words: “From their questions, I could tell they had a good idea of what the saucers are. One officer admitted they did, but he wouldn’t say any more.”50 Near Davis-Monthan AFB on February 1, 1950, a bomber pilot chased a UFO which left a smoke trail. The head of the University of Arizona Department of Astronomy was certain the object was no meteor or other natural phenomenon. At Key West, Florida, on February 22, navy pilots and others saw two glowing UFOs, confirmed by radar, above the Boca Chica Naval Air Station. A plane was sent up to investigate, but was “hopelessly outdistanced.” Radar men tracked the objects as they momentarily hovered at an extreme altitude. After a few seconds, the objects rapidly sped away.51
Meanwhile, the interest in flying saucers that had been raised by Keyhoe’s article continued into the spring. In March of 1950, True published, “How Scientists Tracked Flying Saucers,” by Cmdr. R. B. McLaughlin, which described the events at White Sands from the previous year. The navy cleared his story, even though it directly contradicted every air force press release on the subject. But the competition between the navy and the air force was intense at this time, and may well have affected the decision to print the article. The air force offered no direct comment, except “behind nearly every report tracked down stands a crackpot, a religious crank, a publicity hound, or a malicious practical joker.”52
SPRING 1950: AN OUTBREAK OF UFOs
Despite air force statements, the UFOs kept coming. During the early spring of 1950, they made a number of startling appearances over American and international skies. Apparently their operators had not read the Grudge Report.
An extraordinary encounter took place on March 8, 1950, once again right over ATIC in Dayton. In mid-morning, TWA pilot Capt. W H. Kerr reported to the Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) that he and two other TWA pilots saw a UFO hovering at a high altitude. The pilots were unaware that CAA had received about twenty other reports describing a UFO in the area. ATIC control tower operators saw the object, and their radar had an unidentified target in the same position. Something was up there.
Wright-Patterson AFB sent four F-51 fighters to intercept. Two of the pilots saw the object, which appeared round and, in the words of one of them, “huge and metallic.” It appeared to be hiding in a cloud formation, which prevented the pilots from closing on it. They eventually turned back. The master sergeant who tracked the object on radar stated, “The target was a good, solid return ... caused by a good, solid target.” Witnesses reported that the UFO climbed vertically out of sight at high speed.
A report was sent to the Civil Aeronautics Authority in Washington, then turned over to air force intelligence. ATIC’s official answer was that the UFO had been the planet Venus. The radar return, they said, was caused by ice-laden clouds. The pilots and radar men vehemently disagreed.53
A variety of military encounters occurred in rapid succession. One was at Selfridge AFB in Michigan, where a lone UFO caused multiple radar sightings and was tracked at up to 1,500 mph. Another occurred March 16 at the naval air station in Dallas, when a chief petty officer saw a disc-shaped UFO approach a B-36 from below, hover for a moment, then speed away. The air station commander confirmed the sighting.54
