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In Chapter 10, "Project Blue Book and the Big Buildup", of Captain Edward Ruppelt's THE REPORT ON UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECT, Ruppelt wrote about the newspaper clipping service he planned to subscribe to:
"Back in March [1952], when it had become apparent tht the press was reviving its interst in UFOs, I had suggested that Project Blue Book subscribe to a newspaper clippping service. Such a service could provide several things. First it would show us exactly how much publicity the UFO's were getting and what was being said, and it would give us the feel of the situation. Then it would also provide a lot of data for our files. In many cases the newspapers got reports that didn't go to the Air Force. Newspaper reporters rival any intelligence officer when it comes to digging up the facts, and there was always the possibility that they would uncover and print something we missed. This was especially true in the few cases of hoaxes that always accompany UFO publicity. Last it would provide us with material on which to base a study of the effect of newspaper publicity upon the number and type of UFO reports."Colonel Dunn liked the idea of the clipping service, and it went into effect soon after the first publicity had appeared. Every three or four days we would get an envelope full of clippings. In March the clipping service was sending the clippings to us in letter size envelopes. The envelopes were thin -- maybe there would be a dozen or so clippings in each one. Then they began to get thicker and thicker, until the people who were doing the clipping switched to using manilla envelopes. Then the manilla envelopes began to get thicker and thicker. By May we were up to old shoe boxes. The majority of the newspaper stories in the shoe boxes were based on the material that had come from ATIC ... In June the big flap hit -- they began to deliver clippings in big cardboard cartons."
Ruppelt considerably understated the number of newspaper clippings received from this service in 1952. When the clippings were later transferred to microfilm, Dr. Herbert Strentz estimated there were 30,000 items without any duplication on the 32 microfilm rolls that contained the clippings from April to September 1952. The service was cancelled in October.
Dr. Strentz was given the microfilms in 1968 by LT COL Hector Quintanilla to use in the preparation of his PhD dissertation. The microfilms were later transferred to Barry Greenwood of Citizens Against UFO Security, (CAUS) PROJECT 1947 now has copies of these microfilms.
Research has supplemented the USAF clipping collection with thousands of newspaper articles from all over the world. Additionally, many collections of UFO reports in libraries, archives, and private hands have been copied to "fill in the gaps." A few examples from the USAF clipping collection prepared by K. J. Croft are shown here:
Daly City -- At last one "flying saucer" mystery has been solved -- thanks to the fast action of Daly City Police Officer, James Welsh.Wales was in his patrol car on El Camino real early yesterday when a passerby ran up, pointing and exclaimed: "Look, there's a flying saucer or something"
Sure enough, a bright globe was moving slowly across the sky.
Without waiting for help, Welsh took off in pursuit and was rewarded to see the object alight in Greenlawn Cemetery, Colma. With drawn pistol, he approached.
The "flying saucer" turned out to be a 10 inch rubber balloon, with a flashlight battery and bulb attached.
"Some joker's idea of humor" Welsh reported.
Bartow -- Two instructors from Bartow Air Base on a routine night flight spotted a rapidly moving bluish white light in the vicinity of Plant City.The conversation went something like this. "It's not the moon", said one. The other retorted "It isn't a searchlight."
What was it? Well, Instructors James E. Boulin and Charles Shank are not committing themselves. They have been taking quite a kidding from the fellows at the base.
Their story now is "we don't say it wasn't a light but we don't say it was."
Catania, Sicily, June 5 (Reuters) -- Another rash of "flying saucers" has broken out in Sicily and Italy. Many persons reported seeing a "silvery object" cross Catania at a high altitude today. Two other saucers were reported over Ancona, on Italy's Adriatic coast, late yesterday.
Paris. June 17 -- (Reuters) -- A fresh wave of flying saucer reports swept France today.An employee of La Bourget Airport control tower claimed that last Firday he saw a "star, red like the setting sun" and about four times the size of an ordinary star, moving Southeast of the Airfield.
The pilot of a French transport plane also saw the "star", reported to the control tower, and made an extra circuit to take a closer look but as he circled, the star moved into the wind and vanished.
Last Sunday, Albert Roux, who lives near La Bourget, reported seeking a white silvery disc cross the sky from northwest to southwest "about four times as fast as a jet plane." Thirty other persons in Cholet, western France, said they saw a "flying saucer".
Pueblo. June 18 -- (UP) -- Those "flying saucers" are here again.An object commonly called a "flying saucer" was sighted by the US Weather Bureau station at Plueblo Municipal airport at 8:45 pm Tuesday.
Orville Foster of the Weather Bureau said that he and an assistant watched the "flying saucer" for approximately 10 minutes in the bureau theodolite, the instrument used to observe weather balloons.
They said the "object" had no definite shape, possibly because of a smoke haze that enveloped the Pueblo area. It threw a soft white light, they said, and occasionally took on a reddish hue. It moved through the sky at a leisurely speed and finally disappearred toward the northeast.
Foster and John George, his assistant, both agreed that it was neither a light reflection nor a plane.
Although the "flying saucer" did not circle above the city proper, several residents reported they saw it in the sky northeast of the city limits.
Reports of flying saucers, space ships and other mysterious sightings in the skies continue to be received at the office of The Columbus Star. One of the most interesting is that of a Columbus business man who served three and one half years as a pilot in World War II and who currently holds a commercial pilots license for single and multi engine planes.Here is his story:
" I do not remember the exact date, I am not too happy to say, but one bright, cloudless afternoon about 3pm in early January 1952, I approached my parked car with an order to deliver. My attention was directed skyward by the sound of maneuvering F-84 jets based, I assumed, at nearby Lockbourne Air Base. These planes were about three to five miles due east at an altitude of approximately 15,000 feet and were engaged in a "rat race". I believe there were three, but possibly only two, airplanes.
"These planes performed various acrobatics and I watched them for some 30-45 seconds when my attention was then directed to an RB-45 jet bomber which was flying from south to north at about the same distance from me (three to five miles) but at a lower altitude.
"My eyes followed the larger, lower airplane coming into my range of vision from my right until it was approximately due east. It was then that I saw a bright, not too clearly outlined, glowing object in about the same spot in the sky that I first saw the maneuvering flighter plane.
"This more unusual object held my interest and I can say nothing more of the jet planes which I no longer noticed.
"This light was a bright one, even on this bright day. It was a yellowish light and definately was not reflected light from the wing or fuselage of an airplane.
"It's very difficult to determine the size of an object seen under these conditions. Basing my estimates on its speed and flight path mainly. I would say that the object was from 15 to 18 thousand feet high and also that its greatest dimension (the horizontal one) was not greater than forty feet.
"The object when I first saw it was not exactly motionless but was travelling slowly on a course of about 225 degrees.
" I would estimate its initial speed at about 250 miles per hour. It accelerated rapidly after the first four or five seconds and when it disappeared from view was travelling at a speed I would roughly estimate to be about two thousand miles per hour. It was this astonishing speed and acceleration that convinced me I had seen something that was not man made.
"I watched it through 1.35 degrees of arc and saw it only for a matter of seven or eight seconds."
Another extremely interesting letter was received from an Air Force officer now stationed in Texas. He is Harold E McDowell, AA and GM. Br. T. A. S. Box 1106, AFCO, No5, Ft. Bliss, Tex. Here is his story:
Columbus Star
62 E Broad St
Columbus 15
Ohio.
Dear Sirs.
My brother, knowing of my great interest in the subject, forwarded to me your article concerning flying discs. I realize the sensational nature of your newspaper, but I want to state that in carrying on an investigation of disc sightings you are also doing a great public service as well as selling newspapers.
It has been four years since I made my first disc sighting. On Jan 7 1948 at 10:15pm, I sighted a cigar shaped object proceeding in an easterly direction over Trotwood, O. Since I did not know the true altitude of the object and could not determine its size by comparison with anything else. I cannot state the speed at which it was travelling other than to say it was tremendous, as the object passed from horizon to horizon in a very short time. The rocket, or whatever it was, accelerated and decelerated several times.
At its low speed a reddish orange flame of about the length of the rocket extended from the rear of the rocket. As the object accelerated the exhaust flame became a very brilliant greenish white, much like a magnesium flare, and at its greatest was about three times the length of the body or fuselage of the object. I do not know what I saw, but as an Air Force aerial observer of the last war who flew entirely at night I do know that it was not a meteor nor a star, nor any aircraft such as we had at the time, but it was an aircraft, of that I am certain.
Then on May 10 1952 at 2:15 pm, Warrant Officer Charles Vimmerstedt and myself observed a disc like object hovering high over Ft. Bliss for about two minutes. It then vanished, what direction we could not tell. About May 7, 1952 at 6:15pm, a ball of fire came in from a southerly direction and passed low over Ft. Bliss. It then circled the summit of Franklin Mountain adjacent to the fort and disappeared into Mexico again. I did not observe this object but several of my friends here did and I can vouch fo their veracity. I will forward any further information along these lines.
Sincerely
Lt. Harold E. McDowell 0997608
A report of a flying saucer landed in the Morning World office last night when A.D. HANKS, 808 K Street, notified a reporter that he had sighted one of the "things" last Tuesday night.Hanks said: "I didn't report this sooner because I thought folks would think I was crazy." Here is his story:
Last Tuesday about 10 pm I was flying to Monroe from Little Rock. When I neared the Arkansas border I saw what appeared to be a blood red star about 2000 feet overhead. It was traveling at 4,000 feet at a speed of over 100 miles per hour.
"When I first noticed the object, it was traveling in a generally southwestern direction. Then, while I was watching the blot of red light, if changed course and started following me, flying 2,000 feet overhead
"I thought at first it was an illusion. To test my theory, I made a 90 degree right turn. The "flying saucer" did the same. The thing followed my course for about 10 minutes, then suddenly swooped down approximately 2,000 feet below my plane.
"At first, I believed it to be a jet. After that swift drop, I changed my line of thinking."
The bright red spot still followed my course underneath me. A few minutes later it seemed to bounce back 2,000 feet overhead. Then, "it" switched back to its original course and took off at a tremendous rate of speed."
Hanks has been a flyer for about 25 years and he said he had never had such an eerie feeling or seen such an unnatural sight.
Malta, June 28 (Reuters) -- British Royal marines handed in Malta's first flying saucer report today. They said a saucer-like object flying at high speed and height was sighted over the island early today.
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