The article below was published in the newspaper The Herald and News, Klamath Falls, Oregon, USA, on page 1, on July 8, 1947.
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Another report by a local man who claims he saw discs in the sky was received today.
Roscoe Lilly, 3803 Frieda street, said he was at the fairgrounds Friday and saw two discs, very high up and going at an extreme speed. He described the objects as about the size of a washtub, floating along in a flat position.
Lilly said he called the attention of several persons to the sky objects, and all agreed they appeared to be discs.
By the Associated Press
America's "flying saucer" jag reeled on today. Stiff necks and goggle eyes were the order of the day. Sky watchers was a new profession.
North Carolina joined the disc parade.
For the first time the discs were reported whirling through the atmosphere over Asheville in western North Carolina and over Greensboro and Raleigh in the north central portion.
As reports continued to pour in from all over the nation tabulators ran the tally of states in which the saucers had been seen to 44. Observers in the District of Columbia and Canada also said they had sighted the mysterious objects.
The only states whose skies were still clear of the discs were Nevada, Mississippi, New Hampshire and Rhode Island.
Explanations. Take your choice: They were radio controlled flying missiles sent aloft by the U. S. military scientists. Or they were merely light reflections from wing tanks of jet propelled planes. Or --
No one knew for sure.
The World Inventors Congress posted $1000 for delivery of a flying disc to the exposition which opens in Los Angeles on July 11.
Could they be spotted by radars?
A spokesman for the army air forces said in Washington that no attempt had been made to spot the spinning, flying, whirling, stationary discs because there was not enough equipment to blanket the nation.
Lt. Col. Harry W. Schaefer of the Wisconsin civil air patrol announced in Milwaukee his group planned to conduct a series of mass flights in hopes of learning something about the flying objects.
Searching for an answer, Caspar W. Ooms, the patent commissioner, said he did not think any of the 3.000.000 patents on his file in his office held the explanation to the saucers.
PORTLAND, Ore., July 8 (AP) -- The Oregonian said today that Maj. Gen. Nathan F. Twining, chief of AAF material command, told it flatly that the "flying saucers" are not the results of experiments by the armed services.
"Neither the AAF not any other component of the armed forces has any plane, guided missile of other aerial device under development which could possibly be mistaken for a saucer or formation of flying discs," the newspaper quoted Twining as telling it by telephone from Kirtland army air base, Albuquerque, N. M.
It continued its quotation: "Some of these witnesses evidently saw something but we don't know what. We are investigating."
Meanwhile, air national guard squadrons flying from Portland, Boise and Spokane bases patrolled Pacific Northwest skies late yesterday, landing after sundown without observing any of the objects.
Col. Robert O. Dodson, commanding the 123rd and 116th squadrons, said camera equipped planes would take the air twice daily from the three fields.
To: Kenneth Arnold or Newspapers 1940-1949.
