Kenneth Arnold's sighting

Mysterious Flying Objects Seen In Many Parts Of U.S.

WHITE SANDS PROVING GROUNDS, N. M., June 28 -- (UP) -- An army rocket expert ventured the opinion today that Kenneth Arnold's flying saucers were merely jet planes but almost a dozen persons sprang up about the country to say they had seen the mysterious shiny disc also.

Arnold, a flying fire extinguisher salesman from Boise, Ida., said he saw nine of the weird ships breezing along at a speed of 1,200 miles an hour. He clocked them across a known distance between two mountains.

Lt. Col. Harold R. Turner, commanding officer of the army's rocket proving grounds here, said today that the discs must have been jet airplanes.

But Mrs. E. G. Peterson of Seattle said no -- she had seen the things too. Not only that her son also saw them. In fact, he called her attention to them.

"They were shiny and seemed to be fluttering in the wind. we must have watched them for five minutes before they disappeared, going east."

Charles Kastl, 60-year old railroad engineer of Joliet, Ill., said he spotted "about nine of the things" as he walked along a highway near Joliet the same day, less than an hour after they were sighted by Arnold.

Advance Meteor Theory

They would have had to travel from Seattle to Chicago in 50 minutes, and that's 2,000 miles.

Kastl said he saw a string of flat circular objects going "faster than any plane I ever saw" about 10 to 12 miles east of Joliet. They were flying about 4000 feet high, going from north to south.

Kastl said he "didn't think about" the incident, except to tell his wife, until Arnold reported seeing the planes.

They must have headed back west the next day. W. I. Davenport, a Kansas City carpenter, said he saw nine of them flying a westerly course while he was working on a roof about noon Wednesday.

He said they were going so fast he barely had time to count them.

And they must have made previous flights. Byron Savage of Oklahoma city claimed he saw a similar type of craft five or six weeks ago.

Astronomers at Seattle and Joliet said there were no natural explanations for the reports.

Meanwhile, Turner came up with an explanation for "falling bodies" reported in at least two places in the southwest today. He said they were meteors. And he dispatched a search party by plane to Tularosa, N. M., and another by automobile to Engle, N. M., to bring back proof.