The article below was published in the newspaper The Lubbock Morning Avalanche, Lubbock, Texas, USA, on pages 1 and 10, on July 10, 1947.
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By DAVE JOHNSON
Idaho Statesman Aviation Editor
BOISE, Idaho, July 9 (AP) -- Three days of aerial search on an assignment to find a flying disc paid off today when for 45 seconds I watched a circular object dart about in front of a cloud bank.
The object was round. It appeared black, although as it maneuvered in front of the clouds I was the sun flash from it once.
I was flying at 14,000 feet west of Boise.
I saw it clearly and distinctly. I turned the airplane broadside to it and pulled back the plexiglass canopy so there would be no distortion.
It was rising sharply and jerkily toward the top of the towering bank of alto cumulus and alto stratus cloud. At that moment, it was so round in shape that I thought it was a balloon.
I opened my radio and called Boise CAA communication station. I asked if the weather bureau had just released a balloon.
The answer was no, with that I snatched my camera out of the map case and began firing. I held the button down for about 10 seconds, and then looked again.
The object was turning so that it presented its edge to me. I then appeared as a straight black line. Then, with its edge still toward me, it shot straight up, rolled over the top of its maneuver, and I lost sight of it.
I asked the CAA and the Gowen Field control tower if there were any aircraft in the vicinity. There was a P-51 fighter plane in the area, but it was behind me. There was a Fairchild C-82 packet flying over Boise, but I watched it pass beneath me.
The object could have been 10 miles away, or 40. I do not know. If it was at great distance from me, its speed was incredible. The
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greater distance an object is from the watcher, the slower its speed should appear. This circular thing was maneuvering very swiftly.
Reports of 'flying discs' in the Lubbock area dropped sharply Wednesday although at least one person sent in remnants of what he said might be a part of one of the much talked of objects.
The latest report of a 'saucer' in the area Wednesday was made by Aubrey Mayfield, Ropesville high school student, who reported seeing a 'plate-sized' object sailing though the sky and finally disappear in the west while he was working in a field at Ropesville. His mother, Mrs. R. M. Mayfield, a visitor in Lubbock Wednesday, said her son said he had never seen 'anything like it' before.
The Avalanche-Journal also received a piece of tinfoil, some oily paper and a piece of thin white paper, which the sender said he believed might be a part of one of the 'discs.' However, marks on the paper indicated that someone had drawn a circle and cut it out in an obvious effort to confuse its finder.
To: Kenneth Arnold or Newspapers 1940-1949.
