UFOs in the daily Press:

Flying Disc Reports Decline as Army, Navy Launch Campaign to Stop Rumors

Reports of flying saucers whizzing through the sky fell off sharply today as the Army and Navy began a concentrated campaign to stop the rumors. One by one, persons who thought they had their hands on the $3.000 offered for a genuine flying saucer found their hands full of nothing.

Headquarters of the Eighth Army Air Force at Fort Worth, Tex., announced that the wreckage of a tin-foil covered object found on a New Mexico ranch was nothing more than the remnants of a weather observation balloon. AAP headquarters in Washington reportedly delivered a blistering rebuke to the officers at the Roswell, N.M., base for suggesting that it was a "flying disc."

The excitement ran through this cycle:

Lieutenant Warren Haught [sic, Walter Haut], pubic relations officer at the Roswell base released a statement in the name of Colonel William Blanchard, base commander. It said that an object described as a "flying disc" was found on the nearby Foster ranch three weeks ago by W. W. Brazel and had been sent to "higher officials for examination.

Brigadier General Roger B. Ramey, commander of the Eighth Air force said at Fort Worth he believed the object was "the remnant of a weather balloon and a radar reflector," and was "nothing to be excited about." He allowed photographers to take a picture of it. It was announced that the object would be sent to Wright Field, Dayton, O., for examination by experts.

Later, Warrant Officer Irving Newton, Stetsonville, Wis., weather officer at Fort Worth, examined the object and said definitely that it was nothing but a badly smashed target used to determine the direction and velocity of high altitude winds.

Lieutenant Haught reportedly told reporters that he had been "shut up by two blistering phone calls from Washington."

Efforts to contact Colonel Blanchard brought the information that "he is now on leave."

Major Jesse A. Marcel, intelligence officer of the 509th Bombardment Group, reportedly told Brazel, the finder of the object, that it "has nothing to do with Army of Navy as far as I can tell."

Brazel told reporters that he had found weather balloon equipment before, but had seen nothing that resembled his latest find.

Those who saw the object said it had a flowered paper tape around it bearing the initials "D. P."

Newton said four of the wind sounding devices were released daily by every Army weather station in the nation. The incident indicated the possibility that other of the mystery discs have been weather balloons reflecting the sun at high altitudes as they were carried briskly along by the wind.

Ramey made a special radio broadcast over a Fort Worth radio station to deny that the object found in New Mexico was a "flying disc." He said it was the "remnants of a tin-foil covered box kite and a weather balloon." He said the kite originally carried instruments, but that none was found with the wreckage.