The article below was published in the daily newspaper The Oshkosh Northwesterner, Oshkosh, Wisconsin, USA, page 1, on July 8, 1947.
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Milwaukee-(AP)-Lt. Col. Harry W. Schaefer of the Wisconsin civil air patrol announced last night his group planned to conduct a series of mass flights in hopes of learning something about the mysterious "flying discs."
The announcement followed reports by two experienced pilots that they had sighted "discs" in Wisconsin.
Colonel Schaefer said he expected the mass flights to start next Monday and continue about a week. About 150 planes are expected to participate, he said.
The state CAP will discuss the plans at a mobilization in Marshfield Saturday.
Kenneth Jones, a flight instructor at the Elkhorn Air Service, Elkhorn, Wis., and Capt. R. J. Southey of Burlington were the pilots who said they sighted "discs."
Jones said he was flying at about 400 feet when he saw a "white ball" traveling at a terrific speed about 10 to 15 miles north of Elkhorn.
Captain Southey said he had landed at the Elkhorn airport and heard of Jones' experience. He and Glen Hackworthy, Milwaukee, took off and climbed to about 3,-600 feet.
Southey said he saw a "silver thing" moving at a great speed. He turned the controls over to Hackworthy and prepared his camera in the hope of getting a picture but the object disappeared, he said, adding it reappeared six or seven seconds later approximately 10 miles away.
America's "flying saucer" jag reeled on today. Stiff necks and goggle eyes were the order of the day. Sky watching was a new profession.
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 43. 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, North Dakota, Mississippi, New Hampshire and Rhode Island.
Explanations, take your choice: They are radio controlled flying missiles sent aloft by U. S. military scientists. Or they were merely light reflected on wing tanks of jet-propelled planes. Or...
No one knew for sure.
The world inventors congress posted $1,000 for delivery of a flying disc to the exposition which opens in Los Angeles on July 11.
Could they be spotted by radar?
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.
