The article below was published in the newspaper The Sedalia Democrat, Sedalia, Missouri, USA, on page 6, on July 20, 1947.
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PENDLETON, Ore., July 19. -- (AP) -- Kenneth Arnold, Boise, Idaho, businessman who flies about western landscapes peering for flying saucers, says people no longer think him a crackpot.
As the man who reported nine disks as big as four-engined planes speeding over Western Washington June 25 and started and nation-wide furor, Arnold found himself regared as an air-struck businessman who had read too many futuristic stories.
Hundred of letters, telegrams and phone calls overwhelmed him. Friends kidded hime and strangers harried him. It got so he hated to go out on the street.
Now he walks with an assured tread and feels that he is vindicated.
"Everybody can't be seeing things," he says. "Even if only one percent of the reports are accurate, there is still something very unusual going on. I might doubt myself, but can't doubt such observers as Captain E. J. Smith, United Airlines pilot. And there's nothing wrong with my eyes, either."
His eyes red from long hours aloft squirting at the horizon, Arnold says he'll continue his search on daily business trips about the country. He is a flying agent for a fire protection equipment company. He carries a camera and intends to get a picture to "whove down the throat of those stiffnecked doubters."
The ex-University of Minnesota swimmer and footballer says he now believes:
1. The disks are not from any foreign country.
2. The Army could give the answer if it would - "if they don't have the explanation now they certainly could do something to find out."
3. If the Army has no explanation the disks must be - "and I know this sounds crazy" - from another planet.
Arnold says his family never doubted him and he is pleased that hundreds write in their belief in him, but he is appaled at some of the frivolous reaction.
"Ladies wearing hats named flying saucers," he snorted. "Why they're just trying to laugh this off."
Then, after a minute reflection, "but maybe it's a good thing, because it maight be more serious than anyone but a few top ones realize."
To: Kenneth Arnold or Newspapers 1940-1949.
