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UFOs in the daily Press:

Flying saucers in the US Press, 1947:

The article below was published in the daily newspaper The Mexico Ledger, Mexico, Missouri, USA, page 1, on August 22, 1947.

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Nobody Says They Were 'Flying Discs', But They Were Discs, and They Were Flying, Insist Local Aviators

They were flying near Mexico. Nobody says they were "flying discs," but the two trained pilots who chased them say they were discs flying. The time was about sunset, Tuesday. The place, just northwest of Mexico.

The people were Ralph Johnson and John Reilly who were flying at about 9,000 feet in a BT-13 at the time.

Ralph Johnson is a trained observer. He was a Navy pilot during the war. He saw extensive combat experience. Among other adventures was the time he sank an enemy sub off Miami-by himself, bombing with depth charges.

Incidentally, he was still in training when this incident occurred.

Then there was the time he and a handful of other torpedo bombers attacked seven Jap transports in the China sea. The transports were boiling with Jap infantry primed to land and kill Americans. And they were boiling with ack-ack, too. Ralph and his buddies attacked.

Final score: seven tubs sunk and that many more Jap troops who wouldn't be killing American boys in battle.

He knows first hand the difference between hysteria - which has caused some people to think they have seen flying discs - and accurate, realistic, proven observation.

John Reilly is no beginner at trained observation, either.

John was in the Army and, what's more, has done a lot of flying. It was his BT-13 he and Ralph were riding in when "it all happened."

Johnson tells it this way: "It was at sunset."

"We were flying at about 9,000 feet when Reilly, who was in the front cockpit, started shouting to me. I couldn't hear him and wondered what the heck he was talking about."

"Then I saw them. There were three disc-shaped objects flying in a northwesterly direction. They were at our altitude. While they reflected the red of the sun, I think they were actually gray in color."

"I couldn't tell much about their size. We turned toward them and tried to catch them."

"We were doing about 140 miles per hour... but they ran off and left us."

"They weren't flying in any kind of formation. They were sort of strung out but going too fast for us."

"I won't say they were 'flying discs' but they were disc-shaped and flying. We both saw them. They were not close enough to accurately estimate their size."

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