The article below was published in the daily newspaper Wisconsin State Journal, Wisconsin, USA, on July 8, 1947.
More "flying saucers" were reported hurtling through Wisconsin skies today but they were still a dime a dozen. There were no takers for three rewards that would make a genuine flying saucer -- in the hand -- worth $3,000. In Milwaukee, the state Civil Air Patrol (CAP) decided to do something about it and scheduled a mass flight of "about 250 planes" Monday to try to chase a few. Some of the pilots here, however -- like most Madison scientists -- remained skeptical.
Although the "flying saucers" now have been reported in almost every state, there has been only one authenticated case -- that of a Pittsburgh man. His were thrown by his wife. He got a divorce.
Learns Of Alert
Dr. Reginal Jackson of the Madison Civil Air Patrol first learned of the alert for Monday's flight from The State Journal.
"I'll take along my shotgun," he proposed. He was unable to estimate how many of the 50 members here would participate.
As army air and ground forces revealed they were investigating the reported cloud-hopping disks with an open mind, two veteran fliers at Elkhorn and Burlington turned in reports that led to the CAP'S planned flight.
Kenneth Jones, a flight instructor at Elkhorn air service, and Capt. R.J. Southey, Burlington, both saw rapidly-moving disks during plane trips Monday.
Saw White Ball
Jones said he was practicing take-offs and landings with a student when he saw a "white ball" speeding along at about 3,000 feet.
When he heard of Jones' experience, Southey decided to "go up and look around." He and Clem Hackworthy, Wauwatosa, spotted a fast-moving, "silver thing" over Eagle. Southey turned the controls over to Hackworthy and tried to photograph it but it vanished and reappeared 6 seconds later 10 miles away from his plane.
That was when Lieut. Col. Harry Schaeger, CAP wing commander in Milwaukee, ordered the flight for Monday.
Three Milton, Wis., college students late Monday reported seeing three flying discs in a V-formation coming from the northwest and heading in a westerly direction.
The students were Paul Schroeder, Milton, and John Potts and Harris Buros, Viroqua.
They had just finished a tennis game at Milton college when Potts sighted the disks.
Schroeder said he and Buros thought at first their classmate was kidding them until they saw the objects.
Schroeder watched the disks for full two minutes before they were blocked out behind tall buildings, he said.
Circular, Rotating
He described them as circular in shape and rotating slowly. He said they left a vapor trail behind.
He claims they looked like aluminum, and judged they were about 10 miles away at an altitude of some 4,000 feet.
"From that distance they were about the size of a basketball," he said.
"It sounds like a figment of the imagination, but they were there just the same."
In Madison, scientists were doubtful -- but cautious.
"Lots of natural phenomena could be distorted into something like this," explained Prof. Harry Harlow of the University of Wisconsin psychology department. "There have been many instances of such things in history, things like the Loch Ness monster that everyone 'sees.' To me, the reports sound mighty like curiosity or publicity-seeking.
"Of course, you can never be sure that something does not exist; but you can be awfully suspicious."
Wait the Word
At the North hall weather station, meteorologists were waiting words from big bureaus at Washington and Chicago that might throw light on the mystery. The large bureaus are checking weather conditions accompanying each report in hopes of finding a thread of coincidence, George Jenkins reported.
"Some of the people might be seeing 'ball lightning' -- but that's very rare in itself and many of the 'saucers' reportedly were spotted in fair weather," he puzzled.
Astronomers insisted the "saucers" could not be meteors and officials at Washburn observatory -- who were pretty reluctant to discuss the whole thing -- hadn't seen a one.
Meanwhile, the mystery of the saucers took on an international flavor.
The disks, already reported over most of the 48 states and parts of Canada, were reported over Mexico City. Several persons telephoned the Mexican national defense ministry to report the disks flying "in a westerly direction." A ministry spokesman said he didn't believe them.
Scoffed by Red
Russian Vice Consul Eugene Tunantzev in Los Angeles scoffed at suggestions that the saucers might be from Russia.
In Sydney, Australia, F.S. Cotton, psychology professor, told 450 students to go stare at the sky and see if they could spot any flying saucers. Within 10 minutes, 22 students returned, reported that they had seen the saucers and drew diagrams of the objects and their paths.
"What you have seen were red corpuscles moving across the retinas of your eyes," Cotton said. "You can now draw your own conclusions from reports from overseas."
