The Flying Saucers Are Real By Donald Keyhoe Read By Roger Melin Part 2/2 | Full Audio Book

This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. THE FLYING SAUCERS ARE REAL By Donald Kehoe CHAPTER 19 For two weeks after my return to Washington, General Sorry Smith held off a final answer about my trip to Wright Field. Meantime, Ken Purdy had called him, backing my request to see the project files. It was obvious to me that Wright Field was determined not to open the files, but the General was trying to avoid making it official. Why can't you accept my word there's nothing to the saucers, he asked me one day. You're impeaching my personal veracity. But finally he saw there was no other way out. He told me I had been officially refused permission to see the Wright Field files. Sometime later, Ken Purdy phoned General Smith. General, if the Air Force wants to talk to us off the record, we'll play ball. True, we'll either handle it from then on, whatever way you think best, or we'll keep still. Whether this offer was relayed higher up, I don't know, but nothing came of it. Meantime, saucer reports had begun to come in from all over the country. Some even came from abroad. Some of these 1950 sightings have already been mentioned in early chapters. Besides the strange affair at Tucson on February 1st, there were several other cases in February. Three of these were in South America. One saucer was reported near the Naval Air Station at Alameda, California. Some were sighted in Texas, New Mexico, and other parts of the Southwest. In March, the wave of sightings reached such a height that the Air Force again denied the saucers' existence. This followed a report that a flying disc had crashed near Mexico City and that the wreckage had been viewed by U.S. Air Force officials. Scores of Orangeburg, South Carolina residents watched a disc that hovered over that city on March 10th. It was described as silver bright, turning slowly in the air before it disappeared. The day before this, residents of Van Nuys, California saw a bright disc moving swiftly 400 feet in the air. Seen through a telescope, it appeared to be 50 feet in diameter. Discs were reported at numerous places in Mexico, including Guadalajara, Juarez, Mazatlan, and Durango. On the 12th of March, the crew and passengers of an American airline ship saw a large gleaming disc high above Monterrey Airport in Mexico. Captain W.R. Hunt, the senior airline pilot, watched the disc through a theodolite at the airport. This disc, and most of the others seen in Mexico, were similar in description to the one sighted at Dayton, Ohio on March 8th. This was the large metallic saucer that hovered high over Vandalia Airport until Air Force and National Guard fighters raced up after it. The disc rose vertically into the sky at incredible speed, hovered a while longer, and then vanished. Within 24 hours, this mystery disc had been identified as the planet Venus. It was broad daylight. Newspapers quoted trained astronomical officials in Dayton as the source for this explanation. Meanwhile, the Mexican government newspaper, El Nacional, quoted a famous and reputable astronomer as saying the numerous discs reported over Mexico carry visitors from Mars. One of the strangest reports came from the Naval Air Station at Dallas, Texas. It was about 11.30 a.m. on March 16th when CPO Charles Lewis saw a disc streak up at a B-36 bomber. The disc appeared about 20 to 25 feet in diameter, Lewis reported. Racing at incredible speed, it shot up under the bomber, hung there for a second, then broke away at a 45 degree angle. Following this, it shot straight up into the air and disappeared. Captain M. A. Nation, CO of the station, said it was the second report in 10 days. On March 7th, said Captain Nation, a tower control operator named C. E. Edmondson saw a similar disc flying so fast it was almost a blur. He estimated its speed at 3,000 to 4,000 miles per hour, Captain Nation stated. Of course, he had no instruments to compute the speed, so that's a pure estimate. It was some time before this when I heard the first crazy rumor about the guided missile display. This story, which had new details every time I heard it, described the Air Force as refusing to let the Navy announce a new type of missile. According to the rumors, the Air Force was trying to prove its own missile far superior to keep the Navy from invading its long-range bombing domain. Then the Army joined the pitched battle with still a third guided missile, according to the rumors. And the flying discs? Army, Navy, and Air Force missiles launched in droves all over the country to prove whose was the best? A public missile race with a joint chiefs of staff to decide the winner. It seems fantastic that this theory would be believed by any intelligent person. In effect, it accuses the armed services of deliberate criminal negligence, of endangering millions in the cities below. I am convinced that some of these rumors led to at least one of the published guesses about our missile program. One widely publicized story stated that the flying saucers seen hurtling through our skies are actually two types of secret weapons. One, according to radio and newspaper accounts, is a disc that whizzes through space, halts suspended in the air, soars to 30,000 feet, drops to 1,000 feet, and then usually disintegrates in the air. These saucers, it was said, ranged from 20 inches to 250 feet in diameter. They were supposed to be pilotless and harmless. The second type was said to be a jet version of the Navy's circular airfoil, Flying Flapjack. It was credited with fantastic speed. The true discs, however, were mainly Air Force devices, according to the report. Some are guided, others are not, said the radio commentator who released this story. They can stay stationary, dash off to right or left, and move like lightning, but they are utterly harmless. In these harmless discs, there was supposed to be an explosive charge that destroyed them in mid-air at a predetermined time. Within a few days after this story was broadcast, the United States News and World Report declared that the saucers are real and identified them as jet models of Navy Flying Flapjacks. This magazine, which is not an official publication despite its name, mentioned the Variable Direction Jet Principle that I had previously described in the True article. These two Flying Saucer explanations brought denials from the White House, the Navy, and the Air Force. The Air Force flatly declared that, one, none of the armed forces is conducting secret experiments with disc-shaped flying objects that could be a basis for the reported phenomena. Two, there is no evidence that the latter stem from the activities of any foreign nation. Before this, President Truman stated he knew nothing of any such objects being developed by the United States or any other nation. The Navy denial came immediately after the first broadcast story. It ran, The Navy is not engaged in research or in flying any jet-powered circular-shaped aircraft. The Navy added that one model of a pancake-shaped aircraft, called the Zimmerman Skimmer, was built but was never flown. However, a small 3,000-pound scale model did fly and was under radio control during flight. This last device is now being rumored as the Navy's unpiloted missile, said to have been launched over the country like the so-called Harmless Discs. Even though all these accounts have been officially denied, many Americans may still believe they are true. I have no desire to criticize the authors of these stories. I believe that in following up certain guided-missile leads, they were misled into accepting the conclusions they gave. But these stories, particularly the accounts of huge unpiloted discs, may have planted certain fears in the public mind, fears that are completely unwarranted. For this reason, I have personally checked at Washington in regard to the dangers of unpiloted missiles. Here are the facts I learned. 1. Neither the Army, Navy, nor Air Force has, at any time, staged any guided-missile competition as rumored. 2. No unpiloted missiles or remote-controlled experimental craft have been tested over American cities or heavily populated areas. 3. No unpiloted missile carrying dangerous explosives, whether for destruction of the device or other purposes, has been deliberately launched or tested over heavily populated areas. In regard to the so-called jet-propelled flying flapjack, I have been assured by Admiral Calvin Bolster of the Navy Bureau of Aeronautics that this type of plane has never been produced. I concede that he might make this statement to conceal a secret development, but there is one fact of which every American can be certain. Neither this type nor the radio-controlled smaller model has been or will be flown or launched over areas where people would be endangered. The three armed services are working on guided-missiles. They are not risking American lives by launching such missiles at random across the United States. Although most of our guided-missile projects are secret, it is possible to give certain facts about guided-missile developments in general. The first successful long-range missiles were produced by the Germans. These were the Buzz Bomb and the V-2 rocket, but research in various other types was carried on during the war. Some of this was with oval and round types of airfoils. As already stated by Paul Riddell, there is strong evidence that the disc-shaped foil resulted from German observations of either spaceships or remote-controlled disc-shaped observer units. All the Nazi space exploration plans followed this discovery that we were being observed by a race from another planet. After the end of World War II, the international guided-missile race began, with the British, Russians, and ourselves as the chief contenders. Numerous types have been developed, winged bombs, small radar-guided projectiles launched from planes, and ground-to-plane, plane-to-ground, and plane-to-plane missiles, equipped with target homing devices. In certain recent types, the range can be stated as several hundred miles. So far as I have learned, after weeks of re-checking this point, not a single long-range missile has been identified as Russian. Since this country is working closely with Great Britain on global defense problems, it is no violation of security to say that we have probably exchanged certain guided-missile information. In regard to the British long-range missile picture outlined to me by John Steele, I can state two major facts. One, the British have categorically denied testing such long-range missiles over American territory, where they might endanger American citizens. There is convincing evidence that they are telling the truth. Two, there is no British missile now built or planned that could explain the object seen by Captain Mantell, Childs, and Whithead, and witnesses in most of the major sightings. The preceding statement applies equally to American-built missiles. There is no experimental craft or guided missile, even remotely considered in this country, that would begin to approach the dimensions and performance of the spaceships seen in these cases. There is concrete evidence that the United States is as well-advanced as any other nation in guided-missile development. Certain recent advances should place us in the lead, unless confidential reports on Soviet progress are completely wrong. If American scientists and engineers can learn the source of the spaceship's power and adapt it to our use, it may well be the means for ending the threat of war. The Soviet scientists are well aware of this. Their research into cosmic rays and other natural forces has been redoubled since the Flying Saucer reports of 1947. The secret of the spaceship's power is more important than even the hydrogen bomb. It may some day be the key to the fate of the world. CHAPTER 20 After one year's investigation of the Flying Saucers and Air Force operations, I have come to the following conclusions. 1. The Air Force was puzzled and badly worried when the disks were first sighted in 1947. 2. The Air Force began to suspect the truth soon after Mantell's death, perhaps even before. 3. Project Saucer was set up to investigate and at the time conceal from the public the truth about the Saucers. 4. During the spring of 1949, this policy, which had been strictly maintained by Forrestal, underwent an abrupt change. On top-level orders, it was decided to let the facts gradually leak out in order to prepare the American people. 5. This was the reason for the April 27, 1949 report, with its suggestions about space visitors. 6. While I was preparing the article for the January 1950 issue of True, it had been considered in line with the General Education Program. But the unexpected public reaction was mistaken by the Air Force for hysteria, resulting in their hasty denial that the Saucers existed. 7. Because the Air Force feared any closer analysis of the Mantell case, Major Boggs was instructed to publicize the Venus explanation. Although it had been denied, the Air Force knew that most people had forgotten this or had never known it. 8. Major Boggs, having stated this answer publicly, along with the other Chiles Whitted and Gorman answers, was forced to stick to it, though he knew it was wrong and that the case summaries would prove it. 9. The case summaries were released to a small number of Washington newsmen to continue planting the space travel plot. This decision being made after True's reception proved to the Air Force that the public was better prepared than had been thought. In regard to the flying Saucers themselves, I believe that in the majority of cases, spaceships are the answer. 1. The Earth has been under periodic observation from another planet or other planets for at least two centuries. 2. This observation suddenly increased in 1947 following the series of A-bomb explosions begun in 1945. 3. The observation, now intermittent, is part of a long-range survey and will continue indefinitely. No immediate attempt to contact the Earth seems evident. There may be some unknown block to making contact, but it is more probable that the spacemen's plans are not complete. I believe that the Air Force is still investigating the Saucer sightings, either through the Air Materiel Command or some other headquarters. It is possible that some Air Force officials still fear a panic when the truth is officially revealed. In that case, we may continue for a long time to see routine denials, alternating with new suggestions of interplanetary travel. The education problem is complicated by two imperative needs. We must try to learn as much as we can about the spaceship's source of power, and at the same time, try to prevent clues to this information from reaching an enemy on Earth. If censorship is suddenly imposed on all flying Saucer reports, this would be the chief reason. This would also help solve a minor problem where partial censorship now exists. A few test missiles launched from a Southwest base have been seen by citizens at a distance from the proving grounds. In some cases, their reports have got into local papers, though the wire services did not carry them. These missile tests are peculiarly different from the general run of flying Saucer reports. Contrasted with the Child's Witted, Mantel, and other spaceship sightings, they stand out with a certain pattern easy to recognize. News or radio reports of these tests might accidentally give an enemy clues to the type, speed, and range of this particular missile once he learned the pattern. Periodic censorship, or even a complete blackout of sighting reports, may be enforced during the next year or so. For the purposes mentioned, such action would be justified. But whenever such censorship is lifted, the complete truth about space visitors should be told at the same time. The full details of all the major cases, the size of the Godman Field Spaceship, any attempted landings or other efforts at contact by interplanetary visitors, and all other details that now are official secrets. I also believe that a certain group of disk sightings in this country is linked with our guided missiles. Official announcements, of course, may be delayed a long time. With this exception, I believe that Americans should be told the truth now. When the announcement of our guided missiles is made, some Americans not familiar with the facts may accept it as a full answer. If officials are not yet ready to reveal the space travel facts, the Mantell evidence and other key cases may be deliberately glossed over. But even if all the evidence, the worldwide sightings, the old records, the Child's Witted, and other cases should be completely ignored, Americans cannot escape eventual contact with dwellers on other planets. Even though space visitors never attempt contact with us, sooner or later Earthlings will be traveling to distant planets. Planets that scientists have said are almost surely inhabited. The American people have proved their ability to take incredible things. We have survived the stunning impact of the atomic age. We should be able to take the interplanetary age, when it comes, without hysteria.