by Dan Wright
Note: Wayne Sulo Aho was an American contactee, claiming repeated contact with extraterrestrial beings. He was one of the more obscure members of the 1950s wave of self-described contactees who followed George Adamski.16 Morris K. Jessup was the author of The Case for the UFO, 1955.
The Charleston, West Virginia, daily (via INS) carried a news article on July 12 that voiced NICAP's claim of multiple supersonic airborne objects. The article quoted a NICAP spokesman as stating, “Civil Aeronautics Administration control-tower operatives have tracked four ‘flying saucers’ over California, operating at speeds up to 3,600 miles an hour.”17
Retired US Navy Rear Admiral Herbert B. Knowles, a NICAP member, criticized what he called the veil of secrecy surrounding the UFO subject. Presaging a fellow Navy admiral (see below), he declared: “There is a real need to break through the official Washington brush-off and get the truth to the people.”18
An NEA staff correspondent wrote in the Harlan, Kentucky, newspaper on July 20 a story headlined, “Spot a Flying Saucer and Afraid the Neighbors Will Laugh? Then Tell It to New Confidential NICAP.” The article featured Donald Keyhoe, NICAP director, a retired Marine major who said NICAP offered confidentiality to witnesses reporting UFOs, while secrecy would likewise be extended to those choosing to join the civilian organization.19
The article continued by remarking that the first issue of NICAP's periodical announced the appointment of its newest board member, Admiral Roscoe H. Hillenkoetter, career Navy officer and—importantly—former CIA director. Keyhoe continued his scolding of Washington: “It has been Keyhoe's contention all along that the Air Force has a big plot cooking to keep the real facts on saucers from the public.”20
Wayne Aho, the contactee who met with Agency staff, apparently failed to impress. In a July 26 memo from (redacted) to the OSI deputy assistant director for collection, the Agency staff person said up front that Aho claimed to possess the powers of extrasensory perception (ESP). The information conveyed went predictably weird from there. “He explained that spaceships are all about travel in a fourth dimension . . .” The visitors, Aho said, are here only for good. He was able to travel in the fourth dimension while asleep, in his “twin body.”21
Two years before, Aho said, he had first encountered a saucer; he claimed six friendly beings appeared on a screen before him. Ten weeks before, on the night of May 11–12 in the desert he allegedly saw a white light resolve into a red orb, diameter 20–30 feet, hovering nearby for five minutes. He spent the night walking about 20 miles in the desert, as directed by a magnetic force. He encountered an invisible ship and felt the presence of visitors. No classified information was offered during the interview.22
An August 20, 1957, note from Support (to/from redacted) indicated that, based on communication with the Air Force's ATIC, the CIA Director was told that Leon Davidson would receive a reply to his inquiry regarding a coded ham radio transmission. Was this note's recipient aware that such a letter had been sent or drafted?23
A month later on September 20, Air Defense Command tracked an unknown at 50,000 feet, its speed a consistent 2,000 knots (2,300 mph) from Long Island to Buffalo, New York. (The air speed record in 1957 was 1,207 mph by a McDonnell 101A Voodoo.24) Radar jamming was reported at several locations along the way. It was unlikely to be a Soviet advanced aircraft or missile launch in a military taunt—though no specific intelligence on any Soviet activities was available. Weather phenomena might well have explained the early radar returns, but none were forthcoming. Consequently, no Intelligence Advisory Committee meeting needed to be called regarding this event.25
In an October 1 exchange between anonymous parties in the Agency, one shared with the other: “. . . I accept the fact that people see things in the sky and cannot identify them.” Ninety percent or more, he went on, were known objects—planets, balloons, birds, high-flying aircraft. Having spent time studying the subject:
I saw no evidence of “intelligently controlled” objects. . . . [T]he likelihood of truly inexplicable phenomena is vanishingly small. . . . [T]hey are not a uniform class but a hodge-podge of widely disparate, partly described phenomena. . . . [T]he subject, by its nature, precludes any rigorous proof or dis-proof.26
Philip Strong, OSI's Deputy Assistant Director, continued to contact former members of the 1953 Robertson Panel, this time Lloyd V. Berkner on October 2. As Strong had explained to the others, the Air Force requested that the Robertson Panel's conclusions be declassified for press purposes. The CIA agreed with partial declassification, deleting any mention of Agency involvement. As a panel member, did Berkner agree with the partial declassification proposal? Would he allow mention of his name?27
An anonymous Agency staffer, who had written a UFO-related book intended for publication, replied to someone critical of his argument for a UFO reality. In his October 5 return letter, the author remarked:
It was refreshing to receive a negative letter that evidenced clear and sound thinking. Unfortunately, I cannot say the same for some seven or eight-odd letters from scientists who, although thinking much the same as you, have shown sarcasm and ridicule in expressing themselves . . . Whether or not I can use your opinions in the book remains for the publisher to decide . . . It would interest me to know with what USAF project you were associated.28
Philip Strong notified his superior, the OSI assistant director, via Office Memorandum of a UFO-related development. His October 26 dispatch conveyed that, per a phone call from Howard Robertson, Air Force Major James F. Byrne had contacted Robertson for permission to release the Robertson Panel conclusions. Strong added that he would follow up with Major Byrne.29
“Dr. Leon Davidson is on our backs again. He wants a verbatim translation of the ‘space’ message and the identification of the transmitter from which it came.” The sender of this November 3, 1957, telegram (to/from redacted) was evidently irritated by Davidson's persistence in the matter. The message went on to say that ATIC's Captain Wallace Ellwood had written to Davidson, explaining that the recording in question “was in identifiable Morse code from a known US licensed radio station.” Would the assistant director be willing to obtain the translation and transmitter ID from the Air Force? “We'd like to dismiss this man once and for all.”30
In a follow-up the next day, someone in authority (redacted) sent a note indicating no translation of the code was available. ATIC had twice attempted to contact Leon Davidson. This case was closed. The person suggested his letter be ignored.31
Another telegram from the Chicago office, this one on November 5, clarified that its contact with Leon Davidson was in person when he was in Chicago for a meeting. Davidson was preparing an article for a “space magazine” and demanded either (1) the translation of the message and emitting station to prove the message was a hoax, or (2) permission to display CIA and ATIC letterheads in the article to show the government was avoiding his inquiries. “He explained that he had received no satisfactory answer to his request of us and ATIC in nearly a year.” The Chicago staff was seeking an escape route.
Davidson was calm and pleasant but very determined . . . We wish to bow out of this thing, but urge that headquarters, (redacted), and ATIC concern themselves with this man and try to satisfy him. Please do not let us down on our agreement to communicate with him. We are committed.32
Philip Strong contacted Cal Berkeley's Dr. Luis Alvarez for the purpose of enclosing a citizen letter to the Air Force on the UFO subject, plus the declassified Robertson Panel Report.33 Strong wrote identical letters to Dr. Lloyd Berkner, President, Associated Universities, Inc.,34 and to Dr. Thornton Page, Operations Research Office, Johns Hopkins University.35
A November 7 interoffice memo from a redacted party to the chief of another (illegible) office included photographs printed from a strip of 16 mm movie film taken in 1952. The photos were on loan to the Agency for 30 days. The movie camera used had a focal length of 63 mm and took 24 frames per second. The cameraman and other observers present estimated the u
nknown to be 2,000 feet high, at a camera angle of 45 degrees. The lens aperture was f:2.7, while film emulsion was fast panchromatic. The original negatives were in Air Force hands. The witness stated his willingness to make more negatives from the prints if they would be useful.
“The object appeared to have the shape of a saucer, i.e., a rotating oblate spheroid which seemed to flatten out as speed increased. The UFO was in view for about three minutes and was of a bright orange color.”36
In the wake of the Soviet Union's first two Sputniks, a former CIA Director, Admiral Roscoe H. Hillenkoetter had a different take on that story line. In a November 18 news article (publisher not shown), he made a prediction:
Satellite and space exploration programs should give us new, valuable information on UFOs, affording definite evidence as to their reality, and this will result because of a tremendous increase in observation of the sky, by radar and telescope tracking systems and by naked-eye observations.
Such an increase in sightings volume was underway, this member of NICAP's board of governors added. “There are already increases in authentic UFO reports since the Russian satellite drew public attention to the skies. Also, spotters of Operation Moonwatch, the US satellite tracking network, have sighted a number of UFOs.”37
On December 4, 1957, Dr. Thornton Page of Johns Hopkins University wrote back to OSI Deputy Assistant Director Philip Strong to express his opinion that after nearly five years since it was written, the Robertson Panel Report should be declassified. Page added that he did not object to the release of his name in connection with the report. Further, he had no strong opinion on withholding some of the information. A separate exchange of their letters was enclosed (not shown).38
On the 12th of December, a (redacted) staff person sent a memo to the chief of an OSI (illegible) division regarding five photographs of an unknown he had returned to a private party on the 10th. In the conversation that ensued, the staffer clarified the Agency's position on such matters and the individual's rights and obligations.
The staff person asked whether an evaluation of the photos might be done by OSI. The staffer said they would not be but that his desire would be sent on within the Agency.
He explained that a television show was planned in order to inform the public and encourage UFO witnesses to take photos whenever possible. To that end he asked if it would be permissible to state on air that an intelligence agency had viewed the photos and found them of interest. The answer was negative.
Finally, he asked about writing to the director of central intelligence to seek an evaluation and the Agency's permission to show the photos on the program. The staffer told him he had that right.39
By mid-December Leon Davidson and his cover-up allegation concerning some Morse code, recorded from ham radio, was consuming Agency time again. A telegram from the Chicago office to a redacted source (probably in ATIC) on the 19th expressed a growing consternation: “As we informed your office there is no translation available nor is there any record available except for what you know.” Davidson had been approached recently by ATIC staff:
[T]he same message was given him again. He asked for it in writing which (redacted) refused to do. Davidson then said he would write to ATIC. We are all resigned to more letters . . . He has already received a couple of letters from ATIC, two from the DCI's office, and two visits from (redacted).
The sender suggested ignoring the latest Davidson letter.40
On the 20th, OSI's Deputy AD Philip Strong communicated to Howard P. Robertson, now chairman of DoD's Defense Science Advisory Board. Five years before he had agreed to chair a small group of physicists to examine the best evidence gathered in support of an ET hypothesis of UFO reports. On this occasion Strong was sharing a citizen's letter to the Air Force, plus the two-page declassified statement of the Robertson Panel's conclusions (neither shown).41
Strong wrote similar letters that day, enclosing the sanitized Robertson Panel Report, to the other panel members: Samual Goudsmit of the Brookhaven National Lab, Thornton Page of Johns Hopkins, Luis Alverez of Cal Berkeley, and Lloyd Berkner of Associated Universities.42
As if to wrap up all the presents and tie them with bows during Christmas week, Strong completed his December 20 correspondence with a letter to the Air Force assistant chief of staff for intelligence. Respecting the stated wishes of USAF brass to declassify the “Report of the Scientific Panel on Unidentified Flying Objects” (a.k.a. Robertson Report), Agency staff and the panel members came to agreement that the report could be released to the press and public but only in a brief, sanitized form, as stipulated. Moreover, any mention of Agency involvement was strictly verboten—“no connection with the CIA may be disclosed.” Strong added that no panel member objected to use of his name. The report as revised was enclosed.43
Calendar 1957 and its repeated call to anomalies ended in a to/from telegram exchange between redacted parties. The Chicago CIA office expressed that, in all respects concerning the Leon Davidson matter, “we wish to bow out of this thing.”44
1954-57 from Blue Book's Perspective
The USAF Project Blue Book's accumulated data on UFO reports in America from 1954 through 1957 reveals some consistencies as well as certain trend lines—as dutifully collected and assessed at their desks by a low-ranking officer and one noncom, whose job was to collate data collected from numerous sources.45
Total cases received and evaluated rose year over year. 1954—487
1955—543
1956—669
1957—1,005
Astronomical sources—planets, especially Venus and Mars; the four or five brightest stars; meteors and the occasional comet—were the most repeated misidentifications in each of the four years. 1954—28%
1955—25%
1956—33%
1957—34%
Conventional aircraft ranged from 16–22% of the total cases each year.
Balloons accounted for 11–19% of the cases.
“Insufficient data,” including momentary events and ambiguously described sightings, accounted for 17–21% of the total.
Confirming the wisdom of a long-term education and debunking program, officially unidentified cases as a portion of the total descended from 9% in 1954 to less than 2% in 1957. For 1956 and 1957 combined, only 31 incidents were left unexplained.46
While you were away from your desk . . .
Other significant cases in 1957, in America and overseas, might have captured CIA interest—had it been paying attention. The volume of records placed on its website in January 2017 included none of those described below.
March 9, 1957
At Wilcox Field (later Miami International Airport) air traffic controllers sent a flash message to the Civil Aeronautics Board concerning an incident at 3:30 a.m. To avoid an oncoming unknown, the pilot of a Douglas DC-6A four-engine prop aircraft took violent evasive action. The intruder was described as having a brilliant greenish-white center with an outer ring reflecting the glow from the center. Seven other pilots in the air offered similar descriptions. No missile flight or jet aircraft activity accounted for the incident.47
May 3, 1957
Two men, on behalf of test pilot and later astronaut Gordon Cooper, were filming installations at Edwards AFB, California, when they observed the landing and departure of a silent flying disc. Their film evidence was sent to the Pentagon (a.k.a. the black hole). No evidence suggests they heard back.48
May 20, 1957
During the Cold War era of the 1950s, the US Air Force used RAF Manston, located at Kent in England's East Anglia area, as a Strategic Air Command base. That night, two F-86D Sabre jet interceptors, already on routine scramble alert, were ordered into the air and east out over the North Sea. The lead pilot, Lieutenant Milton Torres, later recalled conversing with the Ground Controlled Intercept (GCI).49
The initial briefing indicated that the ground was observing for a considerable time, a blip that was orbiting the East Anglia area. There was very little moveme
nt . . . [I]t was suggested to us that the “bogey” actually was motionless for long intervals.50
After a final turn he was told to look 30 degrees left, and there it was, 15 miles distant. Though still in heavy clouds, the blip on his radar was now intense—equivalent to a “flying aircraft carrier.” His radar locked onto the target and he was preparing to fire the salvo when the bogey proceeded to bounce all over the screen, breaking the radar lock. A moment later it moved beyond the 30-mile maximum distance for radar tracking. The attempted interception was over, and the pilots returned to their base.51
July 17, 1957
Two months later in the predawn hours, a US Air Force RB-47 Stratojet reconnaissance bomber, equipped with the most advanced electronics of the time, returned across the Gulf of Mexico at 34,500 feet altitude and 500 mph on the final stage of a training mission. As it moved over Gulfport, Mississippi, onboard equipment picked up something that appeared to be pacing the plane. A bit later, after the bomber turned west, multiple sets onboard, plus ground radar, kept track of the unknown. At one point the crew spotted a huge white light in the distance, which in the darkness vaguely appeared to be attached to something airborne that was still larger. At another juncture, the bogey was in front of the plane, seemingly on a collision course, and the pilot veered to avoid it. By the time the Stratojet turned north toward its home at Forbes AFB in Topeka, Kansas, the UFO had been in its company for 700-800 miles. Blue Book and the Air Defense Command both investigated the case, though no account appeared in print until 1969 as part of the Scientific Investigation of Unidentified Flying Objects, a.k.a. the Condon Report. In the interim, shortly after this incident, Blue Book officially declared the intruder to be a commercial airliner while offering no data.52
