Phoenix Arizona Republic, July 10, 1947
'Flying Disc' Stories
Blow Up Under Study
CHICAGO, July 9--(INS)--Reports of "flying discs" diminished sharply tonight throughout the nation as each new discovery blew up in the face of army and navy investigation.
The spectacular report from Fort Worth, Tex., that an eastern New Mexico rancher had found a so-called "flying disc" was spiked by army air force officials.
THE "DISC" proved to be nothing more than the ragged, stained remnants of a weather observation balloon.
Officers at army air force headquarters in Washington were reported "displeased" with public relations officials at the army air base at Roswell, N. M. the original report that the weather equipment was a "disc" came from that station.
Police branded as the work of a "prankster" an aluminum disc found by F. C. Harston in Shreveport, La
A TRAVELING salesman from Iowa insisted a 6-1/2 inch steel disc he found was the real thing. He planned to collect a $3000 reward offered by an industrial firm for a genuine "flying disc." Officials looked on his find lightly.
At Cambridge, Mass., Dr. Harlow Shapley, world- famous director for the Harvard College Observatory, commented that the mystery of the discs is not one for meteorologists or astronomers--"but one for psychiatrists."
Dr. SHAPLEY suggests two ways to see the discs. They are:
(A) -- Rub your eyeballs.
(B) -- Be in your cups.
Brig Gen. Roger Ramey, commandering general of the Eighth army air field at Fort Worth, said:
"To me the flying discs are just like the purple cow. I never saw one."
ELSEWHERE the discs were getting typical American light treatment. The Missouri-Kansas-Texas railroad received a request from the Denison, Tex., Lion's club that it rename one of new trains to keep up with the times. The club suggested:
"Believing that their home town railroad should keep abreast of the times, the Lions Club and the people of Denisonsuggest that you name one of the freight trains 'The Katy Flying Saucer'."
But despite the disintegration of each new report, there are still many who insisted "there's something to it." They pointed out that the navy and army is checking every report closely.
Comments
This rare INS story on the Roswell events was very cursory and devoted mostly to debunking the flying saucers.
Chicago dateline. The opening line is very similar to UP's of how saucer reports had dropped off because the army and navy had started a concentrated campaign to stop the rumors.
The Roswell story was "spiked" by AAF officials.
The usual weather balloon explanation. Although described here as "stained", the actual photos of what Gen. Ramey displayed show a white paper backing to the radar target that is very clean and not stained at all -- looks brand new.
Like AP, INS assigned blame to the Roswell public relations office for the story. UP, however, said it was Roswell C/O Col. Blanchard's press release.
Rest of story is simple debunkery, starting with these two widely reported hoax disk cases.
A typical authority figure is dragged out to aid in the debunkery. Dr. Shapley suggests the explanation is purely psychological. People are either drunk or crazy if they see disks.
**A unique quote from Gen. Ramey not found anywhere else. But it's just more debunkery. The "purple cow" comment is not much different than saying people are drunk and seeing pink elephants.
Despite the heavy ridicule, the article ends on a more serious note. There might be something to it and the military was still carefully checking out all reports.
