NEVADA UFO ROUND-UP

by Skylaire Alfvegren

On June 24, 1947, the modern era of UFOs was ushered in when pilot Kenneth Arnold witnessed a formation of nine boomerang-shaped craft which moved “like a saucer would if you skipped it across the water” while flying near Mount Rainier, Washington. A journalist bastardized his description of the crafts’ movement and the term “flying saucer” was born.

A mere four days after Arnold’s sighting, Air Force F-51 pilot Lt. Armstrong, flying 30 miles north of Lake Mead, reported a formation off his right wing of five or six white discs flying at an altitude of 6,000 feet. Three weeks earlier, a reddish UFO was sighted above Las Vegas. Witnesses claimed it emitted a flash of light before shooting heavenward.

1947 was a banner year for strange objects in the sky, and everything from “flying saucers” to “flying washtubs” and “flying Cardinal’s hats” were reported. Newspapers ran sensational articles speculating that the saucer flap was the result of atomic testing in the Pacific.

On March 26, 1950, just a few days after the infamous UFO invasion in Farmington, New Mexico, officers and civilians at the Air Force’s Indian Springs gunnery range took turns peering into an anti-aircraft scope to watch “something bright in the sky.” In Reno, a CAA control tower operator watched a similar maneuvering light source. The Los Angeles Times ran a piece about the sightings entitled “Planet or Saucer? Mystery Sky Visitors Sighted by Air Force.”

On May 7, 1950, nine miles south of Ely, a couple and their grandson watched a silvery-white object hover 100 feet in the air. It wavered back and forth for ten minutes “as if attempting to rise” before suddenly flying off at high speed.

On June 24, three years to the day of Arnold’s sightings, something extraordinary blazed across Nevada’s night sky. The saga began when two United Airlines pilots, their crew and passengers spied an object “somewhat cylindrical or dirigible-like” in shape. Captain E. L. Remlin, First Officer David Stewart and Captain Sam B. Wiper, along with dozens of passengers aboard the UAL Mainliner agreed upon a description: the cigar-shaped UFO had a bluish center, a bright orange tint and was flying horizontally at about 20,000 feet, considerably faster than the plane at a distance of about 20 miles.

The pilots logged it with CAA ground control at the Silverlake checkpoint just north of Baker, California, at 8:08pm. The “ship” was also reported by two military planes and sighted by at least four other commercial airliners. Two of the CAA operators at the checkpoint watched the object in disbelief for ten minutes. The pilot who made the initial report described it as gun-metal grey, with an appearance of heat radiation near the rear, which he could make out when the object jolted west.

Dozens of civilian pilots and hundreds of spectators watched the craft from all over the state. In Tonopah, a pilot watched the craft moving back and forth in its vapor trail. In Lovelock, pilots watched it shoot north at a terrific speed. CAA operators noted the vapor trail “was definitely made by a mechanical, flying object.” In Fallon, a woman told her husband, a reporter, that she witnessed a brilliantly intense light moving at an “unbelievable speed” in the northeastern sky. In less than a minute’s time it created a huge, circular “smoke trail” which other witnesses described as luminous and corkscrew-shaped. An hour after the initial report was made, the object had winged its way over northern Nevada. Witnesses in and near Ely watched the spiral trail light up the sky, which remained in the air for half an hour. The previous day a “great ball of fire” which left a smoky trail was witnessed by thousands from Texas to Alabama. One Beaumont, Texas newspaper reported a “ball-shaped object shooting flames out of its side and its back” streaked over the town.

The Nevada sighting was so remarkable that the pilots who made the initial report held a press conference about their experience on June 27^th, which received substantial media attention.

President Harry Truman created the Nevada Test Site on January 11, 1951. The first atomic test, Operation Ranger, was conducted on January 27, when five relatively small bombs were airdropped over the desert. In February, Donald Keyhoe predicted A bomb tests there would lead to an increase in UFO activity, and indeed, two of the three Nevada cases Project Bluebook officially listed as “unknown” occurred in the summer of 1952. On April 17, a group of circular UFOs buzzed Nellis Air Force Base. Checking up on the test site, perhaps?

On July 24, 1952 three objects flying in a tight V-formation were witnessed by two Air Force colonels flying east past Reno. The bright silver, delta-winged crafts had a pronounced ridge running down their middles, no tails, and streaked past the B-25 at an impossible speed. This sighting occurred right before the famous “saucer invasion” in Washington, D.C.

From Project Bluebook, a sighting from USAF Captain D. A. Woods was reported August 26, 1952 at Lathrop Wells near Nellis Air Force Base. He reported a singular round and very bright object with a “dark cone” in the center which left a V-shaped contrail. It flew rapidly and hovered before making an instantaneous 90 degree turn, accelerating gently and rocketing into space.

Five years later, Project Blue Book ran into a little problem. At 6:30 on the morning of November 23, 1957, 1^st Lieutenant Joseph F. Long was returning from advanced survival training at Stead Air Force base when he had a close encounter with four classic flying saucers.

Driving towards Las Vegas, Long was 30 miles west of Tonopah when his engine died. Failing to restart his car, his ears were assaulted with a high-pitched droning hum which eminated from four disc-shaped craft resting on the ground between three and four hundred yards from the highway. Curious, Long walked to within 50 feet of the identical objects, which he estimated were 50 feet in diameter, between ten and 15 feet high, with a dark ring around the outside. Along with the strange hum which became almost painful the closer he came, the objects emitted an intense glow. Each was capped by a transparent dome on top, and rested on three hemispherical landing legs.

As he approached, the objects retracted their landing gear and rose 50 feet into the air, traveling slowly north across the freeway and disappearing behind some small hills. The lieutenant inspected the landing site, where the craft had left depressions, but no evidence of heat. The encounter lasted 20 minutes. Upon returning to his car Long found that it started with no problem and ran perfectly. He drove on to Indian Springs Air Force Base and reported the sighting to the base Security Office. A memo in the Blue Book files outlined the Air Force’s problem:

“The damage and embarrassment to the Air Force would be incalculable if this officer allied himself with the host of “flying saucer” writers, experts and others who provide the Air Force with countless charges and accusations. In this instance, as matters now stand, the Air Force would have no effective rebuttal, or evidence to disprove any unfounded charges.”

The sighting had to be explained, or at least explained away. A psychologist was contacted, and the best he could do was suggest it was “road hypnosis,” that the lieutenant had hallucinated while driving. Untenable as that may seem, the official Blue Book explanation lists the occurrence as “physiological” in nature, thereby ensuring no further investigation. Over the years, many investigators have noted the credibility of the case. When Jack Webb produced the TV series Project UFO, he based one of the 26 episodes “Incident in the Nevada Desert” on Long’s case.