PROJECT BLUE BOOK

The

Although this

N April 23, 1950, I was walking
through the woods in the hills
near Red Bud, Illinois, I was a
part-time photographer, hoping to
get some wildlife shots, Of course,
crashing through the brush in broad
daylight was no way to get wildlife
pictures; I really just wanted to hike
- through the woods. However, I took
my camera along for appearances’
. Sake. As I came down the south side
of a hill, the woods broke away into
a clearing on a gentle slope. Utility
lines snaked their way across this
clearing and on down the hillside on
telephone poles. From here, I could
. see the green-and-brown hills about
bathed in bright sunshine. It was
then that I noticed that the clearing

though a small cloud were just over-
head. I looked ‘up.

I got the shock of my life. Sus-
pended at what seemed a height of
no more than twenty feet directly
over me, with no visible means of
port;-the -huge,—round,—shaded,
metallic bottom of what proved to
be a disc hung motionless in mid-
‘alr, I wouldn’t dare to hazard a guess

gt how big the thing was. It looked

enormous.
Very slowly, then, the huge dise

began moving away from me, south:

ward. The bottom seemed convex
and the upper surface likewise, bu'
it seemed that the upper surface
reached up to form a dome atop the
middle of the circle formed by the

uv

SET ee a SF
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LLINGLIS PLOto

- (See Front Cover)
By DEAN MORGAL

phote was taken on April 23, 1950, it
has not been publicized until this date because of the

original ridicule to which the photographer was sub-
jected by his friends, At FLYING SAUCERS’ request, he

has made a print available to us.

in which I stood was shaded, as

—

ID,

disc’s edge. This top semi-sphere
was reddish in color, and the rest ot
the thing, below a distinct line
where the dome started, seemed to
be of clear metallic substance, Th:
object stopped moving, and hovered,
motionless, out over the hills After
a few seconds, it again started mov-
ing slowly, this time to my left, east
ward. Once more it stopped andi
hung in mid-air out over the hills.
Only now did enough shock wear of!
to permit me to move consciously. Lt
shoved my camera up to my face,
caught the object in the viewer, and
snapped the shutter.
Immediately, the thing tovok off
There was no discernable sound or
exhaust, It was just gone in a flash

beyond the horizon. I wondered

about the heat. of the dav and mv
exertion in walking, and imagined

that perhaps 1 hadn't really seen
anything at all. My arm was trem-
bling violently as I looked at my
watch. It read 3:58.

I did not then know what I am
about to relate, but this is the story
they tell in De Soto, Illinois, about
fifty miles roughly southeast of
where I'd made my sighting.

It was about four o'clock of the
same day. A newsboy named Donald
Gene was, as usual, peddling his bi-
cycle down U.S, Route 51 to make
some deliveries south of town. He
stopped before the Greene residence.
which was right next to the high-

Greene was puttering with some

i1 1950
» Tlineis

plants in the yard beside the house.

Mr. Greene was up on the roof, pre-
sumably fixing a leak. It was notic-
ing Mr, Grecne that caused the

* newsboy to look up. In the blue sky

above, he saw what he later de-
scribed as looking like the bottom
of a silver saucer.

“Hey,” he said, pointing at the
object, “look at that!”

Puzzled, Mr. Greene from the rool!
and Mrs. Greene from the ground
first looked at him, and then fol-
lowed his indication. They caucht
sight of the thing in the sky. The
three observers stared with one ac-
cord as the saucer remained set in
the alr. After a short while, it took
off, to quote the newsboy, “faster

than any jet, straight south for Car- -

bondale.”

Later (I was still ignorant of this
incident), my photographic print
proved that what I'd seen from the
hillside had not been a bizzare hal-
lucination, but a bizzare fact,

I was, of course, most enthusiastic
about my flying saucer. The first
person with whom I conversed after
my experience was a portly friend,
whom I shall not name here, who
came over to my house in Fact &t
Louls for a visit one evening, He
was seated on the couch, I on a chair
across the room from it. After some
small talk, which I determinedly
kept to a minimum, we sat in silence
for a few seconds while I collected
my thoughts. How should I say what
I had to say?

At length I blurted out: “Do you
believe in... uh... flying saucers?”

“Of course,” replied my stout as-
sociate in his booming voice, as
though I'd asked him whether he
believed in automobiles. I was stun-
ned. This had been too much to hope
for. I had certainly never believed
in flying saucers myself before my
unexpected revelation; and of all
people I could not have visualized
my friend as a “saucerer”’.

“Wait,” I said, leaving the room
in an excited rush, I returned with
my photograph, handed it to him,
sat on the couch beside him and rat-
tled off my report with missionary
zeal as he gazed soberly at the pic-

‘way in the open countryside Mrs ~ ture.

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ben

“You don't seem surprised,” I said

after the conclusion of my account.

“I'm not,” he said softly. “I saw

one of these once.”

“You?” I was flabbergasted.

“Yes,” he said. “It was purple, and
orange. A ray gun shot out of its
porthole and rayed me, and that’s
what made such a mess of me, You
must believe me!” He stared at me
with a wild look in his rounded eyes.

I felt my face flush as I realized
what he was doing. “All right!” I
said hotly. “Knock it off!"

His mouth suddenly split his fat
face open as he shook with roaring
laughter. He gave his watch a glance
that was too quick, and said, “I’m
sorry, Dean Morgan old boy I'd bet-
ter go now.” He got up to leave,
handing me the photo. “I'll see you
around.”

“Yeah,” I said, sitting where I was.
He left.

_ He's never “seen me around” so-
-Clally again. |

I’d never been so angry; nor s0
frustrated, for my anger was force
without direction. I couldn’t blame
him; I would have behaved in a si-

.  ™milar manner had our situations
been reversed...

I showed my photo to two more
friends after that, and the responses
it evoked were enough to make me
shove the picture into a drawer and
will myself into forgetfulness. At
least, I tried to forget.

In 1956, the Reverend Don Holt
became pastor of Bunkum Road
Baptist ‘Mission, of which I was &

member. Under his pastorage I be-
came the mission's song leader. One
day, after the morning services, 1
saw him talking with some of the
_members in the yard, as he was
wont to do. When one of the mem-~-
bers made a pointless joke about
flying saucers and people who see
them, I noticed that he did not
‘Jaugh with the group, but assumed
an unusually solemn expression
After those members had left him,
I ambled over and casually asked
why he hadn't laughed at the joke
I'd overheard,

He was reluctant to answer, but
finally said, “I wouldn't lie to you,”
and revealed the, following:

esecti ii hin

OF em aE Sn oi

i "eater PS

2é Je rr? hes rs. ’ “rT mere

He had Jived in De Soto, fiinois.
at the time of my sighting. It was
now, from him, that I learned of ihe
newsboy's sighting I have described,
I was greatly edified to hear that
this had occurred on the same day
as my sighting; in fact, just a little
afterward. But there was more to
his story than that. My pastor, 4
man of irreproachable character
had himself seen the object! He had
been going south on U.S. Route 51
North of Carbondale city limit, he
had seen the object hovering in the
sky for an instant before streaking
away before him in the same man-
ner in which the newsboy and his
husband-and-wife confirmants de-
scribed it as streaking away from
De Soto. .

‘ J managed to contact the erst-
while newsboy, whose story was as
described, .

My enthusiasm was revitalized,
and 1 tried desperately to get my
findings published. They were re-
jected by all popular magazines.

It was in August, 1957, that I dis-
covered “Flying Saucers” magazine.

I realized that here was a publica-
tion that was open-minded, to say

the very least. However, I was re- .

luctant to write anything for it, be-
cause most of the things I founda
therein seemed so... . ‘I hope the
faithful will pardon my saying this
oes Crazy.

But I now feel duty-bound to tell
my story, for I know the flying sau-
cer legend is based on absolute fact.
and if that hard truth is ever to be
bared from beneath the layers of

myth, those of us who have access

to fact must disclose it.
The photograph was taken from

- g hillside, not far from Red Bud

Illinois, facing south-southeast, The
lines in the upper left foreground
are utility wires, and the things in
the lower right are the tops of bushy
trees. The tops of two telephone

poles can be seen as the ines wind

down the hillside. The “saucer” 1s
hovering, just prior to taking off.

I get a weird, creepy feeling every
time I look at this picture. To para:
phrase something Editor Ray Pal-
mer once said, “What have I seen?
An Unidentified Flying Object.” ~

.
EE

PHOTOS ah 1950
Sonar facets aie Beieric Telants

In 1950 a large flurry of UFO photographs were recorded
with a photograph by Newsreel cameraman Enrique Hausemann Muller
at the Balearic Islands, Spain showing a Pinwheel-shaped object
spinning and throwing off raye of exhaust, taken on april 24.

Pe ee a ee ee ee ee ees

ee

Le-eile-L

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