UFOs in the daily Press:

Navy Spends $25 to Show Flying Saucers Are Fake

By United Press

Practical jokers continued to have a high time with flying saucers today as the navy advised the more serious minded "eyewitnesses" that what they saw in the sky were only weather observation devices.

It cost the navy $25 to assure itself. Lt. Rell Zelle Moore, naval air station aerology officer, launched a "ray winds" weather device in a $25 "Operations Saucer" at Atlanta, Ga. As the helium-filled balloon carrying a tin-foil screen soared over Stone Mountain, calls poured into Atlanta newspaper reporters flying discs.

The 4 by 10 foot screen looked like a round aluminum disc at a high altitude. "People are only just beginning to see these things aloft," said Lt. Comdr. Thomas H. Rentz.

Finds Super-Disc

Russell Long, North Hollywood, Calif., construction engineer found a 25-inch metal disk with radio tubes flashing and smoking in his flower garden and excitedly called the fire department. "It looks like someone went to a great deal of trouble for a joke," said Battalion Chief Wallace E. Newcombe of the Los Angeles fire department.

Andrei I. Gromyko, Soviet Deputy Foreign Minister and delegate to the United Nations, vetoed suggestions that the flying saucers were of foreign origin.

"Some attribute it to the British for exporting too much of their Scotch whiskey to the United States. Some say it is a Russian Discus-thrower training for the Olympic games who does not realize his own strength. I do not think these versions are correct," said Gromyko.

Add to Rewards

A Philadelphia department store raised the total rewards offered for an authentic flying disk to $8,000. Its newspaper advertisements said it would give $5,000 for a flying disc to add to "the most complete assortment of saucers in Philadelphia."

Previous rewards of $1,000 each offered in Chicago, Los Angeles and Spokane, Wash., had no takers.

Dave Johnson, aviation editor of the Idaho Statesman, rushed development of some movie film to find out what he caught on his flying saucer hunt. Yesterday from an airplane, Johnson said he sighted a black object moving at a high rate of speed between Boise and Anderson Ranch dam. He shot about "10 feet" of movie film of the object before it disappeared.

Several persons reported seeing discs over Chicago's south side last night but other witnesses said they were just searchlights playing against the clouds.