ACUFO:

Saucers Over Hanford, Wash.

TOP-SECRET
NUCLEAR PLANT
BESIEGED BY UFOs

By Rufus Drake

When asked about saucers spying on one of our nuclear research installations, a top level government official answered: “We have a policy that discourages public comment on anything that happens here at Hanford facility - and that's double true when you talk about UFOs...

Hanford, Wash. In March 1944, while flying along the Columbia River near Yakima, Wash., military air cadet James E. Emery spotted something bizarre and unexplainable. Emery, only 20-years-old, didn't think much of it at the time, because there were two monumental events happening in the world that he knew absolutely nothing about. In later years, however, Emery would be haunted by the thought that he was the first human being to witness the convergence of these two events - the unleashing of the atom, and the coming of the flying saucers.

“I sure as hell didn't know, at the time, that I was flying near the top secret Hanford Works, which was processing the plutonium for the A-bomb we would drop on Nagasaki the following year. Nor did I know that both allied and enemy fliers were beginning to spot weird, unidentified flying objects called 'foo fighters' near industrial areas over Nazi Germany and Japan.

Least of all did occur to me that atomic

energy and UFO's might somehow be connected...”

Now a retired colonel in his early 50's, Jim Emery grins and shrugs, recalling what may have been the first true UFO encounter in the continental U.S.

“I was just a punk kid then, earning my wings and out on a cross-country hoo in a PT-19 primar trainer. You know the plane, a little terror of spars and canvas wrapped around a powerful 450-horse power engine. I was soaring along at about 5,000 feet, enjoying myself, thinking about how I'd soon be flying fighter planes in combat. Suddenly, I looked back and realized that I was being stalked by a half dozen fast moving, very bright lights...”

The UFOs were “pebble-shaped,” Emery remembered, and “relatively small, no more than 10 feet in diameter.” He counted seven of them, in a wedge-shaped, “V” formation, crossing the Columbia River to his right.

“Curiosity seized me and I turned to give chase. At this point, their speed increased rapidly...

Jim Emery got to within 1,000 feet of the disc-shaped objects before they started to pull away from him. He'd just finished a training course about tricks that can deceive a fighter pilot's eyes” - sun dogs,” reflections of light against a plexiglass canopy, odd-shaped clouds, and so forth. His sudden turn permitted him to view the receding UFOs from several angles, convincing him that this was no optical illusion. He was certain they were metallic objects, moving with a deliberate purpose.

“At the time, I thought they might be secret weapons. No longer. Over the years, I've become convinced that these were pilotless drones, launched from a mother ship somewhere near earth, that represented some alien civilization.

“And, of course, they were spying on Hanford...”

Emery's UFOs vanished quickly, leaving him alone in his canvas and bailing-wire trainer-but the UFOs interest in the top secret nuclear facility at Hanford, Wash., is something that won't disappear.

William H. Turner, Jr., a local resident, reflects the view of many Hanford natives when he insists, “The UFOs keep coming back. They're drawn to us. We have a special attraction for them.”

Reporters have never been allowed inside the Hanford Works, named after a small town that no longer exists, 17 miles from Yakima. But the plutonium processing site is as old as the atomic age itself.

Within a month of man's first controlled nuclear chain reaction on Dec. 2, . 1942, Maj. Gen. Leslie Groves, head of the wartime “Manhattan Project,” ordered the opening of a new, top secret facility to permit a dual approach to the crash program in developing this country's first atomic bomb. Work was already underway on a bomb to be detonated with uranium, U-235, destined to be used on Hiroshima. Groves also wanted a bomb that could be exploded with plutonium - the “fat boy” which would ultimately devastate Nagasaki.

In March 1944, Air Force cadet James E. Emery observed seven objects that looked like pebbles flying near Yakima, a secret atomic energy facility. Emery, then 20 years old, did not know that he was flying his plane past a top-secret Hanford plant that was processing iodine for the atomic bomb that was detonated over Nagasaki the following year. Today the pilot remembers the incident quite clearly:

"I was still a miserable beginner at the time and was on a cross-country flight in a PT-19 training plane.

I was flying at an altitude of about 5,000 feet and was thinking about how soon I would be sitting in a real fighter plane. As I looked around, I suddenly saw half a dozen extraordinarily bright lights slowly approaching me. The things were quite small, no more than three meters in diameter. They flew in a wedge-shaped V formation and crossed the Columbia River to my right. I became curious and began to follow the things. But immediately afterwards the objects, which were no more than 1,000 feet away, accelerated."

Emery had completed a training course a few days earlier in which the pilots had been warned about reflections, strange cloud formations and the like. He tried to target the UFOs from different directions by making quick turns and maneuvers. Finally, he was sure that the objects were not an optical illusion, but definitely real metallic objects (Drake 1977).

1944, March

USA, Hanford

The young pilot Jim Emeri aboard his PT19 noticed that the plane was being pursued by lights in a V formation. Curious, he let them get closer to 300 meters to see that the lights seemed to be small discs approximately 3 meters in diameter. He counted seven. This information is probably due to the pen of Rufus Drake, a former officer, having suggested that this was not the first time that objects had been seen in the sky of Hanford.

These cases were handled with discretion, because the authorities assumed they were dealing with spy devices. (Rufus Drake: “Geheime USNuclear-Anlagen von UFOs berwacht; Untertassen bei Hanford/Washington”, erschien in 'UFO-Report', Spring, USA, S. 38-41, 60-62. “Geheime Wunderwaffen II” erscheint als Band 2 of the Reihe “Obskure Sachb cher” in der Edition Gonzo, Sommer 198 - Haarman) USA, Yakima: A pilot saw 7 shiny pebble-shaped objects flying in V formation; (PROJECT ACUFOE, Catalog 1999, Dominique Weinstein)

493: 1944/03/00 00:00 1 120:31:00 W 46:36:00 N 3311 NAM USA WSH 6:7
YAKIMA,WA:PILOT:7 PEBBLE-SHAPED 3M OBJs in V-FORMn:/HAINES PILOT FILES
Ref#114 HAINES, Richard: PROJECT DELTA Page No. 178: IN-FLIGHT

Case 35

March, 1944

Yakima, Washington, USA

A pilot in flight observed seven pebble-shaped (10 ft diameter) objects flying in V formation.

Source: Project Delta, Richard F. Haines p 178