The article below was published in the daily newspaper The San Francisco News, San Francisco, California, USA, page 3, on July 18, 1947.
See the case file.
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IT'S ABOUT TIME the Army or the Navy, or both, or whatever branch of service is engaged in such experiments, cleared up the mystery of the flying disks, saucers, air foils or radio-controlled whatzis.
Evidence piles up that the people haven't been "seeing things." And, if they haven't, what is it?
Colonel Frank A. Flynn, who's a veteran Army airman, a lawyer and an examiner for the Civil Aeronautics Board, was flying to Sacramento Tuesday in a Vultee BT-13. While over Concord at 4000 feet about 12:15 p. m. he saw what appeared to be a flock of large birds approaching.
"But as they passed me," Colonel Flynn explains, "they took on a different form. They were shaped something like giant birds but they had no necks or tails. There were from a dozen to fifteen of them and they yawed along in a sort of see-saw manner, flying at three different levels down to 3500 feet, and about 200 feet apart."
Using a Taylorcraft that was in the air on his other side as a measuring guide, Colonel Flynn estimated them to be approximately 15 feet across, about the size of the radio-controlled target ship developed by the Navy during the war. He quickly swung his plane around and took after them but was able only to determine that their speed was "far in excess of 200 miles an hour."
Colonel Flynn observed the flying ???? were very white on top and, when a thermal tipped a number of them sharply, he was able to see that they were gray and black underneath. There was no place where a pilot could have been seated, he said, and there was no master ship in the sky so far as he could detect. The closest he came to the flying ???? nearest him was about a mile, he estimated.
Unfortunately, the colonel did not have a camera in his plane or he could have had a photo of what he saw. From now on he intends to carry one with him at all times, ready to film any other flying ???? he comes across.
But, the colonel is sure of what he saw! And he's an observer whose reliability cannot be questioned!
It's certain the military know what they are. If they didn't, the flying ???? would be picked up instantly on the radar screens and the air forces would be after them faster than you can touch off a nose cannon. So, why not lift the curtain?
