전쟁부(DOW)-미확인 이상 현상(UAP)-D088, 미국 내 비행 물체에 대한 미 공군 분석, 101-172

Includes a "Check-List - Unidentified Flying Objects" that contains details about the incident. Many summaries also include witness lists or statements and other narrative reports or descriptions. 

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Authority:
NND 917033

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ED F'L 'Ji-; OBJ~TS
l . Lb' t 18 Febnlary 1948 101
3; l..o i cn 1oroatur, ~.,...
5. Occupation of obqo rvor F.di tor
" • .-idr ::s of ol' corvor Horton, K su
7, Plac of ob~ r~ t i on or catur, Kan s
10 . Ti.,o in ci ·ht N/s
11. ,di. tt udo 30 - }5 mi.loo above earth
l~. Spood N/S
..,,, ir 'i One b~ explosion - "a!t.erwarde a lot ot little explonons"
16. c:; 11;0 N/S
17. Coler Bluuh""'ft'hite smoke smwi e
l';. O<ior dot votod N/ ,">
'C . ..pph r unt r.ons r ur.t1,.n Meteor
r l.
ErJuu.a:;t t r 11s _.,.. Blu1ah-,.iftt e:ooke smudge
r.
/S r
:On-t.hur conditi ons 14
23 . Eff t o:. c louds U/ S
24 . Sk ot ch •s or pt t or r .. pts Photo of vapor trail left in sky by 8xPlcs1oo
?5. Monn1J r of disnpp,Jor nnco Disintecrat1oo
20. Romnrks : Oscar Monni&, of the Tex8.8 Observnre, JDB.teur Astronomy, 1010
Monunl81de Dr1Te, rt. orti1 , off ers "tanpble proot that u, fir· ball
r
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•
., ..
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of February 18 over ncrtt.ern l\ansas was just t.hat, inasrmch as meteorites
have been recovered tron it.11 Thore were found, be(;irnine 1.prU 211, first
sever al su.lla fra..,-en:.s JJ) to ore of 4 1/2 pounds . Then a disturl ed
spot in a clover f'ield led to "the dii:giI1e up of a r i PC& of so e 109 po\l1llls
e edded about two feet in the soil. The st.one i s nhat is tenred aa an
"achondrite", a technical name f or an unusual cy-pe or stony m teorite.
It is reported t o be of a tYJ hi ch will detAriora~a rapidly.
A p otorrHph or tre trail of the meteor, r:l.'.lde by amateur p.otor,r ~her
Duane ,I. ~"fr117 of Nortor, shows tho vapor tridl left in the sky by t.he
exploaiol"'l of a ~eteor which was secl'I 1r Oklahooa, t,ew -exic o, Colorado,
Kansas, ard uebr.,~ka. It wu m:.de at. uray 1s },oae, ni.Je mil,-.s rort·1 or
Norton, jlPt tour r.,inutes after the teer XJ loded. A ~r:n.cce of blue­
wliite smoktio remained in the sky £or an hour 1''ebruary Wth. '!'his pboto­
craph is in tile under lri i ent '1101.
Furthe r r emarke are contained in supplement .

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(COPY)
323 W. Ton1,h t.,
Pueblo, Colorado
February 20, 1948
Uffi<•e of the Chief of Jtnff
u. . ~rrr:,
,ash.in n, D. C.
l si ,, in the sky near l!orcntur, ..ans.
S1Jbject:
L:00 p.n. ('",T) February lt, 19l,it
To call at.tenti.on t.o so peculiarities
Purpose:
in connection, whe her coincid ntal er not
AccordinG to 'Vl AP bulletin appeari"' 1n the Pueblo CHIEFTAIN
for Fehruary US, 19116, sone ohject was seeu moving eastward
across the sky or tt-.n late artemoon of 1" bruary IBth, ard
en this UiinG re'lcl ed a po:iition ap1,roxi.mate to l!orcatur,
Kansas, c:xploded , or disrupted, or disappeared. The ex­
plosion is said t.o ha· e been terrific.
Dir,..ction:i gi.vi::n as to •he prccress or tJ is appearance i n­
rticate Unt it rii< ved from west to east.
Information con ,ained in t,hc dispatch under a Denver dateline
in1i ·ate that ile mar,y would call this object a bolide -
e. , . , expl din meteor - the astronomP.rs of Chamberlin
Vbservator y (iJenvor) did not so assess it: it is said in
U e dispatch that se offic1al• could offer no explanation
t
of it.
If this 1.s t ca· e, the a;:,para.nee is anomalous, and may lend
1 tseli to other meteoric explanation.
A sb tch~iaGJ"Bm of t ~ earth and moon Is orbit reveals a pe­
culiarity in coMcction witt thP appearance, 1'hich may be
&1E;nJ.ficant .
Ir a line i s s •r icken r..it r ight-anrl"'s 'lcross the meridio"'a.l
position or the s:ite of expl"'sion r this oeteor at hour
argl • fo•ir o'clock (local time) and t ds line be con::idered
the west-to-eai:;t cours of thP object, tten it will bo St en
t 1at if • iB line i .. c !'It n' d tward ir to 'lpace toward t.ho
orbit of t t e moon it will intersect the lunar orbit at a
pla nPar to wt re the moon would be at fron 60 to one huncir ed
h urs after the explosion t.,ok }lace.
Uew moon occ11rrud at 9 0 10 H 2 U Februarn First uurt er
at 17D 'H . F'e' ruary - the noon ciov s -i1 I r ox1111ately
12. 5 do rrees per d::i:• alon1~ its orbit.

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It is held by rocketry experts (example, WILLY LEY - see
his ROCKE'IS, p. 192, diagram and note in connection there­
with) that it wol,ll.d take about 100 hours f or a rocket-craf t
to negotiate the di stance from Earth to Moon.
Prior to its ~xplosion over Norcatur, this object of Feb.
18th was variously reported as a "falling plane", a "jet
plane", and a ''ball of fire11
•
It is said by some to have
l eft a trail of smoke behind it.
It is the suggestion of this writer that the Army collect
am
assimilate reports on this object , with a view t o
determining where it was seen as an object trailint: smoke
and llhe re as a ball of fire.
If this thing is a r ocket of some kind headed for the moon,
it might first have been seen as a streak of sr.oke, then
later as a ball of fire, and lastly as a tremendous ex­
plosion when it at last reached sufficient speed and eleva­
tion for take-off.
The writer has in mind the various and unexplained r e1.,orts
on "!lying saucers", and bases this speculation upon a
lonb c onsideration of various oddments of reports whose
significance might be of epace-craft f r om other worlds of
space.
The so-called "meteori c procession" which crossed Tor ont o
in February 1913, consisted of a number of u oups or
illimunated bodies traveling in v oups of three an:l moving
in "rigid formation", all pursuing a course acr oss the
same streak of the earth's surface. J.r a line is projected
backward along ·t his line of fli ght it will be seen that
this line "comes out" at the position of the moon at the
time. The 1913 phenomenon occurred in the mid-period of
a series of reports on dirigible aircraft of appearance
like zeppelins which were seen over :&, gland an:i whose
appearance terminated - or reports on the appearances
stopped - j ust prior to the inferior conjt.mction of Venus
24,
of April 1913.
The writer begs to call attention to the f act that the
times prior to and just after inferior conjunction of Venus
are prolific in reports of strange t hings seen in the sky.
Also t}at lights have been reported on the moon from time
to time, back f or at l east a century.
Ir in thr future of mil itary experiment the moon is selected
as a base for the launching of r ockets (which has been
suggested by some writers), it may be wel l to look first
2

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i·1to •·er orts like Vis one or1 Lhe explosion ovf"r Norcatur
aw1 1.hc dit·PctioT'
1)1'
the nhject in•,olved.
Tl·ere is n r,os:,i. bilitv, 1 O\-rev"'r r cMote this r:iay seem, that
tlte moon is e· ther inrabited or in use b:v other ti an hlll"lan
he: t1 ;S.
.1.011rs ,
/s/ N)Pl.\AN GARRETT !.lARKHAM
It ma~, do not harm tn
,Tatch the moon for
possible arrival of
t .1 s thing in the quarter
at ~o to 100 101.1r fi after
"its uepar·tur e" .
lJG!.1
3
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... (COPY)
.I.larch 14, 1948
FILE REF: - SIGGE-U-1
From: Norman G. Uarkham
MAIN HOT£L, Pueblo, Colo
To: Chief ~ignal Of ficer
s.
U. Army, ,ashington, D. C•
•
Subject: Norcatur, ~s., sky explosion
of lS February, 1946
Purpos-e: To shc,,r a speculation regard­
ing tho above phenomenon and
another one of earlier date
and to call attention to
occurrences between the two
which have an appearance of
' relationship whether coinci­
dental or not.
The geographical position of the Norcatur explosion suggests possible
linka.!;8 with other occurrences happening inside latitooinal limits arbitrarily
demarkable between 43° 36 1 North (which is the latitooe of Ooise, Idaho)
and 36° 101 North ( the latitu:ie of Nashville, Tenn.)., a belt about 485
miles wide.
'lbis suegestion is gained from positions given for occurrences
happening between June 24., 1947 and February 18 , 1948, as s hall be
hereinaft er briefly described,
THE OOISE (Idaho) OBJECT- This was seen either beginnin{.! or ending at 330 pm
24 June 1947 am was visible for 20 minutes. It was in the western sky,
was of comet-li~ appearance, and settled gradually toward the horizon ae
planetary bodiea set. It was seen bo.r Lt. Gov. Whitehead •u)j Chief Justice
Lartpert. Its nature was unknmm .
The peculiarity which connects this object, for speculative purposes, with
the explosion of some unknown object over 1~orcatur, Kans ., on 18 l!'ebruary
1948 is the seeming of a relationship between the positions of the moon for
the two phenomena:
In the form2r case the moon was at the date of phenomenon, about 7%, 63
before the positionof First Quart er; on the second case i t was about 8%. 73
beyotxi the position of first quarter.
Since the Boise object was visible for 20 minutes before it sank this
argues it was about ten deil"ees above the horizon when fi?1J t seen. Now
if a line be dra1'l'l westward and at ten degrees zenithward from the
l : , "
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horizon of Boise at 3:30 p. m. and another line be dra"'ft'll from tbe position
of the ooon at one hundred hours before the sighting of the Boise object,
and projected to t he center of the earth, it will be seen that this ten­
degrees-altitude and the moon-earth line intersect as a place tar above
a geographical position considerably to the west of Cape Bla11ce, in the
neighborhoodof about 700 miles off the coast.
The Boise object in its appearance suggests a rocket-type ar craft possibly
using r eaction blasts to brake itself down for a landing on the earth.
The brig"lt point and plumy tail of the description suggest this, as also
its apparent fixity in space.
HOLLE'S 11SHIP Ir F1J\MES" - Nine days after the siehting of the Boise
object a forest lookout named F..arl Holle saw at or soon after 4:00 p.m.,
3rd July, 1 ,47, something he took to be a "tanker in flames". This was
seen horizon-ward fr om a point 1n Sonoma Gounty, Cali fornia, near to Fort
Roos. A search waR inst:!. wted by the Navy or Coast Guard, and nothing was
foum . Tho sov;et tanker ELBRUZ , w'1idl had been in t.he vicinity, was
quer i.ed a rd found to b~ all right. This was not explained.
Ir this apperance had been on the horizon, there is no telling how far
it may have been from the observer.
CAPE MENDOCINO BLDAP H'CIDENT - Hot far from the l ocati on of Holle 's
"burnini; ship" an accident occurred to a navy blimp, 14 July 1947, off Cape
t,1endocino.
This blimp soodenly settled into the water, slipped out its crew and rose
ai;ain.
'1110 anoMaly here is that one would not expect to find drastic do'Tm-<:lrafts
of such violence as to thus upset a lighter than air craft. Possibly a
dovmdr:ift accounted ror t ~ accident - but if the Signal Officer will look
up the incident of the British steamer Talma w',ich, at the time of the
sighting of a luminous wheel-like phenomenon in the Gulf of Llartaban,
reported a slowinr: of the engines from some unknO\m cause, it may be seen
that possibly forces are ,-:enerated in son:e manner by certain unk11own
ohjects at times in the or ean, which may have physical attraction for
materj al objects. 1'1is blimp aceidP.nt occurring in waters where occnrred
othPr phenomena shortly to be mentioned, seems to have a doubtful side
t.o it.
TI E OAKIAIID ODJ"EX;T - !!.arly on the morninc; of 13th Octob r, 1947, a
1 0
photographer named Hen Dobus togehter with a taxidriver named A. J.
Goldman saw a thing "that looked like Saturn with a rinc around it."
lt shot at terrific speed WEST,7AfID across the sky of the Bay area, anci was
seen shortly after midnight.
2

This may have been heading in the general direction of what may have been
the goal of two later objects which r oughly resemble it in description.
THE TICOODEROGA OBJEC'IS - According to the tanker Ticonderoga's
secom officer, two "nyinc discs" were seen heading SOU'IHWE:3T when the
43 124 54
ship was in degrees fifteen minutes north and degrees minutes
west, at 0620 GCT, 12th November 1947.
These may have been heading f or the object seen in the Pacific off the
Golden Gate, not long afterward - or possibly at the same time, if earlier
reports on this are consulted. •
.THE PHAN'IOM REEF - On November 24, 1947, the Navy denied that it had
found a phantom reef or other obstruction to navigation at a point about
4oO miles west of San Francisco. TM Navay Survey ship MAURY, sent out
there in r esponse to reports of ships that some hugh object had been
seen in the water in that neighborhood, reported that when in the
approximate 1 titude and long:1.tu:ie of the supposed obstruction they
picked up an echo from soll8thing in the wa+.er 16oo yards f rom the
ship; but that Tfhen they had steamed to within 4oo yards of this, the
echo vanished.
There seems a possible connectability between the various elements so
tar considered.
Later on January 7, 194.S, there were occurrences in the neighborhood o!
\filmington, o., Ft. Knox, Ky., Franklin, Ky., am Nashville , Tenn., all of
which must be now familiar to the archivists of the Signal Office.
Something like a "fl¥ing disc" was pursued by one Lt. Mantell arrl two
other pilots, ~antel being killed while in the process of attempting to
gain altitooe to get close to whatever it was he was chasing.
Also, in this connection, it may not be amiss to mention the deaths of
two military officer& ,mo were said to have been bringing back material
evidence from "flying discs" one of which was said to have met with some kind
of accident over .14aury Island, Puget Sound, around June, 1947.
It Will be seen on inspection that the geographical locales of these
incidents fit inside the belt of latitu:ies hereinbefore mentioned.
'mE NORCATUR EXPLOSION was described in a previous letter of this
writer, an:i it was shown in that letter that a line tangential to the
meridian of Norcatur, Kans ., at hour-angle 2:20 p.m., would if con­
tinued outward into space to the orbit of the moon, intersect the
moon's orbit at a point where the moon would have been at about 100
hours after the time of the explosion.
According to r ocketry theory, it would take a reaction-propelled
craft of the rocket type about 100 hours to reach the moon.
!
p

, . .
! sub,i.t there is n likelihood t.hn t. on .J1u11,1 2!,, 19!17, ~:mn,•thini; like a
sp:icc-sl i• ca• , l •~e from the r10011 and 1won Februar:· 1g, 19hS, returned
to • hP. J'!IOnn .
'M1is is of ~ r.;n spcculill.i 'ln.
8•11. has ., nyone :,,,t, cxplatnel t.ho '1fl·:int; disc:.11 in ter1:1s of all th~
p1•etty-well proven fa<" ts in conuccti on vrith t.t,om?
lla!l an·,one vet devised .s fuel powurful enough t o k~ck , r ocket !"rom
,-.1rt!. to l.o !.!0011?
Th"'re la·~ beer hw lreus o!." reports, durlnc the pnst century, on
oc~ 1rr,•nces which implv this world is visited from outside space.
Alis, nee ,,f c..r1tact hy these po11tul-itahle visiting entiti,•s ma.v imply a
st.ate of C)t lt.urt? frir beyond ours, to the point ffh(?l'e it wo11l.d be inP.X­
pediPn t. !'or th.,i r ·.,.obers to han. to do "ith us en-r.iasse.
lhese reports hive navPr Ileen seriously considered by science, which
in general il?)'lore~ them .
Howevr•r, acco!'dir,1 .o Dr . Rocr.t of Chamborlin Obsnrvatory, Jenver, there
is not ,int ir. astr or~or.iy to expl ain the thing which expl oded over Norcatur.
Jr. Ninin11er 1s idea that t.he thint wa~ a meteor fl:ltly di3rei:;