UFOs ‘Official’ History Part 2: 1947 - Kenneth Arnold, Roswell and all that!

a reply to: JoeHansen

Hey Joe. I didn't want to appear patronizing in case you were familiar with the book.

Edward J Ruppelt's book is considered one of the 'classics' in UFO literature. It was written up during his time investigating the the flying saucer era in the 1950s. Ruppelt was the Director of Project Bluebook (formerly Project Grudge) from 1951 to 1953.

He, arguably, coined the term UFO, and attempted to make a serious, organised study of the phenomenon during his tenure. This was, in my opinion, before a tight control of UFO information was instigated. By 1953 cuts to the Bluebook budget and staff were made (Ruppelt being a victim) and the project became an exercise in debunking sightings.

Ruppelt's book was published in 1956, years after he had left the United States Air Force. It's a book that gives a background to the Kenneth Arnold reports and many other significant sightings and investigations of the late 1940s and early 1950s . But it makes no mention of Roswell. A few years later he added 3 new chapters with a more hard-line sceptical approach.

Sadly Ed Ruppelt died aged 37 of a heart attack on Sept 15th 1960.

While exploring the birthday problem in probability theory I came across the date September 12, 1952.
That was the date three young men (ages 13, 12, and 10 respectively) witnessed a bright object cross the sky in Flatwoods West Virginia.

Flatwoods monster

This would be an easy UFO incident to write off as over imagination except that the sighting occured almost exactly 50 miles WNW of the Green banks observatory that may have actually made contact with an ET craft in the mid 1950's.

a reply to: JoeHansen

Good summary here.

a reply to: chunder

Thanks for mentioning this one Chunder. I didn't want to reply until I'd had a look over this one myself.

Below is the picture taken by William Rhodes on July 7th 1947 over Phoenix, Arizona.



Unfortunately it's a fairly grainy picture of what appears to be a shoe heel-shaped object with a white central spot. Rhodes said he heard a “whooshing” sound as it approached from the West but then went silent as it circled above him before speeding off at a 'phenomenal' speed to the southwest. Rhodes also reported seeing twin vapour trails from the two points at the tips of the concave trailing edge.

Two photos featured in the "Arizona Republic" newspaper on the 9th July 1947.



What's interesting to me is that both Kenneth Arnold's story and Roswell are far better known cases. Yet neither of them have any pictures of a craft. Whilst the Rhodes case does yet remains buried amongst the history of the UFO wave of 1947 and was investigated by the military.

Thanks for adding this to the thread my friend.

a reply to: mirageman

In 1947 the Las Vegas Casinos were still using either a single deck or 4 deck shoes for blackjack.
There were no atomic bomb tests in 1947 although the theoretical physicists working at nearby Los Alamos sometimes visited the casinos and card counted for some extra cash.
There were other interesting projects at Los Alamos that were not associated with nuclear testing.
Used to be able to find and post some telling photographs from that period.

a reply to: Cauliflower

I am not entirely sure what you are talking about.

Are you suggesting that the Rhodes UFO is something out of a Las Vegas casino?

a reply to: mirageman

Hey m.m. Sorry for not answering in a long time, my time spent at ATS is going down.. so i haven't looked at this thread in a long time..

you did not sound patronizing towards me! i'm just curious! I am definitively gonna lock up Edward J Ruppelt book, always good to have some summer reading


and to chunder, thank for that add, have been reading a little about it, and something i did not know, was that Arnold, was keeping some info secrets about 1 of the ufos flying.. thats really interesting!

originally posted by: mirageman

What's interesting to me is that both Kenneth Arnold's story and Roswell are far better known cases.

Glad you linked the 3 together and whilst the Rhodes sighting is occasionally referred to in relation to either Arnold's sighting or Roswell rarely to both, which I find strange.

I mean if you look at the amount of time and effort over the years spent on investigating, explaining / arguing about hieroglyphics on balsa wood yet lets look at the basic facts of what we have here.

24/06/47 Arnold reports seeing a number of chevron shaped objects, one being a boot heel shape - Mount Rainier, Washington.

Late June / early July 47 - something "crashed" on a ranch in Roswell, New Mexico.

07/07/47 Rhodes takes picture of boot heel shape flying object Phoenix, Arizona.

08/07/47 Press statement from Roswell Army Airfield Public Information Officer that a flying disc had been recovered.

I think you have to say that the Rhodes photo lends credence to the Arnold report but as to being able to link it to Roswell - there are eye witness reports of sightings of flying objects in the Roswell area in early July !

a reply to: mirageman

Are you suggesting that the Rhodes UFO is something out of a Las Vegas casino?

Yes, the Rhodes UFO is an allegorical reference to a casino "shoe".
The card counting physicists from Los Alamos were using probability equations to count cards in the casino and for statistical analysis in their black projects.
The larger sample size of 5 shuffled decks changes the probability calculations so they are different than a single 52 card deck. Might be useful for applications like certain wave equations.

There appears to be a small hole in the sole of the "mans shoe".

Einstein moved to the beach and bought Sandals in 1939.

rarehistoricalphotos.com...