The National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (Nicap)

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# Approved For Release 2001/04/02 : CIA-RDP81R00560R000100010001-0

At first the UFOs were clustered together, heading north. "Then they shifted to a perfect V. The shift was done with precision," Kline said. Within seconds, the objects took up a new formation: Two rows, with the UFOs in one row spaced evenly between those in the other row.

Assuming the UFOs were about 2500 feet above the city, Kline concluded their speed would be about that of an F-86 Sabrejet. But "their shifts in position were incredibly swift and fantastically violent--in terms of our experience." If the UFOs were higher than they appeared to be, Kline continued, "their performance takes on even more incredible aspects."

Mr. Kline reported his sighting to the 34th Air Defense Division, and was asked to describe the maneuvers to intelligence officers.

"I have witnessed both day and night rocket flights at White Sands...The saucers were something different altogether," he concluded.

A formation of 12 UFOs passing over Philadelphia was observed by photographers of the Inquirer and the Bulletin, and many others, November 9, 1955.

At 6:08 p.m., Charles W. James, of the Philadelphia Inquirer, saw a V-formation of round, silvery-white objects pass overhead. During the observation, the objects shifted into an A-formation. The UFOs made no sound. The color did not change. (James was interviewed by a correspondent of C.R.I.F.O., headed by Leonard H. Stringfield, now a NICAP Adviser. See Ground Observer Corps, this section).

## CROSS-SECTION

After the many sightings in 1952 [See Section XI, Chronology], UFO reports began to be publicized less and less. However, over the following years there was no lack of sightings. Of the many hundreds reported since 1952, the following selected cases comprise a cross-section of reports from observers of various backgrounds, from 1952 to 1962, inclusive.

1953: Cleveland, Ohio; Don P. Hollister, a technical writer for the Goodyear Aircraft Corporation, saw a UFO pass overhead about 6:30 p.m., September 7. While waxing his car in the back yard, Hollister happened to glance up and noticed a grayishblue object directly overhead, headed north. The sky was completely overcast, and the UFO appeared to be at less than 3000 feet altitude. It was shaped roughly like an equilateral triangle, but rounded somewhat on the sides and angles, and was rotating around a central axis. The UFO continued on over the visible horizon at constant velocity, disappearing from view after about 5 seconds. [51]

1954: Grand Canyon, Arizona; Elbert Edwards (Superintendent of Schools in Boulder City, Nevada) and John Goddard (professional explorer) saw a cigar-shaped UFO April 16 about 10:20 p.m. While camped above Havasu canyon in the Grand Canyon, they noticed a very bright light approaching at high speed. For the next minute, Goddard studied the object through 8x binoculars. It was cigar-shaped and had a row of five bright lights along the side "like portholes." The brilliant light which they had first noticed was on the front of the object. The UFO travelled from north to south-southwest, in the direction of Mexico. [52]

1955: Ohio: UFO activity was observed over a wide area, October 2, by many witnesses in separate locations. So-called "angel's hair" fell the same day. (Walter N. Webb, NICAP Adviser, interviewed several of the witnesses and wrote the following report. Another Ohio report for the same day, discovered later, is appended.)

"A remarkable local [Alliance, Ohio] UFO sighting took place at sunset on Sunday, October 2, 1955. The sighting was confirmed by at least eight witnesses who saw the same object around the same time from three widely separated areas. Six of the eight observers were interviewed.

"I first received word of the UFO from a close friend of mine, James Ansley (Jr.) who called me right after he and his family had returned home from a drive in the country. Jim was an Alliance High School student and an amateur astronomer and photographer whom I consider to be an accurate observer. Two days after the sighting and Jim's report, Wilma Faye Barker, a chemistry major in her junior year at Mount Union College in Alliance, told me of the sighting she and her boy friend had made

that Sunday. Finally, in late November I was visiting another UFO investigator, Fred Kirsch of Cuyahoga Falls, and learned that an Akron couple, Donald J. Karaiskos and his wife, had also seen the same strange object at the same time, October 2. Mr. Karaiskos had phoned his uncle, Mr. George Popowitch, after his sighting, and several days later Mr. Popowitch in turn called Kirsch.

Ansley Report

"The Ansleys were driving west (more exactly, WSW) from Alliance on West Main Street when Jim noticed an orangish object hanging in the sky about 15 degrees above the west horizon. It was 6:10 p.m. (EST) just after sunset, and the sky was clear. At first Jim thought it might have been Mercury or Venus, but he soon realized that it could be no celestial object. The tiny round object was as bright as Venus. Everybody in the car saw it -- Mr. and Mrs. Ansley, Jim and his brother, Dave. After they turned north on the Sawburg Road, the UFO appeared to move south slightly but Jim couldn't be sure (probably an illusion of movement since the car itself was in motion and also had to make a turn).

When they pulled out on the Harrisburg Road, Route 173, the thing was hovering over the road straight ahead (far away) and soon began to change size and shape, becoming a darker orange, then lighter in color again. It changed from a small disc to an ellipse to a thin crescent and finally to a very thin, pointed cigarlike object perpendicular to the horizon. Jim estimated the cigar was $ 3/8 $ long, with dividers held at arm's length against the sky. This agrees with the Akron observer's estimate - 1/3 the length of a pin which is $ 3/8 $ .

When the crescent stage was reached, the object began to straighten out to become the vertical cigar. To Jim, the whole change resembled the phases of the moon. It remained perpendicular for about 7 seconds (timed on Jim's navigators watch), then it started tilting downward, halting momentarily at an estimated inclination of 20 degrees. It then tipped to a level position, parallel to the horizon, and faded from view in this position--like a plane vanishing behind a cloud, said Mrs. Ansley...Most of the phases were watched along Freshley Road, and the Ansleys saw it disappear from there.

The sighting lasted 10 minutes, from 6:10 to 6:20.

The observers said the cigar appeared solid and sharply defined.

Barker Report

Wilma Faye Barker and her boy friend, Rudolph Holloway, saw the same object. They were driving home from Guilford Lake, southeast of Alliance, around 6 p.m. and first noticed the thing at North Georgetown. She saw it as a very bright silver line or needle, solid and sharply outlined. She could not estimate its angular size or altitude except that it was big and low in the western sky, tilted slightly toward the north...and standing still all the time. They continued to watch it now and then as they drove along U.S. Route 62 into Alliance. Then they noticed that the thing had changed shape, to a flattened oval, roughly triangular, still hanging at a slant (Faye said they did not see the actual change in shape occur). The oval was not as sharply outlined as the needle and was duller in color. Driving north on Union Avenue (Route 80) she lost sight of it at intervals because of trees and finally discovered it was gone. She arrived home at 6:20. The object was probably observed during a 15 or 20-minute period.

Karaiskos Report

"In Akron a Kent State University student, Donald J. Karaiskos, 25, and his wife were driving west along Cole Avenue near Hammel Street at approximately 6 p.m. when they noticed a bright white sharply outlined cigar-shaped object (also described by him in his report as "rectangular, proportions of 1/3 the length of a pin') about 10 degrees above the horizon. It was tilted at a 45-degree angle and motionless. The sky was clear except for some clouds along the horizon below the object. The setting sun was partially obscured by the landscape and houses. Mr. Karaiskos drove about three blocks, then turned around and came back to the original spot to see if the object was still there. It was, so he parked the car, got out, and watched it for 5 minutes. They then went to his wife's sister's house in the nearby Cole Avenue housing project where he phoned the post supervisor of the Akron GOC, a Mrs. Sutter, and also called his uncle, Mr. George Popowitch (who later notified FredKirsch). Following the

Approved For Release 2001/04/02 CIA-RDP81R00560R000100010001-0