Behind the Flying Saucers - Frank Scully.pdf

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Author: Frank Scully
Title: BEHIND THE FLYING SAUCERS
Format: Book
Publication Year: 1950
Digitizer: Bufo Calvin
Comment: Paragraphing formatting, hyphenation, and indenting has been changed to make the text
file more legible.
=======================================================================
Dedicated to The Scully Circus, our trained fleas from heaven--Skip, Syl, Pat, Non, and Mike--and
may they some day fly in one.
PUBLISHER'S NOTE
We are publishing Behind The Flying Saucers because we believe it to be an exciting, timely, and
straightforward interpretation of one of the strangest phenomenon in modern times. It is obvious, of
course, that any discussion of flying saucers from whatever point of view is bound to be
controversial. This book is no exception, for Frank Scully's conclusions as to the nature of these craft
differ sharply from those held officially by the Department of Defense.
However, we are as convinced as any thoughtful publisher can be that Mr. Scully has approached his
subject with probity and has interpreted the facts and figures given him with care and caution. In
writing this book he has had extensive interviews and assistance from scientists and other experts in
such fields as magnetic energy, astronomy, and aerodynamics men who are reputedly high in their
profession but some of whose names, as will be apparent in reading this book, must be kept
anonymous.
We, like most people, including Mr. Scully, have never seen a flying saucer. But from the mass of
evidence as reported in the press and magazines by reputable persons, there is much reason to believe
that they actually do exist. What they are, where they come from, or how they fly, we do not
presume to know. Mr. Scully attempts to answer some of these questions and we're sure that you'll
find his answers both fascinating and provocative. We did.
AUTHOR'S PREFACE
BETWEEN THE PEOPLE and government today lies a double standard of morality. Anything
remotely scientific has become by government definition a matter of military security first; hence of
secrecy, something which does not breed security but fear. If we see anything unusual, even in the
skies, we the people must either freeze our lips, like a Russian peasant at the sight of a commissar, or
give our names, addresses, business connections, and testimony to be screened and filtered by
anonymous intelligence officers.
Feared and respected by many people, these anonymous creatures can deny what we say, ridicule
what we say, and sometimes (and in an increasing number of countries) jail us for what we say
especially if our timing does not match to the second their intended official pronouncements on the
subject.
Just as the communists have made a god of their Uncle Joe, we have begun to deify our faceless
spokesman. Both should be fought by free men as word oppressors. Without going into it at too
great a length, this all ties up with the loss of faith in formal religion, which forces people to cling to
the New Sublimation.
 
The only way for a free people to fight such encroachments on free inquiry is to say in advance,
"What I am telling you will be denied," or "This is true but those who say so now will be branded as
dreamers, and if they persist, as liars."
It completely destroys American sportsmanship standards when we, the people, stick to the rules
while an opposing team of censors who have usurped our rights are permitted, by their own
handpicked referee, to pull rabbit-punches on defensive play, hamstring us from the rear if we seem
to be running well in an open field, and even machinegun the ball in midair if we are kicking an
almost certain field goal.
There is only one thing to do under such a setup. Expose their tactics. Show that more offenses are
committed under the word "defense" than this world dreams of. Insist that what we say is the whole
truth, and what they say is not the whole truth.
That may seem a dreadful way to treat our own flesh and blood, our commissioned sons who have
been trained for combat but have been assigned in peacetime to espionage and counter espionage.
But since our sons in uniform do not report to us, the people, but to Central Intelligence (which as
far as we can make out reports to nobody and is answerable to nobody), how otherwise can we get
our current findings to our own friends?
Scientists believe they have suffered more than any other group from the postwar loyalty hysteria but
writers cannot be far behind them. The "thread of intolerance" which runs through our history has
now become as thick as a noose to hang us. Under the circumstances, to write a book, knowing not
only that you will be ridiculed, but also knowing who will do the ridiculing, and not have a
counteroffensive ready, is to be starry eyed and unrealistic.
Rather than be rated dreamers by such obvious interior proof that we are dreamers, it is a good deal
smarter to swing first and say that all bureaucrats, whether in tweeds or bogged down with salad
dressing, are incompetent time servers, hanging on the public payroll till pensioned or rewarded with
a stuffed shirt job in private enterprise (privately endowed universities, naturally, included) and are
truth trimmers to boot.
In order to regain this lost freedom we will have to say "a pox on both your houses" and cease to be
brushed off by the perpetual hocus-pocus involved in such phrases of these spokes men as "top
secret," "secret and confidential," "restricted," and, "withheld for reasons of security."
Such brush-offs are almost invariably followed by a statement from another department of the
defense arm, that what we are hiding isn't really worth concealing, that we are defended by old and
obsolete equipment, and that, finally, unless we grant them an additional billion dollars for new
equipment overnight, we are dead ducks, saucers or no saucers!
Propaganda has made true—and--false practically obsolete in our language. In fact, if a spokesman
has served time in intelligence, it may fairly be said, the truth is no longer in him. Spies cannot even
buy or sell lies with skill. If so, why are they being arrested all over the world and almost invariably
getting a sentence of fifteen years? Has that become the fair trade practices act on the international
level?
Perhaps it would be clearer to readers if I illustrated with a few samples of this dismal wallpaper
pattern. On June 24, 1947, businessman Kenneth Arnold of Boise, Idaho, flying his own plane, first
reported he had seen several flying saucers in the area of Mt. Rainier, Washington. Reports of other
saucers from other areas followed.
 
Then on August 9, Lieutenant Colonel Donald Springer, assistant to the chief of staff of the Fourth
Air Force, decided to stop the nonsense. Despite the fact that his command had an unsolved mystery
on its hands concerning molten material claimed to have fallen on Maury Island, and the death of two
army pilots who were transporting the material for further examination, Colonel Springer said, as far
as he was concerned, there was no basis for belief in flying disks in the Tacoma area "or any other."
Newspapers took this as some sort of hint and piped down on the subject. With what result? That by
January, 1948, six months after Colonel Springer's dismissal of the subject, the Pentagon set up
Project Saucer to investigate the hundreds of reports that had been coming in. Fate devoted almost
half of its first issue to flying saucers and led off with an article by Kenneth Arnold entitled "I Did
See The Flying Disks."
Project Saucer proceeded in a quiet unhysterical way for eighteen months before issuing even a
preliminary report. The Saturday Evening Post apparently got the idea that the report was going to
be negative, so it had Sidney Shalett prepare two articles on the subject for almost simultaneous
release with the Air Force report. The articles turned out to be rather long winded recapitulations of
various flying saucer case histories previously explored, and the general impression left after reading
them was that believers in the actuality of flying saucers appeared as not quite bright.
Shalett's first article appeared in the Post issue dated April 30; the second, May 7. The April 30 issue
was on the newsstands several days before April 30, of course. In fact, it was on sale when the Air
Force issued its April 27 preliminary report. The Air Force report crossed up the Post. This was in
line with the pattern I have previously outlined of making fools of collaborators.
Far from confirming Colonel Springer or the Post, the official report held that there was something
to the flying saucer stories after all. It even entertained the idea that the saucers might be from
another planet. It left many of its case histories with no solution, as far as this earth or Air Force
Intelligence was concerned, but promised more light on these later.
Having thus proceeded to lure the Post into "fronting" for a negative approach, the Air Force
proceeded to accentuate the positive. This naturally opened the door to those rival editors who
thought they saw a new trend. True magazine figured it could cash in on the Post's loss of face. Its
publisher, editor, and a contributor reassembled much of the Fate and Post material and told the tale
again, except that instead of casting doubt on all believers in aerial disks, True followed an older
party line established by Fate in the spring of 1948 and declared in December, 1949, "Flying Saucers
Are Real."
Hardly had True's copies reached the newsstands when Air Force Intelligence denied True's position
from beginning to end. Its spokesman announced on December 27, 1949, that Project Saucer had
been closed. It classified believers in flying saucers practically as psychopaths or hoaxers. It left no
other way open as an escape hatch for True or anybody else.
This Machiavellian pattern of inflating and deflating those who agreed or disagreed with the military
on flying saucers continued and was not likely to be altered even if, and when, the whole truth came
out. The formula seemed to be: "Play ball with us and we'll let you have it between the eyes."
Though I have not the slightest interest in what the military may or may not say about this book, I
want my readers to under stand my position. I have never seen a flying saucer. I have never had a
hallucination that I have seen a flying saucer. I have never joined in any mass hysteria on the subject,
and to the best of my knowledge and belief I have never participated in the perpetration of a hoax on
flying saucers.
 
I have talked to men of science who have told me they have not only seen them but have worked on
several. I have tried to the best of my ability to find flaws in their stories. But to date I have not
succeeded in placing them in any of the three categories laid down by the Air Force.
Scientists do not want to go to war with the Army over the issue. They have to get essential
materials for research, and certain branches of the Department of Defense might find it difficult to
find such essential materials for scientists who will not cooperate. Do they make themselves clear?
Is it any wonder therefore that I advise readers to treat any official comment as no more to be
considered than old news papers blowing in the wind? In fact, if such faceless men should say that
the objects are (a) newspapers or (b) not newspapers but fragments of flying saucers, they are not to
be believed either way. Not until we, the people, we who, have names, addresses, and the courage of
our convictions, not until we say there are such things as flying saucers, is it authentic. And we have
been saying it for sometime.
Now read Behind The Flying Saucers and throw in the fire unread all the Pentagonic denials from
this day forward.
Decoration Day 1950
Frank Scully
=======================================================================
===
Author: Frank Scully
Title: BEHIND THE FLYING SAUCERS
Section: Chapter 1
Format: Book
Publication Year: 1950
Digitizer: Bufo Calvin
Collection: OPUS On-line Library (http://www.opus-net.org/)
Comment: Paragraphing formatting, hyphenation, and indenting has been changed to make the text
file more legible.
The Mystery of The University of Denver
AS THE SECOND HALF of the twentieth century began, three things experienced strange news
emphasis. Two practically did not exist for The New York Times. The third, which did not actually
exist at the time for anybody, was featured for months in this great newspaper as well as all others.
The two that had practically no news value to The New York Times were numerous reports of the
presence of flying saucers over our mainland, and the birth of Ingrid Bergman's baby in Italy.
The third item had not been verified as anything more than a terrifying nightmare, and many of the
scientists who were expected to turn it into a reality were not sure that it would work if, and when,
made. That was the hydrogen bomb. But to the newspapers, without exception, the unmade bomb
was un fait accompli.
It is hard to believe that to all people living in the spring of 1950 this thermonuclear monster was
already a reality, while to the majority flying saucers, either from here or elsewhere, remained the
stuff' of which dreams are made.
A bomb which might destroy fifty times as many persons as did the atomic bomb released over
 
Hiroshima, in the process of construction, was of course news. But it certainly had less reality in
1950 than the stockpile of stories about flying saucers in our atmosphere and possibly on our soil.
Such a story, if true, might well be among the greatest stories told since the creation of the world. It
would seem that, if a choice had to be made, almost any government surviving on deficit-spending or
lend-lease, or even on the sweat of its people, would decide to budget millions for studying
interplanetary space ships, rather than to spend the same amount making bombs which could
contribute nothing new to man's knowledge and understanding of this world or any other.
Yet given such a choice, at least one government chose to close down a Project Saucer after two
years of researching on a modest budget and report that its Air Force had traced most reports of
unidentified flying objects to:
1. Misinterpretation of various conventional objects,
2. A mild form of mass hysteria,
3. Or hoaxes.
Its unidentified spokesman briefly explained that the project had been established two years
previously at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Dayton, Ohio, headquarters of Air Materiel
Command.
"Since that time" [January, 1948] "some 375 incidents have been reported and investigated," the
report concluded. "Assisting special investigators were scientific consultants from universities and
other governmental agencies."
No names of investigators, consultants, or colleges were mentioned. Indeed between that brief
dismissal and a fairly long report of six months previously which, despite its length, left 34 of 375
incidents still unsolved (even to the Air Force's satisfaction) the 34 unsolved mysteries were closed
out without any explanations whatever. If they were ever solved at all they remained top secret to all
but the military.
Yet hardly had Project Saucer's final press release been printed when a series of reports on flying
saucers began bombarding newspapers from every corner of the Western World. As the
government's project was closed, the bearers of these tidings had nowhere to go except to their local
newspapers.
There had been an entente cordiale between the press and the Department of Defense to ignore these
stories during the two years of the Air Force's official inquiry. But when the Air Force pulled out, the
floodgates opened. Some newspapers continued to throw flying saucers into their wastebaskets.
Others broke down under the persistent barrage of reader reports and reader interest. By Easter time
every radio commentator of any standing, every comedian, every legislator, every televisable
personality, even The New York Times, had had his or her say. Walter Winchell was sure he had had
it first and that the missiles were from Russia. Henry J. Taylor had tried his hand twice. His version
was that the saucers were American, not Russian. He assured his listeners his elaborate radio
accounts of the authenticity of flying saucers contained only half the story, and when the rest was
released by the armed forces it would be good news tonight. In fact, he sounded more like Gabriel
Heatter than Henry J. Taylor. David Lawrence threw all the prestige of his U. S. News and World
Report behind the believers in the reality of flying saucers and said they were "a revolutionary type, a
combination of helicopter and a fast jet plane." Even the President had to be dragged out of his Key
West retreat to blow that one down. Eleanor Roosevelt had interviewed Captain Jack Adams and
First Officer G. W. Anderson, two veteran pilots of the Chicago and Southern Airlines. They
 

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