Author Description

It is generally a good idea to return to the classics in any genre. This also goes for UFO literature. Rereading a book after ten or twenty years is a rewarding experience. You will discover new data and ideas you didn ́t notice before. The reason, of course, is that you are, in many ways, not the same person reading the book the second or third time. Hopefully you have advanced in knowledge, experience, intellectual and spiritual discernment. A good starting point is to reread the UFO articles of the 1950s in order to understand the deeper mystery involved in what happened during that era. More than half a century ago, reports of a "flying saucer" over U.S. airspace in 1947 caused a wave of "UFO hysteria" and sparked Federal investigation of unidentified flying objects. This time coincided with a tumultuous period in American history. The Korean & Vietnam War, Cold War, and the domestic unrest during the civil rights movement that had purred growing American distrust of the government. However, "flying saucer" landed in the Times Magazine news since the begining, in the summer of 1947.(See Time's articles in this anthology: The Somethings, July 14, 1947). The UFO phenomena can be traced back to June 24,1947, when Kenneth Arnold, an experienced civilian pilot and fire equipment salesman based out of Boise, Idaho saw a "tremendously bright flash" illuminated the surface of his plane. When he landed at the Pendleton, Oregon airport, Arnold described the object for a corps of eager reporters. Most famous was the term he used to describe the objects' flight-"they flew like a saucer would if you skipped it across the water." The press cited Arnold's description and created the phrase "flying saucer" to describe mysterious aerial objects. This collection of selected Time's articles covered from the first news of the socalled Foo-Fighters to the end of Project Blue Book (1942-1969). Year 1952 is known as the year of flying saucer hysteria. As a result, in March 1952, Proj