Jan 04 2007
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UFOs and Radioactive Clouds
It’s amazing the things you find when you are trying to tidy a cluttered office. Of course, an office full of papers, files, books, magazines, tapes, etc., piled floor-to-ceiling is a staple part of the life of a freelance writer (well, it is here anyway - in fact, its integral to my workspace, or lack of it!). But, sometimes, even I’ll have that big purge to try and create at least a bit of space. And, yesterday, I’m glad I did - but for reasons that I didn’t anticipate at the time.
While digging through a large file of old, 1940s newspaper clippings on UFOs, I came across one that I had overlooked for far too long. The story is a little known one in ufology and seldom discussed. So, maybe now is the time to try and rectify that. Plus, the fact that the story is such a weird one makes it highly appropriate for discussion.
Contained in the July 7, 1947 edition of the Milwaukee Sentinel and titled: U.S. Planes Hunting Discs; Russ Tells of Atom Saucers, FBI Probes Story of Soviet Ship Officer, the article reveals that on the previous day - July 6 - “federal agents” (having been alerted by a “top flight atomic scientist” who asserted that the matter was “not all nonsense”) were investigating “a letter describing Russian supersonic atom-powered planes resembling the ‘flying saucers.’”
The letter-writer, it was determined, “got the information from [a Soviet] officer aboard a Russian tanker recently at Los Angeles Harbor.” Notably, the Sentinel continued, “The Russian, he said, also described experiments with controlled radioactive clouds in the Arctic, where birds, animals and even worms were killed.”
But what of those “supersonic atom-powered planes” that apparently looked eerily like the Flying Saucers that were causing so much controversy and concern across the United States at the time? The newspaper elaborated: “The planes, as described by the Russian to the writer, are only 8 inches thick, with a kidney-shaped outline and no propellors. The pilot (who must have been incredibly thin if the 8-inches-thick data was correct - which I strongly suspect it could not have been) lies on his stomach and is artificially cooled against the heat developed by air friction.”
The Russian officer stated further that: “The outer surface is highly polished. Both upper and lower surfaces are convex, like a giant lens. The lifting force is an entirely different principle found about 10 years ago among unpublished papers of a Russian chemist. Energy is required only for climbing, but no energy is needed for support when the airplane goes along the earth’s gravitational contour lines.”
The newspaper added: “The writer of the strange letter said he met the Russian officer in Wilmington and, because he wanted to hear about Russia, invited him to dinner. The Russian first asked where he could sell 18 polar bear pelts which he received ‘for very dangerous work.’”
It was at this point, apparently, that a discussion of the secret, Russian “cloud experiments” began, as the Sentinel revealed: “[The Russian officer] said he had been assigned to go over the route of the radioactive cloud near Lake Baikal and pick up dead animals. They loaded a few small ships with all kinds of animals and directed the cloud over them.”
Furthermore, said the newspaper: “During this experiment, a violent storm blew the cloud far north into the tundra, but before it dissipated it destroyed all life on its way.”
The unknown letter-writer advised that his Russian contact had told him: “The cloud may be controlled from land, from a plane or from a robot-piloted ‘leader.’ As I understand it, the control is based on electro-magnetic waves and the cloud has two components: The carrier and the killer.”
And there ends the distinctly strange saga.
So, what are we to make of it all? Well, right now, my answer is that I don’t know. However, I do know that whether hoax, fantasy, some weird Russian psychological warfare story designed to spook the Americans, or reality, it has the makings of a great story: clandestine meetings with a Russian officer, a “top flight atomic scientist,” the secret papers of an unknown Soviet chemist, covert attempts to build flying saucer-like aircraft, strange and unreal experimentation that, in some ways at least, almost bordered upon Wilhelm Reich’s cloudbusting work and that reportedly ended in disaster in a frozen wasteland, and the involvement of none other than the FBI all scream: “Someone write a book on all this!” Unlikely? Maybe not. Let’s face it: Roswell is now known all across the world and began with nothing more than a brief press release issued by the Roswell Army Air Force Base.
Do we have much more to go on with this case right now? The answer has to be no. But the UFO community is a tenacious one; and, so, someone will surely be up for the challenge. Having written in-depth about the aforementioned Wilhelm Reich, and also having an expert grasp on 1947 ufology (he did, after all, write the definitive book on the June ‘47 Maury Island UFO incident) I recommend Kenn Thomas as the man for the job. Kenn: are you listening…?
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January 4th, 2007 at 1:32 pm
I wouldn’t mind reading Kenn’s book about Maury Island but what’s up with the price? The cheapest copy on Amazon is $33 and someone’s trying to hawk one for $95. You can buy an awful lot of slag for 95 bucks, you know.
January 4th, 2007 at 1:43 pm
Skep:
Hopefully Kenn will read this and reply and explain fully. But if I recall correct the book went out of print with the death of the publisher and remaining copies were pulped, which is why it’s so scarce now.
January 4th, 2007 at 1:45 pm
Maury Island?
Ugh…
Paul
January 4th, 2007 at 1:47 pm
Paul
Don’t write Maury off. Certainly there is a lot of info that makes people shout “Hoax!” But as Kenn shows, the story is as much about the players, their motivations, their histories and (maybe more importantly) their subsequent activities as it is about the incident.
January 4th, 2007 at 2:01 pm
I’ll chime in with the same comment as Nick. While “Maury Island UFO” has less to offer the UFO fan, it has much to say regarding the players in the story & their place in history. Definitely required reading and the deep research is evident.
–Which is why believers won’t be interested.
August 17th, 2008 at 8:09 pm
Strangely enough, I have information concerning this. How do I get in some form of private contact with someone about this? I bounced around the site and couldn’t find a direct email..