Forgotten War

On Memorial Day of any year we remember the countless brave Americans who died for their country in war. Memorial Day, originally called "Decoration Day,"  was borne out of the Civil War on a desire to honor our fallen heroes. This federal holiday commemorates the many men and women who died while serving in the United States Armed Forces and remembers their sacrifice.

Memorial Day is celebrated on the last Monday in May at Arlington National Cemetery with a ceremony and a small American flag placed on each grave. Traditionally, a wreath is placed at the site of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier by the President or Vice President of the United States.

Since the Civil War, this country has been involved in many conflicts including the Spanish-American War, two world wars, the Korean War, the Vietnam War and the plethora of bloody wars in the Mideast.  War persists today, of course, as these keys are tapped.

Our American history books and teachers inform us assiduously regarding these many wars, most of which occurred around the world since the first "Decoration Day."  One war is decidedly forgotten and not even mentioned.  As a Nation we patently fail to "even mention" a war that existed right here over the United States of America.  That war, an undeclared war—a war true as unbelievable as that does sound—was waged by the United States government against UFOs in the late 1940's and early 1950's.

This writer intimates no apology remembering that J. B. S. Haldane informs us that the existential is stranger than we can imagine!  I'm a former Master Army Aviator and a Veteran of Air Combat. I have some small appreciation of air war, battles and the conflict conducted within it.  Let me attempt to explain what occurred over the United States during that era incorporating the infamous Summer Of Saucers more than 60 years ago.

On July 29, 1952, The Seattle Post Intelligencer reported a news story from the INS/International News Service: it published, "Air Force Orders Jet Pilots to Shoot Down Flying Saucers If They Refuse To Land."  There is little wiggle-room there, the reader might agree, regarding the belief that UFOs were considered REAL in the corporeal...

The article continued, "Lt. Col. Moncel Monts, Information Officer, stated: 'The jet pilots are, and have been under orders to investigate unidentified objects and to shoot them down if they can't talk them down." The article further informed, "In Air Force parlance, this means that if a 'flying saucer' refuses to land—jet pilots are authorized to shoot them to Earth if they can get close enough to do so."

The Charleston Gazette reported the following on July 29, 1952. Its headline read, "Pilots Ordered to Shoot Down 'Saucers' in Range"!  It said in part, "WASHINGTON, July 28 - (INS) - The Air Force disclosed today that jet pilots are under orders to maintain a nationwide 24-hour 'alert' against 'flying saucers' and to shoot them down if possible...jet pilots are under standing orders to pursue all unidentified flying objects, especially on the eastern seaboard and if necessary, force them to land. The alert is applicable to flying saucers."  How, reader, is this not a prosecuted air war against a perceived ET?

Additionally, on July 29, 1952, the Fall River News newspaper of  Massachusetts reported, "Jets Told to Shoot Down Flying Discs," and continued, "Several pilots according to the Air Force have tried to shoot down the mysterious discs, but the 'steady bright lights' in the sky have out-flown the pilots." Indeed, this statement clearly shows that the objects had indeed refused to land, which would prompt our pilots to shoot down UFOs as ordered.  Attempts were logically made, then, by Air Force pilots!

The very next day, the Louisville Courier-Journal reported, "Radar Spots 'Saucers' Over Washington Again." In reference to the well-known July 29 saucer press conference held at the Pentagon, the article stated, "Major Gen. Roger Ramey, Deputy Chief of the Air Force Staff for Operations, told the news conference that interceptor planes have raced aloft several hundred times as a result of reported sightings of unidentified objects.  He said that was just standard procedure." The reader will remember that most of these confrontations between planes and UFOs are well-known and many are also recorded as "Unknowns" in Project Blue Book, the USAF initiative in charge of the UFO project. 

True enough, UFOs are not necessarily "Flying Saucers."  ...But how many of the "several hundred unknowns" our pilots flew after and to which General Ramey referred must be that UFO regarded as a flying saucers to qualify as same, reader?  The answer is only one.  The reader can be assured there is more than one...

This leads us to a not well known statement made by Captain Edward J. Ruppelt, the head of Project Blue Book in 1952.  In his 1956 text, The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects, and commenting on the deaths of military aviators chasing UFOs, legitimate or no, Ruppelt states, "Other assorted historians point out that normally the 'UFOs' are peaceful, and [fighter pilots] Gorman and Mantell just got too inquisitive, 'they just weren't ready to be observed closely.' If the Air Force hadn't slapped down the security lid these writers might not have reached this conclusion. There have been other and more lurid 'duels of death.'"

Wait, what? Here, Captain Ruppelt clearly, if stealthily, writes about the Air Force cover-up of the "duels of death" occurring between American fighter pilots and UFOs!  What does "Lurid Duels Of Death" refer to, otherwise?

Additionally, in February of 1953, Robert Gardner, a California investigator and writer, conducted an interview with General Chidlaw, head of the Air Defense Command about National Security points of the Eastern ADC. During that 30 minute interview, Gardner recorded the following statement made by General Chidlaw, "We have stacks of reports about flying saucers. We take them seriously when you consider we have lost many men and planes trying to intercept them."       

Yes reader, there was an undeclared war between Our American fighter pilots and UFOs! These seem to have led to many pilot deaths, deaths not recorded in our history books or told to us by our mainstream educators!

Author and researcher Frank Feschino, Jr. writes exhaustively about the history of this tremendous cover-up in his book, Shoot Them Down—The Flying Saucer Air Wars of 1952."  Additionally, the history of these incredible events can also be seen in Feschino's documentary short, "The Braxton County Monster/Flatwoods Monster: book by Feschino" posted on You Tube. 

In closing on this most recent Memorial day remembrance, I recall the many fighter airmen who seem to have perished during intercept attempts against UFOs throughout the years and pay my profoundly moved respects to them... Some of us remember, while most of us simply choose to forget.  I choose to remember it exactly as Feschino has dedicated in his book, to those impossible intrepid and exceedingly brave American fighter pilots who scrambled into angry skies after UFOs to... "shoot them down"... and never returned home.

Frank C. Feschino's recent book, Shoot Them Down! The Flying Saucer Air Wars Of 1952 - based largely on official documentation - makes for disturbing reading. 

 Also, the numerous unexplained crashes and disappearances worldwide in the 1940s (described in Need to Know) reinforce my conviction that, worldwide, we have lost probably thousands of aircraft and pilots, in mysterious circumstances, over the years.  

 Timothy Good

For additional information: www.FlatwoodsMonster.com