65_HS1-834228961_62-HQ-83894_Section_002

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Incident
4AF 1208 I
16 July 1947
MEMORANDUlA FOR THE OFFICER IN CHARGE :
1. On 12 Jul y 1947, a oall was made at the newspaper office of
the "Idaho Daily Statesman", Boise, Idaho. The aviation editor of the
paper, Mr. David N. Johnson, was interviewed in regard to how well he
knew Mr. Kenneth Arnold of Boise , Idaho, and as to the credibility of
any statement made by Mr. Arnold.
The purpose of this interview was an
attempt to verify statements made by Mr. Kenneth Arnold on 26 June 1947,
to various national news services to the effect that he, Mr. Arnol d,
had seen 9 objects flying in the air above the Cascade Mountain Range
of Washington.
These objects were subsequently referred to as f l ying
saucers or flying disks and will here -in-a~er be referred to as such
in this report. Mr . Johnson stated that he had known Mr . Arnol d for
quite a period of time, having had rel ations with Mr . Arnol d on various
occasions, due to the fact that both he, Mr. Johnson, and Mr. Arnold
wer e private f liers and frequently got together to t al k shop.
Mr. Johnson
stated that as far as he was concerned anything :,r. Arnol d said could be
taken very seriously and that he, Mr . Johnson , ac:tually believed that Mr .
Arnold had seen the aforementioned flying disks .
Mr . Johnson stated that
af'ter Mr. Arnol d reported having seen the flying d~sks, that the editor
of the paper had assigned him, tLr . Johnson, the ass~gnment of taking the
airpl ane bel onging to the newspaper and exhausting al l errorts to prove
or disprove the pr o·b~h i H .t y of f l ying disks having be~n seen i n the
northwest. ar ea.
The results of th1s assi gumo~t t;o ''r. Johnson and what
he subsequently sa.w is put .forth in a sworn statement; signed by Mr . Johnson
attached to this report as Exhibit~.
AGENT ' S NOTES:
J:r . Johnson is a man of appr oximately 33
I to 35 years of
age .
Fr om all appoarances he is a very reserved type o.f p~r son.
Mr.
Johnson has l ogged 2800 hour s of flying time in various typ~s 0£ ai r pl anes
up to and including multi-engine air craft .
During par t of the war years,
~r . Johnson was the first pil ot of a B- 29 type air cr aft being assigned-to
the Twentieth USA.AF and stationed on Tinian Island, in the Paci£ic.
I t '
is t he per sonal opinion of t he interviewer that M'.r. Johnson actuolly saw
what he states that he saw in t he attached report .
It is al so t he opi ni on
o.f t he interviewer that Mr . Johnson would have much more to l ose than gain
and would have to be very strongly convinced that he actually saw son2ething
before he woul d report such an incident and open himsel f for t he ridi cqle
that would accompany such a r eport.
11 B11
1 Incb Exhibit
S/A, CIC lfth AF
FR.A.NJC M. BROWN,
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