65_HS1-834228961_62-HQ-83894_Section_002

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S~atement of David N. Johnson
at Boise, Idaho , July 12 , 1947
To i1hoa It Jlay Concer n:
On the sixth day of July, 1947, I received from James L. Brown,
genernl manager or the Statesman Newspapers, incorporated in Ida.ho as
The StateS1!18.n Pri nting company, an assignment which was in substance:
11Conduct an aerial sear ch or the northJirest states in an effort to
see and photograph a flying disc .
Conduct this pat r ol for so l ong a time
as you bel i eve reasonabl e, or until you see a flying disc.n
In accordance to these instructions , I took the Stat est'lan ' s airpl ane ,
and with Kenneth Arnol d as passenger, flew a seven and one-hal f hour mission
on the seventh day of July, 1947.
This mission was without r esult.
It
covered an area embr acing the confi nes of the Hanford plant in ~ashington ,
and territory between and around !Jit . Rainier and Pt. Adams, where Arnold
first reported seeing objects hencefor th described as saucers or discs .
On the eighth dny of July, 1947, I took an AT- 6 of the 190th Fighter
squadron, Idaho national Guo.rd, of which I nm a member , and flew to northerrt
Idaho , into north,vestern Montana briefly, to Spokane , Vashington, e.nd back
to 3oise by vre.y of ~·lalla 'Walla, 17e.shington, and Pendleton, Oregon.
This
sear ch also was negative .
On the ninth day of July , 1947 • I continued the search, a.gain using a
national guard AT- 6, this time centering ny efforts over the Ov,yhee mountains
west and south,rest of Boise, a portion of the ~ountain Home desert on a track
southeast of the Mountain Horne e.rmy air base, thence into the Sawtooth moun­
tains, and back in the gener al direction of Boise on a line carrying me well
to t he nor th of the Shafer butte forest service lookout station, into the
Borse5hoe Bend area, and t hence back in a soutlnvesterly direct ion to a point
between Boise and the village of Mer idian, west of Boise a few mi l es ,
Dur ing this search, which l asted approximately two and one- hal f
hours, I flow under and around r apidly forming cumulus clouds over that
area known as the Cai:cas Prairie, east of Boise .
The clouds were near the
village of Fairfield in that vall ey, and Fairfiel d is 75 miles air line
distance east of Boise .
At that timo I saw nothing in the vicinity of
t hese clouds.
At the time I reached the point between Boise and ?£eridian, I was
f l ying at an al titude of 14, 000 feet mean sea l ovel, which woul d be a mean
aver age of 11,000 feet above the earth i n this area , not oonsidering errors
in the altimeter induced either by barometr ic changes since my takeoff, or
by the temper ature at that altitude .
I turned the aircraft on an easterly hes.dine, pointing toward Gowen
Field, and had f l ovm on that course for perhaps a minute when ther e suddenl y
appeared in the l eft hand portion of my fiel d of vision an object which was
bl ack and round.
I immediatel y center ed my gaze on the object .
At that time . due to its
erratic movement , I thought I was seeing a weather ball oon.
I called the
CAA' s comnuni cation stati on at Boise , and asked if the weather stat ion had
r ecently r el eased a bal loon.
The repl y from communicator Al bert son was t hat
the bureau had not .
I do not r emember his exact wor ds; I am under the
impr ession he said "not f or several hours" or go.ve me the exact time of the
previous r elease• which ,vas around 08: 30 t hat day.