U.S. Air Force Flying Discs File, 1952

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July 31, 1952
Major General John Sanf'ord.
War Department
Washington, D.C.
Sir:
General Sanford everybody is taling about the flying saucers
I don't know how I ever got enough nerve to write you but I think it
is my turn now to p.1t in my nickels worth.
As one serviceman to another I think I can talk frank with you.
I think I know the man who is responsible for the .f'ly:i..ng saucers, it
is a long story but I w.U1 try to make it as brief as possible.
In 1929 at an inventor's meeting in Long Beach in the Rainbow Pier
I met a man who called himsel.f, at that time, Samuel P. Jones he had a
motor that everyone thought was a fake.
He would explain it to you but
no one would believe him but me. So as a dumb cluck I tried to give
the man a helping hand, he said that this motor could be made in any
size or horsepower, could be put in ships, locomotives, cars and
airplanes. At that tlilme I knew a doctor in Long Beach who bad a
clinic and a yacht, I took this Jones to this do"btor thinking that this
doctor might finance him for a motor for his yacht. After the doctor talked
to the man awhile, the doctor didn't beieve him, thou~ he was nuts, so
then I forgot all about this man Jones until World War II. I met this
same man in the South Pacific and he was a Skipper in the Army Transport
Service. Then after seeing him again and knowing the position he held
I took it for granted that he must be pretty smart; not nuts. I became
very friendly with this man we chummed together for a coule of years
in the South Pacifica and every onee in awhile he 'WOUl.d tak about his
invention. I asked him if' this invention was so good why is it that the
Government wouldn't take it. This is what he told me, that he had tried
to get the Government to take it and they laughed at hmm and he finally
got an interview with President Roosevelt and the President told him that
at that time he also had an idea be.fore Congress that if it didn't work
out they would all go to the insane asylum.
He also told him that his
idean was a thousand years ahead of time.
Later 17\1947 I got a letter from this Jones asking me to come to him,
which I did, in H~vre, Montana he had a plane that I would call built with
this motor, this was the most damnable looking plane I have ever seen. It
was made like a saucer, about 17 feet in diameter and it would fly through
the air with a control made from the base of a telephone. Thia I saw with
my own eyes. He said that it would fly so fast through the air that the
air would melt, and I asked him "how fast will it go", he said actu.all.y he
didn't know but would figure it made a speed of 3 to 4000 miles per hour.