The Maury Island UFO Incident
The Maury Island UFO Incident
The Story behind the Air Force’s First Plane Crash.
The classic case with new discoveries and new photos on modern day UFOlogy’s first UFO incident.
By Charlette LeFevre and Philip Lipson Northwest Museum of Legends and Lore
1st Edition Published 2014
ISBN: ISBN-13: 978-1493674961 ISBN-10: 149367496X Copyright
The Maury Island UFO Incident © 2014, Charlette LeFevre and Philip Lipson Self published, Seattle, WA Northwest Museum of Legends and Lore 501(c) 3 educational nonprofit www.northwestlegendsmuseum.com [email protected]
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This book contains material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material unless under fair use is prohibited. without express written permission from the authors.
Cover: Longview Daily News, Aug. 1, 1947 Illustrations by Charlette LeFevre
Dedication
This book is dedicated to the military’s first UFO Investigators who lost their lives investigating and protecting evidence, Capt. William L. Davidson and 1st Lt. Frank M. Brown and Paul Lantz - a true investigative reporter who asked the tough
Capt. Davidson
questions.
1st Lt. Brown Paul Lantz
“The report of the investigation of this incident, the Maury Island Mystery, was one of the most detailed reports of the early UFO era…and the Maury Island Mystery was never publicly solved”…
– Edward J. Ruppelt, former head of the U.S. Air Force Project Blue The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects. 1956.
Acknowledgement and Thanks to:
Robert Davenport
Rod Dyke
Steve Edmiston
Elmer Frombach
James Greear and Dorene
Dr. Larry Haapanen
Scott Schaefer
William Shortley
Kenn Thomas
John White
and the many families and friends of the figures involved and those that have supported the open case investigation.
Maury Island, King County Library
Map of Maury Island Capt. Davidson and Lt. Brown watched closely as the lights from the airfield glinted off the rivets of the B-25 bomber in the night air as the locked metal box scraped the bottom of the plane floor.
It was so heavy; it took two men to lift the box into the front. The light also caught the eyes of the guards who had been protecting the plane - eyes that were just a bit wider because they knew that whatever was being loaded was top secret and likely held new technology, foreign and unexplained.
And that created fear. McChord Field was on edge.
All that night at the base, the guards were whispering about unusual craft sightings that had happened in the weeks prior. They couldn’t help notice all the newspapers were giving it front page coverage and the reporters were hounding them for more information. Reports of UFOs included pilot Kenneth Arnold seeing nine discs in formation over nearby Mt. Rainier that had made International News.
Index
Forward..................................................... pg. 7
Forward by Dr. Larry Haapanen .......... pg. 8
The Incident............................................. pg. 9
Capt. William Davidson ......................... pg. 41 1st Lieut. Frank M Brown....................... pg. 44 Paul Lantz................................................. pg. 45 Kenneth Arnold ..................................... pg. 48 Harold Dahl ............................................ pg. 52 Fred Crisman .......................................... pg. 56 Raymond Palmer..................................... pg. 66 Ted Morello ............................................. pg. 69 Sgt .Elmer Taff ........................................ pg. 70 Sgt. Woodrow Mathews......................... pg. 71 Mysterious Informant ........................... pg. 71 Rediscovery of the Crash Site ............... pg. 74 The Slag ................................................... pg. 79 Newspaper Articles .............................. pg. 87 Theories .................................................... pg. 93 Still a Mystery........................................... pg. 101 Bibliography............................................. pg. 102 About the Authors.................................. pg. 106
Forward
by Charlette LeFevre and Philip Lipson The Maury Island UFO Incident is a mysterious case with a series of events spanning several months in the summer of 1947 in the Puget Sound area of Washington State. The mystery for the most part has remained one of the lesser-known UFO cases in UFOlogy even though it is as complex and as well documented as the Roswell UFO mystery.
The Maury Island sighting occurred two weeks before Roswell and involved three facets. The first facet involved an account by Harold Dahl of UFOs seen over Maury Island, the second Kenneth Arnold’s sighting of UFOs over Mt. Rainier and the third, the tragic crash of a B-25 Bomber and the deaths of two military intelligence officers. This book focuses on the crash site of the B-25 Bomber, a first ever interview with a local who was first on the scene, a newly discovered news photo of the crash site believed to be the only photo available of what would be historically become the Air Force’s first plane crash and new photos and news articles discovered.
The mystery of what actually was seen has only grown over the years. Now over 65 years since the incident, one would think the mystery has gone “cold,” or long forgotten but we believe to the contrary as for decades questions have gone unanswered. The incident was dismissed perhaps too readily as a hoax alongside the tragedy of the death of two military officers in the crash. Yet recent news articles found in the basements of libraries have given new insight and family members today are more open and talking about their families thus shedding some light on the incident.
We have strived to make the accounts and stories related in this book as accurate as possible regarding the history of what we consider one of the Northwest’s greatest mysteries in the hopes that one day more light will be shed on what really happened or that it will be solved. At the very least, we hope these reports give some recognition to the former investigators and investigative journalists by connecting a face to a name and relating their efforts and to those that dared to ask questions in search of the truth.
We have relied upon FBI files, newspaper articles, and first hand reports including Kenneth Arnold and Ray Palmer’s Coming of The Saucers. Our hope is that this is the most comprehensive and accurate report of The Maury Island Incident available.
– Charlette LeFevre and Philip Lipson
Directors Northwest Museum of Legends and Lore
Foreward
by Dr. Larry Haapenen In 1947, the term “flying saucer” (later to be supplanted by Unidentified Flying Object, or UFO) emerged as part of the everyday vocabulary of Americans. While many people today may associate the so-called “Roswell crash” in New Mexico with that first year of the modern UFO era, it was Kenneth Arnold’s sighting of UFO’s near Mount Rainier, Washington, that truly started it all, and quick on the heels of that sighting came the bizarre story of the Maury Island incident, told by two self-styled “harbor patrolmen,” that drew in Arnold himself and ultimately resulted in the death of two Army Air Force intelligence officers, Capt. William Davidson and Lieut. Frank Brown.
I would personally like to salute Davidson and Brown as the tragic heroes of the story, as those two intre
pid airmen were the first UFO investigators for the 4th Air Force headquartered at Hamilton Field, California. Twenty years later I was one of the last UFO investigators for the Fourth Air Force, serving as Base UFO Project Officer at Kingsley Field, Oregon, from the Autumn of 1967 to the end of 1969, when the U.S. Air Force discontinued Project Blue Book. It was during that time that I became interested in the colorful career of Fred Lee Crisman, one of the principal characters in the Maury Island story, and I have continued that interest ever since. When I met Charlette LeFevre and Philip Lipson in 2007, I found them to be enthusiastic researchers who were energetically pursuing and impartially sifting through the facts about the Maury Island incident. This book is the result of their efforts. It presents new evidence and new analysis, and every reader will find it intriguing and informative.
Larry Haapanen, Ph.D. Lewiston, Idaho
January 10, 2013
The Maury Island UFO Incident June 1947
Early June - Dahl and Crisman stated that in the early part of June they sent a publisher, Ray Palmer some rock formations they found on Maury Island. (FBI Seattle Report, August 7, 1947)
Dahl’s sighting, June 1947, illustration by Charlette LeFevre
June 21, Saturday
2:00 pm off Maury Island The story goes, Harold Dahl was patrolling the East bay of Maury Island close in to the shore in Puget Sound Washington.
“I as captain was steering my patrol boat. On board were two crewmen, my fifteen year old son, and his dog.” Dahl claimed to have witnessed six doughnut shaped aircraft about 2000 feet above the water. Five of these aircraft were circling around the sixth one, which was stationary.
“It appeared to me that the center aircraft was in some kind of trouble as it was losing altitude fairly rapidly. The other aircraft stayed at a distance of about two hundred feet above the center one as if they were following the center one down. The center aircraft came to rest almost directly overhead at about five hundred feet above the water.” COS p.31
The aircraft had no motors or propellers and made no sound. The aircraft were about 100 feet in diameter. Each had a hole in the center about 25 feet in diameter. They were “shell like gold and silver” color. Dahl would explain that they saw no motors, or any visible sightings of propulsion and to the best of their hearing made no sound. The surface appeared to be burled metal and was brilliant like “a Buick dashboard” All of the aircraft seemed to have large five to six feet round portholes equally spaced around the outside of their donut exterior. The craft also appeared to have dark, circular continuous window on the inside and bottom of the craft. Dahl said he took three or four photographs. The center aircraft began spewing forth what seemed like thousands of newspapers from somewhere on the inside of its center. These newspapers, which were later described as a white type of very light metal, fluttered to earth, most of them lighting in the bay. The white metal was followed by tons of hot black lava-like rock into the water, which created steam upon hitting the water. The falling slag is said to have wounded Dahl’s son Charles and killed his dog. Charles was taken to a local hospital in Tacoma for first aid and the dog’s body was buried at sea on their return trip.
Dahl tried to pick up several pieces of the metal and found them very hot. Dahl and the crewmen loaded a number of pieces of the metal and newspaper type slag aboard the boat. The wheelhouse on the boat was reported damaged.
Later that day Dahl related his experience to his supervisor Fred Crisman who he called his “superior officer.” Crisman said he would investigate the beach. Dahl judged that at least twenty tons of the debris had fallen in the water and on the beach at Maury Island.
Note: There is a discrepancy between Kenneth Arnold’s timeline and the FBI files. This book follows the FBI timelines as they had additional statements from other persons.
June 22, Sunday
7:00 am - Harold Dahl claimed to have been paid a visit at his home with what we would call a “Man-in-Black...” The man “wore a black suit, was of medium height.” He had been driving a new “1947 Buick sedan.” The man invited him to a nook breakfast cafe in the “uptown section” of Tacoma and began to relate in “great detail” the experience that
Harold and his crew had seen as if he had been there himself. The man made strong not-so-veiled threats and told Dahl he and his crew “had made an observation that shouldn’t have happened” and that “if he loved his family and didn’t want anything to happen to his general welfare, he would not discuss his experience.” Dahl would later relate he didn’t put much stock in what this fellow said and didn’t intend to keep his experience a secret later discussing the event with other seamen at the pier.
Crisman claimed to have gone out to Maury Island, seen the bizarre white and black material, and collected samples himself. Crisman also claimed to have seen one of the disks himself come out of a cloudbank.
June 24, Tuesday
3:00 pm Kenneth Arnold, a pilot who ran a fire equipment business took off from Chehalis Washington on a “clear as crystal” day on his way to Yakima. Arnold would state he wasn’t in the air more than two or three minutes when he saw a bright flash catch his attention. He next observed over the North face of Mt Rainier “a chain of nine peculiar looking aircraft flying from North to South” at approximately 9,500 ft. for over two and a half minutes. Arnold assumed they were at first were jet planes but would change his mind when he estimated their speed between Mt. Rainier and Mt. Adams at 1,200mph. Arnold was extremely curious, as he had never seen planes fly so close to the mountaintops and aircraft with no tails. Arnold observed this formation dipping and changing their course slightly but essentially keeping the same elevation in a formation similar to that of a flock of geese “in a diagonal chain like line.”
As the formation approached Mt. Rainier, Arnold was able to observe the disk outlines against the snow quite plainly and estimated the chain of disks to be five miles long. With the disks at about twenty to twenty - five miles from Arnold and at the same elevation, Arnold had a clear line of sight to the UFOs.
Notes: Arnold would later relate the reason he was flying near Mt. Rainier is he had been looking for a downed C-46 Marine Transport plane that went missing Dec. 10, 1946. It is believed that the C-46 Marine Transport plane crashed on Mt. Rainier with 32 men aboard and there was a $5,000 reward for finding the wreck. Eventually it was found July 21st, 1947. The Marine transport would be later mentioned by a mysterious informant as having been sabotaged.
Arnold would also write in his first accounting of this sighting that he openly invited an investigation by the Army and the FBI “as to the authenticity of my story or a mental and physical evaluation as to my capabilities, I received no interest from these two important protective forces of our country until two weeks after my observation.” I Did See The Flying Disks. Fate Magazine, Vol. 1, #1.1948.
July 1947
Frank Ryman’s photo of a UFO
July 4, Saturday
Frank Ryman sighting.
US Coast Guardsman Frank Ryman of Seattle had a UFO sighting and his resulting photo of a UFO would catch the attention of news and later Kenneth Arnold and Capt. E.J.Smith.
“Yeoman Frank Ryman, off duty from his job with Coast Guard public relations, said he saw a shiny disc flying across the Seattle skies. Ryman rushed into his home in Lake City Washington, at that time outside the Seattle city limits in King County.
“I grabbed my Speed Graphic (press camera) and field glasses and ran back outside,” the 26-year-old told the Seattle P-I. “The disc came over about 9,000 or 10,000 feet. It was flashing brilliant silver in the sun.
The picture, he said, was taken while the disc was directly overhead. He used Super-XX film, a 1/50 shutter speed with an f 22 lens opening.
“There was no noise,” he said, adding he watched it with binoculars. “No sound of engines. And I am positive there were no wings or fins in sight. It definitely was not a plane.”
After spotting the object and talking with neighbors,
Ryman called the Post-Intelligencer and rushed to the newspaper’s darkroom at Sixth Avenue and Wall Street.
“Enlarged many times the disc showed up clearly as a slightly blurred whitish object,” the newspaper’s account read.” -McNerthney, Casey. UFO frenzy was sparked here 65 years ago; Seattle PI, June 27, 2012
National wire photo of Captain E.J. Smith, Kenneth Arnold, and First Officer Ralph Stevens reviewing Ryman’s photo, July 5, 1947
July 5, Sunday
Arnold first met Capt. E.J. Smith regarding Smith’s own sighting on July 4th. Locating the Seattle
offices of the International News Service in Seattle after landing at Boeing field, Arnold was escorted into a room where Capt. Smith and his co-pilot Ralph Stevens were reviewing a UFO photo taken by Frank Ryman. Capt. Smith and Ralph Stevens had taken off from Boise in their DC-3 and had observed nine disks flying in a loose formation. They called stewardess Martie Morrow to the cockpit and she saw them also. The pilots and stewardess observed the formation for over ten minutes as the formation seemed to take off at tremendous speed and observed at one point where three of the disks clustered together and the fourth flying some distance away.
Arnold would state there was no better person in all of United Airlines to verify his story that we were not alone in the air than Capt. Smith. Well regarded and respected, Capt. Smith’s sighting was verified by the entire crew of his DC-3. Arnold was so excited to meet Capt. Smith that he forgot his guest Col. Paul Wieland who he had gone fishing with earlier in the day and was waiting for him by his airplane.
July 8, Tuesday
The Maury Island UFO Incident: The Story behind the Air Force’s first military plane crash Page 1