This addendum to the article appeared along with Part 2.
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Addendum
Bruce Maccabee challenges the single witness character of the Kenneth
Arnold classic in a paper titled True UFOs: Fantasy or Reality? He recounts
a report by a prospector named Fred Johnson who saw several objects on the
same day around the same time of the afternoon. Maccabee is impressed by
the fact that Johnson was working on Mt. Adams, which is a reference point
in Arnold's report and thus also puts him the same general locale. The
objects were traveling on a southeasterly path which is in general
agreement with Arnold’s objects' trajectory. The prospector was working at
about the 5,000 foot level and they flew over at an altitude not too far
above him. This is vague, but consistent with Arnold's 9,200 ± 1,000 foot
estimate. He also spoke of their speed as "greater than anything I ever
saw."
There are, however, differences. There seem to be only six or seven objects
instead of nine. Arnold emphasizes he couldn't make out any tail on them in
the original Air Force report and in his UFO Congress memoir he exclaimed,
"I couldn’t discern any tails on them, and I had never seen an aircraft
without a tail!" He adds, I kept looking for their tails." Johnson
apparently found them. He reported "an object in the tail end" that "looked
like a big hand of a clock shifting from side to side." One could ascribe
such differences to two or three objects breaking formation for unknown
ends and Johnson possibly being closer to the objects than Arnold. The
corroborative value is however reduced by such assumptions.
Maccabee notes a further feature of Johnson's account that lends it a
historical uniqueness -- a physical effect. While the objects were in view
the needle of his compass waved from side to side. Menzel dismissed this
effect as caused by a trembling of the hand engendered by the excitement of
the sighting. Maccabee counters an experienced prospector would realize his
compass would wobble if he didn’t hold it steady. This sounds fair only out
of the context of Menzel's discussion. He discounts this observation
because faith in its validity would imply an immense magnetic field, which
proponents of the ETH (Extraterrestrial Hypothesis) had argued was proof of
a magnetic drive operated by extraterrestrials. Menzel believed such a
notion was pseudoscientific mumbo-jumbo. Having encountered talk of
magnetic drives in my reading of early ufology, I must agree. It is far
easier to believe the prospector erred than that such a motive mechanism
powers alien aeroforms sightseeing above the earth’s surface. An
alternative psychological mechanism incidentally could be at work here. The
hand might have been making small movements in synchrony with the swaying
clock hand feature being observed by the witness. This happens below the
level of awareness and has been known to some psychologists as the
phenomenon of rhythmic entrainment. It underlies other phenomena like Ouija
board pendulums and subtle body cuing experienced in social interactions.
The number of the objects, as in the Arnold case, would seem to favor an
ornithological explanation of Johnson's visual observations. The swaying
clock hand at the tail end recalls the swaying motion of the stilt-like
legs which trail behind certain waterfowl. In this instance, birds like
herons, cranes, storks, or ibis seem plausible. The absence of prominent
flapping or erratic motion is an obvious objection, but gliding flight is
possible with favorable wind conditions, lifting currents along mountain
ridges, or a descending trajectory. Long necks are curled in S-shape in
some species which would subvert identification if they are being seen from
rearward angles. The impression of speed follows from errors in the
assumptions regarding size and distance, which are notoriously fallible
There is another candidate for corroborative witness in Loren Gross’s,
Charles Fort, The Fortean Society & Unidentified Flying Objects. Details
are very scant. A member of the Washington State fire service was on
lookout at Diamond Gap, just south of Mount Rainier. At 3 o'clock, the same
time of Arnold’s sighting, he observed "flashes in the distance quite high
up in the east." Like Arnold’s objects they "seemed to be going in a
straight line and made a strange noise, higher pitched than most airplanes
make." Whistling swans sing only in flight and the notes are loud,
striking, and, though varied, can include a high flageolet note. This
account is perilously lacking any information on which to evaluate any kind
of interpretation of it. One warning must be posted to anyone hoping to
argue this buttresses the position that Arnold's objects are True UFOs: why
did this guy report hearing a high pitched noise and not a sonic boom?
--- msgedsq 2.0.5
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