When I learned about the sanitization, I thought I had a record that was unique in the UFO field. I could put the names back in. Don Berliner, of the Washington based Fund for UFO Research, seems to have had the chance to see the files when they first appeared at the National Archives. He did the same thing I did and he too, could put the names back. Like me, he spent days going through the files, writing down the names of the witnesses. Don, much to his credit, apparently could think of no way to cash in on the information. He posted a great deal of it in one of the UFO newsgroups on the Internet. Apparently he thought that it might be of use to other researchers who hadn't had the access to the files that he did.
But there is one other point that should be made here. As I read the case files for this work, there wasn't one in which I didn't find the names of those witnesses. In other words, the Air Force officers who had the job of blacking out the names did a very poor job of it. In every case I was interested in, I could find the names of the witnesses somewhere in the Blue Book file.
For example, in the Chiles and Whitted case of 1948, I found a statement written by Chiles for the Air Force. The officer responsible had removed Chiles' name from both the return address and the signature block of his letter. That same officer had removed all references to Chiles or Whitted in the body of the text. What he or she didn't do was remove it from the all capital statement on the top of the letter. In big, bold letters, it said, "STATEMENT OF CAPTAIN CLARENCE S. CHILES." And, throughout that case, I found additional references to both Chiles and Whitted, including a number of newspaper articles in which both men were named.
Along with the Chiles and Whitted case, there were a number of other sightings that seemed to be related to it. That same Air Force officer worked very hard to take out all the names of those witnesses, except for a handwritten chart of all the sightings from late July 1948 that included the locations, times, directions and other information and, of course, the names of every single witness in this case. That's right, a chart that contained all the names.
In the Kenneth Arnold case there was a transcript of a telephone interview with him. The Air Force officers had taken out Arnold's name at the beginning of the statements made by Arnold. But, again, at the top, in big, black letters, someone had written, "Arnold Case."
Finding the names in the Florida scoutmaster case was somewhat more difficult. I could find the scoutmaster's name, but only the last name of one of the scouts until I reached the end. There was a clipping that contained the names and ages of each of the boy scouts. As I wrote the chapter, I thought about leaving the names out because they were, after all, just boys. And then I realized that each of them, eleven or twelve in 1952, were now older than I am.
That was the thing I found so ridiculous. They would so carefully remove the names from the reports, letters and other documents and then leave them in the newspaper articles that accompanied so many of the cases. In some files they had blacked out the names in the clippings, but always left enough information that, if I hadn't found them elsewhere in the file, I could have tracked down the newspaper or magazine to learn who the witnesses were.
It became something of a joke to me. How far would I have to read before I could find the names? In the Salt Lake City daylight disc case, I only found one name in the file itself, but the newspaper clippings that followed contained all the names. It was difficult from the information in the file to determine who had made which statement, but there was just enough that I could put it together.
So the work that I had thought of as unique was not. It had been duplicated by Don Berliner. And had neither of us done it, we could have figured out from the files, the names of those who were the witnesses. I'm happy that the Air Force officers didn't take their jobs seriously. They could have, with a little additional work, made it impossible to figure out who the witnesses were. In some cases, that could have been a deadly blow to the work that needs to be done.
What follows are most of the unidentifieds from the files with many of the names plugged back in. The list also contains some additional cases that the Air Force believed they had solved, though I don't accept their analysis. For those that aren't in Blue Book as an "unidentified" I have included the Air Force solution. Please don't construe that as an acceptance of the Air Force claim. It is a mere reporting of the information.
June 24, 1947: Mt. Rainier, Washington. 3:00 p.m. Kenneth Arnold watched as nine crescent-shaped objects flashed among the mountain peaks "like saucers skipping on a pond." Air Force conclusion: Mirage
June 24, 1947: Cascade Mountains, Washington. 3:00 p.m. Fred Johnson. Saw a number of "disc-shaped" craft overhead and noticed that his compass was spinning wildly.
July 3, 1947: Harborside, Maine. 2:30 p.m. Astronomer John Cole of South Brooksville, Maine watched 10–15 seconds while ten very light objects, with two dark forms to their left, moved like a swarm of bees to the northwest. A loud roar was heard.
July 4, 1947; over Emmet, Idaho. 8:17 p.m. United Air Lines Capt. E.J. Smith, First Officer Ralph Stevens, Stewardess Marty Morrow all watched for 12–15 minutes while four objects with flat bottoms and rough tops moved at varying speeds, with one high and to the right of the others.
July 6, 1947: Fairfield-Suisan Air Base, California. Capt. and Mrs. James Burniston watched for 1 minute while one object having no wings or tail rolled from side-to-side three times and then flew away very fast to the southeast.
July 7, 1948: Phoenix, Arizona. William Rhodes. Watched a "heel-shaped" object that circled near his home. Took two photographs of the object which disappeared a few minutes later. Air Force conclusion: Hoax
July 8, 1947: Muroc Air Base, California. 9:30 a.m. lst Lt. Joseph McHenry, T/Sgt Ruvolo, S/Sgt Nauman, Janette Scotte watched for an unstated length of time while two silver disc-shaped or spherical objects, apparently made of metal, flew a wide circular pattern. One of them later flew a tighter circle.
July 9, 1947: Meridian, Idaho. 12:17 Idaho Statesman aviation editor and former (AAF) B-29 pilot Dave Johnson watched for more than 10 seconds from an Idaho Air National Guard AT-6 while a black disc, which stood out against the clouds, made a half-roll and then a stair-step climb.
July 10, 1947: Harmon Field, Newfoundland, Canada. Between 3 and 5 p.m. Three ground crewmen, including Mr. Leidy, for Pan American Airways watched briefly while one translucent disc- or wheel-shaped object flew very fast, leaving a dark blue trail. It then ascended and cut a path through the clouds.
July 29, 1947: Hamilton Air Base, California. 2:50 p.m. Assistant Base Operations Officer Capt. William Rhyerd, ex-AAF B-29 pilot Ward Stewart. Watched for unknown length of time while two round, shiny, white objects with estimated 15–25 foot diameters, flew 3–4 times the apparent speed of a P-80, also in sight. One object flew straight and level. The other weaved from side-to-side like an escort fighter.
Sept. 3, 1947: Oswego, Oregon. 12:15 p.m. Mrs. Raymond Dupui. Watched for unknown length of time as 12–15 round, silver objects flew an unstated pattern.
Oct., 1947: Dodgeville, Wisconsin. Unidentified witness watched for 1 hour while an undescribed object flew circles.
Oct. 14, 1947: 11 mi. NNE of Cave Creek, Arizona. Noon Fighter pilot J.L. Clark, a civilian pilot named Anderson, an unidentified third man watched 45–60 seconds while one 3-foot flying wing shaped object, which looked black against the white clouds and red against the blue sky, flew straight at an estimated 380 m.p.h., at 8-10,000 feet, from northwest to southeast.