UFO. United States

On July 9, 1947, three teenage girls from Anchorage - Judy Kerr, Vicki Novak and Nancy Green — claimed to have seen an unusual white "disk—shaped object" over Elmendorf Air Base, where it swept across the sky and disappeared to the south. According to the girls, the unidentified object "was moving at a tremendous speed and was moving faster than ordinary planes." The girls also said that it was smaller than any fighter jet, and was not a weather balloon that they were familiar with, since they were all daughters of military personnel and spent time watching the base's flights. These three girls made the first documented UFO sighting in the history of Anchorage.

The ongoing fascination of Americans with UFOs began in 1947, not in Roswell, New Mexico, but in Mineral, Washington, in a small town south of Tacoma. On June 24, amateur pilot Kenneth Arnold was in the air over the Mineral when he noticed nine unidentified flying objects in echelon formation moving at extreme speed. Lights flashed from them, all together, and then in turn along the objects. He reported the sighting after he landed and gave an interview to an intrigued reporter the next day.

The story spread from there with the speed of a forest fire, aided by impatient editors. The headlines boldly reported "flying saucers" and "flying disks" —formulations based on a misunderstanding. Arnold said that the objects above the Mineral "flew like taking a saucer and throwing it on the water," bouncing and fluttering in the air. He did not say that the objects looked like plates or disks. However, the misquotation persisted, influencing science fiction and the gullible public for decades.

Almost out of nowhere, after Arnold's report, suddenly UFOs began to be observed daily all over the country. In total, in 1947, more than 850 reports of flying discs and saucers were received in America and Canada. The concept of UFOs has penetrated deeply into the public consciousness, fueled by the rapidly growing fear of the post-war world, atomic weapons and the Cold War with the Soviet Union. For many caught up in hysteria, the supposed appearance of flying saucers meant the potential end of civilization as they knew it, whether Russians or aliens.

On July 8, the Army airfield in Roswell issued a press release stating that army personnel from there had discovered a "flying disc" at a local ranch, in particular using new wording published in sensational newspaper reports elsewhere. Roger Ramey, commander of the Eighth Air Force, amended later that day that the "disk" was just a weather balloon, but the damage was done.

The Anchorage girls immediately reported their sighting to the Anchorage Daily Times. Until this week, there had not been a single mention of "flying saucers" or "flying discs" in the local newspapers in the previous 32 years of Anchorage's existence. On July 7, the Daily Times published its first article about the UFO craze, just two days before three girls claimed to have seen something over Elmendorf. On July 8, the Daily Times published the first local report on developments from Roswell, aided by an original Army press release describing the weather balloon as a "flying disc." The article also noted: "No cases have been reported in Alaska so far." Then, the next day, three teenagers accidentally saw a UFO.

No one else from the army, the Air Force, or Merrill Field has seen a UFO. Lee Teague, the special agent in charge of the FBI office in Anchorage, said:

"We haven't heard a single report that anyone has seen a flying disc in Anchorage or even in Alaska."

As it happened across the country, as soon as one person noticed a UFO, more messages followed.

Flying saucers have become firmly established in American popular culture, including in Alaska. By December 1947, a new Buchanan Brothers record, "These Flying Saucers," appeared in Anchorage stores. There were flying disc dances in Anchorage and a flying saucer delivery service in Fairbanks. Several boats in Alaska have been called a "Flying Saucer", including a seaplane that participated in races on Lake Wasilla. The culmination of this wave of interest was the first UFO film set in Alaska.