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Kenneth Albert Arnold (March 29, 1915 – January 16, 1984) was an American aviator, businessman, and politician.

He is best known for making what is generally considered the first widely reported modern unidentified flying object sighting in the United States, after claiming to have seen nine unusual objects flying in tandem near Mount Rainier, Washington on June 24, 1947.

Biography

Arnold was born on March 29, 1915 in Sebeka, Minnesota. He grew up in Scobey, Montana. He was an Eagle Scout and all-state football player in high school. He attended the University of Minnesota in 1934-35.

In 1938, he began work for Red Comet, manufacturer of automatic firefighting equipment. He was promoted to district manager the following year. In 1940, Arnold started his own company, the Great Western Fire Control Supply in Boise, Idaho, which sold and installed fire suppression system, a job that took him around the Pacific Northwest.

In 1941, Arnold married Doris Lowe; they had four daughters.

UFO sighting

The Kenneth Arnold UFO sighting occurred on June 24, 1947, when private pilot Kenneth Arnold claimed that he saw a string of nine, shiny unidentified flying objects flying past Mount Rainier at speeds that Arnold estimated at a minimum of 1,200 miles an hour (1,932 km/hr). This was the first post-World War II sighting in the United States that garnered nationwide news coverage and is credited with being the first of the modern era of UFO sightings, including numerous reported sightings over the next two to three weeks. Arnold's description of the objects also led to the press quickly coining the terms flying saucer and flying disc as popular descriptive terms for UFOs.

Investigation of Maury Island UFO hoax

After the 1947 UFO sighting, Arnold became famous "practically overnight". Arnold's daughter would later recall the family receiving 10,000 letters and constant phone calls.

Arnold was contacted by Raymond A. Palmer, editor of fringe/sci-fi magazine Amazing Stories. Palmer relayed to Arnold the story of two harbor patrolmen in Tacoma who reportedly possessed fragments of a "flying saucer". Palmer requested that Arnold fly to Tacoma to investigate, and on July 28, Palmer wired $200 to Arnold to fund the investigation. On July 29, Arnold interviewed Harold Dahl, who reported:

"On June 21, 1947 in the afternoon about two o'clock, I was patrolling the east bay of Maury Island I, as captain, was steering my patrol boat close to the shore of a bay on Maury Island. On board were two crewmen, my fifteen-year-old son and his dog. As I looked up from the wheel on my boat I noticed six very large doughnut-shaped aircraft "

Dahl further claimed that one of the objects "began spewing forth what seemed like thousands of newspapers from somewhere on the inside of its center. These newspapers, which turned out to be a white type of very light weight metal, fluttered to earth". Dahl reported that a substance resembling lava rocks fell onto their boat, breaking a worker's arm and killing a dog.

Dahl said his superior officer, Fred Crisman, investigated. Dahl also claimed he was later approached by a man in a dark suit and told not to talk about the incident. Crisman, when interviewed, reported having recovered debris from Maury Island and having witnessed an unusual craft.

Arnold first recruited Captain E.J. Smith of United Airlines, who had reported witnessing a flying disc on July 4. Crisman showed "white metal" debris to Arnold and Smith, who interpreted it as mundane and inconsistent with Dahl's description. Arnold then decided to contact Lt. Frank Brown of Military Intelligence, Fourth Air Force, Hamilton Field, California. Brown arrived at Arnold's hotel in Tacoma along with Captain William L. Davidson.

Davidson and Brown conducted interviews, collected fragments, and prepared for the return flight out of McChord. In the early hours of August 1, the two officers died when the B-25 Bomber they were piloting crashed outside of Kelso, Washington on their way back to California.

Arnold would detail his experience in his 1952 book The Coming of the Saucers.

Aftermath

Arnold was involved in interviewing other UFO witnesses or contactees (notably, he investigated the claims of Samuel Eaton Thompson, one of the first contactees).

In Spring 1948, Arnold and Science Fiction editor Ray Palmer collaborated on an article titled "The Truth About Flying Saucers", based on Arnold's sighting. In 1950, Arnold self-published a 16-page booklet titled "The Flying Saucer As I Saw It". In 1952, Arnold and Palmer authored "The Coming of the Saucers".

Reportedly, Arnold came to believe he had seven additional sightings, one of which involved a transparent saucer he likened to a jellyfish.

Political career and later life

In 1962, Kenneth Arnold announced plans to run for Governor of Idaho and won the Republican nomination for the 1962 Idaho lieutenant gubernatorial election; In the general election, Arnold lost to incumbent Democrat W. E. Drevlow. In 1964, Arnold publicly campaigned for Republican presidential nominee Barry Goldwater, flying a plane painted with Goldwater '64 slogan "Au-H2O-64".

He appeared at a 1977 convention curated by Fate to mark the thirtieth anniversary of the "birth" of the modern UFO age.

In 1984, Kenneth Arnold died, aged 68, from colon cancer at Overlake Hospital in Bellevue, Washington.

Bibliography

• The Real Flying Saucers, Other Worlds (January 1952)
• The Coming of the Saucers (1952) (with Raymond A. Palmer)

References

1. Project 1947, "Some life data on Kenneth Arnold"
2. Find a grave, Cremated, and ashes given to his wife
3. ^ "14 Dec 1961, 6 - The Idaho Statesman at Newspapers.com". Newspapers.com. Retrieved December 30, 2021.
4. ^ "Flying saucers still evasive 70 years after pilot's report | The Spokesman-Review". www.spokesman.com. Retrieved December 30, 2021.
5. Bartholomew, Robert E. (November 2, 2010). Hoaxes, Myths, and Manias: Why We Need Critical Thinking. Prometheus Books. ISBN 978-1-61592-338-0.
6. ^ Arnold "The Coming of the Saucers" (1952)
7. Harrison, Albert A. (2007). Starstruck: Cosmic Visions in Science, Religion, and Folklore. Berghahn Books. pp. 123–. ISBN 978-1-84545-286-5. Retrieved October 2, 2013.
8. "The Maury Island UFO Incident". How Stuff Works. How Stuff Works. February 8, 2008. Retrieved March 15, 2018.
9. https://books.google.com/books?id=wYcx2lFvTrEC&pg=PA111
10. May, Andrew (September 13, 2016). Pseudoscience and Science Fiction. Springer. ISBN 978-3-319-42605-1.
11. Arnold, Kenneth (1950). The Flying Saucer as I Saw it.
12. May, Andrew (September 13, 2016). Pseudoscience and Science Fiction. Springer. ISBN 978-3-319-42605-1.
13. The Coming Of The Saucers.
14. "6 Jun 1962, 2 - The Times-News at Newspapers.com". Newspapers.com. Retrieved December 30, 2021.
15. "9 Nov 1962, 2 - The Times-News at Newspapers.com". Newspapers.com. Retrieved December 30, 2021.
16. "10 Sep 1964, Page 1 - Idaho State Journal at Newspapers.com". Newspapers.com. Retrieved December 30, 2021.
17. https://www.newspapers.com/image/156014786/
18. Collins, Curt (March 15, 2017). "UFOs, Kenneth Arnold and the American Bible". blueblurrylines.com. Archived from the original on January 20, 2012. Retrieved October 25, 2018.

Sources

• Arnold, Kenneth; Palmer, Ray (1952), The coming of the saucers: a documentary report on sky objects that have mystified the world, Boise, Wisconsin: Privately published by the authors, p. 192, 3021444
• Clark, Jerome, The UFO Encyclopedia: The Phenomenon from the Beginning, Volume 2, A-K, Detroit: Omnigraphics, 1998 (2nd edition, 2005), ISBN 0-7808-0097-4
• Campbell, Steuart, The UFO Mystery Solved, Explicit Books, 1994, ISBN 0-9521512-0-0
• Obituary, Idaho Statesman, January 22, 1984

External links

• The Singular Adventure of Mr Kenneth Arnold
• The Positively True Story of Kenneth Arnold – Part One 10-part series at Saturday Night Uforia
• Resolving Arnold part 1
• Resolving Arnold part 2

• 1915 births
• 1984 deaths
• University of Minnesota alumni
• People from Wadena County, Minnesota
• American aviators
• People from Scobey, Montana
• People associated with ufology
• Maury Island incident