The Maury Island UFO Incident: The Story behind the Air Force’s first military plane crash (15 page)

He also indicated investigators were closing in on the mysterious
telephone caller who touched off the latest wave of saucer speculation
by naming Capt. William L. Davidson, San Francisco, and 1
^st
Lt. Frank
M. Brown, Vallejo, Cal., hours before the army announced they had
been killed in the B-25 crash.
Sanders said he did not know whether there would be prosecution as a
result
of
the
hoax,
which
he
admitted,
deceived
the
army.

CENTERED ON PLANE
Attention had been centered on the plane since The Tacoma Times
first reported last Saturday that a telephone message had been received
from an
anonymous tipster claiming the plane was carrying disc
fragments and that it either had been “sabotaged” or “shot down.”

Brig. –Gen. Ned Schramm, chief of staff of the Fourth air force at
San Francisco, at first denied there were disc fragments aboard, but
later admitted that Capt. William L. Davison and First. Lt. Frank M.
Brown, the dead fliers, had been dispatched to Tacoma to interview
Kenneth Arnold, Boise business man-flier, and Capt. Emil Smith.
United Airlines pilot who are considered to be the most reliable
observers of the flying discs.
CONFIRMS REPORT Later it was admitted by Brig. Gen Schramm
that “classified material” pertaining to discs was being carried back to
headquarters by the two intelligence officers at the time of the crash.
Capt. Smith, interviewed at a home on Lake Washington,
revealed that all facts about their investigation in Tacoma
had been turned over to army intelligence.
He refused to
answer further questions. Since that time, a military “cloak
of secrecy” has
been
thrown
around
the
case.
A fragment of fused rock. Thought to be smelter slag, was
being analyzed Tuesday after it was learned a specimen had
been examined by Arnold and Smith as a possible flying
saucer fragment. The Black material was picked up by two
Tacoma businessmen in a gravel pit on Maury Island.

Smith denied turning any of these fragments over to the
army, however.
Material, or data, aboard the plane is
believed by The Times to have come from another source.

For the FBI, E.J. Smith gave a disposition at the City-County building
in Seattle. In it, he mentioned the names of the others on board Dahl’s
boat
at
the time of
the incident. In Covington’s copy of the
disposition, the names are redacted out
. - Covington

Numerous theories have been offered. One theory is that Crisman was
covering up illegal slag dumping having been familiar with transport
planes through Boeing and wanted to make some money off of the
scrap metal having just been laid off from the Veterans service.

Note:
“Crisman stated that Dahl is crooked. - that Dahl was rumored
to be a black market operator during the war but there was nothing
concrete
.
FBI Report, 1947

John Keel’s Theory
From Keel, John
“The Maury Island Caper” UFOs 1947-1987: The 40-Year Search for an
Explanation. ForteanTomes, London, 1987. p.42
“The truth is frustratingly simple. In 1947, the Atomic Energy
Commission’s (AEC) huge metallurgical plant at Hanford, WA was
processing plutonium and creating vast quantities of radioactive waste.
Getting rid of this material was already a major problem and one
method was to load it into cargo planes and dump it unceremoniously
into various large bodies of water…such as Puget Sound and Tacoma
harbor. Dahl happened to be an unwitting witness to one of these
dumping operations. When newspaperman Paul Lance (Lantz) visited
Maury Island a few weeks later, he found a high chain fence had been
erected around the slag piles and there was a sign: PROPERTY OF
U.S. GOVERNMENT .KEEP OUT
Apparently, a group of cargo planes was heading north-west from
Hanford to a dumping ground in the Pacific when one of the aircraft
developed serious trouble. It unceremoniously dumped its ugly cargo
into Tacoma harbor and onto Maury Island, and then returned to
Hanford. Dahl and his crew were seen from the air and photographed.
It was easy for AEC security officers to check with the hospital later
and track Dahl down. The Man-in-Black who visited Dahl was actually
an agent for the AEC intent on covering up what was even then an
illegal dumping of dangerous atomic waste.”
“Everyone was under suspicion. Hotel rooms in Tacoma and Seattle
were wired.
Telephones were widely trapped.
This accounted for
Arnold’s strange experiences when he arrived in Tacoma. Confidential
conversations in his hotel room were passed on to the press by
mysterious telephone informants etc. Why? Because the AEC knew, it
had committed a No-No and security officials saw the Crisman story of
a “flying donut as a perfect cover for a botched operation.
“Kenneth Arnold had managed to send Ray Palmer some samples of
the original Maury Island slag and Palmer had them analyzed. He was
baffled by the laboratory analysis because he knew nothing about
metallurgy and he certainly didn’t know anything about the Top Secret
process for creating plutonium. It was not until the 1960’s that
information about that process was publicly revealed.
Part of it
included piping deadly fluorine gas through tubes of pure nickel. The
slag-like material that accumulated in these tubes was high in calcium
and matched Palmer’s sample. But Ray Palmer died in 1977 without
ever knowing that the mysterious slag from Maury Island was not from
outer space but was merely garbage from the miles of metal tubing in
the world’s largest factory building in Hanford.”

Later statement, letters and documents would show that the slag never
came from a UFO but appeared to be a fabricated story started a year
earlier to possibly commercialize and sell salvaged metal.

As Dahl and Crisman were already in the business of salvaging logs
and familiar with Maury Island, it would have been convenient to take
up another source of revenue in the area. Crisman had just been laid
off a month earlier, was claiming to be single yet in reality separated
from his wife and daughter, living in a small surplus military housing
and was likely financially strapped.
Harold Dahl was in the same
predicament, going to movies to get away from his wife and also
financially strapped.

UFO Proponents will claim Dahl’s retraction was due to
intimidation but the total absence of the light metal and the shiftiness
of Crisman behavior even gave Arnold and Smith great pause for
concern. Arnold even in his later writing was likely reticent to admit
Dahl’s story was true because that would have undercut his own
sighting. In 1947, Kenneth Arnold was eager and even desperate to
have the military and the public believe his sightings. Later interviews
would show that Arnold still carried a chip on his shoulders at the lack
of attention the military was showing to what many were concerned
were foreign craft in our domestic airspace. In fact, even today sixty
years later researchers are no closer to identifying the origins of these
strange crafts that dozens of people have seen.

Looking back, researchers are now seeing how the story of UFOs
over Maury Island developed. The original story was that Dahl sighted
six disks, one of which “fluttered to the earth and disintegrated.”
Crisman and Dahl wrote Ray A. Palmer this story to Ziff-Davis
Company.
“Dahl and Crisman have admitted that the material which they sent to
Ray Palmer had no connection with any flying discs and had given a
statement to that effect.
An UP Wireman in Tacoma (likely Ted Morello) advised that in early
June 1947, he was requested by the Seattle PI to check on a story,
which had been obtained from the Fire Chief at Harper Washington.
The story originated with Fred Crisman – that Dahl saw 5-6 disks, one
which fluttered to the ground and disintegrated.

In 1947, just two weeks before Roswell, the military was unprepared
for the rash of UFO sightings and a bit of a loss to explain what was
flying around.
The military was also perhaps reluctant to admit
informing other countries in a developing cold war setting. 1947 was
still a time of “Loose lips sink ships” and government secrecy. A
person didn’t question the government as an authority.
According to
a
recently discovered article on
the crash, in
the
Longview Daily article published shortly after the crash of August 1,
entitled “Springer Arrives To See Crash Scene” some indication is
given that
there was an attempt to provide a different explanation for
the officer’s investigations. Was this perhaps an early example of
government disinformation? The article states “Information reaching
The Daily News concerning the flight tended to dispel rumors of flying
discs or secret missions, indicating that the aviators, Capt. William L.
Davidson, San Francisco, and 1st Lt. Frank M. Brown of Vallejo took
off from McChord Field bound for Hamilton Field,
California, early
Friday morning to gain some night flying time on their logbooks.”
This may have been one of the military’s first attempts at a UFO
sighting cover up to the press.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer I.N.S. article states “a Fourth Air Force
officer verified Capt. Davidson’ and Lt. Brown’s deaths but stated that
the report that their ill-fated bomber was returning with classified or
secret material was “just a flight of fancy.”

Despite speculation of a hoax with Dahl and Crisman, Smith in his
FBI statement would relate that Brown and Davidson were of the
opinion that there might be some truth to the current flying disk stories
but their immediate superiors did not agree with them. Perhaps this is
why 1
^st
Lt. Brown called Arnold at a pay phone upon Arnold’s request
to review Dahl and Crisman. Smith says that Crisman left after the
military officers left for McChord field and he and Arnold went for
donuts.
Smith’s statements to the FBI generally reflected Arnold’s account
except for several details. Smith recalled Dahl saying his sighting was
around the 23
^rd
or 24
^th
of June and the “Man in Black” visited him 4-5
days subsequent to his sighting. Another discrepancy, albeit slight is
Smith recalls Harold Dahl stating his son was “16 years old,” not
fifteen years of age.

Later that day Kenneth Arnold again received a call from Ted
Morello. The mysterious informant that kept calling Morello stated the
B-25 bomber from Hamilton Field had been shot down by a 20mm
cannon.
The Tacoma Times that day’s headlines read “Sabotage Hinted in
Crash of Army Bomber at Kelso and a sub-headline read “Plane May
Hold Flying Disk Secret.” Written by Paul Lantz the article stated the
plane had been sabotaged or shot down to prevent shipment of flying
disk fragments to Hamilton Field, California, for analysis. “The disk
parts were said by the informant to
be those from one of the
mysterious platters which plunged to earth on the Maury Island”
recently. Leading substance to the caller’s theory is the fact that twelve
hours before the Army released official identification; the informant
correctly identified the dead in the crash to be Capt. William L.
Davidson and 1st Lt. Frank M. Brown.

This Tacoma Times article also stated “At McChord field an
intelligence officer confirmed the informants report that the B-25
Bomber had been carrying ‘classified material’.
Seattle Post Intelligencer Aug. 3, 1947 AP report states “Pieces not
Located” Brig. Gen. Ned Schramm, chief of staff, Fourth Air Force,
said he knew nothing about reports that the plane was carrying
“classified” or secret material”
“As far as I know, the plane was supposed to come in here empty.” he
said, “and there wasn’t a single, solitary, secret thing aboard.”
Air Rescue Service Final Mission Report states “at 0930PST, a message
from Sq. B informed that top secret material was in the navigators kit
and to request Commanding Officer McChord Field to expedite all
available information to Commanding Officer Hamilton Field.”

Edward Ruppelt mentions in his book “The Report on Unidentified
Flying Objects” that “The report we had in our files had been pieced
together by Air Force Intelligence and other agencies because the two
intelligence officers who started the investigation couldn’t finish it.
They were dead. Ruppelt also mentions “The two officers went to
McChord AFB, near Tacoma, where their B-25 was parked, held a
conference with the intelligence officer at McChord and took off for
their home base, Hamilton.“