Books

Nine Flying Objects

For decades, controversy has raged over the existence of Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) seen by thousands of witnesses across the globe. In June 2021, the Pentagon submitted a report to the US Congress admitting that jet pilots had been reporting UFOs for decades and that whatever their reality, the objects appeared to be an unknown advanced technology. June 24, 2022, marks the seventy-fifth anniversary of the birth of UFOs. On the same month and day in 1947, a thirty-two-year-old skilled mountain pilot named Kenneth Arnold saw nine silver, disk-shaped objects flying at incredible speed near Mount Rainier in Washington state. Fearing he had seen possible Russian missiles, he performed his patriotic duty and reported them to a small newspaper in Oregon. He described their motion as if "you took a saucer and skipped it across the water." Hence, the term flying saucer was born.Arnold, a well-known businessman with a reputation for honesty and integrity, was plunged into fame overnight. Nine Flying Objects tells the story of an innocent man who struggled the rest of his life with the consequences of his report. Set in the early days of the Cold War when the newly named US Air Force was emerging from the ashes of World War II and fear of the atomic bomb gripped the hearts of millions, Arnold poured his own resources into his one-man crusade to discover what he had seen and to fight those who doubted and ridiculed him. Based on interviews of Arnold and extensive historical documents, Nine Flying Objects captures the tenor of a time when UFOs were born and a single witness stood up for the truth against a government seeking to hide the reality of the single-most enduring mystery of our time.

-- Gregory Long