SHOOT THEM DOWN! ...Consequences?

SHOOT THEM DOWN:
KEYHOE, MONTS, EDWARDS and FARNSWORTH

...and Dr. Carrington
by Alfred Lehmberg

In his 1953 book, "Flying Saucers From Outer Space," Donald Keyhoe reveals the public backlash that the Air Force received in response to the president's "shoot them down" orders against flying saucers. These were "saucers" abounding and festooning the world's, forgetting the United States', skies at the time. Revealed, there were sentient and more far-seeing people in this historical period with the opinion that overt hostility may not be humanity's "best practice." 

Understatement? What if the "Summer Of Saucers" in 1952 was the extraterrestrials' introduction to us? They knocked on our door, peaceably (they didn't start the shooting?!), and we answered the door, rockets and machine guns blazin'! We offer that may not be a proper Prom invitation. 

Cold War with the Soviets (who were having their own maturity problems?) or not, America was in an arrogant swagger after winning the Second World War and was just beginning to "swing its Richard" globally. The approach would seem to lack its own cogent maturity. 

Back at the ranch, the "International News Service" news agency (newswire), reported the Air Force's official statement. It was made by Senior Public Information Officer, Lt. Colonel Moncel Monts on July 28, 1952. Lt. Col. Monts stated, "The jet pilots are, and have been under orders to investigate unidentified objects and to shoot them down if they can't talk them down." 

Laughable, wholly! What would be the manner of that "communication," in the first place, and reconnaissance (investigation!) by fire, in the second place (this retired soldier knows!), is only used when you already KNOW what the target is! We decidedly did NOT!

Investigate? Talk them down? This is typical only of lawyer speak covering "ethical" bases and is entirely risible on its face. When was there ever a public dialogue with the extraterrestrial? ...No... the Government wanted, by hook or crook, a flying saucer!

This INS "shoot them down" story appeared in newspapers nationwide on Tuesday, July 29, 1952. Two of those article headers appear below...

                    

                  

Donald Keyoe states the following information about the "shoot them down" orders on page 74 of his book in the chapter, "THE POWDER KEG." :

"The night before a story by INS had reported a new Air Force order—if saucers ignored orders to land, pilots were to open fire. At Washington, Frank Edwards had picked up the flash and repeated it on the Mutual network. Telegrams protesting the order were now coming in from all over the country. One, typical of the rest, came from Robert L. Farnsworth, president of the U.S. Rocket Society. Also wiring the White House, Farnsworth gave United Press [UP] a copy of his message to help arouse the nation."

This same "DON'T SHOOT" telegram was also sent to the Secretary of Defense Robert Lovett, the Secretary of Army Frank Pace, Jr., and the Navy Secretary Daniel Kimball on Tuesday, July 29, 1952.

                    

The reader can see the reflective moods of thoughtful persons pondering seriously on the "gravest consequences" of being deliberately hostile to "beings of far superior power," and even used the word "alienation"... another word for "quarantine," from them... a result of our behavior towards them! ...Comparative "spears" and "arrows" against what might only be technologies conjectured in the full realization, friends and neighbors, that if they can get here from wherever they came from... they can very likely kick our butts. There were those among us, then, who could appreciate that. There are those among us, now. 

Quickly, on the subject of 1950s jets being able to shoot down UFOs down, at all? Almost seven pounds of high explosive arriving at around the speed of sound in a point detonation may complicate the physics of your defenses, and there is abundant evidence for forced landing of UFOs... Frank Feschino's Flatwoods comes to mind. There were others.

ET... it's a gobsmacking thought, if still not becoming more apparent reflective of our current events and the state of our observational technologies... and we're getting ready to curve-ball around the bend entirely when it's realized that we may be seeing the time-shifted evidences of some vastly superior technology via suspected city lights on other planets, surmised star enclosing Dyson spheres, and the other ethereal what-not revealed by our telescopes!

Ok... stop. Walk with us a moment in a relevant gear switch... Remember that old black and white movie from the fifties, "The Thing From Another World"? 

Oh sure, the alien was here to drink our blood (did we know that for certain? ...Mmmmmno!), a clear and present danger it would seem, but... remember the lead Einstein-like scientist Dr. Arthur Carrington (played by the wholly convincing Robert Cornthwaite) wanting to try to make nice with the alien, and actually wholly convincing as its advocate! He'd orate "a stranger in a strange land and beset upon violently by the inhabitants of that land at the start, put yourself in its shoes... " he pleaded. We paraphrase the good doctor, but the seasoned reporter Ned Scott, said he "could get a million bucks for him, if he was for sale"! ...Highly regarded.

Oh sure... the good doctor grew a platoon of the alien spawn himself, and even sabotaged the generator keeping everyone warm and acting as a weapon against the beast at the film's denouement... all in an attempt to intelligently communicate gainfully with the alien... ...but did you ever wonder why they bailed him out at film's end? There was no discussion, and then the act was even congratulated at the film's conclusion.

The aforementioned Newspaper reporter is finally able to report his astonishingly fearful story to the world, and he intones into his microphone "...Ned Scott reporting... Watch the skies! Keep watching the skies"! ...But before that? 

He reports to the planet that the world-renowned Dr. Carrington is recovering from injuries sustained in the struggle with the alien, and the film's male lead's top side-kick clearly says, "Good for you, Scotty." The agreement is total. Remember all the scientists sitting around minus the military guys discussing the seed pods in the alien arm? They were all down with Dr. Carrington... even keeping knowledge of the baby aliens a secret from the military until Carrington's secretary ratted them out? They'd had different thoughts on the matter, 

Why did the doctor get the pass, even on his apparent betrayal of humanity? He was forgiven, reader, along with his fellow scientists because they knew that when all was said and done, he was a brilliant man only trying to see further down the road than everyone else, distracted as they were by their more apparent immediate concerns. He proved that at the film's end, confronting the alien directly with a further impassioned and personal plea of fellowship and cooperation...

"I’m your friend. I have no weapons. I’m your friend. You’re wiser than I. You must understand what I’m trying to tell you. Don’t go farther. They’ll kill you. They think you’ll harm us. But I want to know you, to help you. Believe that. You’re wiser than anything on Earth. Use that intelligence. Look and know what I’m telling you. I’m not your enemy. I’m a scientist who’s trying –"

...before it viciously side-armed him into an icy wall... "...these humans have made their beds," it may have thought. 

See, "Carrington" was right, correct, and suspected true... and, in our imaginations? The characters of the film may have had to endure 72 future years of quarantine as a result of their actions... as we, perhaps, have?

Read on!