Tucson, AZ, July 7, 1947

July 7, 1947, Tucson (Arizona) Daily Citizen, page 1

PALE BALLOONS MAY BE DISCS

By Ed Dougherty

   Now don't get up in the air about this, but we don't know "weather" it is or "weather" it ain't.
   All this talk about "flying saucers," "yo-yos," and "clams" is most mystifying.  One trickle of information came in Monday from local yo-yo sleuths.  Al Franco, former deputy sheriff, brought something in from his ranch which might, or might not, be a solution to the mystery.
   A friend of Franco's, Walter Laos, who reported seeing the flying discs every Sunday for the past four weeks, received from Franco a "radiosonde modulator" of the Army signal corps, which Laos found on his ranch 12 miles out on the Nogales highway.
   Investigation on the part of the Daily Citizen reveals there are six such gadgets sent aloft each day by the local Army and U. S. weather bureau.
   Some of the balloons are colored red, others black, and still others white -- get that, "white" -- it may be significant.  American airlines receive weather reports four times a day from the U.S. weather bureau, which sends four balloons up each day to get climatic information.
   The Army signal corps at Davis-Monthan field sends up two balloons a day for the same purpose.  After reaching a certain elevation the meteorological equipment descends from the balloon by parachute.
   Sgt. Gordon Schmidt, mundane realist that he is, states with significant mean that the parachutes are eight to 10 feet in diameter and in a high wind they can make considerable speed and disappear over the horizon.
   Well at any rate, that's the best report available from Tucson, and at the risk of being called an unbeliever I'm going to tell my wife and kiddies not to be worrying too much about the advent of "men from Mars."  Besides Ed Goyette of the Chamber of Commerce says, "There are limited housing facilities available in Tucson, be they men from Mars or Anytown, U.S.A."