The Maury Island UFO Incident: The Story behind the Air Force’s first military plane crash (5 page)

Call to Palmer
- Arnold called Palmer to say he wanted out of this
situation and investigation.
Arnold offered to give back the $200
expense money and drop the story. Arnold felt the plane crash and the
two lives lost had a direct connection to the Maury Island sighting.
Palmer told Arnold to keep the money and that it would probably be
best to drop the investigation. Palmer warned Arnold and Smith not to
carry any of the fragments aboard his plane and suggested that if we
wanted to keep any to mail them to ourselves or to him. He advised
him
to
prevent
Smith
from
taking
any
fragments.
Smith, standing by and listening, got the impression that the editor was
no longer interested in the story after hearing about the crash and
angrily took the phone from Arnold and shouted to Palmer that this
was a serious situation and that the editor better “shed some light” on
the matter. Ken Arnold took the receiver back.
Crisman also wanted
to
speak to
Palmer and was “jockeying for the phone.” “I’ll
substantiate it! “ I’ll give him the facts
!” What Happened in Room 502?
Arnold handed the phone to Crisman who Arnold would write that
Crisman wanted to assure Palmer the B-25 had crashed. Ray Palmer
would later state he recognized the voice and was positive that it was
the same voice that had called him long distance on the occasions from
various parts of the country. Arnold had been lucky to reach Palmer as
that day was Palmer’s birthday.

Call to Chicago
- Smith then called reporter Maurice Roddy, an
aviation editor for the Chicago Times and personal friend of Smith,
and told Roddy the story of what had occurred.
Roddy expressed
interest but said that without confirmation from the AAF they couldn’t
do much.
Smith had just hung up when a Colonel from McChord
Field called and asked if they would be available later for questioning.
The Colonel confirmed the room number and hung up.
Also, that morning, Col. Gregg of McChord Field called Arnold's room
and asked, "that Arnold, Smith, Crisman, and Dahl submit their
addresses to Hamilton Field for convenience of any Army investigation
of the incident which may be forthcoming.”

11 am-noon
– The second of five anonymous calls was placed to
Tacoma Times reporter Paul Lantz and advised that there had been a
big meeting in 502, that the B-25 was carrying disc fragments and that
“McChord Field officials had stated it was shot down or sabotaged.
Lantz then went to the Winthrop to see if the anonymous caller was
the hotel’s switchboard operator and then went to Arnold’s room
where Arnold could provide no additional information.

Staying at the Hotel for Lunch
- Given the aspect that Arnold
and Smith had to be reached for questioning they decided to have
lunch at the hotel where they were joined by Dahl.
During the lunch, Dahl said something to the effect that “You two
have nothing to worry about.” This reminded Smith of what Brown
had said the night previously, and seemed to him to link Dahl to the
bugging of Room 502 and the anonymous calls
. – Room 502
It is likely lunch took a somber tone with thoughts of what would
happen to them. Arnold and the others
could imagine everything
from loss of their jobs, prison sentences involved with this event,
conspiracy to
commit
fraud, sabotage, and loss
of
Government
Property, charges or implication in murder…
At one point, Smith excused himself from the table and attempted to
make a call to an acquaintance, FBI agent Bobbitt of the Portland Field
office. Bobbitt was unavailable and it appears Smith did not attempt to
again contact the FBI office.

The Note under the door
– All four were back in the hotel room 502
when an envelope was pushed silently under the door. Both Crisman
and Dahl turned white until Arnold picked it up and read the letter. It
was a notice from the management that there was an imminent strike
of the “Cooks, Waitresses and Bartender’s Union, Local 61, AF of L”
at the hotel. No meals or room services would be provided and the
switchboard would only be open for emergency calls. The strike was
scheduled for that day Friday at midnight but staff would work until
the end of shift Sat. 7am. Only essential service would be provided by
management. For safety reasons, the elevators would not be in service.
Arnold became annoyed and phoned the desk and asked to speak with
the manager. “We’re expecting important calls here, it may relate to
national
security.”
Arnold eventually
came to
some kind of
arrangement with the hotel desk.
The clerk assured Arnold that
military call would go through.

5:30pm
– The third of five calls by anonymous informant placed to
United Press Wireman (Ted Morello). Caller stated the
B-25 that
crashed was carrying disc fragments and that McChord Field and
officers were Capt. Davidson and Lt. Brown, A-2 Intelligence officers.
(before names were officially released).
Caller stated that the Army would verify his information was accurate,
as the Army had not released the names. Caller said fragments were
top-secret material.
- FBI Report 8/19/47.

6:45 pm
- Fourth of five calls by anonymous informant to UP Ted
Morello. Informant again would state B-25 was definitely shot down
and that if asked, the Army Intelligence Officers would not deny it.
Morello thought the informant said to contact Colonel Guys but it was
discovered
it
was Colonel
Gregg
who
was in
charge of
Army
Intelligence A-2. Civilians and the sheriff had been kept away from the
wreckage with the army guarding it.

Arnold and Smith had dinner inside the hotel. Upon returning to their
room, they checked the desk where they had a phone call from Ted
Morello. Smith called Morello back at the room and they contacted
him at KMO, a Tacoma radio station that Morello was associated with.
Morello refused to talk with Smith until he had left the room and called
from a pay phone.
Smith did this but thought Morello was being
overly theatrical.

“You’ll change your tune when you hear this,” said Morello. “I had
another one of those anonymous calls. He said he had proof that the
B-25 had been followed shortly after takeoff from McChord, and was
downed by a 20mm cannon. It also said that both you and that private
flier, Arnold, had similar attacks, but both missed somehow. Also that
the January 26 crash, remember, Grace Moore and some Crown Prince
(Gustaf Adolf of Sweden, second in line to the Swedish throne) and
the May 29 one at La Guardia were done the same way.
Now I
phoned the FBI on this – had to—and they told me it was probably
some nut, and not to broadcast it
. Room 502
Smith talked a bit with Morello and hung up, then returned to 502.
Before he talked to Arnold, they went into the bathroom and turned
on all the taps as a precaution – a procedure now that did not seem at
all theatrical.

Arnold and Smith woke up to an early call from Maurice Roddy at the
Tribune in Chicago. The Tribune was preparing a story on Venture
Press including Maury Island and the B-25 crash, was looking to
interview General Spaatz or Brig. General Schramm. Smith explained
he couldn’t
comment
until
he received the military
questions.
When Smith ended the phone call, he informed Arnold that Venture
Press was a personal sideline of Ray Palmer with its latest claim to fame
of finding the “long-lost Jesse James.”

Arnold started to worry and called his brother in Boise asking him to
visit their mother and explain that he might be in some news story but
not to worry.
Arnold next phoned a cable to his wife Doris that
everything was ok and he would come home soon. Smith heard the
wire being phoned in and asked perhaps as a cautionary procedure
where Western Union was located.
Arnold gave him the address of
South 10
^th
and Smith wrote it down.
Arnold ran out of cigarettes and walked down to the lobby to get some
more. He bought an Amazing Stories at the newsstand, which featured
“The Star Kings.”
The picket lines had started from the AF of L local and they were lined
up all along Broadway and Commerce St. with just a skeleton crew on
9
^th
. One staffer said “Sorry about this, sir.”
The desk man mentioned they are asking all guests who remain to
make their own beds.”

Upon returning to the room and relaxing Smith and Arnold were
briefly surprised
when
they heard on
the radio
Fred Crisman
mentioned on the local Veteran’s program.
Smith called McChord but was informed to “Sit tight, we’ll get around
to you.”

Noon – Call from Dahl
asking to meet him up the street for lunch in
a café. Fred Crisman said he would meet them there and show them
the boat. By this time, Smith and Arnold were tired of waiting around
for the military to call and agreed to meet Dahl.

The made their way past the picket lines to a café on St. Helens St.
Dahl and another man were sitting at a booth. Dahl introduced them
but not the man who eventually left after they finished their discussion.
When the man left, Crisman arrived and said, “All set?” After a small
meal of coffee and toast, Arnold and Smith would then visit Crisman’s
boat – the boat that Dahl supposedly was using during the UFO
sighting.

Crisman drove all four down Commerce St, across a bridge and
turned left to an area a sign designated as “City Waterways.” They
parked on D Street and walked to the pier. The boat was much smaller
than what either Arnold or Smith expected; it looked like a tugboat.
Smith inspected the boat for the damage supposedly caused by the
flying saucer but was unimpressed by the evidence.
A section of the
rail was missing and the edges were sealed with layers of old paint. The
deck cabin roof was whole and Smith couldn’t believe tons of rocks fell
on the boat.

Dahl ducked inside to talk to a man in coveralls who returned to
work perhaps on the engine after Dahl whispered something to him.
Arnold wrote that the “boat was gray in color, a very small type of
partially enclosed inboard fishing boat.
It in no way looked like a
harbor patrol boat that I had seen in pictures
” COS p. 62.
Arnold and
Smith both felt this wasn’t a seaworthy boat and wasn’t necessarily
convinced of any evidence of repairs that was said to have occurred
due to damage from the slag. Crisman would offer to have them visit
his cabin where he believed his photos were but Arnold and Smith
declined. Arnold was annoyed and not surprised that Crisman had not
brought his Venture magazines as promised. This would be the last
time Arnold and Smith would see Crisman.
Dahl dropped them off at their hotel where they checked the desk and
received a message from Paul Lantz of the Tacoma Times. When they
called the Tacoma Times Smith told Lantz, they would be across the
street at a coffee shop.
When Lantz arrived, he wanted to know if they had any of the rock,
the Times could take photographs of to run in a future story. Both
Smith and Arnold declined to offer any slag as they thought it might be
evidence. Lantz said both the Tacoma Times and the wire service were
preparing to run a story on the previous meetings in Room 502 and
again asked them to disclose the nature of the meetings.
He was
concerned he would be scooped on the news and promised to respect
their requests for privacy but he had to know more information or he
would run his articles with all he knew. Smith asked “All you know?”
Lantz replied, “That’s just what I meant” and got up to leave and
added, “Well, I just wanted to tell you beforehand.”

On returning to the hotel, they received two non-emergency calls
that were cut off by the switchboard operator. They had come from a
Broadway or Proctor exchange when they quizzed the operator.
– WH
Rm. 502.
Smith placed a wire to Roddy at the Western Union.
They then waited at the Olympic Hotel at 815 Pacific St. informing the
Winthrop they would be there at Main 4161 if any messages came in.
Dahl dropped by with the latest Tacoma Times with the headline in red
ink:

“SABOTAGE HINTED IN CRASH OF ARMY BOMBER AT
KELSO” written by Paul Lantz.
The mystery of the ‘Flying Saucers’ soared into prominence again
Saturday when the Tacoma Times was informed that the crash of
an army plane at Kelso may have been caused by sabotage.

The Times’ informant, in a series of mysterious phone calls
reported that the ship 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 Maury
Island recently.

Lending substance to the caller’s story is the fact that twelve
hours before the Army released official identification, he correctly
identified the dead in the crash to be Captain William L Davidson,
pilot, and First Lieutenant Frank M Brown.
Classified Material:
At the same time, he informed the Times,
Kenneth Arnold, Boise businessman who first sighted the flying
saucers, and United Airlines Captain E. J. Smith, who also sighted
them, were in secret conference in Room 502 at the Hotel
Winthrop. A check confirmed the information but neither Smith
nor Arnold would disclose the nature of the conference nor the
reason for their being in Tacoma.
According to the anonymous caller, platter fragments were loaded
aboard a B-25 at McChord Field Friday for shipment to the
California field. Half an hour after the takeoff, the plane crashed
near Kelso, Washington.
Two enlisted men: Master Sergeant
Elmer L. Taff
and Technician
Fourth
Grade Woodrow
D.
Mathews parachuted to safety.
At McChord Field, an intelligence officer confirmed the mystery
caller’s report that the ill-fated craft had been carrying ‘classified
material’.
Hint Sabotage:
Major George Sander explained ‘Classified
material means there was a somewhat secret cargo aboard the
plane. No one was allowed to take pictures of the wreckage until
the material was removed and returned to McChord Field.’
He declined to say what constituted ‘classified material.’
The theory of sabotage was borne out by the statement of the two
crash survivors that one of the engines burst into flames and that
regular fire apparatus installed in the engine for such emergencies
failed to function.