The Maury Island UFO Incident: The Story behind the Air Force’s first military plane crash (7 page)

Capt.
William
L.
Davidson, who was killed
in
the Kelso
crash
on
August 1, 1947. It would
become technically the
Air Force’s first fatality
as
the
Air
Force
separated from the Army
August 1st.
In reviewing the location
of the crash
and Capt.
Davidson’s actions there
is no doubt he attempted
to
put
out
the fire by
diving and steered the

Davidson
was born
January 16, 1920
in
Guymon, Oklahoma.
According to Jim Pobst in “What Happened in Room 502,” Davidson
had
been married to a Panamanian native Ursula around 1940 who
later returned to Panama.

Davidson enlisted in the Army Air Corps in
August 1942.
He
graduated as a pursuit pilot from the Army Air Forces School at
Mission, Texas. He graduated as one of the ten highest in his class.
He also received a medal as an expert aerial gunner.
“Lt. William
Davidson Graduates
-from William Shortley’s Family Scrapbook

1
^st
Lt. Frank M. Brown, who
was killed in the Kelso crash on
August
1,
1947,
was
born
February 19, 1919 in Montague,
Texas. Brown served in combat
in Italy as a B-25 pilot during
World War II entering service in
1943.
At the time of his death,
Brown
lived
in
Vallejo,
California. Brown had received a
purple heart, awarded when he
was shot down during his fifth
combat mission in Italy and the
Air Medal.

Brown had experience handling emergency situations. Flying his
second combat mission with the 15
^th
A.A.F. in Italy 2
^nd
Lieut. Frank
Brown was the pilot on a B-24 bomber and landed the plane after a
draft caused the plane to take a spin and dive 6,000 ft. Brown had to
pull the levers hard and they came out of the spin but as a result several
500 lb. bombs in the bay had broken loose. Brown asked his engineer
to check on the rest of the plane who discovered all four of the
passengers had parachuted to safety.
“I never thought that Frank’s death was an accident” – Velma Brown,
Widow of 1st. Lt. Frank M. Brown said in a letter to Kenneth Arnold.

Indeed Paul Lantz, the quiet reporter
always
inquiring
would
become
an
example of
the
consummate tenacious
investigative reporter for the Maury Island
Incident, always digging for answers.
In
the arena of Ufology, one cannot come
across
more intriguing
those that
Paul
Lantz
beginning days of modern day sightings
and those regarding the Maury Island incident.
Paul Lantz worked for five years for the Tacoma Times as church
editor and police reporter.
He is best known for writing the article in the August 2nd Tacoma
Times that the B-25 bomber had been sabotaged.
headlines than

Paul Lantz’s name, which was sometimes spelled erroneously as
“Lance.” was born on April 24, 1918 and died January 10th, 1948 at
the age of 29. Although Arnold had said it was two weeks after the
Kelso crash, Lantz actually died six months after the incident of
streptococci meningitis. Kenneth Arnold writes in his book “The
Coming of the Saucers” an appreciation to Paul Lantz – “whose death
we regret.” Regardless of any error of timeframe of death, there
seemed to be a serious concern about the sudden passing of Lantz.
Paul Lantz’s grandparents have communicated about their grandfather.
“We are told that he died of Streptococci Meningitis. “Whether that’s
true or a cover up I guess we'll never know.”
According to Paul
Lantz’s wife Evelyn, Paul died suddenly and unexpectedly. Jeni James,
Paul Lantz’s granddaughter would comment, “As far as the polio
goes...it sounds as though
it left him with
a noticeable limp
or
something.
His spine was crooked and you could tell he had a
problem. My grandma says that one leg was shorter than the other
was. He was in pain a lot from his spine and would go to therapy for
it. But my grandma says that he never used a cane or wheelchair.”

Jeni
James
stated
she
documented
some
information
from
her
grandmother
before
she
passed. “His wife mentioned
that two FBI agents came to
their house. I'm not sure at
what point in time...I forgot
to
find that
out.
Two
of
them were dressed in black.”.

“ The only details I have about this visit (so far)... are that there were
two of them dressed in black, she recalls...they came in showing their
FBI Identification...My grandma went into the kitchen to cook and
clean while they talked to Paul in the living room. She tried to listen in
on their conversation from the kitchen... She said they were basically
telling Paul to stop! She says they were threatening him...but Paul was
bold and was clearly not afraid of them in any way. My grandma was
really scared and at one point peeked in on them to make sure
everything was okay. She said that Paul was lying on the couch with
his knees bent (I'm not sure why. .maybe because of his spine
problems?). She said they were there for what seemed like hours, but
in reality maybe only a couple of hours. She said that Paul was defiant
and determined to get to the bottom of things and he was not going to
let the FBI stop him from doing so!
Paul was not willing to back off;
he was going to dig deep. From what I understand that was his nature
with reporting. “Paul was a strong Christian man (he attended a
Methodist church in Tacoma off of 6th Ave.)
Grandma says that the
Lantz family was the main pillar of the church back then. Paul was
someone you could trust, he was extremely dependable, reliable, and
honest, and he had high moral standards and was kind and generous.
He was conscientious and a hard worker and my grandma says he was
the perfect husband and father. It was stated that even though he was
small (in stature) he had the soul and spirit of a giant. He was musically
talented (he sang and played the trumpet). Grandma says he was great
with his finances. She also says that he was highly intelligent, a genius!”
–Mike and Jeni James, October 13, 2006.