The Maury Island UFO Incident: The Story behind the Air Force’s first military plane crash by Charlette LeFevre, Philip Lipson Read Free Book Online

Tacoma FBI office. Dahl
and Crisman at first denied any knowledge that these rock formations
were portions of a disk fragment. The FBI agent would note in the
report ”It was apparent from the start of the interview that Dahl and
Crisman were not telling their complete and true connection with the
flying disc story. They gave evasive answers. They stated that in the
early part of June they sent to Palmer some rock formations they found
on Maury Island. Palmer asked Dahl if the rock formations could have
come from a flying disk? Dahl stated that in a letter he wrote Palmer
the fragments “could have been portions of a flying disc.”
Dahl
claimed that he thought he told Palmer over the phone something
about being on his boat when he obtained the rock formations but
stated to the FBI he could not recall what he had written to Palmer and
he claimed that he passed the whole thing off as a joke.
    Both Dahl and Crisman would say the only thing they had done was
tell Ray Palmer the formations could have come from a flying disc in
view of the fact it appeared “that’s what he wanted them to say.” - FBI
Report 8/19/47 p.6A
    Note: Crisman admitted to working with Dahl to send Ray Palmer
rock formations in the early part of June no light weight metal or discs
were mentioned. If rocks were of interest in the early part of June this
discounts that, the rocks came from a UFO later in June on the 21 st as
reported to Arnold.
There is some speculation that the metal sheets and black lava like
rocks came from a plane crash carrying industrial waste from the
Hanford nuclear plant and the story was changed to UFOs as a cover
for the mishap.

Capt. William Lee
Davidson Capt.
Davidson,
courtesy of family William Shortley,
unknown date.
    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
plane to an unpopulated area five miles east of the Kelso Portland
population. Capt. Davidson stayed with the plane until the very end.
    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
Capt. William L. Davidson, second from right, photo courtesy of family, undated.
     
Capt. William L. Davidson, photo courtesy of family, undated.
     
A young William Davidson his
wife, Ursula undated

1 st Lt. Frank Mercer Brown
1 st Lt. FrankBrown, photo courtesy
offamily.
    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