Avoiding a War of the Worlds: Don't Shoot Them Down!

"Cutting loose your guns might be suicide." 

Major Lewis Norman, as quoted by Donald Keyhoe 

in Flying Saucers from Outer Space, 1953.

Art by Norm Saunders from the 1962 Topps trading card series Mars Attacks
card #4: "Saucers Blast Our Jets."

In 1952, there were rumors and speculation that the Air Force had ordered pilots to fire on flying saucers. Some people were afraid of the consequences, and thought we might anger a technologically advanced civilization and provoke a war we could not win.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer, July 29, 1952

Jet pilots are operating under a 24-hour nation-wide "alert” to chase the mysterious objects and to ‘shoot them down” if they ignore orders to land.

Long Beach Independent, July 30, 1952

 Lebanon Daily News, July 31, 1952.

Perfect Souls from Outer Space

Mangan may have been right. In the 1952 documentary short, The Flying Saucer Mystery, the author of one of the best-selling UFO books of all time was interviewed. Frank Scully of Behind the Flying Saucers said we shouldn't shoot at saucers since the aliens might be "perfect souls" never sullied by the serpent in the Garden of Eden. They would therefore be immortal (and presumably invincible), so to attack them would be "idiotic."

Frank Scully clip from The Flying Saucer Mystery, 1952

For more information on the "1952 Flying Saucer 'Shoot Down' Stories," see David Rudiak's page, http://roswellproof.homestead.com/ShootDown_INS_72952.html