Page 36 - 200908 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - August 2009

36 Ann Druffel - Ufologist 36 Ann Druffel - Ufologist ENCOUNTERS ENCOUNTERS AN EARLY SIGHTING AN EARLY SIGHTING AT THE BEGINNING AT THE BEGINNING OF THE ATOMIC AGE OF THE ATOMIC AGE of California smog, and Long Beach had been some kind of military device, perhaps a balloon swept that afternoon by the brisk south- associated with coastal defenses. BY ANN DRUFFEL BY ANN DRUFFEL southwesterly breeze which daily came from the At this stage of World War II, violent Pacific Ocean. Because the glowing object was fighting was still raging in the Pacific, and there FROM UFO MAGAZINE, stationary, it was plainly not a reflection off an was information being released in the media FROM UFO MAGAZINE, AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2002, airplane. I quickly became quite curious about that the U.S. might be planning an invasion of AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2002, VOL. 17 NO. 4 it. It was definitely not an astronomical object, Japan itself in a final attempt to end the war. VOL. 17 NO. 4 either. Southern California had always been on the From an early age I was deep into alert, with blackouts and other security reading books, having been influenced in that measures since the beginning of that war, direction by my mother, who had been a school December 7th, 1941. teacher in Arizona before her marriage. By the Although Long Beach had always been age of nine, I had read several books on in an essentially strategic position, having a astronomy and (then theoretical) space travel. I major harbor and dry-dock associated with was well acquainted with ordinary celestial wartime activities, and although I knew what phenomena and realized rather quickly that this my mother meant by "a balloon associated with glowing object was not anything anyone would coastal defenses" there had never been any ordinarily see in the sky. balloon defense systems around Long Beach. I The bus trip along State Street took therefore thought it strange that my intelligent, about 15 minutes, and I stared at the object most well-read mother would call the strange object of that time, being unaccompanied on the bus in the sky a "balloon," especially when it was and too shy (in those days) to ask questions of apparently so very high and isolated in the sky. strangers. I can only describe what I saw as a But Aileen McElroy was not the kind of mother bright, seemingly solid "blob" of light, with a schoolgirl would argue with! Ann Druffel is one of Southern California's fairly distinct edges. It was so very strange I I continued to watch the object while my best-known ufologists and the author of HOW literally could not take my eyes off it. It seemed mother went into the house to finish preparing TO DEFEND YOURSELF AGAINST ALIEN very high above the Earth and in appearance dinner, for she expected my father to arrive ABDUCTION and of the forthcoming (August was more like a daytime Venus than anything home soon from work. Sometime after 6 p.m., 2003) book, FIRESTORM: DR. JAMES E. else I could think of. However, it was at least still in broad daylight, the object had moved 15 McDONALD's FIGHT FOR UFO SCIENCE. two times as large and bright and much more to 20 degrees straight across the northern sky Her life-long study of the perplexing UFO yellow in color. Besides, its position in the toward the north-northwest, always at an phenomenon was sparked by her own sighting north-northeast sky was entirely wrong for that elevation of approximately 60 degrees. I had as a schoolgirl in Long Beach, California. planet. (1) now been watching it close to an hour and a I got off the bus at Cerritos Avenue and half. In the summer of 1945, shortly after walked backwards the half-block south to my Suddenly, slowly-moving particles of 5:00 p.m., I was riding on a bus from downtown home in order to watch the object, which still light began separating from the object. My Long Beach, California, toward my home about seemed motionless. Utterly intrigued, I watched instantaneous thought was, "Maybe it is a two miles inland from the ocean. Traveling east it from my front yard for several more minutes. balloon and it's breaking up!" The "particles," along State Street (now Pacific Coast Highway During this time I became aware that it was however, did not fall toward the Earth, as one 101), out of the left-hand window of the bus I moving very slowly toward the northwest, would expect. Instead, they took slow, saw a bright, unflickering, yellowish-white light apparently straight across my line of vision and deliberate paths out, up, and away from the in the north-northeasterly sky. maintaining the approximate angle of 60 main object on both sides. They were numerous, As I stared at it, I realized it was more degrees elevation. Finally, convinced that it was perhaps 15 or more, and each trajectory was than a point source but instead was a glowing, something that did not "belong" in the sky, I ran different from the others. roundish object that seemed solid and into the house and got my mother, Mrs. William Each "particle" was about 20 to 30 times stationary. It was not like anything I had ever (Aileen) McElroy, to come out and watch it with smaller than the main object, and the main seen before. It was still broad daylight, being me. object was in no way diminished in size by their summer at 34 degrees north latitude. I do not We gazed at it together for several departure. Each of these smaller objects faded remember the exact day or month, but it was minutes. My far and near vision were both from view as they reached a distance early in the summer, either very late June or excellent with no need for glasses, and my approximately one-half a degree of arc from the July. I was on annual vacation from school. mother, although she used reading glasses, had main orb. I had the impression that the smaller World War II was still raging in the excellent distance vision. She agreed that it was objects could be seen only because they were Pacific. The sky that day was very blue and indeed strange and unlike anything she'd ever reflecting the light of the sun during the initial cloudless, a typical summer day before the days seen. She finally suggested that it might be phase of departure. (Continued on Page 38)