23857122-1209-480825-0004

TRUE COPY HAROLD B. SMITH 640 Melville Street Rochester 9, New York November 29, 1952 OFFICER IN CHARGE OF FLARES SAMPSON ATR BASE SAMPSON, N. Y. on ¢ Dear Sir: It would please me very much if you would tell me if a very large number of Tlares were dropped near Sampson, Sunday evening, November 23, 1952. Here is why: On that evening at 5 pm, the writer, Harold B. Smith, 640 Melville St., Rochester 9, N. Y., and Carl Finsterwalder, 124 Devonshire Court, stopped deer hunting with bow and arrow and came out of the woods on the highest peak of Gannett Hill, west of Canandaigua Lake, No stars were visible. It was raining lightly and visibility was poor, but we could see the outline of South Hill on the Hast side of Canadaigua Lake. Above South Hill were four extremely bright white lights. By compass they were slightly north of east, or directly toward Sampson, or even north of Sampson, They looked like bright flares but did not appear to descend or move at all while lighted. Each light would last only a few seconds and disappear to be replaced soon afterwards by another light displaced laterally and vertically. There were never more then 4 visible at once and never less than: 1, But other things about them did not resemble flares. It may have been an optical illusion due to refraction of light rays, but as each bright white light disappeared, the after image, which faded immediately like a vision persistency phenomena, was not a single red light but a cluster of 6 or 7 red lights. Hach cluster ap eared like a 3/64 inch diameter circle ar arm's length, say 26 inches away. An actual circle of lights were displaced vertically up to 2 inches at arm's length, which would be a big difference in altitude at 25 miles to Sampson, for flares to be dropped. Also there was no apparent diffusion of light or reflection on clouds as you expect to see from flares, I would estimate that we observed over a thousand lights come and go before we left Gannett Hill. On descending we could not see the lights. On ascending another hill near Canandaigua, we could see nothing unusual. Please advise if we were watching normal phenomena, because we have other impressions obtained from the study which are useless and embarassing to relate, if we were viewing a mere scattering of lares. ’ Yours very truly, A CERTIFIED TRUE COPY /s/ Harold B. Smith % xX Og Wonabe, a Mut 0 AFH OO gence) DONALD TL, MYERS, 2@ Lt, USAF i 2 a ST cee AO 2231652 Ltn J. Declassification Authority: NND 57565