Post by uforn on May 27, 2010 18:21:14 GMT 1
Foo fighters: UFOs, military weapons, or overactive imaginations?
When most people hear "foo fighters," their first thought is probably of the band headed by Dave Grohl. But back in the 1940s, the term "foo fighters" meant something completely different.
During World War II, foo fighters were unidentified flying objects, seen by pilots as they traveled through German airspace (as well as by those in the Pacific theater). They were described as "balls of fire" that seemed to hang in the air, and which followed Allied aircraft. But whether they were extra-terrestrial, or if they were some sort of German anti-aircraft weapon has never been adequately explained (though it seems to have been believed that they were some sort of Axis weapon).
The first sightings occurred in 1941, and they were described as resembling Christmas tree lights. They were also described as being fiery, and glowing either red, white, or orange. They reportedly seemed to "toy" with the Allied pilots, mirroring maneuvers, making wild turns and circling around bombers before completely disappearing. And when the foo fighters were shot at, nothing was ever hit. It was also reported that bombers occasionally went right through them.
But it was suggested that these balls of light were nothing more than hallucinations. Doctor Edgar Vinacke worked on the Navy's Bureau of Medicine (BUMED) project X-148-AV-4-3 in April of 1945. He was quoted as saying:
Pilots do not have sufficient information about phenomena of disorientation, and, as a corollary, are given considerable disorganized, incomplete, and inaccurate information. They are largely dependent upon their own experience, which must supplement and interpret the traditions about 'vertigo' which are passed on to them. When a concept thus grows out of anecdotes cemented together with practical necessity, it is bound to acquire elements of mystery. So far as 'vertigo' is concerned, no one really knows more than a small part of the facts, but a great deal of the peril. Since aviators are not skilled observers of human behavior, they usually have only the vaguest understanding of their own feelings. Like other naive persons, therefore, they have simply adopted a term to cover a multitude of otherwise inexplicable events.
In effect, he was suggesting that the pilots only imagined what they saw, and that there had never been anything mysterious in the skies.
To this day, there doesn't seem to be an explanation that is good enough for what these things really were. It is probably not surprising to many that the military would try to deny their existence, but that does not stop people from wondering what they were. And it also does not necessarily mean that people will buy their theory that seasoned pilots would not recognize the signs of "vertigo," or not be able to find rational explanations for things that they see in the sky.
Source
www.examiner.com/x-44840-Folk-Culture-Examiner~y2010m5d26-Foo-fighters-UFOs-military-weapons-or-overactive-imaginations?cid=edition-by-channel-rss-National-Arts_and_Entertainment
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywMVRPtsX2s&feature=player_embedded