Goodness, I’ve been neglecting this blog. So sorry. I’ve got some new items that I hope to photograph soon and write up. Until then…

To celebrate Halloween week, I came across this website which has loads of transcribed reports of the Ground Observer Corps’ reports on UFOs from 1954. Many of them came from the Baltimore Filter Center, which was one of the first filter centers in the program. In the 50s, people seemed to be very concerned about UFOs. The GOC Filter Centers were often the first place they’d go to report unusual activity.

The reports of UFO activities were initially restricted to the US Air Force, the Civil Defense authorities, and the GOC because in the words of Baltimore Filter Center’s supervisor, Mrs. Elizabeth C. Bacon, “…the Air Force and CD authorities felt that releasing the reports to the public might “give people the idea that we were indulging in fantasies.”

Apparently Mrs. Bacon was very popular with UFO spotters as she recounts to the Wilmington Morning News, “…imaginative people call her home, at 2135 Faulkland Road, Stony Crest, “any time of night or day,” reporting such things as “flashing lights” and the popular flying saucers.

“One woman was so worked up that she told me over the telephone she had sighted a hammer and sickle in the sky. I just couldn’t believe that.”

Fueling the UFO craze was the fact that requests to see GOC post logs were routinely denied. I suspect that this was because the GOC saw a bunch of classified test aircraft and the USAF didn’t want this information to get out to the general public. Thanks to tireless UFO researchers, many of those logs have now been transcribed and are available.

Peruse this list of UFO reports from 1954 and their GOC connection.