The Mellotron Group

The term foo fighter was used by _Allied_ 
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allies)  _aircraft_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aircraft)  _pilots_ 
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aircraft_pilot)  in _World War  II_ 
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II)  to describe various _UFOs_ 
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unidentified_flying_object)  or  mysterious aerial _phenomena_ 
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenomena)  seen in the skies  over both the 
_European_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Theater_of_Operations)   and 
_Pacific  Theater of Operations_ 
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Theater_of_Operations) . 
Though "foo fighter" initially described a type of UFO reported and named 
by  the U.S. _415th Night  Fighter Squadron_ 
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/415th_Night_Fighter_Squadron) , the term was also commonly used to mean any 
UFO sighting  from that period._[1]_ (http://en.wikipedia.or
g/wiki/Foo_fighter#cite_note-toomey-0)  
Formally reported from November 1944 onwards, witnesses often assumed that  
the foo fighters were _secret weapons_ 
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secret_weapons)  employed  by the enemy, but they remained unidentified post-war 
and were reported by both  Allied and Axis forces. _Michael D. Swords_ 
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_D._Swords) _[2]_ 
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foo_fighter#cite_note-1)   writes, 
"During WWII, the foo fighter experiences of [Allied] pilots were taken  
very seriously. Accounts of these cases were presented to heavyweight  
scientists, such as _David Griggs_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Griggs) , 
_Luis Alvarez_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_Alvarez)  and _H.P. 
Robertson_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Percy_Robertson) .  The phenomenon 
was never explained. Most of the information about the issue  has never been 
released by military intelligence."

 
Contents
[_hide_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foo_fighter#) ]
    *   _1 Etymology_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foo_fighter#Etymology)  
 
    *   _2 History_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foo_fighter#History)   
    *   _2.1 Sightings_ 
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foo_fighter#Sightings)   
    *   _3 Explanations and  theories_ 
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foo_fighter#Explanations_and_theories)   
    *   _4 See also_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foo_fighter#See_also)   
    *   _5 Notes_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foo_fighter#Notes)   
    *   _6 References_ 
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foo_fighter#References)   
    *   _7 External links_ 
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foo_fighter#External_links)   
[_edit_ 
(http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Foo_fighter&action=edit�ion=1) ]  Etymology
 Look up _foo_ (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/foo)  in _Wiktionary_ 
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiktionary) , the free  dictionary. 
The _nonsense word_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonsense_word)  "_foo_ 
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foobar) " emerged in  popular culture during the 
early 1930s, it was first used by cartoonist _Bill Holman_ 
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Holman_(cartoonist))  who  peppered his _Smokey Stover_ 
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smokey_Stover) _[3]_ 
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foo_fighter#cite_note-2)   fireman cartoon strips with "foo" signs and 
puns._[4]_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foo_fighter#cite_note-3) _[5]_ 
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foo_fighter#cite_note-4)   Holman claimed to have 
found the word on the bottom of a Chinese figurine._[6]_ 
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foo_fighter#cite_note-RFC3092-5)   It was part of service culture 
by World War II and is thought to have led to the  _backronym_ 
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backronym)   _FUBAR_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FUBAR) 
._[6]_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foo_fighter#cite_note-RFC3092-5)   By 
1944, the term "foo fighter" was used by radar operators to describe a  
spurious or dubious trace._[6]_ 
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foo_fighter#cite_note-RFC3092-5)  
The term foo was borrowed from Bill Holman's Smokey Stover by a radar  
operator in the 415th Night Fighter Squadron, Donald J. Meiers, who it is agreed 
 by most 415th members gave the foo fighters their name. Don was from 
Chicago and  was an avid reader of Bill Holman's strip which was run daily in the 
_Chicago Tribune_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Tribune) .  Smokey 
Stover's catch phrase was "where there's foo, there's fire" and this was  
possibly derived from the French word for fire, "le feu". In a mission  
debriefing on the evening November 27, 1944, Fritz Ringwald, the unit's S-2  
Intelligence Officer, stated that Don Meiers and Ed Schleuter had sighted a red  
ball of fire that appeared to chase them through a variety of high-speed  
maneuvers. Fritz said that Don was extremely agitated and had a copy of the  
comic strip tucked in his back pocket. He pulled it out and slammed it down 
on  Fritz's desk and said, "... it was another one of those fuckin' foo 
fighters!"  and stormed out of the debriefing room._[7]_ (h
ttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foo_fighter#cite_note-Jeffery_A_Lindell_1991-6)   However, in a 
Channel 4 documentary aired 3rd June 2011, reporter _Nick Cook_ 
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Cook)   showed an RAF pilot's report, obtained from RAF 
archives, reporting a UFO  incident with a similar red ball of fire on a 
bombing mission over Germany, but  dated 1942 and taken with fact that the term 
was already in use by radar  operators in 1944, must raise some query as to 
the origin of the term _[8]_ 
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foo_fighter#cite_note-7)  
According to Fritz Ringwald, because of the lack of a better name, it 
stuck.  And this was originally what the men of the 415th started calling these  
incidents: "Fuckin' Foo Fighters." In December 1944, a press correspondent 
from  the _Associated Press_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Associated_Press)  
in  Paris, Bob Wilson, was sent to the 415th at their base outside of 
Dijon, France  to investigate this story._[9]_ 
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foo_fighter#cite_note-8)   It was at this time that the term was cleaned up to 
just foo fighters. The unit  commander, Capt. Harold Augsperger, also decided 
to shorten the term to foo  fighters in the unit's historical data._[7]_ 
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foo_fighter#cite_note-Jeffery_A_Lindell_1991-6)  
[_edit_ 
(http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Foo_fighter&action=edit�ion=2) ]  History
The first sightings occurred in November 1944, when pilots flying over  
Germany by night reported seeing fast-moving round glowing objects following  
their aircraft. The objects were variously described as fiery, and glowing 
red,  white, or orange. Some pilots described them as resembling Christmas 
tree lights  and reported that they seemed to toy with the aircraft, making 
wild turns before  simply vanishing. Pilots and aircrew reported that the 
objects flew formation  with their aircraft and behaved as if under intelligent 
control, but never  displayed hostile behavior. However, they could not be 
outmaneuvered or shot  down. The phenomenon was so widespread that the lights 
earned a name - in the  European Theater of Operations they were often 
called "kraut fireballs" but for  the most part called "foo-fighters". The 
military took the sightings seriously,  suspecting that the mysterious sightings 
might be secret German weapons, but  further investigation revealed that 
German and Japanese pilots had reported  similar sightings._[10]_ 
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foo_fighter#cite_note-9)  
In its 15 January 1945 edition _Time_ 
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_(magazine))  magazine  carried a story entitled "Foo-Fighter", in which it 
reported that the "balls of  fire" had been following USAAF night fighters for 
over a month, and that the  pilots had named it the "foo-fighter". According 
to Time, descriptions of  the phenomena varied, but the pilots agreed that 
the mysterious lights followed  their aircraft closely at high speed. Some 
scientists at the time rationalized  the sightings as an illusion probably 
caused by afterimages of dazzle caused by  flak bursts, while others suggested 
_St. Elmo's Fire_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Elmo's_Fire)  as an  
explanation._[11]_ 
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foo_fighter#cite_note-time19450115-10)  
The "balls of fire" phenomenon reported from the Pacific Theater of  
Operations differed somewhat from the foo fighters reported from Europe; the  
"ball of fire" resembled a large burning sphere which "just hung in the sky",  
though it was reported to sometimes follow aircraft. On one occasion, the 
gunner  of a _B-29_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B-29)  aircraft managed to 
hit one  with gunfire, causing it to break up into several large pieces which 
fell on  buildings below and set them on fire. As with the European foo 
fighters, no  aircraft was reported as having been attacked by a "ball of 
fire"_[12]_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foo_fighter#cite_note-11)  
The postwar _Robertson Panel_ 
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robertson_Panel)  cited  foo fighter reports, noting that their behavior did not appear to 
be  threatening, and mentioned possible explanations, for instance that they 
were _electrostatic_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrostatic)  
phenomena  similar to _St. Elmo's fire_ 
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Elmo's_fire) , _electromagnetic_ 
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_spectrum)   phenomena, or simply reflections of light from ice crystals. The 
Panel's report  suggested that "If the term "flying saucers" had been popular in 
1943-1945,  these objects would have been so labeled."_[13]_ 
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foo_fighter#cite_note-12)  
[_edit_ 
(http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Foo_fighter&action=edit�ion=3) ]  Sightings
Foo fighters were reported on many occasions from around the world; a few  
examples are noted below. 
    *   Sighting from September 1941 in the _Indian Ocean_ 
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Ocean)  was similar  to some later Foo Fighter reports. 
From the deck of the S.S. Pułaski (a  _Polish_ 
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poland)  merchant  vessel transporting British troops), two sailors 
reported a "strange globe  glowing with greenish light, about half the size of the 
full moon as it  appears to us."_[14]_ 
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foo_fighter#cite_note-13)   They alerted a British officer, who watched the 
object's movements with them  for over an hour. 
    *   Charles R. Bastien of the _Eighth Air Force_ 
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eighth_Air_Force)   reported one of the first encounters with foo 
fighters over the  Belgium/Holland area; he described them as "two fog lights 
flying at high  rates of speed that could change direction rapidly". During 
debriefing, his  intelligence officer told him that two RAF night fighters 
had reported the  same thing, and it was later reported in British 
newspapers._[15]_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foo_fighter#cite_note-14)   
    *   Career _U.S. Air Force_ 
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Air_Force)  pilot  Duane Adams often related that he had witnessed two occurrences 
of a bright  light which paced his aircraft for about half an hour and then 
rapidly  ascended into the sky. Both incidents occurred at night, both over 
the South  Pacific, and both were witnessed by the entire aircraft crew. The 
first  sighting occurred shortly after the end of World War II while Adams 
piloted a  _B-25_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B-25)  bomber. The second 
sighting  occurred in the early 1960s when Adams was piloting a _KC-135_ 
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KC-135)  tanker.  
[_edit_ 
(http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Foo_fighter&action=edit�ion=4) ]  Explanations and  theories
    *   Author Renato Vesco revived the wartime theory that the foo 
fighters were  a new Nazi secret weapon in his non-fiction work 'Intercept UFO', 
reprinted in  a revised English edition as 'Man-Made UFOs: 50 Years Of 
Suppression' in 1994.  Vesco alleges that the foo fighters were in fact a form of 
ground-launched  automatically guided jet-propelled _flak_ 
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flak)  mine called the  Feuerball (Fireball). The device, 
operated by special _SS_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS)   units, apparently 
resembled a _tortoise_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tortoise)  shell in shape, 
and  flew by means of gas jets that spun like a _Catherine  wheel_ 
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catherine_wheel_(firework))  around the fuselage. 
Miniature _klystron_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klystron)  tubes inside the  
device, in combination with the gas jets, created the foo fighters'  
characteristic glowing spheroid appearance. A crude form of collision  avoidance 
radar ensured the craft would not crash into another airborne  object, and an 
onboard sensor mechanism would even instruct the machine to  depart swiftly 
if it was fired upon. The purpose of the Feuerball,  according to Vesco, was 
two-fold. The appearance of this weird device inside a  bomber stream would 
(and indeed did) have a distracting and disruptive effect  on the bomber 
pilots; and Vesco alleges that the devices were also intended to  have an 
offensive capability. _Electrostatic_ 
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrostatic)  discharges  from the klystron tubes would, he states, interfere with the 
ignition systems  of the bombers' engines, causing the planes to crash. 
Although there is no  hard evidence to support the reality of the Feuerball 
drone, this  theory has been taken up by other aviation/ufology authors, and 
has even been  cited as the most likely explanation for the phenomena in at 
least one recent  television documentary on Nazi secret weapons._[16]_ 
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foo_fighter#cite_note-15) _[17]_ 
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foo_fighter#cite_note-16)   
    *   A type of electrical discharge from airplanes' wings (see _St. 
Elmo's Fire_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Elmo's_Fire) ) has  been 
suggested as an explanation, since it has been known to appear at the  wingtips of 
aircraft._[11]_ 
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foo_fighter#cite_note-time19450115-10)   
    *   It has been pointed out that some of the descriptions of foo 
fighters  closely resemble those of _ball lightning_ 
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ball_lightning) ._[18]_ 
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foo_fighter#cite_note-17)   
    *   During April 1945, the US Navy began to experiment on visual 
illusions as  experienced by night time aviators. This work began the US Navy's 
Bureau of  Medicine (BUMED) project X-148-AV-4-3. This project pioneered the 
study of  aviators' _vertigo_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertigo)  and was 
initiated  because a wide variety of anomalous events were being reported 
by night time  aviators. Dr. Edgar Vinacke, who was the premier flight 
psychologist on this  project, summarized the need for a cohesive and systemic 
outline of the  epidemiology of aviator's vertigo as, 

"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."_[19]_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foo_fighter#cite_note-18) 

 
 
In a message dated 8/23/2011 1:18:06 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
mike.dickson@gmail.com writes:

 
 
 
I feel grateful that I've never even heard of these guys at  all.

On 23/08/2011 02:48, Bruce Daily wrote:  
 
Better yet, why does the Foo Fighter bird lay its eggs in the  air?
 
(or, are we all just bozos on this bus?)
 
   -Bruce  D.