The Gralien Report

No greater duress can come to a nation that the pressures imposed by armed conflict, especially when in the defense of a country’s freedoms and ideals. With the great demands that international conflict brings, there is also a necessity–dire, at times–for the innovation of new technologies to aid in victory. Hence, during the years of the Second World War, the seeds were planted for a variety of new technologies that would shape the future of the Western World especially; among these were laser technologies, advanced radar systems, functional night vision, the beginnings of fiber-optics, and of course, the harnessing of atomic weaponry for use in wartime.

The Second World War marks a pivotal period for other reasons, however, for during those pivotal years we also find the first frequent mention of “Foo Fighters,” also called “Russian Hail” and occasionally “Ghost Rockets.” By all accounts, each of these various aerial, and often illuminated phenomena, would constitute what we now call unidentified flying objects; but their appearance during and, more apparent to the media following World War II betrays much about their nature. What were these strange craft… alien visitors whose attention had been flagged after the emergence of human civilization as one which had captured the immeasurable power that splitting atoms entails? On the other hand, could these strange UFO craft merely be another biproduct of the necessity for innovation, which resulted in some clandestine and nascent technological presence that began to operate on the periphery of officialdom? The possibilities are many.

But what becomes even more curious about the ongoing UFO enigma are the handful of cases which harken back to an even earlier time; to be specific, a time when the presence of earthbound technologies underlying the appearances of such craft almost certainly can be ruled out. This, of course begs the question: if technologically advanced UFO craft were appearing early in the last century, even several years before the First World War, then what kind of intelligence could possibly have been behind their use?

World War, or Before: Three Eggs Flying in Formation?

One famous encounter took place aboard the USS Supply (pictured right), a Naval schooner-rigged iron steamer built in the late nineteenth century. It was commissioned in April of 1898 by the U.S. Navy following it’s purchase from the International Navigation Company for a sum of $325,000.00. The Supply would go on to see service during the Spanish-American war, serving as a supply ship for U.S. fleets in Cuban waters.

Following the war, after a short period removed from service, the USS Supply would be recommissioned for service in the Asiatic Station of the Pacific. An anomalous incident occurred on February 28, 1904, at which time three members aboard the USS Supply had claimed to see a trio of large, illuminated objects coasting along through the sky as the vessel sailed approximately 300 miles west of San Francisco. One of the the three witnesses, a lieutenant aboard the ship named Frank Schofield, wrote a description of the three illuminated craft, which recalled them as “three bright red egg-shaped and circular objects.” The strange craft appeared to be traveling in formation; at the time of their appearance to Schofield and his company, the objects had been moving beneath the cloud deck, eventually swooping upward and moving above the ceiling and “away from the earth.” The sighting lasted a total of about three minutes.

Schofield, who would later be promoted to position of Commander-in-Chief of the Pacific Battle Fleet, also claimed that the largest of the three objects, which presumably took the lead position amidst the three travelling objects, had appeared roughly six-times the size of the sun in the sky. Again, taking into consideration that this encounter took place in 1904, there are extreme limitations placed on what, precisely, the craft observed from aboard the USS Supply could have been. One possible solution might envolve a variety of plasma phenomenon, such as ball lightning; although the description of their flight behavior (namely their flying formation) presents difficulties in terms of reconciling with this explanation.

Could the three men, despite Lieutenant Frank Schofield’s eventual rise in stature, have merely fabricated the story, or does this illustrate one of at least a handful of early twentieth century UFO reports that occurred prior to the advent of more advanced wartime technologies that would appear during the World Wars to come in the following years? Even taking this into consideration, the greatest known technologies to arise during World War II could not provide a technological explanation for the appearance of the strange, anomalous craft witnessed by the crew aboard the USS Supply in February of 1904; their ultimate purpose and origin will no doubt continue to elude us.