Talk:Civil Air Patrol/Japanese Fire Balloons
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[edit] Japanese Fire Balloons
Added a sentence about CAP members patrolling for japanese fire ballons in WWII. When I was a cadet, one of the older CAP members in the Wing (MT) used to tell stories about riding around in his plane with a shotgun looking for these. Unfortunatly, the gentleman passed away several years ago and I don't have any further information. Hopefully someone can elaborate on this. —preceding unsigned comment by 24.214.89.26 (talk • contribs) 05:54, 27 November 2005 (UTC)
- This is very interesting. Would you be able to provide a print or online source for this? Alex Schenck (that's Linuxbeak to you) 12:43, 27 November 2005 (UTC)
Well, like I said I don't have any further information, but if you know any senior members up in Montana they probably know who I'm talking about. I've lost touch with most everyone I knew from CAP. You might try cadetstuff.org and see if anyone there has any information, I'll ask my father and see what he remembers. —preceding unsigned comment by 24.214.89.26 (talk • contribs)
03:58, 28 November 2005 (UTC)
DOWN IN BOX ELDER COUNTY IN NORTHWESTERN UTAH, the county sheriff, whose name I can't remember right now actually took a ride on one of those Japanese balloons. Although the general public was not told of the balloons by our government, local and state law enforcement and fire officials were told to be on the lookout for them. When the sheriff received a report of a strange object hovering low above ground near Tremonton, Utah, he realized what it was and set out to try to capture it for analysis by military intelligence. He had no official police car, so his wife (who died not too many years ago) drove their private car. They caught up to the balloon and he jumped out to try to snag it. When he grabbed it, a gust of wind caught him and the balloon and carried them both aloft to an altitude of several feet. He traveled a rather long distance with his terrified wife following along in the car. Finally, the balloon dropped low enough for him to safely drop off. The balloon then sailed on out of sight -- as I recall the story. The sheriff's son was -- at least as recently as 8 years ago -- principal of one of the schools in Box Elder School District. This story was printed in CORONET magazine back in the 50's or 60's (I think that was the magazine's name.) I plan to research this further and will get back with when I have more information. My email is ldalton84404@peoplepc.com I hope this is how you contribute to this site . . .
