14 AUGUST 1943 Scully Island, RLU Florida This appears to be the first flying disc sighting taken seriously by military authorities - perhaps for no better reason than that the observers were General Red "Whip" Murdock, Commander TSE, and five of his staff. The incident occurred on Saturday evening at a favorite recreation spot of Murdock's. The excerpt below is from a barely-legible photocopied Project GRIP report which has been edited. "We were checking on gator traps we'd set out the night before when we all heard this high-pitched whine coming from overhead. Sounded like a distant tea kettle going full-throttle on somebody's stovetop. The sound seemed to be coming from a point directly above us. Couldn't see any part of the sky from where we stood. The tree cover was pretty dense. Fletch (Colonel Wilburn) took a couple of steps out into the lagoon in order to get a looksee. The rest of us were doing the same thing only Fletch was closest to a spot with an unobstructed view - so he saw it first. Five seconds later we were - each and every one of us - looking up at this silvery disc in the sky. My first thought was that it was a big balloon. But as my eyes adjusted the disc's flat shape registered on me. It was hard to tell precisely how high above us it was, but I'm guessing 100 feet; and it must have been about 30 feet in diameter. - missing text - We stood there a good 30 seconds looking up at the thing. I guess we were all a bit shocked. Deke (Major Dalla Valle) kept muttering "...it has to be a balloon - it has to be a balloon...". I was the first to notice that the disc was slowly rotating. There were three elongated indentations - or depressions - on the bottom, all aligned in a common direction. They were set at 10, 2, and 6 o'clock positions. It wasn't so much the disc as it was these depressions rotating. In hindsight I realized that they were covered wheelwells. - missing text - I guess I finally snapped back to the here and now at some point, because all of a sudden I got to thinking that here was this extraordinary aircraft - unknown owner and unknown manufacturer - hovering sneaky-like within a few short miles of TSE and AATC restriction zones. It had no business being there. Fletch was packing his 10mm - emergency gator repellant, you know - so I asked him to wing the disc as a warning. He did. We heard the round strike the disc and ricochet off. We saw a few sparks at the point of impact. A split second later the whining teapot sound grew in volume and pitch. Fletch took a second potshot at it. Deke - ever so observant - hollered for caution in case it was filled with hydrogen gas. Anyway, before Fletch could squeeze off a third round, the disc began moving away from us at breakneck speed. I mean that whoever the pilot was - if there was any pilot at all - he was pulling some mighty unhealthy g's. Two seconds later we heard it go supersonic..."