The summer of 1950, I believe it was, on an eastbound flight into Shannon during the early morning hours, we sighted what turned out to be a flying saucer. A colored ball moving at great speed and changing colors – white, cherry, dull red. Sometimes the object seemed to fade out completely for a brief interval.

           We were about 400 miles off the Irish Coast. Shannon Flight Control confirmed no reported traffic or irregularities in the area. The object first came towards us from a higher altitude, descended quite a bit, crossed in front of us in a large reversing loop, and climbed out to the northeast. The object was totally visible for close to twenty minutes. All personnel in the cockpit were asked to estimate its speed and pencil the estimate on a piece of paper. The estimates varied from 650 to about 1800 mph.

           Before taking that long flight west, Bob Sanderson made some comments about a few experiences. After WW II, Bob bought an old Link octant for about $15.00 at a surplus store on Canal Street in New York.

           Bob picked out what he felt was the best octant, but the removable spare bubbles stored in the case had large air pockets. Bob traded the “bubblies” with better ones from the instrument with which they were packed. Later when he tried to take a noon latitude observation he found huge errors, as much as 30 miles.

           On another occasion Bob tells of an experience in Paris when he was trying to unload a bunch of French Francs. Bob bought a pocket compass, which was calibrated in 400 degrees! Bob says not a bad idea, as East was 100 degrees, South 200 degrees, which made it easy to calculate direction.