Foo Fighter - wikipedia Foo Fighter This article is about the aerial phenomenon. For the rock band, see Foo Fighters. For the homebuilt aircraft, see Stewart Foo Fighter. The term foo fighter was used by Allied aircraft pilots in World War II to describe various UFOs or mysterious aerial phenomena seen in the skies over both the European and Pacific theaters of operations. Though `` foo fighter '' initially described a type of UFO reported and named by the U.S. 415th Night Fighter Squadron, the term was also commonly used to mean any UFO sighting from that period. Formally reported from November 1944 onwards, witnesses often assumed that the foo fighters were secret weapons employed by the enemy. The Robertson Panel explored possible explanations, for instance that they were electrostatic phenomena similar to St. Elmo 's fire, electromagnetic phenomena, or simply reflections of light from ice crystals. Contents 1 Etymology 2 History 2.1 Sightings 3 Explanations and theories 4 See also 5 Notes 6 References 7 External links Etymology The nonsense word `` foo '' emerged in popular culture during the early 1930s, first being used by cartoonist Bill Holman, who peppered his Smokey Stover fireman cartoon strips with `` foo '' signs and puns. 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. Meiers was from Chicago and was an avid reader of Bill Holman 's strip, which was run daily in the Chicago Tribune. Smokey Stover 's catch - phrase was `` where there 's foo, there 's fire ''. In a mission debriefing on the evening November 27, 1944, Fritz Ringwald, the unit 's S - 2 Intelligence Officer, stated that 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 Meiers 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. 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 in Paris, Bob Wilson, was sent to the 415th at their base outside of Dijon, France to investigate this story. It was at this time that the term was cleaned up to just `` foo fighters ''. The squadron commander, Capt. Harold Augsperger, also decided to sanitize the term to `` foo fighters '' in the historical data of the squadron. History The first sightings occurred in November 1944, when pilots flying over Western Europe 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 they were 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. On 13 December 1944, the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force in Paris issued a press release, which was featured in the New York Times on the next day, officially describing the phenomenon as a `` new German weapon ''. Follow - up stories, using the term `` Foo Fighters '', appeared in the New York Herald Tribune and the British Daily Telegraph. In its 15 January 1945 edition, Time magazine carried a story entitled `` Foo - Fighter '', in which it reported that the `` balls of fire '' had been following USAAF nightfighters 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. 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 aircraft hit one with gunfire, causing it to break up into several large pieces that fell on buildings below and set them on fire. There was speculation that the phenomena could be related to the Japanese fire balloon campaign. As with the European foo fighters, no aircraft were reported as having been attacked by a `` ball of fire ''. The postwar 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 phenomena similar to St. Elmo 's fire, electromagnetic 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. '' 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 was similar to some later foo fighter reports. From the deck of the S.S. Pułaski ( a Polish 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. '' They alerted a British officer, who watched the movements of the object with them for over an hour. Charles R. Bastien of the Eighth Air Force reported one of the first encounters with foo fighters over the Belgium / Netherlands 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 nightfighters had reported the same thing, and it was later reported in British newspapers. Career 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 bomber. The second sighting occurred in the early 1960s when Adams was piloting a KC - 135 tanker. Explanations and theories The author Renato Vesco revived the wartime theory that the foo fighters were a Nazi secret weapon in his work Intercept UFO, reprinted in a revised English edition as Man - Made UFOs : 50 Years Of Suppression in 1994. Vesco claims that the foo fighters were in fact a form of ground - launched, automatically guided, jet - propelled flak mine called the Feuerball ( Fireball ). This device, supposedly operated by special SS units, resembled a tortoise shell in shape, and it flew by means of gas jets that spun like a Catherine wheel around the fuselage. Miniature klystron tubes inside the device, in combination with the gas jets, created the characteristic glowing spheroid appearance of the foo fighters. 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 twofold. The appearance of this weird device inside a bomber stream would ( and indeed did ) have a distracting and disruptive effect on the bomber pilots. Also, Vesco alleges that the devices were also intended to have an `` offensive '' capability. Electrostatic discharges from the klystron tubes would, he stated, interfere with the ignition systems of the engines of the bombers, 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 it has even been cited by some as the most likely explanation for the phenomena -- in at least one recent TV `` documentary '' on Nazi Secret Weapons. Any type of electrical discharge from the wings of airplanes ( see St. Elmo 's Fire ) has been suggested as an explanation, since it has been known to appear at the wingtips of aircraft. It has also been pointed out that some of the descriptions of foo fighters closely resemble those of ball lightning. During April 1945, the U.S. Navy began to experiment on visual illusions as experienced by nighttime aviators. This work began the U.S. Navy 's Bureau of Medicine ( BUMED ) project X-148 - AV - 4 - 3. This project pioneered the study of aviators ' vertigo and was initiated because a wide variety of anomalous events were being reported by nighttime aviators. Dr. Edgar Vinacke, who was the prime flight psychologist on this project, summarized the need for a cohesive and systemic outline of the epidemiology of aviators ' vertigo : 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. -- Edgar Vinacke, The Concept of Aviator 's `` Vertigo '' See also Autokinetic effect Ghost rockets Green fireballs Will - o ' - the - wisp Hessdalen Lights List of UFO sightings UFO Nazi UFOs Notes Jump up ^ Toomey, Vurlee A. ( 2002 ). Let Us Not Forget : A Tribute to America 's 20th Century Veterans. iUniverse. p. 71. ISBN 0 - 595 - 23823 - 8. ^ Jump up to : Report of Scientific Advisory Panel on Unidentified Flying Objects convened by Office of Scientific Intelligence, CIA January 14 -- 18, 1953 Jump up ^ See for instance ; Holman, `` Smokey Stover -- A Dead Ringer '', Daily News, 21 November 1938, retrieved 6 Feb 2009, Holman, `` Smokey Stover -- Movie Idle '', Daily News, 23 November 1938, retrieved 6 Feb 2009. Jump up ^ Moira Davison Reynolds, Comic Strip Artists in American Newspapers, 1945 -- 1980, p. 94, McFarland, 2003 ISBN 0 - 7864 - 1551 - 7. Jump up ^ Coulton Waugh, The Comics, p. 316, Univ. Press of Mississippi, 1991 ISBN 0 - 87805 - 499 - 5 ( modern reprint first published 1947 ). Jump up ^ RFC3092 -- Etymology of `` Foo '', Internet Society, 2001 ^ Jump up to : Jeffery A. Lindell, 1991. `` Interviews with Harold Augspurger, Commander 415th Night Fighter Squadron ; Frederic Ringwald, S - 2 Intelligence Officer, 415th Night Fighter Squadron ''. Jump up ^ New York Times. `` Balls of Fire Stalk U.S. Fighters in Night Assaults Over Germany ''. ( A.P. ) 2 Jan. 1945. p. 1, 4. Jump up ^ Lucanio, Patrick ; Gary Coville ( 2002 ). Smokin ' Rockets : The Romance of Technology in American Film, Radio and Television, 1945 -- 1962. McFarland. pp. 16 -- 17. ISBN 0 - 7864 - 1233 - X. Jump up ^ Hayward, James ( 2003 ). Myths and Legends of the Second World War. Isis. pp. 343 -- 344. ISBN 0 - 7531 - 5664 - 4. ^ Jump up to : `` Foo - Fighter ''. Time. 15 Jan 1945. Jump up ^ Robertson, Jr., Gordon Bennett ( 2006 ). Bringing the Thunder : The Missions of a World War II B - 29 Pilot in the Pacific. Stackpole Books. pp. 183 -- 185. ISBN 0 - 8117 - 3333 - 5. Jump up ^ Clark 1998 p 230 Jump up ^ Bastien, Charles R. ( 2004 ). 32 Copilots. Trafford Publishing. p. 205. ISBN 1 - 4120 - 1729 - 7. Jump up ^ Renato Vesco, David Hatcher Childress, Man - made UFOs 1944 -- 1994 : 50 years of suppression, Adventures Unlimited Press, 1994 ISBN 0 - 932813 - 23 - 2. Jump up ^ Renato Vesco, Intercept UFO, Pinnacle Books, 1974 ISBN 0 - 523 - 00840 - 6. Jump up ^ Stenhoff, Mark ( 1999 ). Ball Lightning : An Unsolved Problem in Atmospheric Physics. Springer. p. 112. ISBN 0 - 306 - 46150 - 1. Jump up ^ `` The Real Foo Fighters - A Historical and Physiological Perspective on a World War II Aviation Mystery '' Skeptic Magazine, vol. 17, n. 2 ( pp. 38 - 43 ) Jump up ^ Vinacke, Edgar. 8 May 1946. `` The Concept of Aviator 's ' Vertigo. ' '' Report No. # 7. U.S. Naval School of Aviation Medicine, Project ( X-148 - Av - 4 - 3 ). Reprinted in Journal of Aviation Medicine. 1948. 19 : 158 -- 190 References Jerome Clark, The Ufo Book : Encyclopedia of the Extraterrestrial, Visible Ink, 1998, ISBN 1 - 57859 - 029 - 9 Timothy Good, Need to Know : UFOs, the Military, and Intelligence, Pegasus Books, 2007, ISBN 978 - 1 - 933648 - 38 - 5 External links Look up foo in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. The Foo Fighters of World War II -- Saturday Night Uforia Foo Fighter Documents -- Computer UFO Network `` A Historical and Physiological Perspective of the Foo Fighters of World War Two. '' By Jeff Lindell, Folklorist & WW2 Aviation Historian. Composite Bibliography October 2013 revision : Revised Foo Fighter doc An inventory of 68 ( 90 - minute tape recordings ) of interviews concerning sightings of Foo Fighters, etc., Foo Fighter Archive GERMAN DISCS : UFO in the Third Reich Takes on claims of the German Reich having developed and flown high - performance flying discs, declaring them `` unlikely '' ( with footnotes ) Foo Fighters of WWII by Jerome Clark and Lucius Farish : A widely reproduced essay describing many wartime sightings ( including those in above article ) from 1941 to 1947 and onward UFOs and ufology Index of ufology articles Incidents General List of reported UFO sightings Sightings in outer space Pre-20th century Tulli Papyrus ( possibly 15th century B.C. ) Ezekiel 's Wheel ( circa 622 -- 570 B.C. ) 1561 celestial phenomenon over Nuremberg 1566 celestial phenomenon over Basel José Bonilla observation ( 1883 ) Aurora ( 1897 ) 20th century Los Angeles ( 1942 ) Kenneth Arnold ( 1947 ) Maury Island ( 1947 ) Roswell ( 1947 ) Aztec, New Mexico ( 1948 ) Mantell ( 1948 ) Chiles - Whitted ( 1948 ) Gorman Dogfight ( 1948 ) Mariana ( 1950 ) McMinnville photographs ( 1950 ) Sperry ( 1950 ) Lubbock Lights ( 1951 ) Carson Sink ( 1952 ) Nash - Fortenberry ( 1952 ) Washington, D.C. ( 1952 ) Flatwoods monster ( 1952 ) Ellsworth ( 1953 ) Kelly -- Hopkinsville ( 1955 ) Lakenheath - Bentwaters ( 1956 ) Antônio Vilas Boas ( 1957 ) Levelland ( 1957 ) Trindade Island ( 1958 ) Barney and Betty Hill abduction ( 1961 ) Lonnie Zamora incident ( 1964 ) Solway Firth Spaceman ( 1964 ) Exeter ( 1965 ) Kecksburg ( 1965 ) Westall ( 1966 ) Shag Harbour ( 1967 ) Pascagoula Abduction ( 1973 ) Travis Walton incident ( 1975 ) Allagash ( 1976 ) Tehran ( 1976 ) Petrozavodsk phenomenon ( 1977 ) Operação Prato ( 1977 ) Valentich disappearance ( 1978 ) Kaikoura Lights ( 1978 ) Robert Taylor incident ( 1979 ) Val Johnson incident ( 1979 ) Cash - Landrum incident ( 1980 ) Rendlesham Forest ( 1980 ) Trans - en - Provence ( 1981 ) Japan Air Lines ( 1986 ) Voronezh UFO incident ( 1989 ) Belgian UFO wave ( 1990 ) Varginha ( 1996 ) Phoenix Lights ( 1997 ) 21st century Campeche, Mexico ( 2004 ) O'Hare Airport ( 2006 ) Alderney ( 2007 ) Norway ( 2009 ) Morristown, New Jersey ( 2009 ) Sightings by country Argentina Australia Belarus Belgium Brazil Canada China France India Indonesia Iran Italy Mexico New Zealand Norway Philippines Russia South Africa Spain ( Canary Islands ) Sweden Thailand United Kingdom United States Types of UFOs Black triangle Flying saucer Foo fighter Ghost rockets Green fireballs Mystery airship Types of alleged extraterrestrial beings Alleged UFO - related entities Energy beings Grey aliens Insectoids Little green men Nordic aliens Reptilians Studies The Flying Saucers Are Real ( 1947 -- 1950 ) Project Sign ( 1948 ) Estimate of the Situation Project Grudge ( 1949 ) Flying Saucer Working Party ( 1950 ) Project Magnet ( 1950 -- 1962 ) Project Blue Book ( 1952 -- 1970 ) Robertson Panel ( 1953 ) Condon Report ( 1966 -- 1968 ) Institute 22 ( 1978 -- ? ) Project Condign ( 1997 -- 2000 ) Identification studies of UFOs Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program ( 2007 - 2012 ) Hypotheses Ancient astronauts Cryptoterrestrial Extraterrestrial Interdimensional Psychosocial Nazi UFOs Trotskyist - Posadism Conspiracy theories Area 51 Bob Lazar Dulce Base Majestic 12 Men in black Project Serpo Involvement Abduction History Entities Claimants Narrative Missing time Perspectives Insurance Other Implants Close encounter Contactee Declassification of documents Government responses ( GEIPAN ) Organizations Ufologists Topics Culture Conventions Fiction Religions ( list ) Skepticism List of scientific skeptics Committee for Skeptical Inquiry Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Foo_fighter&oldid=813993433 '' Categories : Atmospheric optical phenomena Foo fighter ( phenomenon ) Unidentified flying objects Hidden categories : All articles with unsourced statements Articles with unsourced statements from October 2017 Talk Contents About Wikipedia Čeština Dansk Deutsch Español Français 한국어 Bahasa Indonesia Italiano Nederlands 日本 語 Norsk Polski Português Română Русский Slovenčina Suomi Svenska Українська Tiếng Việt 中文 Edit links This page was last edited on 6 December 2017, at 09 : 20. 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Question: what does foo stand for in foo fighters
Answer: UFO sighting