William Albert Rhodes, the Subject of Character Assassinations Courtesy of the U.S. Air Force.
Greetings. The Rhodes UFO photographs. The photographs were reportedly taken on July 7th of 1947, by amateur inventor and astronomer William Albert Rhodes. The images were originally printed in The Arizona Republic newspaper on July 9th, along with Rhodes's own account of his sighting of the unidentified object. Published during the 1947 wave, the photographs were among the first showing an unidentified flying object. Despite the intervening seventy-plus years, they are still the subject of heated debate and controversy in UFO circles. On June 24th of 1947, Kenneth Arnold reported that he had observed nine unidentified flying objects flying over Washington State. From his description of the unknowns, the press coined the term flying saucers. By June 27th, unidentified flying objects were being reported nationwide, with sightings beginning to occur in Arizona by the second week of July. The Arizona Republic published a story on July 7th about Tempe resident Francis Howell, who rep
