Balloon of Death

On February 24, 1945, Sheriff Warren Hyde of Box Elder County in Utah chased down a Japanese balloon bomb that then took him on a wild ride.

He grabbed hold and rode the balloon for almost an hour as it dragged him through barbed wire and reached heights of 30 ft before he was able to tie it down. He was honored for his efforts during a secret ceremony at which he was sworn to keep silent about the incident because the government was censoring information about Japanese attacks on U.S. soil. Hyde was finally able to talk about his ride on the “Balloon of Death” after the war when details of the Japanese program were released.