Donald S. Whitehead was a Republican

Republican Party (United States)

The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...

 politician from Idaho

Idaho

Idaho is a state in the Rocky Mountain area of the United States. The state's largest city and capital is Boise. Residents are called "Idahoans". Idaho was admitted to the Union on July 3, 1890, as the 43rd state....

. He served a combined six years as the 23rd and 28th Lieutenant Governor of Idaho

Lieutenant Governor of Idaho

Lieutenant Governor of Idaho is a constitutional statewide elected office in the State of Idaho. According to the Idaho Constitution, the lieutenant governor is elected to a four-year term....

 between 1939 and 1951.

Whitehead was first elected lieutenant governor in 1938 and served in the first administration of Governor C. A. Bottolfsen

C. A. Bottolfsen

Clarence Alfred Bottolfsen was a politician from Idaho. He served as the 17th and 19th Governor of Idaho from 1939 to 1941 and again from 1943 to 1945. He was a member of the Idaho Republican Party....

. He was elected again in 1946 and served a four-year term under Governor C. A. Robins

C. A. Robins

Charles Armington Robins was the 22nd Governor of Idaho.Elected in 1946, Robins was the first person elected to a four-year term as Governor of Idaho; all previous governors had been elected to two-year terms.Prior to serving as governor Robins was a member of the Idaho State Senate from 1939 to...

. He previously served as Speaker of the Idaho State House of Representatives.

In June 1947 Whitehead reported seeing a UFO

Unidentified flying object

A term originally coined by the military, an unidentified flying object is an unusual apparent anomaly in the sky that is not readily identifiable to the observer as any known object...

 in Boise

Boise, Idaho

Boise is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Idaho, as well as the county seat of Ada County. Located on the Boise River, it anchors the Boise City-Nampa metropolitan area and is the largest city between Salt Lake City, Utah and Portland, Oregon.As of the 2010 Census Bureau,...

. The same day pilot Kenneth Arnold

Kenneth Arnold

Kenneth A. Arnold was an American aviator and businessman. He is best-known for making what is generally considered the first widely reported unidentified flying object sighting in the United States, after claiming to have seen nine unusual objects flying in a chain near Mount Rainier, Washington...

 said he saw a similar object near Mount Rainier

Mount Rainier

Mount Rainier is a massive stratovolcano located southeast of Seattle in the state of Washington, United States. It is the most topographically prominent mountain in the contiguous United States and the Cascade Volcanic Arc, with a summit elevation of . Mt. Rainier is considered one of the most...

. The reported sightings received national media coverage.