# FOO Fighters
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foo-fighters/52534
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [January 31, 2001, 8:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foo-fighters/52534 "2001-01-31T08:36:32Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Russell\_Hauser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Russell_Hauser)
#### Post date: [January 31, 2001, 8:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foo-fighters/52534/1 "2001-01-31T08:36:32Z")
OK, the first reference I recall to FOO Fighters was in reguards to aledged UFO sightings during WWII. There is also a possibility that there is a conection to experimental German aircraft tested during WWII. Does anyone know how the name originated. Could it be an acronym?
Russ Hauser
---
### Author:  [@peepthis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peepthis)
#### Post date: [January 31, 2001, 9:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foo-fighters/52534/2 "2001-01-31T09:25:48Z")
The best I could find from a Google search was [this](http://www.qtm.net/~geibdan/newse/foo/) from the “UFO Folklore Center”:
> [@](#):
>
> A little remembered cartoon character named Smokey Stover used to declare, “Where there’s foo, there’s fire.” So when enigmatic aerial phenomena kept pace with airplanes and ships in both the European and Pacific theaters during World War II, someone called them “foo fighters.” The name stuck.
Since most of this kind of information comes from folks on the fringe (even for the internet), I recommend taking whatever info you find with a large grain of salt. Can anyone verify the existence of **“Smokey Stover”**?
---
### Author:  [@stuyguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stuyguy)
#### Post date: [January 31, 2001, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foo-fighters/52534/3 "2001-01-31T11:57:54Z")
Sure I remember Smokey Stover as a kid. What a lame-brained comic strip that was.
---
### Author:  [@Crusoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crusoe)
#### Post date: [January 31, 2001, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foo-fighters/52534/4 "2001-01-31T12:41:17Z")
[Here’s](http://www.project1947.com/foo.htm) a article on the history of the term.
---
### Author:  [@Sofa\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sofa_King)
#### Post date: [January 31, 2001, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foo-fighters/52534/5 "2001-01-31T17:34:28Z")
Have you ever projected a flashlight into an approaching fog bank? Or seen search lights play on the clouds? I’ve often thought that the foo-fighter phenomenon sounds suspiciously like a light source from the aircraft being directed onto its own contrail. That would explain why you couldn’t get away from it.
Tail gunners in bombers had a lot of time on their hands, were isolated from the rest of the crew, and their own bodies would block any reflection back down the gunner tube. Some of them, no doubt, appreciated a good practical joke now and then. However, that explanation has to my knowledge never been admitted by anyone, and only explains one small subset of the sightings.
---
### Author:  [@Russell\_Hauser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Russell_Hauser)
#### Post date: [February 6, 2001, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foo-fighters/52534/6 "2001-02-06T22:39:19Z")
Thanks, I do remember Smokey Stover. It was a comic strip featuring firemen.