tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63750899746250291982024-03-12T17:22:45.378-07:00UFO FYIChuck Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01281880905938442706noreply@blogger.comBlogger119125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6375089974625029198.post-46390719310462694492014-03-23T00:56:00.000-07:002014-03-23T00:56:01.493-07:00THE YEAR OF THE HUMANOIDS, 1973: THE PASCAGOULA ABDUCTION<center>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #e06666;">
<b>FROM THE UFO CASEBOOK</b></span></span></center>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #e06666;"><b> <a href="http://www.ufocasebook.com/Pascagoula.html">http://www.ufocasebook.com/Pascagoula.html</a></b></span></span></center>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #e06666;"><b> </b></span></span></center>
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="color: #e06666;"><b>The 1973 Pascagoula, Mississippi Abduction (Hickson/Parker)</b></span></span></center>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #e06666;"><b> </b>
</span></span></center>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #e06666;">
<img align="left" alt="Depiction," src="http://www.ufocasebook.com/pascagoulamain.jpg" height="240" hspace="8" width="320" />
</span></span><br />
<div align="left">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #e06666;">The strange case of nineteen-year-old Calvin Parker, and
forty-two-year-old Charles Hickson actually began a day before their
famous encounter. On October 10, 1973, fifteen different people,
including two policemen reported seeing a large, silver UFO slowly fly
over a housing project in St. Tammany Parish, New Orleans, Louisiana. Only a scant 24 hours later, Hickson and Parker would have the scare of their lives; a frightening encounter with an eerie UFO. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #e06666;">The two men were both from the town of Gautier, Mississippi, and were
doing some fishing in the Pascagoula River on a dark night about 9:00
P.M. They suddenly heard a type of buzzing behind them. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #e06666;">Both men
turned around to see the source of the sound, and were amazed to see a
glowing, egg-shaped object with bluish lighting on its front side. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #e06666;">The
unusual craft was hovering just a few feet above the ground, and about
30 feet from the shore of the river. To their unbelief, a door opened in
the object, and three strange beings began to float just above the
water straight toward them. Though the beings had legs, they did not use
them, they simply floated across the river. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #e06666;">Parker and Hickson
would later describe the beings as "about five feet tall, had
bullet-shaped heads without necks, slits for mouths, and where their
noses or ears would be, they had thin, conical objects sticking out,
like carrots from a snowman's head. They had no eyes, grey, wrinkled
skin, round feet, and claw-like hands."</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #e06666;">Hickson, frozen in fear and unbelief, was grabbed by two of these
creatures, and the third one took Parker, who fainted from fright.
Hickson would later relate that when the beings put their arms under his
body to support him, he felt numb all over. He was then floated into a a
brightly-lit room inside of the UFO. Inside this room, he floated,
along with an eye-like device which examined him all over.
</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #e06666;"><img align="left" alt="Hickson-Parker, 1973" src="http://www.ufocasebook.com/hicksonparker.jpg" hspace="8" />After
his ordeal, Hickson was left floating, while the beings left the room,
probably to examine Parker. Approximately 20 minutes after the ordeal
had begun, it was over, and Hickson was floated back outside of the
strange craft. Parker was crying, and praying on the ground. Only a
moment or two later, the craft rose straight up into the air and
disappeared.
</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #e06666;">As the two men began to regain their composure, they were uncertain as
to what they should do. Reluctant to report their harrowing experience,
they felt obligated to tell someone. Despite fearing ridicule, they
telephoned Kessler Air Force Base in Biloxi. Kessler referred their
problem to their local sheriff's office.
</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #e06666;">Afraid of what reaction they might get from law enforcement, they opted
instead to drive to their local newspaper. Finding the office closed,
they decided to take their bizarre story to the sheriff after all.
Naturally the sheriff felt the two men's story was some kind of hoax,
and to get to the truth, he put Hickson and Parker into a room which was
wired for sound, hoping that they would slip up, and reveal why they
were perpetuating such a strange tale.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #e06666;">
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<table border="0" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="5">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><img alt="Calvin Parker" src="http://www.ufocasebook.com/parker.jpg" />
</td>
<td><img alt="Depiction, Pascagoula Alien" src="http://www.ufocasebook.com/paschumanoid.gif" height="200" width="198" />
</td>
<td><img alt="Charles Hickson" src="http://www.ufocasebook.com/hickson.jpg" />
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
</center>
<div align="left">
Soon news of the event began to surface. The local press released the
story first; quickly followed by the wire services. Within a few days,
the Pascagoula incident was major news all over the USA. The Aerial
Phenomena Research Organization (APRO), sent University of California
professor James Harder to investigate; Dr. J. Allen Hynek, representing
the US Air Force, also arrived to look into the story. Harder and Hynek
interviewed Hickson and Parker together. Harder hypnotized Hickson, but
he became so frightened that the session had to be aborted.
The two abductees were encouraged to take a lie-detector test, which
they both passed. Harder and Hynek, both highly respected in their
professions, believed the two men's story. <br />
At a later date, Hynek stated; "There was definitely something here that was not terrestrial". <br />
In what may be a related incident, a couple of weeks after this chilling
account, Coast Guardsmen and fishermen had an encounter with an
underwater metallic object. <br />
This strange object had an amber
light on it, and the Guard chased it in the Pascagoula River. The object
was close enough to touch, but each time it was prodded with a large
boat hook, it would turn off its light, move a distance away, and turn
its light back on. This unusual encounter lasted about 40 minutes before
the craft disappeared.<br />
The Pascagoula encounter is one of the most unusual accounts of all UFO
reports. Though the sighting and abduction involved only two witnesses,
there were several other sightings of unusual flying objects on the same
night. The two men have held to their story, though no earthly
explanation has been offered for the strange events of the night of
October, 11, 1973.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: yellow;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">***</span></span></div>
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<h1 style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="x-archive-meta-title">Pascagoula Abduction Audio Files</span></span></h1>
<h1 style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="x-archive-meta-title">AT THE INTERNET ARCHIVE</span></span></h1>
<h1 style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://archive.org/details/PascagoulaAbductionAudioFiles"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="x-archive-meta-title">LINK: https://archive.org/details/PascagoulaAbductionAudioFiles</span></span></a></h1>
<h1 style="text-align: left;">
<br /><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">These recordings relate to the claimed alien abduction of Charles Hickson and Calvin Parker in 1973. <br />
<br />
Coworkers in Pascagoula, Mississippi, Parker and Hickson were fishing
one evening when they claimed a UFO appeared nearby. Strange humanoid
creatures took them onboard the craft and forced them to undergo an
examination. <br />
<br />
The case earned much publicity in the mainstream media. Both men passed
polygraph examinations, which seemed to establish that Parker and
Hickson believed their story was true. <br />
<br />
These ten zipped MP3 files include radio news coverage, hypnosis
sessions and other recordings related to the "Pascagoula Abduction."
Included is the original recording of Parker and Hickson's first
interview with police. Unbeknownst to Hickson and Parker, police were
secretly recording the interview. Police left the duo alone, expecting
that if the story were a hoax, Parker and Hickson's demeanor would
change. But Parker and Hickson continued discussing the abduction
experience and their response to it: they expressed disbelief and awe at
the event, and Parker repeatedly mentioned his wish to see a doctor. <br />
<br />
<i><span style="color: yellow;">These recordings were compiled and edited by Wendy Connors, who operated
the now-defunct Faded Discs website. The recordings are in the public
domain, and may be redistributed free of charge or reappropriated for
other uses.</span></i></span></span></h1>
<h1 style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="x-archive-meta-title">***</span></span></h1>
</div>
</span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #e06666;">
</span></span>Chuck Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01281880905938442706noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6375089974625029198.post-79320940254089463402012-12-01T23:10:00.001-08:002012-12-01T23:10:15.110-08:00Spring Heeled Jack<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SrvcJjUXbDI/AAAAAAAAI6A/Twp8F5fn9Uc/s1600-h/shj2.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5385139836109155378" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SrvcJjUXbDI/AAAAAAAAI6A/Twp8F5fn9Uc/s320/shj2.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; float: left; height: 320px; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; width: 214px;" /></a><span style="color: #3366ff; font-weight: bold;">(How Stuff Works)</span> The attacker was tall and thin, had pointed ears and fiery eyes, and wore a cloak. He tore at his female victims' clothes and ripped their flesh with hands that felt like iron. When he escaped, he did not run; he bounced away. Those who saw his feet swore he had springs in his boot heels. At first, the authorities had a hard time believing what victims were telling them. But by January 1838 so many Londoners had seen the figure that the Lord Mayor formed a vigilance committee to capture "Spring Heeled Jack."<br />
In one especially notorious incident, he tried to snatch 18-year-old Jane Alsop right out of her own house. According to the London Times (February 22, 1838), he "presented a most hideous and frightful appearance, and vomited forth a quantity of blue and white flame from his mouth, and his eyes resembled red balls of fire. . . . [H]e wore a large helmet, and his dress, which appeared to fit him very tight, seemed to her to resemble white oil skin." The young woman was saved by family members.<br />
One day in 1845, in full view of frightened onlookers, Jack tossed a prostitute off a bridge; she drowned in the open sewer below. Sightings of a comparable figure were recorded elsewhere in England in 1877. In 1904 more than 100 residents of Everton saw a man in a flowing cloak and black boots making great leaps over streets and rooftops.<br />
Who -- or what -- was Spring-heel Jack? Some suspected that he was a rowdy nobleman, Henry, Marquis of Waterford, who died in 1859. Doubters countered that Jack-like leaps are physically impossible. During World War II German paratroopers who put springs in their boot heels got broken ankles for their efforts. Was Jack an alien? In July 1953, three Houston residents reported seeing a tall, bounding figure "wearing a black cape, skintight pants, and quarter-length boots." For a few minutes he remained visible in the pecan tree into which he had jumped. He disappeared shortly before a rocket-shaped UFO shot upward from across the street.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SrvbneTkgJI/AAAAAAAAI5w/1I6kO0wx5fk/s1600-h/rip25c.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5385139250648088722" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SrvbneTkgJI/AAAAAAAAI5w/1I6kO0wx5fk/s400/rip25c.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 400px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 270px;" /></a><br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SrvbY7cSNOI/AAAAAAAAI5Y/Mp9ZKyj3G7c/s1600-h/rip25p3.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5385139000771228898" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SrvbY7cSNOI/AAAAAAAAI5Y/Mp9ZKyj3G7c/s400/rip25p3.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 400px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 280px;" /></a><br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SrvbYFSLG-I/AAAAAAAAI5I/XmVG0zt-6RI/s1600-h/rip25p5.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5385138986233306082" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SrvbYFSLG-I/AAAAAAAAI5I/XmVG0zt-6RI/s400/rip25p5.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 400px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 279px;" /></a><br />
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SrvbXspZHzI/AAAAAAAAI5A/i3_-F4lZcpI/s1600-h/rip25p6.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5385138979619807026" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SrvbXspZHzI/AAAAAAAAI5A/i3_-F4lZcpI/s400/rip25p6.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 400px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 278px;" /></a><br />
<span style="color: #3366ff; font-weight: bold;">WIKIPEDIA</span><br />
<b></b>Spring Heeled Jack (also Springheel Jack, Spring-heel Jack, etc), is a character from English folklore said to have existed during the Victorian era and able to jump extraordinarily high. The first claimed sighting of Spring Heeled Jack that is known occurred in 1837.[1] Later alleged sightings were reported all over England, from London up to Sheffield and Liverpool, but they were especially prevalent in suburban London and later in the Midlands and Scotland.[2]<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-1"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spring_Heeled_Jack#cite_note-1"></a></sup><br />
Many theories have been proposed to ascertain the nature and identity of Spring Heeled Jack. The urban legend of Spring Heeled Jack gained immense popularity in its time due to the tales of his bizarre appearance and ability to make extraordinary leaps, to the point where he became the topic of several works of fiction. Spring Heeled Jack was described by people claiming to have seen him as having a terrifying and frightful appearance, with diabolical physiognomy that included clawed hands and eyes that "resembled red balls of fire". One report claimed that, beneath a black cloak, he wore a helmet and a tight-fitting white garment like an "oilskin". Many stories also mention a "Devil-like" aspect. Spring Heeled Jack was said to be tall and thin, with the appearance of a gentleman, and capable of making great leaps. Several reports mention that he could breathe out blue and white flames and that he wore sharp metallic claws at his fingertips. At least two people claimed that he was able to speak comprehensible English.<br />
<br />
The first accounts of Spring Heeled Jack were made in London in 1837 and the last reported sighting is said in most of the secondary literature to have been made in Liverpool in 1904.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-scotsman1_2-0"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spring_Heeled_Jack#cite_note-scotsman1-2">[3]</a></sup><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-cordingly1_3-0"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spring_Heeled_Jack#cite_note-cordingly1-3">[4]</a></sup><br />
The first report of Jack was from a businessman returning home late one night from work, who told of being suddenly shocked as a mysterious figure jumped with ease over the high railings of a cemetery, landing right in his path. No attack was reported, but the submitted description was disturbing: a muscular man with devilish features including large and pointed ears and nose, and protruding, glowing eyes.<br />
Later, in October 1837, a girl by the name of Mary Stevens was walking to Lavender Hill, where she was working as a servant, after visiting her parents in Battersea. On her way through Clapham Common, according to her later statements, a strange figure leapt at her from a dark alley. After immobilizing her with a tight grip of his arms, he began to kiss her face, while ripping her clothes and touching her flesh with his claws, which were, according to her deposition, "cold and clammy as those of a corpse". In panic, the girl screamed, making the attacker quickly flee from the scene. The commotion brought several residents who immediately launched a search for the aggressor, who could not be found.<br />
The next day, the leaping character is said to have chosen a very different victim near Mary Stevens' home, inaugurating a method that would reappear in later reports: he jumped in the way of a passing carriage, causing the coachman to lose control, crash, and severely injure himself. Several witnesses claimed that he escaped by jumping over a nine foot-high (2.7 m) wall while babbling with a high-pitched and ringing laughter.<br />
A few months after these first sightings, on January 9, 1838, the Lord Mayor of London, Sir John Cowan, revealed at a public session held in the Mansion House an anonymous complaint that he had received several days earlier, which he had withheld in the hope of obtaining further information. The correspondent, who signed the letter "a resident of Peckham", wrote:<br />
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<span style="color: red;">It appears that some individuals (of, as the writer believes, the highest ranks of life) have laid a wager with a mischievous and foolhardy companion, that he durst not take upon himself the task of visiting many of the villages near London in three different disguises — a ghost, a bear, and a devil; and moreover, that he will not enter a gentleman's gardens for the purpose of alarming the inmates of the house. The wager has, however, been accepted, and the unmanly villain has succeeded in depriving seven ladies of their senses, two of whom are not likely to recover, but to become burdens to their families.<br /><br />At one house the man rang the bell, and on the servant coming to open door, this worse than brute stood in no less dreadful figure than a spectre clad most perfectly. The consequence was that the poor girl immediately swooned, and has never from that moment been in her senses. The affair has now been going on for some time, and, strange to say, the papers are still silent on the subject. The writer has reason to believe that they have the whole history at their finger-ends but, through interested motives, are induced to remain silent.<br /></span><br />
Though the Lord Mayor seemed fairly sceptical, a member of the audience confirmed, "servant girls about Kensington, Hammersmith and Ealing, tell dreadful stories of this ghost or devil". The matter was reported in The Times on 9 January, and other national papers on 10 January, and the day after that (January 11) the Lord Mayor showed a crowded gathering a pile of letters from various places in and around London complaining of similar "wicked pranks". The quantity of letters that poured into the Mansion House suggests that the stories were widespread in suburban London. One writer said several young women in Hammersmith had been frightened into "dangerous fits", and some "severely wounded by a sort of claws the miscreant wore on his hands". Another correspondent claimed that in Stockwell, Brixton, Camberwell and Vauxhall several people had died of fright, and others had had fits; meanwhile, another reported that the trickster had been repeatedly seen in Lewisham and Blackheath. The Lord Mayor himself was in two minds about the affair: he thought "the greatest exaggerations" had been made, and that it was quite impossible "that the ghost performs the feats of a devil upon earth", but on the other hand someone he trusted had told him of a servant girl at Forest Hill who had been scared into fits by a figure in a bear's skin; he was confident the person or persons involved in this "pantomime display" would be caught and punished. The police were instructed to search for the individual responsible, and rewards were offered.<br />
A peculiar report from The Brighton Gazette, which appeared in the April 14, 1838 edition of The Times related how a gardener in Rosehill, Sussex, had been terrified by a creature of unknown nature. The Times wrote that "Spring-heeled Jack has, it seems, found his way to the Sussex coast", even though the report bore little resemblance to other accounts of Jack. The incident occurred on April 13, when it appeared to a gardener "in the shape of a bear or some other four-footed animal". Having attracted the gardener's attention by a growl, it then climbed the garden wall and ran along it on all fours, before jumping down and chasing the gardener for some time. After terrifying the gardener, the apparition scaled the wall and made its exit.<br />
Perhaps the best known of the alleged incidents involving Spring Heeled Jack were the attacks on two teenage girls, Lucy Scales and Jane Alsop. The Alsop report was widely covered by the newspapers, including a piece in The Times, while a single paper covered the Scales report, presumably because Alsop came from a comfortably well-off family and Scales from a family of tradesmen. This coverage by newspapers fuelled the collective hysteria surrounding the case.<br />
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<span class="editsection"></span><span class="mw-headline" id="Alsop_case">Alsop case</span></h4>
Jane Alsop reported that on the night of February 19 she answered the door of her father's house to a man claiming to be a police officer, who told her to bring a light, claiming "we have caught Spring-heeled Jack here in the lane". She brought the person a candle, and noticed that he wore a large cloak. The moment she had handed him the candle, however, he threw off the cloak and "presented a most hideous and frightful appearance", vomiting blue and white flame from his mouth while his eyes resembled "red balls of fire". Miss Alsop reported that he wore a large helmet and that his clothing, which appeared to be very tight-fitting, resembled white oilskin. Without saying a word he caught hold of her and began tearing her gown with his claws which she was certain were "of some metallic substance". She screamed for help, and managed to get away from him and ran towards the house. He caught her on the steps and tore her neck and arms with his claws. She was rescued by one of her sisters, after which her assailant fled.<br />
<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-scotsman1_2-1"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spring_Heeled_Jack#cite_note-scotsman1-2"></a></sup><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-burke_9-0"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spring_Heeled_Jack#cite_note-burke-9"></a></sup><br />
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<span class="editsection"></span><span class="mw-headline" id="Scales_case">Scales case</span></h4>
Eight days after the attack on Miss Alsop, on February 28, 1838[11], 18-year-old Lucy Scales and her sister were returning home after visiting their brother, a butcher who lived in a respectable part of Limehouse. Miss Scales stated in her deposition to the police that as she and her sister were passing along Green Dragon Alley, they observed a person standing in an angle of the passage. She was walking in front of her sister at the time, and just as she came up to the person, who was wearing a large cloak, he spurted "a quantity of blue flame" in her face, which deprived her of her sight, and so alarmed her, that she instantly dropped to the ground, and was seized with violent fits which continued for several hours.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Burke.2C_pp._27-28_11-0"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spring_Heeled_Jack#cite_note-Burke.2C_pp._27-28-11"></a></sup><br />
Her brother added that on the evening in question, he had heard the loud screams of one of his sisters moments after they had left his house and on running up Green Dragon Alley he found his sister Lucy on the ground in a fit, with her sister attempting to hold and support her. She was taken home, and he then learned from his other sister what had happened. She described Lucy's assailant as being of tall, thin, and gentlemanly appearance, covered in a large cloak, and carrying a small lamp or bull's eye lantern similar to those used by the police. The individual did not speak nor did he try to lay hands on them, but instead walked quickly away. Every effort was made by the police to discover the author of these and similar outrages, and several persons were questioned, but were set free.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Burke.2C_pp._27-28_11-1"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spring_Heeled_Jack#cite_note-Burke.2C_pp._27-28-11"></a></sup><br />
<h3>
<span class="editsection"></span><span class="mw-headline" id="The_legend_spreads">The legend spreads</span></h3>
<i></i>The Times reported the alleged attack on Jane Alsop on March 2, 1838 under the heading "The Late Outrage At Old Ford".[9] This was followed with an account of the trial of one Thomas Millbank, who, immediately after the reported attack on Jane Alsop, had boasted in the Morgan's Arms that he was Spring Heeled Jack. He was arrested and tried at Lambeth Street court. The arresting officer was James Lea, who had earlier arrested William Corder, the Red Barn Murderer. Millbank had been wearing white overalls and a greatcoat, which he dropped outside the house, and the candle he dropped was also found. He escaped conviction only because Jane Alsop insisted her attacker had breathed fire, and Millbank admitted he could do no such thing. Most of the other accounts were written long after the date; contemporary newspapers do not mention them.<br />
After these incidents, Spring Heeled Jack became one of the most popular characters of the period. His alleged exploits were reported in the newspapers and became the subject of several Penny Dreadfuls and plays performed in the cheap theatres that abounded at the time. The devil was even renamed "Spring Heeled Jack" in some Punch and Judy shows, as recounted by Henry Mayhew in his London Labour and the London Poor:<br />
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"This here is Satan,-we might say the devil, but that ain't right, and gennelfolks don't like such words. He is now commonly called 'Spring-heeled Jack;' or the 'Rossian Bear,' - that's since the war."</div>
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—<cite>Henry Mayhew, <i>London Labour and the London Poor</i>, p. 52<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-12"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spring_Heeled_Jack#cite_note-12"></a></sup></cite></div>
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But, even as his fame was growing, reports of Spring Heeled Jack's appearances became less frequent if more widespread. In 1843, however, a wave of sightings swept the country again. A report from Northamptonshire described him as "the very image of the Devil himself, with horns and eyes of flame", and in East Anglia reports of attacks on drivers of mail coaches became common. He was linked with the so-called "Devil's Footprints" that appeared in Devon in February 1855.In the beginning of the 1870s, Spring Heeled Jack was reported again in several places distant from each other. In November 1872, the News of the World reported that Peckham was "in a state of commotion owing to what is known as the "Peckham Ghost", a mysterious figure, quite alarming in appearance". The editorial pointed out that it was none other than "Spring Heeled Jack, who terrified a past generation". [14] Similar stories were published in The Illustrated Police News. In April and May 1873, there were numerous sightings of the "Park Ghost" in Sheffield, which locals also came to identify as Spring Heeled Jack.<br />
This news was followed by more reported sightings, until in August 1877 one of the most notable reports about Spring Heeled Jack came from a group of soldiers in Aldershot's barracks. This story went as follows: a sentry on duty at the North Camp peered into the darkness, his attention attracted by a peculiar figure bounding across the road towards him, making a metallic noise. The soldier issued a challenge, which went unheeded, and the figure vanished from sight for a few moments. As the soldier turned back to his post, the figure reappeared beside him and delivered several slaps to his face with "a hand as cold as that of a corpse". Attracted by the ensuing noise, several men rushed to the place, but they claimed that the character leapt several feet over their heads and landed behind them. One of the guards shot at him, with no visible effect other than to enrage his target; some sources claim that the soldier may have fired blanks at him, merely used to make warning shots. The strange figure then disappeared into the surrounding darkness.[15] Lord Ernest Hamilton's 1922 memoir Forty Years On mentions the Aldershot appearances of Spring Heeled Jack; however, he (apparently erroneously) says that they occurred in the winter of 1879 after his regiment, the 60th Rifles, had moved to Aldershot, and that similar appearances had occurred when the regiment was barracked at Colchester in the winter of 1878. He adds that the panic became so great at Aldershot that sentries were issued ammunition and ordered to shoot "the night terror" on sight, following which the appearances ceased. Hamilton thought that the appearances were actually pranks, carried out by one of his men, a Lieutenant Alfrey.[16]<br />
<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-15"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spring_Heeled_Jack#cite_note-15"></a></sup><br />
<h4>
<span class="editsection"></span><span class="mw-headline" id="Lincolnshire">Lincolnshire</span></h4>
In the autumn of 1877, Spring Heeled Jack was reportedly seen at Newport Arch, in Lincolnshire, wearing a sheep skin. An angry mob supposedly chased him and cornered him, and just as in Aldershot a while before, residents fired at him to no effect. As usual, he was said to have made use of his leaping abilities to lose the crowd and disappear once again.<br />
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Liverpool<br />
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By the end of the 19th century, the reported sightings of Spring Heeled Jack were moving towards western England. Around 1888, in Everton, in north Liverpool, Spring Heeled Jack allegedly appeared on the rooftop of Saint Francis Xavier's Church, in Salisbury Street. In 1904 there were reports of appearances in nearby William Henry Street.<br />
<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-17"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spring_Heeled_Jack#cite_note-17"></a></sup><br />
<h4>
<span class="editsection"></span><span class="mw-headline" id="20th_century">20th century</span></h4>
A similar figure known as Pérák, the Spring Man of Prague was seen in Czechoslovakia around 1939-45. This character, like Jack, went on to become a folklore hero, even starring in several animated superhero cartoons, fighting the SS. On June 18, 1953, a figure in part resembling some descriptions of Spring Heeled Jack was sighted in a pecan tree in the yard of an apartment building in Houston, Texas. Mrs. Hilda Walker, Judy Meyers, and Howard Phillips described a man in a "black cape, skin-tight pants, and quarter-length boots", and "grey or black tight-fitting clothes". In South Herefordshire, not far from the Welsh border, a travelling salesman named Marshall claimed at some unspecified time until as late as 1997 to have had an encounter with a Spring Heeled Jack–like entity in 1986. The man leaped in enormous, inhuman bounds, passed Marshall on the road, and slapped his cheek. He wore what the salesman described as a black ski-suit, and Marshall noted that he had an elongated chin.[19] Finally, Jack also resembles in appearance and behavior (though Jack is more mischievous than malicious) the Japanese thunder god, Raiden. Stories gave Raiden a black appearance with red eyes and prodigious leaping abilities, but unlike Jack, Raiden was predatory, allegedly consuming men's navels. Theories No one was ever caught and identified as Spring Heeled Jack; combined with the extraordinary abilities attributed to him and the very long period during which he was reportedly at large, this has led to all sorts of theories of his nature and identity. While several researchers seek a rational explanation for the events, other authors explore the more fantastic details of the story to propose different kinds of paranormal speculation.<br />
Sceptical investigators have dismissed the stories of Spring Heeled Jack as mass hysteria which developed around various stories of a bogeyman or devil which have been around for centuries, or from exaggerated urban myths about a man who clambered over rooftops claiming that the Devil was chasing him.[20]<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-19"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spring_Heeled_Jack#cite_note-19"></a></sup><br />
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Other researchers believe that some individual(s) may have been behind its origins, being followed by imitators later on.[21] Spring Heeled Jack was widely considered not to be a supernatural creature but rather one or more persons with a macabre sense of humour.[3] This idea matches the contents of the letter to the Lord Mayor, which accused a group of young aristocrats as the culprits, after an irresponsible wager.[3] A popular rumour circulating as early as 1840 pointed to an Irish nobleman, the Marquess of Waterford, as the main suspect.[3] Haining suggested this may have been due to him having previously had bad experiences with women and police officers.[22]<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-21"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spring_Heeled_Jack#cite_note-21"></a></sup><br />
The Marquess was frequently in the news in the late 1830s for drunken brawling, brutal jokes and vandalism, and was said to do anything for a bet; his irregular behaviour and his contempt for women earned him the moniker "the Mad Marquis", and it is also known that he was in the London area by the time the first incidents took place. But <i>The Waterford Chronicle</i> was able to report his presence at the St Valentine's Day Ball at Waterford Castle, giving him an alibi for the reported attacks on Jane Alsop and Lucy Scales that are central to Jack's alleged existence. Nevertheless, in 1880 he was named as the perpetrator by the Rev. E. C. Brewer, who attested that the Marquess "used to amuse himself by springing on travellers unawares, to frighten them, and from time to time others have followed his silly example".[23] In 1842, the Marquess of Waterford married and settled in Curraghmore House, Ireland, and reportedly led an exemplary life until he died in a riding accident in 1859. Spring Heeled Jack remained active for decades after, which leads the aforementioned modern researchers[who?] to the same conclusion as Brewer's.<br />
Sceptical investigators have asserted that the story of Spring Heeled Jack was exaggerated and altered through mass hysteria, a process in which many sociological issues may have contributed. These include unsupported rumours, superstition, oral tradition, sensationalist publications, and a folklore rich in tales of fairies and strange roguish creatures. Gossip of alleged leaping and fire-spitting powers, his alleged extraordinary features and his reputed skill in evading apprehension captured the mind of the superstitious public — increasingly so with the passing of time, which gave the impression that Spring Heeled Jack had suffered no effects from aging. As a result, a whole urban legend was built around the character, being reflected by contemporary publications, which in turn fueled this popular perception.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-23"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spring_Heeled_Jack#cite_note-23"></a></sup><br />
<h3>
<span class="editsection"></span><span class="mw-headline" id="Paranormal_conjectures">Paranormal conjectures</span></h3>
A variety of paranormal explanations have been proposed to explain the origin of Spring Heeled Jack, including that he was an extraterrestrial entity with a non-human appearance and features, (e.g., retro-reflective red eyes, or phosphorus breath) and a superhuman agility deriving from life on a high gravity world, jumping ability and strange behaviour[25] and that he was a demon, accidentally or purposefully summoned into this world by practitioners of the occult, or who made himself manifest simply to create spiritual turmoil.<br />
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The vast urban legend built around Spring Heeled Jack influenced many aspects of Victorian life, especially in contemporary popular culture. For decades, especially in London, his name was equated with bogeymen, as a means of scaring children into behaving by telling them that if they were not good, Spring Heeled Jack would leap up and peer in at them through their bedroom windows, by night.<br />
However, it was in fictional entertainment where the legend of Spring Heeled Jack exerted the most extensive influence, owing to his allegedly extraordinary nature. Almost from the moment the first incidents gained public knowledge, he turned into a successful fictional character, becoming the protagonist of many penny dreadfuls from 1840 to 1904. Several plays where he assumed the main role were staged as well.<br />
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Chuck Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01281880905938442706noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6375089974625029198.post-12808595472729927672011-07-07T18:43:00.000-07:002011-08-29T11:07:41.258-07:00The 1967 Wave<center><b><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);"><span style="">The Sighting Wave of 1967 - Indiana</span></span></b>
<br /> <b><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="">A NICAP Subcommittee Investigation</span></span></b>
<br /> <b><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">By Francis Ridge
<br /><a href="http://www.nicap.org/papers/wave1967local.htm">http://www.nicap.org/papers/wave1967local.htm</a>
<br /></span></b> <p><img src="http://www.nicap.org/papers/1Me73.jpg" height="293" width="250" />
<br /> <b><span style="">Francis Ridge</span></b> </p> <p><b>Abstract</b></p> </center> <center> <table border="0" cols="1" width="80%"> <tbody> <tr> <td><span style="">The Indiana-based NICAP Subcommittee, Indiana Unit No.1, headquartered at Vincennes, was authorized in November of 1960. The unit had investigated many cases on a local and regional level, and had been involved in the "concentration" in S. Illinois in 1963, but the wave of 1967 was one of the largest in history. The 7-man NICAP rapid deployment team, one of four in the state, was very busy that year. Since the news media was not covering the UFO subject very well, and communication with NICAP HQ in Washington was by newsletter distributed only four times a year, very few knew what was going on until long after the wave had subsided.</span> <p><span style="">The report on the local wave was published privately in the spring of 1967. This paper is a major update of that report. Here, in chrono order, is what investigators were able to piece together 36 years later. To view a Regional Sighting Information Database printout of over 200 incidents investigated by the Indiana group, click on the link below: </span> </p> <center> <p><a href="http://www.nicap.org/RSID1967.htm">RSID printout for six-state region in 1967</a></p> </center> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </center> <p>The event on or around January 3, 1967, at Richmond, Indiana, marked the first of many sightings for Indiana. At 2:00 AM an inverted mushroom-shaped object hovered over a car for 10-15 minutes. The area ahead was brightly lighted. Forward motion of the vehicle slowed, it was unable to accelerate, and there was a loss of steering control. (1) </p> <p>The region was also experiencing strange objects in the sky. On an unknown day in January 1967, city, county, and state police were dispatched to an area west of Galesburg, Illinois after reports of sightings of a large UFO, "bigger than a trailer", with blue lights and a funnel on top were received. One Knoxville farmer and several motorists reported that the UFO "was round, big as a house, had no flying lights, but let off a greenish-blue light." Vibrations from the craft could be felt in the farmer's truck as it followed him along the Victoria blacktop about 7:00 PM. ( 34) And on January 7th, things were happening near St. Louis, Missouri. There was a sighting of a domed disc with lights on the dome, which hovered, tilted and sped away. (31) </p> <p>The first sighting that the Vincennes, Indiana, NICAP Subcommittee investigated, occurred on January 10th. </p> <p>January 10, 8:30 PM; Bruceville, Indiana
<br />Mrs. Pam Ridgley and her son, Joe, were driving down the lane leading from their cabin when they observed an unusual object. It was dull gray, elliptical in shape, and glowing a sort<i> </i>of bluish color around the rim. It was low enough over the car and utility pole to get a good estimate of size. It appeared to be about 30 feet in diameter and about eight feet thick. It hovered for a few seconds, then accelerated slowly at first, then moved fast toward the east (east-southeast). It vanished in 6-8 seconds. The object exhibited a disc-shape<i> </i>as it banked slightly and several dim lights were seen on the rim. (2) </p> <p>January 16, 6:00 AM; Vincennes, Indiana
<br />On this date there were numerous reports of a glowing, bluish-green object which we were able to identify as a barium cloud launched from a rocket fired from Wallops island. The question that arose was, why are there, many times, barium clouds and radar chaff tests conducted during real sighting periods? Is this just a coincidence or does someone have these tests ready to deploy when people start seeing real UFOs? As you will see, something WAS going in in 1967, and all over the world. (3) </p> <p>Jan 17, evening; Freetown, Indiana
<br />Francis Bedel, Jr., (23) of Portland, Indiana, was driving on State Highway 135, a two-lane blacktop road, north of Freetown, he later reported to State Police, when a brilliant glowing white light darted into his field of vision. It apparently hovered over the road for a few seconds, then slowly reversed its course. Bedel was so busy staring at the spectacle that he lost control of his car, which left the road and was badly damaged. State Police who investigated said that Bedel was not drinking and was not injured in the crash.. (4) </p> <p>Same evening; Freetown, Indiana
<br />On the same stretch of highway on the same night, Mr. & Mrs. Phil Patton of Freetown, reported to State Police that a brightly lighted disc-shaped craft, about 30<i> </i>feet in diameter, came down alongside their car. Mr. Patton told State Trooper Conrad that the object moved along the highway right in front of their car and about one hundred feet distant from it. They estimated that it was about 100 feet above the road and they described it as a circular in shape and about the size of a small house. The Pattons reported to police that they heard no sound from the object but that its outstanding characteristic was the extreme brilliance of its lights, predominately red but with flashing yellow and white along the side or bottom of the thing. After a half a minute, it flashed up and away. According to state police who investigated, the description given by the Pattons was identical to that given by Francis Bedel, the young man who wrecked his car while watching a similar spectacle, about a mile from the scene of the Pattons' experience. (5)
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<br /> <b><span style="">Controversial photo</span></b></p> </center> <p>
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<br /> Jan 19, 3:00 PM; Milan, Indiana
<br />A photograph was reportedly taken of a UFO by Reed Thompson, a 15-year-old boy from Milan. The town constable stated that the boy was reliable and said that he had seen the photo himself. However, the boy refused to submit copies of the print or negative (35) mm to this unit after correspondence and long-distance telephone interviews. His report to us stated he watched the object for 5-7 minutes before it sped off. Later, one of our Indiana field investigators, Don Worley, obtained further information and a black & white copy of the original color photo, along with a report and drawings. (6) </p> <p>The incident occurred about 3:00 PM. The sound of a "train" passing and a very bright light outside the window attracted his attention. The object had a silvery quilted surfaced and was about 6' by 8' in size, and was shaped like a "jar" with a top opening. It moved slowly by the witness' home, moving about 10' above the ground, keeping the ground contour and making angled turns around trees. Thompson said he grabbed a small camera and got one good photo of the object out the bedroom window. The object disappeared instantly when it got near a pine tree. The original photo, according to FI Worley, shows tree limb reflections on the sides of the object. He also stated that in the top of the object is a faint shadow of a figure's head and shoulder!!!! We never got to see a better version of the picture. Also of interest, the tree limbs where the UFO hovered finally died. </p> <p>The Indiana State Police also investigated the incident and Reed was questioned. The initial report was taken by trooper Jim Harris who came back later after the film was developed and spent considerable time with Reed and his parents. The Air Force sent investigators from Dayton, and Robert Lowe from the University of Colorado analyzed Reed's negative. Reed was later visited by Frank Edwards and Don Worley. </p> <p>According to a press report, on the same day (no details) two girls from Dillsboro reported seeing the same object or a similar one. (33) </p> <p>January 29, 7:00 PM; Eckerty, Indiana
<br />Mr. John Sturm, a linotype operator for the SPRINGS-VALLEY-HERALD at French Lick, and his neighbor, observed a bright red object descending from the northwest. It was traveling approximately three times the speed of a jet and had a tail or trail extending about 10-15 feet to the rear of tie object. The object descended at a 45-degree angle, leveled off at low altitude and turned a bright green. Observation time: 15-20 seconds. Final bearing: southwest. Range: 3-4 miles.<i> </i>The object appeared to be controlled. Meteors don't "level out at low altitude" (7) </p> <p>FEBRUARY </p> <p>February 2, 10:30 PM; Sumner, Illinois
<br />To the west of Vincennes, and just across the Wabash River in Illinois, is a little town called Sumner. A well-known craftsman, who requested anonymity, reported to the Lawrenceville-Vincennes Airport that he observed an object for one and a half hours that was doing some pretty good stunts. It hovered, accelerated, changed shape and color, was observed with the<i> </i>naked eye, 7- power binoculars, and a 20x spotting scope. It was described as a very bright red object, flashing like a red neon sign. The upper portion was a very bright white and red and green lights were observed around the object. The object was seen in the east northeast and noticed because of its brightness arid erratic movement. It seemed to have a very thick rim. In a letter dated 13 April, the observer mentioned that the LAWRENCEVILLE DAILEY - RECORD had an article on UFOs seen farther south about the same time. The airport stated during a telephone conversation that no conventional aircraft<i> </i>were in the area at the time. This one sounds suspiciously like a star or planet, but there were no candidates unless he had his bearings completely wrong. (8) </p> <p>At the time, we had no idea what was going on elsewhere in the six-state region, or the United States, or even further away. But the record shows that something truly unusual was happening. </p> <p>On that same day, but at Lima, Peru, at 12:30 AM a cone-shaped object approached and paced a Fawcett Airlines airplane. The cabin lights dimmed, there was radio interference, and the radio compass oscillated. (25) </p> <p>Before the year was out there would be at least 28 pilot chase reports. </p> <p>Back home in Indiana...... </p> <p>February 4, 1967, 7:30 PM; Norman, Indiana (68 miles NE of Vincennes)
<br />State Trooper Hollace Chastain was checking his rural mailbox right after patrol when he noticed an unusual and very bright object in the western sky. It was elliptical in shape, about the size of a dime at arm's length and self luminous. Chastain, after observing a few minutes radioed Trooper James Blevins. The object then ceased to move and hovered for a while, then sped up suddenly, changed colors in the process from white to orange to greenish-blue back to white. It appeared to pulsate at times during the observation. No sound was detected during the 30-minute observation and the object finally disappeared behind a tree-line in the southwest. The object appeared solid and seemed to change shape. Estimated range: 5 miles. Estimated speed: (at acceleration) 1,000 mph. (9) </p> <p>That same evening, 7:30 PM; 10 miles SE of Norman, Indiana
<br />Trooper Blevins, also of the Seymour Post, followed the object for fifteen minutes to Lawrence County. The object was reported as "soft ball-sized" and changing colors from blue to green to white. "It was stationary when I first saw it, " he said, "but it was too big to be a star. Suddenly it started to move." The interrogation form completed by Trooper Blevins stated that the object had flickered & wobbled during observation and finally dropped straight down behind a tree-line. The object appeared solid and was observed at least once through binoculars. It moved from southwest of his position (8 miles west of Brownstown) to due south above the tree line. Estimated range: 2-10 miles. Estimated speed: 1,000 mph at acceleration. (10) </p> <p>Within hours of the previous sightings & 65 miles southwest of Brownstown, something unusual was being observed. </p> <center> <p><img src="http://www.nicap.org/papers/boomer.gif" border="1" height="127" width="395" />
<br /> <b><span style="">"Boomerang" observed near Oakland City, Indiana</span></b></p> </center> <p>
<br />
<br />
<br /> February 5th, 1:45 AM; 10 miles east of Oakland City, Indiana
<br />Seven members of a band were returning home from a performance in Huntingburg when they observed an object described as "pale green with a bluish tinge" with a cluster of white lights, It was observed for 5-6 minutes from the side of highway 64. The object changed brightness and shape and appeared at first as "boomerang-shaped", then somewhat "teardrop-shaped" as it moved from east to northwest. The object was first observed as they drove up over a hill and was last seen fading in the northwest. Another car with 5-6 occupants also observed the object. The original group requested anonymity and the latter observers were unidentified. (11) </p> <p>2:30 AM; Crothersville, Indiana (75 miles to the north east)
<br />Richard D. Barker of the Seymour State Police post reported he followed a huge ball of greenish-blue and white lights for some 10 miles about 2:30 AM before the light moved west towards Bedford. "It had a flat bottom, just under basketball size, and had a brilliant blue-green light rotating around it counterclockwise. Barker said he was in the vicinity of Crothersville in Jackson County when he first spotted the changing lights, "It was maybe 300-500 feet high and had three red flashing lights under it," he said. "I got within what seemed like about a mile of it and it started moving south. Barker said he never did lose sight of it and it didn't leave any trail. He said when it got to Littleyork it hovered for a while and then took off fast, "It wasn't like any airplane I've ever seen, " he said. "I know it wasn't a plane." (12) </p> <p>6:00 AM; Bedford, Indiana (35 miles northwest)
<br />The woman reporting requested anonymity. The report she gave to the DAILEY HERALD-TELEPHONE provided the most vivid description of an unidentified flying object observed as far southwest as Oakland City and as far east as Crothersville......35 miles away. At this time she arose because of noises on the roof roof. She thought it was raining. That's when she saw what looked like a quarter moon that was moving toward her. "I watched it for a half hour," she said. "It would more, then hover, getting closer all the time. It had a bright light on the bottom. The light kept going around and back and forth an the ground like it was looking for some place to land. As it got closer I could see a bright band around the middle of it," she continued. "It was oval-shaped, sort of like a cigar. The top was<i> </i>shiny, like metal, and the bottom was kind of orange. There was a crater on the bottom of it--and bumps, like legs." It hovered near a utility pole behind her house for ten minutes. She said when she started to dial her telephone to call someone about it the object "turned real bright orange and then blue and took off." (13) </p> <p>That very evening there was a humanoid sighting at Hilliard, Ohio. An object that was described as an ellipse, landed, humanoid beings emerged and placed small spheres on the ground around the craft. Witnesses observed them interacting with humans. Further, up-to-date research, would show many more HR cases for the year, but at least 14 were found without much effort. (32) </p> <p>February 7th, 8:00 PM; Owen County, Indiana
<br />An egg-shaped object was reported by Paul Poorman on a farm near some strip mines. Poorman was a 33-year-old specialized police officer and qualified pilot. The object was white and well-defined, turned to a blood-red color, then a pale blue. It arose from the White River bottoms and strip mine area, hovered, "yo-yo'd", then zipped south then back, etc., then went down below a tree line. (14) </p> <p>February 9th, 7:50 PM; Eight miles south of Seymour, Indiana (35 miles east of Bedford)
<br />Another State Trooper to see and report a UFO in the Seymour area was D. E. Swider at Crothersville, This ended a sighting group for that area and appeared to be somewhat similar to the reports of the 4th and
<br />5th of February. At about 7:50 PM when trooper Swidar was patrolling Interstate 65, 8 miles south of the Seymour State Police HQ, they advised him of a UFO reported to the post. He, himself, saw the object in the west for about 10 minutes before it finally went out of sight further west. It was described as a huge, round object, moving left to right (slowly) changing colors from white to red to orange. This sequence corresponded with a decrease in speed, followed by an increase in speed of the object, typical of a UFO. (15) </p> <p>The direction and elevation of the UFO put it near the position of Venus. The Seymour Post stated during a long-distance telephone conversation (with this unit) that some people were reporting Venus. However, the description of the object, its lateral movement and short period at visibility, rules out this possibility. </p> <p>February 14th, 7:00 AM; Jefferson City, Missouri. A CE-III
<br />Going from a local to a regional sampling of UFO activity, a disc-shaped object was seen resting on a shaft in a field at Jefferson City, Missouri. Small beings were reportedly moving around rapidly beneath it. They disappeared behind the shaft, the object rocked back and forth, took off, and sped away. (26) </p> <p>On February 19th, registered letters were sent simultaneously to Bakalar Air Force Base at Columbus, Indiana and the Nike Missile Station at Dillsboro, requesting possible information on these reports; either visual or radar. On the 24th we received the following <b> <a href="http://www.nicap.org/images/afl022367.gif">letter</a></b> from the Department of the Air Force, dated 23rd Feb 1967:
<br />
<br /> </p> <center> <table border="0" cols="1" width="90%"> <tbody> <tr> <td>Dept. of the AF
<br />HQ, 434th Troop Carrier Wing
<br />Bakalar AFB, Columbus AFB, Indiana <p>1. In accordance with AFR 200-2, paragraph 7, this base must submit the following: </p> <p>"The Office at Information, Office of the Secretary at the Air Force, will release to the public or unofficial persons or organizations, any information or releases concerning UFO's, regardless of origin or nature. This includes replies to correspondence submitted direct to the AFSC (FTD) and other Air Force activities by private individuals requesting comments or results of analysis and investigations of sightings." </p> <p>2. Your report dated 19 February 1967, is noted and will be passed to the appropriate personnel. </p> <p>FOR THE COMMANDER
<br />Elbert E. Wade, Major, AFRes
<br />Deputy Director of Operations
<br />Plans and Training Branch</p> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </center> <p>Checking our copy of AFR 200-2 revealed the following: </p> <p>1) AFR 200-2 makes no mention of the AFSC Foreign Technology Division in its text. On September 19, 1966, the Air Force Systems Command took over the UFO Project. Thus, we have a change from 20 years of investigation by Air Force intelligence through ATIC (Aerospace Technical Intelligence Center) to an Air Force research & development program. The order that produced that change was AFR 80-17. Major Wade was quoting from an outdated directive. </p> <p>2) We were requesting information, not reporting. </p> <p>3) We did not get the requested information, either to confirm or deny knowledge of the events. </p> <p>4) The mention of the "report" (our request) being passed to the "appropriate personnel" indicated a possible statement from, or authorized by, the Secretary of the Air Force. This is according to instructions provided in AFR 200-2, Section B, paragraph 8, dated 14 September '59. No such answer has been received to date. </p> <p>On February 20th, we sent a letter to the NICAP Indiana Unit #<b> </b>4 at Anderson to check to see if they were investigating any of the reports. Instead of a letter, on March 2nd we received a long-distance call from the unit's director, Dennis Simpson. He stated that they had no knowledge of the reports, which indicated that<b> </b>the press had not "stimulated" any other reports. Quite to the contrary, only the Bloomington DAILEY HERALD-TELEPHONE covered the sightings. Even then, only a few were mentioned. The Oakland City case was known only to us and about a week before we received word of the Staten Police reports. </p> <p>The reports continued. </p> <p>February 22, 6:30 AM; Milton, Indiana - Dogs React
<br />As Mrs. Jarnes A Clevenger, stood by her kitchen sink, she saw her collie dog jump against the kitchen window, then race around the yard, "barking and jumping."(16) Then she saw the UFO. "It appeared as [the) headlights of a car except there was only a solid light in an oval shape," the housewife told NICAP. She also saw a white row of lights along the object. Mrs. Clevenger let her dog into the house. The frightened animal raced into the living room and hid. The witness, clad in only her night clothes and with no shoes, ran to the end of her walk in front of the house in the near-zero weather. She saw the object moving slowly at approximately 100 to 200 feet altitude, which followed the course of a creek. Returning to her house, Mrs. Clevenger called a neighbor one quarter of a mile to the south, Mrs. Judd Alford. "I could see a circle of white lights some 200 or 50 feet in the air," Mrs. Alford said. "The object appeared like a saucer to me." Several minutes later, she added, the UFO disappeared behind some trees. Mrs. Alford also said her fox terrier ran into the house "at full speed" and hid under a chair. (16) </p> <p>On that same evening, Rev. and Mrs. Leonard Lutz and their son, David, saw an oblong UFO that looked like "two headlight-looking affairs" with colored lights near Hagerstown, Indiana. (17) </p> <p>On the 29th we received the answer to the letter to the Dillsboro Nike Missile Station (40 miles east of Seymour). Instead of the typical professional looking government letterhead, the letter was typed on plain paper and was addressed from the Department of the Army: </p> <center> <p> <a href="http://www.nicap.org/papers/al022467.gif">Original copy of letter, dated February 24, 1967</a>
<br />.</p> </center> <center> <table border="0" cols="1" width="90%"> <tbody> <tr> <td> <center>Department of the Army
<br />HQ, 88th Artillery Group (Air Defense)
<br />Wilmington, Ohio</center> <p>24 February 1967 </p> <p>Dear Sir, </p> <p>This organization cannot confirm any of the UFO reports mentioned in your letter of 19 Feb 1967, addressed to Btry C, 5th Msl Bn (HERC), 56th Arty, Dillsboro, Indiana. </p> <p>Sincerely,
<br />John D. Penrod
<br />WO1, USA
<br />Adjutant</p> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </center> <p>Radar at the NIKE Hercules base did not operate all the time, but it was/is in the Air Defense system. When we wrote to this base we assumed that the radar must have been on. This was an error. The type of radar used would pick up any high altitude aircraft, but probably not any low flying objects. At this base the equipment used for detection is continuous wave acquisition radar. Tracking is accomplished by pulse acquisition radar which guides the missile to the target. The tracking denial was probably legitimate, but there was a directive that covered that situation, too. </p> <p>Issued by the Secretary of the Army, AR 30-13, dated 31 January 1957 states:
<br />
<br /> </p> <center> <table border="0" cols="1" width="90%"> <tbody> <tr> <td> <center>Sightings Of Unconventional Aircraft (UFOB)</center> <p>"Persona involved in sightings will not discuss or disseminate such information to persons or agencies other than their superior officers and other personnel authorized by the Acting Chief Of Staff, G-2, this headquarters. </p> <p>BY ORDER OF THE CHIEF OF STAFF,
<br />Colonel Charles L. Olin</p> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </center> <p>Previous correspondence with the missile base on November 25th, 1960, requesting data on a <a href="http://www.nicap.org/images/nike6.gif">sighting</a> covered by the press, also died a quick death, when after the base stated that they HAD tracked an object to Indianapolis, denied it on December 1st. That <b> <a href="http://www.nicap.org/images/nike5.gif">letter</a></b> was signed by Lt. Charles A. Millick, Exec Officer. State police units had been rushed out to look for evidence of a a plane crash, but could find none. This made it a UFO, not an airplane...which changed the circumstances and rules regarding release of information. </p> <p>MARCH </p> <p>March 1st, 10:06 PM; Poland, Indiana
<br />A dark-colored disc with a dome, performing slow and low flights in Owen County, was reported to have followed persons in an auto for miles until they reached their home at Poland, in Clay County.. The dome was either reflecting or emitting dim red light, and the object had two white lights on the ends and two larger red lights together in the middle. The flight was reported as as low as 40' and two automobiles had their hoods up, indicating possible E-M effects. (18) </p> <p>While we were checking out "routine" UFO reports on a local level, and not aware of anything going on elsewhere, the situation was getting more serious. On March 2nd there was a radar/visual sighting of three or four silvery objects at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico. At 10:30 AM that morning those objects were tracked at 2,000 mph). There were at least nine radar cases in 1967 that were memorable. (27) </p> <p>That same day we had sent a letter in rebuttal to the February 23rd, Bakalar Air Force letter, stating that we wanted a simple yes or no regarding their official knowledge of UFO activity in the area. Air Force regulations state that only the names and identifying information, classified equipment procedures & frequencies, be deleted in order to declassify a UFO report. A report stripped of this data (which is of no interest to us, anyway) should be readily available to serious researchers and the public. We also mentioned that AFR 80-17 had replaced AFR 200-2 in September. The answer to our letter (which came later and was dated March 21) was very interesting, but somewhat confusing: </p> <center> <p> <a href="http://www.nicap.org/images/afl032167.gif">Gif of original letter dated March 21, 1967</a>
<br />.</p> </center> <center> <table border="0" cols="1" width="90%"> <tbody> <tr> <td>"1. This headquarters submits a negative radar capability and negative report of positively identified sighting.
<br />2. Suggest you recheck section B, Paragraph 5C, AFR 80-17, dated 19 Sep 1966. Quote 'In response to local inquiries regarding UFO's reported in the vicinity of an Air Force Base, the base commander may release information to the news media or the public AFTER THE SIGHTING HAS BEEN POSITIVELY IDENTIFIED. If......thru the entire paragraph..
<br />3. Suggest contact with SAFOI for desired information." <p>FOR THE COMMANDER
<br />Albert E. Wade, Major, AFRes</p> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </center> <p>This much we can gather from the sightings reported beginning on Feb 4th. The witnesses were reliable and the testimony provides information that suggests that something truly unusual was going on in Indiana. At that time we were totally unaware that this was part of a major sighting wave that extended across the Country and into other parts of the world. In the cases we investigated, the acceleration of the object produced the same effects, a brighter spectral color. Upon deceleration, the reverse was noted. The greatest change occurred during a relatively swift velocity change. The basic colors reported were orange and greenish-blue from or TO white. In some instances one object could have caused all the reports for that period. No aircraft, balloon, cloud, or astronomical phenomena could, in the opinion of these investigators, be responsible for the physical or flight characteristics reported by the witnesses involved in these sightings. </p> <p>Continuing to escalate, on March 5th there was a major broad daylight encounter at Minot AFB, North Dakota. Radar had tracked a metallic disc with a ring of bright flashing lights that descended over a Minuteman missile site and hovered. This was seen by security guards. When jets were ordered to scramble, the object climbed straight up and streaked away. (28)
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /> </p> <center> <p><img src="http://www.nicap.org/papers/moline.jpg" height="194" width="299" />
<br /> <b><span style="">UFO filmed at Moline, Illinois, on March 9th, a sample of</span></b>
<br /> <b><span style="">incidents outside Indiana during the wave of 1967. </span></b></p> </center> <p>
<br /> March 9th, afternoon; Moline, Illinois.
<br />A regional report, and one showing very graphically what was going on around the country, is the Moline, Illinois incident where a policeman spotted two UFOs in the afternoon. Police officer William Fisher said he was riding his motorcycle on patrol when he spotted a boxcar-sized object hovering at about 3,000 feet. He said a second UFO materialized as he watched, and both sped from sight. Fisher took color motion pictures of the objects, one frame of which is displayed at the top of this page. (29) </p> <p>A major event in March was a glowing red saucer-shaped object which hovered over another Minuteman missile silo on March 16th. This time it was Malmstrom AFB, Montana. The object was seen by security guards and the missiles inexplicably shut down. Missiles later resumed functioning on their own, and no explanation was ever found. There was a similar experience the very next day at another missile site 20 miles away). (30) </p> <p>March 23rd, 11:30 AM; Lawrenceville, Illinois
<br />Another man requesting his name be kept confidential reported that he observed an object, near the airport, in the west that appeared to be an aircraft fuselage (DC-3) without wings. It was white in color, and after a minute of observation, took off fast towards the northwest into a cloud. The observer is a well-respected individual who has been employed for years at Lawrenceville-Vincennes Airport (formerly George Field). He expressed the fact that he could recognize and identify most aircraft. This one was different. It looked like it was coming in to land (sideways), then sped off, always exhibiting the elliptical shape. (19) </p> <p>APRIL </p> <p>April 1st, 5:45 AM; Wayne County, Indiana
<br />A farm wife was putting milkers on cows in a barn when she observed a round, red-yellow object the size of the full moon for about a minute. It hovered about 200 yards away, then climbed and disappeared in about three seconds. (20) </p> <p>April 10th, 3:00 PM; Fayette County, Indiana.
<br />A bright white oval object with lights in a row were observed for 30-minutes by two witnesses. The object performed "falling leaf" maneuvers, slowly, many times, rising into clouds and coming out of them. Witness finally got a camera and took 12 photos. By then the objects were too distant to capture. (21) </p> <p>Same day, 9:45 PM; same county.
<br />A glowing orange-yellow ball that swung in a large arc was observed by two witnesses for 20 minutes. It moved closer and became a huge dark object which reminded the witnesses of a passenger coach of a train with seven tall windows emitting light. (22) </p> <p>MAY </p> <p>May 15th, 11:15 PM; NE of Indianapolis, Indiana
<br />A commercial airline pilot, who prefers to remain anonymous, had just concluded a tour of duty and was driving to his home in an exclusive residential community a few miles northeast of Indianapolis. As he turned into the lane that led to his home, he noticed a strangely lighted craft in the sky. It was moving slowly toward the south, crossing some fields behind his house at an altitude of about one thousand feet, he estimated. The thing that attracted his attention was the lighting arrangement of the object; a brilliant white light in front, a rapidly blinking red light on the rear, and pulsating red lights from front to back underneath what seemed to be a cigar-shaped craft. The pilot phoned the airport control tower. Did they have anything on their scope in his area? The radar man assured him that they did indeed have an unidentified object on the scope - had been watching it for several minutes. The pilot inquired if either of the Goodyear "blimps" was up? Neither. The radar man said he could clearly see both blimps tied down on the airport, only a couple of hundred yards from his position. And he added that there were no planes in that area, and no weather balloons. </p> <p>The pilot reported the incident to the Marion County Sheriff's office and that office broadcast an alert The dispatcher in the sheriff's office contacted the radar room at the Municipal Airport and was told that they were watching an unidentified return on the scope from an object moving about at very low altitude in the area indicated. Two deputies who answered from the general area of the pilot's home were dispatched to the scene to check the report. The first to reach the scene was Deputy Kenneth Toler, who told Frank Edwards: "It was a sight--- a very strange sight. The light on the front end was brilliant. We (the pilot and the deputy) could see the shape of the thing - like a fat cigar about forty to fifty feet long, we estimated. It was moving slowly against the wind. The row of lights along the bottom was unusual ---I never saw a craft with lights like that. We watched the thing for about 25 minutes, altogether. It was somewhere beyond a mile from us. When it got ready to leave it just took off at a steep angle. It went fast - very fast was out of sight in a few seconds, still rising." (23) </p> <p>This sighting is noteworthy because of the caliber of the witnesses: a commercial pilot, a deputy sheriff and the radar operator who confirmed the visual sighting with his instrument. </p> <p>May 21, 3:00 AM; Union County.
<br />A dark object with a circle of red pulsating lights which lit up the area was observed for two minutes by two witnesses. The object moved slowly along a highway below tree-top level. It made two passes. Witnesses experienced retinal afterimage, and a rooster reduced its crowing to a shrill screaming sound. The location: 5 miles west of the NIKE missile base near Oxford, Ohio! (24) </p> <p>Five hours later, 8:00 AM; same county.
<br />A farmer out hunting looked up when he heard a brief swishing sound. Six or eight light gray watermelon shaped objects in semicircle formation at undetermined height were moving rapidly to the east. The witness was very shook up, rushed home and called the newspaper. (35) </p> <p>Sometime in the summer, about 4:00 PM in the afternoon; Booneville, Indiana
<br />The date of this sighting is unknown. At Booneville, just a few miles from Evansville, Indiana, a Close Encounter of the First Kind occurred. The witness, who was 29 years old when she filed this report, said: "I was approximately ten years old when I saw the object. I was playing with my brother, about 6, and a neighbor boy, about 12, in the back yard of my house. I had no idea what it was. When I asked him, he said, 'It's a UFO'. The object was hovering about five feet above the trees that lined the back yard. We had watched it for several minutes when we noticed a second object over the empty field behind our house. It
<br />was hovering slightly higher than the first one. There was also a third object, farther behind the second one and a little higher up. We watched the objects for some time, then I went in the house to try to get my mother to look. She wouldn't. I went back outside and the three of us watched the objects for perhaps twenty minutes. Then, my mother called us into the house, we ate dinner, took a bath, and went into my bedroom at the end of the house and watched the first object until bedtime. Perhaps another hour. At no point could we get my mother to look out the window." The Form 1 indicates the first object was as close as thirty to forty feet at one point. (38) </p> <p>August 23, time unknown; Hamilton County, Indiana
<br />No details on this one, except that it was a computer entry for a landing report, one of 70 such reports for 1967. (36) </p> <p>November 9, 1:45 PM; Near Erin, Tennessee
<br />Two nurses driving home from a Waverly, Tennessee hospital stopped for a traffic light in Erin, Tennessee. While stopped they saw a large UFO approach and land on the highway in front of them. Without the driver "feeding gas or anything" the car began to move of its own accord until it stopped a mere thirty feet or so away from the semi-transparent craft. Inside the craft there were at least five small figures looking at them. The women felt completely unafraid and transfixed. The craft rose up and moved away and the women began eagerly to follow it. It "led" them to a rural road where they saw it land. The lights on their car went out. The next recollection was of the object high in the sky leaving them, but they perceived no time lapse nor did they ever check the time. (39) </p> <p>November 27, 9:00 PM; Fayette County, Indiana
<br />The object was first seen at 9:00 PM by four witnesses at a rural home. The object dropped down near three other witnesses in a car on a rural road northwest of the Philco-Ford Manufacturing Plant. The object was larger than a house. It was a silver, domed disc with masses of red lights pulsating in an erratic fashion underneath it. The witnesses in the automobile stopped and observed windows inside the dome with computer lights behind these. The witnesses fled the scene, tearing down the gravel road at high speed. The duration of this sighting was ten minutes. (37) </p> <center> <p>FINAL COMMENTS</p> </center> <p>In 1967 NICAP received 3340 UFO reports. Ted Bloecher and David Webb reported that there were more than 100 humanoid reports. This paper presents the Indiana cases and briefly mentions incidents in the region from and including Missouri, Illinois, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee. The Regional Sighting Information Database now lists over 200 cases in the region alone and this represents only the more substantial ones. Laced in with the "localized" incidents are brief accounts of key U.S. and global cases, to illustrate the size and seriousness of this major sighting wave. As Dick Hall reported in Volume II, The UFO Evidence, 55% of the incidents occurred in January through April. The same trend was evident here in Indiana. My father passed away on April 7th of that year and I was writing a report on the wave that very week. Little did we know that the wave was a global one and that even more interesting and serious events were taking place elsewhere. </p> <p>I wish to thank my team members who helped with this investigation back in 1967: James Catt, Phillip Studler, Jerry Sievers, and Alan Sievers. Also, we all wish to thank police, sheriff, state police and news media who cooperated so well with the effort. Last, but not least, I wish to dedicate this report to my father, Roland Lee Ridge. There were times when he had some serious doubts about his son who was a "ufo chaser", at a time when it wasn't fashionable to believe in UFOs. Not long before his passing he expressed his belief that UFOs were real and they "weren't ours", but remarked, "but what can you do about it?". What we DID do was make it possible for the large percentage of people today to take the subject more seriously than they did 35 years ago. We've come a long way. </p> <p>Francis Ridge
<br />NICAP Site Coordinator
<br />Former NICAP Subcom Chairman, Indiana Unit No. 1 </p> <center> <p><b>1967 Sighting Wave - Comments by Richard Hall</b></p> </center> <p>During the one full year of operation of the University of Colorado UFO Project, a major sighting wave-one of the largest of all time occurred. The irony of the situation is that, despite assistance in screening reports provided to a Colorado University "Early Warning Net" by NICAP personnel, the project was totally unable to cope with the wave. The Condon Report addresses only 59 cases from 1967 (and most of them inadequately) out of the many hundreds reported directly to the project. Furthermore, 15 of the 59 were left unexplained (see section XV, Colorado UFO Project). </p> <p>In 1967 NICAP received 3,340 UFO reports. Ted Bloecher and David Webb have established that there were more than 100 human UFO occupant reports during the year, with a peak of 18 cases in August. Among many other oddities of the Condon Report, it is noteworthy that the 1967 cases selected for study did not include any of the 17 Air Force "unidentified" cases for that year. </p> <p>According to NICAP data the wave started strong in January, peaked in March, and tapered off in May. However, sightings continued at a steady pace throughout the rest of the year, and the sightings in October were comparable in number and quality to those in January through April. </p> <p>A NICAP rating of 'substanual cases' (containing detailed information and remaining unexplained after preliminary screening) indicates that 55 percent of the 1967 cases occurred in January through April, averaging about 38 cases per month. There were 30 cases in October. Sightings in the remaining months (May-September, November-December) averaged 13 a month. </p> <p>A special study of 179 solid object cases indicates that the 1967 wave was concentrated east of the Mississippi River; about 51 percent of the sightings occurred between 6:00 P.M. and midnight; there were two or more witnesses in 58 percent of the cases. These reports occurred on the average of 15 per month for the year, conservatively indicating what sort of information was readily available to the Colorado investigators. Of the 179 solid object cases, the Condon Report discusses only seven. </p> <p>Regularly occurring features of the 1967 wave included vehicle encounters (an average of three per month), landings or near-landings (an average of four per month), and audible sound (an average of four per month). About once or twice a month, on average, witnesses reported humanoid beings, light beams, electromagnetic effects on vehicles, physical traces, and physiological effects on witnesses. The performance features included hovering and rapid acceleration, rapid departure upwards, sharp (noninertial) turns, zigzag and other erratic flight (see section X, Motions and Flight Patterns). (42) </p> <p><b>References</b> </p> <p>1. Vol. II, The UFO Evidence (Hall), page 325
<br />2. Unit (Indiana Unit No. 1) & NICAP HQ files
<br />3. Unit & NICAP files
<br />4. NICAP files
<br />5. NICAP files
<br />6. APRO & NICAP files
<br />7. Unit & NICAP files
<br />8. Unit & NICAP files
<br />9. Unit & NICAP files
<br />10. Unit & NICAP files
<br />11. Unit & NICAP files
<br />12. Unit & NICAP files
<br />13. Dailey Herald Telephone, Bedford, Indiana
<br />14. Don Worley files
<br />15. Unit & NICAP files
<br />16. NICAP SE-34
<br />17. NICAP SE-34
<br />18. Worley files
<br />19. Unit & NICAP files
<br />20. Worley files
<br />21. Worley files
<br />22. Worley files
<br />23. Flying Saucers: Here & Now, Edwards, pages 152, 153
<br />24. Worley files
<br />25. Vol. II, The UFO Evidence (Hall), page 326
<br />26. Vol. II, The UFO Evidence (Hall), page 327
<br />27. Vol. II, The UFO Evidence (Hall), page 330
<br />28. Vol. II, The UFO Evidence (Hall), page 331
<br />29. NICAP & MUFON files
<br />30. Vol. II, The UFO Evidence (Hall), page 333
<br />31. Vol. II, The UFO Evidence (Hall), page 325
<br />32. Vol. II, The UFO Evidence (Hall), page 326
<br />33. Dearborn County Register, March 19, 1992
<br />34. Skylook No. 41, page 13
<br />35. Worley files
<br />36. UFO magazine, issue and date unknown.
<br />37. Worley files
<br />38. UFO Filter Center files, Francis Ridge, MUFON
<br />39. MUFON Symposium Proceedings, 1981
<br />40. UFO Filter Center files, Francis Ridge, MUFON
<br />41. Volume II, The UFO Evidence (Hall), page 323
<br />42. Volume II, The UFO Evidence (Hall), page 323,324
<br />
<br /></p>Chuck Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01281880905938442706noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6375089974625029198.post-15532525701208351432011-07-05T16:41:00.000-07:002011-09-05T03:34:32.264-07:00Soviet Nukes and UFOs<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-size:130%;">By J. Antonio Huneeus, openminds.tv<br /></span></span>Jan 26, 2010<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://www.openminds.tv/soviet-nukes-and-ufos/">http://www.openminds.tv/soviet-nukes-and-ufos/</a><br /><br /></span><p>It sounds like a tabloid headline, but the question is a valid one: Did UFOs almost trigger an accidental nuclear war in 1982? The incident in question occurred in south-central Ukraine on the evening of October 4th, according to official depositions from Soviet military units and interviews with one of the officers in charge of the investigation. There were multiple witnesses to the event, which took place between 7:30 and 9:37 pm, and many of them were Soviet military officers and personnel stationed at a long-range nuclear missile base in Usovo, near Byelokovoriche.</p> <p>The depositions describe nighttime unidentified lights performing acrobatics in the sky over several villages around the missile base. That, in itself, is not particularly worrisome, as the reports don’t indicate any sign of hostility from the lights. But what happened at an underground bunker of Military Unit (MU) 52035, one which contained nuclear missiles launch control panels, is another matter entirely.</p> <div id="attachment_2006" class="wp-caption alignleft" style="width: 260px;"><img class="size-full wp-image-2006" title="Col-Boris-Sokolov" src="http://www.openminds.tv/wp-content/uploads/Col-Boris-Sokolov.jpg" alt="Retired Colonel Boris Sokolov (image credit: George Knapp)." height="204" width="250" /><p class="wp-caption-text">Retired Colonel Boris Sokolov (image credit: George Knapp).</p></div> <p>“For a short time,” retired Air Force Colonel Boris Sokolov told ABC TV News Moscow correspondent David Ensor, “signal lights on both the control panels suddenly turned on, the lights showing that missiles were preparing for launching. This could normally only happen if an order was transmitted from Moscow.” As director of the Ministry of Defense’s effort for “research into the field of anomalous phenomena in the atmosphere and in outer space,” Sokolov became a member of the four-man commission set up to investigate the so-called Usovo case.</p> <p>That was back in the early ‘80s when the missile targets were located in America, former KGB Director Yuri Andropov was General Secretary, and Ronald Reagan was denouncing the USSR as “the evil empire.” Today, of course, it’s a different story. The missile base was closed in the early 90s with the end of the cold war, the Ukraine is an independent country, and military witnesses are free to talk, sometimes. So we are lucky to have the official deposition of Major M. Davidovich Kataman, senior assistant of the commander of the Military Unit 52035’s communication service, in charge of the computerized control panels for the long-range nuclear missiles at the Usovo base. Major Kataman did not see the UFOs flying above because he was, at the time, on shift in the underground bunker. But what he did see was, militarily speaking, the stuff of nightmares in his line of work.</p> <p>Major Kataman wrote in his deposition that, “on the 4th of October 1982 at 21:37, I observed spontaneous illumination of all displays: BR, P, Sh, DR, GP, SR, PR, CZ, BT, NBT, GP, message, GB message, PP, PS, OR, PNS, Z, PZG, PZNS, figure indicators as in the regime ‘light marks’ at first push on the information board.” Confusing as this sounds—and the difficulties of translation notwithstanding (1)—the Major is implying that <em>someone</em> or <em>something</em> was apparently manipulating the series of precise control codes, four spaces and control code combination, which regulate the computerized missile control launch panel. His deposition added that, “testing of apparatus and measurement of parameters according to technical map 1-30 showed no defects. The apparatus was functioning normally,” that is, before and after the strange “illumination of all displays.”</p> <div id="attachment_2017" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 550px;"><img class="size-full wp-image-2017" title="Usovo" src="http://www.openminds.tv/wp-content/uploads/Usovo.jpg" alt="Major Kataman's deposition." height="714" width="540" /><p class="wp-caption-text">Major Kataman's deposition.</p></div> <p>The officer then added: “I suppose that this effect can take place as a result of the influence of a powerful impulse on the apparatus’ power system, especially on block BP-263 (U-10) then on VTG-127 (U5, U3, U2) and then on blocks U14, U12 and U11 [missile silos], bearing the main load in processing data in the apparatus. No abnormal effects were observed in other communications means… No such cases had been observed before.” The equipment was later taken apart piece by piece but no anomalies or malfunctions were found.</p> <div id="attachment_2016" class="wp-caption alignleft" style="width: 260px;"><img class="size-full wp-image-2016" title="telephone_hi" src="http://www.openminds.tv/wp-content/uploads/telephone_hi.jpg" alt="telephone_hi" height="333" width="250" /><p class="wp-caption-text">Museum of Strategic Missile Troops, near Pobuzke, Ukraine, http://www.eoghan.me.uk/tips/msmt/index.html</p></div> <p>According to the ABC-TV News Prime Time Live segment “KGB UFO Files,” which was broadcast on October 6, 1994, “for 15 agonizing seconds, the base lost control of its nuclear weapons; what happened here on this day has never been explained.” ABC also interviewed two witnesses to the 1982 sighting: a civilian from Byelokovoriche and Lt. Col. Vladimir Platunov. Lt. Col. Platunov described the object as “… just like a flying saucer, the way they show them in the movies, no portholes, no nothing. The surface was absolutely even, the disc made a beautiful turn…on the edge, just like a plane. It [made] no sound. I had never seen anything like that before.”</p> <p>In comparison, the language in the nine other depositions—in addition to Major Kataman’s—is quite sober. They are by witnesses from MU 52035 and MU 32157, and include one soldier, one Lieutenant, three Captains, two Majors and three Lt. Colonels. It’s quite an impressive list. The witnesses were in various locations, mostly on roads linking Byelokovoriche and the villages of Usovo, Topyilnja, Zhovtnevo, Perebrody and Korosten. These small villages probably will not appear in a general atlas, but the area is located in central Ukraine, south of the capital Kiev.</p> <p><strong>The Testimony</strong></p> <p>Captain Valery Polykhaev was on a bus, returning home from his post at the Usovo base at 7:30 pm on October 4, 1982. “After the bus stopped at the cross roads to Usovo,” he stated in his deposition, “I saw in the clear space above the road, at 5-6 km of altitude, two brightly shining objects resembling very much a New Year’s tree garland in it’s shape.” (I believe “New Year’s tree garland” is a politically correct, Communist term for a common Christmas tree decoration.) “They were shining with bright-golden light and those lights were twinkling,” continued Capt. Polykhaev. “There were 6-8 brightly shining spots making a circle in every object. The distance between objects was about 2-3 km. Then a shining small ball separated from the left object and moved to the right one.” The lights continued their acrobatics for another 5 to 7 minutes, according to the Captain, who added that, “while moving the object changed its shape, the twinkling lights reformed from an ellipsis to a straight line.”</p> <div id="attachment_2018" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 550px;"><img class="size-full wp-image-2018" title="Usovo_0001" src="http://www.openminds.tv/wp-content/uploads/Usovo_0001.jpg" alt="Hand written deposition with small sketch by one of the military witnesses of the Usovo case." height="699" width="540" /><p class="wp-caption-text">Hand written deposition with small sketch by one of the military witnesses of the Usovo case.</p></div> <p>Lt. Colonel Balanev was returning home on the same military bus when, together with the rest of the passengers, he “observed a luminescence in the sky unknown to me from 19:20 to 19:40 hours. It was in the shape of many twinkling stars from pale-yellow to dark-cherry in color.” Other passengers in the bus who also witnessed the phenomenon and wrote depositions for the Ministry of Defense were Captains Duman and Tukmachev, and Lt. Colonels Povar and Kuzmin. Lt. Colonel Zinkovsky at first thought that it was a helicopter, but “on coming to the place where I observed the object, I saw that there was nothing there.”</p> <p>Capt. Polykhaev saw the object again later in the evening. By 8 pm, he was driving his car with his wife, two children and some friends. They were near the railway crossing between Topyilnja station and Zhovtnevo street when they noticed once again an unusual light show in the skies over Usovo at an altitude of 5-7 km. “A bright light flashed and went out, then it flashed again and after that, 6-8 bright-golden lights flashed around it in the shape of an ellipsis,” continued Capt. Polykhaev’s deposition. “A small brightly shining ball separated from them and flew to the earth and on approaching it, went out. In 10 minutes the phenomenon repeated… the shining object began to move quickly in our side, with high speed and rising in size. Then the object suddenly stopped. Our distance to it was about 1-2 km. The children were scared that the object would fall down on us. After it stopped, the light went out slowly as if melted away. In ten minutes, another garland ‘flourished’ at a large distance and went out again.” Captain Kovalenko was in the same car with Capt. Polykhaev and basically described a similar event.</p> <div id="attachment_2005" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 550px;"><img class="size-full wp-image-2005" title="Caucasus-UFO-photo" src="http://www.openminds.tv/wp-content/uploads/Caucasus-UFO-photo.jpg" alt="UFO photo taken in the Caucasus region, published in the Soviet Military Review." height="373" width="540" /><p class="wp-caption-text">UFO photo taken in the Caucasus region, published in the Soviet Military Review.</p></div> <p>Most of the depositions are shorter and less detailed than Capt. Polykhaev’s. Major Lipezki was driving along the Perebrody-Usovo road with Capt. Ryabinin. His deposition states that, “I paid attention to the luminescence of some object straight in front of me somewhere above Usovo. The luminescence came from a group of shining spots forming 5 groups. The lights were disposed on the area approximately equal to the area of the setting sun. It was situated at an altitude of about 30 meters above the edge of a distant forest. The color of the lights was from pale-yellow to red. It was about 19:10-19:15 hours.” The two officers saw the lights again twice as they continued on the road towards Byelokovoriche, which they reached without further excitement.</p> <p>Senior Lieutenant Kobulyansky, the Battery vice-commander, and Major Drobakhin, also saw unidentified lights on and off from another car along the road to Byelokovoriche between 19:30 and 21 hours. At one point, they reported an apparent electromagnetic effect on the car radio, such as if “we were coming under high-voltage lines, but there were no high-voltage lines there,” states Lt. Kobulyansky’s deposition.</p> <div id="attachment_2019" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 550px;"><img class="size-full wp-image-2019" title="Usovo_0004" src="http://www.openminds.tv/wp-content/uploads/Usovo_0004.jpg" alt="One of the military UFO documents from the dossier obtained by George Knapp." height="817" width="540" /><p class="wp-caption-text">One of the military UFO documents from the dossier obtained by George Knapp.</p></div> <p><strong>No Conclusion</strong></p> <p>What could have triggered the multiple-witness UFO by several Soviet military officers in the Ukraine on October 4, 1982? The ABC broadcast added that “there were military exercises going on at the time of the incident involving explosives in the air, but they were over 200 miles away from here. The weather conditions were normal.” Unlike other Soviet military reports from Col. Sokolov’s collection we have obtained, the dossier on the Usovo affair is quite slim: nine pages with the typed depositions quoted above, but no evaluations, no technical appraisals on the control panel malfunction; no mention of other possible factors or data on military maneuvers, radar, additional witnesses, etc.; and perhaps most significantly, no conclusions by the investigating commission.</p> <p>Presumably all or some of the additional data exists in a Russian Ministry or intelligence archive somewhere, but it’s still secret. Yet even if the incident’s visual component could be explained by flares and explosives from nearby military maneuvers—something Col. Sokolov has apparently discounted in his interviews—these could not account for the “spontaneous illumination” of the control panels reported by Major Kataman M. Davidovich, which makes this case unique.</p> <p><strong>The Soviet UFO Dossier</strong></p> <p>The report on the Usovo incident and other cases of “anomalous atmospheric phenomena” in the former Soviet Union would have remained secret under normal circumstances. However, the fall of communism and the demise of the USSR produced something that 15 or 20 years ago would have seemed unthinkable: the declassification and literal “sale” of government documents of all kinds—from nuclear disasters and sunken submarines to UFO reports and psychotronic research. George Knapp, the well-known reporter from KLAS-TV in Las Vegas, visited Moscow for the first time in 1993. With the assistance of Dr. Nikolai Kapranov, a national security advisor for the Russian Parliament, Knapp and his associate Bryan Gresh were able to meet and interview Boris Sokolov, the retired Soviet Air Force Colonel who directed the UFO collection effort for the Ministry of Defense between 1978 and 1988.</p> <div id="attachment_2010" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 550px;"><img class="size-full wp-image-2010" title="Knapp-at-KGB-HQ" src="http://www.openminds.tv/wp-content/uploads/Knapp-at-KGB-HQ.jpg" alt="George Knapp in front of the old KGB headquarters during his trip to Moscow in the early 1990's (image credit: George Knapp).." height="365" width="540" /><p class="wp-caption-text">George Knapp in front of the old KGB headquarters during his trip to Moscow in the early 1990's (image credit: George Knapp)..</p></div> <p>Col. Sokolov had kept copies of approximately 386 UFO sightings reported simultaneously to both the Ministry and the KGB and, after some delicate negotiations, the whole dossier was sold to George Knapp. “In essence,” says Knapp, “an order went off from the Ministry of Defense to every unit in the Soviet military empire to fully investigate, report on, and file any UFO sightings, so in essence the entire Soviet military was like a giant UFO listening post.” (2) The whole effort was undoubtedly cold war-oriented, as Col. Sokolov himself acknowledged in his interview with ABC: “It was presumed that if we obtained the knowledge of such technologies we would achieve a considerable advantage in the competition that we were unfortunately engaged at the time.”</p> <p>The UFO documents obtained by Knapp can be divided in three broad categories. The first is a short Summary of 357 cases logged between 1978 and 1991. They give the date, time and location for each incident; a brief summary of the report; a notation on whether any space launches or other technical experiments took place on the same time; and finally what the investigators call “Influences,” such as radar detection, electromagnetic effect on equipment, or physiological effects on the witnesses. While these Summaries are basically raw or unevaluated data, some of them provide interesting and provocative reading.</p> <p>The second part of Col. Sokolov’s dossier is a more detailed discussion of individual cases. These consist of full depositions written by the military witnesses, such as those reviewed in the Usovo case, as well as a complete Questionnaire. This questionnaire includes not just the obvious questions about time, shape, direction followed by the object, meteorological conditions, and so on, but also “Influence on technical means” (electric equipment, radar, etc.) and “Influence on people and other living beings and environment.” Drawings and sketches of the observation are also included in the Questionnaire.</p> <p>The last category of documents obtained by Knapp are not part of the old Soviet Ministry archives kept by Col. Sokolov, but part of the “Thread-3” project undertaken since 1991 by the current Russian Ministry of Defense. These documents were actually smuggled out of Russia by Knapp, and their style and contents are quite different from the previous project. They consist of a number of reports not so much on individual UFO cases, but on a variety of topics such as: the history of UFO research in the USSR and Russia; propulsion and “non-traditional engines” and “the possible application for the creation of military and industrial technical devices”; a brief review of American UFO documents and popular Western ufological research; analysis of the messages and philosophical outlook of some Russian UFO contactees; reports and rumors of UFO sightings by Russian cosmonauts; and so on.</p> <p>The head of “Thread-3” agreed to meet Knapp but only off-the-record; his name was not disclosed and his face hidden from the TV camera. But in 1992, a man described as “Lt. Colonel Alexander Platskin, a CIS-United Armed Forces consultant on the problem of anomalous phenomena,” was interviewed on camera on the record for the Russian documentary film, <em>UFO: Top Secret</em>, produced and directed by the Samara ufologist Dr. Vladimir Avinsky. Lt. Col. Platskin stated candidly that, “there were cases of unauthorized firing at UFOs from automatic weapons. For instance, in the Djerzhinsky region of the Gorky province, fighter planes rose to intercept UFOs and buried a glimpse more than once, but it was all in vain. The singularity of the phenomenon startled and terrified sentries who opened fire at the strange objects. Pilots often saw them on their radar screens.”</p> <p>Col. Sokolov, in an interview with George Knapp, seemed to confirm Plastskin statement. “Pilots recognized UFOs as a threat to them,” he said. “There were 40 episodes in which they shot at UFOs. An order was given to pilots to chase UFOs and shoot at them, but when the pilots tried, the UFOs sped away… In three cases, the pilots lost control and crashed. Two of the pilots died. After that, pilots received a new order. When they see a UFO, change course and get out.”</p> <p><strong>Col. Sokolov’s Flip-Flop</strong></p> <div id="attachment_2015" class="wp-caption alignleft" style="width: 260px;"><img class="size-full wp-image-2015" title="switches_hi" src="http://www.openminds.tv/wp-content/uploads/switches_hi.jpg" alt="Museum of Strategic Missile Troops, near Pobuzke, Ukraine, http://www.eoghan.me.uk/tips/msmt/index.html." height="333" width="250" /><p class="wp-caption-text">Museum of Strategic Missile Troops, near Pobuzke, Ukraine, http://www.eoghan.me.uk/tips/msmt/index.html.</p></div> <p>In 2000, Col. Sokolov and Yuli Platov, a well known Russian scientist and UFO skeptic, published a comprehensive article in <em>Vestnik Rossiiskoi Akademii Nauk</em>, the official proceedings of the Russian Academy, titled “History of UFO State Research in the USSR.” It described the history of the secret military studies of UFOs between 1977 and 1990, only to dismiss the bulk of them as mostly space-related IFOs (Identified Flying Objects). “Practically all the mass night observations of ‘UFO’ were unambiguously identified as the effects accompanying the launches of the rockets or the tests of aerospace equipment,” stated the report. After discussing and debunking a few cases, Sokolov and Platov concluded that there were no genuine UFO landings, contact cases or abductions. “This means that either the territory of the USSR was, due to any reasons, closed for alien visitations during, at least, 13 years or that the hypothesis of an extraterrestrial origin of ‘UFO’ is inconsistent,” wrote Sokolov and Platov. You can access the entire Platov & Sokolov paper translated by James Oberg here [http://www.debunker.com/historical/HistoryRussianUFOlogy.html].</p> <p>Needless to say, the Usovo case is also discussed in some length in the Russian Academy journal and debunked as well. The first strange item is that the authors give its date as October 5, 1983, while all the official depositions in our possession clearly state that the year was 1982. Could this be a typo either in the original or in the English translation supplied by the well known American space expert and UFO skeptic, James Oberg? Sokolov and Platov then explain the visual sightings in the Usovo area by bomb dropping exercises conducted at “an air polygon of the 26 army located in the belorussian Polesje approximately 400 kms from a place of observation.” Finally, the two authors deal with the nagging problem of the malfunction of the nuclear missile control panel described by Major Kataman. Nothing to worry about. Almost as an afterthought, they finished the section on the Usovo case with this statement: “It should be added, that the fault in the operation of the command post equipment had nothing to do with the observed phenomena, it just completely accidentally coincided in time. However, just this time coincidence was the main reason for an urgent investigation of the event.”</p> <p>The main question we are left with is what happened to Col. Boris Sokolov. His article with Yuli Platov in 2000 sounds totally different to the man who was interviewed by George Knapp and ABC Prime Time Live in the early 1990s. What caused his reversal? One possibility is that he got some flack for giving Knapp the Soviet military UFO dossier. There is some murkiness on how this transaction took place and it’s almost certain that, given the dire economic situation in Russia at the time, Sokolov was paid for it.</p> <p><strong>Other UFO Incidents at Missile Bases</strong></p> <p>Another important point is that the Usovo case is not in a vacuum. There is at least a handful of incidents involving UFOs at sensitive installations with nuclear bases the in both the U.S. and the old USSR that are documented and there might be more in still secret military files. One fascinating case Soviet military case which ironically is not even mentioned in the Sokolov and Platov article, occurred at an army missile base in the district of Kapustin Yar, Astrakhan Region, on the night of July 28-29, 1989. A partial file of this incident was declassified by the KGB in 1991 to the late cosmonaut and general Pavel Popovich, as part of a so-called “blue folder” of 124 pages of “Cases of Observations of Anomalous Occurrences in the Territory of the USSR, 1982-1990.”</p> <div id="attachment_2009" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 550px;"><img class="size-full wp-image-2009" style="margin-right: 1px; margin-left: 1px;" title="Kapustin-Yar-doc" src="http://www.openminds.tv/wp-content/uploads/Kapustin-Yar-doc.jpg" alt="Kapustin-Yar-doc" height="863" width="540" /><p class="wp-caption-text">(image credit: UFO Briefing Document)</p></div> <p>The Kapustin Yar dossier consists of the depositions of seven military witnesses (two junior officers, a corporal and four privates) plus illustrations of the object by the observers, and a brief case summary by an unnamed KGB officer. The KGB file is obviously incomplete, since there is no data on the jet scramble mission (which is mentioned) and no final conclusions. However, the documents we do have provide fascinating reading. The most detailed observation comes from the Officer-on-Duty, Ensign Valery N. Voloshin:</p> <p><em>“One could clearly see a powerful blinking signal which resembled a camera flash in the night sky. The object flew over the unit’s logistics yard and moved in the direction of the rocket weapons depot, 300 meters [1,000 ft.] away. It hovered over the depot at a height of 20 meters [65 ft.]. The UFO’s hull shone with a dim green light which looked like phosphorous. It was a disc, 4 or 5 m. [13-17 ft.] in diameter, with a semispherical top.</em></p> <p><em> </em></p> <p><em>“While the object was hovering over the depot, a bright beam appeared from the bottom of the disc, where the flash had been before, and made two or three circles, lighting the corner of one of the buildings… The movement of the beam lasted for several seconds, then the beam disappeared and the object, still flashing, moved in the direction of the railway station. After that, I observed the object hovering over the logistics yard, railway station and cement factory. Then it returned to the rocket weapons depot, and hovered over it at an altitude of 60-70 m. [200-240 ft.]. The object was observed from that time on, by the first guard-shift and its commander. At 1:30 hrs., the object flew in the direction of the city of Akhtubinsk and disappeared from sight. The flashes on the object were not periodical, I observed all this for exactly two hours: from 23:30 to 1:30.”</em></p> <p><em> </em></p> <p>Ensign Voloshin also provided a sketch of the disc-shaped object emitting the beam (see picture). The multiple witness incident at Kapustin Yar was selected as one of the cases in the Laurance Rockefeller-funded <em>UFO Briefing Document – The Best Available Evidence</em>, which I coauthored with Don Berliner and Marie Galbraith in 1995. You can read our entire treatment of this episode here [http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/ciencia/ufo_briefingdocument/1989.htm].</p> <div id="attachment_2008" class="wp-caption alignleft" style="width: 248px;"><img class="size-full wp-image-2008" title="Faded-Giant-cover" src="http://www.openminds.tv/wp-content/uploads/Faded-Giant-cover.jpg" alt="Faded Giant book cover" height="326" width="238" /><p class="wp-caption-text">Faded Giant book cover</p></div> <p>On the American side, there are at least two other similar examples of missile launch code manipulation coinciding with a UFO incident. The testimony of USAF Capt. (Ret.) Robert Salas, who was on duty at Oscar Flight as part of the 490<sup>th</sup> strategic missile squad in Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana on the morning of March 16, 1967, is well known. Salas was one of the military witnesses at the famous Disclosure Project event in the National Press Club (NPC) in Washington, DC in May 2001; he later published in 2005, with James Klotz, the book <em>Faded Giant – The 1967 Missile/UFO Incidents</em>. Basically, Salas’ story is that on that fateful morning, while on duty inside the underground bunker, he received a call from the one of the guards, who sounded quite disturbed. “Sir, there’s a glowing red object hovering right outside the front gate – I’m looking at it right now. I’ve got all the men out here with their weapons drawn.” As Capt. Salas went to notify his superior of the situation, “our missiles starting shutting down one by one,” he testified at the NPC event. “By shutting down, I mean they went into a ‘no-go’ condition meaning they could not be launched.” You can read the full details in <em>Faded Giant</em>, which includes a large number of declassified documents.</p> <p>Fast forward to the fall of 1975. This time the target was the K-7 Minuteman nuclear missile area at the Malmstrom Strategic Air Command (SAC) base in Montana, on November 7, 1975. It occurred during a famous two-week UFO flap at several SAC bases along the USA-Canada border. According to <em>The UFO Cover-Up</em>, the authoritative book by Lawrence Fawcett and Barry Greenwood on the declassified American UFO documents, “targeting teams, along with computer specialists, were brought to the [K-7] missile site to check out the missile, and specifically, the computer in the warhead that targets the missile. Amazingly, when the computer was checked, they found <em>that the tape had mysteriously changed target numbers!</em> The re-entry vehicle was then taken from the silo and brought back to the base. Eventually, the entire missile was changed.”</p> <p>Although there are no specific declassified documents for this warhead computer tampering, the overall UFO flap over five SAC bases (Loring AFB, Maine, Wurtsmith AFB, Michigan, Malmstrom AFB, Montana, Minot AFB, North Dakota, and Canadian Forces Station Falconbridge, Ontario, Canada) during a two-week period in late October and early November 1975, is well known and fully documented by declassified USAF and NORAD documents. A couple of sample quotes provide the alert status of these incidents:</p> <p>“Several recent sightings of unidentified aircraft/helicopters flying/hovering over Priority A restricted areas during the hours of darkness have prompted the implementation of security Option 3 at our northern tier bases. Since 27 Oct. 75, sightings have occurred at Loring AFB, Wurtsmith AFB, and most recently, at Malmstrom AFB. All attempts to identify these aircraft have met with negative results.” (CINCSAC Offutt AFB message, “Subject: Defense Against Helicopter Assault,” November 10, 1975.)</p> <p>“November 7, Malmstrom AFB, Montana. A Sabotage Alert Team described seeing a brightly glowing orange, football field-sized disc that illuminated the Minuteman ICBM missile site. As F-106 jet interceptors approached, the UFO took off straight up, NORAD radar tracking it to an altitude of 200,000 feet [38 miles or 60 km.]. An object… emitted a light which illuminated the site driveway. The orange-gold object overhead also has small lights on it.” (24 NORAD Region Senior Director Log November 1975.)</p> <div id="attachment_2012" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 550px;"><img class="size-full wp-image-2012" title="malmstrom-wsa" src="http://www.openminds.tv/wp-content/uploads/malmstrom-wsa.jpg" alt="Malmstrom Air Force Base" height="405" width="540" /><p class="wp-caption-text">Malmstrom Air Force Base</p></div> <p>With all these facts in mind, it’s not unreasonable to think that the nuclear superpowers set in motion a policy to deal with these situations and avoid a risk of nuclear war. A curious clause about “unidentified objects” within an <em>Agreement on Measures to Reduce the Risk of Nuclear War between the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialists Republics</em>, points in that direction<em>.</em> The Agreement was part of the policy of detente during the Nixon and early Brezhnev administrations. It was signed on September 30, 1971 by Secretary of State, William Rogers, and Foreign Minister, Andrei Gromyko.</p> <p>The Agreement has nine articles on issues such as informing each other “against the accidental or unauthorized use of nuclear weapons under its control,” notification in advance of missile launches that go beyond the national territory of each country, and other measures of cooperation in order to avert “the risk of outbreak of nuclear war.” Article 3 reads: <em>“The Parties undertake to notify each other immediately in the event of detection by missile warning systems of </em><strong>unidentified objects</strong><em> [emphasis added], or in the event of signs of interference with these systems or with related communications facilities, if such occurrences could create a risk of outbreak of nuclear war between the two countries.” </em></p> <p>The interpretation of Article 3 as including the possibility of UFO incursions seems inescapable. It is indeed reassuring in view of the cases where UFOs hovered over military facilities with nuclear weapons (SAC bases in USA, NATO bases in England, missile bases in Russia). On the other hand, attorney Robert Bletchman pointed out that “unidentified objects” (UOs) include non-UFO situations as well (such as an accidental overflight by a civilian aircraft or a terrorist attack), but in the final analysis, <em>UOs do include UFOs.</em> What degree of cooperation about UOs/UFOs existed between the USA and USSR (and currently with Russia), is hard to say, but Article 9 stated: “This Agreement shall be of unlimited duration.”</p> <p><strong>Notes:</strong></p> <p>1. The depositions’ English translations were done in Russia and so the wording can be rough. I’ve edited the text slightly to make it more readable, but otherwise not changed the descriptions.</p> <p>2. Knapp gave me copies of his entire Soviet and Russian military dossier in the fall of 1996, for publication originally in Japan (I was then a columnist for the now-defunct Tokyo paranormal magazine Borderland). An English version was also published in the journal The Anomalist Nº 7, Winter 1998/99.</p> <strong></strong>Chuck Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01281880905938442706noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6375089974625029198.post-66519337143216212052010-11-02T13:47:00.000-07:002011-09-05T03:34:32.270-07:00Random Photos<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/TNCE5oa4qLI/AAAAAAAAN3I/5zHRbt1yymo/s1600/1953-%2Brhod.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 176px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/TNCE5oa4qLI/AAAAAAAAN3I/5zHRbt1yymo/s400/1953-%2Brhod.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5535070067675932850" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/TNCE5g6FANI/AAAAAAAAN3A/rsg0nf_fA_0/s1600/1967-March%2B12,%2B1967%2B%2B-%2B%2BLas%2BCruces,%2BNew%2BMexico,%2BUSA.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 250px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/TNCE5g6FANI/AAAAAAAAN3A/rsg0nf_fA_0/s400/1967-March%2B12,%2B1967%2B%2B-%2B%2BLas%2BCruces,%2BNew%2BMexico,%2BUSA.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5535070065659281618" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/TNCE46X0JjI/AAAAAAAAN24/x1VS3fxIlqU/s1600/1968%2BCluj%2Bufo_zoom%2Bcopy.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 281px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/TNCE46X0JjI/AAAAAAAAN24/x1VS3fxIlqU/s400/1968%2BCluj%2Bufo_zoom%2Bcopy.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5535070055315023410" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/TNCE4Y3Wr6I/AAAAAAAAN2w/h8NZxxyQxHs/s1600/UFOMovie-1956.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 306px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/TNCE4Y3Wr6I/AAAAAAAAN2w/h8NZxxyQxHs/s400/UFOMovie-1956.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5535070046320504738" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/TNCE4Ri_IcI/AAAAAAAAN2o/wvAE7vzocFw/s1600/Worldwide-UFOs-1024x768.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/TNCE4Ri_IcI/AAAAAAAAN2o/wvAE7vzocFw/s400/Worldwide-UFOs-1024x768.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5535070044356026818" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/TNB6A6yDmoI/AAAAAAAAN2Y/Ju14EHlfflo/s1600/1956+klarer+disk+2.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 249px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/TNB6A6yDmoI/AAAAAAAAN2Y/Ju14EHlfflo/s400/1956+klarer+disk+2.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5535058098236136066" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/TNB52u5jlzI/AAAAAAAAN2A/R9gvknVVnrw/s1600/1956%2Bcropp8.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 268px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/TNB52u5jlzI/AAAAAAAAN2A/R9gvknVVnrw/s400/1956%2Bcropp8.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5535057923247675186" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/TNB5WN8cVBI/AAAAAAAAN1Q/OM8Eo5PHQHo/s1600/1956-RiodeJaneiroBrazil.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 268px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/TNB5WN8cVBI/AAAAAAAAN1Q/OM8Eo5PHQHo/s400/1956-RiodeJaneiroBrazil.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5535057364645598226" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/TNB5VxIk1FI/AAAAAAAAN1I/SpBW7dG9iAs/s1600/UFOs1969_03-1969.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 303px; height: 400px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/TNB5VxIk1FI/AAAAAAAAN1I/SpBW7dG9iAs/s400/UFOs1969_03-1969.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5535057356911858770" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/TNB5VnBPe2I/AAAAAAAAN1A/U-DV0abOzQo/s1600/1953+voctorville+california.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 374px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/TNB5VnBPe2I/AAAAAAAAN1A/U-DV0abOzQo/s400/1953+voctorville+california.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5535057354196745058" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/TNB5VMaYApI/AAAAAAAAN04/D2il2PFU948/s1600/1956+S+Africa+000.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 368px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/TNB5VMaYApI/AAAAAAAAN04/D2il2PFU948/s400/1956+S+Africa+000.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5535057347054404242" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/TNB5UyauKDI/AAAAAAAAN0w/gsgMFmzdIR4/s1600/1988+wloclawek-1.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 285px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/TNB5UyauKDI/AAAAAAAAN0w/gsgMFmzdIR4/s400/1988+wloclawek-1.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5535057340076533810" /></a>Chuck Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01281880905938442706noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6375089974625029198.post-3329732290895710652010-10-20T18:42:00.000-07:002011-09-05T03:34:32.278-07:00The Kelly-Hopkinsville Encounter of 1955<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/TL-bIBa6iVI/AAAAAAAANqg/qnhl8kjJZsA/s1600/kellyaliens.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 396px; height: 244px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/TL-bIBa6iVI/AAAAAAAANqg/qnhl8kjJZsA/s400/kellyaliens.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5530309429556840786" /></a><br /><p>FROM The UFO Casebook online:</p><p><a href="http://www.ufocasebook.com/2010/kellyaliens.html">http://www.ufocasebook.com/2010/kellyaliens.html</a></p><p>Published: 1:56 PM 10/10/2010 <br /><br /><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">On the night of</span></strong> August 21, 1955, two Kentucky families claimed to have fought unknown beings. In a rural area of Kentucky, near Hopkinsville and Kelly, two families contend they battled extraterrestrial creatures.<br /><br />The event happened around the Sutton farmhouse, where the Suttons and the Taylors gathered for dinner. At some point during the evening, Billy Ray Taylor went outside to draw water from the well. <br /><br />Taylor witnessed a huge, bright object land in the woods about a quarter of a mile from the house. He started towards the house with the water when he saw a strange creature approaching. Billy Ray dropped the bucket and ran into the house. Both he and Lucky Sutton picked up firearms and ran back outside. Taylor fired his .22 caliber rifle and Lucky fired his shotgun but neither weapon had any effect on the creature. <br /><br />Sutton and Taylor described the aliens as three feet tall, with pointed ears, thin limbs, long arms and claw-like hands. They said the creatures looked like gremlins, hence they became known as the Hopkinsville Goblins. The beings were either silvery in color or were wearing something metallic. The strangest aspect of these creature was their movements. <br /><br />The aliens movements seemed to defy gravity as they floated above ground and walked with a swaying motion like they were walking through water. <br /><br />The two men returned to the house. However, another creature appeared at the window… the two families realized they were up against something extraordinary. They ran from the house, got in their cars and headed to Hopkinsville. There they sought help from police who followed them to the farmhouse and searched the area. <br /><br />Although they found no evidence of the creatures, they did find that the farmhouse had been shot up by the humans during the battle. The police left shortly after, but the aliens returned and the battle resumed. The defenders’ guns continued to have no effect. The Air Force investigated the event but could not find solid evidence. <br /><br />At first, the public reaction was that the incident was a hoax. However, the Suttons and the Taylors never profited from the encounter and there were dozens of eyewitnesses to the event. In addition to the families at the farmhouse, there were law enforcement officers who saw strange lights in the sky. <br /><br />In 1957, Air Force Major John E. Albert concluded that the case resulted from the witnesses observing a monkey painted with silver that had escaped from a circus. French UFO researcher Renaud Leclet opined that a pair of Great Horned Owls may have been misidentified as aliens.<br /><br />However, Dr. J. Allen Hynek believed the incident was real. UFO researcher Allan Hendry wrote “…this case is distinguished by its duration and also by the number of witnesses involved.” Jerome Clark writes that “…investigations by police, Air Force officers from nearby Fort Campbell, and civilian ufologists found no evidence of a hoax”. <br /><br />Although they never formally investigated the case, Blue Book confessed to being stumped. So was Isabel Davis, one of the most skeptical of UFO investigators. <br /><br />Many of famed film director Steven Spielberg’s projects, like Night Skies, E.T. and Gremlins, were directly inspired by the Kelly-Hopkinsville events. <br /><br />The Kelly-Hopkinsville Case: An Overview<br /><br />August 21 – 22, 1955 <br /><br />The scene was a small farm outside of the Kentucky town of Kelly. Inside the farmhouse were eight adults and three children.<br /><br />The night was dark, clear, and hot. At about 7 PM, Billy Ray Taylor (a friend of the Suttons and owner of the farmhouse) came in from the well with the “wild story’s that he had seen a really bright “flying saucer,” with an exhaust all the colors of the rainbow, fly across the sky and drop into a forty-foot gully near the edge of their property. <br /><br />However, the Suttons did not take him seriously and laughed the story off as an embellishment of his seeing a “falling star.”<br /><br />Half an hour later the family dog began barking violently and eventually put its tail between its legs and hid under the house. The two men, Billy Ray Taylor and Lucky Sutton, went to the back door to see what was bothering the dog and noticed a strange glow approaching the farmhouse from the fields. <br /><br />When the light came nearer, they resolved what caused it: a glowing three-and-a-half-foot tall creature with a round, oversized head.<br /><br />The eyes were large and glowed with a yellowish light; the arms were long, extended nearly to the ground, and ended in large hands with talons. The entire creature seemed made of silver metal. As the creature approached, its hands were raised over its head as if it were being held up. <br /><br />Understandably startled, the two men reacted by grabbing their guns: a 20-gauge shotgun and a .22 rifle. Withdrawing slightly into the house, the men waited until the creature was within twenty feet of the back door and then fired; the entity flipped over backward and then scurried off into the darkness.<br /><br />After a few minutes, when it did not reappear, they returned to the living room only to see another (or the same) creature at a side window. They fired through the window screen at it, and again the creature flipped and disappeared. Sure that they had hit and disabled the creature, the two men went outside to find the body.<br /><br />As they started out the front door Billy Ray, who was in the lead, paused for a moment underneath an overhanging roof. Just as he was about to step into the yard, those in the hallway behind him saw one of the creatures on the roof reach down a taloned hand and touch his hair from above. <br /><br />The people indoors screamed and pulled him back inside. Lucky Sutton rushed out into the yard, turned and fired pointblank at the creature, knocking it off the roof. There was another creature in the maple tree close-by.<br /><br />Both Lucky and Billy Ray fired at this one and knocked it off the limb; it floated to the ground and then ran off quickly into the darkness. Immediately, another entity (or perhaps the one that had been knocked off the roof) came around the side of the house almost directly in front of the group. <br /><br />Lucky fired his shotgun at point-blank range and the result was the same: no effect. A sound was heard as the bullets struck, as if a metal bucket lead been hit, but the creature scurried off unhurt. <br /><br />Understandably concerned that their guns were apparently useless, the men returned to the house to join the frightened women and children. <br /><br />The creatures generally moved in a peculiar fashion. The legs appeared to be inflexible and when they ran, movement was accomplished almost totally by “hip motions.” Usually totally erect, when they ran off they bent over and moved with long arms almost touching the ground. <br /><br />The entities’ ability to float was particularly evident when one was knocked off the kitchen roof and floated a distance of about forty feet to a fence, where it was knocked off again by a shot. While they did not appear to have an aura of luminescence, their “skin” glowed in the dark with the glow becoming brighter when they were shot at or shouted at. <br /><br />Mrs. Lankford, the mother of the family, counseled an end to the hostilities. Despite the fact that they had been shot at a number of times, no aggressive action was ever proffered by the creatures. <br /><br />However, the children were becoming hysterical and the creatures kept returning to peer in the windows at intervals; by 11 PM the family’s patience had worn thin and they all got into two automobiles and headed at top speed to the nearby Hopkinsville police department <br /><br />After a half hour’s travel time, the police arrived back at the farmhouse with the still-frightened family. The Hopkinsville police, the state police, and a staff photographer arrived to investigate the situation. A thorough search was made of the house, the yard, and the outbuildings. <br /><br />Nothing was found, and the tension ran high: When someone accidentally stepped on a cat’s tail and it yowled, “you never saw so many pistols unholstered so fast in your life!” The searchers checked out the woods area but found nothing. One unusual item that was found was a luminous patch where one of the creatures had been knocked off and fallen to the ground. However, when nothing really extraordinary appeared, the searchers began to leave and by 2:15 AM., the Sutton family was alone. <br /><br />The family had been reassured enough to go to bed and shut off the few lights. Mrs. Lankford was lying in bed watching the window when she noticed a weird glow; the glow was one of the creatures staring inward with its hands on the window screen. <br /><br />Calling quietly to the rest of the family, she remained perfectly calm. Lucky Sutton, however, grabbed his gun and again shot at the creature through the screen. No effect. The creatures continued to make their appearance throughout the rest of the night, never doing anything overtly hostile and only seeming to show curiosity. <br /><br />The last creature was seen at half an hour before sunrise, at about 5:15 AM <br /><br />The next morning, investigators came back to search the farmlands during the daytime. Nothing was found even though some even climbed to the roof of the house to look for footprints. The press got hold of the story; besides the reporter who had accompanied the police out during the night, the local radio station and many reporters from other papers in Kentucky, Indiana, and Tennessee arrived at the Sutton house. <br /><br />As the news spread, the general public began to show up and cars were backed up for a considerable distance down the road from the Sutton farmhouse. Sightseers stopped their cars, walked through the property, in and out of the house, annoyed the family with requests for pictures and, in general, created a carnival atmosphere the upshot of which was to generally ridicule the family for having seen “little green men from space.” <br /><br />However, on that same morning, Andrew Ledwith, an engineer with the local radio station, decided to stop into the station for a talk with the chief engineer (it was Ledwith’s day off). He learned of the happenings at the Sutton farm the night before and because of his interest in UFOs and his previous experience as an artist, he decided to go out and interview the family.<br /><br />It is fortunate that he did.<br /><br />The publicity became so obnoxious to the Sutton family that they later simply avoided telling the story and refused to cooperate (one notable exception was with Isabel Davis, who prepared the Kelly report for CUFOS). The drawings that Mr. Ledwith created on the afternoon following the sighting are illustrated above. <br /><br />How can such a tale be accepted at face value, one asks? After all, the family itself was considered of “low social status” by the townspeople. Two of the men had worked for a carnival; it could be argued that they were familiar with the art of the trickster. <br /><br />The most telling criticism of the incident, however, is that there is absolutely no physical evidence whatsoever that the incident actually occurred. Skeptics point out that no footprints were found (the ground was extremely hard), no marks were on the roof (although the creatures seemed nearly weightless and may not have left marks), there was no blood on then, the bullets did no apparent damage), et cetera. <br /><br />One could thus conclude that the family “faked” the entire incident. <br /><br />However, investigators who interviewed the Suttons afterward painted a picture of them that is quite different from the sort of people who could fabricate an elaborate hoax: They were uneducated, simple farm folk with no apparent interest in exploiting the rather considerable publicity that they engendered. <br /><br />Did “creatures” really visit the farmhouse in Kentucky on that night of August 21, 1955? Or did the many witnesses, mostly adults, excite themselves to the point of exaggerating some lesser stimulus? The Kelly/Hopkinsville case still stands as one of the more provocative CE III events to date. – Allan Hendry, CUFOS <br /><br />Project Blue Book – case number 10073 <br /><br />See the UFO Casebook case file, The Kelly-Hopkinsville Aliens.<br /><br /></p>Chuck Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01281880905938442706noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6375089974625029198.post-24873967026187609352010-09-25T20:33:00.000-07:002011-09-05T03:34:32.284-07:001950-The Trent Photographs<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/TJ6_kgRbx6I/AAAAAAAANjQ/PXzTFOXfED0/s1600/oregontrentlarge.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 268px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/TJ6_kgRbx6I/AAAAAAAANjQ/PXzTFOXfED0/s400/oregontrentlarge.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5521060827062060962" border="0" /></a><a href="http://www.ufocasebook.com/trentphotos.html">http://www.ufocasebook.com/trentphotos.html</a><br /><p style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"> <span style="font-size:180%;"><b>1950-The Trent Photographs</b></span> </p> <span style="color: rgb(51, 255, 51);font-size:100%;color:white;" > A classic set of impressive UFO photos was taken by Mr. and Mrs. Trent in the early part of the evening, just before sunset, on May 11, 1950, near McMinnville, Oregon. According to the Trent's account the object, as it appeared over their farm was first seen by Ms. Trent while she was feeding the farm's rabbits.</span><p style="color: rgb(51, 255, 51);"><span style="font-size:100%;"> She then quickly called her husband who got the family's camera and Mr. Trent then took two shots from positions only just a few feet apart. The pictures first appeared in a local newspaper and afterwards in Life magazine. Seventeen years later the photos were subjected to a detailed analysis for the University of Colorado UFO Project.</span></p><p style="color: rgb(51, 255, 51);"><span style="font-size:100%;">William K. Hartmann, an astronomer from the University of Arizona, performed a meticulous photometric and photogrammetric investigation of the original negatives, and set up a scaling system to determine the approximate distance of the UFO. </span></p><p style="color: rgb(51, 255, 51);"><span style="font-size:100%;">Hartmann used objects in the near foreground, such as a house, tree, metal water tank, and telephone pole, whose images could be compared with that of the UFO. There were also hills, trees, and buildings in the far distance whose contrast and details had been obscured by atmospheric haze. </span></p><p style="color: rgb(51, 255, 51);"><span style="font-size:100%;">Hartmann used these known distances of various objects in the photo to calculate an approximate atmospheric attenuation factor. He then measured the relative brightnesses of various objects in the photos, and demonstrated that their distances could generally be calculated with an accuracy of about +/- 30%. In the most extreme case, he would be in error by a factor of four. He then wrote: </span></p><p style="color: rgb(51, 255, 51);"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/TJ7Ami8Sl-I/AAAAAAAANjY/yUTj9ReAHWY/s1600/trent_ufos_big.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 168px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/TJ7Ami8Sl-I/AAAAAAAANjY/yUTj9ReAHWY/s320/trent_ufos_big.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5521061961650051042" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:100%;">"It is concluded that by careful consideration of the parameters involved in the case of recognizable objects in the photographs, distances can be measured within a factor-four error ... If such good measure could be made for the UFO, we could distinguish between a distant extraordinary object and a hypothetical small, close model." </span></p><p style="color: rgb(51, 255, 51);"><span style="font-size:100%;">Hartmann then noted that his photometric measurements indicated that the UFO was intrinsically brighter than the metallic tank and the white painted surface of the house, consistent with the Trent's description that it was a shiny object. Further, the shadowed surface of the UFO was much brighter than the shadowed region of the water tank, which was best explained by a distant object being illuminated by scattered light from the environment. </span></p><p style="color: rgb(51, 255, 51);"><span style="font-size:100%;"><i>"it appears significant that the simplest most direct interpretation of the photographs confirms precisely what the witnesses said they saw"</i> </span></p><p style="color: rgb(51, 255, 51);"><span style="font-size:100%;">Hartmann further wrote that "to the extent that the photometric analysis is reliable, (and the measurements appear to be consistent), the photographs indicate an object with a bright shiny surface at considerable distance and on the order of tens of meters in diameter. While it would be exaggerating to say that we have positively ruled out a fabrication, it appears significant that the simplest most direct interpretation of the photographs confirms precisely what the witnesses said they saw." </span></p><p style="color: rgb(51, 255, 51);"><span style="font-size:100%;">In his conclusion, Hartmann reiterated this, stressing that all the factors he had investigated, both photographic and testimonial, were consistent with the claim that "an extraordinary flying object, silvery, metallic, disc-shaped, tens of metres in diameter, and evidently artificial, flew within sight of [the] two witnesses." </span></p><p style="color: rgb(51, 255, 51);"><span style="font-size:100%;">Controversy - The Skeptics' Case </span></p><p style="color: rgb(51, 255, 51);"><span style="font-size:100%;">Not satisfied with Hartmann's findings and totally devoid of any evidence that the UFO was a hoax and hanging from the wires, UFO debunker Robert Sheaffer argued qualitatively that the haze in the photos (the haze veiled the UFO and led Hartmann to conclude the UFO was about 1.3 kilometres distant) could be due to a "dirty" camera lens, and thus the object could still be close to the camera. </span></p><p style="color: rgb(51, 255, 51);"><span style="font-size:100%;">He further argued that shadows on the garage were strong evidence for a large time lag between the photos, and alleged that the shadow positions suggested the photos were taken at 7:30 in the morning rather than in the evening (the image on the left depicts the edge enhancement technique which, under typical conditions, can reveal the presence of a wire less than a quarter of a millimetre thick at a distance of up to 3 metres). </span></p><p style="color: rgb(51, 255, 51);"><span style="font-size:100%;">Dr. Bruce Maccabee, an optical physicist, analyzed the original negatives and found no support for Sheaffer's time lag claim. He also repeated Hartmann's calculations in much greater detail, including corrections for lens grease and obtained about the same results as Hartmann originally did. (One other important aspect of Sheaffer's dirty lens hypothesis is that it fails to explain why it didn't affect all objects in the photos, and not just the UFO. </span></p><p style="color: rgb(51, 255, 51);"><span style="font-size:100%;">All the nearby objects in the photo were all sharp with high contrast, but the objects in the distance such as a barn, a house, trees, and hills (and the UFO), were of low contrast, exactly as would be expected from absorption and scattering of light.)</span></p><p style="color: rgb(51, 255, 51);"><span style="font-size:100%;"> Maccabee calculated the UFO to be over 1 kilometre away, and about 30 meters in diameter and 4 meters thick. </span></p><p style="color: rgb(51, 255, 51);"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/TJ7AzeQ_IfI/AAAAAAAANjg/i3inKjY4lKM/s1600/UFO2_400dpi.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 188px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/TJ7AzeQ_IfI/AAAAAAAANjg/i3inKjY4lKM/s320/UFO2_400dpi.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5521062183732978162" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:100%;">Regarding the alleged reported time the photos were taken which, according to Sheaffer, would be inconsistent with the position of the shadows on the photos, Maccabee discovered that the garage shadows could only have been caused by a diffuse light source, rebutting Sheaffer's argument.</span></p><p style="color: rgb(51, 255, 51);"><span style="font-size:100%;"> Maccabee suggested that a bright cloud illuminated by the evening sun could possibly have caused them. Moreover, neither Sheaffer nor Klass has provided a plausible cause as to why the Trents would have lied about this, especially since it is immaterial to analysis of the UFO's distance. </span></p><p style="color: rgb(51, 255, 51);"><span style="font-size:100%;">Repeaters </span></p><p style="color: rgb(51, 255, 51);"><span style="font-size:100%;">In his book "UFOs Explained," Klass argued that the Trents were "repeaters," citing a story published in the Portland Oregonian June 10 in which Mrs. trent is quoted as saying to reporter Lou Gillette that "she had seen similar objects on the coast three different times but no one would believe me."</span></p><p style="color: rgb(51, 255, 51);"> <span style="font-size:100%;">Klass further quotes from a newspaper article written about 17 years later, in which she is quoted as saying "We've seen quite a few since then but we didn't get any pictures, they disappeared too fast." </span></p><p style="color: rgb(51, 255, 51);"><span style="font-size:100%;">Klass indictment of "repeater" is based solely on Mrs. Trent's claims as reported in the paper. Assuming the account is accurate, an important detail however, is that Mr. Trent apparently did notagree with his wife. For reasons we can only guess, Klass did not include in his book Mr. Trent's response to the following question (story in the June 11, 1950 L.A. Examiner): </span></p><p style="color: rgb(51, 255, 51);"><span style="font-size:100%;"><i>"why [did you wait] so long before telling anyone about [the photos]. Trent admitted he was 'kinda scared of it.' He said: 'You know, you hear so much about those things... I didn't believe all that talk about flying saucers before, but now have an idea the Army knows what they are." </i> </span></p><p style="color: rgb(51, 255, 51);"><span style="font-size:100%;">This suggests that Mr. Trent had not seen any UFOs before and was skeptical about flying saucers (hence his wife's claim that "no one would believe me")... until he saw one himself. </span></p><p style="color: rgb(51, 255, 51);"><span style="font-size:100%;">One get's into a logical muddle here. If, as Klass believes, there are no saucers and therefore the Trents couldn't have seen one, then Mrs. Trent must have been lying when she said she saw several previously. On the other hand, Mr. Trent was telling the truth about his skepticism, although he could well have supported his wife's claim by saying that he too had seen several even if he really didn't believe they existed. </span></p><p style="color: rgb(51, 255, 51);"><span style="font-size:100%;">After all, if its a hoax, he could say anything to support the hoax story. One way to get out of this muddle is to assume that they both told the truth regarding previous sightings (Mrs. Trent had several, Mr. Trent had none and didn't believe in saucers).</span></p><p style="color: rgb(51, 255, 51);"><span style="font-size:100%;"> Of course, Mrs. Trent previous sightings certainly could have been honest misidentifications... and if this were so then she wasn't really "a repeater" unless you classify a person who repeatedly and honestly misidentifies objects as "a repeater" [Maccabee op. cit., private communication]. </span></p><p style="color: rgb(51, 255, 51);"> <span style="font-size:100%;">By Brian Zeiler</span></p><p style="color: rgb(51, 255, 51);"> <span style="font-size:100%;">Also: www.nicap.org </span></p>Chuck Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01281880905938442706noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6375089974625029198.post-25744353535147073142010-02-14T12:16:00.001-08:002011-09-05T03:34:32.291-07:001980: Cash-Landrum Encounter<div style="text-align: center;"><img alt="http://www.ufoarea.com/pictures/landcash.jpg" src="http://www.ufoarea.com/pictures/landcash.jpg" /><br /></div><br /><p style="font-style: italic;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SsKPP_2IAoI/AAAAAAAAJOU/kV7VKb0rQcU/s1600-h/ufo-reports-108a.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 158px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SsKPP_2IAoI/AAAAAAAAJOU/kV7VKb0rQcU/s200/ufo-reports-108a.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5387025609287795330" border="0" /></a>In December 1980, Betty Cash(right), Vickie Landrum (left) and her grandson Colby Landrum, were driving along a road in Huffman, Texas when they saw a bright light in the sky. After driving a little more along the road, they came across a large diamond shaped UFO hovering over the road belching fire out of the bottom. Since the flames were blocking the road, they had to stop the car about 65 yards away from the craft and Betty Cash got out. Vickie and Colby stayed in the car, whereas Betty went on to get a closer look. She spent a long time gazing at it and her skin began to heat up because of the heat from the flames. She returned to the car when the object began to rise and a large number of unmarked black helicopters chased after the UFO. When they got home, they started suffering from sunburn, diarrhea and vomiting. It has been claimed that the craft was a US attempt at making a UFO since it was spewing out flames at the bottom and was joined by many helicopters later on. <span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">(UFOs At Close Sight)</span> </p><a href="http://www.ufocasebook.com/Pineywoods.html">http://www.ufocasebook.com/Pineywoods.html</a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SsKPmH38LGI/AAAAAAAAJOc/ZwlRq0c86_M/s1600-h/fenomeno-cash-landrum.gif"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 147px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SsKPmH38LGI/AAAAAAAAJOc/ZwlRq0c86_M/s200/fenomeno-cash-landrum.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5387025989400013922" border="0" /></a>A drive through the Piney Woods of Texas at night is a lonely, somewhat spooky one to begin with, but on this particular night, a routine drive turned into a life changing event for these three people. Fifty-one year old Betty Cash was driving through the woods traveling from New Caney to Dayton on Farm to Market road 1485. Riding with her was her friend, Vickie Landrum, fifty-seven years old, and Vickie's seven year old grandson, Colby. They were looking for an open Bingo game, but found all of them closed down for the Holiday season. They stopped for a meal at a restaurant, and then continued their journey.<br /><br />Soon, the three began to see a light in the distance, and in a few short minutes this light became a glowing object, slowly crossing the tops of the tall pine trees. The area that they were in was densely occupied by pine and oak trees, surrounded by occasional swamps and small lakes. As they proceeded along their way, their initial thought was that the object was an airplane or helicopter from one of the airfields not too distant from their location. Suddenly, ahead of them loomed an immense diamond-shaped craft, which was hovering over the road ahead of them! At regular, fast intervals, the object would shoot down a stream of reddish-orange flames. Vickie would later describe it as being "like a diamond of fire". Being a devout Christian, she had had never believed in UFOs or extraterrestrials, and at this moment, she believed that she was witnessing the end of the world.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SsKPxCFD2cI/AAAAAAAAJOk/-N6SepCmaws/s1600-h/cashlandrum-300x295.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 197px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SsKPxCFD2cI/AAAAAAAAJOk/-N6SepCmaws/s200/cashlandrum-300x295.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5387026176822991298" border="0" /></a>They could also hear a constant beeping sound as the strange craft spit out its fiery downspout. Frightened, Betty came to a quick stop to keep from running under the craft. The car's heater had been running to kill the frosty air of the night, but now the inside of her vehicle was so hot she had to turn off her heater, and leave the car, along with Vickie and Colby. Now outside of the vehicle, they could hear a steady roaring sound coming from the frightening sight ahead of them. Young Colby became so afraid that his grandmother took him back into the car to comfort him. Betty stayed outside. In some strange way, she was fascinated with the almost unbelievable vision before her.<br /><br />As she stood watching the craft, suddenly the sky was full of helicopters. Betty said, "They seemed to rush in from all directions... it seemed like they were trying to encircle the thing." She assumed that they were from Tomball Airfield, northwest of Houston, or Ellington Air Force Base, south of Houston. The eerie object now began to lift into the air, and proceed to the <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SsKVlvzXdwI/AAAAAAAAJO0/cMaWTqBnOC8/s1600-h/cash.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 307px; height: 250px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SsKVlvzXdwI/AAAAAAAAJO0/cMaWTqBnOC8/s320/cash.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5387032580008146690" border="0" /></a>southwest, with helicopters in pursuit. As Betty returned to the car, the door handle was so hot she could hardly open the front door. Her hand was burned getting inside. She immediately turned on her air conditioner to cool off the inside of the vehicle. After the object had left the area, they restarted their vehicle, hoping to get home and never see the craft again. But after several miles of dark highway, they left the Farm to Market road in favor of the freeway. Ahead in the distance, they could again see the object with its bright lights illuminating the helicopters which were still trying to encircle it.<br /><br />At this vantage point, the two ladies could actually count the number of copters in the air, 23. Some of them they identified as the double rotor CH-47 Chinook; the others were the faster, single engine rotor type, which they thought were Bell-Huey. After a fast trip home, all three of the witnesses became extremely sick within the next few hours. Betty's head and neck were blistered, and soon her eyes were swollen shut. She was also terribly nauseated. By the next morning, she was almost in a coma. Vickie and Colby suffered very similar symptoms, yet not as severe as Betty's. After a couple of miserable days being cared for at Vickie's home, Betty checked into a hospital where she was treated as a burn victim, remaining for 15 days. Her hair began to fall out, and her eyes swelled so badly, she could not see for about a week.<br /><br />Colby had problems with his eyes, and Vickie was losing her hair also. In addition, her scalp was numb and painful. All three of the victims were treated for radiation poisoning, and their condition was listed by doctors as life-threatening. Before long, skin sores developed, weight loss began, and skin cancer was diagnosed.<br /><br />As to the origin of the helicopters, local air bases were questioned, but would not admit to sending any helicopters out that night. The only public statement made by military officials came from Fort Hood press officer Major Tony Geishauser. In an interview with the Corpus Christi Caller newspaper, he stated that no Fort Hood aircraft were in the Houston area that night. "I don't know any other place around here that would have that number of helicopters," he said. "I don't know what it could be... unless there's a super secret thing going on and I wouldn't necessarily know about it." The black top road was badly damaged by the emissions from the craft that night, but it was very quickly repaired. Investigators were at a loss to explain the events of that night, except to say that Betty, Vickie, and Colby had encountered a craft of undetermined origin, or possibly an experimental government craft. The three unwilling participants in this event sued the U.S. Government for medical damages, but during a congressional hearing, the Department of the Army Inspector General denied any military involvement in the case, and disallowed any compensation for the three unwilling participants in the Piney Woods affair.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SsKVxYeA-GI/AAAAAAAAJO8/MvBzWeQ61wA/s1600-h/vicki.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 151px; height: 200px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SsKVxYeA-GI/AAAAAAAAJO8/MvBzWeQ61wA/s200/vicki.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5387032779903006818" border="0" /></a>There would be several other witnesses to the strange craft / and or helicopters of that night. Among them were: An off duty Dayton, Texas policeman and his wife who were driving home from Cleveland the same night and saw a large number of CH-47s. A Crosby, Texas man who was directly under the flight path, reported seeing a large number of heavy military helicopters flying overhead. A Dayton, Texas, oilfield worker Jerry McDonald saw a large UFO fly directly overhead while he was in his back garden. He thought it might be a blimp at first, but soon knew it was something more sinister. "It was kind of diamond shaped and had two twin torches that were shooting brilliant blue flames out the back", he said. He saw that it had two bright lights on it and a red light in the center.<p><span><span style=";font-size:100%;color:white;" > </span></span></p><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SsKV9Dz891I/AAAAAAAAJPE/P8RK3RBB4Ds/s1600-h/colbylandrum.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 157px; height: 191px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SsKV9Dz891I/AAAAAAAAJPE/P8RK3RBB4Ds/s200/colbylandrum.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5387032980516304722" border="0" /></a> In a freaky circumstance of luck, corroboration of the unknown object of that night would come in 1981. In April, a CH-47 flew into Dayton for the purpose of a public showing. This allowed local residents to view the machine, both inside and out. Colby spotted the helicopter as it was flying into town, and became very upset. Vickie took him to the landing site, hopefully to allay his fears. As they reached the Chinook, a long line of locals had already formed, waiting to see the giant machine. When their turn finally came, Vickie and Colby entered the helicopter.Accompanied by another visitor in addition to Colby, Vickie began to recount her experience in the Piney Woods. Vickie and the other unnamed witness both claimed that the pilot said he had been in the air the night of the traumatic sighting. He was sent to check on a UFO that was in trouble near Huffman! Vickie began to discuss her injuries due to the burns and radiation poisoning. Upon hearing her confession, the pilot quickly clammed up, and moved them out of the craft. The pilot was later found by the UFO group VISIT. He would only admit that he knew of the Cash/Landrum case, but refused to admit that he had been in the area the night of the sighting. <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0); font-weight: bold;">(B J Booth)<br /><br /></span><p align="left"><strong>Other witnesses</strong></p> There were also others who witnessed the incident near Huffman, Texas. An off duty Dayton policeman and his wife were driving home from Cleveland through the Huffman area the same night. They observed a large number of double rotor Being CH-47 Chinooks, a special kind of the craft used by the Army and the Marines. A man living in Crosby, directly under the flight path, also reported seeing a large number of heavy military helicopters flying overhead. And Oilfield laborer Jerry McDonald was in his back garden in Dayton when he witnessed a large UFO flying over his head. At first he thought it was the goodyear airship, but quickly realized it was something else. "It was kind of diamond shaped and had two twin torches that were shooting brilliant blue flames out the back", he said. As it passed about 45 meters above him he saw that it had two bright lights on it and a red light in the center. But the US army's Fort Hood press officer, Major Tony Geishauser, told the Corpus Christi Caller that no Fort Hood aircraft were in the Houston area that night. "I don't know any other place around here that would have that number of helicopters," he said. "I don't know what it could be.... unless there's a super secret thing going on and I wouldn't necessarily know about it." All other bases in Texas and Louisiana denied they were responsible for the helicopters seen at the incident. <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">(UFO.Whipnet.org)</span><br /><p class="style3" align="left"> </p> <br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0); font-weight: bold;"><br /></span><p><span><span style=";font-size:100%;color:white;" > </span></span></p> <div style="text-align: center;"> MUTUAL UFO NETWORK<br />103 OLDTOWN RD. SEGUIN, TX 78155 <br />December 30, 1998 <br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">INJURIES CAUSED BY UFO CLAIM WOMAN'S LIFE </span></span><br /><br />Betty Cash, one of three people injured in a UFO close encounter near Huffman, Texas, on December 29, 1980, died on the 18th anniversary of the event, in Birmingham, Alabama. She had been in poor health ever since the encounter. At the time of the event, Mrs. Cash operated her own businesses near Dayton, Texas. Betty Cash, along with Vickie Landrum and grandson Colby Landrum, encountered a huge UFO accompanied by military helicopters on a dark road in the east Texas Piney Woods. They were exposed to radiation from the object, which caused extreme medical problems such as burns, eye damage, hair loss, diarrhea, and vomiting. Although they and others observed a large number of military helicopters along with the UFO, the U.S. Government refused to acknowledge the event or assist them in any way. After the encounter, Betty Cash was hospitalized and treated for burns and the other maladies. The extent of the injuries was so great, she was forced to close her businesses and never worked again. He life became a series of hospital stays, many of them in intensive care. Eventually, she developed cancer, which was successfully treated. In November 1998, Mrs. Cash suffered a stroke. On December 29, during her recovery, an unusual turn of events claimed her life. Mrs. Cash was a hero in the fight against government UFO cover-ups and brought hope to other victims of UFO incidents. She was devoted to family and friends and never allowed her illness to prevent her from helping others to cope with the trauma of UFO close encounters. Betty Cash will be missed... but never forgotten.<br />Peter A. Gersten Director</div><p><span><span style=";font-size:100%;color:white;" >r </span></span></p><br /><p><span><span style=";font-size:100%;color:white;" > </span></span></p><br /><p><span><span style=";font-size:100%;color:white;" > </span></span></p><br /><p><span><span style=";font-size:100%;color:white;" > </span></span></p><br /><p><span><span style=";font-size:100%;color:white;" > </span></span></p><br /><p><br /></p>Chuck Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01281880905938442706noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6375089974625029198.post-31441957844175296752009-11-17T21:33:00.000-08:002011-09-05T03:34:32.362-07:00Photos 2000-<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SwOPCv5CSZI/AAAAAAAALVk/AOT0PYBGuJU/s1600/2000+inaja1large.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 264px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SwOPCv5CSZI/AAAAAAAALVk/AOT0PYBGuJU/s400/2000+inaja1large.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5405321255152929170" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SwOPCpAt2RI/AAAAAAAALVc/d46iKQj8HyA/s1600/2000+gettysburglarge+copy.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; 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display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 225px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SwOHzVVwAoI/AAAAAAAALR8/PtLimQhH0sA/s400/ufo+over+kaba+1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5405313293746176642" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SwOHzVCvgpI/AAAAAAAALR0/a6wKJ3_v7kY/s1600/2007+wisc.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 235px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SwOHzVCvgpI/AAAAAAAALR0/a6wKJ3_v7kY/s400/2007+wisc.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5405313293666452114" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SwOHzM9UO_I/AAAAAAAALRs/QxVGcnaVT6A/s1600/2008+Athens+GA+copy.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 290px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SwOHzM9UO_I/AAAAAAAALRs/QxVGcnaVT6A/s400/2008+Athens+GA+copy.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5405313291496209394" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SwOHy_8MM3I/AAAAAAAALRk/6EYDpINY-5E/s1600/2008+ireland.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 274px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SwOHy_8MM3I/AAAAAAAALRk/6EYDpINY-5E/s400/2008+ireland.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5405313288001827698" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SwOR_4cGsfI/AAAAAAAALWE/kr1cWPs9Olc/s1600/2009+siberiancity.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 296px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SwOR_4cGsfI/AAAAAAAALWE/kr1cWPs9Olc/s400/2009+siberiancity.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5405324504442778098" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SwOHyslvOwI/AAAAAAAALRc/el2W4kTdk1I/s1600/2009+california.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SwOHyslvOwI/AAAAAAAALRc/el2W4kTdk1I/s400/2009+california.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5405313282807380738" border="0" /></a>Chuck Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01281880905938442706noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6375089974625029198.post-91878994166570918112009-11-14T16:50:00.000-08:002011-09-05T03:34:32.368-07:001965<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/Sv9SnGvk3OI/AAAAAAAALM0/QskpQ5vPqsU/s1600-h/AustralasianPost_4-15-1965.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 146px; height: 200px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/Sv9SnGvk3OI/AAAAAAAALM0/QskpQ5vPqsU/s200/AustralasianPost_4-15-1965.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5404128909646421218" border="0" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-size:180%;">UFO case in the Everglades, USA 1965</span><br /><br /></span>A famous and well-documented account supported by physical evidence.<br /><a href="http://www.ufologie.net/indexe.htm">UFO Phenomenon at Close Sight</a><br /><br />THE REPORT: On the night of March 15, 1965, James W. Flynn was camping in the Everglades after training some hunting dogs. Shortly after midnight, Flynn saw a britghly lit object descending approximately a mile away. Flynn thought it was a helicopter until he looked at it through binoculars. Thinking it may be some kind of a plane in trouble, or 'some new device from Cape Kennedy' he drove his swamp buggy towards the light, while it was visible through the trees. About a quarter of a mile away, he got out and headed towards the light on foot. As he neared the object, Flynn saw the craft was not a plane, but a large, cone-shaped machine hovering a few feet above the ground.<br /><br />The craft was about 75 feet in diameter at the base and 25-30 feet high. Four rows of ports of windows were visible, with yellow light shining through them. Flynn heard a whirring like 'a diesel generator,' which disturbed one of his dogs 'who was howling in his cage and trying to get out', but could observe no equipment or occupants. After several minutes, Flynn approached the craft, Within 200 yards of the UFO, jumped out of his swamp buggy, stepping into the circle of light and raising his hand as a friendly gesture in case he was being watched. As he did this, the UFO emitted a jet-like noise and a blast of wind that knocked him off-balance. As he continued to approach within a few yards, the UFO emitted a light beam like a welder's torch, striking him on the forehead and knocking him unconscious.<br /><br />Later he told the local newspaper "I felt a blow like a sledgehammer between the eyes, and that's all I know." When he came to hours later, he found himself partially blinded, and a painful bruise was left on his forehead where the light beam had struck. The craft was gone, but there was a charred circular area where it had hovered, and the tops of nearby trees had been burned. Flynn sought aid from an Indian acquaintance who helped him back to Fort Myers. He required medical treatment and had a small dark spot on his forehead. In addition to the painful bruise on his forehead and the effect on his vision, doctors determined Flynn also had an impairment of deep muscle and tendon reflexes, numbness and loss of hearing. During the five days when Flynn was in the hospital, intelligence officers, under the orders of General O’Keefe, phoned him from nearby Homestead AFB. After obtaining a basic report, they informed him they would interview him again when he was released from the hospital.<br /><br />Flynn's doctor found impairment of muscle and tendon reflexes which he believed could not have been faked, and the NICAP investigation concluded that the account of the event was supported by the physical evidence: extensive physical trace evidence was found at the site, including a circular area of burnt sawgrass 72 feet in diameter where the object has been hovering, and burns of the nearby trees.<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">USAF'S POSITION:</span> Unfortunately Flynn's encounter came at a time of maximum difficulty for the Air Force, indeed during a major flap in the locality, and they were doing their best to play down the sighting. Attempts were made to discredit Flynn which backfired when many leading citizens, police officers and doctors vouched for him. The Air Force's suggestion that Flynn may have hoaxed the encounter ignored the remarkable ground and tree traces and his own physical impairments which his doctor believed "could not have been faked".<br /><br />In the end the Air Force settled for the somewhat useless statement that, when questioned, they had nothing on their files concerning the Flynn incident.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">REFERENCES:<br />"Fort Myers", Florida News-Press for March 18, 1965.<br />"Uninvited Guests", book by Richard Hall, Aurora Press, Santa Fe, New Mexico, pp 250-251, 1988.<br />"World Atlas of UFOs", book by John Spencer, Smithmark, 1991.<br />"The UFO Encyclopedia", Volume 1:A-K, by Jerome Clark, Omnigraphics.<br /><br /></span><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white none repeat scroll 0% 50%; text-align: justify; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;"><b><span style=";font-family:Verdana;font-size:9;" ></span></b></p><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Pulsating UFO Lands in Florida Swamp </span></span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">News clip, Republican Journal, Belfast, ME, July 02, 1987, by Glenn Sparks</span><br /><br /> On the night of March 14, 1965, James W. Flynn, who is a rancher and hunting dog trainer, was camped out for the night in the Everglades. Just as he was settling down for the night, his dogs became restive and upset. He looked around expecting visitors, but instead he sighted a bright light silently and slowly descending about a mile away. <br /><br />Thinking that perhaps an airplane had gotten into trouble and gone down, he prepared his swamp buggy for the journey and set out to render aid if needed. He was guided directly to the spot by the glow which continued unabated. This worried Flynn as he expected to find a burning plane and probably injuries or fatalities. He found neither.<br /> <span style="font-weight: bold;">Pulsating Glow</span><br /><br /> When about a quarter mile away, he grounded his swamp buggy and continued on foot. Soon he found himself in a large clearing and he wasn't alone. Some twenty yards away he saw a circular, cone-shaped object with a pulsating glow. It hovered just above the ground with a slightly perceptible wobbling motion. He detected, after a bit of study, a sound he could only describe as a hum. He estimated the size at well over seventy-five feet in diameter and twenty-five to thirty feet thick. There were four rows of ports or windows encircling the craft, each emitting a yellow light unlike the color of the craft's overall glow. A partition immediately behind the windows prevented him from seeing any internal details or occupants. <br /><br />For many minutes Flynn just stood there, amazed. He had heard of such things, but, until now, had never really taken them seriously. Overactive imagination, he'd thought. But this was not imagination. It was real. <br /><br />Curiosity overcame fear. He started to approach the craft to get a better look. He never made it. A pencil thin blue light shot out from "somewhere" on the craft hitting Flynn on the forehead "right between the eyes." He was unconscious before he hit the ground. <br /><br />When he regained consciousness, he was partially blind, sluggish, had a terrific headache and a large, sore bruise on his forehead. The craft was gone. Somehow he got his swamp buggy going and got to his hometown of Ft. Meyers, Florida. He was rushed to a hospital for examination and treatment.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Trees Burned</span><br /><br /> After he told his story, investigators went back to the spot. They found a large circular spot in the clearing where the ground and grass were charred. The tops of some nearby trees were severely burned. The trunks and limbs of some of the trees were scarred. <br /><br />The Air Force, at that time, normally debunked and belittled UFO sightings and the people who reported them out of hand, but in this instance, they did not reckon with Flynn's standing in his community. On this occasion the Air Force had to partially back off. They only took one shot, that I can find, in that they labeled it by innuendo to be a hoax. Question is, how did Flynn fake the charred circle of ground, how did he burn and scar the trees and, most importantly, how did he self-inflict a bruise of such shape and intensity? <br /><br />One final piece of evidence helped exonerate James Flynn. One of his physical injuries was atrophy of internal muscles. Medical science tells us that one can't be faked; period! <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/Sv9TmiXaXBI/AAAAAAAALNU/ogf8Pif4y_E/s1600-h/1965+heflin.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 294px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/Sv9TmiXaXBI/AAAAAAAALNU/ogf8Pif4y_E/s400/1965+heflin.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5404129999393020946" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/Sv9Tmif36fI/AAAAAAAALNM/vmgy2KFmyn8/s1600-h/1965.07.19-sydney,-new-sout.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 301px; height: 400px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/Sv9Tmif36fI/AAAAAAAALNM/vmgy2KFmyn8/s400/1965.07.19-sydney,-new-sout.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5404129999428512242" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/Sv9Tma3XMnI/AAAAAAAALNE/QRjbs5ttZQU/s1600-h/1965+warminster.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 332px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/Sv9Tma3XMnI/AAAAAAAALNE/QRjbs5ttZQU/s400/1965+warminster.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5404129997379547762" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/Sv9TmOo-W6I/AAAAAAAALM8/_iOdUt1NA7A/s1600-h/1965+beaver+PAu6.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 225px; height: 153px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/Sv9TmOo-W6I/AAAAAAAALM8/_iOdUt1NA7A/s400/1965+beaver+PAu6.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5404129994097974178" border="0" /></a><br /><br />It happened, probably exactly as Flynn described it. The trouble is he dosen't (sic) know what it was nor where it came from. So, even today, it's still carried in the annals of the UFO as unexplained! <span style=";font-family:Verdana;font-size:9;" ><span style=""> </span></span>Chuck Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01281880905938442706noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6375089974625029198.post-7145192829578787342009-11-14T16:35:00.000-08:002011-09-05T03:34:32.375-07:00Suffolk Man in UFO Mystery<div style="text-align: right;"><div style="text-align: left; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Published: 11/3/2009<br /><a href="http://www.ufocasebook.com/2009d/suffolkman.html">http://www.ufocasebook.com/2009d/suffolkman.html</a><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/Sv9OJRGlbPI/AAAAAAAALMk/mEqxANfuWBU/s1600-h/UFO51.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 134px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/Sv9OJRGlbPI/AAAAAAAALMk/mEqxANfuWBU/s200/UFO51.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5404123998984695026" border="0" /></a>A FORMER US airman has been left scratching his head after spotting a mysterious red light in the skies above his Suffolk home. David Galvan, of High Street, Wickham Market, was closing the curtains of his living room when he saw the strange glow. The ex-USAF air crew member, who was based at Bentwaters, at Rendlesham, near Woodbridge, spotted the large redish-orange glow on Thursday at 7pm.<br /><br />The 67-year-old, who came to Suffolk in 1979, said: “I was closing the curtains in the living room and I saw a large red light coming from the south/south east. “I told my wife to run out back as it would be coming over the house soon. I joined her and saw the light turn north/north west. It started climbing and then disappeared. There was no sound. “It certainly wasn't an air balloon or anything like that because it was moving too fast. It didn't appear to have any navigational lights on either.” Mr Galvan said it was not the first time he has spotted a red glow in the night sky. “It's the second one I've seen in quite a short space of time,” he said. “I'm beginning to think that these things are military and it's some kind of testing. But it's only an assumption.”<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/Sv9Orvmhl-I/AAAAAAAALMs/kfeLWEwQYkY/s1600-h/new-age-bible-versions.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 140px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/Sv9Orvmhl-I/AAAAAAAALMs/kfeLWEwQYkY/s200/new-age-bible-versions.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5404124591287277538" border="0" /></a>Over the years Suffolk has become a hot spot for UFO enthusiasts who claim to have seen many a mysterious object soaring in the night skies. It includes Britain's most famous close encounter - on December 27, 1980 when strange lights were reported in Rendlesham Forest by American airmen at USAF Woodbridge. Earlier this year the National Archives released military documents of 1,200 UFO sightings between November 1987 and April 1993, many of which were in Suffolk and prompting readers from across the county to get in touch with their stories of mysterious objects in the night sky.</div><p><span style="font-size:100%;color:#fffff0;"> </span></p></div>Chuck Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01281880905938442706noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6375089974625029198.post-19149151228523936562009-11-14T16:23:00.000-08:002011-09-05T03:34:32.382-07:00NASA finds 'significant' water on moon<p><b><a href="http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/space/11/13/water.moon.nasa/index.html">http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/space/11/13/water.moon.nasa/index.html</a><br /></b></p><p><b></b></p>(CNN) -- NASA said Friday it had discovered water on the moon, opening "a new chapter" that could allow for the development of a lunar space station.<p></p> <p>The discovery was announced by project scientist Anthony Colaprete at a midday news conference.</p> <p>"I'm here today to tell you that indeed, yes, we found water. And we didn't find just a little bit; we found a significant amount" -- about a dozen, two-gallon bucketfuls, he said, holding up several white plastic containers.</p><p><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/QOpXMJdZGHc&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/QOpXMJdZGHc&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /></p> <p>The find is based on preliminary data collected when the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, or LCROSS, intentionally crashed October 9 into the permanently shadowed region of Cabeus crater near the moon's south pole.</p> <p>After the satellite struck, a rocket flew through the debris cloud, measuring the amount of water and providing a host of other data, Colaprete said.</p> <p>The project team concentrated on data from the satellite's spectrometers, which provide the best information about the presence of water, Colaprete said. A spectrometer helps identify the composition of materials by examining light they emit or absorb.</p> <!--startclickprintexclude--> <script type="text/javascript"> var currExpandable = "expand1"; var currExpandableHeight = 360; </script> <!--endclickprintexclude--><p> Although the goal of the $79 million mission was to determine whether there is water on the moon, discoveries in other areas are expected as studies progress, Colaprete and other scientists said at the briefing at <a href="http://topics.cnn.com/topics/nasa_ames_research_center" class="cnnInlineTopic">NASA's Ames Research Center</a> at Moffett Field near San Francisco, California.</p> <p>"The discovery opens a new chapter in our understanding of the moon," the space agency said in a written statement shortly after the briefing began.</p> <p>Michael Wargo, chief lunar scientist at NASA headquarters in Washington, said the latest discovery also could unlock the mysteries of the solar system.</p> <p>He listed several options as sources for the water, including solar winds, comets, giant molecular clouds or even the moon itself through some kind of internal activity. The Earth also may have a role, Wargo said.</p> <p> "If the water that was formed or deposited is billions of years old, these polar cold traps could hold a key to the history and evolution of the solar system, much as an ice core sample taken on Earth reveals ancient data," <a href="http://topics.cnn.com/topics/nasa" class="cnnInlineTopic">NASA</a> said in its statement.</p> <p class="cnnInline">"In addition, water and other compounds represent potential resources that could sustain future lunar exploration."</p>Chuck Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01281880905938442706noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6375089974625029198.post-9284157338883224002009-10-17T16:46:00.000-07:002011-09-05T03:34:32.388-07:00UFOs In Cumbria<span style="color: rgb(255, 153, 0);font-size:180%;" ><span style="font-weight: bold;">Famous UFO sightings from the past</span></span> <p class="box_400_article_byline"></p>AThompson <br />Published at 01:00, Tuesday, 16 August 2005<br /><a href="http://www.whitehaven-news.co.uk/home/famous_ufo_sightings_from_the_past_1_578420?referrerPath=home/ufos">http://www.whitehaven-news.co.uk/home/famous_ufo_sightings_from_the_past</a><div class="box_400_article_portrait"> <img title="Photo: N/A, License: N/A" alt="Alien evidence?: Is this a spaceman behind Jim Templeton’s daughter on Burgh Marsh?" src="http://www.whitehaven-news.co.uk/polopoly_fs/alien_evidence_is_this_a_spaceman_behind_jim_templeton_s_daughter_on_burgh_marsh_1_427700%21image/3196328430.jpg_gen/derivatives/halfColumn/3196328430.jpg" /> </div> <p>CUMBRIA was once a hotbed of UFO activity, boasting everything from spacemen and flying saucers to strange flying triangles and visits by mysterious ‘men in black’.</p> <p>Chris Parr, co-ordinator of the Whitehaven-based British Hunters, describes his top four UFO cases in the county – and some of the theories behind them.</p> <p><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Cumberland Spaceman:</span> May 23, 1964: Carlisle fireman Jim Templeton took three pictures with his SLR camera of his daughter on a day trip to Burgh Marsh.</p> <p>The photographs came back from Kodak with one of them showing what appears to be a space-suited humanoid in the background.</p> <p>Chris says: “This case is legendary around the world. Analysts at Kodak confirmed that the photograph was genuine, some UFO experts have linked it to the Blue Streak missile tests which were ongoing nearby when the photograph was taken.“</p> <p><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Coniston UFO</span></p> <p>February 15, 1954: A 13-year-old Ulverston schoolboy, Steven Darbishire, photographed a flying saucer on a hill near the Old Man footpath in Coniston, but it was a fake.</p> <p>Chris says: “This was the ultimate schoolboy prank. The image of a classic flying saucer, resulted in a media frenzy and UFO fascination which Darbishire felt he had to support.”</p><p><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/StpXyqiWBGI/AAAAAAAAKHo/sn3aTjZx8qs/s1600-h/119-3.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 285px; height: 400px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/StpXyqiWBGI/AAAAAAAAKHo/sn3aTjZx8qs/s400/119-3.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5393720031653004386" border="0" /></a></p> <p><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Windermere UFO</span> August 28, 1977: Ten police officers and numerous witnesses observed a huge triangular UFO passing over Windermere over a 20-minute period. Witness John Platt said: “I was looking up into what appeared to be a giant catamaran with twin hulls and a large structure at the front.”</p> <p>Chris’s theory is that it was an airship.</p> <p>He says: “Throughout the 1970s, a large number of Airship UFOs were reported flying over the Cumbrian skies. Sometimes they were as big as a football field.”</p> <p><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Mysterious Flying Triangles</span></p> <p>Throughout the late 1980s, Cumbria was the host to many visitations of the Flying Triangles. Sometimes these craft were described as being black and sleek in design, with the ability to accelerate at great speed.</p> <p>Chris’s theory: Secret Stealth Technology. “The Lockheed F117 Stealth fighter and its delta shape design may have been responsible for the many Black Triangle UFO sightings around the county.”</p>Chuck Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01281880905938442706noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6375089974625029198.post-65891902091944576512009-10-09T21:37:00.001-07:002011-09-05T03:34:32.395-07:001973 - The Pascagoula, Mississippi Abduction<span style="color: rgb(51, 255, 51);font-size:180%;" ><b>October 11, 1973 - The Pascagoula, Mississippi Abduction</b></span><dl><dd><span style="color: rgb(51, 255, 51);font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">From www.rense.com</span></span><br /></dd><dt><br /></dt><dt><img src="http://www.rense.com/1.imagesE/hicksonparkre.jpg" naturalsizeflag="3" align="left" height="207" width="240" /><span style="color: rgb(51, 255, 51);font-size:78%;" >The Pascagoula Incident involved two men, nineteen-year-old Calvin Parker and forty-two-year old Charles Hickson, both of Gautier, Mississippi, who were fishing in the Pascagoula River when they heard a buzzing noise behind them. Both turned and were terrified to see a ten-foot-wide, eight-foot-high, glowing egg-shaped object with blue lights at its front hovering just above the ground about forty feet from the river bank. As the men, frozen with fright, watched, a door appeared in the object, and three strange Beings floated just above the river towards them. </span> </dt><dt style="color: rgb(51, 255, 51);"><br /></dt><dt style="color: rgb(51, 255, 51);"><span style="font-size:78%;">The Beings had legs but did not use them. They were about five feet tall, had bullet-shaped heads without necks, slits for mouths, and where their noses or ears would be, they had thin, conical objects sticking out, like carrots from a snowman's head. They had no eyes, grey, wrinkled skin, round feet, and clawlike hands. </span> </dt><dt style="color: rgb(51, 255, 51);"><br /></dt><dt style="color: rgb(51, 255, 51);"><center><img src="http://www.rense.com/1.imagesE/pasxacreat.jpg" naturalsizeflag="3" align="bottom" height="163" width="199" /></center> </dt><dt style="color: rgb(51, 255, 51);"><br /></dt><dt style="color: rgb(51, 255, 51);"><span style="font-size:78%;">Two of the beings seized Hickson; when the third grabbed Parker, the teenager fainted with fright. Hickson claimed that when the Beings placed their hands under his arms, his body became numb, and that then they floated him into a brightly lit room in the UFO's interior, where he was subjected to a medical examination with an eyelike device which, like Hickson himself, was floating in mid-air. </span> </dt><dt style="color: rgb(51, 255, 51);"><br /></dt><dt style="color: rgb(51, 255, 51);"><span style="font-size:78%;">At the end of the examination, the Beings simply left Hickson floating, paralysed but for his eyes, and went to examine Parker, who, Hickson believed was in another room. Twenty minutes after Hickson had first observed the UFO, he was floated back outside and released. He found Parker weeping and praying on the ground near him. Moments later, the object rose straight up and shot out of site. </span> </dt><dt style="color: rgb(51, 255, 51);"><br /></dt><dt style="color: rgb(51, 255, 51);"><a href="http://www.rense.com/1.imagesE/goldkey_pasc_ufo_cvr.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.rense.com/1.imagesE/goldhey_pascagulasm.gif" naturalsizeflag="3" align="right" border="0" height="153" width="242" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">Expecting only ridicule if they were to tell anyone what had happened, Hickson and Parker initially decided to keep quiet; but then, because the government might want, or ought, to know about it, they telephoned Kessler Air Force Base in Biloxi. A sergeant there told them to contact the sheriff. But uncertain about the reception their bizarre story might get from the local law, they drove to the local newspaper office to speak to a reporter. When they found the office closed, Hickson and Parker felt they had no alternative but to talk to the sheriff.</span> </dt><dt style="color: rgb(51, 255, 51);"><br /></dt><dt style="color: rgb(51, 255, 51);"><img src="http://www.rense.com/1.imagesE/still.gif" naturalsizeflag="3" align="left" height="101" width="233" /><span style="font-size:78%;">The sheriff, after listening to their story, put Hickson and Parker in a room wired for sound in the belief that if the two men were left alone they would reveal their hoax; of course they did not. The local press reported their tale; the wire services picked it up; and within several days the Pascagoula Encounter was major news all over the country. The Aerial Phenomena Research Organisation (APRO), founded in 1952, sent University of California engineering professor James Harder to Mississippi to investigate; J. Allen Hynek, representing the Air Force, also arrived. Together they interviews the witnesses. Harder hypnotised Hickson but had to terminate the session when Hickson became too frightened to continue. </span> </dt><dt style="color: rgb(51, 255, 51);"><br /></dt><dt style="color: rgb(51, 255, 51);"><span style="font-size:78%;">Hickson and Parker both subsequently passed lie detector tests. Hynek and Harder believed the two men's story. And Hynek was later quoted as saying "There was definitely something here that was not terrestrial".</span></dt><dt style="color: rgb(51, 255, 51);"><span style="font-size:78%;"><br />(Source: <i><a href="http://www.nicap.dabsol.co.uk/pascagouladir.htm" target="_blank">http://www.nicap.dabsol.co.uk/pascagouladir.htm</a>. Also see:<br /></i></span><a href="http://www.rense.com/general15/new1973pascagula.htm" target="_blank"><b>New</b> <b>Pascagoula UFO Witness Found - Gives Vivid Interview</b></a><span style="font-size:78%;"><br />Also See: <i><a href="http://www.chez.com/lesovnis/press/clarionledger30oct2002.htm">http://www.chez.com/lesovnis/press/clarionledger30oct2002.htm </a></i>)</span></dt></dl><div style="text-align: center;"><object style="color: rgb(51, 255, 51);" height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/q0TSZePK3Zg&hl=en&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/q0TSZePK3Zg&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" height="344" width="425"></embed></object><br /></div><p><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-weight: bold;">FROM WIKIPEDIA: </span></span> It is important to note that Pascagoula, Mississippi qualifies as a UFO hotspot with its historical significance, recorded sightings, and military presence. There has been a number of recorded cases of UFO encounters including a USO (unidentified submerged object) that involved the US Coast Guard. On the evening of October 11, 1973, 42-year-old Charles Hickson and 19-year-old Calvin Parker — co-workers at a shipyard — were fishing off a pier on the west bank of the Pascagoula River in Mississippi. While fishing at the abandoned shipyard, they heard a whirring/whizzing sound, saw flashing blue lights, and reported that a domed, football-shaped aircraft, some 100 feet across, suddenly appeared near them. The ship seemed to levitate about 14 inches above the ground.</p> <p><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfEhv9ENJf4m2KGIZ_ZG5Y6Q6490AaeBB0mMMB9X34VqqvikbXuDJqvasd2nPlY_UxwF3b02qj4nReIA13tQ4QTDe9uqZGCa5cJHt6AdS4jPHfXbxPKVuKkZDjSgeg7c9Xfd418MGdVmU/s1600-h/ufo0001-small.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 119px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfEhv9ENJf4m2KGIZ_ZG5Y6Q6490AaeBB0mMMB9X34VqqvikbXuDJqvasd2nPlY_UxwF3b02qj4nReIA13tQ4QTDe9uqZGCa5cJHt6AdS4jPHfXbxPKVuKkZDjSgeg7c9Xfd418MGdVmU/s200/ufo0001-small.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5391143651616659698" border="0" /></a>A door opened on the ship, they said, and three creatures emerged and seized the men, floating or levitating them into the craft. Both men reported being paralyzed and numb. Parker fainted due to fright. They described the creatures as being roughly humanoid in shape, and standing about five feet tall. The creatures' skin was gray and wrinkled, and they had no eyes or mouths that the men could discern. There were three "carrot-like" growths instead - one where the nose would be on a human, the other two where ears would normally be. The beings had lobster-like claws at the ends of their arms, and they seemed to have only one leg (Hickson later described the creatures' lower bodies looking as if their legs were fused together).</p> <p>On the ship, Hickson claimed that he was somehow levitated or hovered a few feet above the floor of the craft, and was examined by a mechanical eye that seemed to scan his body. Parker could not recall what had happened to him inside the craft, although later, during sessions of hypnotic regression he offered some hazy details. The men were released after about 20 minutes and the creatures levitated them back to their original position on the river bank.</p> <h2><span class="editsection"></span><span class="mw-headline" id="Hickson_and_Parker_contact_police">Hickson and Parker contact police</span></h2> <p></p><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/StEwy14bQXI/AAAAAAAAJzA/Roe_GeRWcQ8/s1600-h/pascagoula03.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 126px; height: 266px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/StEwy14bQXI/AAAAAAAAJzA/Roe_GeRWcQ8/s320/pascagoula03.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5391143878954533234" border="0" /></a>Both men said they were terrified by what had happened. They claimed to have sat in a car for about 45 minutes, trying to calm themselves. Hickson drank some whiskey. After some discussion, they tried to report their story to officials at Keesler Air Force Base, but personnel told them the United States Air Force had nothing to do with UFO reports (Project Blue Book had been discontinued about four years before), and suggested the men notify police. At about 10:30 p.m., Hickson and Parker arrived at the Jackson County, Mississippi Sheriff's office. They brought the catfish they'd caught while fishing; it was the only proof they had to back up their story. Sheriff Fred Diamond thought the men seemed sincere and genuinely frightened and he thought Parker was especially disturbed. Diamond harbored some doubt about the fantastic story, however, due in part to Hickson's admitted whiskey consumption.<p></p> <h3><span class="editsection"></span><span class="mw-headline" id="The_.22Secret_Tape.22">The "Secret Tape"</span></h3> <p></p>Diamond interviewed the men, who related their story. After repeated questioning, Diamond left the two men alone in a room that was, unknown to Hickson or Parker, rigged with a hidden microphone. As Jerome Clark, writes, "Sheriff Diamond assumed that if they were lying, that fact would become immediately apparent when the two spoke privately. Instead, they continued to talk in the voices of the terribly distressed." (Clark, 447) This so-called "secret tape" was held on file at the Jackson County Sheriff's department, and has since earned wider circulation amongst UFO researchers and enthusiasts.[1] Parker, who seemed particularly shaken, spoke repeatedly of his wish to see a doctor. A partial transcript of their interrogation and of the "secret tape" is available[2]; immediately below is part of the conversation on the "secret tape", as transcribed by NICAP:<p></p> <dl><dd><b>CALVIN:</b> I got to get home and get to bed or get some nerve pills or see the doctor or something. I can't stand it. I'm about to go half crazy.</dd></dl> <dl><dd><b>CHARLIE:</b> I tell you, when we through, I'll get you something to settle you down so you can get some damn sleep.</dd></dl> <dl><dd><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYXzkPfdBz_7P5MSlJP6XmE7_SxN0GsTril3Nf1IZ1yXdC2wHJLtSItAv8Vgz7KT19Le91H1D5nSmwXrbPAJCy1I6-i2C3gtNW3pGylrAjGia1GYKNY5hqwPn5bUi35_gbteBvdmkZdmI/s1600-h/graeber4208.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 233px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYXzkPfdBz_7P5MSlJP6XmE7_SxN0GsTril3Nf1IZ1yXdC2wHJLtSItAv8Vgz7KT19Le91H1D5nSmwXrbPAJCy1I6-i2C3gtNW3pGylrAjGia1GYKNY5hqwPn5bUi35_gbteBvdmkZdmI/s400/graeber4208.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5391162126606417842" border="0" /></a><b>CALVIN:</b> I can't sleep yet like it is. I'm just damn near crazy.</dd></dl> <dl><dd><b>CHARLIE:</b> Well, Calvin, when they brought you out-when they brought me out of that thing, goddamn it I like to never in hell got you straightened out.</dd></dl> <dl><dd>His voice rising, Calvin said, "My damn arms, my arms, I remember they just froze up and I couldn't move. Just like I stepped on a damn <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rattlesnake" title="Rattlesnake">rattlesnake</a>." [sic]</dd></dl> <dl><dd>"They didn't do me that way", sighed Charlie.</dd></dl> <dl><dd>Now both men were talking as if to themselves.</dd></dl> <dl><dd><b>CALVIN:</b> I passed out. I expect I never passed out in my whole life.</dd></dl> <dl><dd><b>CHARLIE:</b> I've never seen nothin' like that before in my life. You can't make people believe-</dd></dl> <dl><dd><b>CALVIN:</b> I don't want to keep sittin' here. I want to see a doctor-</dd></dl> <dl><dd><b>CHARLIE:</b> They better wake up and start believin'... they better start believin'.</dd></dl> <dl><dd><b>CALVIN:</b> You see how that damn door come right up?</dd></dl> <dl><dd><b>CHARLIE:</b> I don't know how it opened, son. I don't know.</dd></dl> <dl><dd><b>CALVIN:</b> It just laid up and just like that those son' bitches-just like that they come out.</dd></dl> <dl><dd><b>CHARLIE:</b> I know. You can't believe it. You can't make people believe it-</dd></dl> <dl><dd><b>CALVIN:</b> I paralyzed right then. I couldn't move-</dd></dl> <dl><dd><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwUcuY8hDfPr4TnN7_7ptYduZ8eBAJzaVmrEBu4ZjlD1I5eLP1GcVh0oxOPon4XNG96iOzzfdiD2AAFfmiPjXNU_GDBH5ZRe4fz-bzZ_MEcIuW5x1V3ppTpn8lKkcZOJLjyxhTnsKqOzQ/s1600-h/3_et.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 250px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwUcuY8hDfPr4TnN7_7ptYduZ8eBAJzaVmrEBu4ZjlD1I5eLP1GcVh0oxOPon4XNG96iOzzfdiD2AAFfmiPjXNU_GDBH5ZRe4fz-bzZ_MEcIuW5x1V3ppTpn8lKkcZOJLjyxhTnsKqOzQ/s320/3_et.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5391161510032685426" border="0" /></a><b>CHARLIE:</b> They won't believe it. They gonna believe it one of these days. Might be too late. I knew all along they was people from other worlds up there. I knew all along. I never thought it would happen to me.</dd></dl> <dl><dd><b>CALVIN:</b> You know yourself I don't drink</dd></dl> <dl><dd><b>CHARLIE:</b> I know that, son. When I get to the house I'm gonna get me another drink, make me sleep. Look, what we sittin' around for. I gotta go tell Blanche... what we waitin' for?</dd></dl> <dl><dd><b>CALVIN (panicky):</b> I gotta go to the house. I'm gettin' sick. I gotta get out of here.</dd></dl> <dl><dd>Then Charlie got up and left the room, and Calvin was alone.</dd></dl> <dl><dd><b>CALVIN:</b> It's hard to believe . . . Oh God, it's awful... I know there's a God up there...</dd></dl> <p>Seeing that the police were skeptical of their story, Hickson and Parker insisted that they take lie detector tests to prove their honesty.</p> <h2><span class="editsection"></span><span class="mw-headline" id="Publicity">Publicity</span></h2> <p>Hickson and Parker returned to work the day after the encounter (Friday, October 12). They did not initially discuss their purported UFO encounter, but coworkers noted that Parker seemed very anxious and preoccupied. Within hours, Sheriff Diamond telephoned the men at work, stating that news reporters were swarming in his office, seeking more information about the UFO story. An angry Hickson accused Diamond of breaking his confidentiality pledge, but Diamond insisted he had not done so, and that the case was too sensational to keep quiet.</p> <p><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWeSglVVDZjPXMxyaaZ-Qm0qmb82eNeXV-5CsTrKc7eUmE5PodxIwhzdBl1WyYos7WeV-KzAd7GZA_WAmT_WcDPuLKHj_dLbfWKCVGG_GG8NA6Yby3-9Vz1rxpnTvhdIG00glLTfQhBuM/s1600-h/3300-alien-info.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 244px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWeSglVVDZjPXMxyaaZ-Qm0qmb82eNeXV-5CsTrKc7eUmE5PodxIwhzdBl1WyYos7WeV-KzAd7GZA_WAmT_WcDPuLKHj_dLbfWKCVGG_GG8NA6Yby3-9Vz1rxpnTvhdIG00glLTfQhBuM/s400/3300-alien-info.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5391144415548541042" border="0" /></a>Hickson's foreman overheard the Hickson's side of the conversation, and asked what had occurred. Hickson related his story to the foreman and to shipyard owner Johnny Walker. After hearing the tale, Walker suggested that Hickson and Parker contact Joe Colingo, a locally prominent attorney (who was Walker's brother-in-law and also represented the shipyard).</p> <p></p><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQ21MuzYrqdLlEVFVCQpro2PzD_ESTH4T3DAOqidOrP3nqNAXQfM0lWvCvqSQvefQEzCp-hhM5oMA1YuLuWlrsKx5xIhQH7GB4A8t0rrXc8mvYg9fExTW9m77uNkYWpRTFY1iamVgt1Hg/s1600-h/lens2206170_1229463839Charles-Hickson-and-Calvin-Parker-TV-1973.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 165px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQ21MuzYrqdLlEVFVCQpro2PzD_ESTH4T3DAOqidOrP3nqNAXQfM0lWvCvqSQvefQEzCp-hhM5oMA1YuLuWlrsKx5xIhQH7GB4A8t0rrXc8mvYg9fExTW9m77uNkYWpRTFY1iamVgt1Hg/s320/lens2206170_1229463839Charles-Hickson-and-Calvin-Parker-TV-1973.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5391144115449071378" border="0" /></a>Colingo met the men, and, during their conversation, Hickson expressed fears about having been exposed to radiation. Colingo and detective Tom Huntley then took Parker and Hickson to a local hospital, which lacked the facilities for a radiation test. (Clark's book does not make clear if Huntley is a police detective or a private detective.) From the hospital, the men went to Keesler Air Force Base, where they were examined extensively by several doctors. Afterward, reported Huntley, Parker and Hickson were interviewed by the military intelligence chief of the base, with the "whole base command" observing the proceedings. (Clark, 448)<p></p> <p>Colingo drew up a contract to represent Hickson and Parker. However, nothing came of this, and Hickson would later have nothing to do with Colingo, charging the lawyer with base financial motivations: Colingo, said Hickson, "just wanted to make a buck." (Clark, 449)</p> <p></p>Within days, Pascagoula was the center of an international news story, with reporters swarming the town. Professor James A. Harder (a U.C. Berkeley engineering professor and APRO member) and Dr. J. Allen Hynek (an astronomer formerly with Project Blue Book) both arrived and interviewed Parker and Hickson. Harder tried to hypnotize the men, but they were too anxious and distracted for the procedure to work--Parker especially so. Hynek withheld ultimate judgment on the case, but did announce that, in his judgment, Hickson and Parker were honest men who seemed genuinely distressed about what had occurred. Tiring of the publicity, Hickson and Parker went to Jones County, Mississippi (about 150 miles north of Pascagoula), where both men hoped to find relief with family members. Parker was eventually hospitalized for what Clark describes as "an emotional breakdown." (Clark, 449)<p></p> <p>In an interview several years after the claimed UFO event, Hickson speculated that Parker fared worse after the encounter because he had never previously experienced a profoundly frightening ordeal. While Hickson described the UFO encounter as the most terrifying event in his life, he also noted that he had seen combat in the Korean War, and that he thus had some familiarity with a terrifying experience. The younger Parker, on the other hand, had never suffered through a terrifying encounter, let alone a bizarre confrontation with something that was not even supposed to exist.</p> <h2><span class="editsection"></span><span style="color: rgb(51, 204, 255);" class="mw-headline" id="Polygraph">Polygraph</span></h2> <p></p>As noted above, both Parker and Hickson volunteered to take polygraph exams to prove their stories. In the end, only Hickson did so, and the examiner determined that Hickson believed the story about the UFO abduction. Aviation journalist and UFO skeptic Philip J. Klass argued that there was reason to question the reliability of Hickson's lie detector exam, writing,<p></p> <dl><dd>The polygraph test was given to Hickson by a young operator, just out of school, who had not completed his formal training, who had not been certified by his own school and who had not taken a state licensing examination. Furthermore, that the lawyer for Hickson and Parker - who also was acting as their "booking agent" - had turned down the chance to have his clients tested WITHOUT CHARGE by the very experienced Capt. Charles Wimberly, chief polygraph operator from the nearby Mobile Police Dept. Also, that the lawyer did not contact other experienced polygraph operators close to Pascagoula. Instead, the lawyer had imported from New Orleans - more than 100 miles away - the young, inexperienced, uncertified, unlicensed operator who, by a curious coincidence, worked for a friend of the lawyer! {<a href="http://www.mimufon.org/1970%20articles/JAllenHynek_Pied_Piper.htm" class="external autonumber" rel="nofollow">[1]</a>; emphasis in original)</dd></dl> <p>Subsequent investigation by Joe Esterhas of Rolling Stone uncovered some additional information, leading to much skepticism about the abduction claim. The supposed UFO landing and abduction site was in full view of two twenty-four hour toll booths, and neither operator saw anything that night. Also, the site was in range of security cameras from nearby Ingalls Shipyard, and the cameras additionally showed nothing that night. </p> <div class="thumb tright"> <div class="thumbinner" style="width: 432px;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mississippi-Coast-towns-NOAA.jpg" class="image"><img alt="" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/57/Mississippi-Coast-towns-NOAA.jpg/430px-Mississippi-Coast-towns-NOAA.jpg" class="thumbimage" height="219" width="430" /></a> <div class="thumbcaption"> <div class="magnify"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mississippi-Coast-towns-NOAA.jpg" class="internal" title="Enlarge"><br /></a></div></div></div></div><span style="font-style: italic;"> Map showing coastal route US 90, connecting Pascagoula with Ocean Springs, Mississippi.</span><br /><br />Parker has avoided most public attention since the event. Hickson appeared on Dick Cavett's talk show in January 1974, and speaks at occasional UFO conferences; he has co-written a book about the event with William Mendez titled UFO Contact at Pascagoula (1983, reprinted 1987). In 2001, retired navy chief petty officer Mike Cataldo revealed that he observed an unusual craft at dusk on the same date. While travelling with crew mates Ted Peralta and Mack Hanna on U.S. Route 90 from Pascagoula to Ocean Springs, an object like a large tambourine with small flashing lights approached from the northwest and crossed the freeway, before hovering over the treeline and disappearing. As he approached his home in St Andrews, Ocean Springs, the craft made a second appearance at lower altitude.<br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 255, 51);font-size:130%;" > <span style="font-weight: bold;">FROM UFOs At Close Sight:</span></span><br />http://ufologie.net/htm/pascagoula.htm<br /><p></p>On October 10, 1973, fifteen different people, including two policemen reported seeing a large, silver UFO slowly fly over a housing project in St. Tammany Parish, New Orleans, Louisiana. This was just one more UFO sighting, except that on the next day another event would reach national attention, ninety miles to the East. Mr. Charles Hickson, age 45, was raised on a farm, graduated from high school and attended junior college. He became interested in carpenter work and then cabinet making. He spent 8 years or probably more as a ship builder and ship fitter, working eventually as a supervisor. He is also a certified welder and burner. He was married and has three children and one step-child. On the night of October 11, 1973 he went fishing with 18 years old Calvin Parker, also from the town of Gautier, Mississippi, from a pier at Shaupeter Shipyard. The place was an abandoned shipyard along the Pascagoula River, at the South Eastern tip of Mississippi. The two men intended to test some new fishing equipment, but had little success and were about to look for better place. It was 7:00pm and the night was dark, when they first had their attention caught by a "loud zipping sound" coming from behind them. They turned around to see the source of the sound, and were amazed and also terrified to see a gray domed football shaped or egg-shaped object surrounded by a blue gloom hovering towards them. The object was estimated to have 30 to 40 feet of length, 8 to 10 feet high, "the size of a big truck" but "without any bolts, as if made in one piece." It had two windows and two blue lights at its fronts. It hovered just a few feet above the ground about forty feet from the river bank, on a junkyard covered with dismantled car carcasses. As they watched, a hatchway opened, or appeared, and a brilliant light poured out. Moments later three strange entities floated out just above the water and straight to the men.<br /><br /><p>Though the beings had legs, they did not move them, they simply floated across the river with their legs stuck together. Later exaggerations from the media have stated that the beings had only one leg, but the witness did not state this. </p> Parker and Hickson described the beings as: <blockquote>"...about five feet tall, had bullet-shaped heads without necks, slits for mouths, and where their noses or ears would be, they had thin, conical objects sticking out, like carrots from a snowman's head. They had no eyes, grey, wrinkled skin, round feet, and claw-like hands."</blockquote> <p>Hickson made this statement also: </p><blockquote>"They didn't have clothes. But they had feet shape... it was more or less a round like thing on a leg, if you'd call it a leg... Ghostlike and pale with wrinkled skin, and conical projections where nose and ears would normally be... Calvin done went hysterical on me."</blockquote>And Hickson later gave this more detailed description: <blockquote>"Their heads came directly to the shoulders, they had no neck, and their noses came out to a point about 2 inches long. For ears they had something similar to the nose. The mouth was just a slit. The arms looked like human arms but long compared to body proportions. The hands were like mittens, and there was a thumb (Hickson also compared the hands to claws, a little bit like crab claws, and exaggeration and confusions by the media transformed the claws in robotic claws). The legs remained together and the feet looked like elephant feet. The entire body was wrinkled, and Hickson stated that they could have had eyes but he could not tell because of the wrinkly skin. The beings were a little over 5 feet tall."</blockquote> <p></p><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/StFB0GT10EI/AAAAAAAAJ0o/qCdOnfLmwDA/s1600-h/oct11ufo.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 220px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/StFB0GT10EI/AAAAAAAAJ0o/qCdOnfLmwDA/s320/oct11ufo.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5391162592242028610" border="0" /></a>Hickson also indicated that the "mouths" of the creature did not move even when they seemed to communicate together with buzzing sounds. The three beings approached the men at a stunning speed, two of them grabbed Hickson and he felt a stinging sensation in his left arm. When they put their arms under both sides of his body to support him he felt paralyzed and numb. He lost all feeling, including that of weight, and quickly fainted, when the two entities carried him inside the ship. Before fainting he could see the third one grabbing Parker, and the teenager also fainting with fright brought towards the object.<p> </p><p></p>He was floated to a bare, brightly-lit room in the UFO's interior. He could not see where the light came from. He still could not move, although he remained conscious. The entities placed him in a 45 degrees reclining position, still "floating” in air, and an instrument that resembled a "big eye" appeared from the UFO's wall, floated in mid-air towards to 6 inches in front of Hickson's face and scanned back and forth across his body with thoroughness, as if it were examining or photographing him. The beings turned his body from side to side several times, as if to make sure that the scanning eye can "photograph" his body entirely. The "eye" then disappeared again in the wall, where it could not be seen anymore.<p> </p><p>At this point Hickson could not see the beings who he thought was behind him, he could not get his mouth to function. Hickson was left floating, while the beings left the room, probably to examine Parker. </p><p></p>This episode lasted somewhere between 15 and 40 minutes, Hickson is not at all sure about the time. Hickson was quite convinced that they went to some other room to examine Parker. Then the beings entered Hickson's line of vision again. Two of them dragged Hickson back out of the object, with his feet dragging on the ground, to where they had picked him up on the river bank and let him fall carelessly on the ground: his legs gave out and he fell. Looking up Hickson saw Parker, who was standing motionless with his arms outstretched, as if in shock. Parker who had lapsed in and out of consciences, remembered being taken toward the ship, hearing a whistling noise and a click, then seeing the interior lights just before he was floated outside. He was left standing not being able to move, and looking out onto the river.<p> </p><p></p>Hickson crawled towards Parker, who was weeping and seemed very shocked, but then he realised that he could stand. Hickson heard the "zipping sound" again and turned to see the blue flashing lights that first caught his attention. He saw the object shoot upwards and vanish at about 50 feet "in less than a second." Hickson and Parker sat in a car for the next 45 minutes calming their shattered nerves, trying to decide what to do next. Hickson drank whiskey during this conversation in the car. As the two men began to regain their composure, they were uncertain as to what they should do. Reluctant to report their harrowing experience, they felt obligated to tell someone: they were truly convinced that the government might want, or ought, to know about what they understood as a state of the art lien invasion of our planet. Parker suggested they contact the military. So despite fearing ridicule, Hickson located a pay phone and called Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, 30 miles west of Pascagoula. A sergeant there told him that the Airforce did not handle UFO reports, and advised them to report their problem to their local sheriff's office. Afraid of what reaction they might get from law enforcement, they opted instead to drive to their local newspaper the Mississippi Press Register. Parker who was driving got out and explained to Hickson that there was a clock in the building and he wanted to know what time it was. Finding the office closed, they decided to take their bizarre story to the sheriff after all. They called the Jackson County Sheriff's Office, led by Fred Diamond, where the deputy Captain Ryder, who took the call urged them to come in to the station and talk in person as he realised something important had happened because of the alarmed tone of their voices. They were interrogated exhaustively.<br />As the men were still in the Sheriff's office, a former pilot called and stated he saw a UFO at about 08:00pm near the Pascagoula River. A city former city counsellor and several other people also reported later to report their sighting.<p> </p><p>Three different people have phoned the Sheriff's office to report their observation of a strange blue light in the area where the two men were abducted. These people remained anonymous, they were driving on the Interstate 90 a few hundred yards from the abduction's location that night. </p><p></p><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/StE9d-M39PI/AAAAAAAAJzw/9dIBwlkOtz8/s1600-h/pascagoula02.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 113px; height: 114px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/StE9d-M39PI/AAAAAAAAJzw/9dIBwlkOtz8/s400/pascagoula02.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5391157814061692146" border="0" /></a>28 years later a witness comes forward, according to the newspaper "Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal" of October 21, 2001. It even seems reasonable to think that this witness is one of the three people in the car on Route 90 as mentioned above, this time the witness gave his name. Two days after the events, a meteorologist of Columbia reported that he had a strange radar echo the same day: He first thought it was a plane, but started to winder about that when the echo remains stationary and his radar was completely jammed moments later.<p> </p><p>There has been another possible independent confirmation: at 9:00pm after watching TV, Larry Booth of Pascagoula got up to check the front door prior to going to bed. He noticed a huge object with red revolving lights hovering 8-10 feet over the street lamp. He thought it was an experimental craft run out of the local military base. </p><p>Five days after the Pascagoula abduction, a man reported to police that he was driving on Interstate 10 between Mobile, Alabama and Pensacola, Florida, just about sixty or seventy miles east of Pascagoula, when his pickup truck was attacked by an object from the sky and sucked inside a UFO where he was examined by six small entities. </p><p></p><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/StExgBoJNYI/AAAAAAAAJzY/T1ezfFrW0nA/s1600-h/430px-Mississippi-Coast-towns-NOAA.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 204px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/StExgBoJNYI/AAAAAAAAJzY/T1ezfFrW0nA/s400/430px-Mississippi-Coast-towns-NOAA.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5391144655201580418" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/StE95KkynmI/AAAAAAAAJ0A/HZDDOPnw5I0/s1600-h/pascagoulamain.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/StE95KkynmI/AAAAAAAAJ0A/HZDDOPnw5I0/s320/pascagoulamain.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5391158281239699042" border="0" /></a>Just a few weeks after Parker and Hickson's experience, fishermen and coast guardsmen reportedly played "hide and seek" with some sort of underwater metallic object with an amber light on it at the mouth of the Pascagoula River. They tried to poke the object; which was close enough to touch with a boat hook, but it would turn off its light, move away to a safe distance, and then turn on the light again. It disappeared after about forty minutes. The US Navy studied the case without reaching a clear conclusion of finding a clear explanation. Also subsequently, ancient Indian tales from an old 17th century explorer journal were mentioned: spirits of Pascagoula Indians who drowned in the river sere supposed to be heard singing and walking on the water, they were supposed to be those of a group of Indians led by a river goddess who was angry with the conversion of the tribe to christianity in the 16th century. She made the whole tribe march into the river and drown themselves, singing all the while.<br /><br /><p><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/StE9okIMGYI/AAAAAAAAJz4/02NMFIpXDJY/s1600-h/pascagoula05.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 113px; height: 300px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/StE9okIMGYI/AAAAAAAAJz4/02NMFIpXDJY/s400/pascagoula05.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5391157996041279874" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">The two men</span></span> showed up at the Sheriff's desk at 10:30pm. They brought with them two catfish, apparently to prove as much of the story as they could, which was that they had been fishing earlier in the evening. Hearing that one of the men was drinking, Sheriff Fred Diamond ordered his deputies to administer breath analysis tests. Quite naturally the sheriff who first heard the witnesses story felt it was some kind of hoax, and to get to the truth, he put Hickson and Parker into a room which was wired for sound, hoping that they would slip up, and reveal why they were perpetuating such a strange tale. The recording of their conversation at that time reveals that both men were quite frightened by their experience, the emotional trauma having been so great to Parker that, after Hickson left the room, he began to pray. Ultimately he suffered a nervous breakdown as a result of this experience. </p><p>Deputy Sheriff Captain Ryder stated: "after I heard the tape, I believed them. If they lied, they should become Hollywood actors, because they then are stunning comedians." On the tape, Hickson was crying "Oh my God what has happened to me? I never saw anything like that in my entire life ... I am going insane... Why does this happen to me? I was in the war and I have never been so frightened!" </p><p>Two hours of grilling followed, but Hickson and Parker stuck to their story, saying they both wanted to take a polygraph test. They also insisted that they wanted no publicity. Parker who was trembling, barely coherent, seemed extremely shaken by the interrogation. </p><p>Hickson said that he felt the beings were acting "like robots", performing actions on them that were precisely programmed. He felt that the creature had no intention to make them suffer, but he was afraid that they were going to take them away. He was convinced that he experienced the prelude of a full scale alien invasion of the planet and that the creatures were going to return or continue to observe the planet and study its people. </p><p>Hickson, though plagued with nightmares, and continuing feelings of terror about the experience, came through it better, and was able to work with investigators who wished to ascertain the truth about his experience. A 2 1/2 hour lie detector test, given by a highly <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/StFBnkCA7mI/AAAAAAAAJ0g/N9x3RTuhb-M/s1600-h/pascagoula06.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 113px; height: 314px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/StFBnkCA7mI/AAAAAAAAJ0g/N9x3RTuhb-M/s400/pascagoula06.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5391162376882024034" border="0" /></a>skeptical polygraph operator, revealed that Hickson was telling the truth. Later, debunker Philip Klass said the operator of the lie detector was not certified and had not completed his training. A notable point to credit to Philip Klass is that the test lasted only half an hour when nowadays this kind of test last at least a whole day. But Klass overlooks the fact that it is the two men that willingly insisted to pass such as test, and that as popular belief was, they were persuaded that lie detector tests really do work and can establish truth or lie. They had no reason to envisage an inexperienced manipulator or an unreliable test protocol. </p><p>Hickson and Parker went to work the next day. While at work they got a phone call from the Sheriff's Office, telling them to come down to the station because the place was crawling with reporters. Hickson asked the sheriff about his promise not to leak the story. The sheriff replied he didn't leak the story but someone in his dept. must have. While on the phone with the sheriff, Hickson's foreman, Johnny Walker, overheard the phone conversation and told Hickson to get a lawyer because he may get some money for his story. Walker took the liberty of contacting the company lawyer who also was his brother in law an attorney by the name of Joe Colingo. Colingo arrived to accompany his new clients to the sheriffs office. Sheriff Diamond told Colingo that his department did not have a polygraph machine. Meanwhile Hickson was concerned that himself and Parker might have gotten radiation poisoning from the object. They were taken by Colingo and Detective Tom Huntley to the hospital, where they were informed that the hospital did not have the equipment to test for radiation exposure. </p><p>Detective Huntley then contacted Keesler, and the group headed off to the Air Base where a group of doctors under security conditions examined Hickson and Parker. Their medical report indicates that both men were in a severe state of mental stress, due to a traumatic experience, and that the men's report is probably correct, and that no radiation exposure was found. Then the two were interrogated by the entire Base Command about the encounter. Later on that same afternoon Hickson, Parker, and Parkers father met Colingo in his office and drew up a contract. Debunkers later claimed this fact is proof that the story was a hoax, but to the contrary Hickson soon after fired Colingo for the reason the lawyer was only in on this to win some money, and they both did not approved. </p><p>The Aerial Phenomena Research Organisation (APRO), founded in 1952, sent University of California engineering professor James Harder to Mississippi to investigate; J. Allen Hynek, who just resigned from his UFO consultant job for the Air Force because he did not want to lie to the public about UFOs anymore, also arrived. Together they interviewed the witnesses. Then Harder used the controversial technique of time regression hypnosis on Hickson, but he had to terminate the session when Hickson became too frightened to continue. He too felt that Hickson was telling the truth about the experience, he said "a strong feeling of terror is practically impossible to fake under hypnosis." Both Hynek and Harder believed the two men's story. And Hynek was later quoted as saying "There was definitely something here that was not terrestrial". </p><p>The next day Pascagoula was swarming with reporters, and Within 36 hours two scientists had flown in separately. One was James A Harder, a professor of engineering at the University of California Berkeley. Harder was also a consultant for Aerial Phenomena Research Organisation (APRO). The other was J. Allen Hynek, Northwestern University astronomer for 20 years (until 1969) the principle scientific consultant to the Air Force's Project Blue Book. They first both interviewed the men, later Harder would try to hypnotize the two, who were to shaken and distracted for the procedure to work. They had to interrupt the seance with Hickson because he showed an unbearable terror. Harder, a highly experimenter hypnotist, stated "I believe their story because of the absolute panic they showed during hypnotic regression. It is impossible that they could fake such a terror during hypnosis." All who dealt with Hickson and Parker in the aftermath of the encounter believed that the two men were in fact telling what they believed to be the truth. Before J. Allen Hynek left the next day, he told the press that the men were "absolutely honest... They have had a fantastic experience." At a later date, Hynek stated; "There was definitely something here that was not terrestrial".</p><br /><p>In 1976, three years later, Dr. Bast of the Harvard Hospital of Detroit conducted further psychological tests with both men. He concluded that neither of them suffers from any psychotic behaviour, hysteria or brain damage. He could not find any evidence of a twin-madness syndrome, a behaviour in which a subject of madness can exert some contamination on another person. </p><p></p>Subsequent investigation by Joe Eszterhas of Rolling Stone uncovered some additional information. The UFO landing site was in full view of two twenty-four hour toll booths, and neither operator saw anything. Also, the site was in range of security cameras from nearby Ingalls Shipyard, and the cameras showed nothing that night. But serious doubts can be cast on this late investigation: for example, it is also claimed that motorists from the nearby highway should have seen the blue light in the night and did not. This is plainly wrong, and Sherrif Diamond did respond to that, his office actually received three unnamed reports of motorists who did see the blue light where the two men were abducted, a few hundred yards from the highway. When I looked for information about reporter Joe Eszterhas, I first found these comments about him: "You all remember Joe Eszterhas, don't you? Child of poor Hungarian immigrants in Cleveland, '60s radical, former gonzo reporter for Rolling Stone, National Book Award nominee and once the highest-paid screenwriter in Hollywood." (1) Not quite a qualified ufologist profile. The case was all but closed Charles Hickson. Years after, he explained that he was still in contact with aliens beings. His son Eddie, at the age of 36, explained that Charles Hickson had a flat object, gray, the size of a coin, which warmed up before he received telepathic messages. Hickson continued to undergo psychological testing as he had experienced at least two serious mental crises. He had the opportunity to undergo hypnotic regressions again, this time new images went up to the surface: apparently, there were beings which seemed human, behind a glass pane in the craft, they passively looked at the three strange creatures which scanned Hickson. It is at this point that he interpreted the three strange beings as sorts of robots, directed by the human like creatures who would have been the real occupants of the craft. But the investigations at this time were very discrete, Hickson did not reach for media attention and it seems difficult to make all the light on these after-effects. He told his whole experience in a book, and participated as speaker in a ufology congress in his area. He explained: " I know that these strange things are and I do not expect to be believed, but I hope that one day people will believe in it." Eddie Hickson never thought that his father was insane. He testifies that his father did often refuse substantial amounts of money over the years, because he was afraid that if he accepted money, nobody would believe him anymore. "I know deep in my heart and in my intelligence that daddy did not make it up."<p> </p><h2 style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">DISCUSSION:</h2> <p><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/StEx70I6VBI/AAAAAAAAJzo/ONsZB97gFUE/s1600-h/51UzDOV5WZL._SL500_AA240_.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 240px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/StEx70I6VBI/AAAAAAAAJzo/ONsZB97gFUE/s320/51UzDOV5WZL._SL500_AA240_.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5391145132617258002" border="0" /></a>The Pascagoula case is presented in many skeptics book as a definite hoax. The explanation is mainly based on the fact that there were other people in that area near to the Pascagoula River at the abduction time but no one else saw or heard anything unusual and it is proposed that if there was really such an object with a bright light, more people than only Hickson and Parker would have seen it. </p><p>Dr. Robert O'Connell, an LSU astrophysicist, disagreed with Hynek. "There's probably some mundane explanation for the ones right now and for probably any UFOs," he said. O'Connell said he was skeptical of most UFO reports, especially the Pascagoula case. "I don't necessarily dispute what they're saying," he said. "It could be a hoax. The hoax could be on two levels: the people themselves or somebody else carrying out a hoax. "This (kind of UFO reports) is notorious for hoaxes." The argument here is that because there are UFO hoaxes of "this kind," the Pascagoula affair is also a hoax. </p><p>However, the hoax theory fails or is weak on several aspects: </p><ul><p> </p><li>It cannot explain why both witnesses were so scared and continued talking about the incident even when they thought they were alone and no one else can hear them. Philip Klass, for example, has devoted 19 pages to the Pascagoula case, and decided it is a hoax, but did not even care to mention the fact that when the two men were left alone in a room at the local sheriff's office with a tape-recorder running without their knowledge, they exhibited the same terror and bewilderment they had shown the officers who had just interrogated them.</li><li>It cannot explain the strangeness of the creature's physical aspect, which was certainly not a suitable description for a convincing hoax.</li><li>Skeptics have claimed nobody else reported anything unnatural in the area, but this is plainly wrong. The officers made clear that several other witnesses reported visual confirmation of the strange blue light seen from the highway. Radar detection of an unusual craft in the area, followed by radar jamming, is also forgotten. Skeptics have seemingly forgotten to mention and address this.</li><li>The lie detector testing is indeed not a certain method to detect truth or lie. But keep in mind that if the lie detector had determined that both men lied, skeptics would probably have seen this as a certain proof of hoax. Phil Klass reportedly found that the polygraph operator who gave Hickson his lie detector test was not certified and had not completed his training. But it is my belief that if the test indicated a lie, I would have had a hard time convincing Philip Klass that it was due to the lack of certification and incomplete training of the tester.</li><li>If the to men were hoaxers, how did they manage to show terror under hypnotic regression? Dr. Harder did probably expect a detailed account through the hypnosis, not a burst of terror so intense that the experience had to be interrupted.</li></ul> <p>Also, some basic things have been forgotten by the promoters of the hoax theory. First, known UFO hoaxes such as the Adamski stories, for example, did not completely convince the people familiar with the hoaxer, the hoaxed stories are changing over time, new elements being added and other elements being subtracted to the story by its author, something that does not occur in the Pascagoula case. Second, hoaxers such as Adamski or "Bill" Meier tend to promote their hoax in a very active manner, they practically "tour" their story, write books, letters, articles about it, which is eventually understandable, but they will also travel around to "convert" people to what quickly becomes almost a small religion in which they hold a central position. None of these indications of hoax applies to the Pascagoula case. Clearly Hickson was later involved in ufology, but did not seek personal advantage or media stardom; he was interested in learning more about the UFO phenomenon and in collaborating with ufologists in total openness. </p><p>This statement by some unconvinced person can also be immediately dismissed: "Their ufological-cum-alien garb can reasonably be ascribed to the set and setting of the hypnotic sessions themselves, fertilized by the Hill and Pascagoula cases." Indeed in the Pascagoula case, the witness reported their abduction without any help of hypnotic regression. Hypnotic regression was performed after they reported the story with full detailed, and added no supplemental information. Hypnotic regression only made clear that the two men felt an extreme terror when the hypnotizer tried to revive their memories of the events. But it should then made clear that alien abduction stories based only on hypnotic regressions are dubious, and emphasis should be made on the case where hypnotic regression is not the source of the account. It should also be noted that the aliens morphology in the Pascagoula case bear little resemblance with the much publicized short greys with almond shaped eyes and thin necks from numerous "post hypnotic" cases. </p><p>The appearance of the beings raised several confused comments: </p><p>The two men were so shocked that they referred to the beings as "the things" on occasion, which media later sometimes exaggerated into "robots," and impression reinforced by the "claws" they had as hands. The wrinkles of the skins were also later sometimes exaggerated, several books by skeptics or UFO investigators tending to a "sociological" approach to the phenomenon referred to the creatures as "space mummies" in the intend of paralleling the event with "return-of-the-mummy" type B movies. </p><p></p>Moreover, because the witness stated that the two legs remained together, other "sociological phenomenon" promoters exaggerated it into "beings with only one leg," sometimes proposing that the story is a hoax "because extraterrestrial beings with one leg is a morphological nonsense." "Unipeds have been reported on at least four occasions - Pascagoula; (...) The diversity of imagination and the use of dramatic licence seen in the form of the UFO phenomenon supports a view of it as theatre" writes one author. One skeptical comment for example reads "The question returns for Pascagoula ... why did Charles Hickson opt for space mummies?" But Charles Hickson never mentioned any space mummies. The imagery has been added later by commentators of the case.<p> </p><p>Joe Eszterhas also exhumed a less than glorious episode in the career of Charles Hickson: he has been seemingly fired from his foreman position at Ingalls Shipyards, when colleagues revealed that on several occasions, when unable to give borrowed money back he offered promotions instead. For Klass and Eszterhas it is sufficient proof that the two men made their abduction story up. </p><p><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/StExvqzzYzI/AAAAAAAAJzg/-k4yZ4YMkko/s1600-h/Pascagoula+book.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 320px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/StExvqzzYzI/AAAAAAAAJzg/-k4yZ4YMkko/s320/Pascagoula+book.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5391144923954373426" border="0" /></a>I also located a German commentator who attacked the case in an unexpected manner: he wrote that Dr. J. Allen Hynek was in no way an official representative when he studied the case, but merely a UFO hobbyist who just started his "UFO Club" CUFOS. An hilarious statement indeed: the author simply fails to mention some other items: Dr. J. Allen Hynek WAS the scientist appointed by the USAF to "explain" UFOs as astronomical natural phenomenon, and he was NOT ANYMORE in this official position because he did found out that UFOs are not always natural phenomenon, a conclusion that obviously he could not promote as long as he was the USAF "official debunker". As for Dr. Harder, the German critic claims that ufologist make him a professor of some official stature. The simple truth is that Dr. James Harder is indeed a University of California engineering professor, and that I could not find any ufological literature introducing him as anything more or less than a member of the private UFO investigation group APRO, which he is. I found absolutely no ufologist false claim that these two investigators were in charge of any official mission. </p><p>Martin Kottmeyer, in his sociological approach of the UFO phenomenon, wonders if the story could have been made up by Hickson to publicly promote himself: "Independent of the creative elements of the Pascagoula account itself there is nothing in either the background or psychological profiles of Charles Hickson and Calvin Parker to suggest they were possessed of creative fervour. Hickson's psychological profile showed only average levels of intelligence and imaginativeness. Unless, on no authorization, we read significance into the moderately radical aspect of his personality shown on the conservative-experimental scale, there is nothing in his oil worker/outdoorsman background to indicate a compelling need for self-expression." </p><h3>TEMPORARY CONCLUSION:</h3> <p><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/StE-FAvklqI/AAAAAAAAJ0I/2sQ27T6b3n8/s1600-h/parker.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 200px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/StE-FAvklqI/AAAAAAAAJ0I/2sQ27T6b3n8/s320/parker.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5391158484758992546" border="0" /></a>Skepticism in this case reduces to personal attacks, presentation of partial data, speculations based on distorted knowledge of the witnesses account, and a will to make the case fit a pre established theory, preferably not involving any kind of extra-terrestrial aspect. It is obvious that investigators, police officers, Air Force doctors, scientists who were there and talked with the witnesses were all convinced that they reported events that they believed true, and that none of the skeptics confronted the witness or had any of the necessary qualification to pass judgment. </p><p></p>A study to show that 3rd kind encounters are fantasies quotes: "There are no verified dual or multiple witness abductions on record in which it has been demonstrated beyond reasonable question that the percipients shared an identical experience." The Pascagoula case is indeed one such record. Whatever happened, there has never been the slightest discrepancy between both men's accounts. The Pascagoula encounter is an interesting UFO report. Though the sighting and abduction involved only two witnesses, there were several other sightings of unusual flying objects on the same night. The two men have held to their story, and no credible other explanation has been offered for the strange events of the night of October, 11, 1973, which indicates that there is reasonable possibility that what happened is exactly what they reported.<p><br /></p><p><br /></p><br /><p> </p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><br /><p><sup id="cite_ref-2" class="reference"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pascagoula_Abduction#cite_note-2"><span></span></a></sup></p><br /><dl><dt><br /></dt></dl>Chuck Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01281880905938442706noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6375089974625029198.post-26209533547184558232009-10-07T15:04:00.000-07:002011-09-05T03:34:32.401-07:00New Reports<span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><span style="font-weight: bold;">Michigan witness catches disc-shaped UFO on camera</span></span><br /><br />Roger Marsh <br />UFO Examiner<div style="float: left; width: 390px;" align="left"><span style="font-style: italic;"><br /><a href="http://www.examiner.com/x-2363-UFO-Examiner">http://www.examiner.com/x-2363-UFO-Examiner</a><br /></span><strong></strong> </div><br /><br /><p> <span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 240);font-size:100%;" ></span></p><span style="font-style: italic;"><br />The UFO Traffic Report for Monday, <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">October 5, 2009</span>, includes 7 selected sightings over 5 states, according to witness statements filed in the past 72 hours with the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) database.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-style: italic;">Please keep in mind that most UFO reports can be explained as something natural or manmade. If MUFON investigates and reports back on any of these cases, I will update this page. The following reports and their headlines are unedited and uninvestigated.</span><p></p><p><strong>MI, October 4, 2009 - Two distinct objects, One Rectagular & One Disc. </strong><a target="_blank" href="http://mufoncms.com/cgi-bin/manage_sighting_reports.pl?mode=view_long_desc&id=19811&rnd=906241254787339"><strong>MUFON Case # 19811</strong></a><strong>.</strong></p><p>A Michigan witness watched two unidentified objects in the night sky over Round Lake. The first was described as a bright, tall, box-shaped object. It moved across the sky with "three sets of multi color blinking lights," made a sharp right turn, and turned its lights off. The second object was described as "a bright white disc shaped object that had a round center." The witness was able to snap one photo with a cell phone of the second object and wants to know if anyone else saw the same thing:</p><p> <span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 240);font-size:100%;" ></span></p><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Full Moon, mostly clear skies I went out on the balcony of the cottage overlooking Round Lake to smoke a cigarette. As soon as I stepped outside, I noticed a bright, tall, box-shaped object moving across my view from the left. I saw it very clearly. It had three sets of multi-colored, blinking lights. It suddenly made a sharp right turn and the lights went out, and I could not see it. I went inside to tell my wife what I had seen. </span><br /><br /><img style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);" src="http://www.ufocasebook.com/2009d/michigan100409.jpg" alt="Photo - Michigan - 02-10-09 " align="left" height="316" hspace="8" width="297" /> <span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 240);font-size:100%;" > <!-- Begin ConveyThis Button --> <script type="text/javascript"> convey_source = "English"; convey_user = "bjbooth"; </script></span><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Then I grabbed my cellphone to use its camera in case I saw it again. I went back onto the balcony and almost instantly noticed another very bright object moving in the night sky towards my location. This object was a bright, white, disc-shaped object that had a round center. I was able to get a picture of this object before it turned, and then went straight up and at a high rate of speed. I have attached the picture I took. Please let me know if anybody else has reported seeing these objects. I have seen many airplanes in the air and can tell you that these were not planes or helicopters.<br /><br /></span><a href="http://www.ufocasebook.com/2009d/michigan100409.html"><br /></a><p><strong>CO, October 2, 2009 - 5 large Triangle UFOs moving as though they were scanning ground. </strong><a target="_blank" href="http://mufoncms.com/cgi-bin/manage_sighting_reports.pl?mode=view_long_desc&id=19783&rnd=521461254609817"><strong>MUFON Case # 19783</strong></a><strong>.</strong></p><p>Two Colorado witnesses watched multiple triangle-shaped UFO "over the mountains between Glenn Haven and Box Prairie." One of the witnesses saw seven objects and the second saw four.</p><p><strong>TX, October 2, 2009 - It was just hovering/stationary over the interstate as we drove S on I-35. </strong><a href="http://mufoncms.com/cgi-bin/manage_sighting_reports.pl?mode=view_long_desc&id=19781&rnd=521461254609817" target="_blank"><strong>MUFON Case # 19781</strong></a><strong>.</strong></p><p>Two Texas witnesses watched three white lights and two red lights hovering above I-35 South in Round Rock.</p><p><strong>NV, October 2, 2009 - two objects looking like satellites crossing paths within seconds before disappearing. </strong><a href="http://mufoncms.com/cgi-bin/manage_sighting_reports.pl?mode=view_long_desc&id=19777&rnd=521461254609817" target="_blank"><strong>MUFON Case # 19777</strong></a><strong>.</strong></p><p>A McGill, Nevada, family traveling 50 miles northeast of their home saw multiple cases of a "big, bright orange ball of light." They described the objects as very large and very bright, similar to looking at a street lamp from 50 yards away. Other drivers pulled over to watch the objects. There was no sound in the air until they heard "jets coming from all directions," and then the lights disappeared.</p><p><strong>VA, September 29, 2009 - Several objects; sphere shaped, multi-colored rotating lights. <a href="http://mufoncms.com/cgi-bin/manage_sighting_reports.pl?mode=view_long_desc&id=19804&rnd=906241254787339" target="_blank">MUFON Case # 19804</a>.</strong></p><p>A Virginia witness reports several objects in the sky that were hovering at first, with "multi-colored lights rotating across each sphere." After watching for 15 to 20 minutes, the objects began to move. One moved zig-zag style and the others moved "in lateral lines, but far too rapidly to be a terrestrial vehicle." There was no sound associated with any of the objects.</p><p><strong>TN, October 1, 2009 - Object was long and slender, reflecting light. </strong><a target="_blank" href="http://mufoncms.com/cgi-bin/manage_sighting_reports.pl?mode=view_long_desc&id=19803&rnd=906241254787339"><strong>MUFON Case # 19803</strong></a><strong>.</strong></p><p>A Tennessee witness notcied a "long and skinny looking object flying" overhead. The witness reports that the object had no wings or flashing lights. "From where I could see, the whole side of it looked "flat", or at least there were no obvious bumps to cast shadows.. it looked white on the side, from where the sun was shining on it." The witness lost slight of the object when it moved out of view.</p><p><strong>MI, August 7, 2009 - Large orange-red sphere came down over us. </strong><a href="http://mufoncms.com/cgi-bin/manage_sighting_reports.pl?mode=view_long_desc&id=19798&rnd=906241254787339" target="_blank"><strong>MUFON Case # 19798</strong></a><strong>.</strong></p><p></p>A couple in Michigan watched a "large globe on the horizon" that was pulsed a very bright red color. As the object came closer, it seemed to pulse back and forth between red and orange. The object either faded to a pinpoint of light, or shot up into the air to where it appeared to be just a pinpoint. <br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Multiple Triangle Objects Observed over Colorado</span><br /></span><br />10-02-09 My daughter Taja spotted them first as we were headed back from Wal-Mart flying over the mountains between Glenn Haven and Box Prairie. She stated she saw 7 total, but I only saw four by the time I parked he Van. They were moving slowly from South to North and back. Two broke away and came East over Fort Collins, but returned to meet back with the others. We parked the Van on a remote country road to watch for 30 minutes. I wish I had brought my camera or zoom binoculars in with me but I did not. With sunset not too far away, an hour or less, we had a great reflection off all objects.<br /><br />These are by far the largest UFOs I have seen to date and remind me of the ones that flew over Tucson, on Feb 15, 2009. It was my daughters first, so she will remember forever at age 10. I wonder why seeing them from our angle was so easy, yet wonder why something this large cannot be seen from below perspective.<br /><br />There was a slight haze of pollution in the air, but not enough to mask these objects at that size. I had groceries to get home so we left hoping there would be others reporting on these from other locations. Maybe people just don't look up too often at the sky especially in the day time. I also noticed we had almost a full moon and wonder if the UFOs leverage this to their advantage on these nights. permanent link:<br /><a href="http://www.ufocasebook.com/2009d/colorado100209.html"><br />http://www.ufocasebook.com/2009d/colorado100209.html </a><br /><br />source & references: Submitted through www.mufon.com<center><p><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 240);font-size:100%;" > </span> </p></center>Chuck Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01281880905938442706noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6375089974625029198.post-68509424365453888762009-10-02T02:05:00.001-07:002011-09-05T03:34:32.407-07:00IMAGES: 1950<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SsXEKIrmzhI/AAAAAAAAJSk/20CfPaYCBdQ/s1600-h/1950-+colorado+1950.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 332px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SsXEKIrmzhI/AAAAAAAAJSk/20CfPaYCBdQ/s400/1950-+colorado+1950.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5387928207626784274" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SsXEJ5PKiGI/AAAAAAAAJSc/xImc8fE2_yQ/s1600-h/1950+greatfalls.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 229px; height: 162px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SsXEJ5PKiGI/AAAAAAAAJSc/xImc8fE2_yQ/s400/1950+greatfalls.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5387928203480959074" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SsXEJQ6bbjI/AAAAAAAAJSU/LSoDJ9DVD-o/s1600-h/1950+illinois_ufo.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 332px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SsXEJQ6bbjI/AAAAAAAAJSU/LSoDJ9DVD-o/s400/1950+illinois_ufo.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5387928192656567858" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SsXEI2DOPSI/AAAAAAAAJSM/4fWt53l7o6w/s1600-h/1950+bluepic07+copy.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 321px; height: 400px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SsXEI2DOPSI/AAAAAAAAJSM/4fWt53l7o6w/s400/1950+bluepic07+copy.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5387928185445694754" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SsXDYCHWImI/AAAAAAAAJSE/eQyJeE7Ubcw/s1600-h/oregontrentlarge.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 334px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SsXDYCHWImI/AAAAAAAAJSE/eQyJeE7Ubcw/s400/oregontrentlarge.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5387927346870624866" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SsXF6A37itI/AAAAAAAAJS0/uQDUUAOYdCA/s1600-h/1950+trent+bluepictrent+b+2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 294px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SsXF6A37itI/AAAAAAAAJS0/uQDUUAOYdCA/s400/1950+trent+bluepictrent+b+2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5387930129676339922" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SsXF5xWSH0I/AAAAAAAAJSs/Thc8oLRukAU/s1600-h/1950+trent+bluepictrenta.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 243px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SsXF5xWSH0I/AAAAAAAAJSs/Thc8oLRukAU/s400/1950+trent+bluepictrenta.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5387930125508681538" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SsXDLYMg0TI/AAAAAAAAJR0/74rwBeIpjiQ/s1600-h/TRENT1.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 319px; height: 222px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SsXDLYMg0TI/AAAAAAAAJR0/74rwBeIpjiQ/s400/TRENT1.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5387927129459577138" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SsXHanRvSfI/AAAAAAAAJS8/-DZs40nyiYs/s1600-h/40.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 321px; height: 328px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SsXHanRvSfI/AAAAAAAAJS8/-DZs40nyiYs/s400/40.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5387931789252577778" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SsXDLFRu57I/AAAAAAAAJRs/psn22vYkdlo/s1600-h/1950+spain.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 332px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SsXDLFRu57I/AAAAAAAAJRs/psn22vYkdlo/s400/1950+spain.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5387927124381198258" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SsXDKop5c0I/AAAAAAAAJRk/q6NVfTSv_D8/s1600-h/1950+New+York+bluepic34.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 330px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SsXDKop5c0I/AAAAAAAAJRk/q6NVfTSv_D8/s400/1950+New+York+bluepic34.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5387927116697924418" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SsXDKBPLhZI/AAAAAAAAJRc/zxBioZ9rOrY/s1600-h/1950+adamski+moon+2+1950.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 332px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SsXDKBPLhZI/AAAAAAAAJRc/zxBioZ9rOrY/s400/1950+adamski+moon+2+1950.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5387927106116879762" border="0" /></a>Chuck Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01281880905938442706noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6375089974625029198.post-17748880351868599772009-09-23T20:23:00.000-07:002011-09-05T03:34:32.440-07:00UFO FYI: "ANGEL HAIR"<center> <div style="width: 400px; text-align: center;"><img alt="illustration of angel hair ufos over oloron, france" src="http://static.howstuffworks.com/gif/ufo-reports-055.jpg" class="article" height="275" width="400" /><br /><span style="font-size:78%;">Mary Evans Picture Library</span><br /><strong><span style="font-size:85%;">UFOs over Oloron, France, dropped a cottony substance likened to "angel hair."</span></strong></div> </center><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">From HOW STUFF WORKS</span><br /><a href="http://science.howstuffworks.com/angel-hair-ufo.htm">http://science.howstuffworks.com/angel-hair-ufo.htm</a><br /><br />It was the strangest sight to ever grace the sky over Oloron, France. In the early afternoon of October 17, 1952, according to one of the many witnesses, high school superintendent Jean-Yves Prigent, there appeared a "cottony cloud of strange shape. . . . Above it, a narrow cylinder, apparently inclined at a 45-degree angle, was slowly moving in a straight line toward the southwest. . . . A sort of plume of white smoke was escaping from its upper end." In front of this "cylinder" were 30 smaller objects that, when viewed through opera glasses, proved to be red spheres, each surrounded by a yellow ring. "These 'saucers' moved in pairs," Prigent said, "following a broken path characterized in general by rapid and short zigzags. When two saucers drew away from one another, a whitish streak, like an electric arc, was produced between them." <p>But this was only the beginning of the strangeness. A white, hairlike substance rained down from all of the objects, wrapping itself around telephone wires, tree branches, and the roofs of houses. When observers picked up the material and rolled it into a ball, it turned into a gelatinlike substance and vanished. One man, who had observed the episode from a bridge, claimed the material fell on him, and he was able to extract himself from it only by cutting his way clear-at which point the material collected itself and ascended.</p> <p>A nearly identical series of events occurred in Gaillac, France, ten days later.<br />Such "angel hair" is reported from time to time. Laboratory analysis of authentic material (airborne cobwebs are sometimes mistaken for angel hair) is impossible because the material always vanishes. In the summer of 1957, when Craig Phillips (director of the National Aquarium from 1976 to 1981) witnessed a fall off the Florida coast, he collected samples and placed them in sealed jars. But by the time he got to his laboratory, they were gone.</p><p style="text-align: center;"><img alt="http://static.howstuffworks.com/gif/ashtar-100x60.jpg" src="http://static.howstuffworks.com/gif/ashtar-100x60.jpg" /></p><p><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">FROM INVESTIGATION DISCOVERY</span> <a href="http://investigation.discovery.com/tv/ny-spi/sightings/sightings-10.html">http://investigation.discovery.com/tv/ny-spi/sightings/sightings-10.html</a></p><p><img alt="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/73959843/angel-fly_normal.gif" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/73959843/angel-fly_normal.gif" />The town of Oloron, France, is famous for its chocolates, jaunty berets and a special type of unidentified flying object known as an "angel hair UFO." One afternoon, in October 1952, dozens of witnesses reported seeing a very unusual sight in the sky — a cylinder surrounded by a group of discs, each of which had ribbons of white smoke emanating down from it. The discs appeared as reddish spheres circled by a gold ring, and the emanations were described as having the appearance of angel hair. Even more strange were reports that as townspeople tried to collect the angel hair substance — which had begun to cover homes, trees and the ground — it simply vanished into thin air. Several similar incidents have been recorded in nearby Gaillac, France, as well as other parts of the world, but no explanation has been offered to explain the angel hair UFOs.<br /></p><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:180%;" >From crystalinks.com</span></span><br /><a href="http://www.crystalinks.com/angelhair.html">http://www.crystalinks.com/angelhair.html</a><br /><br /><center><h2><img alt="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/73959843/angel-fly_normal.gif" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/73959843/angel-fly_normal.gif" /><span style="color: rgb(51, 204, 255);">Angel Hair</span><img alt="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/73959843/angel-fly_normal.gif" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/73959843/angel-fly_normal.gif" /> </h2> <p> <img src="http://www.crystalinks.com/spiderhair.jpg" /></p></center> <p> Angel hair is an alleged substance of unknown origin, said to be dispersed from UFOs as they fly overhead. It is so named for its similarity to fine hair, or spider's webs, and is comparable to ectoplasm and pixie dust. Reports of Angel hair say that it disintegrates within a short time of forming. There have been many reports of falls of angel hair around the world. The greatest number of reports have come from the U.S.A., western Europe, eastern Australia, and New Zealand. </p><p>Alternative explanations: One of the possible explanations offered relates to the web making activities of spiders. Some types of spiders are known to migrate through the air, sometimes in large numbers, on cobweb gliders. The threads created by these airborne arachnids are delicate enough to dissolve upon handling. As string-like lines that appear out of nowhere and form unique patterns. </p>They are also known as Spider Strings and are linked to String Theory in Physics. Metaphysically they are said to weave all of matter together to form the basic geometric patterns - the Spider Web Effect with all things emerge from once source - move out in geometric progressions yet all remains linked to the source through the web. Angel hair is sometimes connected to UFO sightings or the presence of angels. <p> I am not aware of any scientific data that can define the exact cause or composition of angel hair. Non-the-less it does manifest into the physical realms.<br /><br /></p><center style="color: rgb(51, 204, 255);"><span style="font-size:130%;"><b>Ellie's Personal Experiences</b></span></center> <p> In 1989 I awoke one morning to find odd patterns made out of some sort of fiber-like material on my blanket and the navy carpet in my bedroom. </p><p> The patterns looked like they were made out of some sort of clear glitter. </p><p> I soon learned that they are allegedly called 'Angel Hair' and are left as a message by Spirit. </p><p> The 'Angel Hair' varied in width from a half inch to one inch. </p><p> There was no measurement for the length as it was one never-ending pattern. </p><p>The 'Angel Hair' remained as it was until it was touched in some way. Then would simply disappear in to that part of the carpet or bedding. </p><p> At first I looked for some sort of insect that might have been my home - but my home was insect-free - and it was December - Christmas time to be exact. </p><p> Many people came to look at the patterns as they kept reappearing between 1989 -1991. </p><p> The patterns were very specific in design--though at the time I didn't realize I should draw them or what they meant. </p><p> Photographs did not produce images. </p><p> The first pattern followed a zig-zag pattern from my bathroom door across the bedroom, about 12 feet, to my bed. </p><p> Then the pattern followed straight up and onto my navy blanket. </p><p> At the time I was told by one psychic that they were left by a child in spirit. </p><p> This was the month a started to write my book, <a href="http://www.crystalinks.com/sabook.html">Sarah and Alexander</a> about an boy from another realm named Alexander who comes to Earth to meet someone with The Key . In my heart I feel that there was a link to Alexander and that Spirit did come to tell me of my future destiny. But that's another story.... </p><p><br /></p><center><b>UFOs Drop 'Angel Hair' in New South Wales</b></center> <p> August 19, 1998 - AP </p><p> Twenty UFOs, described as "shiny silver spheres," flew over a number of farms near Quirindi, New South Wales, Australia last weekend, littering the ground with cobweb-like filaments called "angel hair." According to USA Today, "Residents of a small Australian community swear that they saw cobwebs fall from the sky after UFOs passed overhead. Dozens of residents of Quirindi called Australia's National UFO Hotline after the incident." According to the Tamworth, N.S.W. North Daily Leader, "Mrs. E. Stansfield, 61 years (old), said that she saw cobwebs falling from the sky. She saw twenty silver balls which passed overhead. </p><p> When she went out to her daughter, she too was covered in fine strands of cobweb. When she tried to pick it up, it disintegrated in her hand. The family car had cobwebs all over it." The incident took place at 5:04 p.m. on Sunday, August 9, 1998. Quirindi is just north of the Liverpool mountain range, about 70 kilometers (42 miles) southwest of Tamworth, N.S.W. and 300 kilometers (180 miles) northwest of Sydney. Australian researcher Raymond Brooks reported that the "various craft" performed aerobatic maneuvers over the farms "for 1.5 hours, including the release of 'angel hair.'</p><p></p><span style="font-size:180%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">FROM WIKIPEDIA:</span></span><br /><br />Angel hair or siliceous cotton is a substance said to be dispersed from UFOs as they fly overhead. It has been described as being like a cobweb or a jelly. It has also been reported at sightings of the Virgin Mary. It is named for its similarity to fine hair, or spider webs. Reports of angel hair say that it disintegrates or evaporates within a short time of forming.One theory is that it is "ionized air sleeting off an electromagnetic field" that surrounds a UFO. It is an important aspect of Raëlism.<br /><br />There have been many reports of falls of angel hair around the world. Angel hair was reported at the Miracle of Fatima on the 13th of September and October 1917. this has been used to support The Fatima UFO Hypothesis. The most reported incidence occurred in Oloron, France in 1952. On October 27, 1954, Gennaro Lucetti and Pietro Lastrucci stood on the balcony of a hotel in St. Mark's Square in Venice and saw two "shining spindles" flying across the sky leaving a trail of the angel hair.<br /><br />In the Portuguese city of Évora in November 2, 1959, angel hair was collected and analyzed at the microscope by local school director and later by armed forces technicians and scientists of the University of Lisbon. Conclusions were not possible although it was formed, apparently, by a small organism featuring 10 'arms' stretching from a central core. It was advanced that it could be a single-celled organism of some kind. This event followed the sighting, by the population of the city, of several UFOs. Angel hair was also spotted in the same day, at the Air Force Base of Sintra, several kilometers to the north. On February 10, 1978, a large number of fibers fell from the sky for a period of two hours near Samaru, New Zealand.<br /> <br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Explanations based on known phenomena include: </span><br /><br />Some types of spiders are known to migrate through the air, sometimes in large numbers, on cobweb gliders.<br /><br />Many cases of angel hair were nothing other than these spider threads and, at least in one occasion, small spiders have been found on the material.<br /><br />Atmospheric electricity may cause floating dust particles to become polarized, and attraction between these polarized dust particles may cause them to join together, to form long filaments.<br /><br />On two occasions a sample was sent for testing once on the 13 of October in 1917 a sample found at Cova da Iria was sent to Lisbon and on October 17 1957 another sample found at Cova da Iria and examined. The analysis of this proved to be natural consisting of white flakes. When put under a microscope it was found to be a vegetable product not animal.<br /><br />Explanations related to Unidentified Flying Objects include:<br /><br />Ionized air may be sleeting off the electromagnetic field that surrounds a UFO.<br /><br />Excess energy converted into matter.<br /><br />The usage by UFOs of a G-field would cause heavy atoms in ordinary air to react among themselves and produce a kind of precipitate that falls to the ground and disappears as the ionization decreases.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><img alt="The image “http://www.subversiveelement.com/files/angelhair1.jpg” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors." src="http://www.subversiveelement.com/files/angelhair1.jpg" /><br /></div><br /><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:180%;" >FROM PRAVDA (ENGLISH)</span><br /><a href="http://english.pravda.ru/science/mysteries/30-05-2007/92473-angel_hair-0">http://english.pravda.ru/science/mysteries/30-05-2007/92473-angel_hair-0</a><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Mysterious angel hair phenomenon often reported after UFO sightings<br /></span><br /><img alt="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/73959843/angel-fly_normal.gif" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/73959843/angel-fly_normal.gif" />A cobweb-like and jellylike substance which is also slightly radioactive often falls to the ground shortly after UFO sightings. The substance dubbed “angel’s hair” evaporates without a trace several hours after the sighting. The “hair” was reported to either disintegrate or turn into cottony tufts with an offensive smell when held in the hand. American ufologists refer to the material as “angel’s hair”; Italians call it “siliceous cotton”; and the French use the term “the Madonna’s present” to describe semitransparent threads that fall from heavens.<br /><p align="justify">Ufologists first began discussing the phenomenon in 1954. Two men, namely Gennaro Lucetti and Pietro Lastrucci stood on the balcony of a hotel located in St. Mark’s Square of Venice, on October 27, 1954. The men suddenly saw two “shining spindles” flying across the sky. The objects left a fiery white trail as they zipped along. Both objects flew at high speed, one of them at some distance away from the other. Then the objects took a U-turn and flew away in the direction of Florence. </p> <!-- TEXT BLOCK 2 --> <p align="justify">There were reports on an unexpected break in a soccer game played in one of the Florence stadiums on that afternoon. The players, referees and about 10 thousand spectators just stood there gazing at two objects which flew over the stadium. A couple of unidentified objects flew over the city thrice from 14.20 to 1429. A number of strange cobweb-like threads started to drop to the arena once the objects disappeared. </p> <!-- TEXT BLOCK 3 --> <p align="justify">The substance was quick to disintegrate if held in the hand. Alfrede Jacopozzi, a student, was the only one who managed to pick up a few threads of it and sealed them in a hermetic test tube. Jacopozzi then handed the tube to Professor Giovanni Canneri, a director of the Chemical Analysis Institute under the University of Florence. Professor Danilo Cozzi, a colleague of Prof. Canneri’s, carried out a series of tests of the mysteries find. “It’s a fibrous material, which is highly resistant to tension and torsion. Once subjected to heat action, the material grows dark and evaporates, leaving transparent sediment that melts away. The sediment was found to contain boron, silicon, and magnesium. Hypothetically speaking, the substance may be some kind of boron-silicon glass,” said Prof. Cozzi. </p> <!-- TEXT BLOCK 4 --> <p align="justify">American ufologist Charles Maney suggested that the material was “the UFO excess energy which materialized.” According to him, “the treads return to their dimension or some other space-time continuum while fading away.” A British ufologist suggested that “angel’s hair” was a variety of ectoplasm emanated during a spiritualistic session.</p>B. V. Lyapunov, a Soviet-era researcher who did a lot to popularize science, received a sample of “angel’s hair” from New Zealand in 1967. A tightly sealed tube contained some unknown stuff measuring less than one-tenth of a cubic centimeter. A comprehensive analysis of the substance was conducted by a team of scientists. Physicist L. V. Kirichenko, a specialist in radiometry, concluded that the substance “is a fine-fibered material; some of its fibers are less than 0.1 micron in diameter. Most fibers are tangled in the bundles or separate “threads” measuring 20 microns in diameter. The threads look somewhat whitish and semitransparent. There aren’t any known analogues to the analyzed substance.” Summing up the study of the material, Academician I. V. Petryanov-Sokolov said that “the sample is of considerable interest as a material with extremely fine fibers. It is unlikely that the material was formed by nature.”<br /><br />Unfortunately, the entire amount of the substance was used up during the research. No new samples of “angel’s hair” have ever been obtained though the phenomenon was repeatedly reported in this country. <p align="justify">According to reports spread by the British Society for UFO Studies in August 1998, mysterious cobwebs fell to the ground shortly after an UFO sighting in North Wales. The 60-year-old Mrs. Stanfield and her daughter-in-law saw “about 20 silver balls in the sky” prior to taking note of cobweb-like material which descended to the ground. </p> <!-- TEXT BLOCK 3 --> <p align="justify">There are times when “angel’s hair” falls out from a clear blue sky. Residents of the city of Montgomery in the United States reported the fall of “flying web type substance” in 1898. According to the description provided by eyewitnesses, the threads of the material resembled somewhat fluorescent asbestos fibers. On February 10, 1978, a large number of sticky fibers were falling from the sky for two hours in the vicinity of the coastal city of Samaru, New Zealand. The fibers appeared to be “considerably finer than cobwebs” yet clearly visible against a clear blue sky. </p> <!-- TEXT BLOCK 4 --> <p align="justify">Some of the fibers looked like knots the size of a tennis ball; they were slowly unwinding across the air. Others were floating in a cluster which resembled a jet plane’s heat wake. “I’ve never heard about anything like that,” said a spokesman for the Department of Science and Industry Research of New Zealand. </p><p style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);" align="justify">Translated by Guerman Grachev<br />Pravda.ru</p><span style="color: rgb(51, 204, 255);font-size:180%;" ><span style="font-weight: bold;">Angel Hair</span></span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Definition From Answers Dot Com:</span><br /><br /><img alt="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/73959843/angel-fly_normal.gif" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/73959843/angel-fly_normal.gif" />A fine, filmy substance observed falling from the sky, sometimes extensively. It has been explained as cobwebs from airborne spiders, but the strands of angel's hair may vary in length from a few inches to over a hundred feet, and often dissolve in contact with the ground. Possibly the earliest account of angel hair occurred in 1741 when it was reported that "flakes or rags about one inch broad and five or six inches long" fell on the towns of Bradly, Selborne, and Alresford in England. In 1881 Scientific American carried an account of huge falling spider webs (one as large as 60 feet, over Lake Michigan). Other falls have been reported over the years, and accounts were collected by Charles Fort, famous for his assemblage of accounts of anomalous natural events.<br /><br />In the 1950s angel hair became associated with UFOs. A famous case occurred in France in 1952 during which a local high school principal reported seeing a cylindrical-shaped UFO and a circular one. The flying objects left a film behind them, which floated to the earth and fell to the ground covering trees, telephone wires, and roofs of houses. When the material was picked up and rolled into a ball, it turned gelatinous and vanished. Occasional additional accounts have appeared in the literature over the years, though angel hair is by no means a common element of UFO reports. Analysis of angel hair has proved elusive as the material seems to dissolve very quickly.<br /><br />Sources:<br />Clark, Jerome. The Emergence of a Phenomenon: UFOs from the Beginning through 1959. Detroit: Omnigraphics, 1992.<br />Corliss, William R., ed. Handbook of Unusual Natural Phenomena. Glen Arm, Md.: Sourcebook Project, 1977.<p></p><div style="text-align: center;"><img alt="The image “http://www.subversiveelement.com/files/angelhair1.jpg” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors." src="http://www.subversiveelement.com/files/angelhair1.jpg" /><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span></span></div><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Flying Saucers and Angel Hair</span></span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Monday March 5, 2007</span><br />By B.J. Booth<br />for About Dot Com<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SrrtVNRQqOI/AAAAAAAAI1Y/bprzbaQXCjU/s1600-h/17652.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 85px; height: 85px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SrrtVNRQqOI/AAAAAAAAI1Y/bprzbaQXCjU/s320/17652.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5384877253069940962" border="0" /></a>Every now and then I get a little extra time to surf the Web, and yes, I always look for more on UFOs. I actually like to see old reports, and find something of interest to think about, and search out more evidence on. Recently, I came across a site that I had book marked about six months ago, and just never had a chance to get back to. It was from Australia, and its subject was "angel hair." This may seem bizarre, but back when I was a young lad in the 1950's, angel hair was often in the news, and the subject of television series, like "One Step Beyond," Science Fiction Theater," and others.<br /><p align="justify">I was surprised to find that "Science Fiction Theater" was supposedly based on real life events. Had I known that when I was young, it would have scared me even more than it did. Now today, things are always falling out of the sky, because of all the objects in orbit around the Earth, and you don't hear much about angel hair any more. Angel hair was this spider web type of substance that was often associated with flying saucer reports. Usually, it dissipated very quickly, and had some magic properties to it. Sound strange... well it is true. Here is a list of Angel hair cases from the <span style="font-weight: bold;">Project 1947</span> website. Check it out. You might find it interesting:</p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><a href="http://www.project1947.com/kbangel.htm">http://www.project1947.com/kbangel.htm<br /></a></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><img alt="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/73959843/angel-fly_normal.gif" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/73959843/angel-fly_normal.gif" /></p><h1></h1>Chuck Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01281880905938442706noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6375089974625029198.post-86136434781182282412009-09-23T18:35:00.000-07:002011-09-05T03:34:32.446-07:001975, May 26: Nancy, France Photo case<div style="text-align: center;">FROM UFO PHENOMENON AT CLOSE SIGHT<br />http://www.ufologie.net/indexe.htm<br /></div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SrrR8Njj_KI/AAAAAAAAI1I/iLxTgE3qKf4/s1600-h/1975+Nancy,+France.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 260px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SrrR8Njj_KI/AAAAAAAAI1I/iLxTgE3qKf4/s400/1975+Nancy,+France.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5384847136836025506" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 0);">The witness' Father sent the following letter to Albert Ducrocq (1921 - 2001), which was then an extremely popular French scientific journalist, thanks to his qualities as science popularizer at radioEurope 1, and author of books such as "Man in space (spacecraft of second generation)", 1961, "Man on the Moon", 1969, "The search for life on Mars", 1976.</span> </span> <p><table border="0" cellpadding="6" cellspacing="0"><tbody><tr valign="top"><td>Mr. Jean-Marie Burr, 54000 Nancy,<br />to Mr. Albert Ducrocq,<br />Europe n° 1, rue Francois-1er, 75008 Paris <p>Nancy, August 29, 1975 </p><p>Sir, </p><p>On May 26, 1975, at approximately 07:45 p.m., my son Didier, who has just been seventeen years old, called me, claiming that he had just seen a UFO and that he had photographed it. His claim was received by much skepticism on my part, my wife's and my daughter's. before closing his shutters, he saw this "thing" and, after a few seconds, he had the reflex to jump on his camera and to take a photograph. We did not speak again any more of the incident; having finished the roll and not having money to have it developped, my son put it aside... and forgot about it until last week. It was an amazement at the sight of the pictire which I join to this letter. Here are some more detailed information: </p><p>1) Date: May 26, 1975. </p><p>2) Local Time: approximately 07:45 p.m. </p><p>3) Location: 54000 Nancy. </p><p>4) Taken photograph </p><ul><p>a) at the second storey of my appartment. </p><p>b) orientation: east. </p><p>c) camera: Royer with bellows, with Royer bellows, with Berthiot objective of F 105. It is a thirty years old apparatus that I had just given to my son. It was, besides, the first photograph that he took with it. </p><p>d) film: Agfacolor, ASA 80. </p><p>e) diaphragm and shutter speed: 8 and 1/50. </p></ul> <p>5) Duration of observation: 10 to 15 seconds. </p><p>6) Apparent motion: vertical descending, then oblique ascencion towards the south. </p><p>7) The "thing" seemed dark, it did noe emit any colored radiation, nor any perceivable noise. </p><p>8) Dimensions, distance, altitude: no clue, dur to the lack of reference points, except the cloudy background, and in the forefront, the windows of the opposite house. </p><p>I add that: </p><p>1) My son does absolutely not have the necessary knowledge to have make a fake. He was very excited and even acknowledged to have been a little afraid. </p><p>2) In my recollection, the local press (Est Répblicain [regional newspaper]) did not mention testimonies of people who might have seen this UFO. But I could have mised it. </p><p>3) Of course, I hold the negative one at your disposal should you consider it useful to examine it. As for myself, I am convinced that my son indeed saw and photographed a UFO. As a faithful reader of your works and often listening to you on the radio, I appreciate your scientific mind highly (I am a bachelor of science myself) and your enthusiasm. This is why sent this long letter to you. </p><p>My son and myself are already facing mockeries and the sarcastic comments of so-called "strong minds". It is obviously much easier to deny the existence of a problem - when it is not understood -, rather than to try to make some light on it and to study it, if not to solve it. </p><p>Please accept Mr. Ducrocq, by very best regards.</p><p><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SrrTJHDj2bI/AAAAAAAAI1Q/W5mE_ZiLEXY/s1600-h/nancy26mai1975.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 316px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SrrTJHDj2bI/AAAAAAAAI1Q/W5mE_ZiLEXY/s400/nancy26mai1975.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5384848457941113266" border="0" /></a> </p></td></tr></tbody></table> </p><p></p>Albert Ducroq however apparently did not acted on this, and it is by mre chance that the case became known: journalist Robert Roussel, author of books on the UFO phenomenon and meticulous investigator of the official studies of the phenomenon in France, met the witness at a UFO conference at which he was present. The witness did not seek to draw any attention, but one of the lecturers asked who, in the assistance, had seen an UFO. The young had a printout of the photograph with him and presented it.<p> </p><p></p><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(255, 255, 0);">He was then interviewed by journalist Francine Buchy from the FR3 TV channel:</span><br /><br /><p> </p><p><table border="0" cellpadding="6" cellspacing="0"> <tbody><tr valign="top"><td> <p><b>Francine Buchy:</b> when did you see this object? </p><p><b>Didier Burr:</b> It was on may 26, 1975 at 07:45 p.m. at the time when I closed the shutters of my bedroom. I saw it by chance, at the moment of the twilight. </p><p><b>Francine Buchy:</b> How did you have the reflex to photograph the object which you suddenly had glimpsed? </p><p><b>Didier Burr:</b> My father had just recently offered an old camera with bellows to me, which formerly belonged to him. There was a film loaded and the apparatus, which was on my desk, was engaged, ready to be used. Whereas I closed my shutters, I saw something which went down and, immediately, I leapt at y camera which was very close to me. Without knowing if the object was in the collimator, I shot while aiming approximately, without taking time to set up anything. </p><p><b>Francine Buchy:</b> How long did you see this object? </p><p><b>Didier Burr:</b> Approximately 10 to 15 seconds. It went down vertically. Then, it disappeared towards the south. It resembled an opaque black disc without any reflection nor relief, and it evolved without noise, at least, I did not hear any noise. It should be said that there was trafic in the street lower and this might have covered a possible noise. </p><p><b>Francine Buchy:</b> What did you do after having taken your photograph? </p><p><b>Didier Burr:</b> As I was not sure at all that the photography was sucessful, I completely forgot it and, actually, I had it developped only three months afterwards. The result left me perplexed, but actually it was essentially the reactions of my entourage whch disappointed me the most. Everyone laughed at me when I told my story. Only in my family was the story believed, but, my friends in high-school made openly fun of me. </p></td></tr></tbody></table> </p><p>The witness' father: </p><p><table border="0" cellpadding="6" cellspacing="0"> <tbody><tr valign="top"><td> <p><b>Francine Buchy:</b> On May 26, 1975, at the time of the appearance recorded by your son, you were outside, on the pavement? </p><p><b>Jean-Marie Burr:</b> Oui, c'est ça, je me trouvais à l'extérieur de la maison, sur le trottoir, quand mon fils m'a appelé par la fenêtre, tout excité, en me disant qu'il venait de voir et de photographier un OVNI. Bien sûr, sur le moment, je n'y ai pas cru du tout. Yes, that's it, I was outside of the house, on the pavement, when my son called me by the window, excited, while saying to me that it had just seen and to photograph an UFO. Of course, at the time, I did not believe there of the whole. </p><p><b>Francine Buchy:</b> You didn't see it? </p><p><b>Jean-Marie Burr:</b> Oh, no, unfortunately, I did not see anything. I regret that a lot, by the way. </p><p><b>Francine Buchy:</b> So you did not believe your son? </p><p><b>Jean-Marie Burr:</b> No, on the moment, absolutely not. We spoke about it, then, later, it completely slipped out of my mind. </p><p><b>Francine Buchy:</b> And when, three months later, you saw the photograph, what was your reaction? </p><p><b>Jean-Marie Burr:</b> Well! I was stunned, totally stunned. </p><p><b>Francine Buchy:</b> Didier's entourage didn't believe it either? </p><p><b>Jean-Marie Burr:</b> Didier's entourage started to believe. My wife and myself and my parents also believed him. But I noted, if only at the photographers or among people with whom I spoke about it, huge incredulity, that's the least to say. </p><p><b>Francine Buchy:</b> Now, you are certain of the authenticity of the photograph taken by Didier? </p><p><b>Jean-Marie Burr:</b> Ah! that, absolutely. I stand for his sincerity and I can add, moreover, that Didier does not have nor the necessary material and even less the knowledge to have made a fake on the film or the negative one which you have examined. </p></td></tr></tbody></table> </p><p></p>As for Robert Roussel, he very lengthily examined the color negative, made several printouts of its in black and white with different enlargement. He concluded: Information that the enlargements provide us makes it possible for us to visualize an opaque object in the shape of disc, as described it Didier Burr, with, in the center, a less dense contour or lighter. On the colorprint, you can clearly distinguish a purplish belt which surrounds the whole craft. The rather slow shutter speed enhanced a slightly fuzzy image of the UFO whereas the totality of photography remains perfectly clear. It is difficult to imagine a hoax by the high-school pupil, and time that he took before seeking to know the results of his shot is indicative, I think, of the sincerity of his testimony. This photography is certainly one of the rare authentic French documents, with those of police officer Flouret at Révigny-sur-Omain in the Meuse. It never had the honors of specialized publications, which makes it, in my eyes, even more valuable. <p><br /></p>Chuck Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01281880905938442706noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6375089974625029198.post-60966618265286776572009-09-23T14:01:00.000-07:002011-09-05T03:34:32.453-07:00Varese, Italy, 1950-- Bruno Facchini's Wild Night<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:180%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">April 24th, 1950<br /></span></span><span style="color: rgb(51, 204, 0);"><span style="font-size:180%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Varese, Italy</span></span><br /><br /></span></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcsb0gLBa4yWmROrf9LuRKYvNvqkUzv8R_vO4JppUoUEWmbkmZChCWLusbBMFUFE0uJABqBkfcAtAuql_dHWwxHzk4ro37YFQRxr_6cRaauAQAEymviYu6c1PsRR6Oa2qkKUP2BjeVMJ4/s1600-h/VareseItaly1950.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 361px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcsb0gLBa4yWmROrf9LuRKYvNvqkUzv8R_vO4JppUoUEWmbkmZChCWLusbBMFUFE0uJABqBkfcAtAuql_dHWwxHzk4ro37YFQRxr_6cRaauAQAEymviYu6c1PsRR6Oa2qkKUP2BjeVMJ4/s400/VareseItaly1950.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5384777624587580738" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SrqPh9_ypEI/AAAAAAAAI0o/IewJSFSm0pA/s1600-h/abbiateguazzone01.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 216px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SrqPh9_ypEI/AAAAAAAAI0o/IewJSFSm0pA/s400/abbiateguazzone01.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5384774118215427138" border="0" /></a><span style="color: rgb(51, 204, 0);">On the 24th day of April 1950, 42 year old factory worker Bruno Facchini (left) was working the late shift, and stepped outside to get some fresh air on his break. His home city of Varese in Italy had just had a severe thunderstorm. The last distant streaks of lightning were still visible as Bruno decided to see if the electrical system had popped a circuit breaker. He was taken completely aback at what he saw not far from the factory doors. Investigating a bright glowing light which he thought was part of a factory transformer problem, he was shocked to see a circular shaped, glowing object with a ladder descended from its bottom. At the top of the UFO was a greenish glow which partially obscured a light-skinned being. The unusual being appeared to be welding something on the craft. Bruno's first impression of the craft was that it was a type of experimental craft from a nearby air base. His impression was quickly altered by the sight of several other small alien creatures which emerged from the craft. In a moment or two, the ladder began to be drawn up into the mysterious craft, and the beings began to reenter the craft through an invisible door of some kind.<br /><br />The full realization of what he was witnessing sent Bruno into a full run away from the frightening encounter. As he fled, he heard a sound like that of a large beehive. One of the remaining creatures pointed a type of weapon at the scared worker, and a beam of force knocked him to the ground. </span> <span style="color: rgb(51, 204, 0);">Although in pain, he was able to watch the last activities of the strange aliens as they prepared the craft to take off. The beehive like sound increased as the object made its way into the skies and vanished from view. The next day, Bruno made a full report of his encounter to the police force. There were signs still visible of the activities of the night before.<br /><br />Police found burned patches on the ground, and indentation marks of an extremely heavy object. Also found were some odd, green pieces of a metal-like substance. </span> <span style="color: rgb(51, 204, 0);">Bruno recounted the welding operation, and suggested that the green pieces of debris were refuse of the process. The fragments were analyzed. The results of this test concluded that the fragments were an "anti-friction" material, containing several types of metal along with a lubricant. In September 1953, UFO investigators had their own tests conducted on the green substance. </span> <span style="color: rgb(51, 204, 0);">A scientific institute specializing in metallurgy assessed that the fragments were 74% copper, 19% tin, and other trace elements. The substance, under heavy magnification was a yellow-white color, but did not contain any metals which could not be found on Earth. These conclusions did not entirely rule out the possibility of an extraterrestrial connection in the case of Bruno Facchini. There is no way to conclude that the metal composition could not be made on another planet. Facchini's accept was taken very seriously by all who knew him. He was a respectable man, well liked, and considered to be reliable and trustworthy. He gained nothing from his tale of the strange object and occupants he described on the night of April 24, 1950. </span> <span style="color: rgb(51, 204, 0);"><br />source: </span> <span style="color: rgb(51, 204, 0);">Eye witness statements, UFO Italy.</span><br /><a href="http://www.ufocasebook.com/vareseitaly1950.html">http://www.ufocasebook.com/vareseitaly1950.html</a><br /><br /><p><b></b></p><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:180%;" ><span style="font-weight: bold;">Varese</span></span><span style="font-style: italic;"> (pronounced [vaˈreze] in Italian; Baretium in Latin) is a city in north-western Lombardy, northern Italy, 55 km north of Milan. It is the capital of the Province of Varese. The hinterland or urban part of the city is called Varesotto.</span><p></p>The province of Varese already had its share of UFO sightings, yet this case is in fact one of the most well known "early" close encounters of the third kind in Italy. Here is the full and correct story: <p>Bruno Facchini, 40, is a mechanic, married, father of a young boy, lives in a colonial house in Abbiate Guazzone, Varese, Italy, a few miles from the motorway to Milan.</p> <p><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SrqQ5zsYzjI/AAAAAAAAI0w/-igKJC4HkPQ/s1600-h/Varese_map.png"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 249px; height: 320px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SrqQ5zsYzjI/AAAAAAAAI0w/-igKJC4HkPQ/s320/Varese_map.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5384775627278175794" border="0" /></a>On 24th April 1950, at 10:00pm, the rain had just stopped after a violent thunderstorm, and he went outside his home to go to the toilet seat in a shack, and when he was about to return home after smoking a cigarette, he saw several strange flashing lights which at the time he thought were being generated by the storm, in a field adjacent to his home.</p> <p>He decided to investigate anyway, because the lights were in the direction of a power line pole. The high voltage power line goes right over the village, and another of its poles is right in front of his home. He thought that a power cable may have fallen to the ground, which may explain the flashes, and he became afraid that his kid might get hurt if he grabbed it when playing outside the next day. He took a pathway that delimited the ground of a furnace and walked toward the place where he saw the flashing light, but saw nothing anymore. As he was about to go back to his home, he saw the lights again, and went in their direction again.</p> <p>He told Antonio Giudicci:</p> <blockquote> <p>"It was still a little farther. I decided to go there. Then I saw there a huge dark shape, like a ball, with a flattened top."</p> </blockquote> <p>He saw that the dark object some 200 yards away, next to the power line pole. He estimated it to be 10 meters large and 7 meters high.</p> <p>He told Antonio Giudicci:</p> <blockquote> <p>"In the middle [of the shape] there was a small ladder, lightened by a green light. Almost immediately, I understood that the light came from some sort of lamp handled by a standing man who seemed to be engaged in welding. He wore something like a diving suit and a mask."</p> </blockquote> <p>Later he summarized for the press:</p> <blockquote> <p>"Next to a power line pole and to a [gelso, ?] I saw a huge, round shape. From the illuminated disc, a ladder came down. A door opened. I could see inside the UFO, because a light diffused inside, there was another ladder leading to a higher level of the craft; on the walls, there were bottles connected together in rows and between them I could notice that there were gauges and tubes."</p> </blockquote> <p>He told Antonio Giudicci:</p> <blockquote> <p>"Driven by curiosity, at went closer, and I saw two other people, with the same clothing, moving slowly around the craft - I guessed that their diving suit was heavy and slowed down their movements. The craft, lighted by the welding tool, cast metallic reflections back."</p> </blockquote> <p>The sparks Facchini had seen were pouring out of pipes; which one of the figure was working on with some type of device. The inside of the craft could be partially seen through an open vent. Inside were lots of dials and cylinders. The air around the craft was unusually warm and a buzzing sound like a giant beehive was heard constantly.</p> <p>All the figures were similarly dressed in grayish one-piece tight fitting clothes and were wearing helmets but their faces were concealed behind masks from the front of which emerged one flexible pipe which reminded him of a breathing tube. Facchini later said he found them to be of the same size than human beings, about 1 meter 70.</p><p style="text-align: center;"><img alt="The image “http://www.ufoevidence.org/cases/pictures/thumbs/VareseItaly1950.jpg” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors." src="http://www.ufoevidence.org/cases/pictures/thumbs/VareseItaly1950.jpg" /></p> <p>At that time he thought that an aircraft in trouble because of the storm had landed and that the people were trying to do some repair, or maybe be some American pilots, repairing some new aircraft that failed and he did not know of. After watching for a while, he approached within four to five meters of the craft and offered his help:</p> <p>He then started to realize they might not be American pilots, as the beings started to converse with each other and call him in "a guttural language," and also because they moved with difficulties and made "strange gestures" at him, which he felt may be an offer to come aboard. The invitation and the realization that they were not human threw him in a state of panic.</p> <p>He told Antonio Giudicci:</p> <blockquote> <p>"I offered to help, but the only answer I received were some guttural sounds that were not understandable. I wondered what their intentions were. I had the feeling they were inviting me aboard. Suddenly I heard an uproar, like the amplified buzz of a bee, or a huge power generator. I saw another ladder in the interior of the craft, and all around, tubes, cylinders, and gauges. I understood that this was not a plane, and I was seized by panic, I started to run away."</p> <p>"I was not so close anymore when I turned my head back. I saw one of the men raise some sort of apparatus he carried at his side and beam a ray of light in my direction. I started to run again, but immediately, I felt as if I was cut in two parts by some cutting tool or by a jet of compressed air and I fell flat."</p> </blockquote> <p>Later he told to the press:</p> <blockquote> <p>"After a while I saw four beings around the disc. Two were beside the ladder. A third one seemed to attempt to weld together a group of tubes. Exactly this operation produced the strange flashing that had attracted my attention. Thinking that this was some test of a secret prototype, I approached them asking if they had need for help. The beings started to make strange gestures and emitted guttural sounds, something like "gurr... gurr..." At that moment the craft was started and it was only then that I understood that they were not human beings. Seized by panic, I started to run away. While I ran, I has a glimpse at them and I saw that one of those individuals was directing something at me."</p> </blockquote> <p>He felt pushed to the ground for several yards and knocked down. Later he said it was like feeling a strong discharge and a burning sensation on the skin of his abdomen. He stayed on the ground but looked what was going on.</p><p>Shortly afterwards, when the repairs has apparently been completed, the "American pilots" then returned to their craft, a trap through which light had been shining was closed and the craft took off sideways, making a heavy buzzing sound.</p> <p>He told Antonio Giudicci:</p> <blockquote> <p>"They seemed not to be interested in my anymore. I am convinced they only wanted to scare me and had no intention to do anything wrong to me." "They were busy in removing the scaffold and withdrawing the ladder. Then the door closed. All the lights went out. And the buzzing sound continued. Suddenly the sound became louder. The craft took off, gained speed and disappeared."</p> </blockquote> <p>Later he told to the press:</p> <blockquote> <p>"I was hit at the back by a light beam, and it had such a force that I felt pushed. I lost my equilibrium and I hit the ground, knocking my the head against a stone. Hurt, scared and [intontito. ?], I stayed on the ground without moving. In the meantime those beings were finishing their welding job. Then they all entered in the disc, it closed and went away."</p> </blockquote> <p>He stayed on the ground for a while, looking at the sky. Everything was silent again. Finally he went back home, and unsurprisingly he could not sleep very well that night.</p> <p>The following day Facchini returned to the site, because he had lost his cigarette box there when he fell. He noticed that there were some traces and four circular depressions of one-meter diameter each, arranged in a square pattern of 6 meters side length. The grass around it is burnt and lots of pieces of melted metal are on the ground.</p> <blockquote> <p>"The next morning, after a sleepless night, I went back to the location and I found four wide circular traces, a meter wide each. The grass in it was burnt. on various places on the ground, there were pieces of metal."</p></blockquote><p>Facchini then went to the police headquarters of Varese and an investigation was carried out by unmotivated policemen there and also allegedly by military technicians (the presence of military technician may well be an exaggeration of the Press.)</p> <p>The police went on location and saw the ground traces, and Facchini or the police handled the debris who were sent to the research institute for the studies of metals in Novara. The institute examined the samples and merely said they were heat-resistant, antifriction metal, which were commented as "would be ideal in space flight to face the burn-up as the craft entered the Earth's atmosphere," although it is not clear who made that comment.</p> <p>Several days after the encounter, Facchini estimated he was hurt enough to justify a visit to an MD. The MD found that Facchini had a blackened mark where the beam hit him, and this mark grew until it covered his entire back, causing him pains for a whole month. Because he was thrown to the ground when hit by the beam, he also had several normal wounds.</p> <p>The next year, some of the debris are examined again by Renato Vesco, from Genova, one of the very first Italian private UFO investigator, and Vesco concluded the samples are essentially bronze with an elevated percentage of pond and some traces of lead.</p> <p>Facchini said he never really recovered psychologically. Many ufologists visited him time and time again, to check if he really told the story they read in ufological publications, and he always did, with no changes in the account.</p> <p>In 1981, Italian ufologist Ezio Bernardini met him, and re-interviewed him. Nothing in the story had changed. Facchini told him that when he saw the moon landings on TV, he was stunned that the astronauts' suits reminded him to the suits of his visitors. He described their clothing as "diving suits" in 1950, but now he understood that they were "space suits" or earth-landing suits if you will.</p> <p>A Navy officer reported a conversation with Facchini:</p> <blockquote> <p>"You are really a luck one! I would have given a lot to be able to admire shat you saw, this technological marvel!"</p> </blockquote> <p>Facchini's answer was bitter.</p> <blockquote> <p>"Lucky, Me? If I had known how much trouble I would get from this experience, I would not have said one word about it, guaranteed!"</p><p><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SrqS7km34jI/AAAAAAAAI1A/y5GRsgndDXo/s1600-h/VareseItaly1950photos.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 241px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SrqS7km34jI/AAAAAAAAI1A/y5GRsgndDXo/s400/VareseItaly1950photos.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5384777856611508786" border="0" /></a></p> </blockquote> <h2 style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.ufologie.net/htm/abbiateguazzone.htm"><span style="font-weight: normal;">http://www.ufologie.net/htm/abbiateguazzone.htm</span></a></h2><div style="text-align: center;"><img alt="http://it.wikiufo.org/images/thumb/2/2e/Abbiate-1950d.jpg/180px-Abbiate-1950d.jpg" src="http://it.wikiufo.org/images/thumb/2/2e/Abbiate-1950d.jpg/180px-Abbiate-1950d.jpg" /><br /></div><em></em><br /><blockquote><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: rgb(51, 204, 0);font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-weight: bold;"> BRUNO FACCHINI: A FAMOUS ITALIAN CE-III WITNESS RE-VISITED </span></span><br /></div><br /> <strong><em></em></strong><em><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Ezio Bernardini</span></span>, excerpt from FSR 1987 No. 4 </em><br /><br />(C.U.N., Italian National Ufological Centre) (Translation from Italian)<br /><br />Premise<br /><br />On April 24, 1950, at a place called Abbiate Guaz-zone (Varese region — 45D 49 N., 8° 50 E.), which lies slightly to the east of Lake Maggiore in Northern Italy, the 42-year-old worker Bruno Facchini was the protagonist of a truly mind-boggling experience which, at the time, received widespread treatment both in the Italian regular press and in the "Rivista Aeronautica " (Aeronautical Review).<br /><br />Facchini, a capable and highly esteemed worker, employed at the time in a local firm, was living in a little house on the outskirts of the village. He had stepped outside from the house [and noticed a flash.] [When he went to investigate], he perceived an enormous black shadow, almost round, "like a ball flattened from above". In the middle of it there was a small ladder, from the top of which was coming a faint greenish light, and he was now able to see at close hand the source of the flashing. An individual wearing a "diver's suit" and a mask, on top of a sort of pneumatic lift, seemed to be welding something. The hull of the craft, lit by the glow from the welding, gave off metallic reflections. Two other individuals, about 1 m 70 in height, also in "divers' suits", were moving very slowly around the craft, as though hampered by the suits they were wearing. Over their faces they wore masks of the same dark colour as the "divers' suits", terminating at the level of the mouth in a tube with a little opening at the end.<br /><br />Facchini's first thought was that it was a military aircraft in difficulty (the military airfields of Vergiate and Venegono were only a few kilometres distant), and he went up and asked if he could be of any help. The response was some incomprehensible guttural sounds. Meanwhile, in the interior of the object, he had caught sight of a second ladder, and all around on the walls, tubes, cylinders, and gauges. At the same time, he noticed a noise "like the sound of a gigantic beehive".<br /><br />At that point it was that Bruno Facchini grasped that he was in the presence of no aeroplane. Seized with panic, he took to his heels.<br /><br />Turning back as he ran, he saw one of the crew point at him a sort of "photographic apparatus" that he was wearing round his neck, and shoot a beam of light at him. He felt immediately as though he had been struck by a powerful jet of compressed air and it sent him rolling on the ground. Bruised and aching, but perfectly conscious, Facchini then saw the lift descend, bringing down with it the individual with the welding equipment, and then reduce in size until it (the lift) was a sort of small box. Then the crew put it into the craft. The ladder was now drawn in and the door closed. Then the hum that Facchini had heard right at the start became louder and, a few instants later, the craft rose and vanished at a fantastic speed into the darkness of the night.<br /><br />Next day, Facchini reported the matter to the Police Station in Varese, and the Authorities started their investigations at the spot. On the ground, which was quite hard, were visible four round impressions about one metre in diameter and distant about six metres from each other and set in a square. The grass was scorched or withered, and some small fragments of metal were found at the site; probably the remains from the welding. They were of a shiny metal with a granulous surface which, when analyzed, was defined as "an anti-friction metal", very resistant to heat.<br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 204, 0);font-size:130%;" ><br /><strong style="font-weight: bold;"><em>Source</em></strong><em style="font-weight: bold;">: Ezio Bernardini, excerpt from FSR 1987 No. 4 </em></span><br /></div><p></p> <p></p></blockquote>Chuck Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01281880905938442706noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6375089974625029198.post-27263510432237343192009-09-22T18:32:00.000-07:002011-09-05T03:34:32.460-07:00UFO FYI: 1954, Madagascar<h2></h2><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: rgb(51, 204, 0);font-size:180%;" ><span style="font-weight: bold;">TANANARIVE, MADAGASCAR 1954<br /><br /></span></span><div style="text-align: left;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/Srl_55AsA8I/AAAAAAAAIyA/lZx69XT852o/s1600-h/800px-LocationMadagascar.svg.png"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 160px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/Srl_55AsA8I/AAAAAAAAIyA/lZx69XT852o/s320/800px-LocationMadagascar.svg.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5384475462031115202" border="0" /></a>Madagascar, or Republic of Madagascar (older name Malagasy Republic, French: République malgache), is an island nation in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern coast of Africa. The main island, also called Madagascar, is the fourth-largest island in the world, and is home to 5% of the world's plant and animal species, of which more than 80% are endemic to Madagascar.[citation needed] They include the lemur infraorder of primates, the carnivorous fossa, three bird families and six baobab species. Two thirds of the population live below the international poverty line of US $1.25 a day.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 204, 0);">From UFO Phenomenon at Close Sight:</span><br /></div></div><br />On August 16, 1954, at 05:00pm, an event stupefied tens of thousands of witnesses at Tananarive, Madagascar (The number of potential witness is an estimated 200,000).<p> </p><p>At 05:00pm, Air France's agency personal awaited the arrival of the air mail, delivered by a Lockheed Constellation. One hour after the arrival of the Constellation, the mail has already been distributed and members of the Air France agency, among which Mr. Edmond Campagnac, former military officer and at that time technical director of Air France in Tananarive were quietly chatting together, close to the Avenue of the Liberation, the largest street in Tananarive. </p><p>Sudden somebody sees in the sky a "electric green ball" descending straight towards the ground near the Palais de la Reine. He points at it and everybody watches. The phenomenon disappears behind a hill, and they all expect to hear a mighty explosion when the thing hit the ground. </p><p>But the green light does not hit the ground. </p><p>The green ball reappears a minute afterwards, bigger. It makes a circle over the higher parts of Tananarive, a city built on and inside a series of hills with a "horseshoe" Configuration. The thing then proceeds to fly above Avenue of the Liberation, at an altitude of some 50 to 150 meters in front of tens of thousands of amazed inhabitants. When it flew in front of the Air France personal, they could all get a good look at it. Mr. Campagnac realized that the "electric green light" looks like a kind of lens shaped plasma, of approximately 40 meters length, the "size of a DC4 aircraft." This green lens is closely followed by a flying machine with a distinct silvery metallic aspect and the shape of a football, also 40 meter long, At the back of this metal machine, bluish exhaust flames are seen. </p><p>The craft was totally silent. M. Campagnac, in his testimony, which he often publicly offered, explains that the craft did not even make the sound of swishing a flyier would make through the air. </p><p>In this case, it is noticeable that the estimate of altitude is not subject to doubts: indeed, while flying above the buildings of Avenue de la Libération, the craft also passed in front of the hills in the background, not with the sky as background. </p><p>Several physical phenomena were observed: first of all, the witnesses in the whole city could note that public lights and shop lights died out exactly at the moment the craft passed above them, and functioned again at once behind its passage. </p><p>Then the inhabitants quickly noticed that barnyard animals, dogs in the whole city, were howling or barking. At one time during its travel above the city, the UFO flew above the animal park where peasants keep the animals to be sold at daytime at the city's markets. All these animals entered a state of total panic when the object flew over them, though when airplanes flew over them as usually, for example the "Constellation" one hour before, the animals did never show any such reaction, although airplanes are noisy and the UFO, again, was totally silent. </p><p>After having flown over Tananarive, the machine set out towards the West. Two or three minutes after, the estimate while being with this approximation, a similar machine or the same machine was observed at 150 kilometers South of Tananarive above a farm school. There again, the herds were seized by panic. The farm director had to call for reinforcements in order to bring back the animals which run away in all directions, risking death in marshes. It is this call to reinforcements which made the witnesses of Tananarive aware of this second observation.<br /></p><p>If the craft observed at 150 km South was the same one as that of Tananarive, which its description suggests, although one cannot absolutely prove it, then its speed was to be about 3000 km/h. According to the statements of Air France the personal, General Fleurquin, commander-in-chief of the French Air Force in Madagascar, gathered a scientific team to carry out an investigation of the phenomena. No trace of this investigation could be found in the Air Force records, however issue #6 of the GEPA bulletin (Group of Studies of the Aerospace Phenomena) in the 2nd half of 1964 described this observation. Mr. Campagnac remembers perfectly that it is a Jesuit clergyman, Revend Coze, director of the astronomical observatory of Tananarive, who has been given the task to carry out the survey and record the testimonies, including those of Air France people and also those of Malgaches peasants. This gathering of testimonies also brought out that the UFO phenomenon did already manifest itself to the Malgache people on several occasions in the past years, but went ignored as no one cared to ask until now. </p><p>Mr. Edmond Campagnac, at the time technical director of Air France in Tananarive, took part in the study of the case for the COMETA committee. He expressed himself repeatedly and very precisely on this case, including of the French TV, and recently again at a televised debate concerning UFOS on the documentary cable TV channel "Planète Forum" in 2001, supported by Jean-Jacques Vélasco, director of SEPRA, the official French UFO investigation team. </p><p>Because of this exceptional occurrence, M. Catagnac's life was not fundamentally perturbated, but indeed as he has a scientific background, he wanted to learn more on the topic of UFOs, and in particular, he wanted to search in the military records of the French Gendarmerie, was granted a clearance to access classified files, and learned about many other significant sightings. But this is another story. </p><p>Mr. Campagnac remembers that at the time of the investigation the possibility that it has been a top secret prototype of a new human flying device, for example a Soviet prototype, has been considered. But now as time went by and as we know of the history of aviation development, we clearly can rule out that any such craft was in the possibility of any countries in 1954. No "secret plane", even as of today, has anything in common with the craft in this event, visually, or by its performances, its operation, its behavior. </p><p>Jean Jacques Vélasco has checked and commented the case and points out its interesting features: </p><ul><p> </p><li>The trajectory of the object, descending from a high altitude vertically to the ground, then showing up again instead of crashing and flying above the ground at low altitude over the city.</li><li>The physical phenomenon of public and private lightings dying out as the UFO was passing above, and the return to normal lighting when he went further.</li><li>Phenomena of the animals reactions.</li><li>The possibility of the correct estimate of the size because the object passed in front of the hills in the background.</li><li>The huge number of witnesses.</li><li>The heterogeneous cultural background of the witness: "Mr. Campagnac might have read about UFOs in Science-Fiction literature, but it is rather doubtful that the Malgaches peasants were all under the influence of US Science Fiction pulps."</li><li>The fact that the case does not occur in the United States or a European country, suspected to be a sociological terrain to made up UFO stories, but in a far away Island, is an indication that good UFO cases exist all around the world.</li></ul> <p>I would like to add some personal comments: </p><p>The flight path of the object might have been driven by a logic, as the object first descended vertically to the ground, and then seemed to have performed a "sightseeing tour" of Tananarive. </p><p>The visual aspect of the object seems to indicate some advanced technology at work. </p><p>Here, admittedly, we have only an observation of a flying object, and no observation of its possible occupants. However, the most economical assumption, the simplest and the only suggested simple assumption that matches the data is that this was an extraterrestrial flying machine. Admittedly, one can consider other assumptions, some parapsychological phenomenon in which a whole city would have been exposed to a mass hallucination, but this kind of assumption is not only very expensive, it calls into question all that we assume about the very nature of reality. Also, due to their very nature, these kind of rather "metaphysical" theorization lack, for now, any possibility of experimentation, one can hardly see which kind of scientific research or experiment could be undertaken for either confirming, or invalidating it. </p><p>On the contrary, by considering the hypothesis that this could have been an extraterrestrial machine, if only as a "working hypothesis", we could, by investing a minimum of technical means at it, not only carry again a double-check survey of this case, but also elaborate a project of detection of the physical traces of this type of phenomena on a larger scale, not only for military use, but also in order to give the possibility to the scientists to get physical data, radar traces, and also infrared traces, electromagnetic, electrical, photographic traces, for the cases to come.</p><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 204, 0);">The following article was published in the daily newspaper Fandrosoam-Baovao, Madagascar, on January 21, 1955:<br /></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">COULD THAT BE FLYING SAUCER VISITING MADAGASCAR?</span> <br /><br />It is for the third time that it was heard of flying saucer visiting Madagascar. The first was seen above Fort-Dauphon in September 1954 at about 4 in the morning, the second above Tananarive towards the end of the year which has just passed, and the third above Majunga according to the communiqué received below: <br /><br />One evening, between 07:30 P.M and 07:45 P.M., a round and luminous object was seen above the coast of the district of Majunga and Mitsinjo, and it is Mr. Quesnot, chief of the district of Mitsinjo himself which was one of the eyewitnesses. It is a flat object, a very luminous disc, of green blue color and the size of the Moon which was seen above Majunga. <br /><br />It came from the North-East and slipped by at a vertiginous speed so that in very little time it was not visible any more. Few moments after, it was seen in Mitsinjo and had a luminosity so bright that all the areas which it flew over were illuminated. It took the Western direction, towards the sea, and disappeared. Mr Quesnot said to have observed the progession of this object during nearly eight seconds. It has been already a few days that this flying saucer appeared.<p> </p><br /><br /><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /> </p>Chuck Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01281880905938442706noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6375089974625029198.post-71756090050010587662009-09-22T16:55:00.001-07:002011-09-05T03:34:32.466-07:00UFO FYI<span style="font-size: 180%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">1974-Abduction at Medicine Bow National Park</span></span><br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">(<span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);">B J Booth- UFO Casebook</span> <span style="font-style: italic;">and</span> </span></span><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0); font-size: 130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">About Dot Com</span></span><span style="font-size: 130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">) This very interesting</span></span> case took place in Medicine Bow National Forest, Wyoming. On October 25, 1974, one Carl Higdon was elk hunting in the northern section of the park. As he shot his rifle at an elk nearby, a most bizarre thing happened. The bullet traveled in slow motion, as if he had entered another dimension. It fell some 50 feet away, dropping into the snow covered landscape. He was able to recover the bullet. He felt a strange sensation over his body. To his utter shock and amazement, he saw a humanoid entity standing nearby.<br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpr6YNzmrOg7lE2FYI5ipI3zzvyj4IooC6rbfHOQxpqLMokRHOBxuFg2oaWnLrqsJzT48YWxIZ5wYqqwF7OiGh_2L1Dge2YXCvJVfcjv_brWt29uD8AC7mRjDhLT9CqwQMtxpRSa9c-bM/s1600-h/higdon10.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 222px; height: 291px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpr6YNzmrOg7lE2FYI5ipI3zzvyj4IooC6rbfHOQxpqLMokRHOBxuFg2oaWnLrqsJzT48YWxIZ5wYqqwF7OiGh_2L1Dge2YXCvJVfcjv_brWt29uD8AC7mRjDhLT9CqwQMtxpRSa9c-bM/s320/higdon10.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5374784588092790978" border="0" /></a>The humanoid was quite tall, at over six feet in height. He was clad in a black jump suit with a wide belt. The belt was decorated with a six-pointed star and emblem of yellow. With straight hair standing out from his head, he had no eyebrows. He stood bow-legged, with long arms ending with rod-like appendages instead of hands. The humanoid spoke to Higdon, asking him if he was hungry. The entity threw some pills to him, telling him if he took one, he would not have to eat for 4 days. Higdon normally did not take any type of pills, yet he swallowed one of the offerings immediately. It was surmised that the entity was smart enough to realize that Higdon may have been hungry, or else he would not have been hunting elk.<br /><br /><br /><div class="pDsc"><span class="pCo"><span style="font-weight: bold;">A Distant Planet:</span> </span>He then saw two more alien beings, and five elk that Higdon had been hunting earlier in the day. The elk showed no signs of life-they appeared to be frozen in their tracks. Higdon was told that the aliens had traveled the distance of 163,000 light years, arriving in a flash. Soon, the alien <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSzd5EFrjxO1PWyEQc9Jzv-yiyoDakjZ73S4OHgRJZtWFRa5o1xDHvOV0zQnE59vDU-8fuX2t-qZGnpBMno9HocX9sM0IGfYKwWglM9L4j261jauQV6-VAQlyhO1QwONpIHtGtd2Hp_xs/s1600-h/higdonbullet.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 163px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSzd5EFrjxO1PWyEQc9Jzv-yiyoDakjZ73S4OHgRJZtWFRa5o1xDHvOV0zQnE59vDU-8fuX2t-qZGnpBMno9HocX9sM0IGfYKwWglM9L4j261jauQV6-VAQlyhO1QwONpIHtGtd2Hp_xs/s200/higdonbullet.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5374787700942422450" border="0" /></a>pointed toward Higdon, and the next thing he knew, he was enclosed within a transparent apparatus, with a helmet on. Also present were two more humanoids, and the five elk he was previously stalking. The elk were in a frozen state. He was told that the aliens were traveling to their home planet, located some 163,000 light years away. In a flash, they arrived at the distant location.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Suddenly</span>, all of them, including Higdon were at the alien planet. The planet looked very modernistic, with buildings that Higdon said looked like the Seattle Space Needle. The planet's sun was of great intensity, which hurt his eyes. The next thing the hunter knew, he was back in Medicine Bow Park.<br /><br /></div><div class="pDsc"><span style="font-weight: bold;" class="pCo">Pickup Truck Relocated: </span>Over two hours had passed since Higdon had first seen the alien. When he arrived back at his original location, he felt cold and disoriented. At first, he could not locate his pick-up truck, finally finding it three miles from its original location. It was stuck in the mud. He called for help on his CB radio. Soon, the local sheriff arrived, and could easily see that Higdon was in a state of hysteria, and was exhausted. He was shouting, "They took my elk!" He was taken for medical care to a local hospital. His blood work showed he had a highly elevated level of vitamins, probably from the pill he had taken. The most fascinating aspect of his tests was that tuberculosis scars on his lungs were now gone! Further investigation into the <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6B3NLcocCl9LOdulLr4mMc38-ZQ6BlFiOVeNtAyQjBSDP87c0-EnWtXV650E7k4pKCcsjrf8SD9jPTMc_DP9ogqTvQlXyuPl5lbyzParLB2ntfJjGnmjPR1-INQnszQT7dAGGKdsxtBE/s1600-h/higdonmagazine.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 246px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6B3NLcocCl9LOdulLr4mMc38-ZQ6BlFiOVeNtAyQjBSDP87c0-EnWtXV650E7k4pKCcsjrf8SD9jPTMc_DP9ogqTvQlXyuPl5lbyzParLB2ntfJjGnmjPR1-INQnszQT7dAGGKdsxtBE/s320/higdonmagazine.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5374788869968224178" border="0" /></a>details surrounding the bizarre encounter revealed that Higdon's wife, along with two other people, had seen a red-green-white flashing light moving in the area of the sighting.<br /></div><br />The case was investigated by Dr. Leo Sprinkle, Professor of Psychology, University of Wyoming. Also included were Rick Kenyon, and Robert Nantkes, MUFON field investigators, and Frank Bourke, National Star Investigator.<p><span style="font-size: 100%; color: white;"> </span></p><span class="pCo"><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Real Thing?</span> </span>The case of Carl Higdon seems more like a script from a bad science fiction movie, and there is not really enough evidence to confirm such an incredible story. It is interesting, but belongs in the folklore category more than anywhere else.</div>Chuck Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01281880905938442706noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6375089974625029198.post-91288444907874101332009-09-22T13:57:00.000-07:002011-09-05T03:34:32.473-07:00UFO FYI WTF: 1947- The Maury Island Charade<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SrlPI5xJ17I/AAAAAAAAIvg/GZAVWpk2J-o/s1600-h/kenthomasbookcover.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 205px; height: 320px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SrlPI5xJ17I/AAAAAAAAIvg/GZAVWpk2J-o/s320/kenthomasbookcover.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5384421843862673330" border="0" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;">SOURCES:</span><br />Wikipedia<br />UFO Casebook<br />UFOs at Close Sight<br />How Stuff Works<br />UFOs Northwest: <a href="http://www.ufosnw.com/history.htm">http://www.ufosnw.com/history.htm</a><br /><br /><p style="line-height: 100%;" align="left"><span style="font-family:Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="bodytext"> This incident actually happened before the Kenneth Arnold sighting, but was not as well known to the media. (The incident was said to have occurred on June 21, 1947.) The incident happened at Maury Island (near Seattle, Washington) and involved a sighting by Harold A. Dahl who saw six donut shaped ufos. Dahl took a few photos of the UFOs, and then one appeared to explode and then ejected some materials which dropped into the Puget Sound. Dahl said that the debris killed his dog and injured his son resulting a trip to the hospital. Dahl reported the sighting to his supervisor Fred Crisman. Dahl collected some of the debris and mailed it to Chicago publisher Raymond Palmer. Palmer subsequently called Kenneth Arnold and asked him to investigate the sighting. Arnold flew to Tacoma from Boise to investigate the sighting in late July, 1947. The investigation was inconclusive and thought to be a hoax. However, later investigators have shown that the sighting may not have been a hoax. This was compounded by the fact that it was later learned that Fred Crisman was actually a CIA agent. Air </span><span class="style5">Force Officers later arrived via </span><span class="bodytext">A B25</span><span class="style5"> aircraft to the study the incident. The Air Force officers picked up some of the debris, but the B25 crashed on their way back from McChord Air Force Base to Hamilton Field.<br /></span></span></p><p style="line-height: 100%;" align="left"><span style="font-family:Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="style5"></span><span class="bodytext"> <b>Suggested readings/Resources:</b></span></span></p><p style="line-height: 100%;" align="left"><span style="font-family:Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="bodytext"><b> 1. </b>"<i>Maury Island UFO: The Crisman Conspiracy</i>" by Kenn Thomas.<br /> <strong>2.</strong> <a href="http://www.ufosnw.com/history_of_ufo/mauryisland1947/mauryisland1947.htm">Detailed Maury Island Incident Report</a></span> <span class="bodytext"><br /> <strong>3.</strong> </span></span>"<em>Coming of The Saucers</em>" by Kenneth Arnold and Raymond Palmer<br /> <strong>4.</strong> <a href="http://www.ufosnw.com/news_items/mauryisland1947/b25crashdebris.htm">Seattle Museum of Mysteries Press Release on B25 Crash</a>. (April 17, 2007)<br /> <strong>5.</strong> Seattle Post-Intelligencer Article. (April 26, 2007)<br /> <a href="http://www.ufosnw.com/news_items/mauryisland1947/seapiarticle04262007.pdf" target="_blank">UFO Crash Debris Recovered From B25 Likely Meteor or Lava Rock</a> (PDF)<br /> <strong>6.</strong> Vashon-Maury Island Beachcomber (June 20, 2007)<br /> <a href="http://www.ufosnw.com/news_items/vashonbeachcomber06202007/mauryislandufo60yrs.htm">Maury Island Incident Revisited 60 Years Later. The Mystery Lingers.</a></p><br /><span style="font-size:180%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Maury Island Incident</span></span> is said to be an early modern UFO encounter incident, which allegedly took place in June 1947, three days before the famous sighting by Kenneth Arnold, widely considered the original encounter with flying saucers. It is also one of the earliest reported instances of an alleged encounter with so-called Men in Black. Opinions remain divided on whether the case was a genuine flying saucer sighting, a hoax or an attempt to cover up the leak of an advanced, classified aerospace project.<br /><br />The story surfaced from Ray Palmer (editor of Amazing Stories), regarding a man called Fred Crisman who claimed to have actual physical evidence of a flying saucer, July 31, 1947. Palmer passed the story onto Kenneth Arnold, who was investigating UFO reports in the Northwest.<br /><br />The incident took place shortly after June 21, 1947. On that date, seaman Harold A. Dahl, out scavenging for drifting logs, claimed to have seen six UFOs near Maury Island (which is now a peninsula of Vashon Island, in Puget Sound, near Tacoma, Washington, United States; Maury Island is located directly across a narrow section of Puget Sound from Sea-Tac International Airport and Boeing Field). Dahl, his son Charles, an unnamed hand and Dahl's dog were on the boat. Dahl reported seeing four, five or six (the initial FBI report says four or five) "doughnut-shaped objects" flying in formation over the area where his boat was. He said he could see blue sky through the holes in the center of the discs, and that there appeared to be port holes lining the inside of the ring. One of the craft appeared to be malfunctioning, Dahl reported, and another craft edged up to it, then retreated. At this point the troubled craft began ejecting objects through the inner port holes. Slag-like material began hitting the boat and damaged the windshield, the wheel house and a light fixture, and killed his dog on the deck. He said his son was also slightly injured by falling debris. Dahl claimed to have taken a number of photographs of the UFOs, and recovered some type of slag ejected from the craft that malfunctioned.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SrlGLRJCHjI/AAAAAAAAIvY/N92jr5TcnkI/s1600-h/wlt872.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 147px; height: 200px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SrlGLRJCHjI/AAAAAAAAIvY/N92jr5TcnkI/s200/wlt872.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5384411988891934258" border="0" /></a>Dahl also recovered samples of sheaves of lightweight white sheets of metal that fluttered like "newspapers" out from the inner ring of the troubled UFO to the ground. The next morning, Dahl reported, a man arrived at his home and invited him to breakfast at a nearby diner; Dahl accepted the invitation. He described the man as wearing a black suit and driving a new 1947 Buick; Dahl assumed he was a military or government representative. Dahl claimed the man told him details of the UFO sighting while they ate, though Dahl had not related his account publicly. The man also allegedly gave Dahl a non-specific warning which Dahl took as a threat that his family might be harmed if he related details of the sighting.<br /><br />In spite of the threat Dahl had reported the incident to his employee at his sawmill operation, Fred Crisman, who had long claimed to have experience with unusual phenomena (and who was later alleged to be linked to the John F. Kennedy assassination) and who also was the owner of the boat Dahl used, or co-owner with Dahl. Crisman and Dahl also had a joint-venture to retrieve drifting logs from the Puget Sound as a source of raw lumber. Crisman sailed to the island the following day and said he spotted a craft briefly, but it went behind a cloud. He gathered more of the slag which he found littering the beach area. He then sent a sample to Chicago with a request it be tested. According to the FBI report, Crisman either sent it to Ray Palmer, science fiction writer and editor of Amazing Science Fiction, or sent it to a friend at the University of Chicago who failed to identify the material and then sent it on to Ray Palmer. While the "rock formation" was being passed around in Chicago, the famous sighting by Kenneth Arnold took place at Mount Rainier in Washington State. Palmer contacted Arnold and asked him to investigate the incident for the story Arnold was writing for one of Palmer's publications.<br /><br />Arnold interviewed Crisman an his associate Harold Dahl who claimed they were harbour patrolmen (their first lie). Crisman reported that they had seen a doughnut-shaped craft dump piles of slaglike material on the beach of Maury Island in Puget Sound. The next morning a mysterious man in black had threatened Dahl, who claimed the man said 'I know a great deal more about this experience of yours than you will want to believe.' During the meetings over several days, an unknown person (the FBI agent who wrote up the main report on the incident believed Crisman was the most likely suspect) began leaking details of the UFO sighting at Maury Island, the meeting in the hotel room and details of the conversation there to reporters at the Tacoma Times and at United Press, the latter reporter also working for Tacoma News Tribune.<br /><br />The 2 men showed Arnold the material who in turn contacted an Army Air Force intelligence officer, Lieutenant Frank Brown, who flew up from Hamilton Field in California in the company of another Air Force officer. The 2 Air Force officers immediately recognised the material as ordinary aluminium but did not say so in front of Arnold due to the fact that he would feel embarrassed. While flying back to Hamilton, their B-25 caught fire and crashed, killing both officers. Crisman and Dahl later confessed to investigators that they had made up the story.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://www.seattlechatclub.org/B25gif" height="380" width="469" /><br /></div><br />Before his death Crisman changed the Maury Incident story to that of an American Plane dropping radioactive waste instead of a UFO dropping unknown substances.<br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 204, 0); font-style: italic;">(Fred L Crisman was born 1920 in Washington, the only child of Fred Crisman and his wife Eva Pitchers, both from Iowa. His father was a salesman. In the mid-1940s, his name appears in the pages of pulp magazines, reporting on his own Shaver Mystery experiences via letters to the editor, warning of a threat from subterranean-dwelling "Deros," or "detrimental robots." He claimed to have encountered the beings while fighting as a commando in Burma during World War II, and wrote that he sustained injuries from a futuristic laser weapon.)</span><br /><br />The plane carrying the two investigators and the slag crashed near Kelso, Washington, shortly after leaving Tacoma, killing both men. In April 2007 it was reported that the crash site had been rediscovered and some material recovered, although the initial military investigation did recover exhibits and remove the bodies. The FBI report notes that investigators from McChord Field near Tacoma had investigated the wreckage and were convinced there was no sabotage involved. The FBI report further mentions that two other people on board the airplane survived by parachuting from the airplane after it lost its left wing and the tail section due to a fire in the left engine. One of the survivors was named as a member of the flight crew and the other was referred to as "a hitch-hiker." The Seattle Post-Intelligencer identified them as Sergeant Elmer L. Taft and Technical Sergeant Woodrow D. Matthews. Initially the Air Force denied the men had been carrying a secret cargo, but in later years admitted that they had been officially investigating the Dahl report.<br /><br />Crisman alerted Arnold of the crash early the next morning and Dahl and Crisman returned to the hotel to discuss the situation with Arnold. Arnold had invited another person, accidentally identified in the FOI copy of the FBI report as a Mr. Smith of Seattle (probably Captain E. H. Smith (elsewhere E. J. Smith) of United Airlines, identified in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer article under External links below), to Tacoma to attend the UFO conference, and this informant related to the FBI field agent that a Mr. Lantz (elsewhere identified as Paul Lance) of the Tacoma Times contacted Arnold at the hotel and informed him of the leaks, including information that the Army intelligence officers had been shot down in the B-25 airplane over Kelso by 20 mm cannon, and that a Marine airplane whose wreck that had allegedly been found earlier at Mt. Rainier had also been shot down with the same weapon. The anonymous caller claimed knowledge of on-going investigations by military intelligence.<br /><br />Asked to produce the photographs he had made of the UFOs over Maury Island, Dahl and the group left the hotel and went to Dahl's automobile parked outside. Dahl then claimed the photographs had disappeared from his glove compartment. Initially he had said the photographs didn't turn out and were marred by white spots that appeared on them.<br /><br />Alarmed by the deaths, Dahl disappeared, although the FBI report mentions his son, allegedly injured by the slag from the malfunctioning UFO, had run away from home to Montana for some reason. The anonymous caller informed the press that one of the two witnesses would shortly be sent to Alaska. Crisman, a WWII veteran, was recalled to service hastily and sent to Alaska (A UFO was spotted northwest of Bethel, Alaska on August 4 by Captain Jack Peck and copilot Vince Daly from a Douglas DC-3 they operated for Al Jones flying service and was reported to the headquarters of the Fourth Air Force in Hamilton, California and the Air Defense Command commander at Mitchell Field in New York.), then posted to Greenland (Thule Air Force Base figures in Milton William Cooper's "Behold a Pale Horse" as a Majestic 12/Operation Majority control terminus). Arnold found himself unable to complete the story for Palmer. Arnold decided to fly home. He stopped for fuel in Pendleton, Oregon, and shortly after taking off again, his engine froze in mid-air. He managed to land the plane safely despite the emergency.<br /><br />This event took place at the very beginning of the modern phase of UFO sightings, usually connected with Kenneth Arnold's report from Mount Rainier and the Roswell incident. It contains elements that became embedded in UFOlogy until now, including men in black, what appeared to be a government cover up, mysterious disappearance of physical evidence, mysterious disappearances of eye witnisses (Dahl and Crisman), mysterious deaths and inexplicable situations. Was it a hoax? If so, whose? Dahl claimed the mysterious dark man driving the black 1947 Buick who visited him retold the events on the boat as if he had been there, although Dahl himself hadn't related the story publicly at that point. Dahl began denying the story only after the two Army Air intelligence officers died in the B-25 crash. Dahl and Crisman told the FBI investigator they had concocted the story at the urging of Ray Palmer who wanted the mysterious rock formation to have originated on an alien saucer. They claimed to be playing along with Palmer who wanted a story to publish, and yet the FBI agent also notes that Dahl and Crisman were "obviously" not telling all they knew and were attempting to cover something up.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 204, 0);">(Crisman next appears in Tacoma in the late 1960s, railing against the city's form of government (i.e. City Manager). He hosted a radio talk show under the pseudonym "Jon Gold," and wrote a self-published book, <span style="font-style: italic;">The Murder of a City, Tacoma</span>. He was appointed by the mayor to serve on the Tacoma Public Library board. During this period, he was subpoenaed by Jim Garrison to testify in the case against Clay Shaw in the John F. Kennedy assassination. When Shaw was arrested, Crisman was the first person he called, apparently. Various conspiracy theories place Crisman on the grassy knoll, possibly as a radio operator, or as one of the three tramps taken into custody near Dealey Plaza. However, a log from Rainier High School where Crisman taught shows no substitute was required for Crisman on the day of the assassination, supporting Crisman's claim that he was teaching. His Grand Jury testimony is now public, and in Murder of a City, Tacoma, Crisman claimed no knowledge of a conspiracy, nor was he called as a witness in the actual trial. Crisman died in 1975.)</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 204, 0);"><br /></span><p></p><span style="font-size:180%;">From How Stuff Works</span><br /><a href="http://science.howstuffworks.com/maury-island-incident.htm">http://science.howstuffworks.com/maury-island-incident.htm</a><br /><br />From the beginning of the UFO phenomenon, the urge to spin yarns proved irresistible to some. Like weeds in saucerdom's fertile ground, UFO hoaxes, tall tales, rumors, and other silliness sprouted and spread. One of the most notorious -- and successful -- liars, the late Fred L. Crisman, actually bridged the gap between the Shaver mystery and the UFO mystery. Crisman first surfaced in a letter published in the May 1947 issue of Amazing Stories, in which he claimed to have shot his way out of a cave full of deros with a submachine gun. Palmer next heard from him the following July. This time Crisman said he had actual physical evidence of a flying saucer.<br /><br />Palmer passed the story on to Kenneth Arnold, who was investigating reports in the Pacific Northwest. Arnold interviewed Crisman and an associate, Harold Dahl. The two men showed the material to Arnold. In a state of high excitement Arnold contacted an Army Air Force intelligence officer of his acquaintance, Lt. Frank M. Brown, who quickly flew up from Hamilton Field in California in the company of another officer. The moment they saw the material, their interest in it evaporated: It was ordinary aluminum. Embarrassed for Arnold, the officers left without telling him their conclusions.<br /><br />While flying back to Hamilton, their B-25 caught fire and crashed, killing both officers. Though Crisman and Dahl subsequently confessed to other Air Force investigators that they had made up the story, the legend would live on for decades afterward. Some writers- including Arnold and Palmer, who wrote a book about the case- hinted that the officers died because they knew too much. But to Capt. Edward Ruppelt of Project Blue Book, the Maury Island incident was the "dirtiest hoax in UFO history." Years later Crisman's name would reemerge in another contentious context. In December 1968, while investigating what he believed to be a high-level conspiracy to murder President John F. Kennedy, New Orleans district attorney Jim Garrison called Crisman to testify before a grand jury. Some early assassination-conspiracy theorists would identify Crisman (falsely) as one of the three mysterious "hoboes" arrested and photographed shortly after the shooting in Dallas. Before his death Crisman was peddling a new, improved, UFO-less version of the Maury Island story. He now claimed that the "truth" involved, not flying doughnuts dropping slag, but something even more dangerous: illegal dumping by military aircraft of radioactive waste into the harbor. Though this tale was no less tall than his earlier one, it has already entered UFO literature as the "solution" to the Maury Island "mystery."<br /><br /><p></p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;font-size:180%;"></span><span style="font-size:180%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Man From Tomorrow </span></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">By Richard Toronto</span><br /><a href="http://efanzines.com/EK/eI41/index.htm">http://efanzines.com/EK/eI41/index.htm</a><br /> <br />John Keel was royally pissed when Raymond A. Palmer’s front door shut abruptly in his face one chilly New Year’s eve in Amherst, Wisconsin. Keel had made the trek to Palmer’s idyllic country farm hoping for an interview. Palmer, known fondly to devoted fans and friends as “Rap,” was editor of Flying Saucers magazine, the first trade zine ever to have the words “flying saucer” in the title. Rap was something of a living legend – or rogue, depending on your point of view – as a publisher of pulp science fiction and flying saucer zines. Long story short, Keel went back to his motel that night empty handed. Palmer’s son, also named Ray but with a different middle initial, recalled the long ago incident.<p></p> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;">“We used to have New Year’s parties at the house. About 60 to 80 people would come. One year, around seven o’clock at night, just as our guests were arriving, this guy (Keel) comes to the door. He wants to interview my dad. And my dad said ‘Well, we’re having a party and I just don’t have the time.’ Normally my dad would always sit down and talk to somebody. Well this guy got all mad … and he left. Since that time he never wrote a nice thing about dad.” 1 </span></p> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;">Keel, a former writer for TV, is best known for his speculative UFO books with Fortean overtones. Hollywood even bought movie rights to his book <i>The Mothman Prophesies,</i> casting Richard Gere as John Keel. Though it must be interesting to see Richard Gere being you on the big screen, this has nothing to do with our story. </span></p> <table align="right" border="0" cellpadding="15" cellspacing="0" width="50"> <tbody><tr> <td align="center"><p><a href="http://efanzines.com/EK/eI41/RAP/shavermysterymag48.jpg"><img src="http://efanzines.com/EK/eI41/RAP/shavermysterymag48_s.jpg" height="225" width="146" /></a></p> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;font-size:85%;">The cover from an old <i>Shaver Mystery Magazine</i> (Vol. 2 #1, 1948) depicting the Maury Island Saucer scene, but all I have is a Xerox copy, so it leaves something to be desired. Original issues of the <i>SMM</i> are pretty rare. </span></p></td> </tr> </tbody></table> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;">Some years after the front door incident in Amherst, Keel published a scathing article titled <i>The Man Who Invented Flying Saucers.</i> 2 It concerned a certain science fiction fan who went on to become the editor of a very famous science fiction pulp magazine. The editor eventually warped the minds of readers throughout the land with talk of flying saucers and malevolent entities living inside the Earth. Through these and other clever means the sf editor created a flying saucer mythos that still haunts us on TV “sightings” shows and in scores of Whitney Strieber books.</span></p> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;">The editor—purely by accident Keel noted—tapped into the psyches of millions of Americans to implant the shape, source and behavior of flying saucers—simply by writing about them. As an added bonus, the editor sold more copies of his sf magazine and got a big fat raise from his boss for doing so. Something called The Shaver Mystery seems to have really ticked Keel off too, and he ranted about that with escalating disdain for several paragraphs.</span></p> <table align="left" border="0" cellpadding="15" cellspacing="0" width="50"> <tbody><tr> <td align="center"><p><a href="http://efanzines.com/EK/eI41/RAP/airwonder_3004.jpg"><img src="http://efanzines.com/EK/eI41/RAP/airwonder_3004_s.jpg" height="225" width="159" /></a></p> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;font-size:85%;"><i>Air Wonder Stories</i>, April 1930, a pre-RAP flying saucer.</span></p></td> </tr> </tbody></table> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;">In any case, the article was a hit, if not hit <i>piece</i>, and became source material for other writers who spawned subsequent articles that have transformed the sf editor into a kind of Svengali to mentally disturbed crackpots everywhere, who believe aliens from space control their thoughts. Long story short—if it were not for the sf editor, there would have been no flying saucers as we know them; no abductions, no underground bases, no alien probes, no men in black, and come to think of it, probably no X-Files.</span></p> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;">That editor, Keel wrote, was Raymond A. Palmer, the diminutive but spunky host of that New Year’s Eve party in Amherst.</span></p> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;">At this point, one might pause to ask just how a pulp science fiction writer could possibly become the cultish leader of millions of gullible … What? Who? Have I ever heard of L. Ron Hubbard?? Jeez. Okay, let’s move on.</span></p> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;">To get to the bottom of this alleged plot to invent flying saucers, we should take a closer look at the source of all the hoopla; the man who by his own admission was the world’s first flying saucer investigator. He was a mystic, a libertarian, did not support labor unions and was a foe to what eventually became known as Establishment Thinking. He was a pioneer who fought hard for what he believed in, if, indeed, he believed in anything. And he did. Too much and too little has been said about Ray Palmer, both pro and con and yet he remains an enigma to sf history. After his death in 1977, the bulk of his monumental collection of UFO case files was purchased by CUFOS, the flying saucer research organization founded by Dr. J. Allen Hynek of Illinois University. </span></p> <table align="center" border="0" cellpadding="15" cellspacing="0" width="50"> <tbody><tr> <td align="center"><p><a href="http://efanzines.com/EK/eI41/RAP/BlochPalmerLouieSampliner.jpg"><img src="http://efanzines.com/EK/eI41/RAP/BlochPalmerLouieSampliner_s.jpg" height="225" width="380" /></a></p> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;font-size:85%;">Robert Bloch, Raymond Palmer, and Louie Samplner.</span></p></td> </tr> </tbody></table> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;">Flying saucers were not Rap’s only interest by any means. He was one of the first to bang the drum on the dangers of atomic testing and its debilitating worldwide fallout. He suspected it was altering the weather. He wrote extensively about the Atomic Energy Commission and questioned the charter under which it operated in such articles as “The <u>Truth</u> about Atomic Energy” in <i>Mystic</i> magazine: </span></p> <table align="right" border="0" cellpadding="15" cellspacing="0" width="50"> <tbody><tr> <td align="center"><a href="http://efanzines.com/EK/eI41/RAP/rap.jpg"><img src="http://efanzines.com/EK/eI41/RAP/rap_s.jpg" height="225" width="186" /></a></td> </tr> </tbody></table> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;">“This is an article you should read very carefully,” he warned. “…because it is the most important article you will ever read! …its purpose is to challenge those men (soldiers, politicians and scientists) who have taken the destiny of the world into their hands.” 4 </span></p> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;">Rap used this kind of rhetoric in all of his crusades. His fiery intensity made it seem important, and he wanted readers to pause and think. Maybe not accept, but at least give it a thought. It was emblematic of Palmer’s “larger social responsibility” as Rap biographer Jim Pobst put it.<br /> <br />“My father’s pet peeve about many people was that they did not think for themselves,” Palmer’s son explained. “He promoted space travel, education, genetic engineering, clean air and water, less destructive pesticides, equal right for the Indians, proper care of animals, a government that protects individual freedoms. This list can go on and on.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;">Then again, Rap glommed on to crazes too, “stunts” as he called them. Like the time he discovered the real Jesse James…alive at 101 years old, who gave Rap $10,000 to tell his true life story; or Admiral Byrd’s secret 1947 flight over the North Pole; or the NASA photos he ran in <i>Space World</i> magazine that proved beyond a doubt that the Earth was hollow, with holes at the poles. NASA pulled his press privileges after that.</span></p> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;">During Rap’s editorial heyday there was no <i>OMNI</i> or <i>Discovery</i>, so Rap filled that need with tales of scientific discoveries, flights of fancy, and establishment cover-ups.</span></p> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;">To figure out exactly what went on in Rap’s world, we must dig deep into the brittle, yellowing pages of 60-year-old pulp magazines.</span></p> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;"><b>The Milwaukee Miracle</b></span></p> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;">Palmer was born in Milwaukee in 1910, nothing unusual about that. And for seven years it stayed that way, until finally we see young Rap playing in the street near the family home – with a large milk truck barreling down on him. The truck broke his spine and a spinal disease set in. The accident forever altered the world of science fiction. It is said he had the first spinal graft. His childhood became a series of unsuccessful operations followed by years of recuperation. Several of those years were spent laying face down in a canvas-and-steel-pipe “Bradford frame,” an early 20th century torture device according to Rap. </span></p> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;">“I was…able only to move the lower part of my legs, my arms, and my head,” recalled Rap in his memoir.</span></p> <table align="left" border="0" cellpadding="15" cellspacing="0" width="50"> <tbody><tr> <td align="center"><a href="http://efanzines.com/EK/eI41/RAP/fantadv_4705.jpg"><img src="http://efanzines.com/EK/eI41/RAP/fantadv_4705_s.jpg" height="225" width="157" /></a></td> </tr> </tbody></table> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;">He grew only a few inches after the accident, and while other kids attended school and whiled away their summers at the local swimming hole, Rap spent his youth in the torture bed, reading books. “At intervals totaling more than five years” he got his education from a tutor sent by the Milwaukee School Board and from books delivered weekly by the Milwaukee Public Library. </span></p> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;">He devoured crates of books covering a wide range of subjects, like math, archeology, history, mythology, physics, and the emerging literary genre called science fiction. These were years when Rap dreamed of better things – a fantastic world of tomorrow foreshadowed by the imaginations of science fiction writers.</span></p> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;">He also practiced what he called mental healing. This was not “faith” healing, since he believed in neither “fate” nor “faith.” Doctors predicted his imminent demise from time to time, but Rap used his developing mental powers to prove them wrong. </span></p> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;">“All during my life, beginning most specifically at age nine when I promised my weeping mother that I wasn’t going to die in 24 hours as the doctor had just assured her, I have had this confidence that I could ‘do things’ I wanted to do…through sheer determination,” said Rap. 5</span></p> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;">To hear him tell it, Rap read his first issue of <i>Amazing Stories</i> magazine in 1926, and that same day mailed off his first sf yarn to Hugo Gernsback, <i>Amazing’s</i> editor. When Gernsback replied with a $40 acceptance check, this may have been the moment Rap knew he would become editor of <i>Amazing Stories</i>. After all, <i>Amazing Stories</i> is where the popular science fiction movement began. Or, as Frederik Pohl once said, “In the Beginning there was Hugo Gernsback, and he begat <i>Amazing Stories</i>.” </span></p> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;">Rap’s earliest recollections of his fannish past drifted back to 1924, when “…the first SF began to appear in the old <i>Electrical Experimenter</i>.” 6 </span></p> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;">Rap was what you would call a “true fan”—a fan among fen. In fan-speak of the era he was considered an actifan who never gafiated from fandom’s fold, though he was often considered a fugghead by other fen who started many a fanfeud with him over his editorial policies. 7 </span></p> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;">He is credited with publishing the first fanzine—<i>The Comet</i>. He started a lending library—The Science Correspondence Club—loaning books to would-be writers in the sf field. He founded the Jules Verne Prize Club in 1933, a short-lived precursor to the Hugo Awards. Members could join for a mere 25¢. And in the early ’30s he was a founding member of a group called the Milwaukee Fictioneers. Robert Bloch, a former member, recalled that it was “…a writers’ workshop before the term was even invented.” 8 </span></p> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;">As an organizer, editor, and writer, Rap “… worked off enough fannish energies to give him the $100 prize in a Gernsback contest on ‘What I have Done to Advance Science Fiction’,” said long-time sf fan Harry Warner Jr. “He blamed hard work with fandom and science fiction for causing him an eight month stay in a sanatorium.” 9 </span></p> <table align="right" border="0" cellpadding="15" cellspacing="0" width="50"> <tbody><tr> <td align="center"><p><a href="http://efanzines.com/EK/eI41/RAP/amaz_4307.jpg"><img src="http://efanzines.com/EK/eI41/RAP/amaz_4307_s.jpg" height="225" width="159" /></a></p> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;font-size:85%;">Raymond F. Palmer playing the starring role on the cover of <i>Amazing Stories</i>.</span></p></td> </tr> </tbody></table> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;">And so it came to pass that the boy who would not live to see his 10th birthday became editor of <i>Amazing Stories </i>at the age of 28<i>. </i>Thanks to arcane knowledge learned during his Bradford frame days, Rap charted his life’s course early on. “It is as though Life is a blueprint, but a design that you manufacture yourself!” he said. 10</span></p> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;">In 1938, the year of his hire at Ziff-Davis—the new owners of <i>Amazing</i> <i>Stories</i>—Rap had been employed as a sheet metal worker for the P.J. Lavies Company, installing aluminum roofs and gutters. He installed furnaces and clothes chutes too, and even kept the company books to boost his meager income. From a dingy rented room he cranked out pulp fiction for sf and adventure magazines, selling occasional work to Shade Publications of Milwaukee. It was “impossible” to make a living writing science fiction, he said.</span></p> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;"><b>More than Amazing</b></span></p> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;">Curiously, Rap said his hard work and organizing skills had nothing to do with his hire at <i>Amazing Stories</i>. The real story, the <u>truth</u>, he said, went something like this. One day, he simply quit his job at the P.J. Lavies Company and went home. At the time of the life-altering job offer, Rap was sitting in his tiny room, “having meals delivered and wishing himself a pulp sale.” </span></p> <table align="left" border="0" cellpadding="15" cellspacing="0" width="50"> <tbody><tr> <td align="center"><a href="http://efanzines.com/EK/eI41/RAP/ws_3006.jpg"><img src="http://efanzines.com/EK/eI41/RAP/ws_3006_s.jpg" height="225" width="164" /></a></td> </tr> </tbody></table> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;">As another version of the story goes, his eventual career as an sf writer and editor may have been due in part, at least, to his grandmother. In 1929 she informed him he would never achieve his dream of becoming a writer. As this version goes, Rap immediately sat down and cranked out his first sf yarn, “The Time Ray of Chandra.” It appeared some years later in Gernsback’s June 1930 issue of <i>Wonder Stories</i>. The rest, as they say, is history. </span></p> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;">Even if this version (or the previous one for that matter) is a total myth, it’s real enough to fit a pattern. It was a pattern Rap repeated throughout his life, and it went something like this: </span></p> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;">Tell Rap that something, anything, is ridiculous, far-fetched, or impossible to accomplish. </span></p> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;">Rap then proves you wrong, and has fun doing so. </span></p> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;">This was as much a form of entertainment as a symptom of his self-declared war on establishment thinking. And Rap abhorred mainstream thinking…the kind of thinking that has no place in science fiction literature. </span></p><p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;">Science fiction offered the world he craved, of infinite possibilities, of challenges to accepted thought. And sparking the imaginations of thousands of young sf readers at the time was what was commonly known as space ships. Rap had been reading about them since he was a kid.</span></p> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;">Which brings us back to his alleged invention of flying saucers. Did Rap really invent them or was he merely following the footsteps of others who came before? </span></p> <table align="right" border="0" cellpadding="15" cellspacing="0" width="50"> <tbody><tr> <td align="center"><a href="http://efanzines.com/EK/eI41/RAP/fantadv_4710.jpg"><img src="http://efanzines.com/EK/eI41/RAP/fantadv_4710_s.jpg" height="225" width="156" /></a></td> </tr> </tbody></table> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;">In 1928, two years after Rap sold “Time Ray of Chandra” to Gernsback, a 40-year-old newspaperman named Philip Francis Nowlan sold his first sf yarn to <i>Amazing Stories--</i> called “Armageddon 2419 A.D.” It was about a rebel spaceship pilot named Anthony “Buck” Rogers. Buck became the hero of a long-lived comic strip read by generations of youngsters. Rap, too, read the popular strip, that bristled with anti-gravity flying belts and rocket guns. </span></p> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;">There were evil aliens, too, Martians, of course, who sent their saucer-like craft to Earth to kidnap human specimens (that is SO 1930s—today we say “abduct” human specimens). To combat this evil Martian threat, Buck built the world’s first interplanetary space ship, and declared, “Roaring rockets! We’ll show these Martians who’s who in the solar system!” 14 </span></p> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;"><b>The Ziff-Davis Years</b></span></p> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;"><i>“I don’t believe the literal ‘truth’ can ever be known—we can only appropriate truth in the framework of our capability of understanding.”—Rap</i></span></p> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;"></span></p>With the reins at Amazing Stories firmly in hand, Rap galloped off at breakneck speed publishing tales of space ships, BEMs, beautiful babes in stylish space suits, ray mech, and aliens. Newsstand sales soared. To hear Rap tell it, sales went from his first issue of 75,000 copies to 93,000 by the second, and within a year Amazing was selling 185,000 copies per month (or 250,000 depending on who’s telling the story). Though he enjoyed telling and re-telling the story of these legendary circulation figures, its numbers varied widely; depending on which publication and year he told the story.<br /> <br /> The same year Rap was assuming editorial control at Amazing, Orson Welles’ Mercury Theater panicked thousands of radio listeners on Halloween night after convincing them Martians had landed in New Jersey and were coming to get them. Just months before Welles’ legendary broadcast, Rap’s editorial in Amazing Stories went like this:<p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;"></span></p> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;">“We wonder if after all, if earth hasn’t been visited by beings from other planets? What were the ships, with tails of fire, Elisha saw in his visions? Are they future prophecy, or are they the more likely legendary memory of actual and long-gone fact?” 15</span></p> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;">Then, in 1939, he witnessed something that brought new conviction to his editorials.</span></p> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;">“Your editors were reminded of Charles Fort and his <i>LO!</i> The other day, seen from our 22nd story window, in the west was a strong light, high in the air, which remained for perhaps ten minutes, then faded…your editor got a great kick out of announcing the arrival of the Martians to his fellow editors of…<i>Radio News, Popular Photography,</i> and <i>Popular Aviation</i>.” 16</span></p> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;"></span></p>Rap’s interest in the as yet unnamed flying saucers had percolated for years thanks to science fiction. But future events were about to alter his career in the science fiction field he loved so dearly. <br /> <br /> <span style="font-weight: bold;">The Shaver Mystery </span><br /><br />Rap knew exactly why the circulation figures were climbing at Amazing, and said so in his Other Worlds magazine years later… “…it was ideas that did it. NEW ideas. STARTLING ideas. It was building a fire under readers by giving them something so hot they couldn’t put them down, and making them pant for the next issue. Nobody pants for the next issue these days.”<br /><p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;"> </span></p> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;"></span></p>After successfully piloting the good ship Amazing for nearly six years, Rap encountered yet another truck barreling down on him, and this one would hit him harder than the first. The truck is only a metaphor, but it, too, was something of an accident and it changed Rap’s life forever. This time he gave the truck a name; he called it “The Shaver Mystery.” It was hot, and it was NEW. Rap said it was the next big wave in sf, though he also said that of flying saucers. <br /> <br /> The mystery emerged from Rap’s discovery of a Ford assembly line worker named Richard S. Shaver, who in 1943 sent a letter to Amazing Stories offering Rap first crack at an ancient alphabet – Mantong, he called it. The alphabet, which Shaver deciphered himself, was said to be the original tongue of Earth’s first civilization. It piqued Rap’s interest mightily and, ignoring the admonitions of his assistant editor Howard Browne, he published Shaver’s letter in Amazing’s January 1944 issue.<p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;"></span></p> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;">Behind the scenes, a feverish correspondence ensued, wherein Palmer learned that Shaver had an even more bizarre tale to tell. As the story went, Shaver had lived among the denizens of an underground civilization that exists within the Earth’s mantel. These underworld people (essentially two groups, “dero” and “tero,”—the first being evil, the latter good) have the ability to control earthly affairs via thought control using wondrous machinery left by that fantastic elder race whose language was the aforementioned Mantong.</span></p> <table align="left" border="0" cellpadding="15" cellspacing="0" width="50"> <tbody><tr> <td align="center"><p><a href="http://efanzines.com/EK/eI41/RAP/Palmer_Shaver5291.jpg"><img src="http://efanzines.com/EK/eI41/RAP/Palmer_Shaver5291_s.jpg" height="225" width="314" /></a></p> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;font-size:85%;">Raymond Palmer and Richard Shaver.</span></p></td> </tr> </tbody></table> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;">“They have death rays, space ships, giant rockets that traverse the upper air (the flying saucers were described in detail by Mr. Shaver before they actually appeared to Mr. Kenneth Arnold and to thousands since)...and many more marvelous things which Mr. Shaver claimed would revolutionize our surface science if we could but obtain them.” 18</span></p> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;">There are hundreds of details to the Shaver Mystery, but, in the interest of hitting the sack before 3 AM, this synopsis will have to do. Shaver typed a 10,000-word story on a semi-functional typer at his Pennsylvania home and mailed it to Palmer. It was titled ominously, “A Warning to Future Man.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;"></span></p>Rap read it and saw its potential as a new direction for Amazing and, as legend has it, expanded it to a 31,000-word manuscript titled “I Remember Lemuria!” Rap changed one key element, however. Shaver claimed he got the basis for his story from first-hand experience; but fearing his readers would find that too outlandish, Rap changed the source to “racial memory,” much to Shaver’s chagrin. As occasionally happens when something seems to be going so well, a problem arose when Palmer informed his readers that the Shaver yarns, now being cranked out at white hot speed each month, were based on factual events, just as Shaver said. Rap began arguing, debating, and generally lobbying readers to seriously consider Shaver’s claims.<br /><br /><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;">As Keel saw it, Rap used the Shaver Mystery to brainwash a legion of Manchurian candidates, implanting the shape, behavior, and even the source of flying saucers into the minds of millions. There were many sf fen at the time that would have agreed with Keel, because for every fan who loved the Shaver Mystery there was another who hated it. To them it became “The Palmer Hoax.” An article by Thomas S. Gardner, published in the <i>Fantasy Commentator</i>, expressed the indignation of the time:</span> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;">“The crackpots, as they are usually called, number at least a million in the United States. They are, in the main, adults, and have educational levels ranging from near zero to those of Ph.D.s. A great many harbor seriously (sic) delusions of ancient civilizations superior to ours, believe in pyramidology and the like. To capture these readers it is only necessary to publish issues of <i>Amazing Stories</i> containing stories which propitiate these crackpots’ views in fictional guise. And with Richard S. Shaver’s ‘I remember Lemuria’ Palmer has instituted this very trend.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;">And so it came to pass that a vast chasm loomed among fandom thanks to the Shaver Mystery. Those who read <i>Amazing</i> and followed the Shaver series with interest were called Shaverites. Those who read <i>Astounding Science Fiction</i> (and shunned <i>Amazing</i>) were “rational, science-based fen.” Fan luminaries like Forrest J Ackerman sustained this on-going fan fued, and it continued unabated for nearly four years. </span></p> <table align="left" border="0" cellpadding="15" cellspacing="0" width="50"> <tbody><tr> <td align="center"><p><a href="http://efanzines.com/EK/eI41/RAP/arnold_rap74EE.jpg"><img src="http://efanzines.com/EK/eI41/RAP/arnold_rap74EE_s.jpg" height="250" width="179" /></a></p> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;font-size:85%;">Kenneth Arnold and Raymond Palmer.</span></p></td> </tr> </tbody></table> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;">The protracted squabble had no effect on the diminutive editor of <i>Amazing Stories, </i>however. Even Rap must have known something would have to tip the balance, and that’s just what happened on June 24, 1947 when pilot Kenneth Arnold spotted a formation of nine silvery flying objects near Mt. Rainier, Washington. </span></p> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;">The objects’ strange, skipping motion inspired a newspaper reporter to tag them as “flying saucers,” and the name stuck like glue. The flying saucer age was on with a vengeance. Newspapers were blazing with the story of the mystery discs. </span></p> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;">Back in Chicago, Rap followed the newspaper stories with keen interest. He assured his <i>Amazing Stories</i> readers that here at last was proof of the veracity of the Shaver Mystery. But the handwriting was on the wall for the Shaver series. With growing concerns from his publisher over the fact that elements of the mystery conflicted with Einstein’s Theory of Relativity, and continuing complaints from a newly organizing fandom, Rap’s budding interest in flying saucers gradually drew him away from the Shaver Mystery.</span></p> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;"><b>Fred Lee Crisman</b></span></p> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;">One could say that if all it takes is for someone to write about something to make it happen, Buck Rogers can be blamed for flying saucers. He predated The Shaver Mystery. What really turned Rap into the world’s first flying saucer investigator was one Fred L. Crisman of Tacoma, Washington, not Richard S. Shaver. </span></p> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;"></span></p>Nowadays, Crisman is generally deemed a trickster by trade, and a truly shady character. The two things we positively know about him is that he was born in 1919 and died in 1975. Conspiracy buffs and ufologists alike have been trying to unravel his secrets for years. Just Google Crisman’s name and it will spew a bizarre thread that begins with Ray Palmer and the Shaver Mystery. <br /><br /> Crisman is believed by some to have been an OSS and CIA agent, an industrial spy, closely aligned with right-wing extremists, underworld figures, and anti-Castro Cubans who were allegedly involved in the JFK assassination. In 1968 Crisman worked as a right wing “shock jock” hosting a radio talk show in Tacoma. He was subpoenaed by New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison during a 1968 investigation into the Kennedy assassination. It has been rumored (even Keel mentioned this) that Crisman was one of the three “tramps” arrested in Dealey Plaza after the murder. It is also written that during WW II, Crisman came up with a plan to forestall the Nazis’ completion of their atom bomb. He came up with a non-functional “widget,” that was dropped by Allied bombers across Germany as the war ground to its grisly finale. While German scientists wasted valuable time trying to figure out what the widgets were about, we whomped their asses and dropped the A-Bomb on Japan. So the story goes. <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;">Crismanologists all agree that Crisman’s post-war existence was first noted in a published letter in the June 1946 issue of <i>Amazing Stories</i>. At first glance it appeared to be a fantastic corroboration of The Shaver Mystery, detailing the gory details of a dero attack on then Army pilot Crisman and an unnamed captain near Tibet. Anti-Shaverites zeroed in on the letter. Though it appeared to be a validation of Shaver’s claims, critics saw it as one more proof that Rap and his wild-eyed readers were a bunch of nut balls.<br /></span></p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;">There was a follow-up letter from Crisman, too, appearing in the May 1947 issue. Soon after the appearance of the first letter, <i>Harpers</i> magazine published a denunciation of Rap and the Shaver Mystery. The author, S. Baring-Gould, touted Crisman’s letter as an example of the crackpots Rap catered to. Then Crisman himself chimed in!</span> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;">“I bitterly resent this,” snorted Crisman about the article. “I felt that you too, Mr. Palmer, had more or less given me up for a jerk who was only trying to pull your leg…that maybe all this was only a promotion stunt….”</span></p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;font-size:180%;"><b>The Tacoma Incident</b></span> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;"><i>We wonder how many of you readers know that at one time Project Blue Book…named your editor as the ‘hoaxer’ who started this whole flying saucer thing? —</i>Rap </span></p> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;">Martin Gardner in his book <i>Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science</i> brushes off the Tacoma Incident, aka the Maury Island Mystery, like it was lint on his collar:</span></p> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;"></span></p>“The entire Maury Island episode later proved to be a hoax elaborately planned by two Tacoma men who hoped to sell the phony yarn to an adventure magazine. Both men eventually made a full confession.” End of story. The key word here is “<span style="color: rgb(51, 204, 0);">elaborately</span>,” because Crisman was definitely a pro. Elaborately means he reserved a hotel room for his victim before the victim arrived. Crisman also secured an empty house to set up a phony “secretary” who lived there and “worked on the books” for his phony log-salvaging company. This was a lot of work just to sell a penny-a-word pulp yarn to some adventure magazine; but hey, strange things happen. In any case, let the tale begin.<p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;"> </span></p> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;">On June 21, 1947, three days before airplane pilot Kenneth Arnold spied a formation of nine bright objects “skipping like rocks” across water, a very strange event was unfolding near Tacoma, Washington. Featuring all the key elements of future flying saucer lore, it had intrigue, a bugged hotel room, inquisitive newspaper reporters, tragic deaths, Military Intelligence officers, potential Cold War spies, weird saucer debris that was somehow “switched” with phony metal slag, unannounced visits by government secret service agents, and an after-hours burglary of saucer evidence, sinister warnings over the phone, and finally the disappearance of the two men who started the whole thing.<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;">Following the Maury Island incident (detailed above), Dahl, on returning home, gave a report to his “boss” Fred L. Crisman. Yes, the very same Fred L. Crisman who sent the letters to Rap a year earlier. He was now in charge of a log salvaging operation in Tacoma Washington! Small world. Or was it a large conspiracy?</span></p> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;">Back in Chicago, Rap sat at his desk pondering newspaper reports of Kenneth Arnold’s “flying saucer” sighting near Mt. Rainier. It was June 1947, the same month Rap published <i>Amazing’s</i> highly anticipated all-Shaver Mystery issue. </span></p> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;"></span></p>Then, as was the pattern in Rap’s charmed life, “it” happened. He got a phone call from Tacoma, Washington. Fred L. Crisman was calling. At this point we can only ponder why Rap would even consider Crisman’s story if he suspected those previous letters were a hoax, though Rap’s son explains it thusly: “Ray Palmer [was] a skeptic, but he was not the type of skeptic that would laugh at you and then change your story to make you look foolish,” he said. “He would listen and get as much information as he could and then try to find out how your story is true. Sometimes you find out and sometimes you don’t, but either way you learn more.”<p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;">Rap went right to his typewriter and hammered out a letter to Kenneth Arnold, pleading with him to get in his plane and head to Tacoma to investigate Crisman’s story. He offered him $200, but it took a second letter with even more pleas from Rap, before the world’s most celebrated pilot since Charles Lindberg conceded.</span></p> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;">Ken Arnold’s first clue that he was not in control of his situation came when he discovered he had a room already reserved at the Winthrop Hotel in Tacoma. Neither he nor Rap made the arrangements. “Ah, yes,” the desk clerk said to Arnold over the phone, “We have Room 502 reserved in your name!” Maybe it was a different Kenneth Arnold, he thought, since no one other than Rap and Arnold’s family knew he was flying to Tacoma.<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;">Arnold contacted Harold Dahl, who arrived at Room 502 to tell the strange tale of saucer debris, a dead dog, danger, and incredulity. Dahl was full of angst, and seemed reticent to tell the story, warning Arnold that he should just forget the whole thing and fly home.</span></p> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;">Next day at 9:30 AM, Fred L. Crisman was banging on the door of Room 502. Arnold described him as a “short, stocky fellow, dark complexioned, a happy-go-lucky appearing person…and extremely alert.” 21 After Crisman’s grand entrance, Dahl faded into the woodwork, spending much of the rest of this story at a local movie theater watching episodes of <i>The Crimson Ghost</i>. </span></p> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;">Crisman confirmed Dahl’s story to Arnold and added even more. He said he went to retrieve some of the saucer debris at Maury Island. While there, he too saw one of the doughnut-shaped craft circling the area, and there was no doubt about it, he knew what he saw.</span></p> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;">Arnold, feeling overwhelmed by all the details Crisman was firing at him, called an old friend and commercial pilot, Captain E.J. Smith, for backup. Smith arrived the next day, and heard more of the same from the two “loggers.” Nonetheless, Arnold began to feel uneasy about the two men.</span></p> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;">Smith and Arnold suspected a hoax, or even that Russian espionage was at play. Cold War jitters being what they were, everyone believed it was a good bet the saucers were Soviet secret weapons taken from the Nazis. Arnold’s paranoia edged a notch further when he got a phone call from an United Press reporter named Ted Morello, who informed him that, “Some crackpot has been phoning us here, telling us verbatim what has been going on in your hotel room for the last day.” Naturally, Crisman and Dahl were the prime suspects, but when both men were present in the hotel room when Morello called again, confirming what had just transpired in the room, Arnold and Smith were dumbfounded. Who was it? How was the information getting out, and to what end?</span></p> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;">After a thorough search of the room, Rap’s two saucer investigators were unable to locate the bug they knew must reside in Room 502. Finally, with growing concern for his safety, Arnold called in Military Intelligence. Within hours, Air Force First Lt. Frank M. Brown and Capt. William L. Davidson arrived from Hamilton AFB in California. After interviewing all concerned, Crisman nearly forced a cardboard box full of the so-called saucer debris on the two officers, which was then loaded onto their B-25 bomber. </span></p> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;">Talk of sabotage hit the Washington papers next morning when news that the plane’s left engine had caught fire, and the safety extinguisher failed to operate. Brown and Davidson died when they crashed near Kelso, Washington. The saucer debris was never found in the wreckage. Mysteriously, Crisman and Dahl were never prosecuted for promoting what they later confessed (“allegedly” confessed, say conspiriologists) to FBI agents was a complete hoax that indirectly led to the loss of a newly refurbished B-25 bomber. AF officials said they had traced Crisman’s saucer debris to a Tacoma smelter.</span></p> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;">Back in Room 502, Arnold was totally freaked and wanted out. He called Rap and briefed him on the situation. Rap told him to get on his plane and bail. </span></p> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;">“He told me to keep the money and…not to carry any of the fragments aboard my plane. He advised me to prevent Smith from taking any fragments. He didn’t tell me why, but I felt the advice was good. Mr. Palmer told me not to become too upset and then I gave the phone to Crisman.” Crisman talked briefly with Rap confirming the plane crash. Arnold claimed later that “Raymond Palmer told me that he recognized Crisman’s voice. He was positive that it was the same voice that had called him long distance on other occasions from various parts of the country. Brother, what a mess.”<br /></span></p> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;">A witness was said to have spotted Crisman boarding an Army Air Corps plane, destination—Alaska. Dahl simply vanished. Back in Chicago, Rap was left holding the bag. He was now being blamed for perpetrating the greatest hoax since the Shaver Mystery. The new round of criticism only made him dig in his heels. He was convinced something very strange was going on. If the whole thing was a hoax, he wondered why his samples of the so-called smelter slag were stolen from his Ziff-Davis office one night after a visit from an intelligence agent? The agent, he said, was asking questions about the Shaver Mystery.</span></p> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;">It was pretty clear that Rap was going to take the hit for Maury Island, and when Edward J. Ruppelt, former head the Air Force’s Project Blue Book, published his “Report on Unidentified Flying Objects” in 1956, Rap endured further public humiliation when Ruppelt declared:</span></p> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;">“[Crisman and Dahl] admitted that the rock fragments had nothing to do with flying saucers. They had sent in the rock fragments [to Palmer] as a joke…and said the rock came from a flying saucer because that’s what [Ray Palmer] wanted him to say.”<br /></span></p> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;">Rap was pissed. “If the Maury Island Incident was a hoax, there is basis to lay it at the door of Fred L. Crisman” he sputtered. But it moved Rap’s name to the top of the government’s list of “people to keep an eye on,” as Palmer’s son explained to this writer.</span></p> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;">“There was a joke at the shop that the way to identify a G-man was to look at his shoes; so whenever one would come we would all lean over and look at the shoes. They came to look at our rocket launching base and radar (which we didn’t have); they came to audit his taxes; they came as postal inspectors and spent three days here only to give him back about 38¢ that was overpaid (but they did look at every name on the mailing list). They planted a false story in the news and all the authorities came down on him only to have them mysteriously leave and never explain to the news why they left with nothing being done.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;">Yet, Rap continued his investigating, as well as his crusade against injustice. He also came up with a new slant to his beloved science fiction.</span></p> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;"><b>The Coming of the Saucers</b></span></p> <table align="right" border="0" cellpadding="15" cellspacing="0" width="50"> <tbody><tr> <td align="center"><p><a href="http://efanzines.com/EK/eI41/RAP/AMAZ_5710.jpg"><img src="http://efanzines.com/EK/eI41/RAP/AMAZ_5710_s.jpg" height="225" width="163" /></a></p> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;font-size:85%;">The cover of the issue of <i>Amazing Stories</i> that was cancelled.</span></p></td> </tr> </tbody></table> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;"><i>“We are adding a kind of science fiction … that deals with the <b>new</b> kind of space ship. After all, it’s just not modern to talk of spaceships these days, or of Bob Crosby; but of flying saucers and Elvis Presley!” –</i>Rap</span></p> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;">Rap revealed years later that prior to the Tacoma Incident, he was about to release new “evidence” concerning the saucers and much more in a special <i>Amazing Stories</i> flying saucers issue, but never got the chance, thanks to a visit from a Federal agent.</span></p> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;">“The Tacoma incident intervened,” he grouched. “The owner of the magazine ordered the special issue halted, killed the Shaver Mystery, and tossed aside a bit of business that had netted him a half million dollars in four years—all the day after a man with a gold badge paid him a visit.” 28</span></p> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;">Yes, the Tacoma affair did little to endear Rap to Ziff-Davis. So, in 1949, two years after Maury Island, Kenneth Arnold and Room 502, Rap left <i>Amazing Stories</i> to strike out on his own as an independent publisher. In fact, he started his new career on the sly even before he left <i>Amazing.</i> He founded an sf pulp—<i>Other Worlds Science Stories</i>—and he gambled on <i>Fate</i> magazine, a mystical digest that Rap bet would fill a niche in the publishing field. He was right. <i>Fate</i> struck a chord with a new readership, while newsstand sales for science fiction slowly dried up. TV and the newly emerging paperback houses were blamed. </span></p> <table align="center" border="0" cellpadding="15" cellspacing="0" width="50"> <tbody><tr> <td align="center"><a href="http://efanzines.com/EK/eI41/RAP/FATE_5405.jpg"><img src="http://efanzines.com/EK/eI41/RAP/FATE_5405_s.jpg" height="225" width="154" /></a></td> <td align="center"><a href="http://efanzines.com/EK/eI41/RAP/COVER_5208.jpg"><img src="http://efanzines.com/EK/eI41/RAP/COVER_5208_s.jpg" height="225" width="152" /></a></td> <td align="center"><a href="http://efanzines.com/EK/eI41/RAP/BKCOVER_5208.jpg"><img src="http://efanzines.com/EK/eI41/RAP/BKCOVER_5208_s.jpg" height="225" width="156" /></a></td> </tr> </tbody></table> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;">Rap tried valiantly to drum up interest in his science fiction ’zines with a dizzying array of title and format changes. From October 1953 to April ’54, <i>Other Worlds</i> suddenly became <i>Science Stories.</i> Also in ’53, Rap founded <i>Universe Science Fiction</i>, ran it for ten issues, then changed the name to <i>Other Worlds</i> <i>Science Stories, </i>giving it a larger format in the hopes of making it more noticeable on newsstands; all to no avail.</span></p> <table align="center" border="0" cellpadding="15" cellspacing="0" width="50"> <tbody><tr> <td align="center"><a href="http://efanzines.com/EK/eI41/RAP/UNI_5411.jpg"><img src="http://efanzines.com/EK/eI41/RAP/UNI_5411_s.jpg" height="225" width="165" /></a></td> <td align="center"><a href="http://efanzines.com/EK/eI41/RAP/UNI_5501.jpg"><img src="http://efanzines.com/EK/eI41/RAP/UNI_5501_s.jpg" height="225" width="169" /></a></td> </tr> </tbody></table> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;">Meanwhile, Rap’s obsession with flying saucers was growing. His magazine cover art blatantly mirrored this preoccupation. His saucer files were growing almost as fast as his personal file at FBI headquarters. After all, the Feds had concluded in 1947 that Palmer and Shaver were indeed behind flying saucer “hysteria.” The Tacoma Incident further expanded Palmer’s burgeoning file.</span></p> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;">Then Rap had a brainstorm. He decided to change <i>Other Worlds Science Stories</i> into <i>Flying Saucers from Other Worlds</i>, filling it with a </span>combination of saucer fiction yarns and factual reports. It was the beginning of his transition from science fiction to saucer and “spiritual” publications, what now is termed “New Age.” For a time, he alternated thetwo zines. One month it was Flying Saucers from Other Worlds, the next it was Other Worlds Science Stories. By this time Rap had accumulated several file cabinets full of saucer documentation. Why not put it to good use? As he often did when he came up with a new idea, he hinted that something extraordinary was about to happen …in the next issue, of course.</p> What with his shabby treatment after Maury Island, this new plan gave him the perfect soapbox from which to harangue Officialdom and pound the media, and other pundits did not take the subject seriously.<br /><p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;">In the first issue of <i>Flying Saucers from Other Worlds</i>, Rap angrily struck out at so-called journalists in May of 1957.</span></p> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;">“When flying saucers first appeared, no writer had the gumption to sit down and state it was a plain news item. No, they had to make a huge joke out of it…Your editor has a word for that kind of writer, and it’s spelled ‘tramp.’ They ride the fourth estate rails free…Laughing jackasses, the whole lot of them.” </span></p> <table align="center" border="0" cellpadding="15" cellspacing="0" width="50"> <tbody><tr> <td align="center"><a href="http://efanzines.com/EK/eI41/RAP/MYST_5601.jpg"><img src="http://efanzines.com/EK/eI41/RAP/MYST_5601_s.jpg" height="225" width="171" /></a></td> <td align="center"><a href="http://efanzines.com/EK/eI41/RAP/MYST_5605.jpg"><img src="http://efanzines.com/EK/eI41/RAP/MYST_5605_s.jpg" height="225" width="167" /></a></td> </tr> </tbody></table> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;"></span></p>Apparently, only Rap acknowledged his vast contribution to ufology. The ghost of Tacoma still haunted him. He was being snubbed even by Flying saucer organizations like NICAP, who refused to acknowledge his work. Rap concluded NICAP was simply a “mouthpiece for the CIA” in one of his many searing editorials: “…In spite of the fact that this editor is not only the first flying saucer investigator, but the possessor of the largest private file of saucer information in the world, and the publisher of the only newsstand magazine on flying saucers, and has repeatedly offered to help NICAP, this help being refused.” John A. Keel remained unrepentant of his criticism of Rap’s ufological contribution, as revealed in a 1984 letter to Shavertron, a fanzine dedicated to the Shaver Mystery. Keel was bemoaning an apparent lack of interest in flying saucers at that time, making it more difficult to sell saucer-related material.<p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;"></span></p> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;">“Palmer created and sustained the field of ufology, and modeled it after science fiction fandom,” chided Keel. “If Palmer had not existed, it is very likely that widespread interest in flying saucers would have faded away after 1947. After his death in 1977, ufology and the subject of UFOs has slipped into total limbo…</span></p> <table align="center" border="0" cellpadding="15" cellspacing="0" width="50"> <tbody><tr> <td align="center"><a href="http://efanzines.com/EK/eI41/RAP/amaz_4602.jpg"><img src="http://efanzines.com/EK/eI41/RAP/amaz_4602_s.jpg" height="225" width="159" /></a></td> <td align="center"><a href="http://efanzines.com/EK/eI41/RAP/FATE_5411.jpg"><img src="http://efanzines.com/EK/eI41/RAP/FATE_5411_s.jpg" height="225" width="155" /></a></td> </tr> </tbody></table> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;">“Because only a few copies of <i>Amazing Stories</i> from the 1940s remain intact, very few advocates of the Shaver Mystery have had a chance to study them. So the Shaver Mystery itself is now founded on hearsay and myth.</span></p> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;">“Keep up the bad work,<br /> “John A. Keel.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;">And what of the man who, with one crazy episode, turned Rap into the world’s first flying saucer investigator? As conspiracy history tells us, he was arrested on the grassy knoll as one of the three tramps after JFK’s assassination; he wrote a novel titled <i>Murder of a City</i> about Tacoma dirty politics; he partied with rogues and burned down a building or two; got into S&M: and continued to write occasionally to Rap, no doubt to clinch his reputation as master obscurantist. </span></p> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;">“Fred Crisman not only didn’t admit [Maury Island] was a hoax,” writes long-time Crisman researcher Ron Halbritter, “but [in a letter] in the January 1950 issue of <i>Fate</i> he called those accusations a <i>‘bald-faced lie.’” </i></span></p> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;">Halbritter, through extensive use of the Freedom of Information Act, studied Crisman’s FBI file, military records, and even job applications. He has a decidedly different opinion about Palmer’s saucer nemesis.</span></p> <table align="center" border="0" cellpadding="15" cellspacing="0" width="50"> <tbody><tr> <td align="center"><a href="http://efanzines.com/EK/eI41/RAP/OWSS_4911.jpg"><img src="http://efanzines.com/EK/eI41/RAP/OWSS_4911_s.jpg" height="225" width="158" /></a></td> <td align="center"><a href="http://efanzines.com/EK/eI41/RAP/OWSS_5101.jpg"><img src="http://efanzines.com/EK/eI41/RAP/OWSS_5101_s.jpg" height="225" width="155" /></a></td> <td align="center"><a href="http://efanzines.com/EK/eI41/RAP/OWSS_5105.jpg"><img src="http://efanzines.com/EK/eI41/RAP/OWSS_5105_s.jpg" height="225" width="155" /></a></td> </tr> </tbody></table> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;">“Fred Lee Crisman would have you, me, and the rest of the world believe he was a secret agent for some three letter classified group. Crisman was the classic yardbird; injured during WW II, he became addicted to painkillers and spent the remainder of his life trying to hustle to support his habit.</span><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;"><br /> </span></p> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;">“Crisman always sought to be the center of attention. When Ray Palmer described the Shaver Mystery, he claimed to have been in a dero cave in Kashmir. When Harold Dahl saw a UFO at Maury Island, the next day Crisman claimed, ‘Me, too—when nobody else was around, I did see one.’ While Jim Garrison was seeking Kennedy assassins, he suddenly got an anonymous letter implying Crisman was involved. When Roy Thinnes had a hit television show in 1967 called <i>The Invaders</i>, a letter, allegedly from Harold Dahl, was sent saying that the character David Vincent, and in fact the entire show, was based on Crisman’s life. These are examples of Crisman’s need for fame.”</span></p> <table align="center" border="0" cellpadding="15" cellspacing="0" width="50"> <tbody><tr> <td align="center"><a href="http://efanzines.com/EK/eI41/RAP/SEARCH_6212.jpg"><img src="http://efanzines.com/EK/eI41/RAP/SEARCH_6212_s.jpg" height="225" width="167" /></a></td> <td align="center"><a href="http://efanzines.com/EK/eI41/RAP/MYST_5510.jpg"><img src="http://efanzines.com/EK/eI41/RAP/MYST_5510_s.jpg" height="225" width="167" /></a></td> </tr> </tbody></table><p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;"><b>Footnotes</b></span></p> <blockquote> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;font-size:85%;">1. Interview with Ray B. Palmer, <i>The UFO Forum,</i> http://www.theufoforum.org/Content.html<br /> 2. Keel, John, “The Man Who Invented Flying Saucers,” <i>Fortean Times</i> 41, p 52-57<br /> <i>3. Mystic</i> Magazine, April 1955, p 14<br /> <i>4. The Secret World,</i> p 29<br /> 5. Ibid. p 28<br /> 6. Rap, <i>Amazing</i> editorial, February 1941<br /> <i>7. Actifan</i>: a fan who participates in sf publishing, conventions, clubs. <i>Gafiate</i>: “get away from it all” …meaning to quit fandom. <i>Fugghead</i><b>: </b>a fan who exhibits behavior so far beyond the pale that even the most liberal fen might raise an eyebrow over it. <i>Fen</i>: plural of fan. <i>Fanfeud</i>: feuds that existed between fen, usually over inane subjects.<br /> 8. “Fantastic Adventures with Amazing,” <i>Amazing Stories</i>, January 1984<br /> 9. Warner, Harry, <i>All Our Yesterdays</i>, p 76<br /> 10. Palmer, Ray, <i>The Secret World</i>, 1975, p 8<br /> 11. Pobst, Jim, <i>The Rap Packets</i> #1 p 3<br /> 12. Palmer, <i>The Secret World</i>, p 26<br /> 13. Ibid. p 30<br /> 14. Ron Goulart, <i>St.James Encyclopedia of Pop Culture</i><br /> 15. Rap editorial, <i>Amazing Stories</i>, August 1938<br /> 16. Ibid., July 1939<br /> 17. Rap editorial, <i>Other Worlds Science Stories</i>, November 1955<br /> 18. Rap, <i>The Secret World,</i> p 37<br /> 19. Rap, <i>Flying Saucers Magazine</i>, 1958<br /> 20. Gardner, Martin, <i>Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science</i>, p 56<br /> 21. Arnold/Palmer, <i>The Coming of the Saucers</i>, p 88<br /> 22. Ibid. p 39<br /> 23. Ibid. p 44<br /> 24. Ibid. p 45<br /> 25. Ibid. p 58<br /> 26. Ibid.<br /> 27. Ruppelt, Edward, <i>The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects</i>, 1956, p 26<br /> 28. Arnold/Palmer, <i>The Coming of the Saucers</i>, p 9<br /> 29. Editorial, <i>Other Worlds Science Stories</i>, May 1957<br /> 30. Editorial, <i>Flying Saucers Magazine</i>, June 1960<br /> 31. Halbritter, Ron<i>, Beyond Roswell—The Hoax on You</i>, http://n6rpf.com-us.net/mauryisl.html<br /> 32. Rap on Maury Island, <i>Flying Saucers</i>, December 1958</span></p> </blockquote> <p><span style="font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;">- - -<br /> Prozine cover scans Courtesy Jacques Hamon Collection <a href="http://www.collectorshowcase.fr/">http://www.collectorshowcase.fr</a> </span></p><p></p><br /><p><span style="font-size:100%;color:white;"> </span></p>Chuck Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01281880905938442706noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6375089974625029198.post-21127053041157914802009-09-22T02:11:00.000-07:002011-09-05T03:34:32.480-07:00UFO FYI: 1965- A Bunch of Incidents at Exeter<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SrlVhwBwhlI/AAAAAAAAIvw/J7I1aLK9ZxU/s1600-h/212.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 286px; height: 224px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SrlVhwBwhlI/AAAAAAAAIvw/J7I1aLK9ZxU/s400/212.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5384428867814458962" border="0" /></a><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:100%;color:black;" ></span><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(51, 204, 0);">I, Norman J. Muscarello, was hitchhiking on Rt. 150, three miles south of Exeter, New Hampshire, at 0200 hours on the 3rd of September. A group of five bright red lights appeared over a house about a hundred feet from where I was standing. The lights were in a line at about a sixty-degree angle. They were so bright, they lighted up the area. The lights then moved out over a large field and acted at times like a floating leaf. They would go down behind the trees, behind a house and then reappear. They always moved in the same sixty-degree angle. Only one light would be on at a time. They were pulsating: one, two, three, four, five, four, three, two, one. They were so bright I could not distinguish a form to the object. I watched these lights for about fifteen minutes and they finally disappeared behind some trees and seemed to go into a field. At one time while I was watching them, they seemed to come so close I jumped into a ditch to keep from being hit. After the lights went into a field, I caught a ride to the Exeter Police Station and reported what I had seen. </span><br /><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(51, 204, 0);">signed, </span><br /><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(51, 204, 0);">Norman J. Muscarello</span><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(51, 204, 0);"></span><p style="font-style: italic;"><span style=";font-size:100%;color:black;" ></span></p><h4 style="font-weight: normal; text-align: center; color: rgb(51, 204, 0);"><span style="font-size:130%;">Scores of people, including two highly reputable policeman, swear that what they saw over a period of weeks in the New Hampshire area - big, silent and glowing - was nothing the Air Force could explain away.</span></h4> <span style="font-style: italic;">The following article is from the TRUE Magazine's Report On Flying Saucers, 1967, compiled by the editors of TRUE after 17 years of exhaustive UFO research (presented here courtesy of <span style="color: rgb(51, 255, 51);">UFO Phenomenon at Close Sight</span>): </span><br /><br /><p><table border="0" cellpadding="6" cellspacing="0"> <tbody><tr valign="top"><td> <img src="http://www.ufologie.net/pics/exeter01.jpg" alt="Main square" height="354" width="550" /></td> <td><i>Main square in Exeter, New Hampshire, a typically quiet New England town of 7,000 people, none of whom had ever seen a flying saucer before. Police station is located behind Town Hall (lower left)</i></td></tr></tbody></table> </p><p></p>A wide, 10-acre field near the New England town of Exeter, N. H., provided the setting for one of Flying Saucerdom's finest hours. As recounted in John G. Fuller's exciting book, "Incident at Exeter," it stands as probably the best-documented - and most tantalizing - case in the growing mystery of UFO sightings. The fact that two policeman were among the observers didn't hurt its case for authenticity, either. Nor the fact that the New England locale is not particularly known for wild-eyed story-telling. On the warm, moonless night of Sept. 3, 1965, Norman Muscarello, then 18, burst into the Exeter police station, still shaking from having seen, as he was hitch-hiking home about 2 a.m. "The thing" was bigger than a house, he told Patrolman "Scratch" Toland, with brilliant, pulsating red lights around. It floated toward him silently. Diving from the road into a small ditch to avoid the on-coming object, he watched, terror-stricken. Then it backed off slowly until it had reached a sufficient distance for him to get up and run.<p> </p><div align="center"><img src="http://www.ufologie.net/pics/exeter02.jpg" alt="Tolandwas" height="326" vspace="10" width="400" /><br /><i>Patrolman Reginald "Scratch" Tolandwas first person to hear incredible story of saucer landing. He was at the desk when Muscarello came in, shaking, after seeing "the Thing".</i></div> <p>At the same time, Patrolman Eugene Bertrand, an Air Force veteran, was cruising when he found a lone woman at the wheel of her car just two miles outside Exeter. Still badly shaken, she told how a huge, silent, airborne object had followed her for 10 miles, at only a few feet's distance from her car. It, too, had brilliant, flashing red lights. When she reached the Route 101 overpass, the UFO took off at a great speed. Officer Toland, putting the stories together, instructed Bertrand to return to the open field with the boy. </p><p><table border="0" cellpadding="6" cellspacing="0"> <tbody><tr valign="top"><td> <i>Patrolman Hunt points to spot in the field where he saw the fluttering movement of UFO. Patrolman Bertrand was in Air Force for four years and swears UFO he saw was not a plane, a helicopter or balloon.</i></td> <td><img src="http://www.ufologie.net/pics/exeter03.jpg" alt="Hunt" height="515" width="400" /></td> </tr></tbody></table> </p><p>While Officer Bertrand was shining his flashlight toward the tree line, the horses in a nearby corral began kicking and whinnying, dogs began to howl. Muscarello then let out a yell: "I see it! I see it!" </p><p></p>What Muscarello and an astounded Bertrand saw was a brilliant round object rising up silently over the pines. All of a sudden the entire area was drenched in a brilliant red light as the object fluttered toward them, still noiselessly. Racing back to the patrol car with the boy for fear of radiation, Bertrand reported to the station, "My God, I see the damn thing myself!" Moments later, Patrolman David Hunt pulled up in another cruiser. He had heard Bertrand's exclamation on the radio and decided to see for himself. He got out and observed the slow, rocking movements of the still-pulsating object moving slowly across the tops of the trees and toward Hampton.<p> </p><p><table border="0" cellpadding="6" cellspacing="0"> <tbody><tr valign="top"><td><img src="http://www.ufologie.net/pics/exeter04.jpg" alt="Hunt" height="521" width="297" /></td> <td><i>Patrolman Hunt arrived on the scene after Bertrand and boy saw "Thing" reappear. Note presence again of power lines near scene. (see page 33)</i></td></tr></tbody></table> </p><p>In the next weeks, many other seemingly valid sightings were made in the New Hampshire area. None, however, was more vivid than Ron Smith's. </p><p>The 17 year-old high school senior was out driving with his mother and aunt when they spotted an object in the sky. He stopped the car, looked up and saw something with a red light on top and a white glow on the bottom. It passed over the car once, stopped in midair, then went back over the car again and yet a third time. </p><p>Shaken and frightened, he started back to the Exeter police station to report the incident when, as he told Fuller: </p><blockquote>"I came to my senses. I wanted to go back to make <i>sure</i> it was there. To take another look to make sure I wasn't seeing things. We did go back. And sure enough, it was in the same spot again. It passed over the car once, and that was the last time I saw it."</blockquote> <div align="center"><img src="http://www.ufologie.net/pics/exeter05.jpg" alt="Hunt" height="451" vspace="10" width="400" /><br /><i>Mrs. Virginia Hale, reporter for Haverhill Gazette, saw the saucer from her kitchen window. It hovered over neighbor's house 4 minutes.<br /><br /></i><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SriWysWQP2I/AAAAAAAAIt4/WBdZqVMQ6zs/s1600-h/INCIDENT+AT+EXETER.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 195px; height: 320px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SriWysWQP2I/AAAAAAAAIt4/WBdZqVMQ6zs/s320/INCIDENT+AT+EXETER.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5384219152163553122" border="0" /></a><i><br /></i><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: rgb(51, 204, 0);font-size:180%;" ><span style="font-weight: bold;">FROM THE UFO CASEBOOK</span></span><br />Written by BJ Booth<br /><br />In 1965, in the city of Exeter, New Hampshire, a series of UFO sightings took place which gained vast media attention, and became the subject of the book, "Incident at Exeter," by John G. Fuller. The sensational happenings were also featured in a two-part article in "Look" magazine. The remarkable chain of events in New Hampshire began with a man named Norman Muscarello, who was hitchhiking back to his house in Exeter on Route 150. At the time, Exeter was a small New England town of about 7,000 people. In the wee hours of the night on a cold, September 3, 1965, eighteen-year-old Muscarello made his trek. It was about 2:00 A.M. that this lonely hitchhiker first noticed an unusual light in the dark skies. The light became an object, which suddenly came from the sky towards the young man. The object was described as approximately 90 feet in diameter, with bright, beaming lights that appeared around its rim. Silently, the object began to wobble and float toward the frightened man. His fear of actually being hit caused him to fall to the ground by the side of the road. At the last moment, the object floated away from him. Muscarello took this opportunity to jump up and run to a nearby house, pounding on the front door. The house was the home of Carl Dining.<br /><br />No one answered his frantic pleas for help. Meanwhile, at the Exeter Police Station, Officer Eugene Bertrand received a call from a frightened woman who stated that a large, silent object with flashing lights had followed her car for twelve miles from the city of Epping to a spot on the road where she pulled off in fear. After she stopped her automobile, the strange object had disappeared into the night. Bertrand did not make an official report on the woman's call, believing it to be untrue or a trick.<br /><br />Meanwhile, Muscarello, not finding anyone at the farmhouse, ran back into the road, and flagged down a passing car. A middle-aged couple stopped to render aid. They drove the weary traveler to the Exeter Police Station. Muscarello, full of excitement, began to recount the events of the last hour on Route 150.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">B J's Note: Muscarello would later relate that the driver of the car was never identified in Fuller's book because the woman with him at 2 AM wasn't the driver's wife. </span><br /><br /><span><span style=";font-size:100%;color:white;" ><img src="http://www.ufocasebook.com/ufoexeter1.png" alt="Exeter Witnesses" align="left" hspace="8" /></span></span>The desk Officer, Reginald "Scratch" Toland, is now convinced that something has happened, and radios to Officer Bertrand, who is now on patrol. At about 3:00 A.M., Bertrand arrives at the station, and after hearing Muscarello's story, thinks he may have discounted the earlier call from the woman too quickly.<br /><br />Convinced that Muscarello's story is real, Officer Bertrand takes Muscarello back to the spot on Route 150 where the incident began. At this point, Bertrand has no idea what lies ahead of him on this night. Arriving at the scene, the two men scan the area, and at first see nothing out of the ordinary. By the road, there is a large open field, the house that Muscarello had visited, and a horse corral. They begin to walk out into the open field in the direction of the horse corral. The horses seemed to be a little edgy, and suddenly dogs began to bark. From behind two pine trees, an object begins to rise, lighting the whole area with a reddish hue. Muscarello screams, "I see it! I see it!" The next moment, Bertrand says, "My God, I see the damn thing myself!" It is important to note that Bertrand had been in the Air Force for four years, and knew military aircraft. He would later insist "this wasn't like anything I had seen before." Like a leaf floating, the object slowly moved toward the two men. They scurried back to the police car. The object is now hovering about one hundred feet above the ground, some fifty yards from the police car.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:100%;color:black;" >I, Eugene F. Bertrand, Jr., was cruising on the morning of the 3rd of September at 0100 on Rt. 108 bypass near Exeter, New Hampshire. I noticed an automobile parked on the side of the road and stopped to investigate. I found a woman in the car who stated she was too upset to drive. She stated that a light had been following her car and had stopped over her car. I stayed with her about fifteen minutes but was unable to see anything. I departed and reported back to Exeter Police Station where I found Norman Muscarello. He related his story of seeing some bright red lights in the field. After taking him back to where he stated that he had seen the lights. When we had gone about fifty feet, a group of five bright red lights came from behind a group of trees near us. They were extremely bright and flashed on one at a time. The lights started to move around over the field. At one time, they came so close I fell to the ground and started to draw my gun. The lights were so bright, I was unable to make out any form. There was no sound or vibration but the farm animals were upset in the area and were making a lot of noise. When the lights started coming near us again, Mr. Muscarello and I ran to the car. I radioed Patrolman David Hunt who arrived in a few minutes. He also observed the lights which were still over the field but not as close as before. The lights moved out across the field at an estimated altitude of one hundred feet, and finally disappeared in the distance at the same altitude. The lights were always in line at about a sixty-degree angle. When the object moved, the lower lights were always forward of the others.</span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SricNv54okI/AAAAAAAAIuQ/MN1jY1B3f9w/s1600-h/ExeterDrawing2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SricNv54okI/AAAAAAAAIuQ/MN1jY1B3f9w/s400/ExeterDrawing2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5384225114532913730" border="0" /></a>The object's light is so intense, that it is difficult to make out its shape. The lights emanating from the craft dim and then brighten, from left to right, and then right to left. The object now begins to slowly move away from the men, in the direction of the city of Hampton. At this very moment, another Policeman, David Hunt, arrives at the scene to witness the craft in the sky, as it fades out of sight. In a matter of minutes, the craft is sighted in Hampton, and a report made to Pease Air Force Base. Mrs. Virginia Hale, a reporter for the Haverhill Gazette, also sees the unknown craft from her kitchen window as it hovers over a neighbor's house for about 4 minutes. There were many other reported sightings of a similarly described craft over the next several weeks, but it is uncertain if they were all legitimate or not.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 204, 0);">A UFO Hotspot in New Hampshire? </span><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span></span><br />Saturday January 24, 2009<br />By BJ Booth for About Dot Com<br /><br />Everyone seems to have their own Roswell, and the east coast of the United States is no exception. Some call the small city of Exeter, New Hampshire, the "East Coast Roswell," and this distinction does not come lightly. A recent article tells us all about it. As many of you who are students of Ufology already know, Exeter was the location of one of Ufology's most well documented cases, The Incident at Exeter. Not long after the 1965 sightings became public, a book was written by investigative writer John G. Fuller, which made it to the best seller list. The sensational happenings were also featured in a two-part article in "Look" magazine. Many eyewitness accounts by respected community members make this one of the best cases.<br /><br />The events at Exeter began as eighteen-year-old Norman Muscarello was hitching for a ride on the cold night of September 3, 1965. He was on Route 150 heading for the small New England town of Exeter, population 7,000, at 2:00 AM. As he walked along, he suddenly noticed an unusual light glowing in the dark skies. The light soon became an object, and headed straight toward the hitchhiker.<br /><br />Muscarello would later describe the UFO as being about 90 feet in diameter. It had extremely bright lights positioned around its exterior. The object was now slowly floating downward toward the frightened man. Actually thinking that the object would hit him, he fell to the ground, just off of the pavement. Seemingly at the last possible second, the object veered away from him. Muscarello jumped to his feet, and made a run to house nearby.<br /><br />Meanwhile, police officer Eugene Bertrand was manning the phones at the Exeter police station. He was later to leave on patrol. He received a strange call from a woman who told him that while driving her car from the nearby city of Epping, a large, silent object had followed her for about 12 miles, frightening her to death. Finally, she reached a spot where she could make a phone call. She said that the object left the area after she pulled off the side of the road. Bertrand thought the call to be a joke, and dismissed it.<br /><br />Meanwhile, back near Route 150, Muscarello was running back to the road, after not being able to get anyone to answer his frantic knocking at the farmhouse. Finally, a car stopped for him. A middle-aged couple drove the frightened man to the Exeter police station. Immediately, he began to relate the events of the last half hour or so to desk Officer Reginald "Scratch" Toland.<div class="pDsc"><span class="pCo"></span>Toland, aware of the strange phone call that officer Bertrand had received, now believes that something strange is going on. Officer Bertrand is now on patrol, and Toland radioes him and tells him of the report from Muscarello. Around 3:00 AM, Bertrand arrives back at the station, and listens to Muscarello's story. He now believes that he dismissed the woman's earlier call erroneously, and thoroughly believes what Muscarello is telling him. He decides to take the teenager back to the spot of his sighting.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SrleBZcXz5I/AAAAAAAAIwI/FHh9PKrR6KM/s1600-h/UFO51.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 134px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SrleBZcXz5I/AAAAAAAAIwI/FHh9PKrR6KM/s200/UFO51.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5384438207600906130" border="0" /></a>When Bertrand and Muscarello arrive at the site of the teenager's sighting, they look around the area, and at first, see nothing. Finally, they decide to venture out into the open field which contains the house that Muscarello visited, and also horse corrals. The horses, according to Bertrand, seem restless. Then they hear the sound of dogs barking. Suddenly, from behind two large pine trees, a UFO begins to rise up and fill the landscape with a red hue.<br /></div><br />Bertrand was a four year veteran of the Air Force, and very familiar with planes of all types, but the object he is looking at is like none of the planes he had ever seen. <p> Muscarello screams, "I see it! I see it!" The next moment, Bertrand says, "My God, I see the darn thing myself!" </p><p><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SrletxxoWeI/AAAAAAAAIwQ/3BzfbJYMkjs/s1600-h/ufo_12.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 126px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SrletxxoWeI/AAAAAAAAIwQ/3BzfbJYMkjs/s200/ufo_12.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5384438970046765538" border="0" /></a> Similar to a dead leaf falling, the UFO gently moves toward the two stunned observers. They run back to the police car, while the UFO hovers some 100 feet above them.</p>The light of the UFO is so intense that it makes the shape of the object indecipherable. The light of the UFO dims and then brightens from their left to their right, and then right to left. Shortly, the UFO begins to slowly move away from Bertrand and Muscarello, toward the city of Hampton. As the object moves away, another Exeter policeman, David Hunt arrives in time to see the object. Soon reports of the craft being seen in Hampton are received. The testimony of police officers and civilians to the incredible sightings and events at Exeter were so convincing that the case was part of the April 5, 1966, Congressional hearing that eventually led to the creation of the Condon investigation.<p></p> An unofficial "stamp of approval" was given to the case because of the testimony of policemen. Author John G. Fuller insisted that the Exeter incident was "convincing evidence" of the existence of UFOs and that they were of extraterrestrial origin. The history of Exeter is full of many sighting reports, and other phenomenal activities. The area has been the location of many UFO reports of disc-shaped objects, along with the mysterious triangle-shaped objects. <div class="entry"><p> </p><p> It has always been strange to me that certain areas are "hotspots" for UFOs. Could there be some reason for this? Many theories have been offered to explain hotspots, and yet the verdict is still out. Do any of you have a theory? Tell us about it.</p><p><a href="http://ufos.about.com/od/bestufocasefiles/p/exeter.htm">http://ufos.about.com/od/bestufocasefiles/p/exeter.htm</a><br /></p></div><span style="font-size:180%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">BOOK REVIEW</span></span><br />from Amazon Dot Com:<br /><br /><span style="vertical-align: middle;"><b>Two classic UFO books combined into one volume!</b><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Incident at Exeter</span> and <span style="font-style: italic;">The Interrupted Journey</span></span><br />by John G. Fuller<br /><br /><nobr>July 6, 2001</nobr></span> <div style="margin-bottom: 0.5em;"> By <b>A Customer</b><br /></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/Sribn-Frf_I/AAAAAAAAIuI/i12oGus95ZU/s1600-h/incidentatexeter.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 165px; height: 240px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/Sribn-Frf_I/AAAAAAAAIuI/i12oGus95ZU/s320/incidentatexeter.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5384224465505452018" border="0" /></a> John G. Fuller, who died in 1990, was a regular columnist for the "Saturday Review" magazine. In the mid-1960's he personally investigated and wrote two seperate books on two of the most famous UFO incidents in American history. Both books were bestsellers and both were given considerable publicity because they were written not by some "lunatic" UFO "nut", but rather by a respected and well-known writer who wrote seriously about UFOs.<br /><br />This reprint combines both books into a single volume and should be considered a "must" for any serious student of ufology. The first book, "Incident at Exeter", describes a series of fantastic UFO sightings in the small city of Exeter, New Hampshire in the fall of 1965. It all began when Norman Muscarello, a local boy and recent high school graduate, was hitchhiking home along a quiet rural highway outside of town. At around 2:30 am Muscarello was shocked when a huge object which gave off a intense red glow rose up from some nearby woods and moved towards him. He banged on the door of a nearby house but there was no answer, meanwhile farm animals nearby were kicking in their stalls and making loud, frightened noises. The object eventually flew back over the woods, Muscarello caught a car and, badly frightened, made his way to the Exeter police department. He eventually convinced two policemen to return with him to the site, and this time all three men saw the UFO at close range. Their stories were given national publicity and soon others in the Exeter area were reporting similiar objects in the night sky. The Air Force declared that Muscarello and the two policemen had simply seen military planes from a nearby Air Force base on training maneuvers, but all three men, as well as those who had investigated the case, strongly disputed this and said that the Air Force explanation was absurd.<br /><br />Fuller gives a complete description of the Exeter UFO sightings, which went on for several weeks, and he clearly sympathizes with the UFO witnesses (especially Muscarello and the policemen) and criticizes the Air Force explanation. The second book, entitled "The Interrupted Journey", is even more important in UFO lore. This is THE first book to make a serious case that credible witnesses were not only seeing UFOs but being abducted by them as well. In September 1961 Betty and Barney Hill were returning from a vacation in Canada. They were driving late at night through the almost deserted White Mountains of New Hampshire when they spotted a bright object in the sky which seemed to be following their car. The object finally came close enough for Barney to stop the car and view it through binoculars, and what he saw terrified him - he claimed to see a UFO with the occupants looking back at him. He ran back to the car and drove away.<br /><br />They soon heard an odd humming sound - and then they were at least two hours farther down the highway with no idea of how they had spent the last two hours. Strangely thinking no more of it, they traveled on to their home near Boston. Soon, however, they both began to have terrible nightmares, and they decided to go to a psychiatrist (and UFO skeptic) for help. He put them under hypnosis, and then they both told a remarkably similiar story. The UFO had apparently taken over the couple's minds, causing them to turn off on a side road.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SrlWX3eUR-I/AAAAAAAAIv4/3bCNi3ofA7M/s1600-h/exeter2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 124px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SrlWX3eUR-I/AAAAAAAAIv4/3bCNi3ofA7M/s200/exeter2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5384429797526226914" border="0" /></a>The UFO landed in front of them, the "UFOnauts" got out and took the dazed couple inside their ship and conducted a kind of medical and scientific examination (among other things, they were apparently mystified when they could remove Barney's false teeth, but couldn't remove Betty's real ones!). The aliens were apparently friendly, although Barney was far more scared than Betty, and in the psychiatrist's audiotapes of the hypnosis sessions (which still exist), you can hear Barney screaming with terror as he recounts the story. The couple gave remarkably similiar descriptions (under hypnosis) of the ship and its crew. The psychiatrist never believed that the couple had seen or been kidnapped by a UFO for two hours. Instead, he wrote off the experience as a result of severe job stress (for Barney) and the tensions of being an interracial couple who had experienced some bigotry (Barney was black, Betty white). However, Fuller did believe the Hills story and agreed to write a book about their experience. Few UFO incidents have aroused more controversy and debate than the Hill's encounter, and even some pro-UFO researchers are doubtful of their story. If you're a believer, then you'll find these two books to be a "must" for your UFO book collection. But even if you don't believe in UFOs, then you'll still find these books to be a good read (or nighttime "ghost stories") thanks to Fuller's writing skills.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SrlW7YZ-1sI/AAAAAAAAIwA/48CCZ1OHXTA/s1600-h/banner.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 185px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SrlW7YZ-1sI/AAAAAAAAIwA/48CCZ1OHXTA/s400/banner.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5384430407661835970" border="0" /></a> September 5, 2009</div><div align="center"> <strong>Location: Exeter Town Hall<br /><a href="http://exeterufofest.com/"><span style="font-weight: normal;">http://exeterufofest.com/</span></a><br /></strong><br />Not only is the Exeter UFO Festival an educational experience for both believers and skeptics, it's a fun time for families and friends. We'll have activities for the kids, an earthling and alien ball, a self-guided UFO safari, a session featuring an esteemed panel of experts and much more.<br /><br /><h2 style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size:130%;">Festival Schedule</span></h2> </div> <table id="schedule" align="center" border="0" cellpadding="10" cellspacing="5" width="557"><tbody><tr> <td valign="top" width="129"><strong>8:30-9:00 a.m.</strong></td> <td width="373">Conference Opening / UFO Children’s Charity Art Show</td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top"><strong>9:00a.m.</strong></td> <td> <strong>Buckets of Chalk</strong> — ET and UFO drawings throughout town<br /><br /><strong>Face painting by artist Denice Kelly</strong> - Squirrel Cat Designs (<em>Founders Park near the library</em>), Beach Rock Painting<br /><br /> <a href="http://exeterufofest.com/#geremia" rel="facebox"><strong>Peter Geremia:</strong> September 3, 1965 “Incident at Exeter” and NH UFOs”</a> (9:00am-10:30am) <div id="geremia" style="display: none;"> <h2>“September 3, 1965 “Incident at Exeter” and NH UFOs”</h2> <div id="float"><img src="http://exeterufofest.com/images/pgeremia.jpg" /></div> <strong>Peter Geremia</strong> held a secret security clearance while working as a civilian federal employee for more than 20 years specializing in aircraft flight simulation. He has 32 years experience as a UFO investigator and is New Hampshire’s MUFON Director Emeritus. During his directorship MUFON attained the highest membership per capita in the United States. He also produced numerous high quality UFO conferences with an international list of top quality speakers.<br /><br />Peter has appeared on numerous radio and television programs such as “<em>Sightings</em>”, “<em>Encounters</em>”, "<em>Paranormal Borderline</em>" and has lectured on his UFO investigations for more than 20 years throughout New England. <br /><br />His presentation will include his in depth investigation of the famous Norman Muscarello multiple witness UFO encounter chronicled in John G. Fuller’s best seller <em>Incident at Exeter</em>, and close encounters in Epping, South Hampton and Fremont, NH. Using his special event simulation technique he will rivet his audience’s attention upon the actual UFO events as they appeared on location. These slides, combined with his nuts and bolts approach, make his lectures stimulating and entertaining. </div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top"><strong>10:00a.m.</strong></td> <td valign="top"> U<strong>FO construction for kids, using recyclables</strong> (<em>Founders Park</em>) <em>Completed UFO will be on display at the children’s library in the craft room.</em><br /><br /><strong> Alien Crash Site and Debris Field</strong> — Children use reverse technology <em>(Founders Park</em>)<br /><br /><strong>Children’s story circle</strong> (<em>Founders Park</em>)</td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top"><strong>10:30am</strong></td> <td><a href="http://exeterufofest.com/#marden" rel="facebox">Kathleen Marden: “Captured! The Betty and Barney Hill UFO Experience”</a> (10:30am-12:00 p.m) <div id="marden" style="display: none;"> <h2>“Captured! The Betty and Barney Hill UFO Experience”</h2> <div id="float"><img src="http://exeterufofest.com/images/marden.jpg" /></div> Scientific ufologist, <strong>Kathleen Marden</strong>, is the niece of Betty and Barney Hill, the focus of one of the most well-known alien abductions in UFO history. During her career as a social worker, educator and researcher, Marden implemented model educational programs and taught adult education classes on UFO and abduction history. For 10 years, she served on the MUFON Board of Directors as the Director of Field Investigator Training. She is internationally known, having appeared on news programs, dozens of radio and television shows, and documentaries in the United States, Canada and Europe.<br /><br />In her virtual reality slide show, you’ll meet the late Betty and Barney Hill and the major players in the UFO investigation. You’ll view the Hill’s encounter route through New Hampshire’s White Mountains, learn about Kathy’s comparative analysis of the Hills’ hypnosis transcripts and gain startling information about their captors’ physical and social characteristics. Further, you’ll view forensic paintings of the extraterrestrial beings who reportedly abducted them.<br /><br />Additionally, you’ll examine the scientific evidence that it was a real event and listen to rare audio taped excerpts from the Hills’ hypnosis sessions with renowned psychiatrist Dr. Benjamin Simon.<br /><br />Her Web site is <a href="http://kathleenmarden.googlepages.com/">http://kathleenmarden.googlepages.com </a> </div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top"><strong>11:30am</strong></td> <td valign="top"><strong>ET Costume Contest</strong> (<em>Founders Park</em>) followed by sidewalk parade through downtown.</td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top"><strong>12:00-1:00 p.m.</strong></td> <td>Lunch break (on your own).</td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top"><strong>1:00-2:30 p.m.</strong></td> <td> <a href="http://exeterufofest.com/#robbins" rel="facebox">Peter Robbins: “The Power of Ridicule vs. A Most Uncomfortable Truth: Why We Need to Take UFOs Seriously”</a> <div id="robbins" style="display: none;"> <h2>“The Power of Ridicule vs. A Most Uncomfortable Truth: Why We Need to Take UFOs Seriously”</h2> <div id="float"><img src="http://exeterufofest.com/images/robbins.jpg" /></div> <strong>Peter Robbins</strong> is one of the best known and most respected investigative writers and public speakers in the world with regard to the serious study of UFOs. He has been involved in this field for more than 25 years as a researcher, investigator, writer, lecturer, activist and author. A regular fixture on radio shows around the country, he has also appeared as a guest on and been consultant to numerous television shows and documentaries. He is coauthor of the British best-seller, Left at East Gate: A First-Hand Account of the Rendlesham Forest UFO Incident, Its Cover-up and Investigation.<br /><br />Peter’s lecture will explain why the subject of UFOs and their implications have been ridiculed and laughed at since the summer of 1947, the so-called advent of our modern age of sightings. How did this come to be? What set of events actually created this condition and attitude, and why is so important for us to grasp how serious the subject actually is? In this presentation investigative writer Peter Robbins guides us through the birth and growth of this extremely effective (and still ongoing) strategy of ridicule, and then examines some of this country’s most significant and well documented UFO cases and events. </div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top"><strong>2:30-4:00 p.m.</strong></td> <td> <a href="http://exeterufofest.com/#loder" rel="facebox">Ted Loder, Ph.D.: “The Disclosure Project: UFO Secrecy and our Future”</a> <div id="loder" style="display: none;"> <h2>“The Disclosure Project: UFO Secrecy and our Future”</h2> <div id="float"><img src="http://exeterufofest.com/images/loder.jpg" /></div> <strong>Dr. Loder</strong> retired in May 2005 from a long and productive career as a Professor at the University of New Hampshire, Department of Earth Sciences and member of the Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space. He has conducted environmental research in numerous countries, and published extensively.<br /><br />Dr. Loder will present three aspects of the UFO/ET issue in his talk. First he will present an analysis of the what, the how and the why of the present secrecy issues. He will focus on the reasons behind the secrecy which are not what we are told and the dangers of continued secrecy. Second he will present some of the evidence about the existence of extensive government involvement from many of the witnesses in the Disclosure Project. Finally, he will present recent evidence from extensive field work by CSETI training groups in making contact with ETs at different locations around the US. Websites covering some of these issues include <a href="http://www.disclosureproject.org/">www.DisclosureProject.org</a> and <a href="http://www.cseti.org/">www.CSETI.org</a>. </div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top"><strong>4:00-4:30 p.m.</strong></td> <td>A voice from the past: surprise speaker</td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top"><strong>4:30-5:30 p.m.</strong></td> <td>Panel Discussion</td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top"><strong>6:00-7:30pm</strong></td> <td valign="top"><strong>Happy Hour at Alien Café</strong> (<em>Loaf and Ladle</em>) Discussion: UFOs Off-Label</td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top"><strong>8:00-11:00pm</strong></td> <td valign="top"><strong>1960s Rock & Roll Dance</strong> — Earthlings and Aliens Ball (Town Hall) featuring New England’s famous “The Morlocks” band</td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2"><em>There will be a short break for set-up between presentations.</em></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><br /><p><span><span style=";font-size:100%;color:white;" ></span></span></p><br /></div></div>Chuck Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01281880905938442706noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6375089974625029198.post-4821018519280217922009-09-21T23:32:00.000-07:002011-09-05T03:34:32.486-07:00UFO FYI: June 24, 1947- Kenneth Arnold Sees Something<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjb00bxzi_c0tW6Qo5e9JRZFPYNV1fzObwnh9lKhM50gtoavvosbsSK8Tu_RVEBf67NjRAbRJMw7DCfOvCm4zX3jgPHb15FRWDI1s8ASYm-EymWYhngU2WXlEJ3cgPlxH5tuhW1rBwYVJQs/s1600-h/KArnold.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 318px; height: 357px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjb00bxzi_c0tW6Qo5e9JRZFPYNV1fzObwnh9lKhM50gtoavvosbsSK8Tu_RVEBf67NjRAbRJMw7DCfOvCm4zX3jgPHb15FRWDI1s8ASYm-EymWYhngU2WXlEJ3cgPlxH5tuhW1rBwYVJQs/s400/KArnold.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5366791088551388034" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Kenneth A. Arnold</span> (March 29, 1915 in Sebeka, Minnesota – January 16, 1984 in Bellevue, Washington)<br />From WIKIPEDIA (abridged)<br /><br />Kenneth A. Arnold was an American businessman and pilot. 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 see nine unusual objects flying in a chain near Mount Rainier, Washington on June 24, 1947. Arnold described the objects' shape as resembling a flat saucer or disc (see quotes below), and also described their erratic motion as resembling a saucer skipped across water; from this, the press quickly coined the new terms "flying saucer" and "flying disc" to describe such objects, many of which were reported within days after Arnold's sighting. Later Arnold would add that the objects resembled a crescent or flying wing.<br /><br />The U.S. Air Force formally listed the Arnold case as a mirage; this is one of many explanations that have been rebutted by critics, and researchers Jerome Clark and Ronald Story both argue that there has never been an entirely persuasive conventional explanation of the Arnold sighting.<br /><br />On June 24, 1947, Arnold was flying from Chehalis, Washington to Yakima, Washington in a CallAir A-2 on a business trip. He made a brief detour after learning of a $5000 reward for the discovery of a U.S. Marine Corps C-46 transport airplane that had crashed near Mt. Rainer. The skies were completely clear and there was a mild wind. A few minutes before 3:00 p.m. at about 9,200 feet (2,800 m) in altitude and near Mineral, Washington, he gave up his search and started heading eastward towards Yakima. He saw a bright flashing light, similar to sunlight reflecting from a mirror. Afraid he might be dangerously close to another aircraft, Arnold scanned the skies around him, but all he could see was a DC-4 to his left and back of him, about 15 miles (24 km) away. <p>About 30 seconds after seeing the first flash of light, Arnold saw a series of bright flashes in the distance off to his left, or north of Mt. Rainier, which was then 20 to 25 miles (40 km) away. He thought they might be reflections on his airplane's windows, but a few quick tests (rocking his airplane from side to side, removing his eyeglasses, later rolling down his side window) ruled this out. The reflections came from flying objects.</p> <p><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/Srh8_oG_1qI/AAAAAAAAItY/Y7pgzo4CTDc/s1600-h/arnold.gif"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 160px; height: 136px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/Srh8_oG_1qI/AAAAAAAAItY/Y7pgzo4CTDc/s400/arnold.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5384190787061798562" border="0" /></a>They flew in a long chain, and Arnold for a moment considered they might be a flock of geese, but quickly ruled this out for a number of reasons, including the altitude, bright glint, and obviously very fast speed. He then thought they might be a new type of jet and started looking intently for a tail and was surprised that he couldn't find any.</p> <p>They quickly approached Rainier and then passed in front, usually appearing dark in profile against the bright white snowfield covering Rainier, but occasionally still giving off bright light flashes as they flipped around erratically. Sometimes he said he could see them on edge, when they seemed so thin and flat they were practically invisible. According to Clark, Arnold said that one of the objects was rather crescent shaped, while the other eight objects were more circular, but initially Arnold's descriptions were only of the latter disk-like shape.</p> <p>At one point Arnold said they flew behind a subpeak of Rainier and briefly disappeared. Knowing his position and the position of the (unspecified) subpeak, Arnold placed their distance as they flew past Rainier at about 23 miles (37 km).</p> <p>Using a dzus cowling fastener as a gauge to compare the nine objects to the distant DC-4, Arnold estimated their angular size as slightly smaller than the DC-4, about the width between the outer engines (about 60 feet). Arnold also said he realized that the objects would have to be quite large to see any details at that distance and later, after comparing notes with a United Airlines crew that had a similar sighting 10 days later (see below), placed the absolute size as larger than a DC-4 airliner (or greater than 100 feet (30 m) in length). Army Air Force analysts would later estimate 140 to 280 feet (85 m), based on analysis of human visual acuity and other sighting details (such as estimated distance).</p> <p>Arnold said the objects were grouped together, as Ted Bloecher writes, "in a diagonally stepped-down, echelon formation, stretched out over a distance that he later calculated to be five miles". Though moving on a more or less level horizontal plane, Arnold said the objects weaved from side to side ("like the tail of a Chinese kite" as he later stated), darting through the valleys and around the smaller mountain peaks.<br /></p><p><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/Srk3pAhP8dI/AAAAAAAAIvQ/RPykUEwZK8Q/s1600-h/Ufology_3-01.gif"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 128px; height: 197px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/Srk3pAhP8dI/AAAAAAAAIvQ/RPykUEwZK8Q/s400/Ufology_3-01.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5384396007151759826" border="0" /></a>As the objects passed Mt Rainer, Arnold turned his plane southward on a more or less parallel course. It was at this point that he opened his side window and began observing the objects unobstructed by any glass that might have produced reflections. The objects did not disappear and continued to move very rapidly southward, continuously moving forward of his position. Curious about their speed, he began to time their rate of passage: he said they moved from Mt. Rainer to Mt. Adams where they faded from view, a distance of about 50 miles (80 km), in one minute and forty-two seconds, according to the clock on his instrument panel. When he later had time to do the calculation, the speed was over 1,700 miles per hour (2,700 km/h). This was about three times faster than any manned aircraft in 1947. Not knowing exactly the distance where the objects faded from view, Arnold conservatively and arbitrarily rounded this down to 1,200 miles (1,900 km) an hour, still faster than any known aircraft, which had yet to break the sound barrier. It was this supersonic speed in addition to the unusual saucer or disk description that seemed to capture people's attention.</p><p></p>Arnold landed in Yakima at about 4.00 p.m., and quickly told friend and airport general manager Al Baxter the amazing story, and before long, the entire airport staff knew of Arnold's claims. He discussed the story with the staff, and later wrote that Baxter didn't believe him.<br /><br />He also wrote that some former Army pilots told him that they had been briefed before going into combat "that they might see objects of similar shape and design as I described and assured me that I wasn't dreaming or going crazy." Arnold wasn't interviewed by reporters until the next day (June 25) when he went to the office of the East Oregonian in Pendleton. Any skepticism the reporters might have harbored evaporated when they interviewed Arnold at length; as historian Mike Dash records:<p><sup id="cite_ref-6" class="reference"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Arnold#cite_note-6"><span></span><span></span></a></sup></p> <dl style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"><dd>Arnold had the makings of a reliable witness. He was a respected businessman and experienced pilot ... and seemed to be neither exaggerating what he had seen, nor adding sensational details to his report. He also gave the impression of being a careful observer ... These details impressed the newspapermen who interviewed him and lent credibility to his report.</dd></dl> Arnold would soon complain about the effects of the publicity on his life. On June 28 he was reported saying, "I haven't had a moment of peace since I first told the story." He then said a preacher had called and told him that the objects he saw were "harbingers of doomsday" and that the preacher was preparing his congregation "for the end of the world." But that wasn't half as bad as an encounter he had with a woman in a Pendleton cafe who looked at him and dashed out shrieking, "There's the man who saw the men from Mars." She ran out "sobbing she would have to do something for the children" Arnold was reported saying "with a shudder".He then added that, "This whole thing has gotten out of hand. I want to talk to the FBI or someone. Half the people look at me as a combination of Einstein, Flash Gordon and screwball. I wonder what my wife back in Idaho thinks."<br /><br />Arnold's sighting was partly corroborated by a prospector named Fred Johnson on Mt. Adams, who wrote AAF intelligence that he saw six of the objects on June 24 at about the same time as Arnold, which he viewed through a small telescope. He said they were "round" and tapered "sharply to a point in the head and in an oval shape." He also noted that the objects seemed to disturb his compass.<br /><p></p> <p><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/Srh80tfKHxI/AAAAAAAAItQ/ij0gEj_T-Bw/s1600-h/K-Arnold-reconstitution.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/Srh80tfKHxI/AAAAAAAAItQ/ij0gEj_T-Bw/s320/K-Arnold-reconstitution.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5384190599526752018" border="0" /></a>The Portland Oregon <span style="font-style: italic;">Journal</span> reported on July 4 receiving a letter from an L. G. Bernier of Richland, Washington (about 110 miles (180 km) east of Mt. Adams and 140 miles (230 km) southeast of Mt. Rainier). Bernier wrote that he saw three of the strange objects over Richland flying "almost edgewise" toward Mt. Rainier about one half hour before Arnold. Bernier thought the three were part of a larger formation. He indicated they were traveling at high speed: "I have seen a P-38 appear seemingly on one horizon and then gone to the opposite horizon in no time at all, but these disks certainly were traveling faster than any P-38. [Maximum speed of a P-38 was about 440 miles an hour.] No doubt Mr. Arnold saw them just a few minutes or seconds later, according to their speed."[9] The previous day, Bernier had also spoken to his local newspaper, the Richland Washington Villager, and was among the first witnesses to suggest extraterrestrial origins: "I believe it may be a visitor from another planet." </p> <p></p>About 60 miles (97 km) west-northwest of Richland in Yakima, Washington, Mrs. Ethel Wheelhouse likewise reported sighting several flying discs moving at fantastic speeds at around the same time as Arnold's sighting.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/Srie4bOtAwI/AAAAAAAAIuo/0XfqwqX5WFA/s1600-h/Fate43_10-1953.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 136px; height: 200px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/Srie4bOtAwI/AAAAAAAAIuo/0XfqwqX5WFA/s200/Fate43_10-1953.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5384228046740718338" border="0" /></a>When military intelligence began investigating Arnold's sighting, they found yet another witness from the area. A member of the Washington State forest service, who had been on fire watch at a tower in Diamond Gap, about 20 miles (32 km) south of Yakima, reported seeing "flashes" at 3:00 p.m. on the 24th over Mount Rainier (or the exact same time as Arnold's sighting), that appeared to move in a straight line. Similarly, at 3:00 p.m. Sidney B. Gallagher in Washington State (exact position unspecified) reported seeing nine shiny discs flash by to the north. A Seattle newspaper also mentioned a woman near Tacoma who said she saw a chain of nine, bright objects flying at high speed near Mt. Rainier. Unfortunately this short news item wasn't precise as to time or date, but indicated it was around the same date as Arnold's sighting.<p></p> <p>However, a pilot of a DC-4 some 10 to 15 miles (24 km) north of Arnold en route to Seattle reported seeing nothing unusual. (This was the same DC-4 seen by Arnold and which he used for size comparison.)</p>The primary corroborative sighting, however, occurred ten days later (July 4) when a United Airlines crew over Idaho en route to Seattle also spotted five to nine disk-like objects that paced their plane for 10 to 15 minutes before suddenly disappearing. The next day in Seattle, Arnold met with the pilot, Cpt. E. J. Smith, and copilot and compared sighting details. The main difference in shape was that the United crew thought the objects appeared rough on top. This was one of the few sightings that Arnold felt was reliable, most of the rest he thought were the public seeing other things and letting their imaginations run wild. Arnold and Cpt. Smith became friends, met again with Army Air Force intelligence officers on July 12 and filed sighting reports, then teamed up again at the end of July in investigating the strange Maury Island incident.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/Srh1slt8J7I/AAAAAAAAItA/o72uFKuvpEs/s1600-h/Tulsa_Saucers_July12_1947.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 341px; height: 400px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/Srh1slt8J7I/AAAAAAAAItA/o72uFKuvpEs/s400/Tulsa_Saucers_July12_1947.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5384182763420919730" border="0" /></a>A similar sighting of eight objects also occurred over Tulsa, Oklahoma on July 12, 1947. In this instance, a photo (left) was taken and published in the Tulsa Daily World the following day (photo at right). Interestingly, the photographer, Enlo Gilmore, said that in blowups of the photo, the objects resembled baseball catcher's mitts or flying wings. He was of the opinion that the military had a secret fleet of flying wing airplanes. He had been a gunnery officer in the Navy during the war, and using information from another witness, also a veteran, he performed a triangulation and arrived at an estimation of speed of 1,700 miles per hour (2,700 km/h), or essentially the same estimate as Arnold's. One of the objects, he said, seemed to have a hole in the middle.<br /><br />Two or three photos of a similar, solitary object were taken by William Rhodes over Phoenix, Arizona on July 7, 1947, and appeared in a local Phoenix newspaper and some other newspapers. The object was rounded in front with a crescent back. These photos also seem to show something resembling a hole in the middle, though Rhodes thought it was a canopy. <h3><span class="mw-headline" id="Publicity_and_origins_of_term_.22flying_saucer.22">Publicity and origins of term "flying saucer"</span></h3> <p>Starting June 27, newspapers first began using the terms "flying saucer" and "flying disk" to describe the sighted objects. Thus the Arnold sighting is credited with giving rise to these popular terms. The actual origin of the terms is somewhat controversial and complicated. Jerome Clark cites a 1970 study by Herbert Strentz, who reviewed U.S. newspaper accounts of the Arnold UFO sighting, and concluded that the term was probably due to an editor or headline writer: the body of the early Arnold news stories did not use the term "flying saucer" or "flying disc."<br /></p><p><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SrigxbyeNWI/AAAAAAAAIvA/t-HTgWvaDlo/s1600-h/ExploringTheUnknown1960-08.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 142px; height: 200px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SrigxbyeNWI/AAAAAAAAIvA/t-HTgWvaDlo/s200/ExploringTheUnknown1960-08.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5384230125654914402" border="0" /></a>Years later, Arnold claimed he told Bill Bequette that "they flew erratic, like a saucer if you skip it across the water." Arnold felt that he had been misquoted since the description referred to the objects' motion rather than their shape. Thus Bequette has often been credited with first using "flying saucer" and supposedly misquoting Arnold, but the term does not appear in Bequette's early articles. Instead, his first article of June 25 says only, "He said he sighted nine saucer-like aircraft flying in formation..."</p> <p>The next day in a much more detailed article, Bequette wrote, "He clung to his story of shiny, flat objects racing over the Cascade mountains with a peculiar weaving motion ‘like the tail of a Chinese kite.' ...He also described the objects as 'saucer-like' and their motion 'like fish flipping in the sun.' ...[Arnold] described the objects as 'flat like a pie-pan and somewhat bat-shaped'." It wasn't until June 28 that Bequette first used the term "flying disc" (but not "flying saucer").</p> <p>A review of early newspaper stories indicates that immediately after his sighting, Arnold generally described the objects’ shape as thin and flat, rounded in the front but chopped in the back and coming to a point, i.e., more or less saucer- or disk-like. He also specifically used terms like "saucer" or "saucer-like", "disk", and "pie pan" or "pie plate" in describing the shape. The motion he generally described as weaving like the tail of a kite and erratic flipping.</p> <p><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SrifdR-OcNI/AAAAAAAAIuw/w61jxoj5cYU/s1600-h/FlyingSaucers1_1957-06.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 141px; height: 200px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SrifdR-OcNI/AAAAAAAAIuw/w61jxoj5cYU/s200/FlyingSaucers1_1957-06.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5384228679910846674" border="0" /></a>For example, in a surviving recorded radio interview from June 25, Arnold described them as looking "something like a pie plate that was cut in half with a sort of a convex triangle in the rear." His motion descriptions were: "I noticed to the left of me a chain which looked to me like the tail of a Chinese kite, kind of weaving... they seemed to flip and flash in the sun, just like a mirror... they seemed to kind of weave in and out right above the mountaintops..."</p><p>The first investigation of Arnold's claims came from Lt. Frank Brown and Capt. William Davidson of Hamilton Field in California, who interviewed Arnold on July 12. Arnold also submitted a written report at that time. Regarding the reliability of Arnold's sighting, they concluded:<sup id="cite_ref-13" class="reference"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Arnold#cite_note-13"><span></span></a></sup></p> <dl><dd>"It is the present opinion of the interviewer that Mr. Arnold actually saw what he stated he saw. It is difficult to believe that a man of [his] character and apparent integrity would state that he saw objects and write up a report to the extent that he did if he did not see them."</dd></dl> <p>Despite this, the Army Air Force's formal public conclusion was that Arnold had seen a mirage.</p> <p><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/Srh8kfVpMsI/AAAAAAAAItI/64uc2AgCq54/s1600-h/ufo-history-007.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 280px; height: 400px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/Srh8kfVpMsI/AAAAAAAAItI/64uc2AgCq54/s400/ufo-history-007.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5384190320850842306" border="0" /></a>In addition, on July 9 AAF intelligence, with help from the FBI, secretly began an investigation of the best sightings, mostly from pilots and military personnel. Arnold's sighting, as well as that of the United Airline's crew, were included in the list of best sightings. Three weeks later they came to the conclusion that the saucer reports were not imaginary or adequately explained by natural phenomena; something real was flying around. This laid the groundwork for another intelligence estimate in September 1947 by Gen. Nathan Twining, commanding officer of the Air Materiel Command, which likewise concluded the saucers were real and urged a formal investigation by multiple government agencies. This in turn resulted in the formation of Project Sign at the end of 1947, the first publicly acknowledged USAF UFO investigation. Project Sign eventually evolved into Project Grudge, and then the better known Project Blue Book.</p><p>In a 1950 interview with journalist Edward R. Murrow, Arnold reported seeing similar objects on three other occasions, and said other pilots flying in the northwestern U.S. had sighted such objects as many as eight times. The pilots initially felt a duty reporting the objects despite the ridicule, he said, because they thought the U.S. government didn't know what they were. Arnold did not assert that the objects were alien spacecraft, although he did say: "being a natural-born American, if it's not made by our science or our Army Air Forces, I am inclined to believe it's of an extraterrestrial origin." Then he added that he thought everybody should be concerned, but "I don't think it's anything for people to get hysterical about." The first issue of Fate (1948) featured the article The Truth About The Flying Saucers by Arnold. In 1952 he described his experiences in the book <span style="font-style: italic;">The Coming of the Saucers</span>, which he and a publisher friend named Raymond A. Palmer.</p><p><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/Srif26o32_I/AAAAAAAAIu4/wC-XlMVGiC8/s1600-h/FlyingSaucers3_1957-11.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 225px; height: 320px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/Srif26o32_I/AAAAAAAAIu4/wC-XlMVGiC8/s320/FlyingSaucers3_1957-11.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5384229120323869682" border="0" /></a>Recently in news, a team from the Northrop Grumman defense-contracting corporation used original Nazi blueprints (see re-created blueprints of Hitler's stealth fighter) and the only surviving Ho 2-29, which has been stored in a U.S. government facility for more than 50 years. This plane looks similar to the drawing made by Arnold. Its possible what Arnold actually saw was this secret German prototype which the US Army recovered after world War II.</p> <p>The all-wing Ho 2-29 looked more like todays U.S. B-2 bomber (B-2 bomber picture)—or something from a Star Wars prequel—than like any other World War II aircraft. Made primarily of wood and powered by jet engines, the plane was designed for speeds of up to 600 miles an hour (970 kilometers an hour).</p> <p>Armed with four 30mm cannons and two 500-kilogram (1,100-pound) bombs, the planned production model was also meant to pack a punch.</p> <p>A Ho 2-29 prototype made a successful test flight just before Christmas 1944. But by then time was running out for the Nazis, and they were never able to perfect the design or produce more than a handful of prototype planes.</p> Determining the Horten's stealth capabilities could help reveal what might have happened if the Ho 2-29 had been unleashed in force.<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_A._Palmer" title="Raymond A. Palmer"></a> </p><p></p>FOR MUCH MORE INFO ON KENNETH ARNOLD, VISIT WIKIPEDIA:<br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Arnold">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Arnold</a><p></p><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SrhybqtHdZI/AAAAAAAAIs4/S4fjpm0dxg0/s1600-h/1947+ufoarticle.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 317px; height: 400px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SrhybqtHdZI/AAAAAAAAIs4/S4fjpm0dxg0/s400/1947+ufoarticle.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5384179174166984082" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SrieDbq5zpI/AAAAAAAAIug/Z8kFmFO8CF0/s1600-h/studufo8.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 131px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SrieDbq5zpI/AAAAAAAAIug/Z8kFmFO8CF0/s200/studufo8.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5384227136325930642" border="0" /></a><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">(UFO Casebook)</span> Although the history of UFOs can be traced back to early cave drawings, pictures, and folklore, the modern era of the study of UFOs is usually believed to be the 1947 sighting report of nine "flying saucers" made by pilot Kenneth Arnold on June 24, 1947. Arnold was aiding in the search for a missing plane when the sighting occurred. He did not believe his story would be believed, but swore that it was true. Arnold related his sighting to the Chicago Daily Tribune: "The first thing I noticed was a series of flashes in my eyes as if a mirror was reflecting sunlight at me..." <p>"I saw the flashes were coming from a series of objects that were traveling incredibly fast. They were silvery and shiny and seemed to be shaped like a pie plate...What startled me most at this point was...that I could not find any tails on them."</p><p> </p><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/Srh9eBTpSII/AAAAAAAAIto/_clCFSYUDNw/s1600-h/kenaroldbook.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 256px; height: 400px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/Srh9eBTpSII/AAAAAAAAIto/_clCFSYUDNw/s400/kenaroldbook.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5384191309221808258" border="0" /></a>Arnold estimated that the objects were flying at an altitude between 9,500 and 10,000 feet, and at a great speed. After clocking them from Mt. Ranier to Mt. Adams, he arrived at an estimated speed of 1,200 miles per hour. "It seemed impossible," he said, "but there it is...I must believe my eyes." The term "flying saucer" was coined, not by Arnold, but a reporter. Arnold made the statement that the objects moved, "like a saucer would if you skipped it across the water." East Orengonian newspaper reporter Bill Bequette paraphrased Arnold's statement when he placed the story on the AP news wire. Arnold's term "saucer-like" became "flying saucers." The US military attempted to ignore the press reports of Arnold's sighting, but as the story grew, they felt compelled to take action. A meeting to discuss a course of action was held at the Pentagon on July 7, 1947, only a few days after the Roswell crash. Taking charge was Chief of the Army Air Force Air Intelligence Requirements Division, General Schulgen. The group made the decision to follow up on "qualified" observers' reports of flying discs. Three days later, Arnold received a request from Continental Air Command to appear for an interview, regarding his report. Two Counter Intelligence Corps investigators would carry out the investigation. The results of this session were included in Project Blue Book.<br /><p>Arnold's report was one of the first of 850 different UFO reports to make US media by the end of July, 1947. More than anything else, Arnold was in the right place at the right time to forever be an important part of the history of UFOs.</p><p><a href="http://www.ufocasebook.com/kennetharnold.html">http://www.ufocasebook.com/kennetharnold.html</a><br /></p><p><b></b></p><p></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-size:100%;" > </span></p><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyniyl93oeFRhB6DvF5L3_NV30uHKVx3fPjkrgED5LXq6MkaMSzYT6LAW57VhXrChSxDd1UP8kc20P_DGbgEA9jva_OST5rlTOXcr1D2OzyUjKwGWjUZN1WHRJ7uAWEGa18M3xNx9K_jZD/s1600-h/KArnoldDoc+copy.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 302px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyniyl93oeFRhB6DvF5L3_NV30uHKVx3fPjkrgED5LXq6MkaMSzYT6LAW57VhXrChSxDd1UP8kc20P_DGbgEA9jva_OST5rlTOXcr1D2OzyUjKwGWjUZN1WHRJ7uAWEGa18M3xNx9K_jZD/s400/KArnoldDoc+copy.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5366793967801904418" border="0" /></a><h2 class="postTitle" style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"></h2><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Pilot Reports Seeing Mystery 'Aircraft' Over Coast Range</span></span><br />Sacramento Bee June 26, 1947<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">PENDELTON (Ore) June 26.-(AP)-Nine shiny objects flying at 1200 miles per hour over the Coast Range of Western Washington-that is what pilot Kenneth Arnold of Boise, Ida., reported he saw while on a routine flight over the mountains. He stuck to his story while fellow pilots openly scoffed at his report and experts said they had no explanation as to what the "objects" could be.<br />"It seems impossible, but there it is," Arnold insisted.<br /><br />Calls Them Aircraft<br /><br />He said they were bright, saucer like objects-he called them "aircraft"-flying at 10,00 feet altitude. A flash of reflected sunshine brought them to his attention, he asserted, and for a second he was stunned by their "incredible" speed.<br /><br />He said he rolled down the window of his plane, thinking it might have caused the reflection, but he still saw them with the window down.<br /><br />They flew with a peculiar dipping motion, "like a fish flipping in the sun," he said, and "they were extremely shiny, and when they caught the sun right it nearly blinded me."<br /><br />Figures Speed<br /><br />He reported they were about 25 to 30 miles away when first sighted flying north. He glanced at his instrument clock and timed them between Mount Adams and Mount Rainier, a distance of 47 miles.<br /><br />It took 1:42 minutes, Arnold reported, added that after he landed, he got out a map and by triangulation figured the speed of the "objects" at 1200 miles per hour.<br /><br />"I might have missed a second or two in my timing, but the speed still would be near 1,200 miles per hour," he asserted.<br /><br />In Portland, the state senior Civil Aeronautics Administration Inspector, Edward Leach, said he doubted "that anything would be traveling that fast."<br /><br />Size of Transport Plane<br /><br />Arnold also said a DC4 was flying in the vicinity and he estimated that the "objects" were about the same size as the four engined passenger ships, although the "objects" did not have wings.<br /><br />"One thing that struck me," he said, "was that they were flying so low. Ten thousand feet is very low for anything going at that speed."<br /><br />He reported that they appeared to fly almost as if they were fastened together-if one dipped the others did too.<br /><br /></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5wplZ8DYNywXsUIiwL1evakL7hSFlSsv93YknI6Go8ylFhFHtjJEl__UyV889vh1Y2dZd-3MXmzmuWGLV55O3yeJAP7AIzhbjzp79oK0blz18K_FGZj68eNoUCBP87-Bn7eZ07ro5Lbu7/s1600-h/1952FIG1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 233px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5wplZ8DYNywXsUIiwL1evakL7hSFlSsv93YknI6Go8ylFhFHtjJEl__UyV889vh1Y2dZd-3MXmzmuWGLV55O3yeJAP7AIzhbjzp79oK0blz18K_FGZj68eNoUCBP87-Bn7eZ07ro5Lbu7/s400/1952FIG1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5334687173611887122" border="0" /></a><div style="text-align: center; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"> </div><div style="text-align: left; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Maury Island "hoax": an early Men-In-Black incident three days before the Arnold sighting, in which a "donut-shaped object" dropped slag on a boat near Tacoma, Washington; the next day an MIB visited Harold Dahl, who was piloting the boat, and warned him not to discuss the sighting; the boat's owner, Fred Crisman, was suspected of being a CIA employee and was later called to give secret testimony at the trial of Clay Shaw in New Orleans; pilot Dahl disappeared and UFOlogist Arnold, who investigated the case, reported unexplained failure of his own plane's engine soon after two Air Force investigators were killed taking off from Tacoma's airport.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);font-size:180%;" ><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span></span></div><span style="font-size:180%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">From About Dot Com<br /></span><a href="http://ufos.about.com/od/bestufocasefiles/p/arnold.htm"><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:100%;" >http://ufos.about.com/od/bestufocasefiles/p/arnold.htm</span></a><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">There have been </span></span>UFO sightings ever since man roamed the Earth. There exist many paintings of centuries past that depict unusual flying objects in the sky. Folklore of many early peoples are filled with stories of strange objects flying through the skies. However, most Ufologists credit pilot Kenneth Arnold's UFO sighting of 1947 as the beginning of the modern UFO age.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SrikZAuVDgI/AAAAAAAAIvI/I5fDwI_KZY8/s1600-h/kennetharnold.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 160px; height: 168px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SrikZAuVDgI/AAAAAAAAIvI/I5fDwI_KZY8/s400/kennetharnold.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5384234104119430658" border="0" /></a>On June 24, 1947, businessman Arnold was using his plane to help search for a missing aircraft. He was flying over the Cascade mountains. As he scanned the landscape below him, he would notice some flashes in his eyes, like reflecting sunlight. He told the Chicago Daily Tribune, "The first thing I noticed was a series of flashes in my eyes as if a mirror was reflecting sunlight at me... "<br /><br />Arnold soon found the source of the flashes - a series of fast moving objects. He described them as silvery and shiny. The most startling aspect of the object was a lack of a tail. The objects appeared to be shaped like a pie plate. This description almost certainly meant that the objects had a raised top, or cupola on them. This description very closely fit that of the large UFO photographed during The Battle of Los Angeles.<br /><br />The stunned pilot was seeing something that he had never seen before in his many years of flying. He estimated the objects' altitude as between 9,500 and 10,000 feet. He began to clock their flight from Mt. Ranier to Mt. Adams. This information would be used to estimate the objects' speed at 1,200 mph, an unbelievable speed for the era. <p></p> "It seemed impossible," he said, "but there it is... I must believe my eyes."Although the term saucer was used in a 1930 UFO report in Texas, it was meant to show the relative size of the object from arm's length. Arnold told a newspaper reporter that the objects moved "like a saucer would if you skipped it across the water." Arnold was indicating how the objects bounced across the atmosphere, not the shape of the object, Yet, newspaper reporter Bill Bequette's report on the AP news wire used the term "flying saucer" to describe the objects' shape. A phrase was coined.<h3></h3><h3></h3>As was the custom of the day, the U.S. military, though aware of the Arnold report, at first tried to simply ignore the matter. But, the story broke big across the nation, and the military had to make some statement on the sighting. On July 7, a meeting was held to determine how to respond to the report.<br /><br />Chief of the Army Air Force Air Intelligence Requirements Division, General Schulgen would head the group. Under pressure to give the public some reassurance, the decision was made to hear from "qualified" reporters of UFO sightings. In a couple of days, Arnold was called in for an interview. The results of this interview would earn a place in Project Blue Book.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Place in History:</span> Although there had already occurred several excellent UFO cases before the Arnold sighting, his account will always have a place in UFO history. Over 800 reports would make U.S. media by the end of July, 1947 alone, and Arnold's was one of the most important.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 204, 0);font-size:180%;" ><span style="font-weight: bold;">FROM ANSWERS DOT COM:</span></span><br /><a href="http://www.answers.com/topic/kenneth-arnold">http://www.answers.com/topic/kenneth-arnold</a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhS9OlHFYrG7_mmU0hlYEebqyQDPUIfek1b7DfWUmCbC5dpCRnp4HtAwQXbAL_475p3m7kuY13h5bdNFSz2wmT8p39xwMbMOgFnjwJmBlOhrrZzBzdmvJxbSAdhyphenhyphenP0zur6PmZEV-wu63LhP/s1600-h/1947+ufoarticle.jpg"></a><h3> <span class="mw-headline">Skeptical explanations</span></h3> <p>One skeptical objection raised is that Arnold was suspiciously precise in his descriptions (for example, "approaching Mt. Rainier at about 107 degrees" and "passed almost directly in front of me, but at a distance of about 23 miles"), perhaps calling into question Arnold's reliability as a witness.<sup id="cite_ref-15" class="reference"><a href="http://www.answers.com/topic/kenneth-arnold#cite_note-15"><span></span></a></sup> However, Arnold's "<i>about</i> 107 degrees" was clearly not meant to be exact but an estimate, based on judging flight bearings from thousands of hours of flying experience. Arnold was also explicit from the beginning that his 23-mile (37 km) distance figure was based on seeing the objects momentarily disappear behind a sub-peak of Rainier of a known distance.</p> <p></p>Skeptic Steuart Campbell has argued that the objects Arnold reported could have been mirages of several snow-capped peaks in Cascade Range. Campbell's calculation of the objects' speed determined that they were travelling at roughly the same speed as Arnold's plane, indicating that the objects were in fact stationary. Mirages could have been caused by temperature inversions over several deep valleys in the line of sight.[17] It is true that when Arnold had turned the plane so as to fly parallel to the apparent N-S course of the objects the relative bearing to very distant mountains would change at a much slower angular rate than the bearings to nearby peaks, i.e. as nearby landmarks fell aft of the left wing parallax would cause distant landmarks to be relatively displaced in the opposite direction. Because mirage affects visual elevation but preserves visual bearing, detached mirage images of distant peaks could appear to pace the plane. However, Arnold said that he first saw the objects crossing the nose of the plane at speed from N - S before he turned S in order to watch them through the open side canopy. Parallax does not explain this. He also said he saw the objects fly in front of Mt. Rainier; they could be seen in profile and also flashing brightly against the snowfields of Rainier. That would be impossible for mirages of mountain peaks dozens of miles away to the south. UFO skeptic Philip J. Klass[18] cited an article by Keay Davidson of the San Francisco Examiner in arguing that Arnold might have misidentified meteors on June 24, 1947. In rebuttal, optical physicist Bruce Maccabee pointed out a meteor theory would require impossibly slow speeds and durations for brightly glowing meteors on a horizontal trajectory.<br /><p><sup id="cite_ref-18" class="reference"><a href="http://www.answers.com/topic/kenneth-arnold#cite_note-18"><span></span></a></sup></p> <p>James Easton was the first of several skeptics to suggest that Arnold may have misidentified pelicans: the birds live in the Washington region, are rather large (wingspans of over three meters are not uncommon), have a pale underside that can reflect light, can fly at rather high altitudes, and can appear to have a somewhat crescent-shaped profile when flying.</p> <p>Similarly, Richard Carrier recently claimed to have seen the same UFOs as Arnold described, "ovoid objects flying in formation" "rotating along their axis of motion, like footballs, with one side black and one bright white, so they alternated in color while they spun." Then he realized it was an optical illusion and a flock of seagulls of which he misgauged the speed. He further claimed that Arnold's account showed that Arnold was incorrectly estimating his height, believing himself level to mountains four thousand feet below him giving him erroneous estimates of the level, distance, and speed of the objects. Birds unable to meet these erroneous estimates are ruled out by the minds eye as a possible explanations for the object and aren't recognized.</p> <p>Rebutting the various bird explanations, Maccabee, argues it is physically impossible for a bird to be blindingly bright as reported by Arnold—the objects; brilliant brightness being what initially attracted Arnold's attention. Further, Arnold was flying at roughly 110 miles (180 km) an hour on a parallel course to the objects. Arnold reported the objects rapidly moving forward of his position as he observed them flying southward on a parallel course between Mt. Rainier and Mt. Adams. However, no bird could possibly fly faster than Arnold's plane; instead birds would have steadily moved backward, not forwards, relative to his position.<sup id="cite_ref-21" class="reference"><a href="http://www.answers.com/topic/kenneth-arnold#cite_note-21"><span></span><span></span></a></sup></p> <p><a name="Donald_Menzel.27s_explanations" id="Donald_Menzel.27s_explanations"></a></p> <h4 style="color: rgb(102, 255, 255);"> <span class="mw-headline">Donald Menzel's explanations</span></h4> <p><a href="http://www.answers.com/topic/donald-howard-menzel" class="ilnk" target="_top" onclick="assignParam('navinfo','method|4'+getLinkTextForCookie(this));"></a>Donald Menzel was a Harvard astronomer and one of the earliest UFO debunkers. Over the years, he offered several mutually exclusive explanations for the Arnold's 1947 UFO sighting. Bruce Maccabee rebutted Menzel's explanations in a 1986 monograph, arguing that Menzel often left out data that conflicted with a given 'explanation'.<sup id="cite_ref-22" class="reference"><a href="http://www.answers.com/topic/kenneth-arnold#cite_note-22"><span></span></a></sup></p> <ol><li>In 1953, Menzel argued that Arnold had seen clouds of snow blown from the mountains south of Mt. Rainier. Maccabee noted that such snow clouds have hazy light, not the mirror-like brilliance reported by Arnold. Further, such clouds could not be in the rapid motion reported by Arnold, nor would they account for Arnold first seeing the bright objects north of Rainier.</li><li>In 1963, Menzel argued that Arnold had seen orographic clouds or wave clouds; Maccabee noted that this conflicted with testimony from Arnold and others that the sky was clear, and again can't account for the brightness of the objects or their rapid motion over a very large angular region.</li><li>In 1971, Menzel argued that Arnold had merely seen spots of water on his airplane's windows; Maccabee notes that this contradicts Arnold's testiomony that he had specifically ruled out water spots or reflections shortly after seeing the nine UFOs. For example, the early Bill Bequette article of June 26 in the <i>Pendleton East Oregonian</i> has Arnold saying he at first thought that maybe he was seeing reflections off his window, but "he still saw the objects after rolling it down."<br /></li></ol>Chuck Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01281880905938442706noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6375089974625029198.post-66003770896970620022009-09-21T20:34:00.000-07:002011-09-05T03:34:32.493-07:00UFO FYI: 1993- Back to the Beach<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:180%;"><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 204, 0);">1993</span> <span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 204, 0);">THE MASLIN BEACH, AUSTRALIA PHOTOS</span></span><br /></div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SrhIr3rYXLI/AAAAAAAAIrw/IRTftda2Wyc/s1600-h/maslinbeach1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 210px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SrhIr3rYXLI/AAAAAAAAIrw/IRTftda2Wyc/s320/maslinbeach1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5384133273038904498" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Maslin Beach is a coastal suburb in the south of Adelaide, South Australia. It lies within the City of Onkaparinga local government area, and neighbours the suburbs Moana, Port Willunga, and McLaren Vale.</span> <span style="font-style: italic;">The southern half of Maslin Beach was declared Australia's first official nude beach in 1975. The cliff-lined beach is some 3km in length, and so the area reserved for nude bathing is some distance from other beach users. Around Australia Day each year, the "Maslin Beach Olympics" are held, consisting of informal competitions such as three-legged races and the judging of "best bum".</span><p></p><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">When Eric Thomason in Maslin Beach, Australia, looked out across the ocean, he saw - to his great surprise - how an object rose from the waves and started flying towards him. When the object came nearer, Eric took out his camera and started taking photographs. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">- I could feel water dripping from the craft</span>, he tells UFO-Aktuellt.<br /><br />By Clas Svahn Translation by Stefan Isaksson<br /><a href="http://www.ufocasebook.com/maslinbeach1993.html">http://www.ufocasebook.com/maslinbeach1993.html</a><br /><p><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-size:130%;" ><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-size:100%;" ><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-size:100%;" ></span></span></span></p>The photographs are quite sensational, and there are really just two alternatives: either Eric Thomason's photographs are the most astounding so far, or it's just a simple hoax. Eric Thomason, 69, is a senior citizen living in Maslin Beach in southern Australia. Not far from his house is an old abandoned mine, Maslin Old Quarry, where he sometimes takes his dog for a walk. In March 1993, Eric decided to try to document the old mine using his son's camera, a Kodak S50 with a Fuji 100 ASA-film. Despite having never owned a camera of his own and having virtually no experiencing photographing, Eric set off in order to try to capture the beautiful colors of the open-cast mine from as many angles as possible. And, s photo contest in the magazine "Southern Times-Messenger" about the best image of a sunrise over land also helped him in his decision. He thought he would be able to capture the sunrise on film from Ochre Point, a cliff 60 meters high from where hang-gliders used to take off - but the sun was hidden behind a dense layer of clouds.<br /><br />Wednesday, March 10, didn't appear to be much better. It was a cool morning, only 14 degrees Celsius, and a stubborn wind came from the west. From the top of the grassy cliff, Eric was forced to accept that there wasn't going to be a sunrise that morning either. A persistent layer of clouds blocked out the sun, and the time was 06:00 AM when Eric instead turned to face the ocean to the west.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">- It was then that I saw a movement on the surface on the water, and something looking like the tower on an atomic submarine emerged, </span>Eric tells UFO-Sweden<span style="font-style: italic;">. When the object rose from the water I was able to see how three legs were pointing out from the hull. I was also able to see how it was spinning, and how the three legs were pulled in.<br /><br /></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SrhNEB5BBLI/AAAAAAAAIr4/zCCL3OUmEGc/s1600-h/maslinbeach1+copy.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 220px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SrhNEB5BBLI/AAAAAAAAIr4/zCCL3OUmEGc/s400/maslinbeach1+copy.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5384138086143820978" border="0" /></a>Before the legs were pulled in, Eric managed to take his first photograph of the object, and he estimates the distance to the object at the time being about 400 meters. It then dawned on him how exposed his position was. Standing on top of the Ochre Point with the sun right behind him made him an easy target to spot for a possible crew.<p><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-size:130%;" ><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-size:100%;" ><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-size:100%;" > </span></span></span></p><span style="font-style: italic;"> - I had heard of people being abducted by UFOs, so I climbed down a slope nearby. From there I could see how the light-grey object came flying somewhat south of me, and came to a halt over the mine. At that very moment I spotted yet another object, north of the first one. That's when I snapped my second picture, but since the light from the sunrise was straight into my view-finder I moved a little to the left.<br /><br /></span><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-size:130%;" ><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-size:100%;" ><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-size:100%;" ><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-size:100%;" ><img src="http://www.ufocasebook.com/mb/maslinbeach3.jpg" alt="UFO" align="middle" hspace="10" /> </span></span></span></span><br /></div><br />While taking photographs from his hideout five meters below the top of the cliff, the new object moved towards the larger one, came to a halt, and then continued upwards, into a deepening in the larger object. <span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-size:130%;" ><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-size:100%;" ><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-size:100%;" ><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-size:100%;" ><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-size:100%;" ></span></span></span></span></span><br /><br />In a report form to the Australian UFO-group Australian Flying Saucer Research Society, Eric estimates the size of the object to be 40 meters, and the distance (when he first saw it rise from the ocean) to be 2 kilometers. While talking to him on the phone, Eric tells me how it never got closer to him than 400 meters. When the incident was over, Eric returned home. However, despite his amazing encounter he decided to remain quiet about it, even to his wife. He first wanted to have the film developed in order to find out if there indeed were any photographs of it. But he was not in a hurry. Before he handed in the film for development he made sure to use up the entire film. And not until May, 1994, when he had watched a UFO show on TV, did he bring forward the photographs.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">- At first he didn't tell me anything since I wasn't feeling well at the time, and later he believed that the photographs weren't going to show anything, </span><span>Mrs. Thomason says when UFO-Sweden talks to her</span><span style="font-style: italic;">. But after he had had the film developed he showed them to me. I'm certain it's a spaceship. Eric is not the lying type, and I believe him.<br /></span><br /><p style="text-align: center;"> <span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-size:130%;" ><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-size:100%;" ><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-size:100%;" ><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-size:100%;" ><img src="http://www.ufocasebook.com/mb/maslinbeach4.jpg" alt="UFO" align="middle" hspace="10" /> </span></span></span></span></p><br />Still, there are several details in his story that are worth pondering. Eric Thomason set his alarm clock to 05:45 in order to catch the sunrise, which took place around 06:00. During these 15 minutes, Mr. Thomason had time to get out of bed, put on several layers of warm clothing, bring his camera, fetch the dog at the back of the house, walk to Ochre Point (which according to Mrs. Thomason takes 5 minutes), climb the 60 meters tall cliff, wait for the failed sunrise, and then walk on to another site close by in order to look out over the ocean. At 06:00 sharp he took his first photograph of the object. The bright blue sky on the first photograph suggests the images were taken later in the day. In a letter, Eric describes what happened when the photographs were returned from the photo lab: "When the film had been developed I noticed yet another object on the first photograph, which I hadn't seen during the incident itself. A black dot in the distance, halfway between the object and the edge of the photograph, which might have been an airplane several kilometers away, or the smaller object on its way to intercept with the larger one."<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-size:130%;" ><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-size:100%;" ><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-size:100%;" ><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-size:100%;" ><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-size:100%;" ><img src="http://www.ufocasebook.com/mb/maslinbeach5.jpg" alt="UFO" align="middle" hspace="10" /><br /><br /></span></span></span></span></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SrhQtrmzzdI/AAAAAAAAIsA/Nyi_XuVIJRg/s1600-h/maslinbeach5.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 385px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SrhQtrmzzdI/AAAAAAAAIsA/Nyi_XuVIJRg/s400/maslinbeach5.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5384142100251266514" border="0" /></a><br /></div>According to Eric, the negatives were analyzed by Kodak in Adelaide, but he doesn't know anything about the results. The camera Eric used was a cheap Kodak S50, purchased in a department store for 40 USD. The S50 uses normal 35 mm film, and has never been available on the Swedish market. Its focus is set, and cannot be changed. There are, on the whole, no buttons to push except the shutter release. Cameras of this type are always set on infinitude, and have a large depth of field. And here's where an uncertainty becomes apparent. If you look at the first photograph the object, which supposedly is 400 meters away, is in focus while the horizon is fuzzy. As a matter of fact, both the object and the horizon should be in focus. That aside, the images agree with Eric's story, and during our entire conversation he answers all my questions correct, even when I try to trap him. That aside, the images agree with Eric's story, and during our entire conversation he answers all my questions correct, even when I try to trap him. Mr. Thomason's photographs have caused a lot of attention worldwide, and have even ended up in an American UFO almanac.<p><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-size:130%;" ><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-size:100%;" ><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-size:100%;" ><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-size:100%;" ><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-size:100%;" ><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-size:100%;" > </span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p> <span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-size:130%;" ><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-size:100%;" ><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-size:100%;" ><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-size:100%;" ><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-size:100%;" ><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-size:100%;" ></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><span style="font-style: italic;">- There have been so many people calling, that I'm now starting to get sick of it, Eric says while mentioning how he is very critical to other UFO photographs. But I've begun looking for them in the evenings while out walking the dog. I know there are UFOs from different planets in the universe. But so far I've only seen meteorites. </span><br /><br />Finally I ask Erik Thomason the most important question of them all: Are the photographs really genuine? Do they really depict the object you said emerged from the ocean? -<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;"> -Yes, absolutely, </span><span>he says briefly and adds</span><span style="font-style: italic;">, OK?<br /></span><br />Post scriptum<br />After this article went into print in UFO-Sweden's magazine UFO-Aktuellt in 1996 several readers has pointed out that the Maslin Beach UFO does have many similarities with a part of the ventilation system built for private boats. As can be seen in the pictures below, this theory can not be ruled out. The author of this article is currently trying to find more ventilation parts that could make a better match.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-size:130%;" ><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-size:100%;" ><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-size:100%;" ><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-size:100%;" ><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-size:100%;" ><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-size:100%;" ><img src="http://www.ufocasebook.com/mb/maslinbeach6.jpg" alt="UFO" align="middle" hspace="10" /><br /><br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>This picture, taken by the author, shows a part of the ventilation system for private boats. The part is made of plastic and very light and shows many similarities to the Maslin Beach UFO but of a different brand. The ventilation part comes in several different configurations. To this date it has not been able to find a part with the exact looks of the Maslin Beach object.<br /><a href="http://www.ufo.se/maslinbeach/">http://www.ufo.se/maslinbeach/</a><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SrhiHL27wDI/AAAAAAAAIsQ/d1UUMz2Cf5o/s1600-h/maslinbeach1+copy.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 110px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SrhiHL27wDI/AAAAAAAAIsQ/d1UUMz2Cf5o/s200/maslinbeach1+copy.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5384161230103232562" border="0" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;">From the </span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Australasian Ufologist website</span><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="htthttp://ufologist.blogspot.com/2005_01_01_ufologist_archive.htmlp://">http://ufologist.blogspot.com/2005_01_01_ufologist_archive.html</a><br /></div><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-size:180%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Maslin Beach Hoax</span></span><br />UFOlogist Magazine Vol8 No3 2004 </span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SrhsKvTtyQI/AAAAAAAAIso/bJhhrT1rdRw/s1600-h/24182201_c42f6b6f72_o.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 226px; height: 320px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SrhsKvTtyQI/AAAAAAAAIso/bJhhrT1rdRw/s320/24182201_c42f6b6f72_o.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5384172286275078402" border="0" /></a>The 1993 Maslin Beach, South Australia UFO photographs are a very poor Hoax. They have been investigated by a number of researchers down this way, who went over to SA. In one shot the string that holds the small object below the larger object is visible. An Editor from one of our big women’s magazines was asked to purchase the images, he took the negatives for a look see, and then sent them down to Victoria for analysis (VUFORS & PRA). The conclusion - there were 17 other telltale errors with the images and the story! Why would anyone have these images on the front of their magazine?<br /><br />Simply mad!<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SrhoRb3MVbI/AAAAAAAAIsg/cgNFZgkTAFY/s1600-h/maslinbeach1+copy+copy.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 259px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_adkR8XTZJok/SrhoRb3MVbI/AAAAAAAAIsg/cgNFZgkTAFY/s400/maslinbeach1+copy+copy.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5384168003267745202" border="0" /></a></div><p><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-size:130%;" ><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-size:100%;" ><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-size:100%;" ><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-size:100%;" ><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-size:100%;" ><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-size:100%;" > </span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-size:130%;" ><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-size:100%;" ><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-size:100%;" ><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-size:100%;" ><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-size:100%;" ><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-size:100%;" > </span></span></span></span></span></span></p><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-size:130%;" ><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-size:100%;" ><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-size:100%;" ><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-size:100%;" ><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-size:100%;" ><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-size:100%;" ></span></span></span></span></span></span><p><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-size:130%;" ><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-size:100%;" ><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-size:100%;" ><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-size:100%;" ><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-size:100%;" ><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-size:100%;" > </span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-size:130%;" ><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-size:100%;" ><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-size:100%;" > </span></span></span></p><p><br /></p>Chuck Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01281880905938442706noreply@blogger.com0