Soviet Nukes and UFOs

By J. Antonio Huneeus, openminds.tv
Jan 26, 2010
http://www.openminds.tv/soviet-nukes-and-ufos/

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.

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.

Retired Colonel Boris Sokolov (image credit: George Knapp).

“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.

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.

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 someone or something 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.”

Major Kataman's deposition.

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.

Museum of Strategic Missile Troops, near Pobuzke, Ukraine, http://www.eoghan.me.uk/tips/msmt/index.html

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.”

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.

The Testimony

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.”

Hand written deposition with small sketch by one of the military witnesses of the Usovo case.

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.”

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.

UFO photo taken in the Caucasus region, published in the Soviet Military Review.

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.

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.

One of the military UFO documents from the dossier obtained by George Knapp.

No Conclusion

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.

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.

The Soviet UFO Dossier

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.

George Knapp in front of the old KGB headquarters during his trip to Moscow in the early 1990's (image credit: George Knapp)..

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.”

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.

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.

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.

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, UFO: Top Secret, 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.”

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.”

Col. Sokolov’s Flip-Flop

Museum of Strategic Missile Troops, near Pobuzke, Ukraine, http://www.eoghan.me.uk/tips/msmt/index.html.

In 2000, Col. Sokolov and Yuli Platov, a well known Russian scientist and UFO skeptic, published a comprehensive article in Vestnik Rossiiskoi Akademii Nauk, 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].

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.”

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.

Other UFO Incidents at Missile Bases

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.”

(image credit: UFO Briefing Document)

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:

“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.

“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.”

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 UFO Briefing Document – The Best Available Evidence, 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].

Faded Giant book cover

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^th 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 Faded Giant – The 1967 Missile/UFO Incidents. 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 Faded Giant, which includes a large number of declassified documents.

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 The UFO Cover-Up, 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 that the tape had mysteriously changed target numbers! The re-entry vehicle was then taken from the silo and brought back to the base. Eventually, the entire missile was changed.”

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:

“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.)

“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.)

Malmstrom Air Force Base

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 Agreement on Measures to Reduce the Risk of Nuclear War between the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialists Republics, points in that direction. 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.

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: “The Parties undertake to notify each other immediately in the event of detection by missile warning systems of unidentified objects [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.”

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, UOs do include UFOs. 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.”

Notes:

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.

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.

1950-The Trent Photographs

http://www.ufocasebook.com/trentphotos.html

1950-The Trent Photographs

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.

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.

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.

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.

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:

"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."

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.

"it appears significant that the simplest most direct interpretation of the photographs confirms precisely what the witnesses said they saw"

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."

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."

Controversy - The Skeptics' Case

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.

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).

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.

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.)

Maccabee calculated the UFO to be over 1 kilometre away, and about 30 meters in diameter and 4 meters thick.

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.

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.

Repeaters

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."

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."

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):

"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."

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.

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.

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).

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].

By Brian Zeiler

Also: www.nicap.org

UFO FYI: "ANGEL HAIR"

Mary Evans Picture Library
UFOs over Oloron, France, dropped a cottony substance likened to "angel hair."

From HOW STUFF WORKS
http://science.howstuffworks.com/angel-hair-ufo.htm

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."

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.

A nearly identical series of events occurred in Gaillac, France, ten days later.
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.

FROM INVESTIGATION DISCOVERY http://investigation.discovery.com/tv/ny-spi/sightings/sightings-10.html

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.

From crystalinks.com
http://www.crystalinks.com/angelhair.html

Angel Hair

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.

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.

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.

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.

Ellie's Personal Experiences

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.

The patterns looked like they were made out of some sort of clear glitter.

I soon learned that they are allegedly called 'Angel Hair' and are left as a message by Spirit.

The 'Angel Hair' varied in width from a half inch to one inch.

There was no measurement for the length as it was one never-ending pattern.

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.

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.

Many people came to look at the patterns as they kept reappearing between 1989 -1991.

The patterns were very specific in design--though at the time I didn't realize I should draw them or what they meant.

Photographs did not produce images.

The first pattern followed a zig-zag pattern from my bathroom door across the bedroom, about 12 feet, to my bed.

Then the pattern followed straight up and onto my navy blanket.

At the time I was told by one psychic that they were left by a child in spirit.

This was the month a started to write my book, Sarah and Alexander 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....

UFOs Drop 'Angel Hair' in New South Wales

August 19, 1998 - AP

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.

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.'

FROM WIKIPEDIA:

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.

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.

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.

Explanations based on known phenomena include:

Some types of spiders are known to migrate through the air, sometimes in large numbers, on cobweb gliders.

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.

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.

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.

Explanations related to Unidentified Flying Objects include:

Ionized air may be sleeting off the electromagnetic field that surrounds a UFO.

Excess energy converted into matter.

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.

FROM PRAVDA (ENGLISH)
http://english.pravda.ru/science/mysteries/30-05-2007/92473-angel_hair-0
Mysterious angel hair phenomenon often reported after UFO sightings

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.”

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.

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.

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.

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.

Translated by Guerman Grachev
Pravda.ru

Angel Hair
Definition From Answers Dot Com:

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.

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.

Sources:
Clark, Jerome. The Emergence of a Phenomenon: UFOs from the Beginning through 1959. Detroit: Omnigraphics, 1992.
Corliss, William R., ed. Handbook of Unusual Natural Phenomena. Glen Arm, Md.: Sourcebook Project, 1977.

Flying Saucers and Angel Hair
Monday March 5, 2007
By B.J. Booth
for About Dot Com

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.

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 Project 1947 website. Check it out. You might find it interesting:

http://www.project1947.com/kbangel.htm

Varese, Italy, 1950-- Bruno Facchini's Wild Night

April 24th, 1950
Varese, Italy

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.

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. 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.

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. 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. 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.
source: Eye witness statements, UFO Italy.
http://www.ufocasebook.com/vareseitaly1950.html

Varese (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.

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:

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.

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.

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.

He told Antonio Giudicci:

"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."

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.

He told Antonio Giudicci:

"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."

Later he summarized for the press:

"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."

He told Antonio Giudicci:

"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."

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.

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.

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:

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.

He told Antonio Giudicci:

"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."

"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."

Later he told to the press:

"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."

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.

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.

He told Antonio Giudicci:

"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."

Later he told to the press:

"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."

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.

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.

"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."

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.)

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

A Navy officer reported a conversation with Facchini:

"You are really a luck one! I would have given a lot to be able to admire shat you saw, this technological marvel!"

Facchini's answer was bitter.

"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!"

http://www.ufologie.net/htm/abbiateguazzone.htm

BRUNO FACCHINI: A FAMOUS ITALIAN CE-III WITNESS RE-VISITED

Ezio Bernardini, excerpt from FSR 1987 No. 4

(C.U.N., Italian National Ufological Centre) (Translation from Italian)

Premise

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).

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.

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".

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.

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.

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.

Source: Ezio Bernardini, excerpt from FSR 1987 No. 4

UFO FYI: 1965- A Bunch of Incidents at Exeter

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.
signed,
Norman J. Muscarello

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.

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 UFO Phenomenon at Close Sight):

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)

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.

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".

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.

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.

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!"

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.

Patrolman Hunt arrived on the scene after Bertrand and boy saw "Thing" reappear. Note presence again of power lines near scene. (see page 33)

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.

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.

Shaken and frightened, he started back to the Exeter police station to report the incident when, as he told Fuller:

"I came to my senses. I wanted to go back to make sure 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."

Mrs. Virginia Hale, reporter for Haverhill Gazette, saw the saucer from her kitchen window. It hovered over neighbor's house 4 minutes.

FROM THE UFO CASEBOOK
Written by BJ Booth

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

A UFO Hotspot in New Hampshire?
Saturday January 24, 2009
By BJ Booth for About Dot Com

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Muscarello screams, "I see it! I see it!" The next moment, Bertrand says, "My God, I see the darn thing myself!"

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.

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.

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.

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.

http://ufos.about.com/od/bestufocasefiles/p/exeter.htm

BOOK REVIEW
from Amazon Dot Com:

Two classic UFO books combined into one volume!
Incident at Exeter and The Interrupted Journey
by John G. Fuller

July 6, 2001

By A Customer

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

September 5, 2009

Location: Exeter Town Hall
http://exeterufofest.com/

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.

Festival Schedule

8:30-9:00 a.m.	Conference Opening / UFO Children’s Charity Art Show
9:00a.m.	Buckets of Chalk — ET and UFO drawings throughout town Face painting by artist Denice Kelly - Squirrel Cat Designs (Founders Park near the library), Beach Rock Painting Peter Geremia: September 3, 1965 “Incident at Exeter” and NH UFOs” (9:00am-10:30am) “September 3, 1965 “Incident at Exeter” and NH UFOs” Peter Geremia 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. Peter has appeared on numerous radio and television programs such as “Sightings”, “Encounters”, "Paranormal Borderline" and has lectured on his UFO investigations for more than 20 years throughout New England. 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 Incident at Exeter, 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.
10:00a.m.	UFO construction for kids, using recyclables (Founders Park) Completed UFO will be on display at the children’s library in the craft room. Alien Crash Site and Debris Field — Children use reverse technology (Founders Park) Children’s story circle (Founders Park)
10:30am	Kathleen Marden: “Captured! The Betty and Barney Hill UFO Experience” (10:30am-12:00 p.m) “Captured! The Betty and Barney Hill UFO Experience” Scientific ufologist, Kathleen Marden, 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. 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. 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. Her Web site is http://kathleenmarden.googlepages.com
11:30am	ET Costume Contest (Founders Park) followed by sidewalk parade through downtown.
12:00-1:00 p.m.	Lunch break (on your own).
1:00-2:30 p.m.	Peter Robbins: “The Power of Ridicule vs. A Most Uncomfortable Truth: Why We Need to Take UFOs Seriously” “The Power of Ridicule vs. A Most Uncomfortable Truth: Why We Need to Take UFOs Seriously” Peter Robbins 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. 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.
2:30-4:00 p.m.	Ted Loder, Ph.D.: “The Disclosure Project: UFO Secrecy and our Future” “The Disclosure Project: UFO Secrecy and our Future” Dr. Loder 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. 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 www.DisclosureProject.org and www.CSETI.org.
4:00-4:30 p.m.	A voice from the past: surprise speaker
4:30-5:30 p.m.	Panel Discussion
6:00-7:30pm	Happy Hour at Alien Café (Loaf and Ladle) Discussion: UFOs Off-Label
8:00-11:00pm	1960s Rock & Roll Dance — Earthlings and Aliens Ball (Town Hall) featuring New England’s famous “The Morlocks” band
There will be a short break for set-up between presentations.