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12 Real Documents That Treat UFOs Very Seriously
Ask people what they think about UFOs, and you’re
sure to get opinions ranging through all extremes and nuances. Some are so
embarrassed by the topic that they simply refuse to consider any evidence
whatsoever, like the Pope refusing to look through Galileo’s telescope. Others
claim not only to be certain that aliens are here, but to have exact, insider
knowledge of what it’s all about. Between these extremes are endless
variations.
It’s the same with how we approach the subject. Some
people read UFO books for fun, like a mystery novel or scary story. Others are
more interested in scientific evidence, such as analysis of photographs,
videos, or material samples. Still others prefer more hypothetical roads, like
theories about the likelihood of life elsewhere in the universe, or how an
advanced propulsion system might work. There are a host of specialized studies,
too, ranging from abductions, to crop circles, to animal mutilations, and more.
Or, you may focus on the believers and witnesses themselves by studying UFOs as
an element of popular culture, or from a psycho-social perspective.
Another approach is historical. There are, after all,
government UFO documents that anyone can read. What do they say? Can these
documents tell us whether the government or military have ever been interested
in this phenomenon? If so, why?
Granted, this approach might not be of the same value
as subjecting a piece of flying saucer to laboratory tests. But it would
certainly be important if the government had documents showing that UFOs are
truly something extraordinary, and even possibly alien. Especially after
telling the public the opposite for years. Since belief in UFOs is a
near-professional suicide in most respected circles, what would it mean if we
discovered that, within the classified world, people have taken it seriously
for years?
It just so happens that they have. They do.
For many years, it was hard to obtain declassified
government documents about UFOs. During the 1950s and 1960s, a few documents
wended their way to the rest of the world, but this was rare. Then, in 1974,
the U.S. government amended the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The result
was a veritable golden age of document releases that lasted roughly until a
1982 Executive Order from President Reagan. While UFO documents continue to be
released, a repeat of the Great Flood of the seventies appears unlikely.
Black-out, declassified UFO documents look rather
cool, but most don’t provide any evidence for aliens, and many of them are not
even that interesting. But some are veryinteresting. Whether they prove
that UFOs are aliens or something entirely different, they make it clear that
this topic has been taken very seriously at high levels, and has been subject
to a great deal of secrecy.
Considering how marginalized this subject is from
mainstream culture, making this point is enough for a day’s work. There are
always deeper waters within which to swim, but for now let us stay close to the
shore and look at a few of these documents. Even though most of these are
well-known to UFO researchers, they continue to remain almost completely
unknown to the wider public. Apparently, some things are so obvious that they
are invisible.
1. The 1947 Twining Memo.
For good reason, this is one of the most important UFO
documents we have. On September 23, 1947, right at the beginning of the
“modern” UFO era, General Nathan Twining, Head of the U.S. Air Material Command
(AMC), wrote a classified letter to Air Force General George Schulgen regarding
the “flying discs.” He said the objects were “real and not visionary or
fictitious.” They may possibly be natural phenomena, he wrote, such as meteors.
But:
“the reported operating characteristics such as
extreme rates of climb, maneuverability (particularly in roll), and action
which must be considered evasive when sighted ... lend belief to the
possibility that some of the objects are controlled either manually,
automatically, or remotely.”
Twining listed several common descriptions of UFOs.
They generally were silent, had a metallic or light reflecting surface, no
trail, were circular or elliptical in shape, and often flat on the bottom. Many
descriptions indicated a dome on top. Several reports indicated they flew in
formation. Quite specific information, indeed.
UFO skeptics have pointed to Twining’s statement that
no wreckage of a flying disc had been recovered. It’s true that he was probably
in a good position to know. But what we don’t know is whether Twining would
have been able to tell Schulgen about a UFO crash, if indeed such a thing
happened. Simply put, if Schulgen lacked a “need to know,” Twining could not
have told him.
On the other hand, Twining did state that UFOs were
not secret American craft. This came as a surprise to Schulgen, who expected to
learn that there was nothing to the affair, that everything was under control.
Was Twining was hiding the fact that UFO’s were classified technology? It’s a
fair question.
With the hindsight of more than fifty years, the
answer seems to be no. There is simply no credible evidence that the U.S. had
any craft in 1947, experimental or otherwise, that could duplicate the reported
maneuvers of flying saucers. Anyway, why would Twining tell Schulgen to keep
studying flying saucers if they were simply classified American craft? If there
were good reasons for doing so, none have emerged.
2. 1949 FBI Memo.
In my own opinion, this three-page document is just as
extraordinary as the Twining Memo. On January 31, 1949, the FBI issued a memo
on UFOs, entitled “Protection of Vital Installations.” The classified document
was sent to FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, the Army’s G-2, the Office of Naval
Intelligence, and the Air Force Office of Special Investigations. It mentions a
meeting among these groups concerning UFOs.
Here is a key statement of the document:
“Army intelligence has recently said that “the matter
of ‘Unidentified Aircraft’ or ‘Unidentified Aerial Phenomena,’ otherwise known
as ‘Flying Discs,’ ‘Flying Saucers,’ and ‘Balls of Fire,’ is considered top
secret by intelligence officers of both the Army and the Air Forces.”
This was a year and a half into the modern era of
UFOs. All the while, government sources had been telling the public that this
phenomenon was just a combination of hoaxes, hallucinations, conventional
aircraft, and misidentification of natural phenomena.
Why, then, was the subject considered top secret?
The answer is contained within the memo itself. It
mentions, for instance, a near-collision by an commercial airliner with a large
“rocket” type craft (with windows, no less) traveling at an estimated speed of
– strap yourself in – 2,700 mph. More serious, the memo explains, were
invasions of sensitive airspace by unknown objects in the vicinity of the
Atomic Energy Commission’s installation at Los Alamos, New Mexico. The memo
states that these had occurred throughout December 1948 (on the 5th, 6th, 7th,
8th, 11th, 13th, 14th, 20th, and 28th). The witnesses of these
"unexplained phenomena" were "Special Agents of the Office of
Special Investigation; Airline Pilots; Military Pilots, Los Alamos Security
Inspectors, and private citizens." The sightings continued into 1949, as a
similar object was seen in the area on January 6.
The memo goes on to explain that "recent observations
have indicated that the unidentified phenomena travel at the rate of speed
estimated at a minimum of three miles per second and a maximum of twelve miles
per second, or a mean calculated speed of seven and one-half miles per second,
or 27,000 miles per hour." Moreover, "on two separate occasions a
definite vertical change in path was indicated." In other words, the
phenomenon was able to maneuver at a very high rate of speed, and seemed to be
focused on Los Alamos. The memo states that reports of the appearance of the
object as typically round, occasionally diamond-shaped, "with a definite
area to the light's source," and having elongated trailing lights.
"On two occasions reports have been received of the sighting of multiple
units." There is some speculation within the document that the objects
were Soviet in origin, but no evidence or proof is offered.
The memo also refers to "scientific reasons"
why the objects could not be meteorites. "The only conclusions reached
thus far are that they are either hitherto unobserved natural phenomena or that
they are man made. No scientific experiments are known to exist in this country
which could give rise to such phenomena." On the third page, the idea of
"cosmic rays" was offered, though without any theory or evidence to
support it.
Although the memo does not state the Extraterrestrial
Hypothesis (ETH), its attempt to explain the Los Alamos phenomenon as either
natural phenomena or man made does not supply any actual evidence -- the only
reason why these explanations could even be offered. Because once one tries to
find a "hitherto unobserved phenomena," or a "man made"
object, one only comes up empty.
3. 1951 USAF Intelligence Report
This report describes a rather up-close and personal
UFO encounter on July 9, 1951, by the pilot of an F-51 fighter plane from
Lawson Air Force Base in Georgia. The pilot, a combat veteran from World War
Two, provided quite a bit of detail, which was recorded in the report.
“Object described as flat on top and bottom and
appearing from a front view to have rounded edges and slightly beveled. From
view as object dived from top of plane was completely round and spinning in
clockwise direction.... Object did not appear to be aluminum. Only 1 object
observed. Solar white. No vapor trails or exhaust or visible system of
propulsion. Described as traveling [at] tremendous speed....Pilot states object
was 300 to 400 feet from plane and appeared to be 10 to 15 feet in
diameter....Pilot states he felt disturbance in the air described as ‘bump’
when object passed under plane....Pilot is considered by associates to be
highly reliable, of mature judgement and a creditable observer.”
What commentary is necessary? The report says it all.
4. The Chadwell Memo of December 2, 1952.
1952 was an important year in the history of the UFO.
Across the United States, the number of sightings skyrocketed, and several of
these were well-documented encounters by military personnel. At the end of
July, the Air Force held a press conference explaining that, although some of
these reports remained unexplained, there was no evidence they were alien
craft. Within the classified world, matters were not so serene.
H. Marshall Chadwell was the CIA’s Director of
Scientific Intelligence, and very much interested in this problem. In this
memo, addressed to the CIA Director, General Walter Bedell Smith, Chadwell
wrote:
“At this time, the reports of incidents convince us
that there is something going on that must have immediate attention....
Sightings of unexplained objects at great altitudes and travelling at high
speeds in the vicinity of major U.S. defense installations are of such nature
that they are not attributable to natural phenomena or known types of aerial
vehicles.”
This statement bears very close scrutiny. Here is yet
another comment by a high-level U.S. official that UFOs were real, probably
artificial, probably intelligently operated, and not apparently ours. Nor was
there serious consideration that these were Soviet.
If not American, if not Soviet, if not natural
phenomena, and if they appeared to be technological and under intelligent
control, we begin to run out of viable options. Chadwell’s memo makes it
obvious that he understood this. Understandably, he was loathe to state the
obvious.
5. 1954 Maxwell AFB Emergency Report.
Throughout the 1950s, the air space violations kept on
coming. This report (headed “Emergency”) originated from the flight service
center at Maxwell Air Force Base, and was sent to the Commander of Air Defense
Command (ADC) in Colorado.
The report describes the entry into airspace of a
“strange stationary object variable in brilliance” which moved rapidly, then returned
to its original position. The base sent a helicopter to investigate. The
pilot’s assessment: “definitely not a star.” Many people watched this object
from the tower, and a civilian tower radioed that it also had it in sight. The
object became dimmer, showed a slight red glow, and disappeared.
Could it have been a star? Possibly. Still, the
personnel at the time asked the same question, and concluded it wasn’t.
According to the report:
“...pilot of helicopter wished to stress fact that the
object was of a saucer-like nature, was stationary at 2000 ft. And would be
glad to be called upon to verify any statement and act as witness.”
It is worth noting that copies of this report were
sent to the CIA, the National Security Agency (NSA), the Joint Chiefs of Staff,
and each of the military services.
6. Intrusion at Minot Air Force Base, 1966
A large UFO wave took place across the U.S. during the
mid-1960s. This caused a good deal of publicity, congressional interest, and
the eventual study of UFOs by the University of Colorado in the hopes of
settling the matter once and for all. Although the Colorado Committee was
supposed to have full access to classified UFO reports, in practice it received
very little to go on, and instead conducted a number of ad hoc investigations
of sightings as they became known.
One of many classified reports that slipped through
the cracks occurred at Minot Air Force Base, in North Dakota, on August 24,
1966. That night, an airman radioed to the base about a multicolored light,
very high in the sky. A team went to the location, confirmed the original
unknown, then saw a second, white object pass in front of clouds. The base
radar tracked the object, which was as high as 100,000 feet (almost twenty
miles). The object rose and descended several times; each time it descended, an
air force officer in charge of a missile crew found his radio transmission
interrupted by static, even though he was sixty feet below the ground. The
object eventually descended to ground level ten to fifteen miles south of the
area. The Air Force sent a strike team to check. Apparently, they saw the
object either on the ground or hovering very low. According to the official
report:
“When the team was about ten miles from the landing
site, static disrupted radio contact with them. Five to eight minutes later,
the glow diminished, and the UFO took off. Another UFO was visually sighted and
confirmed by radar. The one that was first sighted passed beneath the second.
Radar also confirmed this. The first made for altitude toward the north, and
the second seemed to disappear with the glow of red.”
The incident lasted nearly four hours and was
confirmed by three different missile sites.
7. Malmstrom AFB 1967
Early in the morning on the March 16, 1967 at
Malmstrom AFB in Montana, occurred one of the most extraordinary events in the
history of military-UFO encounters. Under a clear and dark Montana sky, an
airman with the Oscar Flight Launch Control Center (LCC) saw a star-like object
zigzagging high above him. Soon, a larger and closer light also appeared, and
acted in similar fashion. The airman called his NCO, and the two men watched
the lights streak through the sky, maneuvering in impossible ways. The NCO phoned
his commander, Lieutenant Robert Salas, who was below ground in the launch
control center. “Great,” Salas said. “You just keep watching them and let me
know if they get any closer.”
A few minutes later, the NCO called again, shouting
that a red, glowing UFO was hovering outside the front gate. “What do you want
us to do?” asked the NCO. Salas told him to make sure the site was secure while
he phoned the command post. “Sir,” replied the NCO, “I have to go now, one of
the guys just got injured.”
Before Salas could ask about the injury, the NCO was
off the line. The man, who was not seriously injured, was evacuated by
helicopter to the base. Salas woke his commander, Lieutenant Fred Meiwald. As
he briefed Meiwald, an alarm went off in the small capsule, and both men saw a
“No-Go” light turn on for one of the missiles. Within seconds, several more
missiles went down in succession.
Twenty miles away, at the Echo-Flight Launch
Facilities, the same scenario was taking place. First Lieutenant Walter Figel,
the Deputy Crew Commander of the Missile Combat Crew, was at his station when
one of the Minuteman missiles went into “No-Go” status. He called the missile
site and learned that a UFO had been hovering over the site. Like Salas, Figel
doubted the story. But just then, ten more ICBMs in rapid succession reported a
“No-Go” condition. Within seconds, the entire flight was down.
Strike teams were dispatched to two launch facilities,
where maintenance crews were already at work. Figel had not told the strike
teams about the UFO report. Upon their arrival, however, the teams reported
back to him that all of the maintenance and security personnel had been
watching UFOs hover over each of the sites.
The missiles were down for most of the day. Neither
the Air Force investigation, nor the laboratory tests at Boeing’s Seattle plant
found any cause for the shutdown. According to the Boeing engineering chief,
“there was no technical explanation that could explain the event.” UFOs
were not part of this analysis.
8. Wurtsmith Air Force Base, 1975
During October and November of 1975, another
extraordinary series of air space violations took place, this time across the
length of the U.S. northern border, involving several military bases from
Montana to Maine. Air space incursions also took place through much of 1976.
All are unexplained to this day in any conventional sense.
On the evening of October 31, 1975 at Wurtsmith AFB in
Michigan, an airman saw what appeared to be running lights of a low flying
craft, possibly a helicopter, near the southern perimeter of the base, heading
westerly. One light pointed down; two red lights were near the back. The object
was either silent or very quiet.
A little later, other witnesses saw several lights
near the western edge of the base. The lights turned north and appeared to lose
altitude. Most heard nothing, although some claimed to hear a quiet sound
similar to a helicopter, but which faded quickly.
Then, three times within the space of 11 minutes,
security police at the back gate reported that an object with no lights –
possibly a helicopter – entered the base and hovered very low over the weapons
storage area. Radar personnel detected low flying objects (plural) in the area.
At the northern perimeter of the base, one of the crafts briefly turned its
lights on.
A KC-135 tanker was flying to the base at the time. It
was ordered to intercept and identify the object or objects. The crew tracked
what at first appeared to be a single craft for about 35 miles southeast from
the base. However, they soon decided they were seeing two objects, apparently
communicating with each other with irregular flashing lights. Radar trackings
could not last longer than 10 seconds. Every time they tried to close, the objects
simply pulled away.
The crew lost the objects among fishing boat lights in
Saginaw Bay, so they started back. Here is how the story ends, as told by the
navigator to the base historian four years later:
“On the way back, we picked the UFO up again at our
eight o’clock position. We turned away, and it proceeded to follow us. Finally,
we turned back in the direction of the UFO and it really took off back in the
direction of the Bay area. I know this might sound crazy, but I would estimate
that the UFO sped away from us doing approximately 1,000 knots. We continued in
the direction of the Bay until RAPCON (radar) called us again and said they
were painting a UFO four to five miles over the coast traveling in a westerly
direction. They vectored us to the position of the UFO and we proceeded but at
point we were low fuel and were forced to return to Wurtsmith. I remember that
while on final approach we saw the lights again near the Weapons Storage Area.
Following the mission we discussed the incident and about a week later, Captain
Higgenbotham was questioned by OSI and cautioned not to discuss the incident.”
Could this have been advanced helicopter technology?
If so, it would have to have outperformed what was then the most advanced
helicopter design in the world: the recently built Apache prototype. But as
awesome a machine as the Apache is, even today it can not duplicate the
reported actions of the unidentified intruders at Wurtsmith. And, of course,
this still begs the question ... who was responsible for this?
9. The Amazing Encounter over Tehran in 1976.
On the night of September 18, 1976, the Iranian Air
Force was involved in one of the most dramatic UFO events in modern history.
Not only was the case itself extraordinary, but so was the documentation:
namely, a four-page U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency report.
The strangeness began after 10:30 p.m. on September
18, when the control tower at Mehrabad Airport received calls about an unknown
object hovering at 1,000 feet in the northern section of Teheran. The tower
supervisor observed the object with binoculars, describing it as rectangular or
cylindrical. In his words, “the two ends were pulsating with a whitish blue
color. Around the mid-section was this small red light that kept going in a
circle.... I was amazed.”
He notified the Iranian Air Force. Two hundred miles
away, at Shahrokhi AFB, General Nader Yousefi ordered an F-4 Phantom to
investigate. It took off at 1:30 a.m. on the morning of September 19. According
to the pilot, the object was intensely brilliant and “easily visible” at a
distance of 70 miles. As he came to within 25 nautical miles (about 29 statute miles),
his aircraft “lost all instrumentation and communications.” He broke off the
intercept and headed back, at which point his aircraft regained all
instrumentation.
The General had already authorized a second F-4. When
the second pilot reached a distance of 27 NM, he obtained a substantial radar
return, “comparable to that of a 707 tanker.” At this point, the UFO began to
move away from the F-4 at the same speed. It was extremely bright and gave off
flashing strobe lights arranged in a rectangular pattern. The colors alternated
blue-green, red, and orange, although the sequence was so fast that they were
almost simultaneous.
The UFO then released a bright object, “estimated to
be one half to one third the apparent size of the Moon.” It headed straight
toward the F-4 “at a very fast rate of speed.” The pilot tried to fire an AIM-9
missile at it, “but at that instant his weapons control panel went off and he
lost all communications.” Seeking to evade, he dove and turned away, but the
object followed him and turned inside his own turn. It then returned to the
main object “for a perfect rejoin.” The F-4 pilot then regained communications
and weapons control.
At this point, another object came out of the main
object and rapidly descended. The F-4 crew observed this, anticipating an
explosion. Instead, the object appeared to rest gently on the Earth and cast a
very bright light over an area of about 2 miles. The crew noted the object’s
position and then headed back.
Before landing, they circled Mehrabad Airport several
times, receiving frequent interference and losing communications. During their
final approach, the F-4 crew saw a cylinder shaped object with bright steady
lights on each end and a flasher in the middle. They inquired with the tower,
which replied that there was no other known traffic in the area.
The next morning, the F-4 crew was taken in a
helicopter to the area where the UFO was thought to have landed – a dry lake
bed. They saw nothing, but picked up a beeper signal west of the area. At the
point where the return was the loudest was a small house. They landed and asked
the residents if they had noticed anything strange the previous night. The
people mentioned a loud noise and a bright light, “like lightning.”
Although the DIA memo indicated more information would
be forwarded, no follow-up military documents ever came to light. Researchers
Barry Greenwood and Lawrence Fawcett stated, “reliable sources have told us the
Iranian case was about one and a half inches thick, yet absolutely no admission
to having this file has come from any government agency with a possible
connection to the case.” Nevertheless, taped testimonies in later years by
Iranian Air Force generals Nader Yousefi and Mahmoud Sabahat reveal that
General John Secord, chief of the USAF mission in Orion, attended a high level
briefing with Iranian authorities and the pilots.
Furthermore, Lt. General Abdulah Azarbarzin of the
Iranian Imperial Air Force admitted to U.S. reporters that the UFO encounter
had been carefully documented and passed on to the USAF. “This was the request
from the U.S. They have the procedure, if we have some information on UFOs,
we’re just exchanging all this information, and we did it.” In 2005, one of the
Iranian pilots, General Parviz Jafari, confirmed the facts of the chase in an
interview with Whitley Strieber and Dr. Roger Leir.
U.S. intelligence analysts found the case to be
spectacular. An evaluation in the DIA files stated:
“An outstanding report. This case is a classic which
meets all the criteria necessary for a valid study of the UFO phenomenon: a)
the object was seen by multiple witnesses from different locations ... and
viewpoints. b) the credibility of many of the witnesses was high (an Air Force
general, qualified air crews, and experienced radar operators). c) visual
sightings were confirmed by radar. d) similar electromagnetic effects (EME)
were reported by three separate aircraft. e) there were physiological effects
on some crew members (i.e. loss of night vision due to the brightness of the
object). f) an inordinate amount of maneuverability was displayed by the UFOs.”
During the 1990s, Lee Graham and Ron Regehr of
Aero-Jet in California confirmed that the UFO sighting over Tehran was tracked
by the U.S. military’s Defense Support Program (DSP) satellite. This is a deep
space platform primarily used to detect the launch of ballistic missiles. It
can distinguish different aircraft by comparing their infrared signature with a
comprehensive database of known aircraft. Graham and Regehr obtained print-outs
showing that the DSP detected an anomalous object in Iranian air space at that
time.
The obvious question is, who was operating the object
over Teheran? Based on the all that is known, it makes no sense to claim that
this was American technology. Why would the Americans confront the Air Force of
such a key ally within its own air space? Nor has there ever been any
indication in subsequent years that the Soviet Union created technology
responsible for this – to say nothing of the fact that for the Soviets to have
engaged Iranian F-4s over Tehran in 1976 would have been even more provocative
than if the U.S. had done so. Indeed, after the encounter, the Iranian government
asked the governments of the USSR and the U.S. whether this had been a test of
their military equipment. Neither nation claimed responsibility.
The real problem is that this object so clearly
outperformed American-made fighter jets. Some agency – or civilization
– was responsible for it.
10. The 1981 Halt Memo.
The Rendlesham Forest incident remains among the most
important UFO cases ever. It involved a landing of an unknown craft near two
Air Bases in Britain, was witnessed by many U.S. military personnel, and is
supported by military documentation. In addition, the area held a large stock
of nuclear weapons, a fact that was denied by authorities for years, then
admitted to be true. The case remains controversial, however, because
proponents have not agreed on certain key details, and other critics have
claimed it has wholly prosaic explanations. Moreover, confusion has plagued the
case in matters so simple as the exact dates when it occurred.
A major reason for this stems from the primary
military document associated with the case, prepared by Deputy Base Commander
Lt. Colonel Charles Halt. This was written from memory several weeks later,
left a great deal out, and ascribed incorrect dates to the major events.
Nevertheless, the incredible detail provided by so many witnesses, much of
which is well corroborated, makes it clear that something extraordinary
happened.
Early in the morning of December 26, 1980, two USAF
security police patrolmen saw unusual lights outside the back gate at Britain’s
RAF Woodbridge. Under the assumption that this was aircraft in trouble, three
patrolmen were ordered to proceed on foot to investigate.
According to the report by Halt (which ascribed this
sighting to the following evening), they reported seeing a glowing, triangular
object in the forest, about 9 feet long and 6 feet high, emitting a powerful
white light. It “had a pulsating red light on top with a bank(s) of blue lights
underneath.” The object was either hovering or standing on short legs.
As the patrol approached, the strange object
maneuvered slowly through the trees to a nearby farm, causing disturbance among
the animals. It then quickly disappeared into the sky. About an hour later, the
object was sighted in the sky. The following day, investigators saw three
ground traces indicating possible landing leg depressions. Later that night,
Halt and other men personally witnessed a “red sun-like light,” moving and
pulsing. Here is his description:
“At one point it appeared to throw off glowing
particles and then broke into five separate white objects and then disappeared.
Immediately thereafter, three star-like objects were noticed in the sky, two
objects to the north and one to the south, all of which were about 10 degrees
off the horizon. The objects moved rapidly in sharp angular movements and
displayed red, green and blue lights.... The object to the south was visible
for two or three hours and beamed down a stream of light from time to time.”
There also exists 18 minutes of an extraordinary
audio-tape recording (covering several hours), made while Halt and his team
investigated during the second night. In addition, the main airmen involved
have all been interviewed, and in essentials their stories hold together well.
One important fact that has surfaced is that as the
object hovered above Halt and his men, one hovered motionless and began to
shine laser-like beams of light down all over the forest and RAF Woodbridge.
In Halt’s words,
“It sort of danced about in the sky and it sent down
beams of light.... falling different places on the base.... The people in the
Weapons storage area and several other places on the base also reported the
lights.... [The beam] stayed on for about 5-10 seconds and just as abruptly as
it came, it disappeared..."
Not only this, but in 1993 Halt told investigators
privately that beams had penetrated the steel, earth, and concrete of the
hardened bunkers containing the nuclear weapons secretly stored at the base.
Given the history of UFOs and their proximity to nuclear weapons, it is
certainly plausible. Ultimately, the beams reached the secured areas where the
weapons were stored, “adversely affecting the ordinance,” in the words of Halt.
There is much more to this event, which has received
several book-length treatments as well as detailed coverage in my book, UFOs
and the National Security State: The Cover-Up Exposed, 1973-1991.
As the years go by, the stature of the Rendlesham
Forest case has continued to grow, not merely as a bona fide UFO encounter, but
as one of the most significant ever. The British Ministry of Defence, following
its long-established policy of silence and disinformation regarding UFOs,
stated curtly that the Rendlesham case was of "no defence
significance."
11. U.S. Coast Guard Encounter with a UFO, 1988.
[Note from Richard Dolan: This is a direct excerpt
from my book, UFOs and the National Security State: The Cover-Up
Exposed, 1973-1991. Article citations are provided in the book.]
On the evening of March 4, 1988 near Eastland, Ohio,
not far from the Pennsylvania border, Sheila Baker and her children were
driving home along the shore of Lake Erie. At 6:30 p.m., their attention was
drawn to a large, bright object apparently hovering over the lake. It seemed
almost like a blimp. Bright lights appeared at each end of it, and the whole
thing was rocking end to end like a seesaw. The brighter of the two lights was
strobing. Once home, she persuaded her husband, Henry, to accompany her and the
children to the beach.
There, standing on the shore of Lake Erie, they all
saw the object. It was gun-metal grey and positively enormous – Henry later
said it was “larger than a football held at arm’s length.” It made no sound
that they could hear. Somehow, however, it caused the lake ice to rumble and
crack, perhaps by application of heat. The object then began to circle slowly
over part of the lake, coming nearly overhead at just 1/4 mile altitude.
Feeling nervous, they drove back and watched the
object from their home. From there, they saw it descend; red and blue blinking
lights were along its bottom edge. More interesting, however, were five or six
bright yellow triangular lights that detached from its side. These lights
hovered around the main object, then darted and zig-zagged in the night sky at
high speeds. Henry believed these objects were smaller than a one-seat Cessna
and “crossed 50 mile stretches low over the ice in the snap of a finger.” They
approached the shore, made right-angle turns, and shot straight up. Several
passes were toward the nearby Perry Nuclear Plant. One neighbor of the Bakers
also saw this display, and tried (unsuccessfully) to photograph the object.
In response to several phone calls, two members of the
Coast Guard, Seaman James Powers and Petty Officer John Knaub, drove to the
beach. As they arrived, the triangular objects approached them, prompting them
to turn off their vehicle’s headlights. The men continued to watch the
triangles fly over the lake, one of which accelerated straight at them, then
veered east, zoomed straight up, and came down beside the parent object. The
Bakers were back at the beach now, and listened to the Coast Guard personnel
communicate by two-way radio with their base in Detroit. What they overheard
was:
“. . . be advised the object appears to be landing on
the lake .... There are other objects moving around it. Be advised these smaller
objects are going at high rates of speed. There are no engine noises and they
are very, very low. Be advised these are not planets."
At the same time, 15 miles to the southeast, not far
from the Perry Nuclear Plant, Cindy Hale was walking her dog. She saw a
triangular light hovering above her, and her dog began to whine. The triangle
flashed a sequence of multicolored lights, and she responded by flicking her
cigarette lighter. This went on for 30 minutes, until the triangle accelerated
and left without a sound.
Another local resident, Tim Keck, was watching the
stars through his telescope when he saw a bright triangular object. Luckily, he
had his camera with him – a cheap 110 Instamatic he had received as a Burger
King promotion, but it worked. He took a picture of the object before it
silently moved beyond the horizon, catching about half of it before it moved
fully out of the frame. Because of the nature of the camera, part of the object
appeared beyond the formal edge of the negative’s frame.
Meanwhile, back at the lake, the large ship was nearly
directly on the ice. Henry Baker continued to listen to Powers and Knaub tell
their base, “you should be advised that the object is now shining lights all
over the lake and it’s turning different colors.” The ice made cracking noises
so loud that Powers and Knaub had to yell in order to be heard. Suddenly the
triangles were back, returning one by one into the large object. The ice boomed
louder and louder, then all the lights went off, the ice stopped making noise,
and everything became “dead silent.” After another 30 minutes, the object could
not be seen. The witnesses could only assume it had gone below the surface.
On the morning of the 5th, unusually huge pieces of
broken ice were seen where the object had been. That day, a Coast Guard
representative told the Bakers that they had been instructed by the Army and
NASA (whom Sheila had also phoned) not to investigate the matter further, nor
to take their ice cutter out to the lake to examine the ice. The matter was
“out of their league and out of their hands.” They said all information was
being forwarded to Wright-Patterson AFB and a facility in Detroit. For its
part, Wright-Patterson refused to confirm or deny any interest in the matter.
The Coast Guard created an Incident Report on March 5,
1988, describing the event in concise detail. The report stated that a large
object had landed a quarter mile east of the nuclear power plant, and that it
had ...
“... dispersed 3-5 smaller flying objects that were
zipping around rather quickly. These objects had red, green, white, and yellow
lights on them that strobed intermittently. They also had the ability to stop
and hover in mid-flight.”
During the night of March 5, Sheila Baker saw what she
thought was the same UFO, hovering over the lake, only at a higher altitude
than the night before. The Coast Guard sent some men out who arrived too late
and saw nothing. The Coast Guard then contacted the Lost Nation Airport in
Willoughby, Ohio. The control tower operator told them that “the two bright
lights” were Venus and Jupiter, which were in near-alignment. The flashing
lights were “gases in the atmosphere.” Never mind that Baker did not mention
two bright lights, but a large object. The Coast Guard promptly wrote a
follow-up report on the original encounter, laying the whole matter to rest.
The entire series of events was then debunked in the Cleveland Plain Dealer and
other newspapers.
Whatever the cause of the March 5 sighting, to
attribute the events of March 4 to Venus and Jupiter goes well beyond the
boundaries of credibility. MUFON, to its credit, continued to investigate the
sighting, even placing a classified ad in the newspaper looking for witnesses.
The tactic worked; others did come forward, including Cindy Hale, Tim Keck, and
others. All of these people described UFO activity from that night between 10
and 10:30 p.m., and all described triangles. Bruce Maccabee analyzed Keck’s
photograph, determining that it was a legitimate image of an unexplained
object. Years later, Shiela and Henry Baker remained adamant about what they
saw.
Amazingly, according to Hudson Valley-based UFO
researcher Philip Imbrogno, a number of triangular objects were seen by
multiple witnesses near the Indian Point nuclear facility in New York State on
March 4, 1988 – that is, the same night as the sightings in Ohio. Not much in
the way of followup occurred, however, and little else is known of the
incident.
Due to the caliber of the witnesses, the official
documentary evidence, the photographic evidence, and the intrinsic nature of
the event itself, the Lake Erie UFO incident must be considered one of the most
compelling UFO events in modern history. All evidence points to the conclusion
that an intelligently operated and enormous object came down over the Lake Erie
ice; that this object released several bright triangles that flew beyond the
ability of any known aircraft; that these triangles were interested in the
nearby nuclear facility; that they interacted with the witnesses who observed
them; that the Coast Guard officials were convinced the event was something
important; that the Coast Guard itself was prevented from pursuing this
incident by higher agencies; and that the matter was successfully disabled by
the national security apparatus and the media.
12. UFOs Over Belgium, 1989-1990.
From late 1989 to the spring of 1990, hundreds of
reports of lighted objects, often described as large triangular-shaped craft,
were recorded in Belgium. The most spectacular sighting took place on the night
of March 30, 1990. Thousands of witnesses saw one or more low-flying triangular
UFOs with bright lights flashing in the center.
The Belgian Air Force sent two F-16s to intercept the
UFOs, which were tracked by several NATO radar stations; the jet pilots also
tracked the objects on radar, and even see them at times. But the F-16s – among
the top jet interceptors in the world – were thoroughly outclassed by the
triangular objects. Not only could these objects accelerate at incredible
speeds, not only could they fly as slowly as 30 mph, but they could change
altitude almost instantly. At one point, for example, Belgian Air Force radar
tracked a UFO as it descended approximately 4,000 feet in one second. That’s
nearly a mile. Belgian Air Force Chief of Operations, Colonel Wilfried De
Brouwer, added “there was a logic in the movements of the UFO.”
To whom did these triangles belong? Despite the fact
that no perfectly triangular aircraft officially exists, many have suspected a
secret American project. The Belgians certainly inquired, and received the
reply that “no USAF stealth aircraft were operating” during the period in
question. The statement appears carefully worded. It’s hard to know the truth
here.
Major P. Lambrechts of the Belgian Air Force General
Staff did not seem to think these were American craft. His “Report on the
Observation of UFOs During the Night of March 30-31, 1990” includes a detailed
chronology of events and dismisses several alternative hypotheses, including
the aircraft thesis. According to Lambrechts:
“The speeds measured at that time and the altitude
shifts exclude the hypothesis according to which planes could be mistaken for
the observed UFOs. The slow moves during the other phases differ also from the
moves of planes.... Though speeds greater than the sound barrier have been
measured several times, not any bang has been noticed. Here also, no
explanation can be given.”
If these triangles were American, the U.S. Air Force
made no requests to the Belgian government for any such type of mission, as it
would have been required to do. More fundamentally, however, it still remains a
challenge to explain the performance characteristics of the Belgian UFOs.
And What of Today?
In the last few decades it has become difficult to
obtain UFO reports through U.S. government agencies. This does not mean that
the U.S. military no longer encounters UFOs, only that detailed documentation
about them is not easily forthcoming.
For instance, we know of a UFO sighting that took
place in 1996 at Griffis Air Force Base, in upstate New York. Researcher John
Greenwald sent a FOIA request to the United States Space Command at Peterson
Air Force Base, and received a slim “Summary of Unusual Sightings” report. The
sightings only covered 1995 and 1996, all rendered in concise form. The entry
for Griffis states:
“16 May 96 0800Z. Received call of UFO sighting at
Griffis AFB NY. Four enlisted men observed circular orange light just above
tree line ESE of their location. Five minutes total hovered and then
disappeared. Reported via CONR/NEADS.”
The Griffis encounter is by no means spectacular.
However, it does prove, as Greenwald pointed out, “that the Air Force
[continues to take] an interest and still sees the UFO phenomenon.”
Much more interesting was the failed attempt by F-16
jets to intercept UFOs near Washington, D.C., during the night of July 25/26,
2002. Many witnesses phoned their local radio station about it, and the
incident was briefly reported in The Washington Post. I spoke face-to-face with the first known witness,
retired police officer Gary Dillman, who told me he saw four F-16s chasing
several objects that easily outperformed them. They left the area, but later
two F-16s reappeared, pursuing a single UFO. Later, other witnesses saw two
F-16s chasing an unknown bluish object that easily outmaneuvered and
outdistanced the F-16s.
An Air Force spokesperson even told The
Washington Post that a UFO had been tracked on Air Force radar, but
disappeared. Nevertheless, the Air Force blithely commented that :there are any
number of scenarios, but we don't know what it was." Surely, one might be
curious!
No official documentation on this encounter is
available, but it happened just the same. This encounter was not from the 1950s,
but the post-9/11 era. An object of extraordinary capability eluded
interceptors in the vicinity of the nation’s capital, with only the barest of
whispers from the nation’s media.
Of course, it is not only the military of the U.S.
that encounters UFOs. These types of events occur everywhere. My most recent
book, UFOs and the National Security
State: The Cover-Up Exposed, 1973-1991, details many of these.
The foregoing should make it clear that UFOs have been
a consistent and significant thread of our “hidden history.” They have
attracted serious attention from the militaries of the world, in particular
that of the United States. And yet, this powerful interest is equaled by an
absolute refusal to acknowledge the phenomenon publicly.
It doesn’t take a political genius to recognize that
there is a discrepancy here. Nor to begin the process of filling in the blanks:
that there is reasonable cause to believe that a technology not belonging to
any known terrestrial power has been operating in our civilization, and that at
least a few people in positions of authority are well aware of this.
If you want to know a bit more about the book itself,
here is the link to read the Introduction to A.D. After
Disclosure. It
is easily available through Amazon.com. Or you can order it through your local bookstore.
As always, we thank you for considering a purchase of
the book through the button below at Keyhole Publishing. It will be shipped directly from the publisher
signed by co-author Richard Dolan, and you will receive a free MP3 of "Need-to-Know: The UFO Disclosure Song," currently available on iTunes.
Loaded
on /Carregado em 16/06/2010
The battle for
UFO disclosure has been a political movement without a song for too long. To
bring people together and create change, we believe we need a musical anthem
that gives voice to our feelings.
That's why we
wrote and produced "NEED-TO-KNOW: The UFO Disclosure Song." We want
you to hear it, then hopefully turn your friends on to it. If enough of us
start talking to others about what it means, we may just change the world.
Like the song
says, we're ready to be told and, yes, we do need-to-know.
There's a site
home page -- http://www.ufodisclosuresong.com -- where
you can learn more about the song and get more information on the need to end
UFO secrecy and begin the disclosure process. There are pages where you can
read the lyrics, find places to learn more about the subject, and find links to
the work of others involved in disclosure issues.
If you like
this song and would like to get a high 256 kbps quality version of it, it is
now available on iTunes. If searching iTunes doesn't work for you, the site has
links that go straight to the iTunes page you need.
Thanks for
paying value to this important issue. Watch the skies!
Get the song
on iTUNES
A.D. AFTER
DISCLOSURE - The People's Guide to Life After Contact - New book out on
September 23 - Written by Richard Dolan & Bryce Zabel
Join our
FACEBOOK Group!
NEED-TO-KNOW:
The UFO Disclosure Song
Credits
Executive
Producer: Bryce Zabel
Produced by
Damian Valentine
Music: Cherish
Alexander, Damian Valentine
Lyrics: Bryce
Zabel, Jackie Zabel
Lead Vocal:
Cherish Alexander
© Stellar
Productions / Violently Peaceful Music (BMI)
NEED-TO-KNOW:
THE UFO DISCLOSURE SONG
Lyrics
I'm ready to
be told
Time for
secrets to unfold
It's our time
to come of age
Time for truth
to turn the page
Wanna be
inside the dark
Live within a
question mark
Be a friend or
foe
Tell me now
Need to know
You say we
must wait our turn
You say too
much to learn
You say
cover-up is fine
It's your
plan, not mine
I'm ready to
be told
Time for
secrets to unfold
It's our time
to come of age
Time for truth
to turn the page
Wanna be
inside the dark
Live within a
question mark
Be a friend or
foe
Tell me now
Need to know
Need to know
You say it
will blow my mind
You say it
will change Mankind
You say
things'll fall apart
No more fear,
that's from my heart
I'm ready to
be told
Time for
secrets to unfold
It's our time
to come of age
Time for truth
to turn the page
Wanna be
inside the dark
Live within a
question mark
Be a friend or
foe
Tell me now
We need to
know
Need to know
Need to know
I'm ready to
be told
Time for
secrets to unfold
It's our time
to come of age
Time for truth
to turn the page
Wanna be
inside the dark
Live within a
question mark
Be a friend or
foe
Tell me now
We need to
know
Need to know
Need to know
Can we see the
future, disclose the past?
Need to know
Can we live
together with shades of gray?
Need to know
Look all
around, Are we alone?
We need to know
We say, Now is
the time
We say, This
is the plan
We say, we
need to know
***
Song Web-Site
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